Ouch. More than a year after the Mino HD, and this is what they release?

Awesome.

It set the new record lap time at Fiorano Circuit, Ferrari’s private test track, clocking in at one minute and 24 seconds. That is nine-tenths of a second faster than the mighty Enzo.

Damn.

I was lucky enough to get a few rides in before the recent rains. Although getting back on the bike after 4 months of not riding is painful, it’s always great to get back on the bike and get outside. My bike needs some TLC in a bad way, though, after a winter of neglect instead of renewal. The 5-Spot is having the finishing touches put on her, so I should be riding that bike soon and will work on the RFX as time permits.

I recently had an encounter with an old friend: my first really good mountain bike, a matte black 1995 Specialized Stumpjumper. I’d sold the bike to a coworker when I acquired its replacement, a full-suspension version of the Stumpjumper, in 2001. It was my first full suspension bike, and I loved it so much I never imagined getting on the old one again, and I liked the idea of getting someone else on it. Sadly, he crashed on one of his rides on it, and it’s been hanging in his garage, in bike purgatory, ever since.

I’d tried to buy the bike back from the friend a few times, but he always insisted he might ride it again. Its fork had blown up, creating a twitchy ride, and even though I told him to take it in he never did. And other than a quick ride on the street with his daughter, he didn’t ride it.

Another old friend who I’d successfully gotten into mountain biking, if only for a short time, told me he wanted his decent but much neglected Cannondale hard-tail out of his garage. I keep an extra bike for friends and visitors to ride, and so told him I’d take his as an upgrade to that bike. But then I had an idea….

I emailed the friend with my Stumpjumper, and proposed a trade of this bike—in better condition—for my old original, since he wanted to have a bike to ride. He agreed, and I’ve picked my old bike up. It needs some TLC, but it’s good to see it again, and I’m looking forward to taking it out on the trail again. I rode that bike all over, in several different states on many different road trips, and it’s a blast from the past for sure.

Maybe I’ll take it on a fairly mellow ride, like one of the recent ones I did with Shane and Erik up in the Long Ridge area, which was a new route for me.

If you’re planning on going to the Sea Otter this year, here’s how to get $10 off registration.

Airstream has some new models for 2010: the International Serenity and a 30′ version of the Flying Cloud. The Serenity’s layout looks to be the same as the other Internationals, including our 2008 25′ model, with a new interior makeover. I appreciate the look of the lighter colors, although imagine that it could look dirty pretty easily. Likewise, I like the interior of the new Flying Cloud—I’ve always thought the recliners would be nice, even if a 30′ trailer is too long for me to truly desire. Nice additions!

I’ve been thinking of commuting to work on my bike to start building up my legs, but have put it off since I have to figure out the best route. Looks like Google Maps can help better than before. Good news! Preliminarily, it has a couple of good suggestions to keep me off of really busy areas. I’ll probably try its route and then branch out a bit from there.

This upcoming mountain bike DVDlooks pretty cool.

Another look at that sweet Porsche hybrid I posted the other day.

Note to self: Must check this area out.

This is a wonderful piece on books, ebooks and the iPad.

Holy crap! This Bugatti concept is gorgeous.

I’ve long been a huge fan of TiVo. I first bought a Series2 when they first came out and have had the old DirecTV TiVo and had delivery of the Series3 HD TiVo the first day they shipped. Yesterday, TiVo announced the new Series4 ″Premiere” model.

I’m disappointed.

First, they keep touting the new, all HD UI. I’m not sure why the Series3 didn’t get a fully HD UI, and I would have hoped that it would get the new one pushed to it. But no. And one reason I’ve heard is that the existing TiVos don’t have the horsepower to push the new UI, as it’s been entirely implemented in Flash.

Now, I can understand the allure of developing the UI in Flash: there are good tools for Flash; it’s easy to find developers with Flash experience; Flash is mature; and there’s a lot of content on the web, particularly video, in Flash. But if your installed base’s devices can’t run the UI because it’s so resource-intensive, is it a good choice? I’d say no. And it’s not like you can’t make a good UI with other technology. The Boxee box has a great looking UI in a small package. Anyway, perhaps this explains why the TiVo Search beta and the Netflix apps on the current TiVos is so terribly slow.

So the new experience requires a new box. My TiVo’s been making a clicking sound which I assume is the hard drive. I was just hoping it lived at least long enough to see the release of the new stuff. So what else do you get over the Series3 for the money?

Sadly, it doesn’t appear like you get much. The storage options are still pathetic for the cost of the device: 320 GB in the $300 model. The emphasis on the Premiere’s internet content is all well-and-good, but you have to buy a $90 adapter to get WiFi. Even on the $500 model! WTF?

“Hey,” I initially thought, “that remote looks cool.” The one with a keyboard that slides out to help with all that searching you’re going to be doing in the fancy new interface. Turns out it’s not in the box, either, but will be an extra add-on. Fuck. Oh, and Engadget says it’s not well-built (at least the pre-production model they had their hands on).

It doesn’t have any new two-way cable box functionality, so there’s still no on-demand or other tight integration with your cable company’s content. No gain there. Same number of tuners. No gain there. I’m not finding anything to get excited about.

There’s one small bright spot in all this: they’re offering a discount to existing TiVo owners, so I can get the $300 box for $230 or the $500 box for $400. That’s better than a kick in the teeth, but I think I’ll still stick with my Series3 until it dies or until the price on this new series drops to something reasonable and I can get more storage along with the upgrade.

TiVo should see that decision as a loss. I’m definitely the target market for their $500 box, and I’m sticking with my 5-year-old one instead, because it does most of what the new one does. Like I said: disappointing.

It’s been a couple of days since I switched back to Safari after more than a month using Google Chrome. After repeatedly finding myself occasionally thinking “this was a little nicer in Chrome”, I’ve gone back as of this morning. And you know what? I felt the way I used to every time I went back to Safari from Firefox or whatever—I was glad to be back.

Now I just have to keep the forum for 1password open in a tab and go there daily, looking for the better 1password integration. At least they say it’s coming, and they’ve always been good in the past on delivering on their promises. Really, it’s the only thing that even makes me think of using Safari right now.

Not to be outdone by Porsche’s hybrid, Ferrari’s showing one off now too. Its 25 MPG doesn’t sound as impressive, but 120 MPH in 10.5 seconds does! I like the green too!

Esquire is one of my favorite magazines, and they’ve really outdone themselves with a wonderful interview of Roger Ebert in the most recent issue. If you haven’t read it, even if you don’t particularly think of yourself as a fan of Ebert’s, you should definitely hit that link. Better yet, pick up a copy of the magazine—it’s a long read.