There have been many times where police officers have had to use appropriate force when dealing with criminals and there are times where they go overboard. I was watching these videos on Youtube today and thought I should write up a post about situations like these. In the first video you can see the guy on the motorcycle going at a high rate of speed and pulling a wheelie while passing a bus in the slow lane on I95 in Maryland. There is no sound in the first video that actually shows everything and I am not quite sure why it was not included. In the video you will notice that at 2:40 the bike takes an exit to the right and starts to slow down for the traffic ahead. All of the sudden an unmarked car pulls ahead of him positioning itself to block the motorcycle. A man hops out, pulls out a gun and says get off the motorcycle 3 times before finally saying that he was with the State Police. I feel this is the only mistake the officer had made, his first words prior to pulling the gun out should have been Police don’t move. Everyone is scrutinizing the officer for pulling his service weapon however I kinda feel like he handled the situation properly. Not once did he actually point the gun at the individual and once the rider heard it was the police he started to cooperate and the officer holstered the weapon.
Over this weekend we had a few things to do. We had to go to North Adams to pick-up Dylan from his Grandmothers as he spent most of the summer up there. We also had to make our way to Springfield, VT to take a look at the bike we are might buy for Claire. It’s a 2010 Ninja 250r which would be a good starter bike for her and get her through 1-2 seasons after we change the sprockets, chain, throw on a slip on exhaust. The bike was in almost perfect condition and when I took it for a ride it went through the gears nicely.
I believe this will be one really good feature of GMail, the ability to send and receive phone calls through your computer while you are logged into your email account (available to USA only). Since I use Google Voice this is automatically added to my GMail account for use. However at first try this morning I have not been able to get it to successfully call my mobile phone. While the phone rings and I can answer it I cannot hear anything on either the phone nor my headset on the computer. I continuously keep getting error messages like this:
Sorry! The voice chat with (xxx) xxx-xxxx failed due to an error [Code: 3 Remote: true] at 9:18 AM.
Click here to report this to Google.
I have been reporting the issues to Google but I wish this would just work. The best part that got me interested is that first it was automatically linked to my Google Voice account, second it is easy and free to make calls to any land line or mobile phone in the USA. International calls are available too at rates as low as $0.02 per minute. Have you been able to get Google Voice to work from within the GMail interface? What are your thoughts on this service? I think it would be beneficial if you remain logged into your GMail account all day however I already have my Google Voice number ring my mobile phone.
Someone with a very creative mind and musical talent has created an anthem for PHP. You just have to hear this song, make sure you pay attention to the lyrics.
My only question is what’s with the girls they have nothing to do with PHP nor programming, I guess they just wanted them there for the eye candy. Anyhow the lyrics to the song are pretty funny so let me know what you think.
Originally Posted by Chris Shiflett which also contains links to download the MP3 for the song or the entire album in MP3 format.
If you have been reading the other posts I have made you will know that I stripped my oil pan due to a defective torque wrench. The lesson learned is to test the torque wrench prior to using it, had I done that I would not have caused myself all of this grief. I contacted Parkway Cycle and asked them how much a replacement oil pan costs. They told me that it was $173 and while I found it cheaper online for $143 I am still opting not to replace it but have it fixed “for now” and replace it in the future. One of my friends is going to weld a nut to the inside of the oil pan so that the bolt will have something to screw into. Now on to the repair process.
The first thing I had to do was remove all of the plastics which was pretty simple. There are only a handful of bolts that needed to be removed and a couple push pins. Once all the plastics were off I climbed onto the ground to see just what needed to be removed. First I thought I could get away with removing solely the muffler and leaving the exhaust manifold connected. I was wrong and it turned out the manifold was the most troublesome part of the entire process. The bolts were locked tight and I had to spray them real well with PB Blaster to get them to release. Once they were strayed down I removed the coupling on the exhaust pipe that held the muffler to the manifold pipes. I removed the rear muffler by removing 3 bolts and then twisting, turning and pulling. If finally came loose and then it was time to remove the manifold pipes.
I hate to even say those words but yes it is out of service at-least temporarily. I guess when it comes to learning lessons I have no choice but to learn the hard way. I wanted to start doing routine maintenance on my bike so that I could learn more about the machine so yesterday I started with an oil change. I made sure to make sure that I was doing everything properly and I first started with removing the oil drain plug and draining the old oil while the machine was still hot from my ride home from work. Once all of the oil was out I removed the oil filter and let that drain for a moment or two as well. I put the new filter on and was ready to add the fresh clean oil to the bike. I picked up my manual and checked what the torque settings were for the oil drain bolt and it stated 16.5 ft-lbs. I picked up my torque wrench that I bought from Amazon and set it to 15 ft-lbs and got started. First I tightened the bolt with my hand and then used the torque wrench. Before I could do anything on the first turn I felt the bolt get snug and then let loose. I knew this was trouble as soon as it happened and I even knew what happened because I had read about it happening online. I just stripped my oil pan.
Ever since I bought my motorcycle I have been looking for a good shop where I could buy my gear and have my bike serviced. I started out by looking at Parkway Cycle which is located in Everett, MA. The service was great there but the location was a bit difficult to get to. You always have to deal with a ton of traffic and VERY limited parking to go to this shop. I had been talking with the staff there and they seemed really knowledgeable and helpful. However when it came time to make the purchase I did not want to have to deal with the traffic to go buy my gear. I had also found Greater Boston Motorsports (also known as GBM) located in Arlington, MA which seemed to have ample parking and a lot less traffic to deal with. I talked with the staff there on my first visit and they seemed just as helpful and nice as at Parkway Cycle.
As you may have read I recently bought a sport bike. I finally got my permit on Friday and did all the necessary steps to get it on the road legally. Now what you may not know is that in the past I did ride a 4 stroke dirt bike but that was back when I was 8 and it was not something I got to ride daily as it was my friends bike. Up until Friday you could basically say I had very little to no experience riding a bike. I started out Friday afternoon by riding in this small cemetery in Lynn, MA (only because it was directly across the street from where my bike was stored until street legal). After riding for about 2 hours Friday I decided to call it a day and spend the rest of the day with my family. Saturday we woke up and spent a few hours at the beach and then I went riding for a few hours and got the bike inspected. After riding for about 4 hours I felt I had a good feel for how the bike handled (I am not an expert by any means, just had a good feel for the bike).
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Over the weekend we started out by looking for cars for my fiance Claire. We wanted to get a second car because sharing a single vehicle can be a bit tough. We looked at several dealerships and on Craigslist but we could not find anything for $3500 that we would really be satisfied with. We decided to wait until tax season and at that time we would have a bit more money to buy a decent vehicle that will last a while. Looking on Craigslist I spotted a very nice looking bike. I looked at the details on the page and thought wow that is such a nice bike and you can’t beat the price.
We took a ride up to Windham NH to look at the bike which was at Revolution Cycles (603-893-9950?). It was on a stand in the front window and when we walked in Claire was looking at it in awe. It was in such nice condition and she asked me I wonder what the price is for the bike in the window…. I said that’s the bike we came to see and she was shocked after seeing the bike that the price was only $3495. The bike is very clean, and only has 3100 miles on it. It is a 2006 but with the condition and the low miles it would usually go for around $4500-$5000. Needless to say after starting it up and sitting on it I scooped it up.
I plan to go take the MREP course that Massachusetts offers so that I can learn how to properly ride a bike but also skip the RMV tests. So what do you think?
I am writing this post from my new N900 which was provided to me by my employer. I have been using the phone for the last few days. At first i was a it concerned that i was not going to like the device, i will explain why next. When i powered the device on the first thing i wanted to check out was the ovi store. When it opened in the browser the first thing i saw was a nice message about having to update to Maemo 5 before i could use the store. I tried a few times to run the update while at work but it was dead slow and the update process hung up on me a few times before it was successful.
