One more annoyance gone

Canon chipped the batteries for their HD camcorders, one of which I own. The high capacity battery that I bought with it (2+ years ago) had to have its own charging method and a 4-LED bar graph to show how much capacity was left in it. And every time I turned the camera on, it waited about 10 seconds then popped up a "unable to communicate with battery; continue?" message. Engineered for maximum irritation.

After the concert weekend, I decided I really would like to have another large battery for it. Turns out that the clever Chinese (I assume) have reverse-engineered the chip, and you can now buy "decoded" batteries that charge normally and give precise to-the-minute readouts of remaining time.

And the price is still $18 shipped for a battery that Canon charges $120 for. So woo-hoo!

I really wish it were Sony, or some company I'm used to making fun of, doing stuff like chipping batteries. But it seems like it's EVERY company now. Just try to find a company that hasn't taken SOME steps to keep people from refilling their ink/toner, for instance.

I just get really irritated when they put so much effort into making the equipment that I buy from them work against me.

Should'a known better

Got that Garmin GPS, figured "I'll treat it OK, no need for a screen protector"

First time out for an actual trip 2 weekends ago on the way back from Dearborn, the suction cup failed (I didn't wipe it clean well enough) it nosedived into the passenger footwell and put a scratch in the screen.

Oh well, it's a small (though deep) scratch, it still works, lesson learned, screen protector ordered from ebay, $2.80.

Dammit

Forecast sez put the studs back on the bike. Bleh. Oh well, it was a crapshoot anyway.

Edit: Well, crapity. The studs are pretty messed up on the back wheel, and the tread blocks are separating from the plys. I'm not running that tire, I don't fancy a blowout. I left the studded tire on the front, so I could still ride on an iffy day. In reality I'm sure it'll come back off again anyway, the next two days don't look "iffy" they look like crap, and by Monday it'll be warm again.

Time to look for new studs. They never go on sale though. This set is a pair of Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 x 35s, I've been thinking about a pair of W240 x 40s, they're a lot more aggressive and knobby while still being able to roll relatively smoothly.

Whoa, Peter White IS running a 25% off, end of season sale. The W240s are $72 each though, so even with a discount it's $108 a pair. Still, a good deal, and I can't argue with $36 off. These tires last 3 or 4 years so it's not really that bad.

Edit2: I'll have to get down to the workout room tomorrow, my BP is up 5 points a day since last time I rode on Monday (74 Monday, 79 yesterday, 84 today).