欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

No PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz to be auctioned!

I was hoping to bid for this PowerBook G4 Titanimum 1 GHz successfully. The auction was supposed to end on Wednesday evening but I found that it had been cancelled by the seller. Why?

Oh well. It is OK. No harm done, anyway.

So I thought. Actually it did but it returned.

One or two days later the PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz came back.

I don't know why it had been cancelled and why it came back.

Should I bid for it? Yes, I will.

Paris - Roubaix 2021

It is happening on this coming Sunday. I will check out the course and probably drive there to watch the race.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Auction cancelled and the returned - Paris-Roubaix 2021]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/09/29(水) 23:20:28|
2. MacBooks and Macs
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PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz

It is also recognized as A1025. It is the last version of Titanium G4 PowerBook that came out in 2002 (or around). After this the design and the material changed.

Titanium was a corrosion resistant metal normally considered superior to Aluminum. It is also stronger than Aluminum.

Apple adopted this material but soon regretted that it needed painting over the material. Aluminum when properly surface-processed looks more beautiful cosmetically than Titanium.

Anyway, when I was looking for PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) models on eBay in 2019, I found these G4 Titanium models and liked them. Naturally I looked for cosmetically decent and functional models at lower prices on eBay. I could not find one or I could but could not win the auction.

I did not spend too much money on them. I let the auctions pass when the bid was over my budget limit.

Now, two years later, I have an eye on a model which works and cosmetically decent (not pristine of course as it is already almost 20 years old by now).

It needs some upgrades to be practical like an SSD, a US keyboard or an AirPort card. It has already has 1 GB of memory inside. Getting parts for it would be not so easy but not impossible.

Wish me luck!

Selmer Sopranino Saxophone Ligature

A ligature is a clamp that clips on the mouthpiece and fixes the reed to the mouthpiece. A ligature was traditionally made of soft metal such as brass or something, I believe.

There are other types of ligatures on the market.

Anyway, I just ordered one for my Sopranino Sax. It is a Selmer's basic model or the only model currently available.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [PowerBook G4 Titanium 1 GHz and others]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/09/27(月) 18:37:55|
2. MacBooks and Macs
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Death of the HDD inside one of my PowerBook G4 models?

It has been a while since I last turned them on. I have three PowerBook G4 15-inch (last generation) models with me. I think two of them have 1.5 GHz CPUs and the other one has 1.67 GHz CPU inside.

One of them came with no HDD inside so it is not operational. It could boot from one of the OS installation discs. I know it is functional.

Today (September 26, 2021) I turned one of them on just for fun. At first it was OK but after a while (30 minutes or so) it stopped to work. The clock inside the menu bar was working but it seemed that the OS stalled.

I tried to force-reboot by pressing the power button for a while. It rebooted but the Apple logo never appeared. It seemed that the HDD had just died. It could boot later.

Anyway, I am writing this on the third PowerBook G4 (1.67 GHz) model. It is functional but the USB ports can only supply enough power to read and write USB memory sticks. They don't (USB ports) spin external drives that relies the USB port for power. It can read and write from external disks that take power from other sources.

When I have time, I will repair them (now two not booting ones) and use as much as I can. They are wonderful machines.

TenFourFox Feature Parity Release 32

It has been a while since they announced that they would stop the development. It is sad but I greatly appreciate their (developers) efforts to support the software up until then.

If the last version of TenFourFox can not be useful (some new features begin hinder it like new features of secure connection), I may have to turn to Linux.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [PowerBook G4 and TenFourFox]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2021/09/26(日) 22:30:34|
2. MacBooks and Macs
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Loctite 243

I drove to a local store called Hornbach (I believe a Germany based company) to get Loctite 243 instead of getting one from Amazon Germany. I compared the prices on both Amazon Germany and Hornbach's site and found out the price at the local Hornbach was lower.

I found it after looking for it for a while as I did not know where they were located. Hornbach is a huge warehouse style store. I have been there many times.

I found it and bought it. I needed it for fixing (installing) the Power2Max powermeter on the bike (it gets between the spider arm and the crank).

NinjaBatt High Performance Laptop Batteries

It arrived. I put it in my Compaq (HP) Presario CQ56. On Linux (Xubuntu 21.04) it is recognized (Power Manager) like this.




Cycplus (Cadence / Speed) sensor

I was surprised to find a tiny device in also a tiny box. All the photos that carried the image of the product had no reference images in them. In other words, all the images that I saw gave me no idea how big the sensor was. It turned out to be a very small thin piece.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Loctite 243, NinjaBatt, Cycplus sensor and etc.]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車（スポーツ用） - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2021/09/06(月) 21:05:35|
2. Diary
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Benelux Tour 2021 - the last stage

I know Namur and I have been there several times and even stayed there (at a camping ground near Namur). It is part of French-speaking Belgium closer to Luxembourg.

The name Geraardsbergen was not so familiar to me. It is part of Dutch-speaking (Flemish) Belgium.

I left for Geraardsbergen around 8 O'clock with Hannah in my beloved Mazda MX-5. The road (mostly quiet - not so many cars because it is a Sunay morning) was smooth and Hannah was also relaxed.

I drove into the boundary of Geraardsbergen and following the guidance of my trusty Garmin Camper 660 I drove closer to the "Centre" of the town, which was indicated on a sign.

The sight was somewhat familiar to me and I was almost convinced that I have been here before. As I came to the center of the town (frequently name "Markt" squared by high tower churches and old buildings hosting bars and restaurants), I knew where I was.

"I have been here many times, around 5 or 6 times before." Why has the name Geraardsbergen been sunk into my mind? I knew the area already. It is the town that hosts the famous cobble stone climb of "Muur". The famous section of the climb has been renovated and has become pretty.

I was there around 11:20 AM (Sunday, September 5). I found a nice parking spot (free on Sundays and holidays) near the Markt (Market) square. I wanted to take a look at the climb before the race came or people gather so I took Hannah and walked up the climb. There was already people sitting at the tables in front of those cafes and bars in the square. There was already "Lotto Village" (a VIP area cafe / bar hosted by Lotto, one of the main sponsors) in the middle of the square.

I walked up the climb passing the church and then some houses to the top, where that famous chapel was. Not so many people were on the climb. I saw some riders riding up and down. Super 8 was a brand of beer that had been heavily pushed. There was a small temporary Super 8 bar on top of the climb alongside the chapel. I took time to look around the climb.

Several people were charmed by Hannah. People talked to me saying that they adored cats or if they could pet her. There were many dogs (from exotic think small dogs to fluffy dogs) in the area but Hannah was the only cat (as long as I could see) there. One of those people, women said that she adored cats and had two at home but they were staying home while she and her husband came to enjoy the event.

Yes, I knew (know). Not too many cats travel with their owners. Hannah is perfectly OK with car traveling and playing in the green. On the other hand, she is not so happy with the sight of crowd.

I came down back to the square and took a seat at a bar. I wanted to try a particular kind of beer which I got to know many years ago while driving in Belgium. ENAME is the name. When a sign (on a hanging over a small bar along the road) My first reaction when I caught a glimpse of it in the corner of my eyes (I was driving) was, "WTF?".

"ENEMA?" I took a second look at it and understood that it was spelt slightly differently and was a brand of beer.

I had known it for years but never tried it until then. I had time to kill until the race came so I sat under the big bar parasol carrying the ENAME logo standing in front of a small bar among other bars carrying other brands.

I ordered ENAME without pronouncing the name but instead mumbling the word and at the same time pointing the big ENAME logo on the parasol above me. The woman (seemingly the co-owner of the bar - maybe the other owner was an old man who seemed to be her husband?) clearly said, "Eh-Nah-Mah" just like an English speaker would say "ENEMA".

OK, so it was pronounced by the local (at least by the Flemish people) like that!

It came in a pretty glass (somewhat low brandy glass-like shape) iced well so that its stem and the food area came with layer of frost. It was a clear pilsner (blonde) did not how much alcohol content it had but according to my poor taste (I drink very little amount of alcohol - like 2 liters of beer in one year or so), I thought it had "double" alcohol content typically around 6 % of alcohol. I enjoyed it.

The owner couple (so I judged) and people around me liked Hannah. They came to pet her. She was an unwilling idol of the day. She does not like the crowd and kept crouching low on my lap.

I was also happy to see people like the sight of cats.

EF Education - NIPPO Fumiyuki BEPPU

I was on the renovated bank of the famous section of the climb directly down the chapel. Many people came to see the race but we were in perfect peace. Cycling sport does not attract hooligans. There was a bar / restaurant nearby and they set up a bar in the front yard with a big screen TV behind the mobile bar.

People (Dutch-speaking locals and visiting Dutch people / French-speaking Belgians) seemed to be enjoying the event in peace.

After the race I went to the place where soigneurs met the finishers and gave them needed drinks. I could talk to Mr. Beppu who had known me well.

It was worth driving for 260 km (one way) over to Belgium to see the race.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Benelux Tour the last stage (Namur - Geraardsbergen)]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車ロードレース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2021/09/06(月) 18:32:27|
2. Bike Races in Belgium
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