Posted on

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride: Social Connections Challenge


The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is something I’ve wanted to participate in for a while now, though I never seem to have ‘the right kind of bike’, which is frustrating.  Fortunately I can grow a bad moustache as well as anyone else, so I’ve Movembered multiple times.


The DGR started in 2012 and has become a world wide event collecting millions in donations focused on men’s health.  One of the main focuses of the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is suicide.  Men are much more likely to do it and the DGR is now finding ways to support men socially so that they don’t feel like this is a solution.  I’ve got family history with suicide and greatly appreciate the work this Australian charitable organization do around men’s health, and particularly their focus on suicide prevention.  You can submit an idea up until July 6th, 2020.

I’m three of those things, so being mindful of suicide
is a wise approach.

As I was reading over this initiative I immediately thought of the various motorcycling cooperatives I’ve seen online where people get together and work on motorcycles, sharing tools and expertise.  The teacher in me likes the idea that this kind of mentoring could happen in a generational setting where both older men with knowledge and skills to share, could mentor new would-be riders who want to develop technical skills as they get into motorcycling.


Here’s the goal for this project:



DGR continues by saying:  We know that:

  • The cultivation of healthy close relationships can increase individual resilience and act as a protective factor against suicide
  • Friends and family can be a significant source of social, emotional and financial support, and can buffer against the impact of external stressors
  • Traditional methods for engaging men about their health are often not effective and deter men from taking action for better health outcomes.
  • Programs designed specifically by and for men and reach them where they naturally gather are more successful.

O U R   S O L U T I O N  –  A N   I N N O V A T I V E F U N D I N G   O P P O R T U N I T Y :

Movember and DGR are proud to challenge the creative and forward-thinking people of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and the US to rethink the box and deliver innovative, concepts that lead to game-changing solutions targeting social connectedness, life satisfaction and mental wellbeing of motorcycle riders. For this initiative, we have prioritised middle-aged men who ride motorcycles and are dealing with key life challenges, and young riders in need of mentorship.


The focus goes on to explain exactly what they’re looking for, so while I love the idea of a motorcycling cooperative franchise idea that would prompt shared garages all over the place rather than just in high hipster content urban locations, it might not be as scalable and on target for this project, but I’m going to pitch it anyway.

Here are the look-fors if you’re thinking about submitting an idea (and if you’ve got one, you should):

The Inspiration Statement should describe the following:
  • Your inspiration for this Challenge

  • Who your target group would include
  • Your proposed solution to help male motorcyclists within your target group build relationships to increase their level of social connection, life satisfaction and well-being in an innovative and disruptive way
  • A brief description of your vision for the project beyond the pilot period
  • Project lead (and potential partners if known at this stage)
  • Project title

Inspiration:  I’m a technology teacher in our local high school.  This pathway began for me with my dad, who was a machinist and mechanic in the UK before we emigrated to Canada in 1977. We weren’t well off, so if I wanted a car I had to know how to keep it going, and he always spent the time to do that work with me.  One day I asked him how he knew what to do as we repaired a head gasket on my car, and he said something that has stayed with me since, “if a person designed and built it, I can figure out how to repair it.”  His mentor-ship led me to my career as a vocational skills teacher.  I’ve since watched generations of students develop their hands-on skills in technical trades.  I tried to start a high school motorcycling club a few years ago and got laughed out of the meeting.  Schools won’t touch motorcycling, but there are other ways to introduce riding that benefit from the credibility and mentoring a teacher can provide.

Target Group:  cooperative education students (many of these are higher risk kids who lack male mentors), recent graduates who are usually forgotten by the system, young men in the community who may know the teacher from when they were in school, and middle-aged men who might even be parents of students; teachers connect through generations in their communities.

Proposed Solution:  MOTR Garages vertically connect men across generations.  Social isolaton can become particularly acute as men retire.  By recognizing and leveraging the skills and networks of retired teachers, this project provides a platform for older men to share their experience and expertise with younger men interested in motorcycling.  By giving older men purpose and an opportunity to share their experience, this project will offer a social space that many men lack.  Motorcycle mechanics offer men an opportunity to socially connect without off-putting social expectations.  While interested in the idea of biking, many younger men have no idea how to get into it. Through a shared motorcycle workspace, MOTR Garages provide a place for men to gather and learn around a shared love of riding.

Project vision:  Create a pathway for retired teachers to retain their links in the community and continue to share their experience and expertise with new generations of riders.  Schools won’t support a high risk activity like motorcycling, but many teachers ride and have developed mentoring and teaching skills that would facilitate the technical confidence many younger men lack.  Working through cooperative education in education and directly with men in the community, many of whom may be former students, MOTR Garages creates a space that values generational experience and sharing in a society intent on diminishing this connection between men.

Project leads:  retired educators with mechanical experience and a love of motorcycling; you’d be surprised at how many teachers ride.

Project title:  Mentoring Old-Hacks Tenacious Rookies  (MOTR Garage)




LINKS

from Blogger https://ift.tt/3ipLvDg
via IFTTT

Posted on

Blended Learning and Relevant Classrooms

I’m feeling the synchronicity of two educational situations at the moment. I’m presenting this on Monday next at our Board’s learning fair, and I just went in for an interview for a curriculum leader position in technology/elearning.

The topic of the learning fair is ‘student engagement’ but I think this is the answer to the wrong question. Engagement implies trying to tailor your teaching to make it palatable for students. Engagement is what you get when you look at the bigger picture and become relevant, it isn’t a goal in itself.
I was asked today in the interview what the future is for blended learning. In this case, blended learning implies a hybrid of elearning/in-class learning and technology. I don’t think there is a future in it, I believe it is the future, at least if we want to get an increasingly irrelevant (due to the pace of change) school system to recognize the scope of the changes happening in the world around us, and make a meaningful attempt to prepare our students for the deluge ahead.
Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google had a rather profound quote, I use it in the prezi:
“Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003. I spend most of my time assuming the world is not ready for the technology revolution that will be happening to them soon,”
If the world isn’t ready, education is even less so.
In the interview I described students’ out-of-school life as a torrent of data, like standing under Niagara Falls; it’s a stimulating, multi-directional, multi-disciplinary stream of information on many topics delivered in many different formats in rapid succession. We then get them into a class room and dribble information at them, out of a teacher’s mouth, out of a text book, all of it stale, uni-directional and non-interactive; then we wonder how to engage them.
In the meantime I’m seeing students mismanage and drop information and connections they should be making because they can’t manage the information being streamed at them. They don’t know how to make most effective use of their technology, often using smart phones in the dumbest possible ways. They don’t know how to effectively vet and prioritize data and find ways to make useful, actionable connections from it.
We certainly don’t teach effective data management and analysis in our in-class information dribble of chalk boards, rows of desks and one-person-speak-at-a-time last century classes.
Blended learning, where teachers make use of the sea of data swirling around us and teach students to swim, not sink is the first step towards a relevant education system that actually prepares students for what they are likely to face. But preparing them for the data storm requires that we use the technology being developed to manage it, and the friction is great from a conservative educational standpoint.
When I was a kid, I was big into Astronomy. I memorized the nine planets, and even the big moons. Since August 2011, we’ve discovered almost 600 planets (even including Pluto’s demotion) and average about twelve new discoveries a week. The whole time I was growing up, there were only nine planets, we’re on the verge of discovering multitudes. Astronomy is just one of EVERY FIELD OF STUDY that is facing this data onslaught.
Information isn’t the limited, simple, permanent, sacred collection of knowledge it was once perceived to be. We have to stop teaching to the book and start teaching to the evolving datasphere.
Posted on

Sabbatical Rides: North America

The idea of a year’s sabbatical has come up a few times recently.  I’m ten years away from my retirement date.  My job has a four out of five option where my salary is stretched over five years while I’m only paid for four.  It means a slightly smaller paycheque, but then a paid year off at the end of it.


My wife has ideas of going back to school in that year off, but I’m disinclined to take a year off teaching in school to go to school.  What I’d really like to do is the EPIC MOTORCYCLING TRIP with the intent of writing and producing art and photography out of it.  When people do this they typically line up the RTW (’round the world) ride and then spend a lot of time in poor countries making unintentionally Western-superiority statements about how hardy they are and how backwards non-Europeans are.   I’m reluctant to follow that pattern.


We recently spent a summer driving most of the way across North America and back again.  I had a number of moments when I saw North America for what it is:  a place that has almost no human history in it.  At the Canadian Museum of Human Rights I started thinking about how native aboriginal people are to North America (there were lots of displays on how poorly Europeans integrated with the first immigrants to this place).  A few days later at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller I discovered that most of North America’s mega-fauna disappeared right after humans first arrived; we’re an environmental scurge no matter where we go.  It got me thinking about how North America must have looked before we got here and unbalanced it all.


The Americas were blissfully free of human beings for all bit a trivially small, recent moment in time.  They separated from the massive Pangea landmass between two hundred and a hundred and seventy million years ago, long before anything remotely human walked the earth.  For millenia upon millenia North and South America were unique ecosystems with animals not found anywhere else, all of it safe from the human migration out of Africa two to three million years ago.  Earliest estimates now have humans crossing the northern ice bridge during an ice age about fifteen thousand years ago.  That means that, conservatively, humans (aboriginal and later settlers) have claimed North America as theirs for less than 0.0086% of its existence.


One of the few mega-fauna left after the humans got here.
It’s hard not to see a tragic species memory in those eyes.

This framed much of that trip for me.  I kept trying to see the lands we were travelling through without the recent influx of foreign species.  Humans appeared and immediately started filling this place with invasive species from where they came from.  This became especially evident when I was looking into the eyes of a truly native species in Yellowstone Park.


This human free view of the Americas is something we tend to ignore as we’re all so busy justifying the pieces of it we divide up between ourselves.  Most of North America’s history had nothing to do with us.  There are other parts of the world that have had humans living in them for hundreds of thousands of years, but those places aren’t here.

This sabbatical ride would be to circumnavigate North America and try to see the place itself without its invasive and destructive recent history.






The trick would be to time this ride with the weather.  I’d be off work beginning in July and then have until the end of the following August.  Heading east to Cape Spear (North America’s easternmost point) would mean avoiding the early winters that hit Newfoundland.  Spending a summer at home would be a nice way to start the sabbatical, then, as my wife heads off to school, I hit the road.  We could arrange meetups when she’s off school through the fall.

I’d start in Newfoundland in September and then head down the East Coast to Key West before riding around the Gulf of Mexico to Cancun and then crossing the continent at its narrowest point before making my way up the West Coast.  I’d try to time my pause for the holiday break, servicing and then parking up the bike in storage for a few months in California.


I’d fly back out and release the bike from storage in the late spring and aim to be taking the long road to the Arctic Ocean as the days become infinite over the Tundra.  Ideally I’d be back home by mid-July.


From tropical rain forests to mountains, plains and tundra, this ride would show the staggering range of geography to be found in North America.  At well over thirty-three thousand kilometres, this would also be an epic ride in terms of distance (RTW rides are typically 20-30,000kms).


The only downside would be the cost of travel in the USA and Canada, but there are ways to manage that without breaking the bank.  With the idea of getting to know the North America under the human migration, wild camping as often as possible would be a nice way to get closer to the land and to meet the people from all over Turtle Island who now call it home.


Taking my old Tiger on a North American circumnavigation
would be brilliant!  This old thing would be long distance
ready with only a few upgrades.

With a dearth of freeway travel on this trip, it would be about a lot of coastal roads and staying to the edge of the continent.  With potentially rough roads in the far south and north of the trip, something that is capable both on and off road would be ideal.  It wouldn’t need to be a high speed touring cable unit, but it would have to carry the gear for at least occasional wild camping.  There are a number of mid-sized adventure bikes that would fit this need, though I’d be just at tempted to take my current Tiger.  Perhaps I could customize it as a sabre-toothed Tiger in relation to the America’s apex predator (made extinct when humans showed up).


Riding tens of thousands of kilometres in a relatively short period of time means some challenging logistics, especially if I want to spend breaks with my significant other.  The ride out to Cape Spear on the easternmost coast is a thirty-two hundred kilometre all-Canadian opening to the trip.  All told, the ride out to Newfoundland and then back to the US border to head south down the Eastern Seaboard is nearly five thousand kilometres.  Breaking the trip into pieces is how I’ve blocked out the timing of it.


Canada East:  Elora to Cape Spear, Newfoundland and back to St. John, New Brunswick.  Mid-September.  About five thousand kilometres.  With potentially interesting weather (this year the east coast of Canada has been hammered by the remains of hurricanes) even this opening section might be challenging.  With ferries involved, doing an average of 400kms a day seems like an eminently doable thing that would also give me reasonable stopping time so I’m not always rushing past moments of insight.  Five thousand kilometres at four hundred a day works out to twelve days on the road.  Giving myself a fortnight to do that would mean being able to spend a bit of extra time where necessary (hopefully on Newfoundland).


The East Coast:  New Brunswick to Key West.  End of September/early October.  This four thousand kilometre jaunt down the East Coast would be happening in the fall, while dodging hurricanes.  Sticking to the coast would be occasionally tricky in a road system designed to put you onto an interstate, but I’d stubbornly cling to it.  Four thousand kilometres at four hundred a day average is ten days riding south.  I could easily compress that by doing it on freeways, but that’s not the point.  Being on back roads gives me a better chance of seeing the place for what it is instead of just seeing the travel industry.  I’d be aiming to get to Key West still fairly early in October and then start my circumnavigation of the Gulf of Mexico.




The Gulf of Mexico:  Key West, Florida to Cancun, Mexico.  From early October for the month.  The Gulf coast means I’m travelling through some culturally unique places.  New Orleans has long been a desired destination, and Texas is often described as a country in and of itself.  Crossing into Mexico puts this trip well into an adventure mind-set as I’d have to find my way through a unique culture in a language I’m not familiar with.  The fifty-three hundred kilometres of this leg of the trip should take roughly two weeks, but with borders and other hold ups it would probably be better to settle on an end of October arrival in Cancun (giving me 5-6 days of padding in there to let things run at Mexican speed).


Pacific Mexico:  Cancun through Baja to San Diego, California.  This six thousand kilometre leg up the west coast of Mexico and the Baja Peninsula will eventually lead me back to the USA.  If I’m beginning this leg in early November, it should take me fifteen days at my 400/day average to make my way north.  Giving myself the month means extra days, hopefully with a reading week meetup with Alanna somewhere in Mexico for a few days off together in the warm.  Even with that relaxed schedule I should be able to make my way to San Diego, service the bike and put it into storage for a few months before making my way home for the holidays.  A handy winter break means I could collate my photos and notes from part one of the trip.  


West Coast to the Arctic Ocean:  San Diego to Tuktoyaktuk.  This seven thousand kilometre ride to the northern edge of North America would take 18 days, but with multiple ferries, borders and coastal barriers I’d pad some extra time in there.  I’d be aiming for a late June/early July (midsummer, midnight sun) arrival in Tuktoyaktuk on Canada’s Arctic coast.  A month back from that would mean flying back into San Diego around the beginning of June and then riding north for many weeks.


From Vancouver Island on north this would be a rough and tumble ride with hundreds of kilometres of gravel roads.  The bike would need to be sorted and ready to take on that kind of abuse.

The Long Way Home:  Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories to Elora, Ontario.  It’s nearly seven thousand kilometres diagonally across Canada back home again to finish this trip.  That’s another 18 days at 400kms/day.


I’d try to be home by mid-July and enjoy some downtime before getting ready to go back into the classroom.  The first nine hundred kilometres of this trip would be long days on permafrost and gravel, but from the Dawson Highway south it would be back on tarmac and I would be able to make better time.  There is no over land passage that traces the northern coast of Canada through the tundra, so a diagonal slash south and east would be the final leg of this trip.


Wrapping my head around this continent on which I live would not only give me great material for writing, but it would also let me tick off a bucket list item:  complete a truly epic motorcycle journey before I’m too old to manage it.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2z5dvqs
via IFTTT

Posted on

Living On The Concours

It doesn’t happen often, I’m usually the one taking the photos.
A student of mine saw me riding in to school from her school bus.

I’ve been riding the Concours for over a month now.  It came to me with a broken speedo reading 25073 miles.  Today it’s 25784 on it – 711 miles so far.  With some commuting and longer trips in the mix I’m starting to get a good sense of what the bike is capable of.

My most recent refill took me 175 miles and took just over 20 litres to refill (pardon my half imperial/half metric measurements).  It looks like I’m getting about 41mpg out of it, which is quite a surprise considering how often I push the RPMs up (it just sounds so good doing it).  I’ve been told you can get up near 50mpg if you don’t wring its neck, which should be doable if I’m on a longer road trip, especially if I’m covering miles at speed on the highway, which I never normally do.

The only time I pushed too hard was winding on the throttle when entering a main road a couple of weeks ago.  Being so torquey, the Connie broke loose on the back wheel when I rolled on the thottle.  I caught it in time but it was exciting!  Hooking up the bike and keeping it upright was surprisingly easy, this Kawasaki is remarkably responsive for how big it is.  Easing off the throttle and letting the tire reconnect was enough to get me straightened out and launched up the road right quick.  Other than that one bit of excitement the Concours has been an easy bike to live with.  It handles two up duty well, swallows the horrible roads around here with much better suspension than the Ninja had, and the engine has only gotten sweeter as I’ve started using it regularly.

With the Connie sorted I’ve been working on the rider too.  I started working on my weight in February when I was shocked to learn I was over two hundred and sixty pounds.  Most recently I was down to 248lbs, which is a 14lb drop, which isn’t bad considering I’m exercising regularly and have put on some muscle as well.  I’m aiming for under 240, but I’m going to keep up the exercise and eating choices and just see where it lands me.  The goal is still to eventually head off to racing school and not look like a tool in one piece leathers.

Posted on

Twist of the Throttle

The cornering bible… 

I’m currently reading Keith Code‘s Twist of the Wrist.  I’ve been looking for an intelligent description of motorcycle operation that accurately explains the dynamics of two wheeled riding (which differs significantly from three and four wheeled operation).

I listened to an interview with a senior Honda engineer (I can’t remember where) and he said that after World War 2 the engineers that couldn’t go into aviation (because of the U.S. embargo that prevented a Japanese aviation industry from re-inventing Zeroes) went into motorcycle engineering because the dynamics are similar (motorcycles work in 3 dimensions like airplanes).  Victory in World War 2 meant the end of allied motorcycling manufacturing as they knew it… an irony of victory, but I digress.

The Ninja takes a breather at Higher Ground, the lovely
coffee shop at the top of the Forks of the Credit in Belfountain.

Professor Code’s book explains the dynamics of motorcycle riding in better detail than anything else I’ve found.  The video explains the psychology and physics of riding and dismisses many of the misconceptions.  

I spent this afternoon riding over to one of the few curvy roads in the farming desert I live in to practice my throttle control and make a conscious assessment of my fear reactions to riding.  I’m determined to get rid of the ‘chicken strips‘ on my tyres.  I got down to my peg feelers on a couple of the long corners, finally.

The distance between driving a multi-wheeled vehicle (which I’ve got a lot of experience on) and two wheeled vehicles is massive.  You have to fight a lot of habit and psychology to give the bike what it needs to corner well; the dynamics are completely different and counter-intuitive if you’re overly four wheel focused.  Even the process of approaching and exiting a corner is much more complex on the multi-axis two wheeled conveyance.  Driving and riding are two very different processes, and I’m frankly enjoying the complexity of the simplicity of two wheels by comparison.

Reading/watching Twist of the Wrist should be a requirement for anyone wanting to take on motorbiking, it’ll make you aware of the mechanics of riding.  

I really need a track day, not for the speed but for the ability to focus on process without worrying if the person coming the other way is texting.

Posted on

Motorcycle Media Musings

If you’re in the mood for a motorbike adventure to the top of the world, give yourself fifty minutes and give this a watch…  


Evidently the company that runs this trip is no longer doing business, but here’s hoping they are able to get it going again, what a journey.

This is a compilation of amazing video.  Other than the first track I generally enjoyed the musical accompaniment too.


What surprised me was the level of acrobatic control that is possible on a bike, and the drifting is astonishing.  Between the stunt bike riding and the race footage, it makes me wonder how someone learns this degree of control.  A bike with no plastic fairings that got dropped a lot must be somewhere in their past.  I’ve often thought that an old dirt bike that I could drop without worrying about it would help me get a feel for the limits on a bike, even at low speeds.

 

 

On a now-for-something-completely-different in terms of motorbike media, I’m finishing up the bike hole.  For decoration I wanted something bikey.  My wife got me some fantastic hand drawn prints while we were in England this summer, so they were destined for the finished garage.  

I also wanted some clean pictures of modern bikes that I like.  We just set up a photo printing station at work, so I found some clean, high-def side views of bikes on white backgrounds that made for some nice 4x6s.

The end result is a nicely bike themed bike hole.  It’s not quite finished yet, but it’s looking good.

Posted on

Too Far Gone

Bike Magazine had an excerpt from Todd Blubaugh‘s Too Far Gone in the last issue.  The excerpt was so moving that I just got up and purchased the book on Amazon.


My favourite motorcycle reads have been the philosophical ones that dig deep.  The ‘I rode very far every day’ travel trips don’t always get to the why’s of the trip, often getting stuck in the trivial details.  The result ends up feeling like a travel advertisement rather than showing the real power of a journey.


Alternately, you have the books that aim directly at motorcycle culture but end up being dimensionless descriptions of it, hyping up the excitement of the ride without making any attempt to understand why people would take these risks and identify with such a divisive cultural icon.  

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one of the first books to go deep, showing the depths to which some motorcyclists dive when out in the wind.  Anything by Matt Crawford does the same thing for mechanics in general, although he comes from a place of motorbikes.  Deep thoughts while flying through time and space on two wheels are kind of the point for me.  If I just wanted to go fast, I’d do it in a car or a plane.  There is something elemental about motorcycling that zens you into the moment.  The immediacy of it makes you honest.


After reading a few pages of excerpts in BIKE, I’m looking forward to reading not so much about Todd’s travels but about his insights.  The motorcycle isn’t the point, but it’s one of the best vehicles for taking you to eureka that I’ve found, and I’m more willing to follow an author to those moments of enlightenment on two wheels because I believe in the medium.

How good was it?  Read the followup post here!

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2mvpwjj
via IFTTT

Posted on

Simple Remote Learning Fixes

I was asked what our spec-ed teachers can do to help students with IEPs who are struggling with technology at home.  This might not be the answer they expected, but here’s 30 years of IT experience at work, and it follows the screensaver I always ran when I was a full time IT technician:  SIMPLIFY!

For many ‘tech’ is something out of their comfort zone which means you’re battling a confidence issue as well as the tech problem.  For others, especially younger people who have been told they’re digital natives who intuitively understand technology (which is hooey) you get the Dunning-Kruger Effect in full blossom and have have to back them out of the assumptions they jump into too quickly.

Here are the simple how-tos for tech support which will resolve the vast majority of technical problems you’ll face in our bizarre new world of COVID19 bubble remote learning (you’ll be building digital fluency in your users too!):

THE BASICS FOR TECH SUPPORTING REMOTE LEARNING


1. Have you tried turning it off and on again?  You’d be amazed how often that solves things.  There is a lot of data moving around in a computer and the person using it may very well have interrupted some of those processes.  Rebooting a computer lets it sort itself out and undo those interruptions.

 


2. SLOW DOWN! (it’s a theme) Actually read the error – the computer is trying to tell you something, slow down and read and understand it. Many people tend to make assumptions and then start mashing buttons and messing with settings.  This makes it even harder to fix the probably simple issue that kicked this off.




3. Get good at searching online for a solution.  Don’t paraphrase, put the specific message you’re getting in the search and you’ll get specific how-tos, you’ll also get a sense of how common what’s happened is.  Include details.  What operating system are you running?  Windows 10?  Windows 8?  Windows 7 even though it is no longer supported by Microsoft but your school board won’t update?  Mac OSx?  ChromeOS?  What model of computer are you using – it’s stamped on it somewhere.  Get details and use them in your online search. 




4.  Having said number 3, the internet is populated with idiots, so don’t believe everything you read on the interwebs – be criticial!  Look for quality answers from a good source (it’s NEVER reddit – see the brilliant commentary on the right).
A Chrome answer from a Google page?  A Windows answer from a Microsoft page?  A Mac answer from an Apple page?  That’s where you want to look – and then SLOW DOWN (theme, remember?) read and understand what they’re saying.

5.  Make one change and test it.  As Charles from MASH once famously said, do one thing at a time, do it very well, and then move on.
Running off half cocked is what too many people do.  They end up making things worse by digging into settings and mashing buttons.  If it worked before, it’s probably a single thing that changed.  Slow down, read and understand what’s happening, isolate the problem, solve it – then reboot to let the computer sort itself out!


The technical side of things is only one part of the technical support equation.  Dealing with user psychology is the unspoken, secret side of the business.  User resilience plays a big part in how many technical issues you’re tasked with solving.  It’s a lack of confidence that prevents people from solving many of these issues themselves, not the technical complexity of the issue itself.  As my Dad once said, if a person built it, I can fix it.  Until we’re facing alien technology, you got this.

If we can build confidence and encourage everyone to take on responsibility for using the tech, everything tends to work better, the user included.  Don’t ignore the psychology – make a point of congratulating yourself or your user for resolving their own technical challenges – it helps bridge that confidence deficit.

6. BONUS:  it’s usually something simpler than you think it is.  When I was looking at blade server failure that had just knocked over 600 employees off the network for no reason everyone else in the department wanted to dive into software settings.  I went and looked at the thing and realized it had been plugged in to the wrong breaker (plug), and it kept popping when over 400 connected at time.  Others wanted to get into settings, I checked to see if it was plugged in properly.

Mike Meyers has a similar story in his CompTIA A+ Study manual:  a colleague was bragging about how great his security firewalls were on a new server.  Mike bet him he could get into it and the guy took the bet.  Mike put on overalls, walked into the office saying he was there to do some maintenance and the receptionist waved him in.  He walked into the server room, unplugged it and walked out of the office with it under his arm.  The receptionist didn’t notice because her internet was down (he’d just walked out with the thing that served it).



7. SUPER BONUS!!!  PUSH YOUR UPDATES!  If you’re on Windows type in update in the search bar and it’ll walk you through them – being out of date can stop your machine from working properly, especially in our interconnected techosystem (see what I did there/).  Being out of date also opens you up to all sorts of cybersecurity headaches.  If you’re on an Apple product, the process is similar.  Chromebooks need updating love too, don’t forget it!

There is nothing magical about digital technology, or any technology really.  Our inability to manage it usually comes down to either a confidence problem around a lack of familiarity or an over falsity of confidence based on the same thing.

When you’re trying to get students connected during an emergency situation don’t over-complicate things and look for the easiest fix first.  I’ve seen ‘experts’ diving into Chrome settings and spending an hour messing with settings and still coming up short.  The IT tech in me always wonders why they don’t spend five minutes uninstalling and reinstalling it.  The point isn’t to show off your prowess (though I’m not sure that wandering through settings randomly trying things for an hour would do that), it’s to make things work.

In short, be humble, be helpful and be solutions focused which includes addressing where your user is in terms of psychology.  That’ll get 99% of your technical challenges sorted in our bizarre COVID remote learning bubbles.  For the other 1%, that’s why we have IT departments.

from DUSTY WORLD on Blogger https://ift.tt/2Xpg8jY published in the middle of the spring 2020 COVID19 emergency remote learning situation as I found myself buried under dozens of requests for help from frantic teachers and students.
via IFTTT

Posted on

Mid-Winter Motorcycle Maintenance: Triumph Tiger Front Brakes


It was a busy long weekend in the winter maintenance garage.  In addition to going over all the electrical connectors on the Tiger, I also did the front brake pads, which weren’t making any noise, but after last year’s noisy rear brakes forcing a change during the too-short Canadian riding season, I figured some preventative maintenance was in order, and good thing too!  You can see the metal noise strips just becoming visible in the photo.

The brake change was pretty straightforward with the caliper pin cover coming off with a bit of heat and the rest of the pieces coming apart with no problems.  After cleaning up the metal spring pads with a wire brush and thoroughly cleaning the calipers, everything went back together with minimum fuss.  The caliper action was nice and smooth and they willingly got pushed to full open to accept the new pads.  After a couple of pumps of the lever everything was tight and grippy again.  I managed to find the types of caliper I was looking for on Fortnine, and they happened to be orange and look good on the Lucifer Orange Tiger.

The only real pain were the brake master cylinder cover bolts.  The first one came out easily enough, but the second didn’t want to come no matter what I did.  Eventually a hammered in Phillip’s head screwdriver and some heat cracked the bolt’s grip and out it came, but it’s pretty mangled.

I was able to find that the bolt is a countersunk M5x16mm bolt.  It’s a pretty common thing so I’m hoping I don’t have to order it online and can pick one up locally.  It’s probably too much to ask to find one that’s got a nice coloured, metallic finish.

That covers what I wanted to get done as far as winter maintenance goes with the Tiger.  Other than the brakes and a clean and grease, it was all about the LED indicator upgrade.  Next year it’ll be a swing arm removal and chassis grease and it’ll have been several seasons since I last did the brake fluid and coolant, so that’s on the future list too.  Now it’s just the long wait for spring and a chance to get out and ride again.

In the meantime the Honda Fireblade Project is also in pretty good shape.  The carbs are sorted, as is the petcock.  I’m only waiting on a break in the weather to test everything.  In the meantime I’ve got another set of the LED indicators waiting to go on, but I’m tempted to wait on that as long as the stock ones work.


from Blogger https://ift.tt/2uOLlRT
via IFTTT

Posted on

M2: Double the Fun

I got my M2 yesterday, which means I’m off double secret probation and able to ride at night, double people and/or go on the big highways.  Two hours after I got my M2 I took the bike over to my eight year old’s school and drove him home on it.  It was a nice, leisurely ride through town.  He hasn’t been able to talk about much else since.

Just like Nana used to drive:
The Isetta 3 Wheeler

One of our instructors at the motorbike course wasn’t a fan of taking passengers.  To him it defeated the point of the whole experience; a singular, tight bond between rider and bike, and a chance to be alone with your thoughts.  I think that’s an important part of biking, but I’m digging being able to share the feel of riding with my son.  To that end, I’m thinking about the options available.  The idea of a big touring bike doesn’t really thrill, but in the antique and adventure bike arenas there are a lot of options.

I’ve got a thing for asymmetrical vehicles.  My Nana had a three wheeler when I was growing up in Norfolk. I loved that car, the door was the whole front end, and she looked so cool driving it.

Royal Enfield Bullet Classic

When I was a kid I also saw my share of Morgan Aeros, and the new Morgan 3 scratches that same itch.  Bikes have a long tradition of three wheeling too.  I’ve always thought the sidecar look was classic cool.  When I discovered that one of the premier vintage side car shops (Old Vintage Cranks) is only 20 minutes away from me in Hillsburgh, I could see me getting something from them in the future.

They also happen to be a Royal Enfield dealer, so I could get a classic look with modern parts!  With that bike a sidecar is almost a necessity!  OVC is the place to get that done.  A Royal Enfield Bullet Classic in blue with a matching classic side car would be an awesome way to share the open feel of riding with my family.

I think there will always be a place in the stable for a two wheeler, but it’s nice to have a not crazy-expensive option like the RE Bullet and sidecar sitting there waiting for a tear down the road.  Cool chrome riding goggles and classic leather gear would be the accessory of choice.

At the moment I’m finding the Ninja to be a great first bike.  It’s athletic, sounds wonderful and is always rearing to go.  With my son on the back I feel the weight, especially on the shocks.  Something with longer suspension travel, like that KLR I originally considered, would also allow for a better two person ride.  A KLR with luggage means I’m less worried about him flying off too, something the twitchy Ninja seems eager to do.

Now that I can do pretty much everything you can do on a bike on the road, the perfect bike isn’t one bike.  I’d eventually want an enduro that can go anywhere, a road specialist, and something odd-ball, like that classic bike and sidecar combo.  At the moment my dream stable is a Triumph Tiger 800 adventure bike, a Triumph Street Triple naked road bike and that whacky classic with sidecar.  Being able to open the garage and see those three sitting there would mean all options are on the table… and the three together still cost less than a new mid-sized SUV.

Road Specialist
Triumph Street Triple
Enduro Go Anywhere Bike
Triumph Tiger 800