So I was on my way to Born Free and before I even made it into CA I blew out my knee. It was so silly and totally my fault. Since I didn't put a kickstand on my bike I've been using the kickstarter to lean my bike on when I park. So I pull in the clutch to release the motor and push the kickstarter down then lean it over. This was working out pretty well.

Pretty well until I blew up my knee because of it. I was at a gas station and just finished topping off my gas. I went to kick start it and in mid stride I pulled the clutch in. With a very strong kick and nothing behind it my knee just gave out. I couldn't even walk. It sucked.

So now I'm hobbling around on crutches and can't ride.

As I was riding I was hearing some grinding in the motor. Mostly likely the cam chain guide. Checked the oil filter and sure enough, full of filings. So I ordered up a new cam chain, guide, and filters.

Got it all running and it's looking great. It is totally comfortable to ride now too.

I'm trying to finish the bike by tomorrow night. Sure hope I make it!

Yep, got my narrowed crazy apes mounted.

It's been three months and two weeks since I dropped my bike off at Ace Cycles in Sparks. I dropped it off to have the hardtail redone. I wanted to take 4 inches out of it. We figured out it was an 8" stretch. Wow, no wonder why I was having problems.

I didn't get it back in time to do the EDR run in Mexico. But I'm planning on doing Born Free 5 in LA coming up in 5 weeks. So I need to get cracking on this to finish it up.

Things I have to do:

• Mount new fender (half way done)
• Mount tail light
• Mount new seat
• New footpeg mounts
• New rear brake lever
• Clean up all welds
• Route wiring
• Test everything for about 20 miles
• Tear down
• Paint frame

It's going to be hard with working 80 hours a week, but I'll get it done. I really want to have it done by next weekend so I can use it for the grand opening of Reno Collective. But I don't think I'll make it. Next deadline is for Street Vibrations. That's on June 7th-9th.

I'll keep ya up to date on my progress.

It's been a few days on my new Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. I have to say, it's a very nice computer. Linux runs great on it and it has plenty of system resources to run my applications.

The computer is a few inches smaller than the size of my MacBook Air, but the the screen size in pixels is much bigger. It has an HD screen that's 1080px tall. Very nice. The screen is sharp and clear. The XPS is also very fast with Linux on it. I can scroll web pages without maxing out the CPU like on my MBA. There is also no delay in loading web sites in Chrome. I haven't had any issues with compiling apps or running CPU intensive programs.

With the pre-installed 8GB RAM I was finally able to run my Linux server VM without memory warnings. Not only that but it runs really great. It opens fast and boots my Linux server image quickly. Very nice for testing my Chef scripts before committing my changes.

One of the first things I did after setting up the pre-installed Ubuntu was to go to Gnome.org and install the Gnome-Shell desktop. I like it much better than the Ubuntu Desktop. It's more clean and easier to use with the default settings. I haven't used Linux in 10 years and my last desktop was Enlightenment. I tried out E17 recently and I guess I've just outgrown it. These days I'm more into getting things done.

Linux. It's nice to be back on Linux. Things are so fast and it's easy to find apps that I need to do my work with. It's also what my apps run on when I deploy them to my servers so it makes sense to run the same OS. I was also getting tired of the Apple decisions going into Mac OS X. The OS was getting slow and even more locked down than ever. I recommend all programmers to make the switch (or anyone else for that matter).

One thing I'm looking forward to after I finish my current side job is to start building some Linux apps. I see there is a few things that I would like to have that don't exist yet. I miss my Divvy app from the Mac and there is also a need for something like Little Snitch. Those are only a few ideas but I have a ton. I want to bring a lot of the apps that I used on the Mac over to Linux. Can't wait for spare time.

I'll chime in with another report next month on how things are going. I'm sure things will be fine.

I've narrowed my choices down to these three computers:

I'm leaning towards the Dell because it has a really nice screen, it's cheap, and it comes with Linux pre-installed. The Mac does have better specs and probably a lot of nice features. Mostly things I will probably never use like Thunderbolt. I'm going to run Linux on it also, so I need something that will work well. Linux on the Mac isn't the best experience. The XPS is almost the same thing as the Thinkpad but a much better screen and price.

So hard to pick a new computer. But I have the cash in hand and I'm ready to buy this week.

It's been a few weeks on Linux and I'm finally getting used to things again. 10 years on Mac was a really long time. It doesn't seem like much has changed on Linux, but I'm sure there is a lot I haven't seen yet.

It's much faster than OS X. Uses much less CPU for the things that used to max out my system. On the Mac just scrolling a web page would tweak it. Not anymore. Chrome runs much better (using the official Google package). Ruby is much easier to use too. I've switched to rbenv and I really like how simple it is.

I do miss some of the cool Mac tools I've been using for the last few years. But I think I'll find replacements soon enough. I'm pretty sure that I'm not going back. Not sure what my next computer will be though. I'm still thinking about a MacBook Pro. I can't find a better computer out there. And I'm sure Linux will run just fine on it. ;-)

I've been looking at the Thinkpad X1 Carbon for weeks now. I've also been looking at other laptops trying to decide what will be my next computer. It's so hard to decide. Nothing can really compete with an Apple MacBook Pro. Processor speed, total memory, profile, the glass trackpad feel, the aluminum chassis...

I might just have to get a MacBook Pro again. It has the best of the best stuff in it. I know it's another $1000 on top of the X1, but after driving a super car for 10 years it's hard to go back to a sports car.

I've been looking at reviews and YouTubes but I still haven't gone to the store to check out the X1 in person. Maybe I'll have a different opinion about it after seeing it in person. I think that next time I'm in Reno I'll have to swing by the store and see if there are any around. I'll probably have to drive into the bay area to see one. LOL

Still on the fence. Maybe I'll just install Linux on my Air and use it for a few months to see how it works out. Maybe it will be faster and less troublesome.