Archive for August, 2008


wrong version

8/1/2008

I got my replacement v7 data disc from Garmin today. Unfortunately it was the wrong version. The original was City Select v7 Deluxe and not just v7.

As I type this I’m on my 3rd call to Garmin today. First two times when they tried to transfer me to the software team the line hung up. This time I actually got thru (at least to hold anyway). Hopefully I’ll be able to clear this up with the software people and then get the little i3 back in the saddle again.

– update –

Finally got thru to Garmin; they’re going to send me the correct disc in the mail. It’ll take a few days to get here.

So I’ll be attempting to reload the i3 once that arrives. :-)

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i am the maker of rules

8/2/2008

The title of this bloggo is a lyric from a song I really like.

Speaking musically I haven’t done much in several months. Yeah I’ve done a few things here and there but nothing spectacular. More or less I’ve been trying to decide what to release next. Should it be synth? Classical? Rock? Metal? No clue. One of these days (hopefully someday soon) I’ll decide exactly what I want to do musically and just do it.

Something I said years ago (don’t know if on this blog or not) is that music revolves in cycles. That means whatever was popular then will be popular again in one form or another. As it turns out there are a few synthpop artists who have been breaking ground. This is an offshoot of new wave. It’s all the stuff that was popular in the early 80s that seems to be resurfacing now.

I checked out the Billboard top 10 right now and yeah, the scene is terrible at the moment. Lots of over-processed garbage with no feeling to with at all. It’s definitely ripe for new wave and synthpop to make a splash.

The deal with new wave and synthpop is that there’s a lot of “let’s be a fool and not care” attitude. Generally speaking it’s fun music and people really need that right now.

I’d say the best part about these styles is that it totally embodies the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” thing. What that means musically is that usually with a song of this style, the lyrical content is odd/weird but wrapped in a happy poppy sound. A classic example of this is 867-5309 (Jenny). If you read the lyrics, the song (on the surface) appears to be about a prostitute or some ex-boyfriend who wrote a number on a wall that a bunch of guys call. But then you hear the song and it sounds just like a normal pop song.

Another one is Little Girls by Oingo Boingo. That song is just flat-out messed up. See the video on that link and you’ll understand exactly why.

I’d never write a song like Little Girls, but the fact it got recorded and got airplay and got on MTV says something. It says that if you can write a catchy song you can pretty much get away with anything.

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his wrath undoes the wicked

8/3/2008

image23I scratched off another movie off my list I’ve been meaning to buy for a while, Dragonheart. This is one of the very few movies I know of that is 100% flawless. There are absolutely no mistakes in this film and to be honest I’m surprised it’s not better known.

Normally when it comes to fantasy films there’s always some glaring error (or two or ten) when watching it. Not so with this one. The story works. The effects are spot-on. The soundtrack perfectly matches the scenes. There are no mismatched edits. Heck, even the color is right throughout.

Even if you specifically looked in the goofs section for this film you still wouldn’t see them in the movie. (And by the way the goofs for this movie is very, very short compared to other films.)

Why do I like this movie so much?

The purpose of a fantasy flick is to get immersed in the fantasy and believe the story being told is real. As far as Dragonheart goes, it nails it. The movie is simply done right. The pace is right on, you can follow it easily and well, you get the idea.

My only fear is that there is a 2nd movie included on the disc, Dragonheart: A New Beginning. I am duly convinced this flick sucks and I haven’t even watched it yet. While considered a “worthy sequel”, I still don’t know if I want to watch it or not.. it may ruin the win that is Dragonheart.

For example, I’ve seen the original Matrix movie but haven’t seen the sequel or the movie after that - on purpose. I’ve heard from many that the sequels are absolutely eff’ing terrible; I absolutely do not want to ruin the awesomeness that is the original Matrix. So I haven’t watched any of the others and never will.

Maybe the 2nd flick won’t be so bad. I dunno. Then again it might. I guess it depends how brave I feel. :-)

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Here it comes…

8/3/2008

Here it comes...

This is what a torrential storm in Tampa Florida looks like when you’re about 1 mile away from driving directly into it. See super-huge version for a better idea of what this looks like.

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geeky crapola for 8/4/2008

8/4/2008

instant messaging

I’ve discovered the only instant messenger I truly give a shit about is AIM. At the present time I’m of the opinion that if someone wants to contact me via IM and doesn’t use AIM, I’m not going to use another service just for them.

What I’m using now is AIM Lite. It only does AIM. It’s tiny, free and awesome.

As far as those who don’t use AIM, they can send an e-mail to me or Twitter me.

twitter

Speaking of Twitter, I’ve been using twhirl and seriously dig it. This is the app that got me using that microblogging service again. It’s good. Real good.

Although I have no proof of this, it would appear that many people prefer Twitter as a means of instant messaging (even though it’s not truly instant) rather than IM itself.

e-mail

Even though the Windows Live Mail e-mail client is really, really good - ever since the full version of Hotmail became supported in Firefox 3 I’ve been using that and nothing else. Being that I do pay for Hotmail (yes I did flip over 20 bucks for a year’s subscription) I don’t see any ads. When you do that Hotmail is lightning quick.

document stuff

Still using OpenOffice. I don’t even have Microsoft Office installed on my box and don’t see any reason to install it. There is no advantage to having it anymore. I even use the native ODT file format instead of DOC (I’m not using MS Office so why bother?)

blogging

My mainstay blogging tool is still Windows Live Writer. It’s like a miniature document editor and it’s got awesome quick image editing tools in it that beats the crap out of anything WordPress has with its editor.

photo stuff

All my photos are on Flickr and have been for a little while now. I actually like it much better than hosting images myself. Yes, I flipped over some cash for a year’s subscription so I can upload as much as I want. I don’t know if I’ll bother to renew the subscription after the year but at least I know when it does expire my photos will still be there (very important).

computer stuff

My box is still the same box from last year, save for the fact there’s a new video card in it. She runs good. A plain ol’ Intel Core Duo 1.8GHz with 2GB RAM and Windows XP Service Pack 3.

I thought about moving to Vista but said “fuck that” and am going to stay with XP until Windows 7 is released. By that point I’ll probably just outright buy a new computer as it won’t appear until late ‘09/early 2010.

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bits for 8/6 ought 8

8/6/2008

imageHere’s what’s been going on in MengaLand…

Right-side reading pane the way to go if using Hotmail.

Just to test it out I purposely set the reading pane to the right side in my Hotmail (see pic). I found that this is actually most most efficient way to have the mail set up.

Having the pane on the right is nothing new as it’s been a feature in e-mail clients for many years. But having it in a web-based version of e-mail is still something relatively new, and I gotta say.. I like it.

What makes a right-side reading pane better now compared to then is I’ve got a much higher screen resolution so it doesn’t cut off any of the body of the message.

Give it a try, you may like it.. that is unless you’re using Gmail and forced to use that threaded bullshit. :-)

Forwarded mail = spam.

I was getting around 7 to 15 spams a day (which is miraculously low) via my Hotmail but I finally discovered why I was even getting spam at all - forwarded e-mail. I have a few other old e-mail accounts that I purposely had forwarding mail to my primary account. When I inspected the spam coming in I noticed it would always be addressed to one of those forwarding addresses. A-ha. When I stopped the forwards, the spam almost stopped cold. I now get maybe 1 to 2 spams a day now. Not perfect but darn close. :-)

BuickFreeSpirit.com mentioned (again) in eBay auction.

It would seem that anyone selling a ‘75 Free Spirit Buick pace car always links to BuickFreeSpirit.com. Hey, I’m not complaining. :-)

However.. what the people who post these cars on eBay don’t know is that I sometimes get e-mail directly from prospective buyers to ask my opinion on the auction car and whether it’s worth buying or not.

In the latest e-mail I received about an auction I was given a link and I checked it out. The car is a complete hack job. Nice on the outside, a nightmare under the hood (and under the rest of the car). It was just bad news all around. Granted, the guy wasn’t asking much for it. The current bid was around $2500 with a “reserve not met” meaning he probably wants at least $4000.

The problem is that the car can never be authentic because the engine was swapped out. No chance of ever having matching numbers. As a collector’s item it’s worthless.

Yeah, I feel sorry for the seller but hey.. collectors are a picky bunch - myself included. Yes, the seller is being very honest with his eBay auction but sorry to say it’s only worth $3000 at best - assuming it’s not too much of a hack job underneath (which it is).

I’m sure someone will pick up the car - as long as they’re comfortable with the fact it will never be truly authentic and have a lot of cash to throw at it to un-do all the “upgrades” done to it.

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bits for 8/7 ought 8

8/7/2008

More tales from MengaLand..

gas

red_gas_pump The price at the pump today was $3.68. Yep. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t snap a pic of it. It would appear (at least for now) that the price is slowly but surely dropping. Yes, I’m happy about it as it everyone else.

The only thing I’m not happy about is that there are wild differences from town to town in the Tampa Bay area concerning gas prices… but maybe it’s that way everywhere.. I dunno.

For example, a station close to me in Tampa was selling for $3.71. The $3.68 price was in Riverview. One town over from me the price was $3.77. Down the street from there, $3.83.

Now although 15ยข doesn’t sound like much, that is a fairly wide difference for the same octane fuel (87) at gas stations not more than 15 miles apart.

I have made a personal promise to myself. If the price drops to $3.50 (which it might in the next few weeks), I will fill the tank. If not, nah. :-)

more e-mail changes, realizations

mailbox For those old forwarded accounts I mentioned in my last post, I completely disabled one and semi-disabled the rest (meaning not closed but configured to not accept any new incoming mail). I figured it’s just better overall to stick to one e-mail account. And yeah, it is. Makes things much easier to manage.

The interesting thing about e-mail concerning spam is that publicly posting your address on a web site actually doesn’t attract spam like it used to. The reason is because all the major search engines now have stuff in effect that make it extremely difficult for spam-bots to harvest addresses. In fact, “cloaking” your address these days actually makes it easier for spam-bots to harvest your address and start spamming you like crazy.

Of course, the best spam protection is to never publicly list your address anywhere and never sign up for.. well.. anything. :-) But oh well, it’s e-mail. Gotta deal with the crapola sometimes that comes with it.

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navigate that buick

8/8/2008

I received the 2nd DVD from Garmin today (the correct one this time) so my little StreetPilot i3 is now officially back in the saddle. Good deal. I’ll be writing about that more in another post.

Concerning the Buick I have given thought to what GPS unit I’m going to put in there. It’s definitely going to be Garmin and definitely not going to be in-dash.

I’m a big fan of GPS and even if you don’t own a vintage Buick, here are some good tips on how make GPS work best in a vintage ride.

1. Go Garmin.

Garmin is the only company that does GPS right. I’ve been using their products since 2005 and they have the best routing ability of any unit. In addition they also have the best customer support. It is nothing short of shocking how nice, well-spoken and accurate Garmin tech support is.

2. Mind that cigarette lighter.

The problem with cigarette lighter ports on older cars is that its a bad idea to have anything plugged in there when starting the car. When the engine is initially turning over to start, a surge will go thru the port. 99% of the time this small surge is okay but that other 1% of the time it can wreck whatever is plugged into it.

For example, if whatever you have plugged into the port has a thicker part of the cable containing a fuse, there’s a small chance the surge will pop that fuse. Yes, this is what’s supposed to happen to kill the cable and save the device. But then you have to either get another fuse or replace the cable completely - and that’s a pain.

To avoid any likelihood of this happening, unplug whatever is in the port, start the car, then plug back in. You’re a-okay at that point.

To note: Newer cars don’t have cigarette lighter ports that surge. They’re made in such a way where it doesn’t happen anymore. These newer ports were put in cars right around the early 1990s.

3. Get a friction mount.

Friction mounts are “bean bag” freestanding mounts that rest on the dashboard with a rubber underside so it doesn’t slide anywhere. Use this and you won’t have to use the suction mount that always leaves a nice smudgy circle on the glass.

Make sure your friction mount is manufactured by Garmin and not someone else. You can locate these mounts easily on eBay. For example, if you have a Garmin StreetPilot c550, just search for c550 friction mount in eBay and you’ll find what you’re looking for. Cost is around 30 to 40 bucks.

4. Secure the power cable with a twist-tie.

The power cables that come provided with GPS units are long on purpose to accommodate any vehicle. But what happens is that the slack goes on the floor and gets in the way. Use a black twist-tie to tidy up the cable so no one (driver or passenger) kicks the cable by mistake.

Granted, if you’re running the unit on its internal battery you don’t have to worry about this, but many people (myself included) prefer to operate the unit plugged in.

5. Set your favorites before venturing out.

If going to an event to show the car, use the Favorites feature to program in the locations before leaving. Entering in information in the unit while driving is stupid because it takes your eyes off the road, so take care of it before you go.

6. Use a GPS that has anti-glare coating on it.

The glass in some older cars will reflect on the inside and make the GPS screen almost unreadable. Garmin c3xx series StreetPilots do not have anti-glare coating on them, but c5xx and all nuvi models do. Believe me when I say that this is an absolutely necessity.

7. Use common sense.

GPS does not replace the driver; it will not drive the car for you. There will be times when you know the better way to get somewhere. Always remember that GPS is meant to assist and not drive.

How much does GPS cost these days?

You can pick up a Garmin nuvi 200 model at Best Buy for 99 bucks with a coupon. Cheap.

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i3 “big” upgrade

8/8/2008

spi3 As I mentioned in my last post I received the City Select NT v7 DVD from Garmin which is what my little i3 needed (seen right).

The old microSD card was a bit messed up but I was able to get so it loaded just Florida. Then I went out for a spin and yep, she still works. Very cool.

I picked up a 2GB microSD card so I could load the entire data set into the i3. Turns out I didn’t need 2GB; I could have gotten away with just a 1GB card. But whatever, no big deal.

As I write this I’m loading the data on the i3. It’s taking forever to finish but it’s typical for it to take a long time when loading an entire data set. After this is completed I’ll never have to load anything on to it again. I have no intention of upgrading the maps because this is going to be a backup unit only.

If you happen to own an i2, i3 or i5 you can do the same upgrade. A 1GB or 2GB microSD card is cheap. You just click it in, load the data and that’s that.

It’s a pity Garmin doesn’t make GPS units anymore that run on 2 AA batteries like this one does. Very convenient. With GPS mode in “Normal” you can use this thing for 6 hours straight. Not bad a’tall.

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small additions

8/9/2008

I added in a few factoids to the Buick site for those interested in this technical stuff.

Specs page update

Added the exact wheelbase, overall length and height measurements as provided by the original pace car booklet.

FAQ page update

Added a link to the Wikipedia article on the Buick 350 engine. There are several differences compared to other GM 350 engines. Definitely a good read.

Below are a few other things I read about. They won’t make an appearance on the Buick site because it’s not particular to the pace car so I’ll just keep it here as a blog post.

Other Buick V8 VIN engine codes

The ‘75 pace car replica Buick only came with the 350-4bbl V8 denoted as J as the fifth character on the VIN.

These are the other Buick engine codes (with J being the only one that ever made it into the pace car replica):

H . . . 350-2bbl V8
J . . . 350-4bbl V8
K . . . 350-4bbl V8 (Gran Sport)
U . . . 455-4bbl V8 (Gran Sport 455)
V . . . 455-4bbl V8 (Stage 1)

It is unknown whether there’s any significant difference between the 350 (J) and the 350 GS (K). Unfortunately the Wikipedia page doesn’t shed any light on that subject.

It could be that K was specifically reserved for Gran Sport models. And as people who know the ‘75 Century are aware, “GS” was never applied to the car other than in-title-only for the blackout appearance on the grille and filler under the tail lamps.

For those interested in the dry weight difference between the 350 and the 455, the 350 is 450lbs, the 455 is 600lbs.

The 231 V6

The 231 is a direct result of the 1973 oil crisis. The 1975 Century Special (not a pace car model obviously) did in fact have this engine in it. The story of this engine is also a very good read - especially the part about the uneven firing patterns of that particular engine and why it happened (which wasn’t fixed until 1977 by the way for an “even-firing” V6).

And since I listed the other weights, the 231 has a dry weight of 400lbs.

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