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How to abuse Toyota to increase readership
It seems like everyone is doing it these days. Now Consumer Reports is the latest to try to cash in on Toyota's recent bad press. The issue this time? The Lexus GX 460 skids in emergency maneuvers:
video of Lexus SUV not rolling overIf I remember correctly, the last time Consumer reports made a big deal out of a high roll-over risk SUV, the ( Read more... ) -
CNN backtracking
CNN has been steadily improving the quality of their coverage of major issues over the past 10 years. But, today's editorial proclaiming Confederate soldiers in the Civil War to be terrorists, supporting the hypothesis with factual inaccuracies and faulty (if any) logic, is extremely disturbing. A whole bunch of the comments (many of which are ( Read more... ) -
Rice. Belongs on the table, not in the garage.
A friend in India who's into sports cars recently saw a picture of something low-slung and clearly trying to look sporty on the street in the U.S. He asked what it was. I didn't think it was possible to give an answer in just a few words, so I went ahead and explained the whole "rice rocket" culture. At least, that's the politically incorrect ( Read more... ) -
Charter Pipeline issues
We've got Charter. The good, the bad, the ugly can sum it up if used respectively to describe the speed, the value, and the reliability. And, really, if not for the reliability, then it's a reasonable value too. However... the reliability. The connection becomes unstable on some days. Not often, but when it happens, it's infuriating. I cannot ( Read more... ) -
Eulogy for automotive versatility
No one seems to get it. GM has been forced to close Saab's doors. All the press reports on the demise cite that its current aging line up has been "surpassed by the competition". Surpassed in what way? Hardly anyone was even daring to compete with them in the first place? You can't lose a contest if the competition doesn't show up ( Read more... ) -
Rest in tranquility
I wasn't a fan of much of Michael Jackson's work since Thriller, but when I heard that he had just died as I was on my way home, it hit me harder than these types of things typically do. 50 is young for anyone to die. This particular someone is one who's life was a constant struggle to avoid illegitimate smear campaigns by the media and the ( Read more... ) -
Something that needed to be said
After moving to the Mid West, I have been exposed to a new phenomenon: imaginary political persecution. As a Liberal, I've always relished the freedom of political expression that we are granted in this country, and have enjoyed the fact that our environment provides many forums for healthy political discourse. Everyone is allowed so speak, ( Read more... ) -
Dell XPS Gen 2 overheating problem solved
After 4 years of nearly trouble-free service, my Dell's overheating problem was really getting out of hand. Just from running it under normal circumstances, it was becoming frying hot to the point that paint on the bottom was bubbling up and peeling away, and I could no longer have it on my lap without the computer branding an impression of its ( Read more... ) -
GM to kill Pontiac!?
I'm in disbelief. For the last few years, the big 3 have been under serious scrutiny for making poor decisions about what types of models to produce. The undertone is that they've deliberately chosen not to create cars that can really compete. Screwy market research and poor sensibilities have led them away from developing models that raise the ( Read more... ) -
Another rare re-appearance in the blogosphere: DynDNS alternative
I first started using DynDNS.org as a dynamic DNS redirect service a few years back, back when it was an excellent service. It was free as long as I renewed my domain listings every 30 days (they were nice enough to send an email warning me when a domain was about to expire), and it was directly supported by my Netgear router, which would ( Read more... )