Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Honda Del Sol - The audio upgrade

Like all Honda's I have owned, the Del Sol is yet another example of the thoughtless engineering of Factory Honda Car Audio.    It has been identified that the Del Sol uses a total of four 6.5" speakers, one in each door and two in the rear.   The speakers in the back are very shallow and only allows for about 2.5" inches in depth.

I have started looking at the following speakers for the doors:

MB Quart Speaker Kit PVF 216

Kenwood eXcelon KFC X1710 

Lego Vault - Trip down memory lane for those Lego lovers of the 70s

Gizmodo took a tour of the Lego Vaults.  A trip down memory lane for those Lego lovers of the 70s.  I remember building all of those space sets shown when I was young.  Wish I still had them  ;)

http://gizmodo.com/5018990/lego-secret-vault-contains-all-sets-in-history

Monday, June 23, 2008

Honda Del Sol - Idle Air Control (IAC) problem - Code 14

On my way home one day, my Del Sol produced a "check engine" light on the dash and the car became near impossible to shift without stalling (the engine idled way too low).   Upon arriving home, I checked the codes using the field service indicator mode.  Not a huge surprise to find a code 14 - Idle Air Control problem.  Here is what I did to fix.

Girl takes a spin on the escalator

Girl takes a spin on the escalator.  I am continually amazed at the capacity of people to find creative ways to do things!  Glad to be a human.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b12_1214215739

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Country Music starting to lose popularity?

Growing up for part of my life in the midwest farmland gave me a lot of insight into the inner workings of people that I did not encounter when I was living in the "big city".   It made me realize there is more to America than I had thought.

One of the most prominent things that stood out for me was to learn there was a larger group of people that do not live in the cities with completely different perpectives on issues.  Possibly could indicate why which genre of music is/was the most popular on the airwaves nationwide. Rock / Alternative / Pop / Urban / Classical?  Nope, Country Music.   It was amazing to see how many people that I associate with later on in life didnt know that or even could believe that the TOP 20 HIP/HOP stations didnt represent most listeners.  http://cmaworld.com/media/pdf/marketing/2005_listener_analysis.pdf

However, it would appear just recently that Country is starting to lose out to Urban music in Charlotte, NC. Not sure if this is because city living is spreading or people are just tired of Garth Brooks / Tim McGraw. http://www.radioandrecords.com

Gas guzzlers dethroned

Who would have thought SUV sales would be in decline ;)   The reign of the F150 is over.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/03/by-the-numbers-may-2008-f-150-falls-edition/

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Amazing Tornado Footage

Great video of a Tornado near Chicago, IL.   Can say I have seen as clear of a video as long of a large tornado.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-32515#

iPhone vs WinMo Phones (By the Numbers)

Everywhere you go you see iPhone articles a buzz and passionate people supporting it.   That got me thinking about just how many iPhones are really out-and-about in the world in comparison to the incumbent Windows Mobile phones

The sales stats I have found:

June 2007 through Jan 2008
- 618 Million - Total Phones * *
- 14.3 Million - Windows Mobile Phones *
- 4 Million - iPhone *

Jan 2008 through March 2008
- 300 Million - Total Phones *
- 4.3 Million - Windows Mobile Phones *
- 1.7 Million - iPhone *


As you can see the smartphone market isnt exactly a big  segment of overall mobile phone sales, however, of that Apple's product is definitely a minority.   Just goes to show the power of the Apple media and marketing departments.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Radiohead - Nude ( Remixed and performed by antiquated hardware )

James Houston remixes the Radiohead tune "Nude" using antiquated computer hardware to produce the sounds.   Im a sucker for Dot Matrix orchestras ;)  Equipment used: ( Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead), Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums, HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar, Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX)

The original Radiohead tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz5dxszYxFc

James Houton's remix: http://www.vimeo.com/1109226

--- Some of my favs ---

Printer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM2ZcgMqhQc

Star Wars Floppy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE&feature=related

1541 Daisy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=5gnMgmlKi_o&feature=related

Friday, June 6, 2008

Office Rage in a Cube Farm

Very scary look at what happens when a co-worker has hit their trigger point.  They sound like they are speaking Russian, so I am assuming this is from one of the loosely coupled states in Asia.

http://gizmodo.com/5012983/security-cam-footage-of-cubicle-rage-to-the-extreme-is-every-cube-dwellers-fantasy

Looping waterslide in Germany

The Germans build a waterslide that starts with a trap-door and takes the rider on a partially inverted loop.  I have to admit the trap-door launch with threat of an upside-down loop would make me a very nervous first rider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TGmBrYpZag

Oh My. Finnish Rock Band with the Red Army Choir

Words cannot descibe this little gem of a youtube video.  As one of the comments said, the choir sounds like the Witch's Army in the Wizard of Oz.   At least they appear to all be having fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNFRLrP014

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Charlotte I-485 progress

The other day some people were talking about the progress of I-485.  Someone had mentioned that they read an article in the Charlotte observer claiming that I485 would be completed by the end of this year.   I reside in the north-east corner and am _very_ interested in its completion, but sadly had to look no further than good 'ol wikipedia to find the current status.

While the North-West segment of I485 will be completed by the end of the year, the North-East section isnt scheduled to start until 2015!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_485_(North_Carolina)

Sunday, June 1, 2008

HDTV Modulator coming soon!

The Holy Grail of HD finally became available this year, ZvBox,  in allowing consumers to modulate (broadcast) their own digital Hi-Def channels.   Definitely something I am going to be keeping on eye on as it becomes available at the end of June.

http://www.amazon.com/ZeeVee-ZV100-NA-ZvBox/dp/B0018L7NUA

Free HD content on the web

Ive been on the search for free downloadable HD demo material.  The only site I have found so far is the Apple HD gallery.  If anyone knows of any good source of free HD material please chime in.  (I already know about the MS WMV gallery but it does me little good playing DRM .EXE files on Linux )

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/

Homeless woman hides/lives in someone elses home

Apparently an older homeless woman in Japan was living in the top compartment of a closet in someone else's house for close to a year.   The owner of the home didnt catch on to it until he noticed food items missing from his kitchen, so instead of calling the police right away(?) he installed motion detecting cameras in the kitchen to MMS him images.  Upon seeing an image of the woman in his kitchen the then decided to call the police and they apprehended her.

Makes me kinda wonder if it is really all that possible someone could be living in my home without knowing it!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/30/international/i040527D84.DTL&tsp=1

Firedog (aka Circuit City) car alarm install

I had Firedog (aka Circuit City) install a car alarm for me.  Interestingly enough they installed it in a much better location than I was planning on and was impressed at first sight.  I got it home and did a more thorough inspection and discovered they didnt bolt the OEM equipment back completely.  The cruise control module which was giving me so much pain last week, was sort of lying in a nest of wires with its bolts no where to be seen.  I also found broken plastic fragments in the carpet which makes me a little nervous as I couldnt deduce where it came from.   Ill be heading back to CC this week have a chat with the install folks.

Overall it was worth $100, just wish they would have been a little more careful putting things back in place.