Some time after its purchase by Future Publishing, cyclingnews.com has remodelled the site.
So I needed to update my Greasemonkey script, which I hadn’t done for a couple of years. I have updated it to work with the new page structure but mostly have made the team highlighting much better. By using borders I can use three colours for each team.
I’ve lost my password at UserScripts so I have put the script here.
It’s July and I am enjoying Le Tour de France again, on TV and via cyclingnews.com.
It’s disappointing that three Aussies left the Tour in the same stage but I’m hopeful that Cadel Evans will do well and maybe win.
I have updated my cyclingnews.com Greasemonkey script to include all the teams riding in the Tour.
Last year I bought a pair of LOOK Kéo Carbon pedals from an America eBay store for about $50 less than I would have paid in Australia. I knew that warranty repair might be a problem but assumed they would not break (old-design LOOK pedals have some reputation for being indestructible).
I was wrong – they did break, and right – warranty repair is a problem.
I received no help in Australia (mechanics at the bike shop I use didn’t want to attempt a repair). Next step is to try both LOOK and the the seller via e-mail to see if they will help. (I tried to register the pedals via the LOOK website but I couldn’t find a valid serial number on the box.)
The cause of this grief? A single screw fell out of the left pedal. It simply fell out, on the road somewhere. It screws into the end of the axle for the sprung flap that holds the cleat into place. The complete right pedal looks like this from underneath:
The incomplete left pedal looks like this:
The missing screw appears to be made of aluminium alloy and has a very strange thread:
A replacement one of those screws is all I want.
I bought some bicycle pedals from an overseas dealer (via eBay).
One of them broke recently, less than six months old. Under normal circumstances, it would be a simple warranty replacement case (LOOK Kéo pedals have a two-year warranty, according to the box). But I bought them via eBay, at a reasonable (but not huge) discount. I should still be able to claim the manufacturer’s warranty directly from LOOK directly and I will try, but it might be a bit tricky.
I rang the Australian distributor of LOOK products about getting spare parts. After telling the man that I bought the pedals overseas he said, “Isn’t it a bit cheeky asking for parts from us?” His premise is that they are willing to assist someone who bought products through their distribution channel, but not otherwise. I told him I was happy to pay for the replacement part but that made no difference to his attitude.
I understand their position, but it is bad business. The onus is not on the distributor but on LOOK to replace defective parts.
Wake up guys! We are in a global marketplace.
Last year I created a Greasemonkey script for highlighting results from the Tour de France on cyclingnews.com. I’ve continued to use the script since then for other races. I’ve also updated the team colours and improved how it works.
Recently I added keyboard shortcuts to make it easy to jump between pages:
| Key | Function |
|---|---|
n |
Go to the page at the link ‘Next Photo’ or ‘Next News. |
p |
Go to the page at the link ‘Previous Photo’ or ‘Previous News. |
r |
Go to the page at the link ‘Related Story’. |
h |
Go to cyclingnews.com home page. |
f |
Go to the named anchor ‘focus’ on the current page. Another part of the script writes this named anchor next to the <img> tag. This is useful to scroll down to a portrait-orientation photo that is partly obscured in the browser window. |
Here is the script for your enjoyment. It replaces the old hightlighttdf2005.user.js. Let me know if you have new ideas, better team colours (or other styles) etc.
Tim Bray is right in describing this year’s Tour de France as good entertainment. Except that for us in Australia, it’s late night entertainment!
Tim, don’t forget the web coverage on cyclingnews.com. Then you can use my GreaseMonkey script in Firefox to enhance your experience!
I have created a GreaseMonkey user script specifically for cyclingnews.com results pages from the 2005 Tour de France.
It highlights riders’ teams in something approximating the team colours. This is trickier than it might seem because many teams have similar or same colours, with different patterns. It also highlights Aussie riders in a different way to the other scripts.
So, grab it and have a look. If you are using one of the other scripts you’ll need to disable it or configure it to skip TdF 2005 results pages (http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/tour05/*). Please give me feedback or suggested changes on colours etc.
Yep, I’m at it again. I guess I’m a compulsive refactorer and want to keep improving my code.
I have updated my highlightcountries.user.js GreaseMonkey user script so you can specify any CSS styling for the lines. The current version has example styles for four countries.
Well, I couldn’t leave my first GreaseMonkey user script alone, could I?
As an inveterate tinkerer, I started thinking of ways to make it more flexible. So now, highlightcountries.user.js highlights results of cyclists from three countries: Australia in gold, USA in blue and Italy in green.
This user script is designed to be edited. Highlight as many countries as you like with whatever colours you want and have some fun!
I have recently started using GreaseMonkey seriously, and have written my first user script.
My script does one specific thing: it highlights results on cyclingnews.com by Australian cyclists so I can easily pick them out as I scan through the results pages. (Go Robbie! Go Stuey! Go Cookey! etc. etc.)
If you want to use highlightaussies.user.js or modify it for different colours and countries, have fun!
Update I have editied the script so it works correctly in Firefox on Windows with its CRLF line-endings.
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