2010 Mongoose Meteore Team

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

This year’s bike season has been really great so far and I owe Mongoose a debt of gratitude for making that so. Mongoose has asked Neil and my self to prototype the new 2010 Mongoose Meteore Team 29er. Mongoose helped us out by giving us a frame to build up as we see fit. Seeing as I had never ridden a 29er before I was a bit worried at first. I have been on a full suspension Giant NRS for the past three year and absolutely love the bike. Switching to a hard tail twenty niner at first seemed like it would be a weird move. However Darren and the Mongoose team have put together a fast good handling bike that rides better then my old full suspension rig.

My intial ride on the bike was a pre-ride at the Lake Geneva WORS race. I was suprised by the bikes incredible ability to climb. Sand, rocky climbs, and loose dirt are eaten up by this bikes longs stance and great power transfer. Next I hit some technical downhills. A bit hesitant at first being a full suspension rider this bike inspired confidence from the first descent. I was absolutely impressed with the bikes ability to roll over obstacles like a fully, and the way I could throw it into a corner. I did experience a bit of a learning curve when it came to handling the bike. I am used to being closer to the ground and not having to lean the bike quite as much, a little tire pressure tweaking and I had no problem with this.

Single track handling was great, 29ers tend to be a little sluggish in the single track. Mongoose approached this problem by adding a steeper head angle to the bike and adding a short stem. This seems to be a great compromise. Add in the fact that the bike carries speed like crazy, and eats up rocks this formula leads to a great handling twenty niner.

The bikes frame came in a 3 lbs, it utilize a new type of aluminum which is super light and maintains a good aluminum ride quality. The total bike weight came in at just over 23 lbs. I built it up with a Fox RLC shock, SRAM X-9 rear der. and shifters, Hayes El Camino disc brakes, Stans ZTR wheels, Maxxis Cross Mark tires, SRAM pc-990 cassette, and a FSA Team crank.

Many thanks to Dave Thomas and Machinery Row for the build.

Mobile Web Design By Cameron Moll

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I just finished Cameron Moll’s book Mobile Web Design. This book was a great primer for the mobile web developer. I get asked tons of mobile questions and many times are stuck with no answer. This book offers a lot of answers. While it is not a book aimed at give technical answers it give a solid foundation to build on. The book focuses on how to approach mobile design, how to decide the best solution for access, and the options that are available for browsers.

Bottom line if you are new to mobile web design or answer a lot client mobile questions I recommend picking this book up.

Iola Bump and Jump

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Iola Bump and Jump was this weekend. This was the first MTB race in the WORS series this year. Coming into it I felt that I may not have the fitness I would need for this very tough course. Traveling to New York for work this year has left training time a difficult thing to get. I have been able to sneak in quite a few rides but traveling takes its toll on you.

I started out the race riding strong. I didn’t take off too fast on the start and knew that pacing myself was key. I quickly started working my way to some of the faster guys in the pack. I was feeling strong on the climbs and felt especially good on the flats and single track. I am riding single track surprisingly well this year and didn’t feel like I was missing a beat.

Iola is however not a very forgiving course. Climb climb climb, after a while I felt that it would never end it and the short power climbs started to take their toll. I also got a blasting headache on the third lap which left me aching. I slowed down a lot on this lap and started to rapidly lose place. I am not sure where the headache came from, I do know it zapped any fight I had in me out instantly.

I finished ok but not where I wanted to be. Regardless it was great to get out with friends and ride bikes again. I am excited about the series this year and with all the traveling have a rejuvenated appreciation for biking.

Color Profiling

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

I was logging into a internet service at my hotel today and noticed a very distinct color discrepancy between Safari and Firefox on one of the images on the site.

The image on the left is how Firefox rendered this image while the image on the right is a Safari rendering. You are now asking why are the colors so different? Well this comes down to color management. Currently Safari has far superior color management then other browser on the market.

What is color management would be a logical next question. I am not the official source on this but color management is based on a color profile tag that is applied when a file is compressed. Essentially this tells the display how to balance the colors on the image. If you are familiar with white balancing on a camera this is how I would think about it. Currently Safari is more accurately displaying more types of color profiles then other browsers. This can cause a problem to the colorphiles of the world (I think I am going to coin the phrase colorphiles!)

Never fear there is an answer. Currently most web browsers will support sRGB color profile accurately. Assigning a color profile can be easily done using Photoshop. First open the image you would like to color manage. Once the image is open select edit>Assign Profile and choose sRGB click ok. Finally choose edit > convert to profile and under the destination choices again choose the sRGB option. Save your images for the web and WAMO say good bye to unwanted color fades.

home again

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Glad to be back home in the Mad city. On my trip I completed reading the site point book The Principle of Beautiful Web Design. I found this book to be a good refresher of basic design theory I had taken in college but had forgotten or was out of practice with. I found that much of the design theory was good and really enjoyed the color theory segment. This book is a good graphic design primer. It however is not much more then that. If you are a programmer looking for good practical advice on design then pick it up and help make the web a more attractive place.