I love bargains. I like buying quality gear at closeout prices. I appreciate well-made, top of the line things, but relish in finding something that will do 80 - 90% of the job at a quarter of the price. This philosophy has led me to buy products like the Tourmaster Transition II jacket instead of more expensive textile jackets made by Aerostitch, Darien, and Olympia. My trusty Teknic Chicane leather jacket is about a third the price of more fashionable/popular gear made by AlpineStars or Vanson.

The flip side of this equation is that prior season closeouts or second-tier gear may under perform compared to higher-priced competitors. Certain technological advancements may lag behind full-price equivalents, such as venting, waterproofing, or softer (but still strong) materials. One key area is armor.

The Knox Cross Sport shirt helps compensate for cheaper gear, while at the same time is a bargain: I found it online at Oncycles.com for $115 shipped, over $200 off the original retail price.
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That’s about the last thing you want to hear on an airplane, right after “ALLAHU AKBAR” and the sound of a dead man’s switch being activated.
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I think gloves are probably the third piece of protective gear typically purchased by a motorcyclist. First the helmet, then the jacket, then gloves. Boots are probably fourth, with most bikers never getting specialized pants. I wear all of these things (and sometimes more) every time I ride. I use a keyboard and mouse to make a living, so I am even more paranoid about my hands than most.

Leather is typically the best protective material for abrasion depending on the quality, thickness, and type of leather (cow vs kangaroo vs goat, etc). Leather forms to your body’s peculiarities over time, which made my otherwise questionably-made Held Ninja gloves a fantastic glove to wear.

Unfortunately, leather’s protective qualities fade over time due to exposure to the elements. I am not sure how violent the quality degradation is, Cycleport founder Wayne seems to think it can be up to 20%, especially if the leather has been exposed to rain.

I purchased a pair of Cycleport (also known as Motoport) kevlar full gauntlet kevlar racing gloves. The gloves were $129 before shipping, which pits it against the upper tier of racing gloves from other manufacturers. Here’s my review.
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Gmail has had HTTPS (secure) capabilities for a long time now, but the default protocol has always been plain HTTP. You could manually add the “s” in the URL (http://mail.google.com to https://mail.google.com), but you had to do it every time you logged in. GAlert by MassGrid Solutions (ready my review) had this functionality, but there was no way to save your protocol preferences in Gmail until now.

Gmail rolled out a way to set your protocol preference to all users on Thursday. Here’s how to do it.
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After considerately committing suicide a week before the warranty expired, Microsoft sent me a new (at least to me), Xbox 360 Elite as a replacement. The total turnaround time was a week, partially because UPS took a few extra days trying to deliver my busted console to Microsoft’s repair center in Texas.

My replacement unit was built in June of 2008, which I am pretty sure is still a Falcon motherboard. The Falcon is the second-generation motherboard for the 360 Elite. It features smaller chipsets that may increase reliability by reducing heat within the console. Looks like I missed the Jasper revision by a few months, but my 360 Core replacement will probably shit itself in time to pick up either a Jasper or even Opus revision.

Here’s to another year of gaming!

My stepsister forwarded this to me awhile ago. There are six questions, with four answers for each question.

It’s a silly thing to do, but it’s Friday — what else are you going to do before you leave work for the weekend?
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I’ve moved drfaulken.com, and by extension Gibberish and the gallery, over to a more dedicated server on DreamHost. The site has been slow lately. I’d like to think it’s partly from my traffic, but I think there are just too many other sites on my old server. I did have a 10,000 unique visitor spike over a two day period last week, but traffic has settled down to slightly-more-than-prior levels.

I did manage to move almost 15GBs worth of content last month, which is a record for Gibberish. Pretty sweet for a blog started for a dozen readers. :)

The move is supposed to be seamless, but if you notice anything weird please let me know.

Do you think the site is performing better than before?

Running a Windows Mobile phone reminds me a lot of the older days of Macintosh computing, or when I got one of the early Palm PDAs. There were all sorts of small, weird-ass applications that did one thing very well. Some Windows Mobile utilities like the SPB Phone Suite are a little spendy, and some of them cost you more than you’d normally pay (I’m looking at you, Opera Mobile). And then every once in awhile, some are free, and are totally awesome.
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I’ve written about how royalties have threatened Internet radio in the past. According to this Ars Technica article, it seems like the Sound Exchange is trying to drive nails in the coffins of my favorite Internet radio stations. Ars Technica discusses the awesome-o Pandora in particular, but the disproportionally high royalty fees will affect all of the Internet radio stations I listen to, including SomaFM and Frisky Radio.
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There’s a lot I like about Raptor, my 2002 BMW K1200 LT motorcycle. I like the heated grips, the electric windshield, and the cruise control. One thing I don’t like about it is how expensive all the accessories are. To get replacement helmet speakers and a microphone is about $300 per helmet. I don’t ride 2UP on Raptor enough to justify spending $600 on something just for that one bike.

The IMC BHS10 headset system seemed very attractive to me because it was inexpensive. At just $65 per set, I felt comfortable giving them a try. I didn’t expect them to be of elite quality, but I am also no stranger to paying less and getting more. I just wanted to be able to talk to Starbuck on longer trips, and to hear directions from my GPS unit.

However, I was apprehensive that there would be a compatibility problem with the IMC headset and my stock BMW/J&G CommSystem. I emailed the customer service department at Whitehorse Gear via their Web site and got a response two business days later. I wasn’t happy with that long of a turn-around, especially on a pre-sales question, but sometimes these specialty places are only manned by one or two employees.

I specifically asked if the system was compatible with my setup, and “Dean” replied, “In both cases you will get the speakers, microphone, and a coil cable with the six-pin plug to fit into your LT. Mount the headset in the helmet, plug in, and you are good to go.”

I placed my order immediately and waited for it to arrive.
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