I almost did a stupid thing this weekend. I almost sold my car. There’s no reason in this very soft car market to sell a car if you don’t need to. You’ll lose so much money on a trade in that you’ll be mad about it for years. So, after seeing that dealerships were offering shocking numbers on my car, I decided to just pay it off and keep it forever. But, I dont want to drive it every day so I need another car. The problem is I need 3 other cars. One car to race, one to haul things around and another grand tourer for commuting. Yes, I need 4 cars. I know it’s not exactly green but hey, it’s a fantasy and my fantasies are allowed to be a lot of things, emissions heavy is one of them.
What I’ve been pondering is a 1.8t GTI that I can race on weekends and drive to work. It’s not expensive, the aftermarket is huge and if things break, I can fix it or get it fixed without having to hock a kidney. But there is always some sort of setback and todays setback came in the form of the S3 hatchback in Autoblog.
I’ve been lusting after an S3 hatchback since I saw them in Europe hustling around like little bandits. It’s like a GTI but sexy and refined. That could redice my need to 3 cars and the third, the hauler can always wait so I guess that means I need two cars. Now that sounds a lot more reasonable… I’ll be sitting out at Roger Beasley Audi waiting for the shipment if you need me.
The video camera is the most misused piece of technology ever used by the public. This is how it works; people buy a camera, they start recording things, often hours of footage. They then either never watch it, watch some of it once or make everyone watch the entire thing. What people don’t know is that they’re watching “raw footage”. 99% of this never gets edited down into a finished product.
We now have SD card based cameras which makes getting the raw footage to your computer insanely easy. Then you have editing software like Sony Vegas for $89 which is insanely easy to use. The mystery is gone, it’s now easy to make a properly edited-down video instead of shuttling through footage.
The video below is what happens when someone talented takes some good stock footage of kids being kids which can, sometimes only be cute for the parents, and make it into “media”. I love this clip and she will too, even later in life. Dare I say it’s cute.
Burning Mercury Thiocyanide. This stuff is just weird. Kids lighting something on fire that contains mercury and cyanide… Ok, where are the parents?? And, can I buy some?
I guess woodworkers are mad that welders have all the fun with the sparks, fire and loud noises so they decided to build a car. From wood. A sports car. A big, wooden, sports car. What I find cool is the use of many kinds of wood “technology” like CNC machines wooden and metal wheels. The Pilot Sports on them is a nice touch.
Steam pressed plywood, Eames style monocoque substructure is also very impressive. In fact, wood adds some unique and positive traits to cars with its flexibility. It’s just that whole rotting, flamable, termite food thing that makes it hard to see it as a daily driver. Or even something that can live anywhere but indoors.
I’m over our neighborhood. A developer opened up a little strip mall at the entrance to the hood and I thought, if I were developer trying to make a successful strip mall what would I put there…
1. A pack and ship
2. Coffee shop that serves breakfast stuff
3. Dry cleaner
4. A bank that people actually use
5. Twin Liquors
What did we get? The dry cleaner that never shows up to work and a Subway. Of all the franchises, Subway? And the bank… Some local bank that sits there with NO customers yet Wells Fargo seems to have lost the part of the map where I live because they’re EVERYWHERE else. Weird.
Asside from that, the local city govt. seems hell bent on pretending this part of town doesn’t exist going so far as to no build fly-overs to get to or from this part of town at highway intersections. So, it’s not my imagination, you can’t get here from there…
Solution found, we’re leaving. Going to the part of town we should have been living in when we moved here. Somewhere north of downtown, close enough for a good bike ride to work, near established businesses and, even a few local pubs. Instead of the burbs where we’re hoping someone will build what we want we’ll just go where it already is. I feel silly figuring this out now. Oh well, we’re on our way.
I hear some buzz over shows once in a while. The Wire, an obvious one to watch, The Shield, a great show but on a “cable network” which still has some sort of stigma. In the age of 1000 channels, the big 4 still have the most pull in spite of a worsening of shows.
It could be the combination of buzz and the fact that I now work in advertising (in IT so I get no ad cred whatsoever) I tuned into Mad Men and was hit as hard as I was when I first tuned into the Sopranos. And while I just now finished season 1, I have one big fat complaint… It’s not an HBO show. The limitation of language and what can be shown waters down the show. It could go all the way, it could but the need to stay in PG land makes it almost perfect.
I wont say I don’t love it. I do. But, the R version would make it a true expression of what it’s trying to say.
So… I’m a little curious about what law school this guy went to. It’s now OK to kill the owner of satellite “channels”? Does he know most of these stations belong to companies? That might end up being awkward…
What is it about some people who have the need to play hall-monitor? The place where I play golf isn’t particularly fancy (actually, it’s not fancy at all) but I’ve been reminded of some sort of “dress code” on a few occasions. The thing a few people have gotten terribly upset about is that I didn’t have my shirt tucked in right before I was going to tee off. The first time someone bothered me about it (a very dour woman in the pro shop) I just pretended like I didn’t hear her and went about my merry way thinking she might be having flashback to the 50’s when anyone would even care about something so stupid. But it happened again! And the second time I told the guy off because he started grabbing at my shirt tail but it was the third time where I had to put a stop to this or I might get very upset in public. I told the guy, an older gentleman who I know and who works for free as the marshal that there is in fact no dress code here, I checked and he needed to back up off me. Rather than ease up and remember that I’m a client here (sure it’s very cheap but we’re talking customer service and it shouldn’t matter that this isn’t a fancy or expensive place) he gives me even more attitude and tells me he’ll get me a copy of the rule book. Ok. Enough. I’m done
So, I send a note to the GM and have to ask that he inform his staff about the fact that:
1. People who play, pay to do so and should be treated with respect
2. There is no shirt-tucked-in dress code
3. And even if there was one, which there isn’t, they shouldn’t confront people about it since it’s stupid and trivial.
What I sent wasn’t actually that mean, I just asked that if he valued us as customers he’d make sure this was stopped or if he doesn’t, that’s fine too but we’d not play there anymore. The response was what I expected, he apologized and made sure people were instructed. The problem is I realized that playing there wasn’t for me because the people that play there and the people that work there aren’t my people. All i wanted was a close place to play golf and tennis that was affordable and friendly. Sadly what I found was a bunch of angry old people, bad food and attitude. Hell, we could go to Florida and get that. I think we’ll end up playing somewhere else.
The A3 started acting up the other day in a very non-Audi sort of way… The battery kept dying. So, since it needed to get some other stuff looked at, I brought it to the dealer. Sadly there were no loaners and I was given a rental car from the on-site Enterprise rep. I had a choice between a Dodge Avenger and a Chevy Malibu. Not much of a choice but I decided that Mopar would win here.
The difference between an Audi A3 and a Dodge avenger is more than skin deep. This monstrosity apparently had nothing to do with the Damlier / Chrysler relationship because not one part on this cas is even close to something MB would make. The plastic on the interior is something out of a TicTac dispenser. In fact, I think it’s made entirely of TicTac dispensers.
Then there is the engine and suspension. Engine: gutless. Suspension: made of pogo sticks
Oh, and the tires: sidewalls as soft as an eclair.
All in all, the car is so crap it’s scary to drive.
Google’s “phone” isn’t a phone at all, it’s far more important, it’s a phone OS that goes on all kinds of phones much like the MS Mobile OS. Google’s phone OS is about creating a platform to enable more Google Ads penetration, the MS phone OS is about continuing desktop dominance by “owning” the most pervasive technology people have. Both have a lot in common aside from not caring what they run on and openly encouraging you to install applications, their most important aspect is the phone carrier is simply an access provider.
While apple’s Iphone is great for a lot of reasons, it’s still part of Jobs’ walled garden of control. Sure, Apple fans have come to completely ignore all of the controls in place while chanting about how free they are, but at the end of the day they’re as free as Steve lets them be. Since they dont care and he’s happy I guess it’s a marriage made in heaven.
For those not suckling at the Cupertino teat, there are a myriad of other things to contend with. An inferior UI for starters but that’s a moot point. More to the actual point, if you wanted a device that didnt cater to the phone companies insistance to use their version of the internet (that fake, branded internet, go only where we let you go WAP garbage) you had to use a Palm (see 10 year old OS) or more recently, the MS Mobile OS.
MS Mobile 6 is almost great. It’s still a little clunky and IE is a bit painful, some apps keep running in the background making the whole phone slow, but overall, it’s a complete break from the fake internet that the carriers are so in love with. The carriers have this idea that people don’t want the real internet, that they’re happy with a mini version that only has ringtones, themes, backgrounds and their feeds. I’ll grant you that it’s convenient to have access to that for just those things but after I’ve put the Hello Kitty theme on my phone with the Lost soundtrack ringtone, I want some hawt, real, Internets on my device.
The carriers also feel very strongly that people cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted to install anything on their phones. The idea that you can do so on a MS phone is abhorrent to them and if you need support on a Smartphone they’ll most likely force you to reset it to the factory image (kept on the phone for just that case) before letting you get any more support. Often this does actually fix the issue…
Google’s new OS doesn’t really pay any mind to that walled garden nonsense. It encourages new apps, goes right to the Internet and is phone agnostic. In effect it makes the carrier truly a dumb pipe. T-Mobile and Sprint have never cared that much about being a transit for data, they’re happy to charge a few dollars a month for the access (T-Mobile has very slow Internet, Sprint is decent) but AT&T and Verizon, the two that “matter” are uninterested in being a dump pipe and possibly losing control of people getting new phones every year that lock them into contracts over and over again. They like it just as it is.
Here’s the problem, as much as they like it as it is and the telcos are famous for being change-averse, they dont have much to do with it. Technology and options are changing quickly and the stranglehold the wireless carriers has a shelf life we can count now in single digit years. They can adapt or go the way of the wagon wheel superstore. 10 years from now the concept of a telephone company will be a funny antique idea like having a fax machine around. They’re still around to cater to those people who are too old or to unsavvy to migrate away. Everyone else will have mobile devices that hop connections between verior versions of WiMax, WiFi and GSM. Phone numbers may exist but will be parallel to URLs and IM names. Skype will probably be the backbone along with other IM providers and the idea of paying for a call based on distance will be completely laughable.
Fight as they will, it’s a losing battle. If wireless providers want to prepare for their future as bandwidth providers they need to have a strategy to make that their selling point. I want 100Mbit 2-way connectivity at my phone, complete coverage, phones that allow for video skype, agreements with international carriers for roaming all under a single line item on a bill I can read.
In the end, a few years from now the devices we carry will not be part of any garden. The carriers will be different and some will not be around. THe consumer will win this one. There is no arguing this point, it is the future.
It’s just required that after a long trip I have to whinge about the two things that make travel hard. This time, the TSA is more to blame. I’ll not beat around the hedge, they’re mostly a bunch of power-tripping villains. Gill had a 5oz container of conditioner in her clear plastic baggie. 4.5oz is the limit. They gleefully told us to go back and check bags so their friends in baggage can open them up and pilfer our stuff of surrender it. Gill had to throw out her conditioner and shampoo (both of which were kind of pricey) because of .5oz.
Of course the liquids are not thrown out. At the end of the shift, these guardians of good, defeaters of terror then go back into a room and divvy up the treats.
At this point my blood was boiling. I mad a small scene and short of anyone having to “call for backup” it was resolved that the TSA team at AUS are little terrorists themselves. Irony. The TSA Taliban on liquid patrol. And I don’t want to hear about how it’s for my own safety, I’m not some blunt-headed philistine who falls for that drivel. But thanks for trying.
Since I mentioned the baggage thieves, it’s important to note that 20% of the time I check a bag, it’s opened by the TSA for no good reason. Often, it’s just to see what I have inside. It’s rarely interesting. On the way back from the UK, I informed the lady at the desk that AA (them) has a bad history with my family and friends around our bags being either destroyed, lost or rifled through while AA consistently stonewalled us so in this case, we’d like to have them tape-shut our luggage with their own security tape on the one bag that would be checked.
So, the bag is labeled “Premium” since we were nice enough to upgrade, via miles, to business. It was checked first, and taped with AA tape. How could we go wrong.
It made it to the US intact but someone at Logan or Dallas just couldn’t resist and opened our bag and it was not an authorized open either. The tape was sliced and the contents handled. The “joke” was on them, it was a case full of only dirty laundry where I was kind enough to make sure that upon opening, the first thing to jump out of the pressure-shut case would be all of my boxers. I hope he enjoyed that. Too bad I didn’t have the forethought to pack an old hockey glove.
Which didn’t stop anyone from enjoying themselves.
I can never get enough of being abroad. Europe in particular. Since our trip was only a week, we barely got into a good stride but at the same time, not rushed. Europe combines a number of things I like; cool small cars, great food, nice people, pretty scenery, old stuff, and shopping.
While I may have eased back during the begining of the trip, once I hit the Paul Smith store in London, all bets were off. My sneakers were, well, required even at £90.00…
But, you have to do what you have to do.
And while mooching around Central London in search of shirts cut properly (unlike the dress shirts in the US that are cut for people who carry bags of Red Cross rice under their tees), the scenery is worth staying alert for. Particularly on the car front.
Last time I was in Central London I witnessed, in the wild, a Mclaren SLR. Parked on the street next to a Ford Mondeo.
This time, it seems that the game has been moved into a higher gear. In one day I saw more Bentley CGTs than I can count. More than 10. An Arnage cab which is not rare in LA, but is most everywhere else, a Toureg R50, a Maybach (Gill pointed it out) a right-drive GT3, 3 997 turbos and one special car.
I am hesitant to even say its name because saying I saw one on the street is opening myself up to be called a bald faced liar. But I did see one. I saw one and I have proof, dammit. So here it is and tell me if you know what it is.
While it’s not a Zonda or a CCX which for all purposes are truly kit cars for sultans, this is a proper supercar and it’s unlikely I’ll ever see one in the flesh again. Unless Ralph Lauren invites me over to play XBOX.
T-mobile lost a customer yesterday. They did because of something so silly, so marginal, they will never deal with it and it’s will be a slow leak for them until they address it. Simple enough, AT&T offers calling from the US to the UK for $0.08/min. T-Mobile is $0.28/min. That is not a small difference when my wife calls the UK 90-120 minutes a month. I asked T-Mobile if they would offer me a better rate. They said it was “industry standard”. I told them that that was not the case and that “industry standard” is pretty much 0 cents because smart people use skype and get video at the same time.
Hell, even businesses trunk their phones inter-office over IP and save thousands of dollars. Some companies even let you dial in, get a dial tone and call out across the IP phone wan as a local call in another country. That’s a serious perk. I hear in India there are serious restrictions on toll-saver that is directly related to government revenue so they want you to dial in International LD so they can charge you high fees.
So we go to AT&T who I’ve been with forever other than the short stint with T-Mob. We got a decent deal and two wicked Sony Walkman W580i phones. They’re light, have tons of themes, play all kinds of ringtones, have all 3 IM clients, take micro 1GB cards so they’re real Walkmans. On top of that, their desktop software is, and I am not kidding, very good. In fact, it’s great. a 4 out of 5 only because it’s a little wonky in flow but still good. The phone, I dont understand why USB is not a standard. So the conntector is clunky and makes you use special cables. That’s dumb, you’re locked into chargers instead of being able to punp-up on someones spare USB port. Weak. But otherwise it’s nice.
We’ll probably end up paying a little more with ATT for the first month but when we get back from the UK we’ll dial down the phones to only hers with Intl dial. Either way, we got a good deal on the UK calls and the phones are sweet. I might keep this for a little while.
The benefit of a blog is that 1. I am not obligated to post and 2. I don’t answer to anyone but the preferment record of my commentary on the Internet. That lasts a lot longer than a yearly review.
I received a blocked call today on my cell phone. One eyebrow raised I answered it:
“I’m [unintelligible] and I’m going to compete on American Idol, tell me if I’m good [starts to sing]”
I hang up.
Phone rings
“why did you hang up on me? Was I that bad? -[starts singing again]”
I hang up.
So, I have the phone in my hand after a few moments of reflection and I have a few thoughts. First, this could have been legit and I could have had an opportunity to lay into her (she was a terrible singer) with a bit of wit. Second, why did I waste a good opportunity in general to poke fun at someone who is actually ASKING for it. I am ashamed. Not only am I ashamed for not doing it but that I, for a moment, was enticed by the remote possibility that my momentary spotlight could reveal a bit of unique wit and I’d be made famous. Mind you this whole thought process from wonder to annoyed to regret and so on happened in a split second.
I think. No, scratch that. I know that this insta-famous for no good reason instant-gratification reality show sinkhole only furthers our complacency as a nation. It makes us more lazy and puts us more and more at a disadvantage.
All of this I gleaned from a prank call.
I may need to leave the house. Good thing I go to work in the morning.
I buy newer technologies. I don’t live at the bleeding edge buying Aisia-only GSM phones and laptops from Dynamism but I do keep up more than most. I also jettison old technology like a house guest that has overstayed their welcome.
Take, for example, the VHS. I had a few older tapes and a player around that I kept for a few years only because I needed to encode them to XviD. And one day two years ago, all the tapes got converted, edited encoded and turned into files and even a few DVDs. No sooner was that done than the tapes and co-conspirator VCR sent to the bin without ceremony. In fact, I was a little embarassed that it took me so long to get around to encoding them. I had some family event tapes for at least 5 years before I encoded them. I guess the false starts put me off a few times and some henky converting software irritated me but when it came down to it and I got the stuff on my computer, I was able to distill most of these entities into about 22 minutes each which is what a 30 minute TV show is once you remove commercials. It’s also about as much as one person can sit for before showing how bored they are.
Your wedding might have been special to you but you never sit through the raw footage. In fact, it struck me, the reason most video is shot and never watched is because people never edit or complete post production. So most people take their raw footage and watch it which is like watching raw news tapes, long boring and lots of dead air / shots of feet, walking, waiting, never edited re-takes etc. Sony has a good editing suite for $99 that is about as easy and powerful as you can get for a PC without going for pro stuff.
But back the the original point and what seeded it. There is a neighborhood garage sale today and the place is swarming with bargain hunters. Sadly, my neighborhood is full of people with lots of cheap trinkets and no taste who may, if they are lucky, take home about $30 each. I was surprised at what people thought would sell. What amazed me the most, of all things was the VCR and what my waif said; “Why today, May the 3rd 2008 did someone decide ‘that’s it, I’m done with the VCR’”.
I have to agree, why today? I think I know the answer. Considering all the other shit people had out on folding tables, the VCRs out there represented the valueless garbage people were trying to sell and the weirdos who might actually buy it.
Where has it been my whole life. WHo knew I could go on this long and not know about the most amazing desert thing EVER, Kozy Shack rice pudding.
My wife grabbed up a small container of the stuff at the store today and the name rang a bell, it was on one of those “how it’s made” shows. I like rice pudding so it made sense to pick up a little tub.
All I can say is OMG. It’s hard to now mow through the whole tub. But I managed not to. Barely.
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