欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

British Shorthair
It was my second time that I encountered this breed of cat during the Tour de France.

This year it was on the Col de Vars (Stage 19). I parked my car next to a Motorhome decorated with small Danish flags.

The couple had a typical grey coat British Shorthair named "Garlic" (7 years old and her predecessor was "Chili" who lived for 14 years). They told me their son was a successful businessman who owned 6 restaurants in Denmark (Copenhagen) so naming their cats with food names had its root somewhere there.

They lived in Nice area overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

I met also a French couple in 2017 (when my dear Hannah was just 3 months old) in a camping site. They also had grey coat British Shorthair. It was this incident that I learned this breed's name.

They (according to various sites) are very gentle and calm. This was why they can be traveling cats.


What does "BSA" signify in French (language) in French Gendarmerie organization?
Could someone tell me, please?

It was Sunday, July 21st, the final day of the Tour de France 2024. I was in Nice (just outside of Monaco) on the parcours of the individual time trial.

It was sometime around noon. I was painting on the road since morning. I was just finishing the painting requested by the Slovenian couple who had stayed next to me the previous night on the side of the road.

Pogi SLOVENIJA

Pogi is the nickname that Slovenians use for Tadej Pogacar. Slovenia is spelt like this in their own manner. Notice that "J" is equivalent to "Y" in languages including German and many (if not most) East European languages.

Their request was "Pogi" and I voluntarily added SLOVENIJA. I learned how to write Slovenia in Slovenian (language) from the group of people I met on the Col de Noyer.

She asked me to underline a certain part of Slovenia to emphasize "love" in their country name. He stressed that Slovenija is the only country in the world that contained "love" in the name.

Anyway, I was wrapping up the drawing when three Gendarmerie officers came walking down the road. One of the officers held what seemed like a assault rifle. Mind you that all of them (Gendarmerie officers) on duty hold at least one automatic pistol.

One of them addressed to me. Painting on the road during the Tour de France won't be punished but I was slightly nervous because of their appearance. I was not intimidated by them but you know, armed men ...

To my delight, the man asked me if I could draw "BSA" on the road. I told him of course I could. Remember they are seriously "armed" and everybody could see it. I checked the spelling and asked them where I would draw it. He told me that the side of Pogacar's name would be fine.

I gave him what he wanted and he took some photos of it. They seemed to be satisfied with what they saw and left.

There was only "Pogi" on the road and they might have recognized the "slo" letters on the front license plate on the white van next to them but he distinctly said "Pogacar". This meant that he liked cycling sport and was enjoying looking over the security of the spectators, riders and those involved. He wanted to join the festivity by giving him and his colleagues alike by this unknown initials.

Later other officers who had not witnessed the drawing incident passed and noticed the BSA drawing. Visibly (as I was away) he pointed at it and seemed to be amused along with his colleague. So it must mean something to them obviously.

I came home and naturally looked for its meaning on the Internet but so far I have not encountered any possible answers.


TG Pro Purchased
Finally I decided to purchase this piece of computer software. The trial period of 14 days had expired during my vacation.

The purchasing process was easy. I paid through PayPal.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Drawing at a gun point]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. 2024/07/27(土) 11:07:02|
2. Tour de France
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64 GB (16 x 4) of DDR3 RAM and Intel Xeon E5-2673v2 ordered!
For my Mac Pro Late 2013 (MacPro 6,1 or the Trash can).

In fact I wanted to order them before the vacation but I waited after the vacation.

Both of them are used ones. It does not matter much because I am buying them for my used (made in April or May 2018) Mac Pro.

This Intel Xeon E5-2673v2 is an 8-Core model. I was attracted to this particular CPU model because its TDP is rated at 110 watts. My reasoning was that this particular CPU must have been a later crop when the production was going well. Lower TDP must mean that the CPU was made so well that it produced less heat. In fact the Turbo boost clock frequency is up to 4.0 GHz instead of 3.9 GHz.

Intel Xeon E5-2673v2 (8-core TDP 110 watts, 3.3 GHz/4.0 GHz-Turbo) <-- Upgrade
Intel Xeon E5-1650v2 (6-core TDP 130 watts, 3.5 GHz/3.9 GHz-Turbo) <-- Current

I am waiting for it to arrive. Arriving is not enough. I have to install it inside my Mac Pro. Swapping the CPUs is not an easy task according to various YouTube videos and other sources. It requires almost total disassembly of the Mac Pro.

I want to clean my Mac Pro inside out. I had already removed the dust on the air ventilation areas when I got it. I will clean it further. I will apply fresh thermal paste onto the CPU.

On the other hand, swapping the memory modules is too easy.

They will arrive eventually and I will have update of this story.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Intel Xeon E5-2673vs ordered]の続きを読む

テーマ:Mac - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2024/07/25(木) 22:24:27|
2. MacBooks and Macs
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I am home at last!

I am writing this on my Mac Pro Late2013.

I was just several kilometers away from Monaco border overlooking the Monaco when the last stage of Tour de France 2024 was on. I left there around 19:30 and kept driving over straight 5 hours before I stopped for gas and rested around 2 hours. I drove over 500 km by then.

I was on the road again around 03:30 and kept driving. Around 06:30 I was about 120 km from home. I thought the morning rush hours would be there if I kept driving.

I took 1 hour and 30 minutes rest just to avoid that traffic jam.

And I was home around 10:00 of Monday, July 22nd. It took around 10 hours and some to get home from Nice.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [I am home after driving over 1,000 km from Nice (Monaco)]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. 2024/07/22(月) 10:20:09|
2. Tour de France
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My vacation starts soon
I will be off to Troyes, France. I don't have much time to write this. So I will be brief. In two days my vacation begins and I will be enjoying myself watching the road bike race called Tour de France.

Have you met "Preview" of macOS yet?
Preview is a various-photo file and PDF file viewing application built in the macOS since God knows when. It is a very innocent looking, shy and modest software. People tend to ignore it and consequently underestimate it. People may prefer to use other applications like Photoshop, Gimp or Office suite applications instead of this Preview.

I knew it was a more capable application than it looks. I learned it when I accidentally double-clicked on a 3D data file downloaded from Thingiverse not knowing what would happen.

To my surprise, this underdog Preview opened it and presented it to me. Whoa! Since then, I knew that it should not be underestimated.

Yesterday, I learned further that I was right and Preview was not an ordinary application again.

I had two windows open on the desktop (CPU load meter gauge and GPU load history graphs-since my Mac Pro Late2013 had two GPUs). I was working on some screenshots from Garmin BaseCamp made with "Screenshot" (another Apple genuine app). I wanted to check those screenshot files (PNG format). I double-clicked on them and then Lo and Behold!

The GPU load history graph of "AMD Radeon HD - FirePro D500 (Slot 1)" showed some bars. Mind you that the GPU on "Slot 1" has nothing to do with the video output. It is not connected to the video port. It is there just to calculate or crunch numbers. I was told by many that only applications like Final Cut Pro or Davinci Resolve would utilize this Slot 1 GPU.

Until then I have never seen these bars on the Slot 1 GPU except for the time I intendedly selected the Slot 1 GPU from the tab inside the Geekbench 6.

This (activity on the second GPU) does not happen by accident. Some specific code (programming code) intended to use the second GPU has to be there.

Preview has that coding inside obviously. So I would like to know if Photoshop or other applications use the second GPU.


Garmin BaseCamp turned out to be the Cinebench alternative
I will be writing his after my vacation.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [I will be leaving for France soon.]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. 2024/07/05(金) 20:28:48|
2. Tour de France
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Mac Pro Late2013 (made in 2018)
My MacPro6,1 was supposedly made in 2018. According to a "serial number" deciphering table I got from a YouTuber (Constant Geekery), my Mac Pro was made (or shipped) in the 17 weeks of 2018. This was one of the reasons why I chose (decided) to buy this machine among other eBay candidates. The fact (that it was) "relatively new" pleased me.

It got an Intel E5-1650v2 (6-Core) CPU onboard, 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD (and obligatory AMD FirePro D500 x 2). I noticed by my humble analysing eyes that 12-Core MacPro6,1 seemed to be too expensive compared to other machines.

Why? They are all used machines at lest more than 4 years or more (discontined in 2019). Subsequently the CPUs inside are also "used". Why do people pay more for these CPUs? You can buy used 12-Core CPUs relatively cheaply.

I thought it would be better buying an inexpensive machine and then upgrade the CPU later separately. Was I wrong?

Those AMD FirePro D500 or D700 GPUs are just heat exchangers. They are not any better than D300 (so I heard or misheard).

DDR3 memory modules are cheap, too. Why bother with buying 12-Core machines with inexplicable price tags?

I am planning to upgrade my cute Mac Pro with 8-Core CPU (E5-2673v2) and 64 GB RAM. I may buy an adapter and NVME M.2 SSD in the future.

since when has it been called "Bin"?
I purchased this Mac Pro Late2013 lately and noticed someting. The "Trash" can was now named "Bin". What happened? Since when? And maybe why?

It was traditionally Trash as long as I know (as far back as System 6 era back in the 90's).

Does it have something to do with PC by any chance? Trash, trashy or white trash are not polite but rude things to say to people. Is that it?

Bin is a neutral word. It does not even mean trash can. It means trash can when it is used as dust bin or so. It is just a container.

I want the Trash can back complete with that icon.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[Universe 25]の続きを読む

テーマ:Apple - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2024/07/04(木) 08:32:22|
2. Diary
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I am busy Today!
Today is the only day off before the vacation. I have a lot of things to do. I have to buy some items and prepare a lot of things.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Uploading from Mac Pro Late2013]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. 2024/07/03(水) 12:46:34|
2. Tour de France
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