This is merely a test post - I have upgraded this site from corePHP's Wordpress for Joomla! version 2.9.1 to version 3.0.1.  There may be a few technical niggles related mostly to the site template - please to tell me if there are any major problems.

Here's a rather good webcomic from the ever-reliable xkcd.com:Actually, it's a very pressing concern - how does one keep track (securely) of the passwords that protect our many accounts round the web?  Not quite so sure about Google, though!

After this morning's rather lacklustre time trial (see previous post), it was off to Woburn for the annual Oyster Festival, in which the town that's possibly furthest from the sea transforms itself into Woburn-by-the-sea for a weekend.  The centre of the town is filled with stalls offering oysters (and other sea food), beers (including the headline Oyster Stout), and a wide variety of mostly meat-focussed foods.First up for consumption was half a dozen rather large oysters, eaten freshly opened with a squeeze of lemon juice and accompanied by a pint of oyster stout.  This was from Marston's, from who's website the image to the right is linked.  It's a wonderful stout that makes an excellent partner for the oysters (though to doesn't itself contain oysters!).After I'd washed down the oysters, I still felt a little peckish, which is where the kangaroo comes in - it was off to the kangaroo, ostrich and crocodile stall.  Unfortunately the grilled crocodile had proven popular and there was none left (otherwise that's what I'd have had) - we had a roll filled with grilled kangaroo  (me) and ostrich (Carol).  Frankly, the kangaroo was a little undistinguished - I thought it could have been any grilled meat.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Giant puffball"][/caption]While walking over to Woburn, I happened to spot a few giant puffballs (Langermannia gigantea) in the verge, and nabbed a couple of relatively small ones.

This was, to all appearances, a glorious morning for a time trial - clear with light winds.  It was a little cold, but I guess that's just to be expected at this time of year.  I was a little apprehensive, as I hadn't been feeling particularly well the day before.  Over by the start line, I soon settled in, with a nice chat with the timekeeper and pusher-off.  Hovering just to the north of the start was a splendid sight - about 25 hot air balloons, resplendent in bright colours and at various altitudes.  Indeed, one of them seemed to be coming down just across the A1 from Tempsford.  Putting that distraction to the back of my mind, I rolled up to the start line just a few minuted before my start at 7.25am.For what was probably the first time in riding on the F1, I got briefly stalled at the Tempsford flyover roundabout, as a car got held behind someone warming up.  This wasn't too bad, as the road surface on the roundabout is still in a dreadful state due to last winter's extended cold snap, and I invariably have to pick my way carefully round the potholes.  Once out on the A1, I was quickly up to speed, but not a particularly brisk speed.  Never mind, I thought, it'll be easier on the return leg.  I found it difficult to push out much effort - whether this was due to being ill the day before, I wasn't sure.  Over the Sandy roundabout and on to the turn at Warden Lane.  Now, I thought, it must get a bit easier...except it didn't.However, I kept the effort going well enough to cross the line in 22:56.  Not my best time of the season (by a long chalk) but not out of the frame set by other riders.  Most of the riders I spoke to felt it was a heavy morning, and difficult to get the speed up.  So, not bad.This was my last domestic open time trial of 2010 (my only remaining event being next week's Duo Normand) - and I have to say that it's  bit of a relief to have a break from riding up and down this particular section of the A1.  This season I've ridden events at 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles on the F1 courses, all of which focus on the A1.  In particular, the current version of the F1/100 is on the A1 for the first 86 miles.  I think I've become rather jaded from seeing that particular section of tarmac.  On the other hand, it has been a good season with by times at 10, 25 and 50 miles being my best for around 5 or 6 years.

I woke quite early for this event, and happily was headache-free.  After a hasty trip over I signed on, grabbed my number, and rolled over to the start.  This event had a very small field - 17 riders - and it's to the credit of the organiser that he persisted with running the event.  Unfortunately I was off at#2, which meant I was likely to have a pretty lonely ride, with only one rider to catch.As it happened, that's exactly what happened.  The course runs south from Tempsford to turn at the Sandy roundabout, proceeds north across the Black Cat Roundabout to turn at the Buckden roundabout.  From there, we return to Sandy, then back to Buckden before finishing at the Girtford underpass just north of the Sandy roundabout.  As an aside, I might just observe that by this stage of the season, I'm getting heartily sick of riding up and down that stretch of the A1! The nadir being the '100' I rode a few weeks ago - the first 86 miles were on this stretch of the A1.Anyway, I caught #1 before the first turn (less than three miles, and from there on, I was riding on my own until #5 passed me just after the second turn at Buckden with about 12 miles to go.  One reason I dislike being so early in a field is that having a set of riders to catch (and indeed a set of riders who might catch me!) is that there's an element of having a target to chase, which usually adds a bit of performance enhancement.As usual, I found myself flagging a bit over the last five or six miles, so it was a bit of a relief to squeak a 1:57 - only just though, as my time was 1:57:58!Only one more ride on the A1 in 2010 - next week I've entered a '10' on the F1/10, which I think runs from Tempsford to the Biggleswade North roundabout and back.  Next week's weather looks a bit crap as far as Thursday, hopefully it'll brighten up for the weekend, as not only do I have a time trial, but it's the Woburn Oyster Festival!RESULTS

Pos	Rider	Club	Time	N1	N2	N3
1	Matt Molloy	Finsbury Park C.C.	01:50:52	V	27:11
2	Tom Boulton	Finsbury Park C.C.	01:52:34	S	n/a
3	Dave Kendall	Finsbury Park C.C.	01:53:24	S	n/a
4	David Vaughan	North Road C.C. (2nd Claim)	01:54:29	S	n/a
5	Tony May	North Road C.C.	01:56:45	V	34:13
6	Robert Saunders	North Bucks Road Club	01:57:58	V	29:40
7	Neil Allonby	Icknield R.C. Compomotive Wheels	01:59:07	V	17:54
8	Paul Bachini	Icknield R.C. Compomotive Wheels	02:02:38	S	n/a
9	Christopher Symonds	North Road C.C.	02:04:04	S	n/a
10	Peter Harridge	Icknield R.C. Compomotive Wheels	02:07:15	V	24:51
11	Dominic Whitehead	Herts Wheelers (2nd Claim)	02:13:13	V	16:38
12	John Pfeifer	Icknield R.C. Compomotive Wheels	02:17:48	V	33:28
1001	Richard Marriott	Verulam C.C.		V	DNF
1002	Jonathan Shubert	Verulam C.C.		S	DNF
1003	Ian Bibby	Finsbury Park C.C.		V	DNF Punc
1004	Samuel Skuce	Verulam C.C.		S	DNS
1005	Chris Smith	Whitewebbs C.C.		S	NSA

An early morning autumnal fog had just lifted to reveal a gorgeous time trialling morning - sunny and virtually still - as I rolled up the Astwood this morning for the 8th and final NBRC League event of 2010.  Unfortunately a week of insomnia and a 24 hour headache didn't really leave me feeling really up for the event.  In fact, had it not been for its league status, I might have given the event a miss (particularly as I was down to ride the North Midds and Herts CA '50' the following day).  Still, there I was, ready to give it  go.It had been a week or two since my last club time trial, and it was good to catch up with the guys again - some, like Geoff P. have been popping out some good times, while others seem to have hit the doldrums a bit (rather like I feel).  Anyway, being a late arrival I ended up as last man off at #10.  At the due moment off I went, and despite having to ease off for traffic joining the main roadgot off to a good start.  I rapidly found myself at >31mph.  "This won't last" I thought, and so it transpired.I really didn't feel able to give the event full whack, and indeed for the first half barely got my heart rate into level 3.  Things changed a bit further on, though not enough to rescue my ride - I ended up with 24:13, I think (results to follow).  Fastest on the day was Geoff Perry (TeamMK), with James Fox (Luton CC) close behind - a really good ride given James was on a road bike with no tri-bars.I still felt rubbish at the finish, and headed off home to go supermarket shopping.  In the parlance common in my previous club, I went like a bag of spanners.  Let's hope it goes better at tomorrow's '50'...

								Pos. on
Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	7	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	23.34	V50	27.33	.+ 3.59	2
2	8	James Fox	CC Luton	23.48	S
3	5	Lindz Barral	i-Team CC	23.54	S
4	9	Richard Wood	TeamMK	24.01	S
5	10	Rob Saunders	NBRC	24.13	V50	27.33	.+ 3.20	5
6	2	Adrian Cox	TeamMK	24.24	V49	27.20	.+ 2.56	6
7	4	Rob Chaundy	TeamMK	25.44	V58	29.20	.+ 3.36	4
8	3	Clive Faine	TeamMK	27.04	V64	30.45	.+ 3.41	3
9	1	Karl Reed-Simpson	Private	27.07	V44	26.18	.- 0.49	7
10	6	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.29	V68	31.45	.+ 4.16	1

Well, after several months eyeing up the range of iPads, during which time I thought long and hard about what I might actually use one of these things for, I finally took the plunge and bought one of these overgrown iPad Touches - in my case an iPad 64Gb with WiFi, but no 3G.I've always been a bit suspicious of the iPad platform and its tie-in to the closeted App store - so why the change of heart?  Well, I guess it's the realisation that a web-enabled media consumption device need not be thought of as a computer, and coupled with an upcoming trip to the USA for which the need for entertainment was key (particularly with the decent battery life the iPad reportedly has).On first sync, the iPad picked up a bunch of apps I had installed on my iPod, plus the music already on the iPod.  Some of the apps weren't really much use on the iPad, so away they went.  What apps have I installed?

• Tweetdeck - doesn't seem to full-featured as the Air version on my Ubuntu laptop
• Wordpress - an app from blogging to WP blogs
• Stanza - nice, straightforward e-book reader
• Mendeley - Research bibliography and networking
• FeeddlerRSS - keeping tabs on my Google Reader account
• Evernote - keeping tabs on the web
• and a couple of games originally bought for my iPod

.

1. The on-screen keyboard is surprisingly usable, except:
2. Different apps and different tasks seem to call up slightly different versions of the keyboard, which I find a bit off-putting
3. BBC TV watched through iPlayer on Safari works really well
4. Videos work well
5. As with the iPod, no manual supplied, you need to go online
6. You can't charge from a PC USB port, which flummoxed me for a bit
7. It synchronises very quickly

On the other hand, I really don't think it "magical" or "revolutionary" as much of the publicity blurb would have it - don't forget this is an overgrown iPod Touch!

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Laurent Fignon"][/caption]Cyclingnews.com reports (Former Tour de France winner loses fight against cancer) that Laurent Fignon, double Tour de France winner has died after suffering from cancer.  Sad news.

I've been trying to overhaul my reprint collection* and bibliography, using the Mendeley Research Networks system.  Access to many journals comes via Elsevier's ScienceDirect, which has been down for most of yesterday "for scheduled maintenance".  At the moment it's throwing a "500 Server error".Anyway, a wee bit of internet searching reveals this is rather more than scheduled maintenance, and rather more of a major systems overhaul:

ScienceDirect, Scopus, Journals Consult and the Admin Tool will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 9 hours on Saturday, August 28, from 6:30am to 3:30pm Central Standard Time.  During this time, upgrades will be implemented to these systems as part of the launch of the new SciVerse platform. For more information about SciVerse, please visit www.acceleratescience.com.

I bet the ScienceDirect engineers had their hearts in their mouths at switchover time.  And I bet coffee consumption is hitting rather extreme levels...*Yes, the term "reprint" does reflect my age.  Actually I use pdfs.