Salomon inline skate strap repair

I have a pair of Salomon Smart Skate Chill LX inline skates. They’re pretty nifty — combining skates and shoes into one, so you have less to carry. Recently, one of the straps broke in half. As Salomon no longer makes skates, I had to shop around for replacement parts. Both Inline Warehouse and Roller …

They don’t make things like they used to

Last year, I stayed with a friend in north Austin during SXSW. A bike was the best way to make the three-mile journey downtown. I had a few options: Renting I called Bicycle Sport Shop and a couple other stores. The problem is that people rent bicycles as entertainment, not transportation, and they’re priced accordingly. …

A couple of old favourites

Here’s a pair of great Bauer hockey commercials from back in the day: We all have something A clean sheet Does anyone have higher-quality copies? While we’re at it, does anyone have a copy of the NFL “Feel the Power” commercial that used Ani DiFranco’s “32 flavors” and featured various running backs? I can’t find …

moneyball for college football

Michael Lewis, chaser-down of those who make good use of limited resources, found Mike Leach at Texas Tech: Four years ago, Hodges was a high-school senior with just one other offer to be a college quarterback, from the University of Wyoming. Now, two-thirds of the way through the 2005 N.C.A.A. football season, and with a …

guerilla usability: ice oasis hockey

For the past two years, I’ve been playing hockey at Ice Oasis. It’s a nice enough rink, but their web site is terrible. While they’ve since ditched the neon colours, the schedule page is pretty awful: you have to see all of the teams at once white text on a red background is hard to …