spokedust

technology pains

Sometime this week, maybe, my new bike will arrive. Old-timers or bike savvy people will look at it and utter something like "Cool, a classic". My rivendell has a lugged steel frame. All the components were selected carefully for longevity, minimal maintainance, and proven functionality. I expect these observers have a bias that my classic choices are inferior to the average tig welded nonferrous (carbon,aluminum,titanium) frame - throwaway components.

My classic choices weren't completely chosen from nostalgia, my decisions were driven primarily by choosing the bestproducts of the last 30 years that would last another 30 years. Wendell Berry espouses a tenet "Choose the simplest tool for the job without sacrifice. Frankly, most of the cool, new high tech products either have serious design/feature gaps or just aren't intended to last. A phil wood hub is gorgeous, needs minimal attention -even in rainy seattle. I conceded on Shimano STI shifters - they won't last 30 years but they have great functionality. But I don't have clipless pedals to start. Its freeing to walk out the door in my tevas or birks and use the marvelous invention of powertwist straps. No click clack

I'm thinking about this, for one - I'm very disappointed in the buying experience - this is the most expensive thing (multi thousands) that I've bought myself. I knew it would take a long time, even a couple years - the company just managed my expectations and experience for crap. I intend to tell Grant Peterson as much.

But I'm also thinking about this since much of my technology all crapped out this weekend. Though I'll be riding what many consider a luddite bike (until I beat them up the hill), I live on the bleeding edge of technology. I work at a leading .com, I've had cool geek toys, lust after a treo. We have a wireless network - it crapped out, the printer crapped out, but worst of all my VOIP phoneservice crapped out. All of a sudden Vonage is failing me. Fortunately, Vonage offers a simulring service so my calls are going directly to my cell phone. This confuses the callers but they get over it.

At the end of the day it takes time to maintain all these technology connections. 30 minutes to the printer, 120 minutes to reconfigure a laptop for the home network, I'm 90 minutes into fixing the phone and still waiting on a response from "tech support" I'd rather spend this time swimming at the beach with my kids or playing "flying monsters" in the backyard. The technology helps me keep grandparents smiling over their kids but that is the long view.

posted by bikenomad @ 9:10 PM