What a crazy week! I know things have been a little quiet here, but I am still working on the next course. And remember: you all can create even single posts on a subject that interests you. We get to build the body of knowledge we want here.
Anyway, Ws and Gs.
IFIN is really starting to show its value. Between CopyFail, the Ubuntu outage, and the cPanel issues, it was a busy week of tracking stories and making sure everyone had the facts right. For what it’s worth, I’m already using IFIN as my resource for folks when they ask about current cyber issues.
I’m also trying to get federation going so that IFIN posts come over to our Cyber News organically. More to come on that.
I’m so grateful to the folks who are supporting that effort. I see IFIN as a natural outgrowth from TTI: this community is about learning the skills to build and protect the future, and IFIN is doing that work outside the strictures of company walls.
This was a good week. I have some reasons for optimism about next week.
A little late to the party, but my win for last week was that I ran a new 5k PR over the weekend. I started going to my local Parkrun the last few weeks and it’s been a lot of fun.
W: I learned how to realign the derailleur on my bike. I don’t ride it often but I’d been locked out of the bottom 2 gears for a while
G: I couldn’t have done it without the Park Tool YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@parktool. They’ve got great tutorials. Big shoutout to my man Calvin Jones.
There’s a bicycle club in my city that offers a free workshop for beginners over the summer which I’m planning to attend in a few weeks. So hopefully I can learn some basics like patching and replacing a tire and how to ride safely on the roads. Well, as safe as you can be in the States anyway. Should be fun and informative.
I miss city riding so much. I can only take the same bike path near my parents’ house so many times. As far as riding safely, it might piss people off behind you but I find it much safer to ride near the median (assuming there’s no bike lane) than between traffic and parked cars on the side (it’s how I got doored and I knew better when it happened), but I’d say only do that if you can ride at relatively the same speed or faster as traffic. If the speed limit on the street is higher than you’re able to ride at/are comfortable with, I’d advise just avoiding that street. it’s usually suggested to ride between traffic moving with you and street parked cars, but I find that to be so much sketchier. I’d rather people have to wait for no oncoming traffic to give me enough space to go around me than to just do it inches away from me without thinking. Part of this is with so many lifted trucks down where I live, people have a hard time seeing you on that side of their tank. If you’re closer to the median, they’re much more likely to see you, and will not turn a corner in front of you (I’ve lost a few wheels to people doing this). This is from the perspective of a courier however, so your experience may differ. If there are bike lanes in your city, definitely stick to those if you can, but people often park/load in them where I live. Always expect people to cut you off so you can be ready for it. You start to develop a sixth sense for it for the most part, but pobody’s nerfect. Make sure you have lights front and back when riding towards night time, and try to wear at least something highly reflective or brightly colored/hi-viz. My entire bike is highlighter yellow so I have to worry about that less. Always look out at intersections as well. I’ve had so many people drive the wrong way down one-ways, run stop signs and red lights, even drive with headlights off. It’s just not worth it to not check all ways. If you have clipless pedals, practice getting out of them quickly and bailing if you can.
Also take the time to explore and find shortcuts, it’s very fun and generally quite useful for getting around.
Berm peak also has some good stuff on repair/general, but park tool is probably the best youtube channel. It’s also worth making friends with your local shop mechanics/workers. Mine have helped me out in a pinch so many times. It’s also worth keeping small repair kit on you/in your bag/under your saddle/in some frame bag somewhere. Also if you don’t have puncture resistant tires I highly suggest them. I’ve used gatorskins for years, and the difference is night and day (at least where I would ride/have to ride, always a lot of glass and construction debris in the street).
I’ve got some gear for running at night and a bike headlight, so I think I’m mostly covered there. I’ve also been inspecting the map of my area more intently than I have in the past specifically looking for bikeable routes through the city. Luckily there are enough neighborhoods interspersed around the place to make it possible to get around on lower speed roads a lot of the time, but I’ll definitely have to do a lot of riding to build out my mental map.
Seriously though thanks for all the advice, I’ll keep it all in mind and stay safe.
and stay safe.