Old Bike Barn Scam

April 23rd, 2010 Comments

I needed to get some parts for my CB650 and CM400T, and in my Googling around I ran across the Old Bike Barn. I put in the order on the 16th, hoping that I could get the parts as soon as possible. Needless to say, they are pretty much one step from a complete scam- much akin to the Brooklyn photography gear dealers that advertise low prices and then never ship. Seems a few people have gotten their parts shipped, but never in a timely manner.

In contrast, I ordered parts from two other places at the same time and received them before Old Bike Barn even charged my credit card.

When I inquired with their customer service they said they were waiting on some cable shipment. So they sold me parts without having them in inventory? Great… I’ve heard this story before.

The BBB of NY has nothing good to say about them. They don’t pick up their phones and their online chat help is useless. Someone started a thread on a forum about it and threatening legal action, in which many people chimed in with ‘me too’.  The CEO responded a few times in the thread saying how he’s no scammer and that all of the issues are from various technology migration issues. Yet- they’ve had scaling issues for years it seems and shipment times are never good.

In short, do NOT order from them. Anywhere else, but not Old Bike Barn. You might get lucky and get your parts, but consider yourself warned.

I personally sent them notices to cancel my transaction and then called Bank of America for a chargeback, which they initiated. If I get the time I’ll contact the BBB and the NY Attorney General about it.

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Apple iPad vs Newton

April 22nd, 2010 Comments

How does Apple’s iPad fare against its own first incarnation of the tablet computer- the Apple Newton? Let’s find out.

Screen

The iPad is the clear winner here, with its large 9.7 inch color display. The Newton screen however isn’t all that bad and does support multiple screen orientations and has a low power draw.

Input

The iPad brings us a large version of the iPhone keyboard, along with now popular multitouch. However the iPad completely lacks handwriting recognition. You can’t use a stylus and (most) gloves are out of the question. This is a bit of a draw. Both Newton and iPad support external keyboards.

Connectivity

The iPad offers Wifi and when they eventually get around to shipping them, 3G. That’s great, but what if you want to send a fax? Well the Newton does the job rather well here. The Newton offers a standard 8-pin Mac serial port for connecting to a variety of devices. The Newton also offers an infrared interface to talk to other Newtons. The Newton can even dial a phone by holding its speaker up to a phone.

Expandability

The iPad offers a lot of nothing here- since you can’t even easily swap in a global Sim card. The Newton however rocks it. All models had at least one PC Card expansion slot, allowing anything from CompactFlash memory, to wifi cards, to bluetooth cards.

Battery

The iPad has a nice battery that can last quite some time. The Newton is powered via AAA batteries, which don’t give it a lot of battery life here. However the Newton allows you to swap out batteries, whereas the iPad does not. Even when your iPad battery is dead and unchargable, the best you can do is go to Apple for repair. The Newton? CVS will fix you up.

Price

The iPad might seem like an expensive toy, but the MessagePad and Newton series were expensive too! Varying on model they were between $500 and $1000 1990′s dollars!

Winner

Wait, you’re really wondering who won here? Clearly the Newton… not! The iPad has 20 years of development time on the Newton and is a great piece of hardware. Despite the fact that Jobs has it locked down tighter than a Federal Prison and expansion isn’t exactly its strength, everyone has come to expect that from Apple

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Bored and Tired of Social Media

April 21st, 2010 Comments

I was an early adopter, and now I think I’m an early dropout. I’ve done a bit of everything with social media and honestly I’m a bit tired of it. I don’t get the ‘reward’ and overall I’m bored and using the tools is more work than it is worth.

I’ve been online in some form or another since the early 90′s. BBSs, Prodigy, Compuserv, etc… I had my first website in 1996 or so. I’d like to think that I’ve seen it all, but I’m sure there are a few gaps in my experiences.

When social media rolled around it didn’t seem all that new, just easier and with different names. Today, it just doesn’t really fit into my daily workflow all that well. There are too many networks, tools, aggregators, and distractions to be of any real use.

My boredom started with FourSquare and Twitter. I was a fanatic on Twitter for the longest time. Then I stopped caring. I stopped following people back, so my numbers stopped growing. Checking my Gmail account it seems I’ve had in excess of 15,000 people following me, but since I didn’t follow them all back they didn’t stay. They didn’t really care what I had to say, but they were just pushing for numbers.

The ‘close’ feeling network that Twitter had in 2007 is gone. I can’t expect that something I say will be seen by friends. Its mostly comprised of people sharing links that I already saw two weeks ago and boosting their egos. I liked it a lot more when I had 100 followers that actually cared than 2,000 zombies who can’t parse their own stream of tweets due to the volume.

The tools never evolved all that gracefully. Since the iPhone isn’t really a multi-tasking monster it isn’t a good mobile way of interacting with Twitter. Tweetdeck still crashes and is a memory hog.

But more than anything else, I just get nothing from it. Sure I know all of the ways that you can use it for your business, but for me personally I just don’t really feel it anymore.

The same with FourSquare. At first I thought it was really cute. Then I got bored. I don’t really care where people are and sharing my location nonstop seems to give up a lot more than it is giving me. I had a killer time with it at SXSW, but even that seemed to be so much work. The bugs, the battery drain and poor interface just kinda kill it for me. Also, like I said, I don’t get anything out of it. Great, now I can see the ‘popular’ locations and where people were 45 minutes ago (but no longer are because they are en-route elsewhere).

Sure, I still use social media in many ways. I’m writing this on a blog. I browse my RSS reader and consume from sites like Hacker News and Reddit daily, but asides from that I just don’t have time. I’m hoping that my attitude changes, but there really isn’t much in it for me right now.

For those building networks, I’d think about these things a lot. Building a useful tool isn’t easy, let alone one that someone is expected to interact with nonstop. Humans just aren’t made for that.

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1981 Honda CB650 Motorcycle

April 9th, 2010 Comments

Today I picked up a 1981 Honda CB650 motorcycle for $250 from a nice guy on Craigslist. It has just over 15,000 miles on it (1/4 what my CM400t has) and appears to be in amazing condition. Jessie’s boyfriend Matt is bringing over his Ninja 500ex tomorrow as well and we’ll have a motorcycle party in getting these beasts all working well. I’ll be replacing the clutch and springs on the CM400t and maybe checking the valve spacings if I feel adventurous.

The CB650 needs:

  • New mufflers (going to get some Harley factory ones that no one seems to want)
  • Some electrical work. There’s only occasional power to the accessories and nothing else
  • New front tyre

Otherwise it probably just needs a good tuning, oil change, air filter, plugs and that’s about it. I’m super excited about it. He threw in the shop manual and a battery charger. It has a lockable trunk and a Windjammer 4 fairing. Sarah thinks the fairing looks ugly and maybe it does, but I think the functionality is amazing as it has storage, better lights, and wind/rain protection. Also it has a nice crash bar with extra front footpegs which should be good for long distance riding.

A huge shoutout goes to the fine people at Sprout in Somerville for helping me take the bike out of my truck. This is the second bike they’ve done that for and they always let me use their tools when mine are insufficient.

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BMW 2010 F650GS Motorcycle

March 31st, 2010 Comments

Against by better judgement I went down to the motorcycle store after work yesterday and started looking around. A commenter on here the other day mentioned that I check out the BMW F800GS and I wanted to sit on the Kawasaki Versys. I did both and was fairly impressed with each but they are a little too tall for me. The dealer pointed out the BMW F650GS, which is actually the perfect fit for me and had a factory lowered suspension and seat as well.

Despite its name, the BMW F650GS is actually an 800cc engine which has simply been downtuned a bit for the frame. Same engine otherwise as the F800GS. I really like the idea of a bike that is capable for long distances on road, holds two people efficiently and yet can also do a bit of light off road riding.

Unfortunately the dealership isn’t so hot immediately of me doing a test drive since I’ve had my endorsement for under three years. While I understand it from an insurance standpoint, I’m unsure how they can expect anyone to purchase a bike without riding it.

I’ve had someone offer me a Kawaski Versys with a lowering kit in excellent condition and for a third of the price of the BMW. Oh yea, that’s the other thing- the sticker price on the BMW is over $10K. I can technically afford it easily, but I know that I’ll need to carry better insurance and I foresee maintenance not being as cheap and easy as my old Honda.

Sarah’s advice is probably for the best. She thinks that I should ride my current bike this season and save for next year when I can just buy one outright. That is probably pretty solid advice, and if I choose to no longer ride or something should happen financially then I have my options open. Just the concept of a totally new a shiny bike is really tempting. I’ll likely take her advice… just keep me away from the bike shop!

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