Anyway, the reason for this quick post is to report that I’ve run through a number of OS X upgrades across different machines recently, and all seem to have gone OK. This Apache instance is still up an running, so that’s proof enough that the switchover went well given that there’s a bunch of custom stuff in this which you might expect would get toasted on an upgrade.

The only minor points for me seem to have been a few plugins from various Apps to Mail and Safari – otherwise all seems well so far.

Actually, the main problem I encountered was a less than happy optical drive on one of the machines. There’s a bunch of questions on the Apple Support forums about optical drives refusing to accept CDs or DVDs and there are a set of responses suggesting media type and wandering off to your local repair centre. In this case all it took to get the drive accepting disks again was a blast of air through the drive. I think the drive gets used so little these days that the dust build up must have covered the lens and so the drive just assumes all media are trashed.

and with a little luck, the XML Google Maps plugin will pick up on the gallery and the geotags in the photos

…job done.

My first post Christmas ride on the Ph.D. ended up being a bit of a disaster as the rear Mavic Aksium wheel ended up being totalled within a few yards of setting off when the hub suffered a failure that lost one of the flat spokes.  All rather annoying – and the wheel’s now in for repair at Tredz in Cardiff, pending a view from Mavic on what went wrong (and hopefully supporting a warranty repair).

So having been back in work for a couple of weeks without the freedom of being able to cycle to and from, I’ve been slowly losing what little sanity I have on the Stagecoach South Wales bus service from the village.  It didn’t take long for my better half to take pity on me and say I was allowed to get myself a new thrash about bike for winter riding – leaving the skinny rims of the Ph.D. for better weather.

Through a process of impressive upward management, persuasion and, alright, eventually begging, I managed to get my budget up from the original Kona Cinder Cone level that I was looking at.  After a quick scout on Google, I managed to find a 2008 Orange EVO8 reduced in the January sale at Sunset MTB around the corner from my office.  How could I resist?  I really miss riding the EVO2 – 10 years is a long time to be in the same saddle after all – and so I dropped in to take a look.

Anyway – here’s the lowdown:

Size 19″
Frame 6061-T6 Custom Butted Aluminium
Colour Champagne
Fork Rock Shox Recon Race Air w/Motion Control 100mm
Rear Derailleur Shimano XT Shadow
Front Derailleur Shimano LX
Shifters Shimano LX R Fire +
Crankset Race Face XC Evolve Triple X Type
Cassette SRAM PG950
Brakeset Avid Juicy 3 160/160
Hubs Shimano Deore 475 Disc
Rims Mavic XM117
Spokes WTB S/S Black
Tyres Kenda Nevegal/Blue Groove 2.1
Headset Tange TG8
Stem Orange Stalk +
Seatpost Stick Up
Saddle SDG Bel Air
Handlebars Supercross +
Pedals Shimano SPuDs

The guys at Sunset are typical of a good dealer: Not snotty; not pushy; warmly welcoming, and; good at what they do.  They didn’t have a 2008 bike up and running, but put one together for me during the day and swapped out some of the components that weren’t really my bag.  All in all, a very good purchasing experience and probably the best I’ve had from an Orange dealer since the good old days when I still had access to Stif’s.

So you can expect some more posts as I get back in the Groove with the daily commute again.  Suffice it to say that I’m chuffed to nuts so far <grin>.

Lucky I didn’t see any carbon road bikes…

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I wish the Swansea folk every success in making the very best out of the centre that they can.  It’s a fitting tribute to Mike’s individual passion for the environment and science, and I’m pretty sure he’d have loved having a cluster to play with.

Swansea’s press release is here