stripethree

Just trying out the free iPhone app for WordPress. Perhaps it will result in more activity around here.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a good new, or in this case new to me, tech toy to play with. I have been casually browsing and pondering some sort of computer purchase since my situation was gradually moving towards ‘dire’. The Cube is, and has been, dead. I tried a bunch of things to fix it and have resigned to the fact that it’s not coming back. I was given a friend’s 14″ iBook that died so I could pull the hard drive for her to get her data back and I haven’t been able to fix it yet. Everything about the problem says logic board, but I haven’t had any success with it yet.

Then my Powerbook starting acting up with symptoms of a bad reed switch or inverter cable. It will not sleep or wake properly sometimes, and more telling, it will randomly go dark regardless of power source, charge level, etc. It’s fixable, but, well, I’m not positive that’s the only problem and I wasn’t too keen on taking about my only working computer for a recon mission.

I found out Anand was selling his laptops to get a 13″ MacBook Pro, one of which was a Dell Vostro A90 with some nice extras. It was not much of decision since the price was right and I knew I could trust the condition it was in. This is the same friend I had Summer get her iBook from and it’s been running flawlessly. The Vostro arrived yesterday and it’s pretty kickass. It has two solid state drives, an 8GB running Mac OS 10.5.6 and a 16GB running Windows (you have to physically swap them but it takes all of 3 minutes), 2GB of RAM, 802.11g, Bluetooth, build in video camera, etc. etc.

While it does not have a lot of drive space, for what I plan to use this for it won’t need it. I’m going to take a whirl at fixing the Powerbook and hopefully that will work fine. I’m still looking for a second hand Mac Mini for a set top box, but people trying to sell them on Craigslist are asking out of this world prices. This machine will be great for travel – I plan on taking it with me week after next – and will also be great for some car related things (c’mon, you knew there had to be a car tie in somewhere). With the Windows drive, it will be perfect as a VAG-COM machine to scan and clear codes and, with the same cable, I can download a free program from GIAC and change engine maps with a few clicks. I see the addition of a 100 octane tune in the near future.

The biggest challenge will be adjusting to the keyboard. It’s about 90% of the size as a traditional laptop keyboard, has a few auxiliary keys shuffled around, and has different tactile feedback that what I’ve been using. I don’t see it as being that big a deal once I get used to it.

Iiiiiiiiit’s baaaaaack.

Finally, the R32 was back in one piece, including the third motor mount, and ready to be thrown around the SIR gravel pit again. I drove the car to work all week and took time on Saturday to make sure everything that was unbolted and replaced or reattached was still securely fastened to the car. It all was. The third motor mount finally arrived on Thursday (after two months! never ordering from that company again…), and I installed it on Saturday as well.

The car felt fantastic. Maybe it was because I’d be driving the much older, slower, and more worn GTI exclusively for two months, or maybe it was just that the whole front end of the car was very fresh and well buttoned together, but it was pretty sweet. There’s no slop in the motor and transmission anymore thanks to the new motor mounts, the steering feel is improved thanks to the new control arm bushings, and transitions were much, much better handled thanks to the new, larger front sway bar. The best part was almost the drive to the event, which was the first highway experience since the repairs. Given that highway speeds and loads were where all the ill effects were previously experience, I was slightly nervous, but no bad vibes were to be found. So it appears that the drive shaft coupling that was replaced was the big problem, and that has now been solved, thankfully. All the other things that got done as a result were just added bonuses. Hey, if I’m was going to go through the hassle and expense ($40 for one time use bolts. Bolts!) to drop the subframe, might as well fix or replace other things. Break one thing, upgrade 3, right?

The autocross results were good; 67.830 (+1), 67.858, 70.896 (+4); minus the cones I wiped out from a nasty miscue at the end of my last run. The clean run was good for 5th of of 44th overall in both raw and PAX times, and 5th out of 11 in the PAX class with a score of 982/1000. Not bad for the first event back in the car after two months. Time only runs were excellent; they can’t be compared directly to the competition runs since the course was altered, making it faster, but my times got better with each run – 66.759, 65.276, 64.676 – were all clean, and my best of those 3 was the 3rd fastest PAX times of 39 time only entrants.

The car felt great from the first launch of the first run. No excess engine movement on takeoff, the 1-2 shift, or when getting off the gas. The car felt especially planted which made me more confident in the results of my driving inputs. Turn in is sharper and the car has a good deal less body roll in transitional elements. I didn’t notice much, if any, additional understeer, which can sometimes occur with a larger from sway bar, but the course layout might not have exposed those effects, and the bar was set at the softer of two settings. The only down side of the day was finding out what the next weak link is, as the front sway bar end links are making plenty of noise to indicate they have had enough. At least the nasty clunking they are making was easy to identify and was not any part of the car trying to dislodge itself from the mother ship to completely ruin my day.

Now that the R32 is running again and all appears well (knock every piece of wood in sight), I have found out that I am not allowed to have 2 simultaneously running Volkswagens. The GTI would not crank when I went to drive it to work Monday morning and since it will start with a jump from it’s younger sibling, it is hopefully the battery and not the alternator. I’ve yet to investigate it further. I got it back on concrete and will just keep driving the R32; perhaps having the GTI sitting will add even more fuel to the motivational fire of getting parts that are awaiting install actually bolted to the car. The brakes are ready to go, I have new stainless lines, new wheel bearings are pressed into the front spindles, the rear calipers have been rebuilt with new boots, and all I need to do is put the brakes together and bolt them on the car. Soon, very soon…

The motor is still at my friends house, and I have not yet gotten injectors and a fueling setup yet. Part of that is researching what will pass emissions and get me the performance I’d like and the other part is tuners not being all that great at responding to messages. Hey, guys, ah, I’m trying to buy stuff from you, answer your messages!

The off-season is over. It didn’t feel short, it was short. No rest for the weary (or the wallet, for that matter).

Luck of the draw had be in the 6th heat, which is when it decided to rain. As far as me vs. my class, it didn’t matter since we were all in the same heat. As far as me vs. the course, it presented a challenge.

Competition runs: 45.817, 44.604, 44.518, 43.493
Time only runs: 44.072, 44.057, 43.383, 43.342
45th out of 127 in fast times, 32nd in PAX times.

The kicker being that I let another driver take the R for a spin in his time only runs and he threw down a mid-42 second run on his last shot. So again, I’m not pushing the car hard enough. I did get some good advice during my TO runs, with the current DSP national champ riding shotgun (and frequently speaking up to the tune of ‘more throttle!’).

As for the ‘no rest for the wallet’, well, January is turning out somewhat costly on the car front. The R32 got 4 new tires on the regular wheels and will need 2 sticky tires on the autox rims after next weekend. Then there’s the GTI and the handful of things it will be getting fixed…

Note that I’m not complaining, just making an observation. Such is life: I picked this hobby and occasionally it takes my bank account in the yard and smacks it around. Whoops.

It’s happened before, I write something nice about new Apple products only to have ones I own fail in response. It’s nearly happening again, not two weeks after discussing Apple’s new laptops. Both my iPod Mini and my G4 Cube are one the way out, fading fast. Both have had a touch time of late as the iPod’s battery had long since seen it’s better days, with the player only working when it’s plugged into a power source. This isn’t all that bad, since I mostly use it in my car, where it’s powered. Lately, however, syncing the iPod has been a challenge. The iPod seems to struggle with communicating with my laptop often necessitating a dance of unplugging, replugging, shutting down iTunes, starting iTunes to get the iPod to sync properly. I could replace the battery and go ahead and replace the hard drive, as that might be why it’s sluggish to respond to syncing, but that cost will be me more than half way to a new iPod that will basically be better in everyway.

This past weekend while trying to load up some stuff on the Cube for a BBQ, it took a dive, a belly flop to be exact. It no longer recognizes the new or old hard drive throwing input/output errors and refusing to start in anything other than single user mode. A new battery, which supposedly is a known point of failure, didn’t help anything. I found an old CD that came with the Cube that provided a hardware diagnosis, but it came back with everything looking rosy. I know better. I’m not sure what is wrong, and I’m really not that interested in finding out because it will probably be more money than it’s worth. A decent motherboard upgrade, if that is what is failing, will be a few hundred dollars along with a few hundred more to get the RAM to support it. If it’s cabling or something else internal it will likely be expensive and a pain in the ass to fix.

So what now? Really, I can survive without both items, but do I want to? The iPod still works just fine when plugged in so as long as I don’t mind listening to the same music on it, all’s well (for now, that is). I would probably go for a Nano if it came down to a new iPod because I still want something compact. The coolness factor of the Touch is certainly high, but that’s not enough to justify spending twice as much money. Sixteen gigs of space is plenty for my uses and I’m not interested in using a lot of the video functionality since no iPod offers the battery life necessary to get me through the flights I most commonly take. I’d have to play around with the Touch to see how well the WiFi works and if I’d be interested in making use of the other available applications.

I will miss the functionality the Cube has provided and unlike the iPod, there’s no functionality in the meantime. It’s a paperweight as I write this. The external hard drive I have hanging off my Airport Extreme can support some of that functionality but the temptation to pick up a Mac Mini has never been stronger. However entry point for that solution is $600. The refurbished and used markets aren’t going to be a lot of help as even the Power PC Minis are fetching good coin. It also doesn’t help that rumors keep recurring that the Mini is nearing it’s EOL (End of Life, as in discontinued, gone, kaput). I hope that is not the case.

My plan for now is to wait. First to decide how much I want to spend and on what and second, to see what new things may surface at MacWorld in January.

Today seemed like just another Tuesday. Until you remember that every now and then on the occasional Tuesday, Apple decides to hold a special event and unveil the next revision of whichever product line the spotlight shine upon. On this particular Tuesday, laptops were the objects of attention, as Apple announced significant changes to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines along with minor updates to the MacBook Air. Now, I have had my trusty PowerBook G4 since the holiday season of 2003 and have watched as the PowerBook turned into the MacBook Pro, then was revised, and revised again (and probably again, I haven’t counted), then emerged the MacBook Air, and now, the newest MacBook Pros. Each time I ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ over the new features, and this time is no different. The nerd in me even appreciates the in depth presentation about the new manufacturing process, as a single brick of aluminum is turned into the majority of the laptops frame and structure. Today, as with every revision I’ve watched via streaming web video after the fact, I came across the same set of thoughts. Is it time to replace my PowerBook? Has it run it’s course? Can I resist the temptation of delicious new product?

The answer’s are still, for now, No, no, and yes. This laptop, the one I am typing this blog entry on now, is over four and a half years old. That is ancient, by computer standards, and ironically, I have an even older Mac (remember the Cube?) sitting mere feet from me, also still in service. My PowerBook’s life has not always been smooth sailing as it bears the scars of being dropped, scratched, dented, and spilled on. It survived the tail end of my undergraduate experience, the entirety of my graduate experience, and the first four years of my professional experience. I’ve replaced some wear items along the way – the hard drive, battery, and keyboard – but not enough that would justify the cost of a new laptop. It certainly didn’t hurt that I was ready and willing to take the thing apart and replace components on my own. My point is, the thing still works, and I really don’t do the kinds of things with it that would merit needing a much faster processor or other upgrades beyond what this computer can deal with. One of the real reasons that I have been able to resist the temptation is that this is the last laptop Apple offered in such a small form factor. Granted the new MacBook weighs the same 4.5lbs as my machine and it’s footprint is not that much larger, but I am certainly not the only one waiting for Apple to re-enter the so called, sub-notebook market. The MacBook Air comes close and really, was the biggest temptation, because it is all I would need or want in a laptop. I rarely use the optical drive, I rarely ever use wired Ethernet, and even those uses are ‘rarely’ and not ‘never’, it would probably never be the only machine at my disposal so I would have no reservations with a laptop lacking some of the more common hardware. It would be perfect and I would have one already, if it were just a size smaller. I’ve seen it in person and the form factor is great, but everytime I come back to my little marvel the larger 13.3 inch laptops just don’t seem as comfortable. I’m probably crazy for implying that a 3.0lb, stick figure thin laptop as powerful as the Air is over-sized and ‘uncomfortable’, but Apple, that’s your own fault for making this laptop so damn good.

I have to say, however, that I do see the writing on the wall, for both machines. The Cube has a lower ceiling for upgrades and the expense of a newer processor and more RAM will rival that of a more capable Mac Mini, especially as the market for used or refurbished units expands. I for one, believe the end of life rumors for the Mini are just that, rumors, so the second hand market should age like wine. The Cube cannot run Leopard without one of those expensive motherboard upgrades and as more years pass and more revisions of OS X come along, it’s only going to get further and further behind. Sooner or later it will be time to put it to pasture, but it can always look forward to a second life as a fish tank. As for the PowerBook, well, it’s future might be a little more secure. It will honestly depend on how hard and fast Apple closes the door on the G4 processor and if you haven’t noticed, Apple has already put a few nails in that coffin. I was disappointed when I found out that my trusty G4 didn’t have the power for the new iMovie, how much longer before it isn’t good enough for OS X as a whole? Will Snow Leopard mark the death bell for the Power PC processors? We will see. If OS 10.6 goes Intel only or even G5 and up, and someone at Apple convinces the bean counters that the market for MacBook Mini is alive and well, then there really won’t be much of a decision for me to make.

Until then, however, onward march my pair of G4s.

A disappointing first try at iTunes movie stores rentals.

First, navigating the store to figure out what movies could be rented was a pain. Apparently there are a lot of movies that can be bought but not rented. I don’t get it and I didn’t bother to look up why. Trying to watch previews was hopeless, they would load and play audio, but the video would hang, which would turn out to be a taste of things to come. It also took 5 tries to get the download to actually work, and hopefully that didn’t result in five charges to my credit card. I will have to check tomorrow. The iTunes store kept resetting the connection and I had to start all over. It is worth noting that this was being done on a computer with wired connection and I’m pretty sure whatever the issue was, it wasn’t on my end. So we finally get the thing downloaded and settle down to watch it. More disappointment. The video frame rate is horrendous with the movie skipping badly, I’m guessing we were getting 1-2 frames per second, if that. The audio could keep up, but not the video. I thought, well, maybe the Cube (450Mhz PPC, 768Mb RAM) can’t handle this so I tried to play it on the Powerbook. Same problem. Then I thought, wait, the Cube plays other movies all the time even ones of similar size, without a problem. Sure enough, I brought up some video of similar size and quality to the movie I just downloaded and it played perfectly. From a networked drive at that.

I started to hit Google about this issue and found that it is a known issue with no real fix or even response from Apple. Not good. So there goes the $4 and 3 or so hours of my time trying this out. I won’t be back anytime soon unless I hear of massive improvements. I was hoping this would turn out well, instead, it seems I will resign to subscribing to NetFlix.

Or something like that. Today was my first day at SAIC as a Software Design Engineer. Day one was filled with what one would expect day one to be filled with at an IT/contractor/programming position: setting up accounts and passwords, meeting people who you will soon be writing countless lines of code alongside, and getting access to all the wonderful resources you are going to be using. I have to say, I was pretty stoked early in the day as upon arrival I realized my pre-built office desktop was running something unexpected: openSUSE. That’s right, not Windows! It will be an excellent experience for me, as I get to gain knowledge on another flavor of Linux that I have not yet used. I am hoping this is the tip of the iceberg as far as things to come since to me, it speaks volumes when a company (or a division, in this case) understands the tools needed and provides them, up front, to the people that will be getting the work done. Now, if I can just figure out how to get one of those shiny iMacs into my office as well… I suppose one shouldn’t be too greedy at the start, right?

I will also say, it was nice to return home in the evening and not be wiped out from having to rise before the sun at 4:00am. Waking up at 6:45ish was down right sleeping in!

…and don’t feel like updating or redoing the theme I previously built, I’ve moved to an off the shelf WordPress theme called ‘Journalist’ with lots of of so fun widgets on the sidebar. I have also managed to hopefully fix the Cube, which will re-assume it’s position as a fun/development box. It is hooked up to my Samsung LCD TV as a monitor and my receiver/DVD player/surround sound for watching videos or downloaded movies but it also has a fresh update of mySQL, PHP, and Ruby on Rails so I can get back to being more geeky on my free time. Now that I will not be commuting three hours everyday I want to get back into keeping up with what’s new and shiny.

This thing is great, takes the same batteries as the cordless drill I already have and provides enough torque to make changing wheels so much easier without the risk of over-torquing anything. Cuts the time in half.