欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記 2023年05月

Finally it arrived

It arrived finally
May 31, 2023 6:14am Out for Delivery
May 31, 2023 6:11am Arrived at Post Office
May 31, 2023 6:08am Customs Clearance Processing Complete

** May 30, 2023 11:45am Processed Thruogh Facility **

I was tracking it periodically and swear that until around 16:00 (May 31, 2023 or 4 O'clock in the afternoon = 4:00P.M.) the tracking information remained as the bottom line ** May 30, ... **.

I was home until 10:30 or so when I wanted to shop at the supermarket briefly. I was away around 40 minutes or so. I came home and found the notice slip from the Post Office that I missed a delivery.

If I had known (but I could not have known as the tracking information was never updated much later in the afternoon) that the package was out for delivery, I could have stayed home and waited.

I have to pay a visit to the local post office to pick it up Tomorrow (June 1st).

The tracking information was updated several hours later than the actual time of actions.

Now it arrived almost. The package was shipped May 4th, 2023 and it took almost a month to come here.

Streamlight Stinger Collection
1. Ultra Stinger (354,145) Eagleville, PA (not made in USA)
2. Stinger (1,593,844) Eagleville, PA (ditto)
3. Stinger HP (038,994) Eagleville, PA MADE IN USA
4. Stinger (002,610) ??

Prime factoring of Serial Numbers
354,145 = 5 x 11 x 47 x 137
1,593,844 = 2 x 2 x 7 x 56,923
38,994 = 2 x 3 x 67 x 97
2,610 = 2 x 3 x 3 x 5 x 29

I have 1. and 2. by me and they are just fine. 3. and 4. are on their way to me from the United States of America. I know 3. is now somewhere on the Continent (European, that is).

I don't know what letters are etched
on the bottom cap. The ebay seller did not give that kind of photos so for the moment I have no idea what they are like. I am guessing that they are like Norristown, PA MADE IN USA.

I have already purchased one Stinger Classic LED upgrade kit and one Stinger Classic LED switch part, which includes the LED module.

In other words, if I add the Stinger Classic LED "reflector" and something insignificant small part, I can recreate the Stinger Classic LED upgrade kit.

I bought these at the time of purchase of 1. and 2. as I wanted to upgrade 2. and see if the switch module can produce usable beam out of 1. The swich module itself should fit inside the Ultra Stinger.

Now I (am about to) have two other Stingers, I will be ready to compare the beam patters of them.

I want to know,
a. if the beam patters of Ultra Stinger and Stinger HP are identical (or at least similar).

b. how the Stinger Classic LED module work with the reflectors of Ultra Stinger and Stinger HP.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Finally it arrived]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Broadcom combo card not working?

Streamlight Stinger HP's tracking info

May 30, 2023 11:45am Processed Through Facility
May 27, 2023 7:43pm Departed
May 27, 2023 5:42pm Departed ZURICH

Is it not working? Broadcom BT/WiFi combo card
For some time, I have been using wired connection (Ethernet cable plugged into my WiFi modem/router) with my Compaq Presario CQ56. The cable connection works well and is very stable.

I have not used the WiFi/BT combo card since installation. Today I did and found out that it was not working well.

This combo card seems to require a proprietary driver from Broadcom. The old card (only WiFi) did not need any additional driver but worked well with the Open Source driver.

So now I took out the combo card and put the old card in. It now works well.

So I have to conclude that the combo card does not work well even with the proprietary driver from Broadcom. Is it the driver that failed or the card is not supported by Compaq Presario CQ56?

I found this article.
(https://www.cpumedics.com/hp-657325-001-broadcom-bcm94313hmgb-bcm4313-802-11n-2-4ghz-wireless-lan-wifi-bluetooth-4-0-combo-half-mini-pci-e-card/)

In this article, compatible notebook PCs' names are listed in lenght but the list was missing Compaq Presario CQ56 series notebook PCs. I missed it by one model number: CQ57 yes but CQ56 no.

The list contained the names below (Compaq PCs).

Compaq Presario CQ43-300 Notebook PC series
Compaq Presario CQ43-400 Notebook PC series
Compaq Presario CQ57-200 Notebook PC series
Compaq Presario CQ57-300 Notebook PC series
Compaq Presario CQ57-400 Notebook PC series

I also found other articles that suggested that BCM94313 had problems working under Linux. This newer sibling of BCM4313 had been used for newer HP/Compaq notebook PCs with the same part number as an upgrade.

The combo card that I purchased from the UK carries a sticker on the plastic bag "600370-001 WIFI CARD HP DV6" printed. And HP DV6 series notebook PCs are on the compatible list.

I don't say this combo card did not work with the proprietary driver. At one point the Bluetooth did found my Android phone and got paired (with number authentication).

The WiFi function, however, seemed to be non-working. This BRD94313 card (with later revisions) existed since 2012 or 2013.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Broadcom combo card not working?]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

Houston, the Eagle has landed!

The eagle has landed - Zurich, Switzerland

May 27, 2023 5:42pm Departed Zurich
May 26, 2023 2:50pm Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending

So now (May 28, 2023) I know that the freight airplain landed first in Zurich, Switzerland. Then the package was relayed to another plain or continued on board the same plain to an EU country, where USPS (or its affliate Asendia) has a facility.

"The eagle has landed" mention comes from the famous saying (expression) from the end of 1960's and later it became associated with the sense of "Mission completed".

Here I meant the soon-to-be-mine Streamlight Stinger HP (, which has etched writing ".. EAGLEville, PA.." landed on the same continent where I live. The mission (to reach me) has not yet completed but it is almost there.

I knew this expression for a long time but I did not know where it came from. So I searched for the origin.

(https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/space/mission-moon/article/The-Eagle-has-landed-and-other-famous-14028507.php)

The saying was first made popular when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon for the first time alongside Buzz Aldrin. He said, “The Eagle has landed,” to tell NASA Mission Control Center that the pair had made a safe trip to the moon on July 20, 1969. Millions of people around the world watched the historic landing.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Houston, the Eagle has landed!]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Latest in Luxembourg

Chicago, Illinois and then where to?

May 24, 2023 8:03pm Arrived at USPS Regional Facility Chicago, IL
May 25, 2023 1:25pm Arrived Chicago, IL
May 25, 2023 7:15pm Departed Chicago, IL
May 26, 2023 2:50pm Shipment Received, Package Acceptance Pending

Remember that this package has been transferred to Asendia USA days ago and a new tracking number (not USPS format) has been issued. What is a regional facility?

Then, it moved to unspecified place in Chicago, IL, supposedly the O'Hare International Airport and then departed from there.

It came to a totally unspecified place and was received and waiting to be accepted (supposedly into EU) territory.

Am I assuming too much? I assume the date in the last time is already in European time zone.

Broadcom BCM94313HMGB 600370-001
The first part is the part identifier? of Broadcom and the last part is the HP/Compaq part number.

This is the "combo" card that has two functions, WiFi and Bluetooth. According to the HP/Compaq maintenance PDF manual, the Bluetooth revision is

Broadcom 4313 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Combo adapter (BT3.0+HS ready)
HP/Compaq Part # 600370-001

Did it work out of the box? The answer was "No" but it was extremely easy to get it to work. I installed the driver for it. In my case (Lubuntu 23.04), I let the "Additional Drivers" do its work. Broadcom provides its driver software for it but it is not part of open source software, i.e. it is proprietary. I chose to use it.

After installation, Bluetooth began to work. It worked fine.

(image: before choosing the proprietary driver)

(image: after choosing and applying the driver)

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Latest in Luxembourg]の続きを読む

Silent treatment part II and an ebay seller

The silent treatment Part II
I got an update! The Stinger HP is now located (at a facility of this transport agent) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The tracking info says it reached there late in the evening of May 23rd (Illinois time).

It took 5 days to move from Glendale Heights to Elk Grove Village within Illinois. Hurray!

According to Wikipedia (as I was very curious about the location), it hosts a big business park just next to O'Hare International Airport.

I am now confident to announce that it will fly from there (O'Hare) to here to an airport in Europe.

After the grounding it will, I hope, be promptly delivered to me or not (hahaha).

Come to Daddy, my Stinger HP!

Should I change it?

To change or not to change, that is not the question.

I am now pondering whether I should change or not change (leave it as it is) the ebay evaluation feedback that I made a while ago. This ebay seller requested (I did not know this kind of measure existed) me to change the evaluation. You know what?

In my thinking the question is to leave or to change it worse.

This ebay seller sold me an old notebook PC (Compaq Presario CQ56 made in 2010 or 2011) and I was not totally happy about it so I left a moderate evaluation feedback not to offend this person. Now this person wants a second chance. Pathetic! Pathetic because she/he had clearly seen it coming. I tell you guys why.

Here are the facts and the truth.

1. This old one was listed as "used" and in the brief description it was written "in working condition".

It was not in working condition. It shut itself down after a short usage due to overheating. I later found out that the fibrous material (hair, fibers from clothes, blanket or others) on the radiator fins blocked the air flow o from blowing outside properly. It overheated so easily. Should this be considered "in working condition"?

2. The description did not mention that broken "P" keytop.

It was simply not attached (some small parts missing?). In one or two of her/his own description pictures, the conspicuously shiny "P" keytop is clearly seen. I did not break it but it had been broken. She/he might have tried to fix it and touched it so much so many times resulting the well rubbed keytop surface. She/he can not deny it.

3. In one of the description pictures a Windows 7 authentication product key sticker is clearly shown.

It was there then (when the picture was taken). I don't have the sticker there. It must have been peeled off by the seller. Not me, my dear fellows! The description did not tell me that the sticker would be removed by the time I received it.

In my modest evaluation I only mentioned fact No.1 without going into the details and I left relatively high score (3 to 5 stars! depending on the criteria, communication, shipping charge, quick shipping or else).

What does she/he want by requesting a second evaluation. The reason for reconsideration she/he wrote was something in the line that I should not expect too much as the PC was old.

It has nothing to do with the item's oldness, it has everything with the fraudulent conduct of the seller.

So if I decided to grant her/his (is the person which or what?) wish, my only choice would be changing it for the worse or leaving it as it was.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Silent treatment part II and an ebay seller]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Silent treatment from the 90's

My original Compaq Presario CQ56 (AMD V160) mainboard
This piece was written before the previous entry.

Now this one has been kinda resurrected. The case, LCD and most of the components are still not in use but the CPU and the mainboard is now operating inside the body that came from the UK (originally with an AMD V140 inside).

I swapped the mainboards.

This mainboard had a small problem. I almost forgot about it. It developed some symptom after a year or so after it came into my possession. The symptom was related to some video noises. I did not know at that time if that video distortion was caused by the defect on the LCD, video chip on board the mainboard or something in between (loose connectors or heat generated by the CPU).

The symptom was video distortion and it was somewhat alleviated when I put pressure around the area around the power button (and it turned out recently that it was acutally the area where the video chip, connector and the cable were). At that time I did not know where the video chip (or its connector to the LCD) was until I operated on the mainboard just recently.

I put the mainboard along with the CPU and booted it for the first time, the image on the screen (the LCD panel that came from the UK) had weird noises and it lasted for a while. I thought I had not put the connector correctly and that was the cause. A moment later I remembered that this mainboard did have some problems before.

This distortion (or vertical red lines and red bluriness / white color turns into water color) disappeared after a while. I opened up the body and checked the connector and put it back.

The video distortion did not go away. It appeared from time to time with less frequency and the distortion level was improbed. It does not bother me too much as the screen image is clear most of the time.

The mainboard seems to have some minor defect maybe but it is still operational. The defect was within the mainboard and not outside it as the only pieces transferred into this body were the CPU and the mainboard. Most likely the soldering defect between the GPU chip and the mainboard.

So when I find the missing-in-action AMD N370, I will use the mainboard that originally came with V140 from the UK as it appears to have no issues. This mainboard seeming to have some video issues will be sidelined and remain as a spare part.

Another silent treatment?

I remember learning this expression back in 1992 (or maybe 1993) when I was living in the United States of America.

I vaguely remember I learned it from Roseanne (sitcom). I attended an English School then and one of the class used the recorded TV material to get the students interested in the material. I vaguely remember Becky (or Darlene?) complaining about being given it or something like that.

Anyway, I learned a lot (English language skills) from watching TV shows. My favorites were Cheers, Beverly Hills 90210, Mad About You, LA Law, Friends, Seinfeld and SNL.

This expression suddenly came to my mind as I checked on the the Stinger HP that I bought from the USA. It was shipped on May 4th and it soon arrived at a shipping hub in Glendale Heights, Illinois on May 8th. The tracking information never got updated until May 18th when the package was handed down to another agent from USPS. Another tracking number was issued subsequently. This was the first "silent treatment" for me from USPS.

Today, May 23rd I checked on it and the situation was the same. This was the second on-going silent treatment.

From the beginning, the expected delivery date was June 13th and the shipping charges were really low. So I don't complain about this silent treatment but I am rather amused by it now. I can write about the suspence and the building anxiety caused by this tracking information.

Would it make it by June 13th? I will see and keep you guys (nobody, I know) informed.

I want to the cat wheel

I want it and it is very expensive if I buy one from Amazon Germany.

I would like to make it on my own. I was watching some YouTube videos explaining how to make it.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Silent treatment from the 90's]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

AMD Athlon II N370 has been found

A present for Hannah!

Hannah is 4 years old now. She was born in April 2019. I did not celebrate her birthday this year so I feel bad about not doing anything for her.

I am going to buy something for her. My humble small room has a big window (Height 1.2 and Width 2.4 meters?) overlooking the wall of the house next door.

The gap is modestly big and not facing the street. It is a gap behind the garage (, which of course faces the street). The other side of the garage is a kind of wall. It is not a wall of houses but of tall vertical cliff. So it is a closed yard. This area is a very hilly place.

I want to hang a hanging bed there like this below. My beloved Hannah can doze off while looking outside and breezing the fresh air without being disturbed by passers-by.

(image: from the Amazon Germany seller)

I got it!

I found the AMD Athlon II N370 that I bought 2 years ago!

It was just under my nose not literally but metaphorically of course. I found it anyway.

I put it on the mainboard which originally came with the V140. I then put the mainboard inside the machine which had the V160 inside.

Now I had a complete machine with AMD Athlon II N370.

I ran it and let CPU-X monitor the N370.

It was easy to see that it ran much cooler than the V140 or V160.

When I played some H264 mp4 file, the CPU load was around 20 % but the core speed kept changing from 800, 1,500 to 2,500 MHz. I did not remember seeing the V140 or V160 showing 1,500 MHz. The temperature rose up to 55 degrees Celsius.

I had to run some of the benchmark tests to warm it up. When the CPU resources were used up, the temperature got over 70 degrees Celsius as the image below showed. Still the temperature fell quickly as soon as the tests exited. Very nice!

N370 is cooler than V160!

(image 1: CPU-X under almost no load)

(image 2: CPU-X under heavy load - above 70 degrees Celsius)

(image 3: system info and benchmark test program)

(image 4: I used these benchmark test to make the CPU heat up)

New addition to the family?

Welcome to the family! Which family? Do I have a family? If I did, I was not aware of one.

Well, I am talking about the Compaq Presario CQ56 notebook PC family.

***** A side note *****
Now I own two of them.

1. The original one that someone gave me in 2020 (AMD Athlon II V160). Its LCD was damaged by me by accident.

2. The second machine that I bought in 2023 (AMD Athlon II V140). I wanted to resurrect No.1 and sought for a possible parts donator and I got this.

No.1 and No.2 became one with the N370 CPU inside.
***** End *****

I was watching this item on ebay for a short while as, I guess, it was set on a short term auction. I was interested as the shipping charges were low (from the neighboring country, Germany) and the starting bid price was low (around 1.5 Euro?). It had an Intel dual core Pentium on it and seemed to work at least it booted normally to show the machine information on the screen.

It was missing some parts to be complete, namely, a HDD (along with its caddy with various fixing screws) and the lid (also the screws) to seal its (HDD) compartment.

I pondered the cost of buying the caddy. It can be done away with if I tape the HDD on the case, very cruel quick fix but still effective.

It doesn't come with the power adapter but I don't need another power adapter as I already had two of them.

The lid along and tiny screws should be obtained preferably.

It comes with 3 GB of RAM, which means that its two memory slots are filled with one 1 GB module and one 2 GB one.

Let me excuse myself for this purchase. I had not bidden* if it had single core Celeron on it. I bade* because it had the "top-of-the-line" dual core CPU.
(I had to check the conjugation of "bid" in the dictionary to be sure)

Compaq Presario CQ56 Series was supposed to be budget-friendly notebook PCs. So they were not as powerful as other premium notebook PCs.

Specifications of the CPU and others
What is Intel Pentium T4500 (dual core 2.3 GHz)? According to the screen display (as shown by the ebay seller), it is equipped with 2.3 GHz dual-core Pentium. So it must be a Pentium T4500 as the PDF manual stipulates.

On the surface it looks similar to AMD counterparts with 45 nm process and 35 Watts TDP.

This seems to be the fasted CPU among the available Intel CPUs for this notebook PC.

Compaq (or HP) had 4 Intel processors for this notebook PC:
1. Intel Mobile Celeron 925 (2.3 GHz)
2. Intel Celeron 900 (2.2 GHz)
3. Intel Pentium T4500 (2.3 GHz)
4. Intel Celeron T3500 (2.1 GHz)

The first two of them are single core CPUs while the last two ones are dual core CPUs.

They (the lower two) are almost identical in every way on the spec sheets. The only differences I found were two lines in the long spec sheets.

3. (Enhanced SpeedStep) yes
Clock multiplier 10.5

4. (Enhanced SpeedStep) no
Clock multiplier 10

Upon arrival, it is absolutely necessary to disassemble it and get rid of the fiber clogging on the radiator fins inside the cooling fan housing. I'm very curious how the Intel CPU handles the challenge of my AMD CPU models, speed-wise and heat-generation-wise.

I'll try first to get it to run with some parts donation from other CQ56s and see how it runs and how it heats up and then only after then I will perform the dissection. This way it is possible to ascertain the heat dissipation issues that the clogged radiator fins inflicts. A dramatic reduction of temperature would amuse me if I could accomplish it.

Except for the CPU and its supporting chipset, they (AMD and Intel versions) are almost identical. They should perform equally more or less.

I'll see which CPU will be superior.

AMD CPUs were not known for their superior performance but rather for their price/performance (less powerful but cheaper) appeal until late 2010's when they introduced Ryzen CPUs. Then they made the reverse price/performance appeal (more powerful yet cheaper) in the market especially among self-builders. I don't know if the big PC manufacturers adopted more of them (AMD processors) than they had before.

****** A few weeks earlier ******
Back while I was amusing myself searching for a cheap Presario CQ56 for a possible parts donation candidate, I encountered many Intel single core Celeron models.

I knew they were much like AMD V140 models and would score poorly on benchmark tests. I knew it was possible to replace the single core Celeron with the more capable dual core Pentium.

I thought at that time that Celeron T3500 was a single core CPU.

I learned (by searching on ebay) that used Intel CPUs (Pentium T4500) were more expensive than used AMD counterparts (Athlon II N370) and this made me wonder whether Intel CPUs were far more powerful or just if they were far more sought after causing the used price higher.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [AMD Athlon II N370 has been found]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

After 10 days of inactivity

After 10 days of silence
My (soon to be mine) Streamlight Stinger HP left some undisclosed location in California on May 4th, 2023 and arrived at some USPS shipping facility on May 8th. I was watching the movement since it was sent.

After arriving there, it stopped. I was hoping to see it fly over here but the tracking information got never updated until Yesterday (May 18th).

It finally turned over to another transporting agent and another tracking number was issued. So this new agent is now in charge.

I was puzzled after four or five days of silence. I was worried after one week. Now I know that it is in motion again, I can sleep in peace.

Why did it remain there for ten days? I don't know why. I knew that the shipping method was not "express" as the shipping charge that the seller asked was very resonable. USPS was looking for the agent to take care of the low profit package.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [After 10 days of inactivity]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

AMD Athlon V140 vs V160

AMD Athlon II V140 vs V160

Now I swapped the mainboards of old (with broken LCD) CQ56 and newly acquired CQ56.

So now the functional Compaq Presario CQ56 has an AMD Athlon II V160 (2400 MHZ instead of V140 2300MHz) on it. The room temperature could be different from that of the last CPU temperature test (within 4 to 5 degrees Celsius maximum?) but I could still see the difference.

The V160 was cooler at idle times and also under load. I post the images of screen shots (CPU-X at work).

As I guessed it right (or predicted), the low clocked V140 was hotter than higher clocked V160. This came not as surprise. This was perfectly natural for CPUs.

CPUs are made and tested. Only after the test, one will know if it (CPU) is well-made or defective. A tiny particle of dust can tamper the circuit and ruin the product.

If the CPU heats up easily, it will be used at lower frequency to stop it from overheating. This is the way the CPU's rated clock frequency is determined.

I guess single core Athlon II and dual core Athlon II CPUs are exactly the same physically. They were made as dual core CPUs but the defective (but still usable at lower clock) ones were jumpered to kill one of the cores and thus dubbed as single core CPUs and good ones were dubbed as dual core CPUs. The clock frequency attached to those CPUs was just an arbitrary number to keep them from overheating.

So this V140 that came to me from the UK was one of the worst off the production line. Anything inferior must have been destroyed and recycled right off the production line.

This V160 stays cool at 800 MHz (core speed) when it is doing nothing special.

This V160 stayed around 62 to 65 degrees Celsius when it was playing back an MP4 (H264) video with VLC. The core speed rose up to 2400 MHz when it was doing something.

The CPU temperature did not float up and down when it was doing anything special as the V140 did. The temperatures were stable.

Conclusion: It stayed cooler than the V140.

A new LCD is coming

I have to stop looking for CQ56 parts on ebay. It has been distracting me for a while. So I purchased an LCD so that I can repair the broken old one and put an end to the possible regeneration of this planarian flatworm.

A planarian flatworm is an avatar of regeneration in an animal life form. You can cut put some plant leaves and let them grow into full-fledged plants easily as some plants are really strong. It is not the case with most animals with a size that you can see with your naked eyes. (This naked eyes restriction excludes those amoebas or other microscopic life forms)

They (planarian flatworms) are tenacious and regenerate themselves from a tiny piece of their body.

Here I am not talking about biology but rather about my recent ebay shopping behavior of seeking used Compaq Presario CQ56 notebooks and regenerating them.

I had a CQ56 with a broken LCD screen and wanted to repair it. I ended up buying used one and still was left with this old one and the desire to fix it. If I buy another CQ56 for parts to repair the old one and repair it, I will be left with leftovers and so on.

So I will fix it and put an end to it. The only way to do it is get an LCD screen as a separate part and fix the machine. There will be no leftovers. Period!

I may want to buy a US-style keyboard as I touch-type. I may want to add some RAM to it but there won't be no regeneration. There will be peace of mind for me.

I specifically searched for the LCD and found a UK seller with low shipping charges. I ordered one.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[AMD Athlon V140 vs V160]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

Oops I did it again.

Streamlight Stinger
I bought another Streamlight Stinger on ebay. I am a bit embarrassed. I have to stop.

My iPod touch (2nd Gen.) was stolen
I drove to work and parked my car. There was some trash (Supermarket parking entrance tickets and others) on the console so I took them to throw away. Then suddenly I noticed that the iPod touch (along with the cable) that was supposed to be lying under those paper stabs was missing.

How come? That was my first thought. The car was OK, no windows broken in or no door handles were tampered. How is it possible to lose an iPod touch inside a locked car?

My Mazda MX-5 is so setup that if I leave the car (once the car key is outside the car), it locks itself within 30 seconds automatically. So if I properly shut the doors, it stays locked all the time.

Yet the iPod touch is stolen. That means that I must have left the door ajar and the door failed to lock itself and someone took the advantage of the unlocked door.

I looked around and saw other compartments were OK. It seemed everthing else was OK.

Ouch! It's my fault. I am not going to report the theft to the Police. It is waste of time.

Within the last 6 months or so my iPhone 4 and iPad mini 2nd Gen. died. Now I don't have any portable Apple devices to carry the audiobooks that I purchased through iTunes.

I can not listen to Trump's America: The Truth about Our Nation's Great Comeback by Newt Gingrich in my car anymore unless I buy some Apple device.

Now I have to look for some used iPad mini or iPhone on ebay.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Oops I did it again.]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

2001 and 2010 were not like what depicted in these movies.

Some movies to watch

2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

2010 The Year We Make A Contact (1984)
Directed by Peter Hyams

Both of them based on the novels or stories by Arthur C. Clarke

2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)
I was sure that I had seen it. I did not remember when exactly I saw it. Probably a long time ago but not at the theater as I was just a baby when it first came out. I probably saw it aired on TV back in the time I was still in Japan. I did not remember the
whole plot or stories because the movie was largely not so eventful. And also because toward the end, it got more and more difficult to make sense out of the scenes.

The movie is so famous. I watched the film again repeated on my PC and this time I can pause, rewind (technically not rewinding as rewinding a VHS cassette in the 90's) and benefit from the subtitle to watch the film in details.

All I could remember from the earlier viewing experience was scenes where the apes beat something with a big piece of bone to death, HAL's glowing red eye watching the humans and the big baby seeming floating in the space. I don't have to mention the fact that everybody remembers the unforgettable loud classic music.

I have to remind me and, if there are any out there, the readers of the fact that the humans had not reached the Moon yet when the movie was being made or released.

Yet the scenes involving the space were so convincing.

Now after reading the synopsis (or plot) on Wikipedia after all these years (I think more than twenty some years have passed since I first saw this movie), I understand what I missed earlier and that the interpretation of the ending is not unanimous but divided.

The rebel or mutiny of HAL left a huge impact on later science fiction films, obviously. The computer that controls the space ship goes against the onboard crew. This plot repeatedly occurs in later films. Sometimes the computer is represented as an human-shaped robot or android but the idea is the same.

The other question (other than how do I interpret the ending?) is what the monolith is. What is it?

There are other movies and plots that suggest that our life came from outer source or that some outer source at least helped our life to evolve into what we are now. There are a whole bunch of science fiction movies with this particular plot.

In many movies the characters seek to return to the source or the outside help. I can list many movies like Prometheus, Mission to Mars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and others.

So I take the monolith a form of some extraterrestrial life form's intervention and nothing more.

2010 The Year We Make A Contact (1984)

I have definitely seen the sequel. This is the one that ends with two Suns in the sky.

I just wondered if it was not too hot. How does the new Sun (or lit-up Jupiter) interfer with our night and day scheme?

This movie was easier to watch. I did not remember scratching my head trying to make sense out of it.

In a way, this sequel was for the audience who were puzzled after seeing the first film and sought for some kind of explanation.

Stanley Kubrick was not interested in taking the role of directing the sequel. He was not interesting in giving explanations to those who did "get it" anyway.

The dramatic ending of it was more of comfort to those who did not get it but might have been too obvious to those who got it.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [2001 and 2010 were not like what depicted in these movies.]の続きを読む

テーマ:映画感想 - ジャンル:映画

A lot has happened to my Compaq Presario CQ56

One of those Linux distributions

I have always liked and used so-called Lightweight distributions. One of the reasons is that I have not owned powerful top-of-the-line expensive PCs so I thought heavyweight distributions wouldn't be preferable. In fact I usually bought bottom-of-the-line dirt cheap PCs or second-hand used ones.

I always preferred my desktop background pitch dark black and almost never put beautiful pictures on my desktop background. I prefer simple icons and less animation or quiet desktop environment.

I liked Lubuntu and used it for many years and had little desire to use Ubuntu or other pretty looking distributions.

I downloaded the snapshot ISO image on April 23rd while staying at the airbnb host's during the so-called Ardenne Classics week. I knew that the release of Ubuntu 23.04 was imminent but I downloaded it anyway thinking that I could update it anyway later.

Lubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster

I had to first tackle the problem. This notebook computer shut itself down after a short usage. I figured that the heat triggered the shutdown. Before I could install Lubuntu, I had to clean the inside of it. Anyway, ...

So now I am on Lubuntu Lunar Lobster. It was easy. I Just burned the ISO image on a blank DVD and started my Compaq Presario CQ56 from it. I ran the installer on the desktop. The only tricky part was deciding how to use the disk. Although the HDD had been used with Xubuntu, I decided to repartition and start everything new.

I repartitioned the HDD and proceeded. The HDD was partitioned in a strange way that I did not remember doing so on my own will. It did not have a dedicated swap partition. It had a 512 MB of FAT32 or ExFat partion at the start. Who did this? I think that I let the Xubuntu's installer use the entire disk and let it partition as it wished.

So this time I made a dedicated swap partition.

Soon the HDD had a fresh Lubuntu 23.04 . I installed mozc packages to make use of Japanese input method using Muon Package Manager. There was not much to update. I believe that the snapshot of April 23rd was almost identical to the actual release version.

Later I installed CPU-X as I wanted to monitor the CPU (AMD Athlon II) as it tends to heat up quite a bit.

Solved!

I use mozc on Linux (Lubuntu 23.04). I have used mozc since eons ago. This is a "Japanese Input Method" working under IBus. With mozc, I can write in Japanese.

It (mozc) has nothing to do with viewing Japanese in, say, a web browser. Viewing multiple languages is already supported in almost any Linux distributions by default whether you benefit from it or not.

Writing in a language other than, say, English where only alphabet letters of A to Z (26) are used requires something extra more or less.

I use English (or more likely US) language in any computer OS I use whether it is Mac, Linux or Android (on my phone). I am happy with this language but I have to write in Japanese from time to time.

Japanese language that deploys several thousand characters in daily life requires something extra when using a normal keyboard that has up to 40 to 50 keys (that print out some characters excluding ones like the shift key, which won't print out anything on its own).

Even if the numbers of keys are increased by using key combinations, like using "shift", there won't be enough printable characters. Using other keys (like shift+control+"some key") to make further combinations won't do.

I use the US keyboard, which has fewer keys than any other keyboards. Still I can write in Japanese with thousands of characters with no problem. That is where mozc comes in. It basically interprets the sequence of letters typed and on cue (usually downed space key), it translates the (buffered) key sequence into possible Japanese words, phrases or sentences.

Am I making sense to you?

Anyway, one has to invoke mozc when needed. When mozc is sleeping in the background, pressing down a "A" key produces or prints "A" on the screen, in text field or where it is supposed to appear. No interpretation takes place.

When mozc is invoked and working in the foreground, typing "a" and pressing "space" key produces "あ" in a floating separate candidate text field. When you are happy with the candidate, you press "return" key to transfer the candidate into the application text field like in a text editor.

This is the short version of how mozc works. You don't want to know further unless you are required to write in Japanese.

This invoking requires some action or actions on the user's part.

How do you invoke it? A key combination, of course. I touch type and usually I don't look at the keys I am typing at all. So the key combination to invoke mozc has to be done within the small area where fingers can easily reach without removing the fingers from their "home" position.

The default combination on a Mac (invoking macOS's own Japanese Input Method) is "command" key and "shift" key pressed together. It works and it is neat as the command key and shift key are right next to each other, side by side.

Most Linux users use a Windows type keyboard found on a so-called PC. The default combination to invoke mozc is "Windows" key and "space" key, which is not optimal as there is an "alt" key between them. It (the combination) is still acceptable.

This "Windows" key is dubbed as "super" key in Linux world for the reasons unknown to me.

So the key combination to invoke mozc is normally "super"+"space". I have used this combination since eons ago.

For some reasons, I could not use this combination in Lubuntu 23.04. This was inconvenient. It bothered me. In IBus preferences, you can change or modify the key combinations. So I tried to use this default one by specifying the combination. It failed. I was forced to use "shift"+"space" for a while before I could finally solve the predicament.

How?

I knew by hunch that this fiasco had happened because this key combination (at least part of it) was already used by other applications or something.

Remedy: From the pulldown menu,
"Preferences" then
"LXQT Settings" then
"Shortcut Keys"

Selecting this "Shortcut Keys" opens a window titled, "Global Actions Manager".
There, down the column, you will find:

33 Super_L / Show / hide main menu .... etc.

By default this shortcut is enabled. It means (I suppose) that when "super" is pressed (and released), you will see a main pulldown menu pulled down in the foreground application. By disabling this number 33, I can register (specify) under IBus preferences the mozc invocation key combination as "super"+"space" and it works then.

It took me while before I remedied the situation. I had held this Global Actions Manager as the prime suspect for some time but could not condemn it.

This shows the lack of unified user interface in the Linux world. Mac users have known how to switch input systems since the stone age. It has not changed and survived several demises of civilizations.

Bluetooth on Compaq Presario CQ56

My original (now with a broken LCD screen) CQ56 had no Bluetooth function. It had wired LAN port and WiFi capability. This WiFi function is provided by the mini PCI (mini PCI-e or what?) card placed right next to the memory module slots.

The newly acquired CQ56 (from the UK) also does not have Bluetooth function. This did not bother me as I did not need it. I just assumed that these low end inexpensive notebooks back in 2010 to 2011 did not come with Bluetooth.

To maintain (or disassemble) the CQ56, I needed information so I downloaded the PDF maintenance manual. It illustrates the disassembly process in details.

According to the PDF maintenance manual (from Compaq / HP), there are several kinds of these cards (with chips of broadcom, realtek or atheros). Some are combo cards with both WiFi and Bluetooth capability chips.

OK, so some or on customers' demand did come out with Bluetooth capability in the market after all.

I copied the part number of those combo cards and searched for them on ebay. To my surprise, there were hits, a lot of hits ranging from new ones from China (where they were supposedly made) to used recycled ones within EU countries. The prices were not bad. So I ordered one from the UK.

First, I have to do something with the "shutdown" problem. The CQ56 that I recently got from the UK shuts itself down after some duration of use due to "supposedly" overheating. I can not confirm this is the real cause of the shutdown.

Cleaning the guts Compaq Presario CQ56

I did what I have been dreading doing. The disassembly of this old notebook PC, that is.

With the maintenance manual (PDF) open on the MacBook, I started the process. It turned out to be quite simple and relatively easy. In several hours, I have done several operations to take the CPU cooling unit (heat sink, heat transfer pipe, cooling fan and radiator) out. I performed it and re-performed it. And later corrected the mistake by performing the operation again.

I found a huge wad of fluffy fiber stuck inside the cooling fan / radiator housing. It prevented the air from flowing freely but the air was half-circulating inside the housing. No wonder the CPU temperature was so high. I positively confirmed improvement after the cleaning. The temperature is lower (but not low) and the newly acquired notebook PC stopped shutting itself down after a short use.

Now this notebook PC is running cooler and more stable than it had been.

Now I can disassemble and reassemble it without relying on the manual. Where is the N370 (dual core AMD Athlon II) that I bought a few years ago? Now I need it more than ever.

At first I failed to see the inside of the fan housing and to remove what was causing the CPU to overheat.

(image 1: This is the CPU heatsink with the cooling fan. The fan housing is further taken apart)

Look at this!

(image 2: The buildup of fluffy stuff on the radiator fin)

Note the temperature and the "Core Speed". At this moment, no applications other than the CPU-X and ones running in the background as daemons or so are running. The CPU is really idle and loafing at 800 MHz.

(image 3: CPU-X at work. CPU usage is up only because I called the screen grabbing app. Otherwise it stays around well under 10 %)

Suddenly the temperature rises to this. Why does the CPU have to rev up to 2,300 MHz when almost nothing is happening?

(image 3: CPU-X at work. CPU usage is up only because I called the screen grabbing app. Otherwise it stays around well under 10 %)

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [A lot has happened to my Compaq Presario CQ56]の続きを読む

テーマ:Linux - ジャンル:コンピュータ

Compaq Presario CQ56 arrived this time

Compaq Presario CQ56 V140 arrived!

Today, it is May 11th and I received the purchase from the UK, Compaq Presario CQ56.

I got it. I hurriedly open the package and checked what was inside.

I did not know if it had a power adapter. I did not remember reading in the description by the ebay seller anything regarding the adapter. To my surprise, I found one. It was not a genuine Compaq or HP part but rather a thrid party adapter marked "Power Cool" with a UK style wall male plug, which is different from Continental wall male plug. I had a cable to replace it so it does not really matter at all. I can use this adapter after all.

The computer itself was dirty, really dirty and sticky. I wiped the body, touchpad, keyboard and LCD with a wet tissue to no avail.

I suspected that the previous user was a heavy smoker or someone who used it while cooking a deepfried Chinese food. The stickiness of the surface was stunning and the dust accumulated on the surface can not be removed without some degreaser. I have not seen such a dirty notebook computer in my life.

While swiping the keyboard gently, a key came off. It was "P" keytop. Oddly this "P" keytop was shiny. It was the only, only shiny keytop. Obviously this keytop had been somewhat defective and come off. The seller tried to put it back. While at it, the seller inadvertently cleaned it hoping that the reason of the loose keytop had something to do with the grime. It was a vain attempt.

I did not remember reading about this loose keytop.

The last problem was serious. I noticed that it shut itself down (all of a sudden the power died) after a while. First I suspected empty battery (it came with 0% charge left) even though I had the power adapter plugged in.

It seemed that it shut itself down because of overheating. The CPU got too hot or at least the sensor sensed the threshold temperature triggering the emergency shutdown.

I did not think it was too hot because my "now with broken LCD" original Presario CQ56 had gotten even hotter sometimes.

It could be the grimy accumulation of dust inside (on the mainboard) that was triggering the overheating?

I have to dismantle this notebook to see what the guts is like. Dirty? Is the CPU cooling fan covered with so much dust and churning less air?

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Compaq Presario CQ56 arrived this time]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

Streamlight Stinger Battery adapter trial and fail

Battery terminals
My attempt to solder a small coil spring taken out of a skewer (to fix a wheel on to a bicycle frame) failed miserably. The soldering paste I had was no effect on the 2 cent coin at all.

I had already known what to do before I tried the soldering method. They are sold as battery terminals, which some DIY crafters purchase.

I found these on Amazon Germany. They seem to come all the way from China (maybe) and they come in a 9-pair package (9 positive terminals without the coil spring and 9 negative terminals with the spring) with a price tag of around €19. Roughly the one I want (a negative terminal) costs €2.

The HG Power Glue worked well as expected.

The only problem was the soldering part. I want a revenge match.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Streamlight Stinger Battery adapter trial and fail]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

18650 to Stinger battery conversion adapter

La Vuelta Fememina 2023

Only 9 seconds apart between Demi Vollering and Annemiek Van Vleuten!

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [18650 to Stinger battery conversion adapter]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

What is non-binary?

non-binary?
I don’t pretend I am an expert in English language. My English language level is still high. As I don’t live in places where English is spoken by the majority of the resident, my vocabulary does not pick up current, up-to-date or ever evolving new words or definitions.

Today, I was killing time at a cafe and I thought I would take a survey from one of the apps that I use on my Android smartphone.

There were questions. At some point, I was asked to answer some personal questions. OK, I would. One of the questions was how I define my sexuality. The possible choices were Male, Female, Non-binary, Intersex, None of the above and I prefer not to answer.

I was puzzled and could not tell the difference between non-binary and intersex. I looked them up in the dictionary app on my phone and understood that the former has focus on the mental recognition of one’s own sexuality and the latter has more focus on the physical side of one’s body (maybe including the appearance like a dude who looks like a lady?).

I am not sure if I understood them correctly but if I had to tell them apart, I would define them this way.

Non-binary means that you can not define something with ones and zeros as a computer would do so by counting numbers in binary or recognizing the world in electrical off or on status. In other words, (without any racial implications) black or white, in this case male or female.

People who choose “Intersex” are likely so-called drag queens or so? I am not sure but I have to guess.

How about transvestites? Are they included in Non-binary? I was confused.

I just chose Male and went on.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [What is non-binary?]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

No one really cares!

No one cares!
According to Wikipedia,
Modern use
"Candlepower" is largely an obsolete term. However, people still sometimes use it to describe the luminous intensity of high powered flashlights and spotlights. Narrow-beamed lights of all sorts can have very high candlepower specifications, because candlepower measures the intensity of the light on a target, rather than the total amount of light it emits. A given lamp has a higher candlepower rating if its light is more tightly focused.

According to some site, an incandescent Stinger’s specification is somewhat like;
1. Lumens: 90
2. Candlepower: 11,000
3. Runtime: 1 hour (on 3.6 V battery)

Stinger HP’s specs.
1. Lumens: 120
2. Candlepower: 40,000
3. Runtime: up to 1 hour (on 3.6 V battery)

So the “by up to 363%” power boost applies to the Candlepower but not to Lumens figure.

OK. Now I see. I have a Stinger and Ultra Stinger (both of them still with an incandescent bulb) with me. I have tried both of them and (assuming the beam patterns of Stinger HP and Ultra Stinger are similar as their reflectors seem very similar) found that

the beam of the Ultra Stinger has a very small intense spot with wide less intense circle around it

and

the beam of the Stinger has a small (but bigger than that of the Ultra stinger) intense spot with (maybe) even wider (than above) less intense circle around it

when I adjust the focus to make the center intense spot as small as possible.

This may explain the reason why the Candlepower figures of the Ultra Stinger or Stinger HP are much bigger than that of the Stinger even though their Lumens figures are not so wide apart.

Actually, (sigh) the expression (by this ebay seller) found in the description of the HP upgrade kit is wrong. The candlepower figure increases from 11,000 to 40,000 and this increase is by 263 %. As in if something increases BY 100 %, the increased resulting figure is double. As in if your wage increases by 0 %, you still get the same salary as before.

A simple Google search tells me that
if something increases to 200 %, it means that the figure is doubled but
if something increases by 200 %, the resulting figure is tripled.

I know nobody cares and nobody has ever cared about the performance boost of those ancient incandescent Stingers, right?

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [No one really cares!]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Streamlight Stinger HP

Streamlight Stinger HP

I recently and inconsiderately bought this Stinger HP and it has been shipped and on the way. The seller stated in the description that it would not light up and the reason for it could be depleted battery or else. I imagine the battery is to blame.

Anyway, it will arrive soon. I will check it out. I think it is OK and putting a live battery in it will make it light up.

What do I do with it? I can use it as it is. I can convert it into a normal Stinger by putting a smaller bulb and the smaller bezel from the Stinger that I already have. What is fun doing this conversion? None, still but I can if I want to.

There is an upgrade kit (which I suspect has been long out of production) to convert a normal Stinger (incandescent) to a HP version. It comes with a bulb (shaped like that of Ultra Stinger but with different voltage specification, I guess) and a bigger bell shaped reflector (and its housing, of course). Its part number is 78004. It boasts 40,000 candlepower and 120 Lumens. It also says this upgrade boosts the performance by up to 363%.

So “up to 363%”. I was wondering how bright the small bi-pin indigenous incandescent bulb was.

78914 seems to be the part number of the Xenon-filled incandescent bulb of the Stinger. Where can I find the specification of this bulb?

78915 seems to be the part number of the Xenon-filled incandescent bulb of the Stinger HP. (ditto)

I guessed that it (the Lumens value of that tiny Xenon bulb) was around 80. I was a bit surprised to see the value 120 Lumens in the description of this ebay seller.

I know (and well documented) that the 78914 (Ultra Stinger’s bulb) is rated at 230 Lumens. I assumed that the similarly shaped 78915 would be rated at around 200. It is really 120 Lumens?

Why did I but it? I don’t understand.

(One of the images that the seller uploaded)

(ditto)

On a closer examination, I found something. Made in USA seems to be etched on the cap. It was made in the United States of America. My Stinger and Ultra Stinger don't have that line. They were made somewhere else. Wow!

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Streamlight Stinger HP]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Tour de France 2023 parcours and Stinger HP

Stage 01 (July 1 Saturday) Bilbao / Bilbao (182km Hilly)
Stage 02 (July 2 Sunday) Vitoria -Gasteiz / Saint-Sebastien (209 km Hilly)
Stage 03 (July 3 Monday) Amorebieta-Etxano / Bayonne (185 km Flat)

Stage 04 (July 4 Tuesday) Dax / Nogaro (182 km Flat)
Stage 05 (July 5 Wednesday) Pau / Laruns (165 km Mountains)
Stage 06 (July 6 Thursday) Tarbes / Cauterets-Cambasque (145 km Mountains)
Stage 07 (July 7 Friday) Mont-de-Marsan / Bordeaux (170 km Flat)
Stage 08 (July 8 Saturday) Libourne / Limoges (201 km Hilly)
Stage 09 (July 9 Sunday) Saint-Leonard-de-Noblat / Puy de Dome (184 km Mountains)

Rest Day (July 10 Monday) Clermont-Ferrand

Stage 10 (July 11 Tuesday) Vulcania / Issoire (167 km Hilly)
Stage 11 (July 12 Wednesday) Clermont-Ferrand / Moulins (180 km Flat)
Stage 12 (July 13 Thursday) Roanne / Bellville-en-Beaujolais (169 km Hilly)
Stage 13 (July 14 Friday) Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne / Grand Colombier (138 km Mountains)
Stage 14 (July 15 Saturday) Annemasse / Morzine les Portes du Soleil (152 km Mountains)
Stage 15 (July 16 Sunday) Les Gets Les Portes du Soleil / Saint-Gervias Mont-Blanc (180 km Mountains)

Rest Day (July 17 Monday) Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc

Stage 16 (July 18 Tuesday) Passy / Combloux (ITT 22 km)
Stage 17 (July 19 Wednesday) Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc / Courchevel (166 km Mountains)
Stage 18 (July 20 Thursday) Moutiers / Bourg-en-Bresse (186 km Hilly)
Stage 19 (July 21 Friday) Moirans-en-Montagne / Poligny (173 km Flat)
Stage 20 (July 22 Saturday) Belfort / Le Markstein Fellering (133 km Mountains)
Stage 21 (July 23 Sunday) Staint-Quentin-en-Yvelines / Champs-Elysees (115 km Flat)

6 Flat
6 Hilly (Stage 16 ITT) + 1 = 7
8 Mountains

Analyzing the stages of the Tour de France 2023

This year the Tour de France kicks off on July first in Basque Country. Then the race goes over the Pyrenees to go across the center of France swiftly to reach the Alps. The race then coils around the Alps and sidesteps to the Alsace. The race then leaps to Champs Elysees, Paris. The upper half of France (except for Paris area) and the lower half (the Mediterrean Sea) are left untouched.

According to the official site, these 21 stages are rated as 6 flat, 6 hilly, 8 mountainous stages and unrated 22 kilometers of individual time trial stage, which is hilly anyway.

For the moment not too many details are revealed but the profiles of the most of the mountainous stages are available.

I have been unemployed for the last three months and am starting my next job soon. I don’t know for the moment when I can have my vacations (paid holidays) but I am sure I can get some during this coming Summer. I will ask my colleague (or colleagues) when she / he or they want to have theirs and then I will then know when I can get my own.

Since I am starting now, I won’t be able to accumulate my paid holidays soon technically but I know I can get them in advance.

If possible I will first try to get them during the last half weeks of the Tour de France when the race comes closer to Luxembourg. If this is not possible and my holidays come out of the Tour de France weeks, I will or may plan traveling to the Scandinavian countries. I have planned this trip when I was still entangled in my last job. I did not realize it since I was not mentally fit (mildly depressed).

Analyzing the course layout starts with plotting the important cities, mountain passes and other places on Garmin BaseCamp as waypoints.

Since only mountain stages are revealed more or less in details, my initial analysis concentrates on those stages.

I have found that most or at least many of my already-stored-over-the-years waypoints have already covered them (2023 edition of Tour de France locations).

I found this year’s edition to be more mountainous than usual. Is it only my impression? Even the short individual time trial is an uphill finish one. Which sprinters would survive until Paris if any? Only six flat stages where they shine but they have to survive all the mountains. I assume Mark Cavendish was not thrilled when he saw the stage layout. He is participating the Giro d’Italia and I know why.

Tour de France 2024
(According to Wikipedia,)
“The 2024 Tour de France is scheduled to be the 111th edition of the Tour de France. It will start in Florence, Italy on 29 June, and with the final stage, an individual time trial from Monaco to Nice on 21 July.”

I don’t know of any other (at least) recent Tour that ended not in Paris.

I am a bit ashamed to write this

Just a few hours ago, I bought another Streamlight Stinger on ebay. I did not think I needed another but I kept looking for Stingers on ebay. I found one with lower shipping charges but the price of the item (Streamlight Stinger HP, old incandescent bulb type with Norristown etched cap) was too steep. I sent “make offer” to the seller. The seller lowered the price but not low enough to match my suggested price. I considered the counter offer from the seller for a moment and decided to accept the offer.

Anyway, I paid for it already and it will eventually arrive. What do I do with it? I don’t know.

So it is a Stinger HP (high performance). An HP model has bigger flared reflector. It is like that of my Ultra Stinger. I have to stop.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tour de France 2023 parcours and Stinger HP]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

Andy Schleck Cycles

Andy Schleck Cycles

I intend to commute to the new work place by bicycle. It is going to be my old Birdy that I am going to ride. I was checking out the conditions and found that it was in a bad condition. I need a Shimano 9-speed chain.

I am going to get one from Andy Schleck Cycles tomorrow.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019)

I once went to an outdoor Jazz Festival in Japan to see him, the man, Miles Davis. That was sometime Summer in 1980's. I think I was around 22 years old or so. That makes the date of encounter around 1987 more or less.

He passed away on September 28, 1991. I saw him in his very last days of active carrier.

I think in my first year of University, I got interested in so-called fusion music. It was supposed fusion of Jazz and electric music (Rock & Roll etc.).

Soon later I began listening to Jazz music widely and soon came to hooked on it. I began with Bebop and I came to know Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. I remember learning that Dizzy is not his name but nickname, which he acquired because his play made the audience dizzy with his dizzing fast tones. Am I right?

Later I came to know Art Pepper, Chet Baker and Bill Evans.

Miles Davis was naturally already a legend (for a long time even I knew him) then. A man who never stopped for a moment but continued to evolve in his play style, this was roughly what I read.

What I heard that evening was, I believe, his favorite or almost "signature" tune at that time "Human Nature" and others.

I could not see him well as we (some of my friends who loved Jazz and Fusion music) were located in a remote place area. The event was held in a ski resort where the stage was down close to the ski lift base and we, the audience, were up on a hill surrounding it.

What mattered was that I witnessed his performance and breezed the same air he was.

I watched one other movie that featured him, "Miles Ahead" (2015). I did not quite understand the backdrop, time frame captured in this movie in Miles Davis's life. I enjoyed it anyway. Now watching this movie, I will watch "Miles Ahead" again to appreciate it fully.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Andy Schleck Cycles]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

Fedex is faaast - BrightGuy.com purchase!

Fedex is fast! - BrightGuy.com purchase

The package was sent just on April 28 (USA time) so it is already or almost April 29th here in Europe.

Today it is May 3rd and the package is already in “out for delivery” status.

It is on the way to me and at any moment (it is May 3rd Morning) will arrive! It is faaaast! Wickedly fast!

I am guessing the name Fedex comes from Federal and Express but what I could not guess was they really meant it.

The door bell rang while I was finishing this writing. It arrived. It was 10:00 in the morning. I was home as I had nothing to do (between jobs).

I opened the box and took the Stinger battery out of it. I put the battery into my Stinger and lit it. It is not impressively bright but decently bright.

I will test it for a while to see how bright it is in the dark outside and how far the beam reaches.

After that I will take the conversion kit and convert it into the Stinger Classic LED.

For the moment it is resting in the charger.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[Fedex is faaast - BrightGuy.com purchase!]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

I am going to work soon

I’ll start working soon!
Yes. Finally the stint of my non-employment is coming to an end after three months.

I am going to be employed and salaried after three months. It is a relief not because I am getting money but because I want to work. Now I want to work and this is very important.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[I am going to work soon]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

They are coming to Luxembourg

A package from BrightGuy.com
It’s, according to the tracking information - Fedex, the package is now being processed in Memphis, Tennessee. I guess it will fly from there into a country in EU. Or it is maybe already off the ground.

It is scheduled to be delivered on May 5th. Quite fast!

Compaq Presario CQ56 from the UK (again)
It’s has been shipped. On the tracking information page, it is still somewhere in the UK for the moment (May 2nd) but it is scheduled to be delivered by May 10th.

I am hoping to get it this time.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [They are coming to Luxembourg]の続きを読む

テーマ:ひとりごとのようなもの - ジャンル:日記

Festival Elsy Jacobs 2023

Luxembourg Festival Elsy Jacobs

This year this race was held as a two-day stage race (April 29th and 30th / Saturday and Sunday). It had been held as three-day stage race as far as I can remember.

I have to assume that dwindling financial support from the local sponsors forced the organizer to reduce the scale. It is sad but it can not be helped.

I missed the Saturday stage because I was not careful and forgot about it. I visited the official site and knew that the race was upcoming. I just did not write it down on the calendar app. My bad!

I noticed the race was on Saturday for some reason and was determined to be there on Sunday. I checked the site and downloaded the start list and the technical guide (so-called roadbook) and then examined the course.

Who were there? Some big (formerly WorldTour) teams, middle (formerly Continental) teams and smaller teams. The defending champion is Ms Marta Bastinelli (UAE TEAM ADQ). I remember her dominating the race last year. She was good at the individual time trial, which gave her a decisive advantage before the following stages. Gaining even a few seconds should make a significant difference when the following stages are likely to end in a mass sprint among the favorites.

This year, as the prologue-ish ITT was gone, she failed to obtain this decisive advantage.

Sunday's stage was held between Luxembourg's Stadium (maybe the biggest one) and Garnich (a small town near the Belgian border). I first went to the finish town of Garnich and the GPM area in the morning.

For the last several years, the construction of the tram transport system has been going on. It has been making a slow progress. For the moment the tram line is completed between the Lux Expo (an exposition site) and a tram stop near an institute of some technical stuff. The line is expected to connect the airpot (Findel) and the mall called “Cloche d’Or (golden bell?)”. Or so I thought (or heard).

I found the tram rails extending to the entrance area of the Stadium, which is less than a mile away from the mall. Soon the tram system will connect the airport, the railroad main station and the big stadium.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Festival Elsy Jacobs 2023]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

欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

欧州在住者が自転車レースを追い掛けてる日記とか

Finally it arrived

Broadcom combo card not working?

Houston, the Eagle has landed!

Latest in Luxembourg

Silent treatment part II and an ebay seller

Silent treatment from the 90's

AMD Athlon II N370 has been found

After 10 days of inactivity

AMD Athlon V140 vs V160

Oops I did it again.

2001 and 2010 were not like what depicted in these movies.

A lot has happened to my Compaq Presario CQ56

Compaq Presario CQ56 arrived this time

Streamlight Stinger Battery adapter trial and fail

18650 to Stinger battery conversion adapter

What is non-binary?

No one really cares!

Streamlight Stinger HP

Tour de France 2023 parcours and Stinger HP

Andy Schleck Cycles

Fedex is faaast - BrightGuy.com purchase!

I am going to work soon

They are coming to Luxembourg

Festival Elsy Jacobs 2023

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