Author Archive for Meta

RV background (and name contest)

Published
by
Meta
on March 23, 2008
in Projects and RV Restoration
. 0 Comments

So… I’m sure you’re wondering about this RV and its background. Well, I’m about to tell you. In addition, I need a name. My instinct tells me vehicles are normally girls, but on the other hand, sometimes this one acts like a guy. I mean, in my experience so far, it just kinda’ does what it wants to do and doesn’t mind a little nudging. But too much nudging and it gets offended. So maybe it’s a guy. Anyway…

The beast is a 30′ 1983 Executive Diplomat. It’s built on a Chevrolet P30 chassis and has a Chevy 454 engine. Executive Industries, the company that built it originally, no longer exists. They were bought out by a company called Monaco Coach Corporation, who, unfortunately, have little to no information to give about this model.

As I understand it, the original owner was a rather wealthy ex-Navy guy. He bought it, used it a few times, then parked it for almost 10 years. Eventually, he sold it to a guy whose intention was to ‘flip it’. The new owner did some minor fixes to make it run again, then sold it at a profit. That’s ok with me, because I think I still got a pretty good deal.

So… on to the name contest: if you have any ideas… I would appreciate the suggestions. It’s rather inconvenient to continue to refer to it as “the 1983 Executive Diplomat” and it seems too informal to simply call it the “RV”. Look closely at the pictures, and if you have an idea for a name, post a comment. Sharon and I will evaluate the suggestions and, in a few weeks, post the official new name.

The new project officially begins

Published
by
Meta
on March 23, 2008
in Projects and RV Restoration
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I’ve created a new ‘category’ to document the work I’m about to do to bring this old 1983 Executive Diplomat back to its former glory. I’ve also created a new Photo Gallery where I’ve already uploaded a few new pictures now that we got her home.

Ever since I decided to get the RV, my biggest fear had been driving it up the hill and around the curves that lead to my house. Then I would have to manage to get it into my driveway and parked somewhere. Well, doing so wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. The old Chevy engine still does a good job of pulling this rig around.

R.V. Adventures

Published
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Meta
on March 18, 2008
in Projects and RV Restoration
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As you probably know, "RV" is the common colloquial abbreviation for "recreational vehicle".  Speaking of "RV", have you seen the movie?

Anyway… on to my own story.

A few years ago I had a great idea. Since my work requires me to travel to different cities around the country, sometimes for months at a time, I thought I could save dramatically on my travel/lodging expenses if I had an RV.   I could drive the RV and park at a campground for months at a fraction of the cost of living out of a hotel room or getting a short-term lease on a small apartment.   And, though my company was buying the thing, I could take the RV out for personal trips too. 

So, after months of debating and searching, I finally came across a beauty on eBay selling for much less than I thought it was worth.  I bought it.

My girlfriend and I drove down to Memphis, TN in her car.  The plan was that I would drive the RV home while she followed… just in case I ran into "any problems".  We would pick up the RV in Memphis, drive to Nashville, TN and stay the night there.  Then, on Sunday morning, we would drive the rest of the way home. 

"Any problems" turned out to be an understatement. 

Continue reading ‘R.V. Adventures’

New Toys

Published
by
Meta
on March 12, 2008
in Projects and The Truck-Puter
. 0 Comments

There have been several times when I have been elsewhere other than my truck when I wished I had the carputer with me… if only for the navigation system.  During my trip to the U.K. last month, I was really impressed with the Garmin.  Though I had thought about it before and never pursued it, I finally opted to go for a mobile, multi-use navigation solution.

Along with upgrading the carputer’s navigation software to iGuidance 4.0, I also grabbed a new BT-359 BlueTooth GPS Receiver.  What’s nice about the whole solution is:

1. The software is leaps ahead of v2.1 I’ve been using since 2003.  Not only are the maps updated, but they’ve added text-to-speech for announcing street names and the interface is much, much better for in-car use with a touch-screen. 

2. The software now allows multiple device installation with a single license.  That means I can install it on the carputer (which is fully integrated with the truck and not very mobile), my laptop (which is mobile, but really only useful if I’m a passenger and if the trip is shorter than my battery life), and best of all… my SmartPhone (which, when coupled with the BlueTooth receiver, I can use just walking down a street or when geo-caching in the woods). As you can see from the picture next to my phone, the GPS receiver is pretty small and would fit inconspicuously into a jacket/shirt pocket, handbag or even inside a half-full pack of cigarettes.

3. Though I’ve sort of already mentioned it, but it deserves a mention in-itself, v4.0 includes a WindowsMobile 5 version for SmartPhones.  What’s better than having nationwide maps and voice-guided navigation in your car?  Having it on your phone!

The worst credit card in the world

Published
by
Meta
on March 2, 2008
in Asides
. 0 Comments

Ok, I’m guessing it isn’t THE worst, but it is pretty bad.  If you happen to live in the Bloomington or surrounding areas and were thinking of moving your banking to Members Choice Federal Credit Union, let me advise to to rethink that decision.

I’ve had accounts there since 1995.  Over the years, they’ve served me well.  But no more.  Check this out.

For years, my preferred credit card has been my MCFCU Visa.  When I first signed up, I had a checking account, savings account and car loan with the bank. In exchange, they gave me a few points off the Visa interest rate. Yay!

But, now that they’ve closed several branches and removed most of their ATM machines, and I’m not frequently in the area, banking there became a major pain in the ass.   I decided to move my checking and savings to a more convenient bank, but meant to keep my credit card (that has a decent interest rate and sufficient line of credit).   I found out when I went to close the checking and savings that, in order to keep the CC, I had to keep either the checking or savings open.  Ugh.  So, I opted to leave the savings open and figured I would just maintain a balance of $30 or so and collect the .01% interest.

A few months went by when I received a notice that I no longer met the $25 minimum balance requirement for a savings account. I got online to check, and damned if they weren’t charging me a $3 monthly account maintenance fee because my overall deposit balance was less than $600!  This meant, from a big-picture point-of-view, I was paying a $36 annual fee just to have this stupid credit card!

Option #1 was to deposit $600 into their savings account to avoid the fees, but draw less than 1% interest.  Since nearly all decent online banks are offering 3.5% or better (even with Bernanke’s rate-cuts), that would be a sin.

Option #2, and the one I’m going with, is to cancel them all. 

The moral of the story: don’t let Members Choice screw you too. 

A couple of funnies

Published
by
Meta
on February 22, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Stuff White People Like

Atheist Sees Image of Big Bang in Piece of Toast

England trip pictures

Published
by
Meta
on February 4, 2008
in Asides
. 0 Comments

I’m too tired to write much. But I finally got all the pictures from the England trip uploaded. Tonight is my last night here… and I’m definitely ready to come home.

A Day in the U.K.

Published
by
Meta
on January 28, 2008
in Personal
. 0 Comments

Actually, it will be a week-and-a-half by the time I’m finished, but so far… 1 day.

Usually I wait until I return from a trip before I blog about it.  But I’m compelled to provide some play by play action.  Not really.  I’m just grooving in the pub.  My wireless internet access apparently doesn’t work on the side of the hotel where my room is located.  The porter’s advice was to come here. 

Basically, I’m here to conduct a couple of disaster recovery exercises for a client at a couple of their locations here in England.

The trip over was good, aside from the 1 hr delay in take-off from Detroit due to a combination of de-icing and a de-icer-team shift-change.  But once in the air, I had a few glasses of wine while watching Rush Hour 3 and fell asleep just before the ending.

Once on the ground, I grabbed my bags and headed for Enterprise to get my rental car.  While doing the walk-around to identify pre-existing damage to the car, I pointed out to the kid that the steering wheel was installed on the wrong side of the car.  He told me it was that way intentionally.

Continue reading ‘A Day in the U.K.’

The most expensive picture I’ve ever taken

Published
by
Meta
on January 20, 2008
in Personal
. 0 Comments

This afternoon I put on my coat and gloves and stepped outside to get a better look at the bluejays and cardinals that have been hanging around the past month or so.  There I noticed some leaves on a tree that grows just off the porch.  Apparently, snow melted off the roof and the water dripped onto the tree then froze.  It was so cool that I went back inside to grab my digital camera. 

I took several pictures from different angles.  Nature can be beautiful and I wanted to capture it. 

When I was finished, I proceeded back onto the porch where I slipped on the ice and busted both my ass and my camera.

I spent the afternoon taking the camera apart trying to fix it as I couldn’t make the situation any worse.  Eventually, I gave up.

The good news is that I managed to salvage the picture.

frozen-leaf

Windows Vista & 4 GB RAM

Published
by
Meta
on January 19, 2008
in Projects
. 1 Comment

I know… who really cares? 

I read on a few boards that the 32-bit version of Windows doesn’t recognize more than 3GB of RAM, so buying 4GB for my new laptop would probably be a bit of a waste. However, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.

Granted, this might not be a very good way to measure performance as I’m new to Vista, but maybe someone will find it interesting.

Basically, I tried a couple different memory configurations and captured my "Experience Scores".

Here’s the baseline, with 1 GB RAM (as shipped). 

Experience Score with 1GB RAM

Now with 1 of the new 2 GB sticks installed, giving a total of 3 GB (which I was I read was the most Vista would recognize).  The RAM score went up to 4.8 (from 4.5), but the Graphics score actually went down to 3.4 (from 4.6)… possibly due to the brand mismatch?

Experience Score with 3GB RAM

But with 4 GB of Kingston RAM installed, the RAM score stayed at 4.8, the Graphics score went back up to 4.6, but the Gaming Graphics score went up a notch to 3.5. 

Experience Score with 4GB RAM