Ask MetaFilter posts by rocketman

Steel or aluminum bike frame?

rocketman — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:14:02 -0800

I'm looking to purchase a new bike, but I don't know what frame to get. Steel or aluminum? My current bike is a 1970s Gitane steel touring frame that I found in a trash heap two years ago. It's been a trooper, but it's also heavier than most mountain bikes sold today, and as I'm doing a lot of riding, I think I've earned an upgrade.

Over the past two years I put about 1500 miles on this frame, and while I plan to keep it around and use it for a repair/learning bike, I want a new bike.

Currently, I'm looking at buying a Trek 1500 with Shimano Ultegra components - the LBS has a fantastic price on it ($900), and I test rode it and loved it. It's an aluminum frame with a carbon fork and seat stay, rides like butter, and fits me really well. I have this bike on hold, but have to make a decision within 30 days about whether or not to buy it, though I will probably make a purchase in the next week, as I'm training for some pretty long rides in the near future.

A friend has advised me against buying this bike, and told me I can get a bike that's just as good off eBay, and for about 400 bucks less. While I believe him, he's a bit of a steel partisan, and I'm not sure steel is right for me. Or, I'm sure a lighter steel frame would be great, but I don't really have the time and energy to devote to watching eBay auctions and trying to snipe a frame that may or may not be as good a fit (which doesn't even begin to cover the possibility of eBay fraud or the fact that buying from my LBS would include free scheduled service and other perks for establishing a relationship). Obviously a new steel frame is going to be out of my price range (I've decided that the 900 bucks is as high as I'll go).

But at the same time, if I buy this aluminum frame and need to replace it in a couple of years, I'm going to be mighty pissed. I try to be careful about how I spend my money, and want to make sure I'm making a good investment. That said, I ride on pavement exclusively, don't jump curbs, avoid potholes, and generally just want to go fast. Since I'm not very hard on a bike, wouldn't aluminum be adequate?

Anyway, all this is a way of calling for a showdown between the different frame partisans. If you're going to convince me that steel is the way to go, you also have to convince me that it's definitely worth the extra effort I'm going to need to invest in buying a frame, outfitting it with the right components, having it assembled, etc.

Thanks for your help!

How do I manage two domains on the same hosting package?

rocketman — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:42:43 -0800

I'm new to editing .htaccess files, and I'd like some help managing multiple domains on one hosting package. I'm trying to setup a website for my wife - she's registered her own domain, and I offered to host it for her. But I can't for the life of me figure out how to get both of our domains to resolve on my hosting package.

As it is, my website (let's call it www.foo.com) is up and running. I want her domain (let's call this one www.bar.com) to resolve as that domain - all I can seem to figure out to do is set up bar.foo.com, which is not what I want.

I *think* this requires editing the .htaccess file, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I'd need to do. I can pay my web host to do this, but they're just going to put a frame around my wife's site and pull in content from a subdirectory, which seems unelegant and somehow backwards.

So - how do I get two domains running on one share of webspace? Thanks in advance

We're honeymooning in Southern Alaska. Help us make the best of our time there.

rocketman — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:04:10 -0800

My wife and I are honeymooning in Alaska the first week of October - three days in Anchorage, and five days in Seward. Can you help me hit the highlights and avoid the crap? First of all, we understand it will be a bit chilly where we're going, and we don't mind: the off-season rates are nice, and I'd rather explore with fewer tourists around. We've weathered more than a decade in Wisconsin, so we know cold weather and can prepare for it. Is early October parka weather in Southern AK? Or can we get by with heavier jackets/layers? Should we focus on rain gear? Do we need to bring mosquito repellant?

The first three days we stay in Anchorage, we're likely going to stay downtown - are there night spots to check out, or night spots to definitely avoid? What about during the day? What must we see while in Anchorage?

I've done a bit more research on Seward, since we'll be there longer. We're staying on Lowell Point, and plan to hike around the area (we're definitely going to hike to Caines Head, and yes we know to time it with low tide) and explore the town. We may do some kayaking, though I'd be just as happy to stick with short hikes and good food.

Are there restaurants in either city that are not to be missed? Any special, off-the-tourist-radar places that a Midwestern boy can appreciate? We're not high-maintenance folks, and not afraid of a little grit and grime. What do you recommend?

Did I leave a good tip?

rocketman — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 10:43:58 -0800

TipFilter: Did I leave the right amount for a tip? This has been eating at me for a long time: last year for our anniversary, my fiance and I went to our favorite restaurant in town, as we had a $100 gift certificate to the place, and had eaten there often enough to earn a free $50 bottle of wine (you earn/save points based on how much cash you drop there). At the time, we were basically broke - I had ten dollars to my name the next day, and the only reason we could eat there in the first place was the gift certificates. We're regulars, and have a regular waitress who we know and like.

Our bill, after all discounts, came to 23 cents, and I left a 40 dollar tip, which I thought was pretty generous - that's a 26% tip, and we're pretty laid-back customers.

But since our dinner there, the waitress gave us the big cold shoulder for three months until she moved out of town for graduate school.

I try to tip appropriately, but did I tip enough in this case? Obviously our waitress could not know we were spending close to our last dollars on her, but would you have tipped more, or avoided going until you could tip more?

Advise on honeymoon destinations.

rocketman — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 13:43:53 -0800

We're looking for places to honeymoon, probably next year, and possibly 2007. My fiancee and I are very lackadaisically planning a wedding/honeymoon, sometime in the future, probably next year, and maybe in 2007. I'd say next year is the most likely bet.

We've agreed that we want to go somewhere neither of us has been to before, which precludes much of the US and Western continental Europe. Our first idea was Corsica, and I've just hit upon Buenos Aires / Argentina as another possibility

The full honeymoon will likely be 10 days to 2 weeks, and right now, it looks like we'd go either in April, early July, or October.

How do the two locations compare? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Help me put together my dream Mac.

rocketman — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:48:49 -0800

Help me put together my dream Mac. I am a video professional, and the IS department where I work has recently offered to foot the bill for an upgrade to the dual G4 I've been using for the past three years. They've given no restrictions on what I can ask for, so naturally I assume there are none.

I want to avoid asking for obnoxious things, like 8GB of memory. That said, I don't want to shoot low, since this machine will likely have to last me for the next three years, maybe four, and maybe forever (there's been a lot of recent noise about completely eliminating Macs from our company).

I plan on asking for the dual G5 2.7Ghz PowerPC, 2x400GB internal hard drives, and a 20" cinema display. Beyond that, I'm not familiar with the best video card to use, how much memory to ask for (I'd like 4GB, but could probably get by with 2GB), and if there are any special hardware items that will improve the performance of the machine.

On my own, I can probably put together specs that will be satisfactory, but I'd like some help getting specs that will perform well for the long haul.

Designing, programming, and administering a

rocketman — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:34:01 -0800

Designing, programming, and administering a website from scratch. (more inside)

When I try to go to Google, I get an error message. (more inside)

Smirnoff is running an ad campaign right now -

rocketman — Sat, 31 Jan 2004 20:47:26 -0800

Smirnoff is running an ad campaign right now - Zero carbs. How can this be? Seeing how alcohol is converted from sugar, my guess is it has to interact with the body in a way similar (or equal) to carbohydrates. Can anyone shed light on this for me?

I'm working with an alphabetical list of email

rocketman — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 07:12:00 -0800

I'm working with an alphabetical list of email addresses in Excel, approx. 8500 addresses long. Is there any quick way to remove duplicates outside of manually scrolling through and deleting them by hand?