sweeeeeeet :D

like having a new bike...

You don't necessarily need a "deep fryer" to deep fry!

I just use a large dutch oven filled with ~3L of oil.

'round our place the favourites are pretty standard fare: fish n chips, chicken fingers, wings or southern fried chicken when I have the time to put into it.

I've always wanted to try scotch eggs...

Word to a deep pot for fryin'....
I'd like to do tempura veggies well.

While track standing of course... *looks out for forum content bots*

I think tempura is meant to be shallow fried anyways

Dang, I took that offer too. In the email confirmation, I did get the shipping discount, but I saw that they had inserted USA in place of Canada in the shipping address. I emailed them back about the mistake and they replied there was no mistake. Well, I haven't received anything as yet, no surprise. Thanks for the heads up, I still have time to nip this one in the bud.

Marks & Spencers have wiped me out - It's not like it used to be. People treat it like a supermarket now!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Scotch eggs rock

Cavit8, i'm not going to be able to make the 1'oclock. I just missed my bus :| Bikechain @ 2.

P.S Just ordered 2 x Pro race 2's in red from PBK last night. Woo! There's a 5% discount coupon on the road forum. Still free shipping to Canada as well.

P.P.S Just thought you'd like to know Offhoff that the I can get WXP Pro SP2 and Vista business for free. Thanks to the 10G tuition at UT and it's only open to CS students :)

that wheel is hypnotic. caught myself spacing off for about 10 seconds. watch for bikes when you're driving that car. ;)

What's the total on that when all is said and done?

$65.24 for pair shipped. Might be another $5 + tax on that when it gets here. I ordered right before I found the 5% coupon :(

Good deal! I paid 91.20 for a pair at the show after tax... so even if you have to pay tax on that you're still way ahead of me... and shipped to your door!

Anyone know where to get a cheap PDA? I basically need one that I can type in and then upload to the web for emails or web publishing when possible. Wifi or bluetooth would be a pro, as well as built in camera and colour screen and mp3 and all that. But I'd just settle for a black and white usb pda I can type easily in and has good battery life. Also built in keyboards are also nice as I'm not a stylus fan.

One of those chinese computer shops around college and dundas must sell refurbs, but I checked a few websites and didn't see much...

This is my favourite dumpster find, a Shimano WH-R535 wheel and cassette. The cassette had seen better days so I popped it off and converted the wheel to single-speed. It is really stiff and I just replaced the bearings last night, smooth as butter now and I think I will get another SS bike going for the spring.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...z/march002.jpg

None of the current Palm handhelds has the two functions you list: integrated keyboard and camera. Those are completely in the domain of the Treo smartphones. You have choices of the Treo 7xx series and the Treo 680.

The Palm handhelds also accept universal (external) wireless keyboard if you wanted that functionality but it does defeat the portability somewhat. Out of the four current handheld models the Zire 72 has builtin bluetooth 1.1 wifi, Tungsten E2 has built in bluetooth with seperate capability for wifi and the most expensive TX has bluetooth and wifi built in.

The cheapest handheld the Z22 has no internet funcitonality at all. So if you were to get something refurbed the above 3 models would be good.

There other (non-Palm) brands of handhelds i've no experience with. Maybe someone else can chime in.

P.S Great find Jet!

Your wish list of features is not sounding like you are going to find anything on a budget. The cost of access won't be cheap either.

futureshack and worst-buy have the same deal on the Palm Z22 ($149) but it's pretty bare bones. for all the options you listed, you're probably looking at something in the $400+ range at least. the Palm Tungsten E2 at worstbuy is $299 (usb and bluetooth, wireless keyboard). not sure what your budget is. if you're in the college/bathurst area, check out canadacomputers. their selection is alright. a good thing about future/buy is that you can manhandle all the demo models before buying. or just ask rob to score a deal for you from the u of t bookstore hahaah.

I don't NEED an integrated camera or keyboard but I'm not against them (having a built in camera might mean I wouldn't need tp carry a digital camera) I'm basically looking for something that I can use as a diary on tour (see its bike related after all)... Its not like wifi or bluetooth is going to be of any use in the middle of nowhere anyways. Anything I can write in basically and then easily get that writing onto a webcafe PC for upload. I figure keyboard would be best just to save batteries since I'm way faster at typing than writing with a stylus. The Z-22 would do but I tend not to like buying the lowest of the low model because they cut corners on development and battery life and such.

Do you know any shops that specialize in PDA refurbs?

also I'm not interested in signing up for a mobile service, just a standalone PDA

haha there are at least 3 of us bored at work/home/school. TJ, isn't wifi access still free downtown? ton o' free hotspots downtown too.
quick cl search came up wit dis:
http://toronto.craigslist.org/sys/287311350.html
IPAQ 4350 WIFI, built-in keyboard, "used once". reviews in the link.

factorydirect.ca might have suttin

as long as you are sitting down sipping lattes..I know there is wireless through hydro one... I play with my laptop on the streetcar. Now coverage on your bike tour....

Some of those crazy Nokia phones have it all.

In that case, you'll either need one of those solar panel rechargers (all of them use rechargeable Li-on batteries) or you'll have to get a model which uses regular AAA batteries etc.

Right now i'm envisioning you riding through like a desolate wasteland with no natural resources or human settlement in sight. A guy on a touring bike tapping away his memoirs on a PDA and then living like a nomad for 20 years.

You might find this link helpful: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/forum...rd_id=379&v=50

kenkifers page on carrying a fullsize laptop: http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/laptop.htm

I'll just charge when I find an outlet, same with my phone and camera... I don't care if they're out of juice for a couple of days. They should make generator hubs for lights that you can shunt into a gadget.

edit: wow that factory direct site has a ton of SUPER cheap options. Like 20 bones.

edit edit: that IPaq has great reviews. 7 hours audio playback, 6 hours video, 3 hours talk time and the batteries are removable and upgradable to an even bigger battery.. Might have to send that guy an email

edit edit edit: Op. If I'm THAT isolated I'll just break down and write in a journal...

Regarding free windows xp and vista, I run OS X unless I have absolutely no other choice.

Regarding a PDA I thought long and hard about such things when my last cell phone went down the tubes. I tried the Treo 6 and 7 series but found them lame and lacking in camera quality. The Sony P990 was just too bulky for me and the Nokia E61 was nice but again to wide. I use a Nokia N80 with a 2gig miniSD card. It takes pretty good pictures, OK video and has WiFi and bluetooth. The built-in web browser blows the socks off of any other I've used including the free opera browser. It also is fully 3g supported so overseas I can use the wonders of a decent wireless network.

As for keyboards all the built in ones from crackberries on down have sucked. I got one of these and have really enjoyed it for what its built for. You can get them for sub 100 if you look hard enough.

For a journal nothing will ever beat a moleskin for the joy of writing on its paper.

I want that singlespeed wheel, damn you and by damn you I mean fantastic find.

That is all.

I'm not against writing in a notebook I just hate transcribing stuff. As for fancy ass notebooks and laser keyboards and stuff, I don't need to pretend I'm hemingway or a member of starfleet or anything... bare bones easy text entry dedicated PDA (not cell phone) and good battery life.

Took the words from my mouth. I'm a huge nerd and a total gadget geek, but you can pry my moleskine notebooks and pigma microns from my cold dead hands. Being on tour and having to worry about moisture (waterproof all you want, things ARE going to get swampy) and battery life, electronic dingdongs don't really seem like the best choice.

edit: of course, if your main point is to be publishing stuff online, then perhaps a pda IS the right way to go. Take a look for an old Palm Tungsten W. It's got a keyboard AND a gsm/gprs antenna.

If you plan to do any serious writing, as in longer then a 3 line missive, then you either need a real keyboard or to get a notebook and some good OCR software for your scanner.

I don't know about that. Paper doesn't seem all that waterproof either. Although I am hearing the Russian Space Agency vs Nasa pencil vs pen thing in my head again.

http://www.palm.com/us/images/produc...eyboard/01.jpg

OCR, ftl especially since it's not perfect yet. And scanning and ocr'ing paper is a non-trivial time expense in of itself.

Basically the cheapest, longest battery lasting version of the above is what I need. And a piece 1x8 to put on my lap so I can use it!

hahaha.. sweet sweet fisher space pen. :P But yeah, the pens I mentioned have waterproof/etc ink, so it's not a big concern. The moleskine paper is also pretty hardy and since it's encased in a hardcover and closed with an elastic the worst that could happen is having the paper go kinda warped/wrinkly. :)