OTT Enduro !

I spent Saturday tearing around the Peak District riding a Yamaha WR250F Enduro bike. Hammering gravel lanes and boulder strewn descents has long been an ambition of mine and so I got in touch with Overlander Trail Tours (OTT) and booked a days guided session with one to one tuition. It’s a long and tough day which starts at around 08:30 and finishes at 16:30, over this period you cover approx. 100 miles of prime Peak District terrain.

It’s worth mentioning here that OTT are a very professional outfit. They stick to tracks that are legal and treat all other trail users with respect and often stop and talk to people on the trail which serves as good PR for the sport, so many idiots give off-roading a bad name and it was good to see that OTT do their best to leave people with a good impression. Mike my guide was excellent both at riding his bike like he stole it and also at promoting the sport in the best possible way.

The drive up to the headquarters of OTT was interesting, taking me past the famous ‘Cat and Fiddle’ pub where I managed to stop and get a few pictures of the sun rising over the Peaks, and of the fantastic scenery over the moors.

Photo1
Photo2
Photo3

Having looked at their homepage I kind of expected lots of terrain similar to that shown in the top picture, however as I discovered later there seemed to be more of the kind of the terrain shown in the second picture ... So it was that I was a bit bemused when I had to wear knee, elbow, shoulder, back and chest armour as well as armoured boots and hard wearing jacket and trousers - I felt a bit like Judge Dredd ! As it was I had good reason to be thankful for the armour ...

Crash Number 1 occurred after around an hour of riding, I was getting used to standing up over the bars letting the bike do its thing as we hurtled up a track over boulders and ruts and I was feeling good, maybe going a bit faster than my newly found but limited abilities needed, anyway, near the top of the track prior to a 90 degree bend was a large dip in the ground which I entered and shot out of with no front wheel on the ground to steer with ... the wheel touched down just prior to the handlebar guards and my shoulder impacting a dry stone wall. Which luckily collapsed and so absorbed most of the impact ... So with no damage other than a few scuffs (to the bike, not me) I picked the bike up and we carried on.

A fantastic part of the day was spent thrashing the bikes down the gravelly quarry lanes, with only a 3 feet high chicken wire fence separating us from the sheer drop on our left, it never felt overly dangerous though as the quarry roads, although loose gravel, were fairly smooth and these bikes are fantastic, their handling and braking is in a league of their own.

Later on I did my first river crossing which was fantastic and seemed to involve very little skill to be honest. Keep the revs up, the speed constant, relax and let the bike do it’s thing. One thing I learned from this day is that courage is key - lose your bottle and you lose the bike, tense up and you will soon crash, the bikes are so good that they require minimum input to control, small relaxed fluid movements and a pair of big b******s are key to having a successfull and fun time when riding hard offroad.

Crash Number 2 (the reason that I am still stiff as a board 2 days later I think) occurred in the last 30 minutes of the day. Hurtling up a rock strewn ascent, that we had actually descended successfully earlier that day, I lost control, twisted the throttle back by accident and shot out of the rut into the wall at the side of the trail. This wall didn’t collapse and with the bike on top of me and the smell of petrol I lay under the bike feeling rather sorry for myself. I suspect I lost concentration or strength or both as by this time I was shattered and that was the result.

Fortunately the only damage to the bike was a front mudguard snapped in two, which was not classed as a slight scrape and so I had to pay £30 to replace it. One of the good things about OTT is that your maximum financial exposure is £100 so even if I had written the bike off all I would have had to pay would be £100.

Here’s a photo of me post Crash Number 1 and pre Crash Number 2 ...

Following this incident we headed back to HQ, the end of a fantastic day. I will definitely go again. I’m still unsure whether I will buy my own bike and take it up as a regular sport but there is no denying it is a lot of fun and very good exercise. Definitely recommended ☺

“Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true!” - Homer Simpson

Applying for an EHIC

The EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) is a replacement for the old E111. It allows you to receive medical cover, free of charge when traveling abroad in most parts of Europe, similar to what you are likely to receive in the UK. Applying for the EHIC is easy - but can be expensive.

A web search for EHIC gives a website which gives you a telephone number (0871 050 0508), and advises you that this will cost 10p a minute. This telephone number gives you a second telephone number (0906 120 2345) which costs £1.50 per minute ....

After £12 worth of phone call you are finally given a web address where you can apply - WWW.EHIC.ORG.UK. £12 to be told that ... the card may be free but when it costs £12 to find out how to apply ...

The website takes all of two minutes to complete, your name, address, date of birth and national insurance number is all that is required. Your card should then be received in 7 working days.

So, save yourself the expense and hassle and go straight to www.ehic.org.uk. You know it makes sense ☺

"Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends." - Czech Proverb

Yamaha XT660R Review

I have written a review of my XT660R motorbike. You can download the PDF here, or read the published version here.

“Well, I’m tired of being a wannabe league bowler. I wanna be a league bowler!” - Homer Simpson

www.artenscience.co.uk
Honest Expert Independent Technology Advice for Business

New Upload: AutoSQL Oracle

I have just uploaded AutoSQL to my website (www.genesyssolutions.co.uk).

AutoSQL is a utility that allows you to execute regular queries against your database and email the results set to you. It is designed to run under Windows from a scheduled task. It starts up at a predetermined time, executes the query, emails the results to you, then exits.

AutoSQL supports Xcopy Deployment, and as such installation consists of dragging and dropping !

If you are looking for a tool that is freely and easily available, as well as being easy to use and powerful, that you can deploy without any installation or licensing issues then AutoSQL may be of use to you.

AutoSQL can also be downloaded directly from here.

"Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his." - George S Patton

Wireless Broadband / No Security

I called in at a friends house Saturday, he’d just had his broadband package updated and moved from a broadband modem to a wireless router based system. After checking out the security for him these were my findings:

1. His computers are connected to the router via Ethernet cable, he has no need for the wireless capability of the browser.
2. Yet it was switched on at the router.
3. The wireless on the router was totally unsecured.
4. The router was accessible from the internet and there was NO administrator password required.

He installed this router himself, following the instructions provided by the ISP. It seems that either the ISP does not know about how to correctly install a broadband router, or the ISP couldn’t be bothered to get decent installation instructions written.

To be honest I was disgusted. It took all of 5 minutes to secure his system properly and to show him what what was required. The lesson is do not trust your ISP to give a damn about your security, even though it may affect their network.

"Every mile is two in winter." - George Herbert

New Upload: GenDAT

I have just uploaded GenDAT to my website (www.genesyssolutions.co.uk).

GenDAT is designed to be a useful, easy to use query tool for use with SQLServer and Oracle databases. There are a few of these type of programs around, including of course the ones supplied with the database clients themselves. GenDAT however is designed to be easy to use, fast and with some very nice features including multiple results grids, query history and export to XML and HTML.

One nice feature is that GenDAT supports very large grids, depending on the number of columns and the type of data contained, it is possible (if you really, really wanted) to load more than one million rows into the grid ! GenDAT is written using the .NET Framework 2.0 and as such requires that the framework is installed on the host machine.

GenDAT supports Xcopy Deployment, and as such installation consists of dragging and dropping !

GenDAT supports multiple instances, so if the eight Results Sets are insufficient, feel free to launch another version of the program.

If you are looking for a tool that is freely and easily available, as well as being easy to use and powerful, that you can deploy without any installation or licensing issues then GenDAT may be of use to you.

GenDAT can also be downloaded directly from here.

"Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self." - Millicent Fenwick

Soapbox Moment: Speed Kills

Speed Kills: So we are told. Only, it doesn’t. The term was coined during the seventies to warn people of the danger of meth-amphetamine and has recently been used to make us all feel guilty anytime our speedometer wanders over the posted limit. Speed doesn’t kill however and the public are not stupid enough to believe this.

The equation is as follows:

        Speed + Inappropriate Context + Bad Driving Skills = Danger

It’s only when the above three factors come together that we have a problem, and with that speed has been relegated to 33% of the equation rather than the 100% that the government currently tell us. I can and do speed, when it is safe to do so and I do not take unnecessary risks with my life or those of others. I am constantly alert, watching the road, reading the traffic. As I now often ride a bike (both motorbike and pushbike) I drive defensively, on a bike you don't have 2 tons of metal cage and half a dozen airbags to protect you.

At 100+mph overtaking in the outside lane of the motorway watching the road, the traffic, the weather, I am far less of a danger to the public than the sales rep in his Audi driving in the middle lane, six inches from the bumper of the car in front, appointment book open on his knee, cigarette in his mouth, phone in one hand and McDonalds shake in the other. But who are the police going to target ?

Why the obsession with speed ? Is it because it’s something that can be controlled and restricted without any human involvement or discretion and without considering context, through the use of Speed Cameras (Piggy Banks), removing the need for real policing or human intervention ? A simple equation:

        69Mph, Homicidal Criminal = No, 71Mph, Homicidal Criminal = Yes

The problem with drumming into our heads that Speed Kills is that everything else is driven from our minds, and with no police on the roads the other dangers are allowed to continue unchallenged. Here’s one example:

        Drunk Drivers. As long as they don’t speed, they get away with it because Speed Cameras can’t detect drunk driving.

Here’s where context comes into it. A drink driver is dangerous no matter what speed he or she is doing. Take for example a wet country lane during autumn with leaves likely to be on the road and a 90 degree bend. The speed limit is 60, but in this context only an idiot would take the bend that fast. How about driving at 50 mph, within the speed limit, of the A38 one morning in thick fog. Too fast given the context. I’m sure you can think of many examples yourself.
        
The bad driving part of the equation has to be tackled. We live in a state where we cannot smoke inside public buildings (public safety issue) and yet we allow a 17 year old with minimal training, a hoodie and a bad attitude to jump into a two ton machine and tear around the roads without fear of retribution (unless he goes through a speed camera) - where is the sense in that ?

When is someone in government going to look at the issue of safety on the roads and put forward a program of changes to address the real issues ? And can we please drop the ‘Speed Kills’ campaign, surely a product from the mind of the mentally challenged !

"Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future." - Charles F Kettering

Types of SQL

There are three basic types of SQL:

DDL, DCL and DML.

DDL:        Data Definition Language
                Used By:                DBA
                Examples:        CREATE, ALTER, DROP

DCL:        Data Control Language
                Used By:                DBA
                Examples:        GRANT, REVOKE

DML:        Data Manipulation Language
                Used By:                USERS, DBA
                Examples:        SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything." - George Lois

Stuff

"Every thing you own takes energy away from you. Some give more than they take. Those are the only things worth having."

Paul Graham writes an excellent article that is so pertinent to me at the current time. I have spent my life, like most other people, accumulating ‘Stuff’ that I don’t need and wouldn’t miss. One of my future goals is to get rid of a lot of this stuff, clear the garage, clear the attic, take it to the tip, sell it on Ebay - whatever. Clutter is not good.

“That lemon tree’s a part of our town, and as kids, the backbone of our economy. We’ll get it back, or choke their rivers with our dead!” - Bart Simpson

Goats Sacrificed to Fix Jet !

From the BBC. Remind me to only fly British Airways in future ...

“The doll’s trying to kill me and the toaster’s been laughing at me!” - Homer Simpson