Blogged with Flock
Monday, January 07, 2008
Bad Troubleshooting Gone Right...
The LHS is running again, thanks to a decent bit of weather I was able to accelerate the resurrection process. Yippeeee!!!!!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
The Fated Revenge of Complementary Thinking
This is what I was going to do: I was going to write a little about how nicely mannered our 1995 Chrysler LHS has been through the course of our owning it for almost 5 years.
What happened this morning: I got in the car to go pick up my children from Granny's house, and it refused to start. Doh!! I'm writing this while waiting for a friend to arrive to try to help jump the beast.
The Story I was going to tell: We started looking for another car once when we learned that our son was on the way. The main family car at the time was a not-too-reliable Chevy Caprice 9C1. The car had its moments, but was not all that fun to take into the shop. While the Caprice had plenty of room inside, it was apparent that having two six-footers in front was going to make it hard to carry a toddler and baby in the back. It was plenty wide, but could use a little bit more in the length department. Our daughter's carrier snuggled nicely between the seat backs of the front seats when installed in the middle of the back seat, and we weren't going to have that option with two occupants back there.
Our search began, and over the course of a few months of combing through Autotrader's web site, and examining interior specifications of everything I could think of, I noticed a car that was slowly dropping in price as it continued to go unsold. It didn't have a lot of miles for its age. The interior was quite cavernous, with legroom everywhere, and it had a (queue the ray of light!) sunroof. The first problem we noticed was that the display didn't work on the stereo. Okay, we thought, we would probably be replacing that with an newer unit, so that gives us haggle room. The next thing was the climate control system. Somehow it was stuck on max heat. We went home later and thought it over, inadvertently leaving my Sting CD in the unlit CD player. We called later to say we would like to buy it, and found out that it was actually owned by a broker who was a good bit closer to where we lived, and that it had been taken back there to replace the stereo (Bye-bye, Sting!). We made the trip out there, and started talking about what it needed, and what we would pay. From the continual price drops, no doubt due to some of the flaws previously noted, and the dealer's inability to get the display to work on another stereo, we got a pretty nice deal on a quite luxurious car.
After that it was our primary family car, and while there were some problems with the transmission leaking, a freak coolant issue, and letting it go too long without changing the timing belt, the car has been fairly dependable with regular use. It has never stranded us on the freeway, which the Caprice did a number of times, and is usually up to whatever task put before it.
The standout feature for me this week, was looking back at how very capable it is in slick conditions. I don't think I've been in a more capable car with a single axle propelling it.
A few winters back, my father and brother were visiting with Dad's RV, being followed close behind by my step-mother in the Suzuki Sidekick tow-vehicle. While step-mom was on her way, a big storm hit, and made what is usually an uneventful trip into something a little more scary. Somewhere between the directions my dad gave her and the weather, my step-mom took a wrong turn and while she had made it to within 10 miles of my home, we didn't want to risk any further problems. My dad and I headed out in the LHS to find her. The tires were VERY bald, and the traction control was kicking in every time we started after a stop, but it took the conditions well and never lost its composure. In the aftermath of this same storm, we agreed to shuttle my brother back home so that my dad could go further north to avoid the storm in the big rig. That was a real nail biter, as the car was driving on ice during the whole trip.
Earlier this week, I took the kids down to the Oregon Coast to celebrate New Year's. I had planned on leaving in the wee hours of the morning, which turned out to be a good thing, because we drove on ice ALL the way from Olympia down to Tillamook. The car seems ideally balanced for traveling like this.
If only it weren't so scared of high winds!!!
What happened this morning: I got in the car to go pick up my children from Granny's house, and it refused to start. Doh!! I'm writing this while waiting for a friend to arrive to try to help jump the beast.
The Story I was going to tell: We started looking for another car once when we learned that our son was on the way. The main family car at the time was a not-too-reliable Chevy Caprice 9C1. The car had its moments, but was not all that fun to take into the shop. While the Caprice had plenty of room inside, it was apparent that having two six-footers in front was going to make it hard to carry a toddler and baby in the back. It was plenty wide, but could use a little bit more in the length department. Our daughter's carrier snuggled nicely between the seat backs of the front seats when installed in the middle of the back seat, and we weren't going to have that option with two occupants back there.
Our search began, and over the course of a few months of combing through Autotrader's web site, and examining interior specifications of everything I could think of, I noticed a car that was slowly dropping in price as it continued to go unsold. It didn't have a lot of miles for its age. The interior was quite cavernous, with legroom everywhere, and it had a (queue the ray of light!) sunroof. The first problem we noticed was that the display didn't work on the stereo. Okay, we thought, we would probably be replacing that with an newer unit, so that gives us haggle room. The next thing was the climate control system. Somehow it was stuck on max heat. We went home later and thought it over, inadvertently leaving my Sting CD in the unlit CD player. We called later to say we would like to buy it, and found out that it was actually owned by a broker who was a good bit closer to where we lived, and that it had been taken back there to replace the stereo (Bye-bye, Sting!). We made the trip out there, and started talking about what it needed, and what we would pay. From the continual price drops, no doubt due to some of the flaws previously noted, and the dealer's inability to get the display to work on another stereo, we got a pretty nice deal on a quite luxurious car.
After that it was our primary family car, and while there were some problems with the transmission leaking, a freak coolant issue, and letting it go too long without changing the timing belt, the car has been fairly dependable with regular use. It has never stranded us on the freeway, which the Caprice did a number of times, and is usually up to whatever task put before it.
The standout feature for me this week, was looking back at how very capable it is in slick conditions. I don't think I've been in a more capable car with a single axle propelling it.
A few winters back, my father and brother were visiting with Dad's RV, being followed close behind by my step-mother in the Suzuki Sidekick tow-vehicle. While step-mom was on her way, a big storm hit, and made what is usually an uneventful trip into something a little more scary. Somewhere between the directions my dad gave her and the weather, my step-mom took a wrong turn and while she had made it to within 10 miles of my home, we didn't want to risk any further problems. My dad and I headed out in the LHS to find her. The tires were VERY bald, and the traction control was kicking in every time we started after a stop, but it took the conditions well and never lost its composure. In the aftermath of this same storm, we agreed to shuttle my brother back home so that my dad could go further north to avoid the storm in the big rig. That was a real nail biter, as the car was driving on ice during the whole trip.
Earlier this week, I took the kids down to the Oregon Coast to celebrate New Year's. I had planned on leaving in the wee hours of the morning, which turned out to be a good thing, because we drove on ice ALL the way from Olympia down to Tillamook. The car seems ideally balanced for traveling like this.
If only it weren't so scared of high winds!!!
Blogged with Flock
Sunday, December 23, 2007
kEnny's E-Tool Fourvarites!!
These are my mobile phone essentials, compiled over the last year and some, since outgrowing my Motorola RAZR V3. They are somewhat tailored for use on my Sony Ericsson K790a Cybershot Cameraphone. Yes, I called it a Cameraphone with a capital C. My rule is that if it has more than 2 mega pixels and a REAL flash, it gets a capital C. Get one for yourself and you'll see why. There are a few available now with 5MP sensors as well.Daily Use Tools: These are the programs and websites I use every day, to keep in touch and up to date.
- 4INFO: While it is a very capable source of information for mobile browsers and SMS related queries, I primarily use 4INFO to give me my morning weather forecast on the weekdays. The infospace supplied services for AT&T Wireless still suck for regularly scheduled alerts.
- Twitter/Remember The Milk: I don't use Twitter other than to connect to Remember the Milk, for which I am contually finding more uses. I just recently added lists for Movies and TV shows to see, gifts to get for people, and music to take another listen to. When I happen to catch a movie, I can type in the names of the previews to add to the list. When I'm listening to the radio in the car, I use Jott to tell RTM who I need to listen to again (because I try to make a concious effort not to take my eyes off the road). When my kids start asking about all the neato cool stuff they have got to get, as told to them by various children's television networks, I can keep track of those as well. RTM has a very easy to navigate mobile site, which really shows off how flexible their service is. As a side note, Remember The Milk just got whole lot better by using a Firefox add-in to integrate closely with your Gmail Inbox. Very sharp!!!
- Jott: I have to check in at Jott's website every week or so for new Jott Links. My favorite new one is called Trapster. Sure, Trapster has their own software that runs on your GPS enabled mobile device (mine is not yet), but if you just want to do your part and look out for your fellow drivers, you can use Jott to send the exact location and type of service spotted to Trapster's database, in a safe manner!
- GrandCentral: Since starting my E-Tool monologue, GrandCentral has graduated to the only voicemail service used for my cell phone. After re-enabling the internet access for the phone, and realizing that calling AT&T's voicemail counts against your anytime minutes (during the daytime of weekdays), I realized that I could keep a few more rollover minutes by using my unlimited Media Net access to check my voice mail visual-style from GrandCentral's mobile site. It took a little digging, but I found the generic GSM commands to send from my phone to change from ATTWS voicemail to GrandCentral. *** Know what makes this cool now? I can give my GrandCentral number to anyone, and it will either screen the call or forward it to my cell phone (or any number of other phones I specify), based on my preference. When I can't answer my cell phone, same thing! The links to the voicemail messages are sent to my Gmail inbox, just like my Vonage voicemails, and both services send SMS alerts to my phone.
- Weather Underground: This is the sexiest website for weather, hands down! Not only does it give you an amazing amount of information (lots of great Google Maps mashups), but it has advertising for meeting single people in your local weather area too!! I use their RSS feed to get detailed weather predictions each day.
- Google's mobile services: Where do I start? Headlines via RSS, Gmail and Google Maps from Java applications, and browser bookmarks for local movies. Of special note is Google Maps. They added the ability to triangulate your location based on cell tower data, allowing remarkable fun watching the map move when you aren't driving. It is also handy for looking up directions. The directions can start out from your approximate location. You can also get loads of information via SMS queries.
- Blogger gets special mention apart from the rest of Google, as my phone has software made specially for it. Blogger can be configured to send SMS, MMS, and other picture messages from my phone (directly after taking the picture, even) directly to the Blogger blog of your choice. Since I only use Blogger, there's no problem.
- Fandango: While I have been hesitant to use Fandango previously, due to Regal Cinemas as Comcast relations, I have to admint that they have a pretty good mobile portal. They have the only movie listings I have found where you can view show times for future dates. You can even purchase tickets from your mobile.
- Yahoo! Go: This is one I've been following for some time, but still isn't available for the firmware version on my phone. I had a chance to try it out on a Samsung Blackjack, where it worked really well. Yahoo! Go packs in all kinds of Yahoo! content in an easy to navigate package. If you are a Yahoo! user, this should be at the top of your list.
Blogged with Flock
Tricked out with Flock and keyboard shortcuts...
The last thing I didn't like about Flock has a work-around:
The "Share this link via email" button hasn't worked the way I would like it to, because it uses your system's default email client to send an email, and I hadn't figured out how to make Windows use a website as an email client. I found out that Google Talk has such an option, which will make this button open a new tab to compose a message in Gmail. I have also read that Flock will address this disparity in the near future.
I just thought I'd spread some more Flock lovin' around. :^)
I have also been sending a little more time on my desktop system. You know the one with the ergonomic keyboard? Last night I Googlefied (I'm sure that's a word!!) the software for it to use the shortcut keys to open new tabs for various google products in my favorite browser. Here they are from Left to Right:
The "Share this link via email" button hasn't worked the way I would like it to, because it uses your system's default email client to send an email, and I hadn't figured out how to make Windows use a website as an email client. I found out that Google Talk has such an option, which will make this button open a new tab to compose a message in Gmail. I have also read that Flock will address this disparity in the near future.
I just thought I'd spread some more Flock lovin' around. :^)
I have also been sending a little more time on my desktop system. You know the one with the ergonomic keyboard? Last night I Googlefied (I'm sure that's a word!!) the software for it to use the shortcut keys to open new tabs for various google products in my favorite browser. Here they are from Left to Right:
- Web/Home: iGoogle
- Search: New Gmail Message
- Mail: Gmail Inbox
- Favorite 1: Google Calendar
- Favorite 2: Google Docs
- Favorite 3: Picasa Web Albums (more Google)
- Favorite 4: Google Maps
- Favorite 5: Object Edit
Blogged with Flock
kEnny's Favorite E-Tools- thReevisited!!
I've got a couple more Flock-specific add-ins to write about.
Next visitation: More fun on your phone!
The first I'm using as this very moment. It is called Flock Blog Plus, and it is really slick. It integrates a whole bunch of extra features to Flock's already-more-than-handy blog editor. The features I am appreciating most right now are the lower-pane editor window and the extra link functions.
The second is called geoFlock. I like playing with maps from time to time, on both a computer and on my phone, so this is a nice tool to add to the arsenal. Maybe for the next caving trip I take?
The second is called geoFlock. I like playing with maps from time to time, on both a computer and on my phone, so this is a nice tool to add to the arsenal. Maybe for the next caving trip I take?
Next visitation: More fun on your phone!
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