Saturday, August 07, 2010

Drivers Wanted

If you’ve not been paying any attention to my twitter account, and chances are that you have not…. I recently got a new car, a 2010 Limited Edition Volkswagen Jetta.  It’s in many ways a return to what I liked about my first Saturn sedan, but also features the new things I like about driving Volkswagens.  Some people like trucks, others like SUVs, some like hatchbacks, maybe some people even like vans.  I am a sedan or coupe kind of person.  I don’t know why, and I can’t explain it.  Although I really like driving Alison’s Golf/Rabbit hatchback, when I thought about what I would buy it was always “Golf with a trunk”, which is the Jetta.  I like the style of it, you can get it with a stick shift, and the inline 2.5L engine is good.  The 2.0T turbo is a great engine, but maybe it’s a sign of growing older… I just don’t care enough to pay for the bigger engine.  It comes down to style and comfort, which is what my modifications were mostly based on.

Why get rid of the Eos?

By trading in the Saturn, I got a relatively low monthly payment on my leased 2008 VW Eos.  It was a great car, which lots of power and the cool folding hardtop…  But as much fun as it was, it was a lease and at the end they were going to take it away from me and leave me with nothing.  As the lease progressed, I felt worse and worse about paying so much money to basically rent the car.  So, in June I got a call out of the blue from Volkswagen asking if they could take a look at the Eos, and basically buy out the lease from me.  I didn’t drive it much, and it still had very low miles (14,000 in 2 years).  I was pretty interested in stopping the lease and starting to pay to own again, so Alison and I went down and test drove some Jettas.  I stayed away from the 2.0T models and liked the 2010 more than the 2009.  It’s quieter and has the new white/red dash from the old red/blue one.  I was looking for the cheapest S model, but it turned out the new “Limited Edition” Jetta was almost-an-SE model at the S model price.  Ended up getting it for a little less than MSRP, and decided to also get the nice warranty with the free maintenance for 7 years since I plan on keeping it for a long time.

Jetta LE Features

The limited edition is the last jetta VW will produce with the 5th generation body design.  The 2011 models have the redesigned exterior to make them identical to Hondas, so I’m glad I got one now.  Like I said before, the LE has many features normally found on the higher end models for the cheaper model’s price.  Also, it doesn’t have the horrible chrome around the windows.  Mine has 5 speed manual transmission, an 170HP inline 2.5L gasoline engine, silver exterior and black interior.  For the rest of the features, I’ll let the VW sales guy take you through a walk-through of the car.

Modifications

I got the car about a month ago, and I’ve spent some time personalizing it a little bit.  Nothing too major, as keeping my warranty valid is important to me.

1. Color Matched Side Markers

I find the orange side markers on cars horrendously ugly, and they don’t serve much of a purpose.  Like Daytime Running Lights, they are added to the car just because they might work, so why the hell not.  It detracts from the nice smooth look of the car, and if you can’t tell where the front of my car is, well then you shouldn’t have a license.  These silver side markers are a close match during the day, and at night, still light up amber(although not quite as bright as before), so really I didn’t even take away any functionality.  Side markers are not required on sedans in Texas.

   

2. Disabled Daytime Running Lights

This is an easy mod in the 2010.  With the ignition off, put the turn signal in a left turn and then pull it back like you are flashing your brights for ten seconds.  With the stick still held back, start the car.  Your DRLs are disabled.  Doing the same with a right turn will re activate them.  Sometimes I have noticed the DRLs still on.  I don’t really have a real reason to disable them, except for the fact that I am OCD about my dashboard, and I hate the “DRL” light in the dash that tells me they are on.  I don’t care.

3. The RCD-510 touchscreen 6 Disc CD Changer.

The ugly single disc changer had to go.  Originally, I had planned to wait a year while saving up for the RNS-510 which features Navigation, internal HDD, and a DVD player.  I found out later that it won’t play DVDs while driving, so when it costs $1000 even more than this RCD model, it was a pretty easy choice to skip that.  I found this used touchscreen being sold locally on a VW forum, and got a decent deal on it.  It’s great overall, easy to use, and having 6 MP3 CDs + Aux input pretty much eliminates my need for an internal hard drive.  It also plays MP3s from an SD card slot, but I don’t have SD cards.  It doesn’t have video-in capability, but I don’t need it as I can use an ipad or a laptop.  The RCD-510 has a few little quirks in the menus, but overall very very good.

   

4. Black “Wolfsburg” Grille

As much as I’ve talked about hating chrome along the windows, you must think I’m a bit of a hypocrite when the Jetta and other VWs have a gigantic chrome bumper in the front.  I did get the silver color on my car because 1. I always alternate between black and silver cars, and 2. it minimized the chrome disturbance more than other colors.  But when I found out I could buy a glossy black grille to put on the front of the car for only $100, I knew I would go from being okay with the front of the car to loving it.  It took forever to ship, but now I have it on the car and it looks amazing.  Pictures do not do it justice.  With the new grill, and the absence of any chrome on the outside of the car, it looks just like an actual Jetta Wolfsburg Edition except that I have the long radio antenna, different wheels, no Wolfburg emblem, and it’s the normally aspirated 2.5 engine rather than the 2.0 turbo.  Pretty minor things.  The look of the Wolfburg edition car, for $100 instead of the normal 4,000. 

5. Magnetic License Plate

Probably the only actual real “modification” I’ve done, a few sets of rare-earth magnets are glued between the black grille and my license plate holder.  These magnets are crazy strong, and hold the plate snugly against the grille without the need for me to drill holes.  I normally cruise around without the front plate (two years so far with no problems), but you never know if it may be handy sometime to have one.  It’s been fun playing around with the magnets, but they do a surprising job at holding the plate on.  From the outside, there’s no way to tell the plate isn’t screwed on.  I’m not sure if people walk by cars trying to pull the front plates off, but I guess I’m willing to take that risk.  I don’t plan on having the plate on all that much anyways. 

Final Review
After a month, I really like the Jetta, I even like it more than the Eos.  I learned that I really didn’t put the top down enough to really want to pay for it, and the lightness of the Jetta makes it fun to drive.  It has great features like the touchscreen, handsfree bluetooth calling, the leather steering wheel, the transmission feels great…although I do miss my 6th gear. I don’t plan on doing any other mods to it, other than maybe tinting the windows.  I’d like to protect the interior as it sits in the airport parking lot, and tint looks good on silver cars.  I’ll leave you with some random pictures I guess.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

iPhone 4 rant

Ok quick rant about the iPhone 4!

It’s new and shiny and people can’t stop talking about it!  Literally, this is all that is on the news.  Apparently if you hold the bottom of the phone a certain way, it loses signal and can even drop the call!  People are so worked up about this that there is even a class action lawsuit starting against Apple over this!  You bought a phone you had never seen or touched before and it didn’t live up to your expectations.  Someone call a lawyer.  You deserve all of Steve Jobs’ millions of dollars for this outrage!  If you don’t like it, then you can fucking return it.  You can hold it a different way, you could even buy a case for it.  You could use your iphone 3Gs.  No one forced you to buy an iPhone 4.  Sometimes things just don’t quite work as well as you’d like.

Here is a “funny” video poking fun at iphone 4 fanboys (or fangirls in this case).  It’s always easy to kick around the fanboys for a few good laughs, but of course the shopkeeper fails to bring up any of the features the iphone 4 IS actually better at, such as the high resolution retina display, the new gyroscope, the fact that it works with their numerous iphone ready accessories, and the big one:  It syncs with their iTunes. 

Actually, there is really nothing revolutionary about the iPhone 4.  What is revolutionary is still the iPhone.  Apple already has the music player market cornered with their iPods and iTunes, and when a phone was added to that: BOOM revolution in smart phones.  People like the iPhone because it’s easy.  Because it really does just work for them.  Other phones might let you install whatever app you want or have a slightly bigger screen, but until you can make the experience easier than the iPhone + iTunes, people will still want the iPhone because that’s what their smartphone experience is built around now.  If anyone wants to compete, they will have to tear customers away from their already established investment in iTunes.  It can be done, but you’ll need a prettier phone/mp3 player than even Apple can make.  Good luck.

For that reason, I still prefer my original iPhone to any of the new phones out today.  The iPhone 4 isn’t any more another revolution than a droid or evo or hero or any other iPhone killer.  But if someone wants to spend the extra money for the new iPhone 4, let them.  It doesn’t automatically make them a fanboy.  It just means they will be the first to find these issues and let the rest of us know.  That’s the risk you take with a pre-order.

Extra Bonus Rant:
It’s just a phone!  Who cares!?

Monday, June 28, 2010

New House Pictures!

Alright!  As promised, here are new house pictures.  We’ve had about 3 months with the house so far and things are moving quickly.  Quite a few of these pictures are already outdated, but if I keep waiting for everything to be perfect, I’ll never get this done.  I think it’s cool to see the evolution of the different rooms and you get a better feel of the work we’ve done. 

Kitchen

The first project was the kitchen.  Having the keys to the house for only a few hours, Alison, her aunt and I started work on painting the kitchen.  Looking at the original pictures makes me cringe now.  All that wood color….ugh.  Well we brightened everything up very well with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white paint.  From the original picture, you can see the washer and dryer hookups which were flipped around so those could be in the garage.  Those things are noisy and they fit perfectly in the garage far away where they won’t bother us.  The new refrigerator is nice with ice and water in the doors.  We then painted the walls blue.  The last pic is already outdated because we’ve removed part of the cabinets and tiled the wall between the cabinets and the counter top.

Living Room

The living room is challenging because it’s pretty small.  Our couch only fits well in one spot, facing the kitchen.  We’ve added some little tables behind the couch to push it away from the wall.  The TV was kind of pushed in the corner, until it was replaced with a bigger, more elaborate TV center which pushes it out of the corner a little better.  It is finally mounted on the wall, cables nicely behind the wall. 

Sunroom / Dining Room

Our sunroom is one of the nicest rooms we have, with its big windows and nice view of the yard and all the trees we have around us.  It doubles as our dining room.  There is also a little sitting area just through the door with a nice view.  When there is company the chairs can be pulled into the living room for extra seating.

Bedroom

Not much special about the bedroom.  I complained about the lack of doors to the bathroom a lot when showing the initial pictures, but with so much to do it’s been pushed to the bottom of the list.  It sounds like such a huge project and the spare bathroom has been working fine for us so far.  It’s one of the few rooms lucky enough to get some paint.  I like the white color, but Alison wants something more colorful.  Anything is better than the tan that’s everywhere else. 

Den / Computer Room

Finally, my favorite room (of course) is the computer room.  It has presented great challenges to my setup, which are overcome as I get new furniture and computer hardware.  I was originally forced to put my desk in front of the window.  There is only one outlet in the back (pic #1) and only half of it works.  I could fix it probably, but I’m so lazy.  That’s not enough for my setup, so I had to start off on the other side of the room.  I set it up just as it was before we left the apartment with the two monitors taking up basically the whole desk.  The room is pretty large and with only our two desks in it, it was very empty.  So off I went to finally get the large desk I’ve always wanted.  I got an ikea galant desk with a few extensions.  Putting my old desk drawers by it lets it fill up the entire wall side of the back of the room, and it’s long enough to reach the other power outlet so I can run power along the entire desk discretely.  I could finally split up the computers, which were originally 90 degrees apart, but now the gaming computer is in the corner.

New additions to the setup, thanks to tax returns are a 16gb wifi ipad and a like-new 30” Cinema display off of craigslist.  The 30” is awesome and actually makes my old monitor look small.  Games are amazing with it.  Text is a little small.  I wanted the 30” because I’m not a fan of multiple monitor setups, and it would give me the most desktop space.  I could sell the 23” to make up some of the cost, but they look so good together right now!  The third picture is a photoshop of the color I want to paint the room sometime. 

My setup acts as two workstations in one.  Typically, the power-hungry gaming computer stays off, and I use the black workstation.  While it appears to be a hackintosh desktop, the black computer is the NAS file server, and the display comes from the macbook pro laptop running to its left.  This setup is great because it’s whisper quiet, wakes quickly from sleep, and still usable for almost everything I do.  To the far left are the routers for U-Verse and the internal network.  The black monitor is also an HDTV with U-verse setup on it.  The iPad is great to pick up and use around the house so I don’t have to unplug the laptop very often.

When I plan on spending more time in the computer room or playing some games, I can turn on the silver desktop and take advantage of the great screens with more screen space than I know what to deal with.  The black station can run aim or web browsing while I play games, or I can watch TV off to the side while I use the other one.  The oldest part of my setup is my awesome lava lamp on the right.  Probably one of the things I’ve owned for the longest amount of time, the lava lamp is on a timer and comes on automatically and is always fun to watch and relax.  My desk backlighting is along the back wall between the black and silver stations.  I had to get some extension cables and move the silver desktop from the corner because I kept kicking it.  I’ve moved the small black table away from under the desk and moved the computer there.  It’s currently torn apart while I install a blu ray disc drive.

Alison gets my old desk, and the tiny one she had was sold.  She likes the bigger desk and I really like my new setup as well.  I just need some more posters and art up, as well as some bookcases and other little peices of furniture to fill up the space and make it look really nice.

Other

Lastly, some other random pictures include the deck in the back of the house which was been stained and now has a wonderful dark brown wood color.  Alison has been doing lots of landscape work and as long as the Texas sun doesn’t kill all the plants it will look great.  We pulled up an old monster truck tire and replaced it with a white birdbath and feeder that are attracting cool birds like cardinals and blue jays.  Alison’s parents brought some old furniture down from Cleveland and we have a classic theme going on in our guestroom featuring a queen size bed.  That combined with the queen pullout sofa bed makes a lot of room for guests to come down during quakecon.  :D And lastly, here’s some pics of the garage.  Featuring the new Jetta and the washer and dryer.  Plenty of room for the washer and dryer…why would you put these inside the kitchen?  But also why would you not have doors on the bathroom…

Phew!  Got that post out of the way.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Future of the AA Category

This website has always been about my life, my thoughts and my experiences.  It’s hard to separate different parts of your life and cut out some parts of it.  In my opinion, we shouldn’t have to.  Where I work and what I do for a living is a part of me and I’d like to continue sharing different things here.  But there are people out there who will take something the wrong way, and something bad will happen.  So as much as I hate to censor myself due to fear and intimidation, my job is important to me and therefore I am forced to come up with an alternative solution.

We’ve been getting notices at work a lot lately about staying off twitter and facebook and blogs and stuff.  I notice people find my site from a variety of different web searches.  A lot are interested in my post about rutorrent on the appletv, others want to read my review of the linksys NAS 200.  The standby travel post is bringing a lot of visitors as well.  From there they can read my work posts and potentially get me in to trouble.  One of my YouTube videos was already traced back to me and had to be removed.  However, this blog is mine.  I write it for myself to look back upon later, and I don’t want to never write about stuff that happens to me at work.

Right now, about half my AA posts are now marked “Friends Only”, and the older half are closed for now.  While creating new entries with “Friends Only” access is a possibility, it really hurts the flow of the archive pages, and the company logo is still displayed.  I think I will be editing the template to automatically hide all AA posts, unless you are signed into my website as a user with enough privilege to read “Friends Only” posts.  The good parts of this plan is that I can still write about work without fear of google or idiots finding it, but the bad part is that updates to the site might be harder to follow for my friends.  Announcing AA Posts on twitter might be an option.  As always, being logged into my site makes commenting easier, lets you keep track of custom friends on my friends page, and will soon display work posts as well. 

Obey.

Friday, June 11, 2010

New iPad Awesomeness

First impressions are just like the apple store.  It’s amazing to browse the web like this.  It’s going to be awesome to have this around the house.  Still feels a little bit heavy but i can rest it on my leg when I sit on the couch so it’s not a big deal.  I got the WiFi only version because I don’t want to take it everywhere, I don’t need to take it everywhere, and I don’t want to pay for it.  Anywhere I want to use the iPad should have wifi too.  Apps look great.  My iPhone now looks so small…

I actually left with the intention of buying a 30” Cinema Display but I couldn’t bring myself to spend that kind of money.  I’ll keep my eye on craigslist for the display.  A good one pops up now and again and I can have both it and the ipad for the cost of a new display. 

A real post with updated house pictures comes soon.
First image is a play off this pic from a 2003 codexlan.