yaleman.org

So, ages back when the car got broken into, whoever did it must have had a go at the key part of the ignition, the pins got all messed up and it didn’t work properly. I replaced it with a rather dodgy switch and button on the end of a wire run that I had lying around, and most of the time when I indicated, or used too much power the stereo would turn off, the lights would dim and stupid stuff would happen. This got rather annoying, and eventually I worked out that the cause of it was the long wire run itself was causing too much voltage drop in the system itself.

Ok, so since I have this week off, I’m working on the Gemini since it’s such a priority to get it on the road at the moment. Today Bob and I went to a wrecker and found a nice bosch throttle position sensor - three wire, good mounting and D-shaft actuation - the one that Repco had for ~$100 or so. That didn’t come with the plug and wires, nor any idea of how things worked with each other. So, that was free - all I paid for was a bunch of sweat and an energy drink after wandering around in the wreckers for half an hour or so - damn it was hot today.

TechSpot has written a Decent Firefox Tweak Guide, which I found on Digg

Another thing on there is a story about Maxis releasing Sim City Classic for free as a java game you can play online. Pity it doesn’t work in Firefox on my Gentoo install, else I might play it a bit more.

Update: unfortunately the Sim City link went offline, which is sad 🙁

Police checking ID’s and papers to get into an area of Sydney. What next? Having to carry your official fatherland documentation to state your intended destination, and having to ask your local kommandant to get permission to go somewhere other than work and home?

Update: News.com.au links fail eventually, had to unlink. It was an article about police cordoning off a whole suburb … because they can.

Oh wow, that was an amazing weekend. Friday morning we drove around and bought camping gear (nothing like planning ahead, is there?) then some clothes and were supposed to meet Bob at Mitchell’s house around 2-ish. At two I called Bob to find out where he was, and if he’d picked up Seb and Skitzo, but alas Seb was going to drive up by himself, and the directions he’d gotten to meet Skitzo were completely wrong.

So, summer’s here again, and with it comes the crazy temperatures on the blacktop. It’s bad enough sitting in traffic in winter in the van - the temps slowly creep up then, with the engine-mounted fan barely pulling enough air through the radiator to keep it from boiling over. This year it’s even hotter even earlier than last year, so driving to work along the highway with massive amounts of air pushing through the front of the van is enough to make the temp gauge climb.

Ok, so I dropped the gearbox on my head a couple of weeks back - I probably shouldn’t have tried to lift it in with brute force, and after actually getting it in yesterday I realised there was no way I would have got it in my myself. We lifted it in the first time, and after only about twenty minutes we had it up on a jack and the input shaft was in the clutch.

Ok, so I finally gave in and bought a DVD burner. I don’t really need one, since the only reason I’ll really burn DVD’s is to give stuff to other people, or the once-in-a-year-maybe burn a video to DVD to watch on the television. I was bored, and needed a new toy, so I thought for $79 it wouldn’t be a bad upgrade to the linux machine. It’s a black-faced Pioneer DVR-110D, and it seems to only burn at 2x in K3b but I think that’s a settings issue.

So, the MegaSquirt is pretty cool, but the MegaSquirt v2.2 PCB with a MegaSquirt-II processor is just plain sweet! I got bored one night and since it’d make dual fuel maps and a bunch of other things that I want to use a lot easier, I decided to order one. That was the twelfth of November, and after not even three weeks, I’ve got it! Hooray!

And now, to add some actual content to this post, here’s some pictures 🙂

Geez, I think last night makes about six times in twelve months I’ve been picked up in the PimpMobile. Driving out of Lauren’s house last night, down the hill towards the t-intersection at the bottom, a police car drives past. I stop at the bottom, making sure to look around because the van runs like crap when it’s cold, and that corner’s a bit hard to see past.

Looking to where the police car went, I notice that it’s stopped across the road and down a bit - funnily enough, half out in the road, and across a laneway - nice and illegal, officers. I move on, making my merry way home. Looking in the rearview mirror, I notice - not surprised at all - that they have done a quick U-turn and are buried up my tail.