BP's Weblog

Here's a chart with the first 4 fillups for my new Piaggio Typhoon scooter. As you can see, it's getting decent gas mileage - in fact, there's a very good reason (user error, generically) for the dip in the 3rd data point. However, as you can see, it's not so cheap to ride that, say, it's going to pay itself off in no time.

As an alternate to a car, it's fun to read, appears reasonably safe, and there's a dealer nearby (unlike the eGO). It doesn't replace a car (or, heck, the eGO, for a variety of reasons to be detailed soon), but it fits a niche, nonetheless.

[Graph entirely removed, given how pathetic it was. There will be a future entry with a better/updated graph]

(the Mazda MPG is taken as 26, which is what it was getting a year or so ago, for purposes of calculating relative savings/gallons saved)

Update: Ok, so, I suck at making effective charts. I'll update this one when there's another data point or two, and make it be a little less hard to read/inaccurate/poorly designed. I hope. :)

Posted by Bryan at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I may regret this, but it seems like no one out there ever advertises SIP urls. Part of the point of the VoIP revolution is to bring web addressability/portability/flexibility into the world of person-to-person communications, right? The whole SIP spec makes addressing very easy, but no one ever advertises their SIP address, for some reason. If I were a VoIP company, shouldn't there be a SIP url that reaches the company (ok, reaches an Interactive Voice Response menu, rather than a person, just because of the spam potential) advertised right along with their normal contact phone numbers?

Well, whatever. I'm going to advertise one. You can dial me at sip:[myfirstname]@geekdom.net, or, for purposes of making it easier to copy-and-paste, here's a throwaway that I'll leave active until VoIP spam starts arriving: sip:bpvoip17@geekdom.net

Now, I'm not putting this out here for SkypeMe-like use. Don't call me unless you know me/want to talk to me for some particular reason. Just wanted to start a trend.

Update: The URL has now been used. To the nice inquisitor who tried to call at 5am local time, however, all I can say is "I don't get up that early". Try me after 10am PST, and before 10pm PST. Or, strike up the conversation in the comments below, or use the SIP url's component as an e-mail address (also temporarily enabled) to reach me directly via e-mail.

Posted by Bryan at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Anyone out there interested in going to see the Hong Kong Wushu Team perform this Saturday? It's a free event, in the city. More details here. Joy and I are planning to make the trip, if anyone else would like to come/meet us.

Update: Oh, right. That's April 2nd I'm talking about, which isn't for another week yet. Still, any takers?

Posted by Bryan at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The new machine....,
originally uploaded by bpendleton.

I now own a 2005 Piaggio Typhoon 50 (http://piaggiousa.com/pscooters/Typhoon.cfm). It's a 2-cycle, 50cc scooter. Not unlike a Vespa... even made by the same folks. Hopefully, it'll hold up better than the eGO... more to come.

Posted by Bryan at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This might be obvious, but still worth pointing out....

Now that Gmail has drafts, it's very easy to stash a file, “short-term”, by merely attaching it to a message and saving it as a draft. Revisit the draft to fetch the file, discard it when you're done. This is somewhat easier than mailing it to yourself, wastes quite a few less resources, and saves you having to dig out the “Trash” option buried in the menus, as well.

Tags: gmail

Posted by Bryan at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)