Wayne Allen's Weblog : Personal

Screaming Yellow Duc

Wayne Allen — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Yes another motorcycle post.

After riding the other bikes this summer there was just something missing from the KLX 250. Primarily my wife. We were both missing the enjoyment of heading out for an hour or two on the weekends or a warm evening riding tandem. We know this might be an issue we we purchased the KLX, but figured we'd save up some money and deal with it next summer.

Fast forward to the present. I'm hanging around the dealership waiting for the service department to put some new tires on the KLX. The showroom is completely dead and I didn't bring anything to occupy my time, so I'm wandering around admiring the bikes. One of the salesmen strikes up a conversation as they are likely to do. Eventually he gets around to asking me what kind of bike I'd be interested in if I was really looking.

I'm honest with him. I say I'd be interested in something for riding 2 up. I've been here a few times and know they don't really have much in that category, but I've got time to kill and salesmen always have a bunch of good stories. He takes me through their limited inventory - a FJR, and a Concours. Both are nice bikes, but I'm not really into buying new off the showroom floor.

He detects my lack of real interest and asks what I'd really want. I say I'd be really interested in a Ducati ST4, knowing that the local Ducati dealer has this market pretty wrapped up. To my amazement he says hesitantly I think we have one of those.

I'm stunned for a moment. Then I come back to my senses. Most Ducatis are sports bikes, not touring bikes, it is extremely doubtful they really have what I'm looking for. Nevertheless I follow him outside where some of the used bikes are on display.

We walk down the line of bikes and by this time I'm not expecting much, but then I see it. A 2001 Ducati ST2 in yellow! Now ideally I would love to have on in Ducati red, but at this point I don't really care to much. It has only 5,500 miles and the price is reasonable, but not amazing. I hem and haw. He asks me how much I'd be willing to pay. I tell him a ridiculously low number. At this point he reveals that it is a consignment bike and if I want we can write up an offed. What the heck, I've got time to spare and worse case I go home with nothing.

While we're writing up the offer my wife shows up (she was going to take the old, but still serviceable KLX tires home). I give her the tour and the salesguy finds the key so we can listen to it. It sounds fantastic with the Fast By Ferracci carbon fiber pipes on it. She is excited, I'm excited. We talk, we decide how much we'd really be willing to pay. The salesman comes back with a counter offer and is willing give up the consignment fees.

We now own a nice yellow 2001 Ducati ST2.

The next weekend wasn't so nice but a few of us went for a ride anyways. We got wet, but had fun just the same.

Interestingly each one of us owns a different kind a bike, a standard, a cruiser, a dual sport and a sports bike.

Another New Bike

Wayne Allen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:56:00 GMT

Previously I posted about my new V-Strom which is a nice bike. However, after taking it on something more difficult than gravel roads and compared to my wife's Honda CRF150 I knew I needed something much lighter, more dirt oriented, but could still be ridden on the street.

After much research I initially narrowed it down to the Kawasaki KLR 650, Honda RX650L and the Suzuki DR650. The KTM and BMW were out of the picture because of cost. My lingering concern was the weight of the 650s.

So what did I buy? A Kawasaki KLX250S!.

Why did you buy such a small bike after owning (and enjoying) those liter street bikes? Well, basically it was time spent riding the CRF150. I knew that the 250 would be able to take me anywhere I wanted to go, and it easily does the legal speed limit. What more do you need? (well actually I'm saving my pennies for a Ducati ST4 for my wife and I to do 2-up riding.)

New Bike!

Wayne Allen — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:47:00 GMT

I haven't posted much about my enjoyment of motorcycles, but yesterday I took the next step in my ongoing series of motorcycle experiences.

My new bike is a 2005 Suzuki DL1000 otherwise known at the V-strom. I'm looking forward to getting to know it a lot better. The previous owner put a lot of aftermarket farkles on it including heated grips (incredibility useful as it was 40F on the way home) and a custom seat which seems great so far.

For the last few years I've been riding this 1998 Ducati ST2, which has been a wonderful bike, but as I get older the position gets more uncomfortable the longer I go. And lets just say it is a tad expensive to maintain.

Back in the day I rode one of these to and from work. Things have sure changed.

Do You Twitter?

Wayne Allen — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:22:00 GMT

I've decided to try out this twitter thing. Follow me.

I will be speaking on continuous integration at Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Summit October 9-12 2006

Wayne Allen — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:16:00 GMT

One of the fundamental practices of agile software development is continuous integration. CI in its simplest form is about building your software reliably. The secret sauce of CI is that it decreases the size of the feedback loop allowing you to respond to problems sooner. Come explore how to add more information to your feedback loop through advanced topics such as testing, installers, static analysis, 3rd party and internal dependancies. We'll not only be looking at the good stuff, but alternatives and problems that can creep in.

http://www.pnpsummit.com/west2006.aspx

HanselMinutes #4

Wayne Allen — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:04:00 GMT

Scott Hanselman has started a podcast called HanselMinutes to talk tools and utilities. Episode #4 on Continuous Integration caught my attention because of 2 names mentioned during the discussion of the Ruby Watir library. Both Dustin Woodhouse and Travis Illig got mentioned because of tools they have written to integrate the Watir functionality at development or test time. Travis wrote RubyTestExecutor which hooks Ruby/Watir scripts up with NUnit. Dustin wrote WatirNUt which is a utility that creates a portable, testable NUnit binary wrapper around Watir test scripts and supporting files.

These two individuals and their tools are interesting to me because they both work on teams I manage and I'm excited to see my guys pushing the envelope.

Scott was also kind enough to mention me as one of the local XP experts (my 30 seconds of podcast fame).

Published in Cutter IT Journal

Wayne Allen — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 00:06:00 GMT

My article on peer reviews has finally been published by Cutter IT Journal. Unfortunately a subscription is required to view it. I'm working on making it available freely.

You know you're a geek when...

Wayne Allen — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 17:05:00 GMT

You record the Superbowl on the PVR so you can watch the commercials, but your wife makes you watch some of the plays...

[grid::fatherhood]

Wayne Allen — Fri, 17 Dec 2004 16:39:00 GMT

Q: What advice would you have liked to receive when you were a new or expectant father?

The biggest surprise for me as a new father was that I would give up so much of my "personal" time to do kid and family stuff. Actually the surprise wasn't that I gave it up, but that I don't miss it. Being a father was so much more rewarding that now I wonder what I spent all that time doing.

So my advise is: don't worry about all the things you might have to give up and spend the time with your family, you won't regret it.

(It is all Tim Bacon's and Dave Hoover's idea)

Customer Experience and Customer Expectations

Wayne Allen — Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:05:00 GMT

I recently had a conversation with my cell phone carrier that went something like this:

Me: Hello, my phone sometimes won't receive calls until I power it off and then on again even though I am in a location where I receive calls all the time.

Rep: I see. How many times per day do you turn your phone off and on again?

Me: Unless I have to, I never turn my phone off.

Rep: I think you should turn your phone off and then on again at least 3-4 times per day.

Me: (incredulous) 3-4 times per day! Why?

Rep: The longer your phone stays within 1 cell tower the lower your signal strength gets. When you power your device on and off it re-registers you on the network and increases your signal strength.

Me: (still incredulous) Shouldn't the system take care of that? Why should staying near 1 tower cause me to not receive calls?

Rep: You should do it 3-4 times per day and that should solve your problems.

Me: I understand what you're saying, but I don't think this is a reasonable solution.

Rep: (exasperated) Do you leave your computer on all the time or do you shut it down?

Me: Actually I leave it on 24 hours a day.

Rep: But don't you find that it slows down the longer you leave it on? Its kind of like that.

Me: (several seconds of befuddled silence trying to decide how deep I should get into this)

Me: Yes, I see what you are trying to say, but do you think that is the way things should be?

Rep: Is there anything else I can help you with?

Me: No thanks.

Rep: Thanks for using T-Mobile

<click>

So rather than commiserating with me about this unfortunate “feature“ and telling me why this might happen. (I'm guessing this allows more phones per tower or something like that) she tries to tell me some lame story about another industry that has had a poor customer experience. As if that justifies what she is telling me. I expect my phone to work without “rebooting“ it every 2 hours. My expectation is that it works the same as my land line. I know that technologically they don't have anything in common except a speaker and a microphone, but that is my expectation. And normally my expectation is met, which is why I'm frustrated by this issue.