Updates!

I’m feeling particularly chatty tonight, so I figured I’d give some Zibings updates to those of you who still read this blog.

The Zibings Network
We are well into the rewrite now and are hoping to be testing a new version of the site towards the end of October.  Whether or not this happens will depend a lot on me, but we’re putting as much time into the project as we can afford.  It has become a very large part of the direction we’re looking to take Zibings in general, so the lot of us are doing different things to make the re-launch smooth and worthwhile.

N2 Framework
Ah yes, the framework we love to use so much we can barely spend enough time to do updates!  In a way, we’re really happy that we’ve gotten so busy using it that we haven’t been able to finish doing the v0.2 release, but in most ways we’re just annoyed.  The release is coming still, but I’m learning that setting dates for these isn’t going to be easy while we’re the only main contributors to the code.  Even so, I keep putting some hours into it each week and will hope to release Yverdon v0.2 before the end of the year.

Super Tech Help
The forums are back, and about as active as they ever were.  No real plans have been put forth JUST yet to figure out ways to draw new traffic to the boards, but a meeting is in the works for that exact thing.  I’ll be reviving my PHP tutorial, finishing it eventually, and moving on to another tutorial which I hope won’t take me 3-4 years to complete.

 

All in all, we’re busy-busy here and loving every minute of it, as usual.  I’ll be sure to let you know when things are getting closer to completion.

 

- Andy

A Musical Showdown

Coming this Saturday I’ll be doing a bit of a musical ‘swap’ with my friend Keith.  Keith, for some illogical and useless reason, does not like trance music.  I’ve tried to help him come to his senses many times over the years, but he just won’t give it a fair chance.  I don’t fault him for it, he’s a few years younger than me so he probably just doesn’t know any better, but regardless the time has come for him to give this a shot.

After a lot of insistence that I listen to Jack Johnson for a while, I realized I had a golden opportunity.  This Saturday (October 3rd, 2009) he and I will be swapping music for a day, thanks to Slacker.com and the Firefox LastFM extension.  I will spend the day listening to a ‘Jack Johnson’ channel Slacker will create for me, and he will listen to the ‘Trance’ channel.

I don’t know if he’ll wise up or not, but you can be sure he’ll at least have had some exposure finally.

;)

 

- Andy

How Not to Take Ride Videos

I thought myself pretty clever that I’d be taking my digital camera with me today.  Clever beyond all compare, at least until I got onto the bike and realized just how horrible of an idea this had been.  Chris and I did a hill climb day on my favorite local series of hills, went up them 4 times total in an hour.  I’m thinking the only way I’ll get a decent video is if I grab a helmet cam, but I’m not that interested in dishing out the money for one.  Oh well, will just keep trying other things…

 

Heading northwest along the Susquehanna….

 

 

- Andy

An Experiment

I promised that I’d try and get some pictures and/or videos from today’s ride, so I did what I could to deliver.  I apologize for the quality, but it appears I can’t find my digital camera and am thus forced to utilize my cell phone’s camera and camcorder features.

 
Just one of the many straight sections we rode on.  My computer tells me we did a little over 20 miles in an hour and 42 minutes.

 
Chris did a good job making it through the ride.  Not bad for his second real ride since getting a bike.

I tried thinking of something witty to go here, but I’m experiencing the same lack of intelligence I was during the picture.

I have some videos that I took, but after uploading the first to YouTube, I’ve decided that one is enough with the poor quality that they ended up being.

 

More to come tomorrow, we’re doing hill-climbs!

 

- Andy

Back On The Saddle….Again

So after 2 weeks ‘rest’ from my injury, I finally got back onto the bike today for a somewhat serious ride that I could bear.  Chris and I did an easy 12 mile loop along Front Street and City Island in Harrisburg.  The ride felt good, and I was able to do some hill-climbing that I wasn’t even able to do when I was preparing for the Livestrong event.  Chris and I have a 33 mile ride planned for tomorrow afternoon to really give the legs a bit of a stretch, and to say I’m looking forward to it is a bit of an understatement.

Zibings projects are moving along at a good clip now as well, with my arm no longer restricting the amount of time I can type.  It even looks like someone is interested in helping to resurrect the Super Tech Help forums, which would be nice to see.  So much to do, so little time.

I’ll make sure I get some photos from the ride tomorrow, maybe even a video.

 

 
I got warmed up a bit too early for Chris and had to wait.  Turns out my Rally America hoodie is great for keeping me warmed up!

 

- Andy