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| Saturday, April 19, 2008 |
| Potential Awesome |
The Phoenix Suns' championship run begins in a few hours. Barack Obama has his shot at sewing up the Democratic nomination in the next few weeks. I'll be talking to my landlord about possibly setting up a rent-to-own for my first home. I'll be bringing my car back home and driving my own car for the first time since October, in preparation for the final stages of its restoration.
There is so much potential for joy in my life in May, it's ridiculous, and I have almost no control over any of it.Labels: basketball, cars, house, Leelu, Obama, playoffs, Suns, Volkswagen |
posted by Steve @ 9:54 AM  |
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| Thursday, January 10, 2008 |
| Bug progress.... |
I'm pretty excited about my car.
Right now, it resembles the cars on the Flintstones - there's no floor. It was sawed out and is being replaced with the floor of another car, to get rid of some rust that had developed. It turns out that at long time ago my grandfather (who owned it) had 'fixed' the floor by sawing a STOP sign into shape and putting it under the battery.
It's also having a hydraulic clutch put in, to replace the original cable, and a new passenger door. The old door wasn't the right model year, and so didn't fit. I suspect it was on sale, or free.
Once the floor pan is replaced, I'll be taking it to a shop in town to put Rhinolining, Line-X, or Herculining onto the floor pan to protect it from rust, quiet the interior, and make the thing as indestructible as possible. Then, I'll give it an awesome paint job, we'll put in the new rubber, and maybe in 2 months I'll even be able to drive the car...
Also getting a 1776cc dual carbeuretor motor put into it - just about doubling horsepower. So when I finally do get to drive the thing... mmmm....Labels: Beetle, cars, Volkswagen |
| posted by Steve @ 9:16 PM |
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| Saturday, March 24, 2007 |
| Durable machines |
One nice thing about the fact that I can't yet put together most of the more ridiculous parts of my dream car setup is that the technology surrounding them is growing.
Originally, I wanted a carputer in my car. I justified the expense, time and work involved by knowing that it would be able to give me a much more flexible GPS, it could track a wide variety of mechanical components of my car (i.e., fluid levels and temperatures, MPG), and of course, give me an awesome stereo system.
When I first started drawing up the plans for this beast, I was looking at a touch-screen monitor attached to a computer in the trunk. It looks like within the next year, I won't need anything but the monitor because 'slate' or 'ultracompact' style computers are becoming reasonably-priced (under $1,000).
This type of computer is like a very small laptop - so small, they don't have keyboards. Most are roughly the size of a normal piece of paper, but there are more compact ones that can fit on my small dash (my max size is about 8"x8"). Plus, several are designed for stockers and delivery drivers (such as a Budweiser delivery guy) and so can withstand 120-degree temperatures, 5-foot drops, and direct exposure to rain.
All I have to do is plug it into my USB sound system, the USB controls for the various lighting controls and sensors around the car, and maybe an external hard drive, and it's set. Best yet, I can use it as my own PDA. Perhaps soon, they will function as phones as well.
I'll be using Rugged PC Review as my usual shopping/news spot.
A couple commercial examples would be the OQO, VAIO UX Premium, and DuoCor. I'm more interested in the more durable models like the DRS Hammerhead and MobileDemand T8600. Here's a Wiki writeup on ultra-compacts.Labels: Beetle, carputer, cars, DuoCor, MobileDemand, OQO, pc, ultracompact laptop, VAIO, Volkswagen |
| posted by Steve @ 3:26 PM |
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| About Me |
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Name: Steve
Home: Tucson, Arizona, United States
About Me: I like to think about things, and I occasionally like to write what I think.
See my complete profile
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