Simpig's Den

Product Review: 2012 Ford Focus SEL

2011-08-16T09:09:00.002-04:00

After 8 years with my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid the CVT was starting to give me trouble, so it was time to move on. After reading the forums and blogs I found that I was not the only Honda Hybrid owner to experience CVT issues, actually almost every blog-post I found for an '03 Hybrid talked about CVT issues - I did not find this when I searched for Prius information for the same years, so my first stop was Toyota to look at the Prius, fulling intending to once again go with a hybrid vehicle. Once again Toyota disappointed with almost exactly the same situation as I had 8 years ago: "we don't have any 2011's left, but if you can wait 2-3 months, we should be getting the 2012 models in...". Subtract 8 from the years and its the same story I got back then. So, I took my brochure and notes and headed out. I have been hearing good things about Ford, and noticed that a lot of the gadgets (like BlueTooth) were included whereas these were upgrades on other manufacturers, so I went to Ford. After some discussion I found that a similarly equipped Focus was $8-10K LESS than the Prius. With my actual experience with a hybrid vehicle I know that optimistically the hybrid had saved me ~$5K in gas over the last 8 years (assumes comparable consumption of 10 L/100km vs. my 5.2 L/100km). So with my Civic I believe I saved gas equal to or more than I spent on the premium cost of a hybrid back when I bought it...BUT when looking at the Focus 2012 fuel consumption information compared to the Prius information, I was a bit amazed... Prius Hwy fuel consumption at ~4 L/100km, Focus: 5.3 L/100km. So Prius is a lot more expensive, and very little relative fuel consumption savings. So, that's the story of how I ended up with a Ford (which I'm still trying to internalize and accept). That said, here are the things I've noticed so far.

Cup holder placement may seem insignificant, but it's one of those little things that will bug you every single day. The cup holders are in the center and with your arm on the center armrest you will be resting your wrist/forearm on the top of your travel mug, so not only do you need to reach awkwardly backwards to get your cup, but any coffee drips left on the top of the cup will be transferred to your shirt sleeve. There is a whole lot of space taken by the oversized parking brake, this whole area could have been designed better.
I like the holder for sunglasses above the rear-view mirror. This has become a standard feature in a lot of vehicles and saves me having one of those clip-on things on my passenger visor. I've got a bit of a complaint here; the mechanism and construction of the whole area above the rear view mirror seems cheap and clunky, especially compared to wife's Honda CRV - but still, I like it.
The integrated garage door openers are a cool gadget, and again save me from having things hanging from my visors. I got them programmed easily for my 2 garage doors and like this idea.
The transmission has me a bit concerned, it seems to have trouble finding the right gear when taking off from a stop or at lower speeds (around 60 km/hr). I will ask about it at my first oil change but it just might be that I have to get use to a "normal" transmission again after driving a CVT for the last 8 years, and a manual stick for the 11+ years before that.
The voice activated Sync stuff is pretty cool - I love having the BlueTooth built in and it is way easy to call people (worked right off with no trouble after Syncing with my Blackberry: "Phone > Call > Dad > Home" finds the right number and dials). The number dialing is also easy to use with no fuss. The USB link works with my iTouch and overall I am really liking the whole setup. I may be biased since the radio in my Civic has been giving me trouble for the last 2-3 years, so just having good sounding music in the car again is awesome! Still learning some of the command structures for the voice activated stuff, but it will come...
Odd find, the USB port is in the center armrest compartment. There is a dent in the compartment moulding where the latch mechanism is located that would be perfect for a wire to feed through, but the actual clip mechanism won't allow this. Surprised, it seems like it was made to allow a USB cable to be plugged in to the USB port and fed out to a device, except for 1 small piece of plastic...I might have to modify the design.
Not sure why, but SMS messages through the Sync interface are not supported for my Blackberry. Given the text-to-speech and voice-to-text capability already built into the car, I would think that SMS support would be an easy and very useful add-on.
The trunk release...as far as I can tell the only way to get into the trunk/hatch area is using the button on the key fob. Annoying. Stop the car at the end of the driveway to get the garbage cans, have to reach around and almost put my head under the dash to find the button to push. Sharon grabbing a few things at the store and wants to throw them in the back, same thing. If there is a manual trunk release, I can't find it...on the car or in the book.
The key hole is behind the steering wheel and voice activation paddle, hard to see to insert the key, and several times I have accidentally hit the voice command activation paddle while inserting or removing the key, or trying to open the trunk (see above).
I think there should be more fuel saving stuff/options. Having come from a hybrid there are things like turning off the fuel supply to the engine while coasting or going down hill that could be incorporated into any car. I've started shifting into neutral when going down hills, my RPMs drop from ~2K to ~750, and I notice an improvement in fuel economy (of course not sure if this is impacting performance of the transmission, see a few points above...). Related to this, a Real time fuel consumption meter would also be helpful to see how and when shifting gears affects performance.
Coolness: Blind spot mirrors built in to the regular side view mirrors. Like it, use them all the time. I think the passenger side needs to be adjusted but not sure how, more reading required.
Windshield Stones... Cheryl use to say that her old Jetta's windshield attracted stones. I think this car is the same. I think there is something with the aerodynamics. Anyway, not much you can do.
I had climate control in the Civic Hybrid, loved it, still do.
The cruise control is smart!!! Every other car I have ever been in would automatically put the pedal to the metal upon cruise "resume", but this puppy is smart, it slowly accelerates and allows some wiggle-room around the set speed so no down-shifting and rocketing over little hills, good.
The information panel(s) are great, I love them. only suggestion is to also have a summary information panel. Currently all the travel information (odometer, fuel consumption, fuel remaining, trip timer, etc.) are all on individual separate screens, need 1 summary screen that has all of this listed in 1 place

Airport Security

2011-06-18T08:28:00.002-04:00

I just finished reading an article about a man that was wearing baggy hanging down pants in the airport who was asked to pull them up - and when he refused, they removed him from the plane and put him in jail for trespassing. There is a lot that is trivial and stupid about this story - on both sides of it - but I think the best part of the story I read was the parting words of the reporter who actually did a great job in putting the situation in perspective - a refreshing change from the sensationalizing typically seen from reporters trying to make their story seem like the next major world headline.
"Thus ends the initial account of one of the dumbest incidents ever recorded on this site, which is saying a lot. ... Personally, I feel a little dumber for having spent a portion of my morning on it, and for actually feeling compelled to offer this parting advice, applicable to any situation you can possibly encounter in life: When in doubt, always pull your pants up."

Don't Talk - Angry Voicemail (Censored)

2011-06-07T19:47:00.000-04:00

Well, I've got to say that I have to agree with the theatre on this one... The light from the screen and the clicking of the keys (unless you have a touch-screen) is annoying for others around - as annoying as talking to the person next to you. So good-on-ya Alamo Drafthouse!

iTouch Playlists

2011-06-01T09:35:00.002-04:00

This post feels familiar, so I may have already done something similar in the past - but I am just now recovering my iTouch music database after a computer failure several months ago, so just getting back into my music.
Basically, I feel that I am the only person on the planet that listens to my music in randomized playlists. I am amazed that the iTouch (or iPod, or any other music player I've seen for that matter) does not allow the user to create playlists from the device, and add songs into (multiple) playlists while they are playing. Often when listening to newly loaded CDs or songs I think "this is a great driving tune, and is also a general good song for parties around the pool", so while listening to the song I want to add it to both of those playlists - but I can't, I need to remember the song and do the playlist udpate the next time I connect to iTunes.
I have a cludge work-around that I use that does a bit, but want to share it anyway for the benefit of humanity... I use the star rating system to categorize the music for moving into play lists when connected to iTunes.
- newly loaded songs have no rating so I move all of these into playlist "0-rating". This allows me to select only unrated songs, shuffle them for listening, and then rate while listening using 1 of the other star ratings.
- 1-star: don't like it, delete from library on next iTune connection.
- 2-star: softer background or dinner music
- 3-star: general inoffensive tunes for weekend breakfast listening, an additional playlist called "SundayMorning" is a merge of all 2 and 3 star songs.
- 4-star: good tunes
- 5-star: great tunes, an additional playlist called "GoodTunes" is a merge of 4 and 5 star songs.

So as I listen to the unrated songs live on my iTouch, I give them a star rating. Then when I get back to iTunes and sync, I sort the library by star rating and move all the songs to the playlists listed above, delete all the 1-star, and then go into each playlist and delete any with changed ratings.
It is a primitive system since there are only 4 usable stars, but it mostly works.

If someone knows a way to actually put songs into multiple playlists while on the go and listening, please let me know.

Emergency Preparedness

2011-05-14T14:39:00.000-04:00

So I've been thinking about the future and the inevitable zombie apocalypse, and trying to decide on a good plan for a place to go for best security while we wait out the worst of it. In a recently watched documentary, "Resident Evil: Afterlife", I saw how people were able to get into a prison after it was emptied (seems that the warden let everyone out when the infection started) and how that environment seemed to be well protected from the zombie horde (for a while) given that the security measures used to keep people in were equally effective at keeping zombies out. However going to a place like this would hinge on having the place emptied before I would want to setup camp - I don't think I should depend on this happening at my local prison and therefore don't think this is a good "Plan A" for a target destination when the apocalypse begins.

Similarly, in the subtitled foreign documentary, "La Horde", I saw how older apartment buildings with their cement and brick construction and primary use of steel doors can also make good "bunkers" - but again, the existing residents really need to be cleared (at least the infected ones), and there is the added "construction" required to cover/seal the typical front entry glass doors, and barricade the stairwell access - all in an environment with limited materials on hand to do this added and needed work (while "the horde" is on the other side of the glass trying to break through and eat you while you are whistling away working on your barricade).

Learning from the documentaries (after all, that is the value of documentaries, learning from the actions of others), I have come to think that a "big-box" hardware store may be the best option. These buildings typically have few ground-level windows, and few doors, and also few "residents" - even on a good normal day there may only be a few handfuls of people in the store, and those people would likely have not put the thought into this (as I have) and would likely leave the building when the outbreak started. Though the access doors for these buildings are typically large, the building is well equipped with the materials and tools required to fairly quickly secure the entrances from the zombie masses - up to and including the availability of quick-dry cement and construction adhesive. For any zombies that get in during or before the entrances are secure - the arsenal of "weapons" available in a big-box hardware store make this as good a place as any to be taking a stand.

In my town the local hardware store is right beside the grocery store. I do not recommend setting up camp in a grocery store.... in a related documentary, "The Mist", a group of people being attacked by prehistoric or other-worldly creatures sets up camp in a grocery store, and the limitations are quickly obvious - these stores usually have an entire front wall that is windows. Even if the windows are hard to break, if the zombies (or creatures) can see you, they will keep coming - solid walls are both stronger and hide you from sight, making it less likely that an ongoing prolonged attack will continue. Coming back to topic, over time you can assume that power will be lost and therefore the refrigeration will stop working - so any meat will begin to smell - which will make staying there unpleasant AND will attract both zombies and creatures. So, back to my point - in my town the hardware store is beside the grocery store, so if I setup camp in the hardware store, spend my time securing that location, then once done I can wait for lulls in the zombie activity to use roof access to break into the grocery store as required and transfer all the non-perishable food over to my hardware store strong-hold.

I also thought of warehouse locations in city industrial areas. These locations are also good for the same reasons - minimal ground-level windows and typically few solid, secure doors, so relatively easy to setup security, however your support materials once you establish your strong-hold are limited to the products or materials housed by that warehouse (picture rack upon rack of rolls of bubble-wrap....). I think a warehouse location is a good "Plan B" (plus these would likely have even fewer "residents" to deal with), but I think Plan A should be a hardware store - preferably located between a grocery store and a gas station.

"Plan C" would be to barricade my home. This is more difficult given the quantity of ground-level windows, however it has the advantages that I know who is in it right from the start, and I know what materials and supplies I have...but this means I also know that I don't have the materials on-hand to properly cover all the windows and secure the building. In my particular case I am located a bit in the country, so should have limited hording at my door step - at least when things start, so this would give me a little more time to collect the materials I need, and do the work. But longer term the reduced structural strength of the building and access points could be my downfall - and once the perimeter is breached, there isn't much I can do once the zombie are inside (as compared to a big-box store or warehouse where there is enough space and even height to support internal barricading structures and security measures - such as an elevated living space suspended from the ceiling beyond the reach of the horde).

So, I'm off to the hardware store to check it out. Might also keep my eyes open for the best travel route from here to there - both by car and on foot. Open spaces bad, narrow walk-ways good.

Sugar Shock

2010-10-02T12:00:00.002-04:00

I was drinking a glass of V8 V-Fusion juice and noticed the bottle says "no sugar added". It was pretty sweet so I started checking the label. There are lots of fruits and vegetables in this juice so likely all natural sugars, but the nutritional information says 27 grams of sugar in a 250 ml serving. How much is that really? When I have a coffee at Tim Hortons I get a medium with 1 milk and 1 sugar - and I even find that too sweet on the last few swallows if it hasn't been stirred. So a couple of quick internet searches reveals that a medium Tims coffee is 10 oz and a sugar packet is ~3 grams.
So, a 10 oz glass of juice has the equivalent of 11 packets of sugar in it vs. the 1 packet I put in my coffee.
Wow, eye opening...

Integrity in politicians

2010-09-28T08:18:00.003-04:00

I'm not so much a "git 'er done" kinda guy as I am a "do the right thing/do it right" kinda guy. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it is hard to find that balance to "git 'er done right". That said, I'm a little concerned about a politician willing to "git around" the law....
In our area there is a by-law that says you are not allowed to post signs on the shoulders of the main roads - I learned this after losing my garage sale signs one Saturday morning. I assume this law is in place for safety reasons(?). So I'm not sure how I feel about voting for someone who has political campaign signs in the back of a truck parked on the side of the road, with a guy standing on the shoulder also holding a sign.
Do I really want someone in office who is willing to go around the law for personal/professional gain?

Fuel Cell Powered Clock

2010-09-26T16:58:00.007-04:00

Here is a project I have been thinking about for a while. I've had a Thames & Kosmos fuel cell car kit for a while. And I am collecting a bag full of "dead" batteries to drop off at hazardous waste disposal. My mind started wandering and I thought "I know there is still energy in those batteries, just not enough to run the device they are in, I hate to throw them out while there is still energy in them..." The wheels in my head started turning and I starting thinking about how to drain these batteries completely before disposal while storing and using the recovered energy. First challenge is voltage variation, almost by definition the voltage of these batteries is low and getting lower as they are drained, so that got me thinking of electrolysis to drain them while producing hydrogen which I could then use to power the fuel cell. But the fuel cell only puts out a small voltage, so can't use it to power anything significant - but maybe my 1.5 bathroom clock! So, with all of that in mind, here is my thought process and at the bottom is the final plan.

Basic Car Kit Connections:
This is the connection setup defined in my Thames & Kosmos Fuel Cell Car & Experiment Kit. This configuration uses a solar panel to power the load and power the fuel cell in electrolysis mode to produce hydrogen. When there is no light on the panel, the cell reverts into generator mode and consumes hydrogen to continue powering the load. The book suggests that plastic containers apparently won’t hold hydrogen for long(?) so looking for something glass to use for storage. (book indicates ~50% reduction in hydrogen volume over 12 hours!)

Basic Car Kit Connections - with Bad Idea:
Thought #1 - connect “dead” batteries to the system to remove every last bit of energy before sending for recycling. Problem: book says that the fuel cell needs at least ~1 volt to operate in electrolysis mode, so won’t fully drain the battery. Also, at that low voltage it would become a load for the solar panel and fuel cell (they would try to charge the battery). I think a full battery could be used if a transistor was put in line such that if the voltage of the system drops below a minimum, then the battery is engaged, but that is extra (complicated) circuitry.

Basic Car Kit Connections with Hoffman Apparatus:
Thought #2 - connect “dead” batteries directly to the water for electrolysis. This changes the problem into one of plumbing - the fuel cell needs distilled water, and straight electrolysis really needs salt water to be effective, so the tubing connections need to be done in such a way as to avoid any salt water from getting into the fuel cell. A little Internet searching found "The Hoffman Electrolysis Apparatus", which appears to be exactly what I need.
NOTE: booklet says hydrogen comes off negative terminal of energy source.

Hoffman Electrolysis Apparatus Connections:
Operation, Daylight:
- solar panel powers clock and fuel cell, hydrogen produced is stored in Hoffman apparatus
- battery also produces hydrogen, also stored in apparatus
- when “full”, cathode is out of water and battery electrolysis stops
- continued fuel cell hydrogen produced is vented through center tube

Operation, Night/Dark:
- Fuel cell consumes hydrogen to power the clock
- battery produces hydrogen to replenish
- when water level reaches top, air is drawn from center tube to avoid salt water flow into fuel cell supply tube and electricity production stops (clock stops)

I don't understand...

2010-09-21T19:07:00.003-04:00

So, there is a Sears warehouse on my route to work and the staff have been on strike since April. There are signs up around the area that say "don't shop at Sears"... Is it just me or is this REALLY short sighted? If they are successful in convincing people to stop shopping at Sears, then once the strike is over - guess what - sales will be down, therefore revenue will be down - and layoffs! In my opinion, the strikers should be saying "Shop at Sears!!", this will drive more sales and revenue, and then the company will be stronger to support more jobs and higher pay going forward. Maybe I'm missing the whole thing, but that's my thinking...

MP3 Player Playlist Suggestion

2010-09-19T15:00:00.002-04:00

I must not be a normal person. My friends will immediately agree with this, but I'm saying it for a different reason... Almost all MP3 players and computer-based music programs allow the creation of playlists, but none that I have found allow songs to be added to these playlists while the song is playing, or allow adding a song to multiple lists. From what I can see, if I load a CD into my music archive, I need to immediately assign each song to a single playlist after loading or at some point while my MP3 player is connected to the computer - which I think is kinda stupid.
My suggestion:
- create multiple playlists by music type or listening pattern (ie. driving tunes, quite Sunday morning tunes, dinner background tunes, etc)
- load all the songs from the CD into the computer/MP3 player
- allow the user to select playlists to associate to the song while the song is playing

Scenario is this: load 1 or several CDs onto the MP3 player, listen to the songs however you like (I prefer shuffling everything), while listening to each song, tag it to all of the playlists you want, go to next song....after a while, all the songs are categorized and you can then listen by category. Oh, and be sure to create a "Delete" playlist so that you can flag a song for removal from the library next time you are doing list admin.

Gizzy Howling to Alert the Pack

2010-09-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

Our little fuzzy boy, Gizzy, must have a little wolf in him. He is part Chinese Crested and part Pomeranian and the best parts of both. We don't really think of him as a dog, but when he howls like this you just have to giggle! He is mostly blind and mostly deaf so I think he sometimes gets confused and that leads to some howling to bring the pack to his aid.

Stone Lamp and Gate Posts

2010-09-18T15:00:00.007-04:00

So the lamp posts at the end of the driveway are starting to fall apart - the brick appears to be disintegrating for some reason. I dug into the crumbling mess and it appears that the inside of the post is filled with loose bricks and then the cement cap was poured on top of these. I've been putting off the replacement of the posts because finding good people for this kind of thing is always a pain, but then we stumbled upon a modular stone pillar/post system by a company called Anker Pillar Systems while paging through a local newspaper. This looks very doable, and since I already have the foundations from my existing pillars, this should work fairly well! It also appears that these can be used as gate posts if the center hole is filled with cement and rebar after its built - bonus! I think this might be a project for next spring....!

Movie Review: Reneissance

2008-02-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

I caught Reneissance on the dish the other night, its a neat little movie. Its animated but in pure black and white - not even greys. The movie itself is just 'okay', but its got an interesting look. Not very memorable, but one thing did stick with me; the setting is a futuristic (~50 years) Paris, and sections of the city have had "glass" pedestrian promenades built above the streets. I think this is a very interesting and doable idea for city core areas that have become over congested. Thinking of areas in Toronto like Yonge and Queen, picture a glasstic (my word for something transparent with the flex and strength properties of plastic) platform built at about the 3rd floor level that goes between the buildings and completely covers the streets. There is room at street level for the cars, trucks, and streetcars, but the majority of the pedestrian traffic would be above this. The glasstic still allows daylight to reach the underlying street, but there is now room for free human movement outdoors including outdoor cafes and miniparks with seating areas and gardens in the middle of what would be the intersections below. The underlying structure would need to be strong enough to support the weight of many people (thinking sporting event or political rally or protest) and the winter snow, but minimal snow removal costs would be incurred in this area, just enough on the pedestrian level to allow movement between buildings - but even that is optional since the pedestrians could use the street level in winter to avoid the snow. Anyway, this was a minor background concept in the movie, but it got me thinking about the practical applications.

A freakin shame in the name of progress

2008-02-07T09:51:00.002-05:00

Okay, picture a golf course... mostly open space, right? Usually some trees lining the edges of the fairways just for clarity and visual appeal. If I were going to build a housing development, I would be thinking that taking over a golf course would be perfect with the already designed flow, previously mentioned well-placed full-grown trees, and the strategically placed patches of water with connecting brooks and streams.

But no.

Hwy 50 between Bolton and Hwy 7 had the Hunters Glen Golf Course. Not a great looking course, fairly typical looking. Well apparently it has been sold because the sign says its closed, and the machines have been on-site - cutting down ALL the trees and running them through a giant wood chipper. So I'm guessing by spring it will be cleared and flat, and filled with "houses" (if you can call them that) that are barely far enough apart to carry a lawn mower through on its side, each with its own newly planted 5' maple tree (that will likely die over the first winter)....

I'm assuming here, it could become a wonderful Super Center - mostly pavement with no trees at all, but whatever it is to become, I doubt it will be as "nice" as the golf course was....

Oh ya....

2008-02-07T09:51:00.001-05:00

Driving on ice and snow when you are late for work and traveling 10km/hr is a lot more manageable when AC/DC is on the radio...Back in Black...gunna be a good day!

Wow - warm!

2008-01-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

Warm enough this morning (end of January!) that the engine auto-stop on my Honda Civic Hybrid is kicking in whenever I come to a stop....which seems to be a lot this morning.....had to wait for not one, but 2 train crossings, on top of the regular traffic issues... plus I stopped for a Western Breakfast Sandwich at Country Style, just for fun.

Car Insurance Check

2007-12-29T12:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I noticed an article in the Star today about a place that allows you to compare car insurance rates ("Unbiased online car insurance quotes"). I've done this before with Belair Direct through the website they use (can't remember the name). I thought this site would be "unbiased" as they say in their tag-line. I don't really trust the Belair Direct check since they provide 5 competitive quotes - and I suspect that they would provide the 5 quotes that are the next 5 more expensive companies vs. their rates - and only show companies with lower rates if their rates were higher than any of the top 5 companies. What can I say, I'm cynical...
The only reason I doubt the quotes I'm getting is because every time I check and compare, my insurance supplier, The Personal, is significantly less than the next best. In the case of InsuranceHotline.com, my current rates are almost 20% lower than anything else being offered. I have trouble believing this since I feel that my rates are high - so I again suspect the results.
Anyway, this site also allows for regular updates to be emailed to you on the rate comparisons. I guessed at some of my info (like date I got my license and years insured, stuff like that), so maybe I will go back in and update with accurate information and see if it makes a difference.
Plus, by mentioning them in this blog I am suppose to get a free e-book on 'Car Carma', so what the hell?!

Movie Review: Babel

2007-11-15T18:48:00.001-05:00

Movie Review: Smokin' Aces

2007-11-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

Liked it a lot more than I expected! But that often happens to me with movies - I see something that looks good but not great, so I go in with low expectations and have less chance of being disappointed. Lots of guns and violence, makes for a loud couple of hours! Good flick...

Pianos and Houses

2007-11-04T10:18:00.001-05:00

The ownership date for the new house is approaching - 5 more days! Anyone know how to test if a piano "works"? (obviously hitting the keys, but if a key doesn't make a sound, how tell if its a major or minor problem, and what about those peddle things...?)

My buddy says that when he gets finicky doing rough carpentry, framing or whatever, his friend Terry often reminds him "We aren't building a piano!" Meaning Piano's are finely-tuned machines that need to be "finickied." My buddy's advice: if a key doesn't make a sound and you don't immediately see the corpse of the mouse that is causing the problem, leave it and call a trained professinal.

Planning to take the piano to my buddy's place in Ottawa and unload Thursday night and stay at his place (basking in the glow of piano appreciation...) - maybe walk to a nearby pub after the unload for a beverage. I don't want to drive the truck to Montreal at all on Friday, but I really don't want to do it with a piano on the back! So unloading is critical... Other than shuffling a piano about, and me working a day in Montreal, I'm not sure what else we can do for a couple of hours. Maybe all the guys can take turns riding my buddy's home-made recumbent bike and then have his wife can drive us all to the ER in the pickup? (....just sayin'....). We could stand around with mugs of beer on the piano singing. Actually, my buddy's wife's repatoir tends towards classical, but I'm sure we could make up some words. Looking forward to drinking some beers and making up words to "The Flight of the Bumblebee".... should be good for a laugh!

I've been really busy lately - starting to not like work again. BUT, the work at the new house is fun - took down a wall Friday and started putting up a new header for the gap yesterday. All of the upstairs carpet is gone and took a full car-load of old paint to the hazardous waste drop-off yesterday, and ordered all new windows. Hoping to finish the room header today and get the wiring done for that "wall". Soon it will be time to pull up the main floor carpets, tile, linoleum, and old hardwood (would be nice if could be reused - see how it goes). Mom and Dad are meeting the real estate agent for their house today - and hopefully listing. They've already met once and are not happy with the estimated value, but there you go...

As for the pianos, my biggest concern is the truck. It popped a brake line in the driveway a week or 2 ago, and yesterday the coolant pump popped and pumped all the coolant out onto Dad's driveway. All this and I haven't even put the friggin' piano in the back of it yet! If I can make it to Ottawa and unload the piano at least, then I can deal with any other issues more easily.

Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane

2007-08-27T08:30:00.001-04:00

Wasn't disappointed because didn't expect much. I think the part of the movie I liked best was when the video signal from my satellite dish cut-out for several minutes and the recording jumped ahead to when the plane was coming in for a landing - and didn't really care that I missed one of the main parts of the show....

CD Database

2007-08-18T09:40:00.001-04:00

I'm rethinking the CD inventory approach. The 200-disc changer appears faster in concept because you load it up and then do all the lookups at once, but the lookup software is clumsy (generous here, its crap...) and its all-or-nothing, its a pain to do a couple CDs at a time, you have to do a full lookup for the best result...plus the resulting inventory files are text with one file per CD and the files aren't easily converted to a full single database for searching and reporting - which is the whole point... I did some additional digging and found the shareware MusiFind. It does lookups one disc at a time through the computer, but it is designed specifically for creating an inventory of music so it comes with standard and custom reports and supports export to HTML which is a huge bonus since that is my intent in the end (to allow access for some key people to view). So with 800 discs already put through the changer method, I am looking at a restart...but with the restart I will see end results immediately. Stay tuned as I should be able to post the inventory on an incremental basis....

Mileage conversion

2007-08-04T15:56:00.001-04:00

Magic numbers for converting fuel consumption: 234.5 for US gallons and 282.5 for Imperial gallons.... Divide the appropriate magic number by your fuel consumption to convert between MPG and L/100km. Example: my hybrid is currently getting 5.0 L/100km = 282.5/5.0 = 56.5 MPG (imperial).....amazing the info available via wireless devices these days!!!

GPS in Cellphones

2007-07-09T10:49:00.001-04:00

Got a question about GPS functionality in cellphones... I don't believe that the GPS circuit is powered if the phone is turned off so I don't believe that a powered-off phone can be "tracked". Beyond that its hard to say because its really up to how the network and phone are configured to work.

Examples:

my Blackberry has a user option setting to enable and disable the GPS functions, however I believe that the setting gets bypassed during a 911 call, so can probably be bypassed other ways also.
a couple of years ago when I was working on this it was limited to only while you were on a call because the network needed a "connection" over which to send the location data, but if a service provider wanted to invest some development dollars there would likely be a way to use the "control channels" to transfer the data while the phone was not in a call, but the cost/benefit of this would be questionable since the data bandwidth space available on the control channels is limited so not sure we would waste it on an application that targets individual users (but it is theoretically possible)
there are less accurate versions that check signal levels received at different towers at the same time from your phone (in a call or idle, during a registration for example) and triangulating your location based on that (this is also done during "assisted GPS" situations where not enough satellites are visible to get an accurate GPS fix)

So, depends why you are asking. Normal commercial operation typically requires an active call and user enable of the service. Can "the man" find you if he really really wants to - probably...

Facebook Info Collection

2007-07-08T21:53:00.001-04:00

This is an interesting review of Facebook "founding fathers". A little scary, but not at all unexpected. Actually I would have been very surprised if the article tried to tell me that detailed information gathering wasn't going on...

So the real question becomes, how do you protect yourself? At this point, aside from cutting all e-connections (which I don't really want to do...) all I can think to do is giving as little information as possible, and providing false information if I don't see how the information requested will assist ME in MY use of the internet service I am using.

Recently I asked Monster.ca to remove my information from their site because I wasn't using it very much at all (because it is riddled with intrusive ads and not easy to get what I want). Below is an excerpt from the email response I received:

"If you would like to have your email address and account COMPLETELY deleted from our database, please reply to this email with the following information as it appears on your account:

1. Account USERNAME for login (if known)
2. Street address
3. City
4. State
5. Country
6. Zip Code or Postal Code
7. Phone Number
8. Your Full Name
9. Any former email addresses you may have had on your account
10. A former employer or school that appears on your resume

The information that you provide is ONLY used for verification purposes. Once we verify the information, your account will be deleted."

Given that I had not provided them with most of the info above in the first place, I found it odd that I needed to provide all of this to have my account removed - my username and password, by definition, should be enough to uniquely identify me in their database.

My response? I logged on to my Monster.ca account and filled it with garbage data. After that they can keep it active for as long as they like.

Its just like the spam emails that say "click here to unsubscribe" - as soon as you click that link they know they have a valid email address that they can sell, and the flood gates open. I loved it when I got spam emails advertising CDs with millions of 'guaranteed valid email addresses' - how did they know the addresses were valid? because people had already provided some form of response.