I’m not a Ford guy. In fact, I generally disdain American cars because, frankly, most of them suck. However, when I first saw the new 2005 Ford Mustang in Car and Driver, I was intrigued. “That’s a beautiful car,” I said. “Yeah, but how is Ford going to screw it up?” was my brother’s reply. But after seeing a few of them driving around town, I became even more intrigued.
Being intrigued by an American vehicle that a) was built after the Nixon administration, and b) costs less than an outhouse in San Luis Obispo (that is, $124,298 or so), is an unusual state of affairs. I decided to find out more. To satisfy my curiosity, I paid a visit to Perry Ford here in San Luis Obispo, and took a 2005 Ford Mustang V6 out for a test drive. My current four-wheeled vehicle is a 1993 BMW 325i: a very different beast that sets a high standard indeed.
Continue reading ‘BMW vs. Mustang’
If the power windows and sunroof on your BMW E36 suddenly stop working, there are a few things to check.
First, check the Child Protection Control–that’s the mysterious button behind the right side of the steering wheel. It’s actually a circuit breaker that is designed to trip when little Johnny tries to close the power window on the dog’s neck. If it’s popped out (you’ll see a red outline), push it back in.
Then, check the fuse in the main fuse box. It’s under the hood on the driver’s side.
If both of those are OK, suspect the Comfort Relay. That’s the main relay that provides power to the windows and sunroof. The relay is located in the Auxiliary Relay Panel, which is next to the steering column under the driver’s side dashboard. In the BMW 3 Series Service Manual (1992-98), the Aux Relay Panel is described on pg. 610-2, and a schematic for the power windows (1993 325i) is on pg. ELE-233.
Roadfly also has a good writeup about the Comfort Relay here.
Update June 14 2007: RoadFly used to have a good article there. The article seems to have been KIA by the corporate sell-out. Fortunately, the Wayback Machine still has copies of the original article. Unfortunately, some of the original photos are missing.
Update June 15 2007: There are a number of posts on RoadFly’s bulletin board regarding the Comfort Relay. Running a search there may turn up something useful.
Update Nov 20 2007: Here’s an interesting article on the E36 comfort relay from UnofficialBMW which may be helpful.
“In C++, friends can touch each other’s private parts.” –unknown developer
This week marks the 35th anniversary of the jinxed Apollo 13 mission. IEEE’s Spectrum is running a great article about the engineers and controllers at Mission Control during those harrowing days titled, Apollo 13, We Have a Solution. The training, knowledge, and preparation of those controllers and engineers saved the lives of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert in April, 1970.
With Hong Kong Disneyland set to open later this year, 500 Hong Kongers have been sent to train in “Disney Culture” at Disneyworld in Florida, as described in this cute story from CNN.
You don’t realize how important your thumb is in your daily life until you can’t use it.
I somehow managed to jam my left thumb while going for a loose ball during the basketball game this morning. On my ride home this evening, shooting pain helped me identify the following actions which require my left thumb:
- Pulling the helmet strap tight
- Stretching the cargo net
- Opening my helmet visor
- Pulling in the clutch lever
- Turning the fuel petcock
- Operating my turn signals
- Operating the choke
- Blowing the horn at stupid cagers
- Loosening my helmet strap
- Taking my right glove off
Fortunately, I type spaces with my right thumb, so I can bitch about my boo-boo without undo difficulty. Lucky you.
Now that I’ve lived with my iPod mini for a month, I have formed some opinions regarding the device.
The iPod plus my Grado headphones together generally put out very good sound. Additionally, most of my music has been ripped at 160kbps rather than the standard 128kbps for improved sound quality. With this setup, I’m hearing details I’ve never heard before in music that I’ve listened to for years. But even with this great sound quality, the iPod is not perfect.
I’ve experienced problems with the iPod’s EQ (equalization). On most songs, I apply the “bass booster” setting, which mildly boosts the bass. However, applying the “bass booster” EQ setting to songs with strong bass causes the iPod’s sound output to clip noticeably. (The powerful bass drum hits on Metallica’s S&M is where I first heard this.) This is rather disappointing, but since the Grados have good bass response, running with flat EQ is not a huge issue.
The battery has been a bigger problem. My iPod mini is a first-generation device, with a claimed battery life of 8 hrs. (Second-generation iPod minis have much improved battery life at ~18 hrs.) Unfortunately, I have yet to observe my iPod mini run for a full 8 hrs. Further, I’m having trouble keeping the battery charged by connecting the iPod to my computer via Firewire. It has to be left connected for several hours to get a full charge from my computer, and running a computer that draws 350 watts for 4-6 hours just to charge a battery the size of a poker chip doesn’t make sense. I’ve taken to using the included AC adaptor to charge my mini.
This blog post offers an excellent examination of media bias.
I do believe that most beat journalists try to do a good job and report the news in a fair way — it’s just that they fail so consistently. So I’m not certain whether Journalism as a trade attracts those on the political left, or whether the media is controlled by leftists.
It was reported today that Google and Yahoo are merging. What will the new company be called? Why, YaGoohoo!lge, of course!