Year: 2004

YourParty.org (should be .org.uk, but there we are) – interesting. I’ve just completed their pre-launch survey, including a stream of vitriol in the ‘comments’ box about how appallingly-written it is. Talk about forcing people down predefined avenues… blimey.

Have a look-see. It’s a probably naïve but still fascinating idea, but if they’re not going to think it through any more than that, I for one will not be involved. Bah! Market research! Bah!

See also this.

One of these days I’ll get around to writing up some notes on my bike, since lots of people seem to arrive here via a Google search for ‘Ridgeback Genesis review.’ In the meantime – firstly, it’s wonderful and I love it, and secondly, I’m slightly surprised by the new 2004 model range.

For the 2003 models, the choice was really between a Day 1 and a Day 2 – the 2 being a slightly more hardcore ‘fast road’ machine, with a lighter/stiffer frame and better components throughout, notably a much fancier set of wheels, but no mudguard eyes etc. I bought the 2 partly because late in the year the price dropped by a hundred quid, but really because it was available in my size. Which nothing else was.

This year, it looks a little like Ridgeback have decided they’ve got the brand name, so they’re building down to a price. The 2 is pegged at £700: what I paid, and hence cheaper than last year’s model. It gains carbon forks – probably a wise move when the competing Specialized machines all have them, though I don’t find mine’s alu-forked ride harsh – however, it loses the fancy triple-butted frame, which is now exclusive to the top-of-the-range Day 3. Since that model is now more expensive (using a mix of Ultegra and Dura Ace rather than 105), there’s a gaping hole between the two models. The Day 3 still isn’t available in a 60cm frame, either.

The Day 1, meanwhile, remains a cost-effective buy, but continues with what I’d class as marginal brakes – I wasn’t impressed when I rode them, whereas the Tiagra units on mine are better than I’d thought sidepulls could be. The wheels probably play a part here.

Was it worth Ridgeback dropping the fancy triple-butted frame for the sake of keeping the price point? It’s hard to say. Critically, the 2004 Day 2 has mudguard eyes, which to my (unhip) mind is a significant advantage. But I’m slightly surprised there isn’t a ‘Day 2.5’ model, spaced between the Day 2 and Day 3, with 105/Tiagra bits on the Kinesium frame.

Perhaps Ridgeback are planning a range of drop-bar bikes? Or maybe they’re not making any of the triple-butted frames this year, and are simply using up stocks from last season, limiting sales by slapping high-end kit on them? Strange.

Crivens! Vinay’s blog front page usually scrolls so far you can’t see the horizon; I habitually pester him to limit the number of posts rather than the number of days’-worth of posts. But now I discover that he’s not posted for so many weeks, the layout’s fallen apart.

Colour me worried.

An amusing reference spotted on Joi Ito’s blog, with the title, “Oh no! My Tivo thinks I’m gay!” I have similar sorts of problems with Amazon, in that it can’t seem to get its vast electronic brain around the combination that I (a.) have given up being a hardcore web programming geek, at least for the moment, (b.) am fascinated by graphic design, especially fairly esoteric typography, (c.) buy the novels of a few specific hard SF authors, (d.) look at a fairly wide range of history books, mostly monographs about weird things like waterwheel design, or the phlogiston theory, and (e.) buy the sort of contemporary literature that gets reviewed in the Guardian.

Don’t get me wrong – Amazon’s recommendations are at worst amusing, at best downright useful. But it strikes me that most of us are not a single person – or at least, should not be considered such for the purposes of profiling. Amazon, Tivo et al should be looking for instances where choices fail to fit the profile, and forking off a new persona rather than trying to integrate the two. Maybe they do, I don’t know – it doesn’t seem to work all that well, anyway.

Hmm. I could get rather interested in how the profiling is parameterised, come to think of it. I wonder what Amazon would make of that.

Tonight was the opening of Glasgow’s newest cinema, the Tantallodeon. In other words, I had some friends round to watch a film, but we had trailers and adverts and supporting features and everything – iDVD is a seriously nifty piece of software.

The feature presentation was provided by Colin, who brought along Roman Polanski’s 1974 masterpiece Chinatown. I’m surprised I’ve never seen it, but there we go.

A fine film; fine company; fine… well, fairly decent wine; extreme cheese on toast (with very fine truffle sauce). Oh, it’s a hard life. Meanwhile, I’ll be blogging more regularly again once How2 is finished, in a couple of weeks’ time.