Tuesday, October 23, 2007
2007 San Diego County Fires
No issues for me but here are a bare few photos showing the difference between Monday and Tuesday.
Monday, October 8, 2007
I went to Tokyo again last week. It was an uneventful trip but I had a good time with everyone. One night we went out to the musical instrument stores part of town and had the clerks pull down lots of nice vintage instruments. We played them and then had them put them back. That was fun!
Here are some photos. I did not have a lot of time this trip so I was only able to re-visit the Asakusa district.
Here are some photos. I did not have a lot of time this trip so I was only able to re-visit the Asakusa district.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Urban Hipster Coolness For a Price
Urban Hipster Coolness
This last Friday I took the day off and the GF and I went to downtown San Diego. We were seeing Crowded House at Humphrey's By the Bay which is on
Shelter Island so we figured we could kill some time by pretending to be a couple looking for a new lifestyle and shop for a Downtown San Diego East Village condo/townhouse/rowhouse. You know, moving out of suburbia and into the urban hipster lifestyle environment that the still-in-redevelopment downtown is supposed to provide.
First, here is a Google maps of the area we were in - "East Village", near the new Padres ball field PetCo Park. If you turn on satellite images you'll see they are at least 3 or 4 years old; they show an in-construction ball park and a bunch of vacant lots where new condo towers are now.
Here is an info page for a bunch of different developments. We went to "ICON" and walked around "The Mark San Diego."
We saw 3 floorplans at ICON, one was an 1100 sq ft (100 m^2) 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 17th floor for $850K and two lofts on the 3rd floor of a renovated warehouse with the original outside wall left intact. These were 1035 sq ft (92 m^2) and 825 sq ft (80 m^2) for $435K and $419K respectively. The 17th floor was nice, nice view of the harbor and the ball park but it was on the SE corner which also means you get to see the railroad yard. The lofts windows were right at street light level - the light would POUR in at night I'm sure, plus it is across the street from the vacant lot where the proposed (but probably never to be built) new downtown library is supposed to be. Because it is more important to build a baseball field than a library.
The salesman emphasized that the 1100 sq ft 2BR 2 BA condo was priced differently depending on the floor you're on. Higher is more expensive. He also commented multiple times of the availability of parking (1 or 2 spots). I thought nothing of it at the time but later the significance of that became clear.
Then we walked around the neighborhood. It's still not completely redeveloped and in fact the steam has gone out of the effort with the condo glut downtown and the flattening (at best) of the housing market here. Turns out that the nearest grocery store is 9 blocks away. There was no dry cleaners nearby and no pharmacy or convenience store, either. The streets seemed a little dead, too; it was 4 PM on Friday and you'd think people would be starting to move around but not really where we were. We saw lots of old empty buildings ready for demolition; old warehouses, garages, parking lots. No gas stations though, old or new. We ended up at 8th and Island and liked the condos/row houses along the street (part of The Mark's development) but couldn't find the sales office. Very few were occupied; maybe 25% and there weren't that many of them, maybe a dozen?
So, now the significance of the parking space comments became clear. Even though you are living a downtown urban hipster lifestyle you still need a car to GET ANYWHERE, even with the trolley since the trolley makes a big lap around the downtown district but doesn't actually enter the center of it. This is antithetical to the urban lifestyle, right? You don't NEED a car. Everything is RIGHT THERE for you.
Here's the thing for me. Back 100 years ago, even "pre-war", people from all walks of life lived like this. Rich people lived uptown in brick fronted row houses, middle class people lived in apartments above their shops and poor people lived in Hell's Kitchen in tenement housing. The point is there was lots of choices for all economic positions.
I have to wonder about this in downtown SD; East Village was a piece of crap neighborhood and has been for decades and decades. It couldn't have been THAT expensive to buy a bunch of non-earthquake safe 75 year old warehouses full of rats with leaky roofs, could it? $1.25M for 1900 sq ft row houses right on F Street? That's not an "upper class" housing style, that's middle class housing. That's housing for a guy like me. And I feel I can barely afford my current mortgage which is a fraction of some of these prices.
I fear this means a massive RE value collapse in order to let the next generation buy and they won't be buying out here in SuburbiaLand because those houses will be sky high and be passed down from parent to child, just like houses used to be 100 years ago. They'll be moving back to the urban areas because it's the only place anyone will be allowed by NIMBYs to build vertically.
The only other possibility is if we start being like native Europeans and have a lower than replacement birthrate, in which case the terrorists will have won.
It seems far more expensive to build a downtown area over the course of 50 years, say, let White Flight to the suburbs in the 60's devastate the urban core, allow it rot for 25 or 30 years and then say, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we dumped billions of dollars to tear down old crap and build new crap with no supportive infrastructure like a pharmacy or a fucking trolley car stop at the corner." And make no mistake, downtown San Diego in the 70's and early 80's was a very scary place. Very scary. The Gaslamp began a recovery in the mid 80's but even now there are blocks that are untouched by the evil hand of Eminent Domain. There is however a two story Hustler store on 6th Street which is considered an upscale addition to the neighborhood.
I like the downtown area; I enjoy the restaurants and the atmosphere but if I were to move to San Diego proper I'd buy a Craftsman-style bungalow in North Park and restore it from the ground up before I'd buy a downtown condo and still have to pay for a car.
This last Friday I took the day off and the GF and I went to downtown San Diego. We were seeing Crowded House at Humphrey's By the Bay which is on
Shelter Island so we figured we could kill some time by pretending to be a couple looking for a new lifestyle and shop for a Downtown San Diego East Village condo/townhouse/rowhouse. You know, moving out of suburbia and into the urban hipster lifestyle environment that the still-in-redevelopment downtown is supposed to provide.
First, here is a Google maps of the area we were in - "East Village", near the new Padres ball field PetCo Park. If you turn on satellite images you'll see they are at least 3 or 4 years old; they show an in-construction ball park and a bunch of vacant lots where new condo towers are now.
Here is an info page for a bunch of different developments. We went to "ICON" and walked around "The Mark San Diego."
We saw 3 floorplans at ICON, one was an 1100 sq ft (100 m^2) 2 bed 2 bath condo on the 17th floor for $850K and two lofts on the 3rd floor of a renovated warehouse with the original outside wall left intact. These were 1035 sq ft (92 m^2) and 825 sq ft (80 m^2) for $435K and $419K respectively. The 17th floor was nice, nice view of the harbor and the ball park but it was on the SE corner which also means you get to see the railroad yard. The lofts windows were right at street light level - the light would POUR in at night I'm sure, plus it is across the street from the vacant lot where the proposed (but probably never to be built) new downtown library is supposed to be. Because it is more important to build a baseball field than a library.
The salesman emphasized that the 1100 sq ft 2BR 2 BA condo was priced differently depending on the floor you're on. Higher is more expensive. He also commented multiple times of the availability of parking (1 or 2 spots). I thought nothing of it at the time but later the significance of that became clear.
Then we walked around the neighborhood. It's still not completely redeveloped and in fact the steam has gone out of the effort with the condo glut downtown and the flattening (at best) of the housing market here. Turns out that the nearest grocery store is 9 blocks away. There was no dry cleaners nearby and no pharmacy or convenience store, either. The streets seemed a little dead, too; it was 4 PM on Friday and you'd think people would be starting to move around but not really where we were. We saw lots of old empty buildings ready for demolition; old warehouses, garages, parking lots. No gas stations though, old or new. We ended up at 8th and Island and liked the condos/row houses along the street (part of The Mark's development) but couldn't find the sales office. Very few were occupied; maybe 25% and there weren't that many of them, maybe a dozen?
So, now the significance of the parking space comments became clear. Even though you are living a downtown urban hipster lifestyle you still need a car to GET ANYWHERE, even with the trolley since the trolley makes a big lap around the downtown district but doesn't actually enter the center of it. This is antithetical to the urban lifestyle, right? You don't NEED a car. Everything is RIGHT THERE for you.
Here's the thing for me. Back 100 years ago, even "pre-war", people from all walks of life lived like this. Rich people lived uptown in brick fronted row houses, middle class people lived in apartments above their shops and poor people lived in Hell's Kitchen in tenement housing. The point is there was lots of choices for all economic positions.
I have to wonder about this in downtown SD; East Village was a piece of crap neighborhood and has been for decades and decades. It couldn't have been THAT expensive to buy a bunch of non-earthquake safe 75 year old warehouses full of rats with leaky roofs, could it? $1.25M for 1900 sq ft row houses right on F Street? That's not an "upper class" housing style, that's middle class housing. That's housing for a guy like me. And I feel I can barely afford my current mortgage which is a fraction of some of these prices.
I fear this means a massive RE value collapse in order to let the next generation buy and they won't be buying out here in SuburbiaLand because those houses will be sky high and be passed down from parent to child, just like houses used to be 100 years ago. They'll be moving back to the urban areas because it's the only place anyone will be allowed by NIMBYs to build vertically.
The only other possibility is if we start being like native Europeans and have a lower than replacement birthrate, in which case the terrorists will have won.
It seems far more expensive to build a downtown area over the course of 50 years, say, let White Flight to the suburbs in the 60's devastate the urban core, allow it rot for 25 or 30 years and then say, "Hey, you know what would be great? If we dumped billions of dollars to tear down old crap and build new crap with no supportive infrastructure like a pharmacy or a fucking trolley car stop at the corner." And make no mistake, downtown San Diego in the 70's and early 80's was a very scary place. Very scary. The Gaslamp began a recovery in the mid 80's but even now there are blocks that are untouched by the evil hand of Eminent Domain. There is however a two story Hustler store on 6th Street which is considered an upscale addition to the neighborhood.
I like the downtown area; I enjoy the restaurants and the atmosphere but if I were to move to San Diego proper I'd buy a Craftsman-style bungalow in North Park and restore it from the ground up before I'd buy a downtown condo and still have to pay for a car.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Award-Winning Professional Photographer
Award-Winning Professional Photographer
It's all so very curious, this art-as-competition stuff.
I entered three images the Orange County Fair's Photography competition. This one was rejected, This one was accepted, and this one was not only accepted but was given an award.
It was only an Honorable Mention, which rates a light blue ribbon, placed right on the frame, but my happiness was based more on the fact that, because I am not a resident of Orange County, I had to enter as a professional, which I am most assuredly not.
So, a minor victory and a small professional feather in my photography cap.
It's all so very curious, this art-as-competition stuff.
I entered three images the Orange County Fair's Photography competition. This one was rejected, This one was accepted, and this one was not only accepted but was given an award.
It was only an Honorable Mention, which rates a light blue ribbon, placed right on the frame, but my happiness was based more on the fact that, because I am not a resident of Orange County, I had to enter as a professional, which I am most assuredly not.
So, a minor victory and a small professional feather in my photography cap.
Monday, June 11, 2007
I went to Taipei last week for a short work week. Taipei is a crowded Asian city that has a more worn-out feel to it than Tokyo. The little neighborhood directly behind the Westin Tokyo was very quaint, well-maintained and pleasant. The little neighborhood across Nanking East Rd (A major thoroughfare) in front of the Westin Taipei is a shitty run-down rickety crap neighborhood. So is every other neighborhood we've seen.
One night we had a bad dinner in a really great restaurant. We decided late in the afternoon to go to CompuDex, a big electronics show in the convention center. Coincidentally it is right next to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world when counting floors and not antenna height (in which case the Sears Tower is taller by a few feet). It has a shopping center on the first 5 or 6 floors and also a bunch of restaurants. We had in tow a sales representative chick from Phillips that one of our the guys in our party had mislead into believing that we were interested in buying her tuners; he bailed on us after a while so the remaining of us asked her to dinner.
We ended up at a traditional Chinese place - very nice looking, very elegant and classy. We had one of our colleagues order the set menu for 4. This meant a bunch of small-portioned things; two soups, vegetables, steamed white rice, a platter of chicken and beef, a plate of some sort of organ and a whole fish (they served the head and tail, too). It was a bit "off" for Simon and myself; the chicken had been cleaved into medium sized pieces from a whole chicken. They consisted of skin, bone, ligaments and meat. The chicken in the soup was still on the bone, too.
I ended up eating my rice, the vegetables, working my way through the first soup (which was pretty good) and the chicken soup. That was it, though; I was starving this morning.
Another night we went to "Snake Alley" which is officially called "Tourist Night Market." We looked at all of the stalls and I took a bunch of pictures. We ate at a really good Chinese seafood restaurant and I ate everything (clams, crab, prawn, soup) and really enjoyed it. I bought a feng shui energy detector. I'll have my pal Wendy Tse translate it for me when I get back to the office.
We also hosted the entire organization at a really fun "Las Vegas Style" buffet lunch at a local hotel. The food selections were outstanding and everything was really great.
It was oppressively hot and humid and the rains poured down every morning, but it was a good time and a very interesting place. I'm sure I'll be back and very soon as well.
Photos here.
One night we had a bad dinner in a really great restaurant. We decided late in the afternoon to go to CompuDex, a big electronics show in the convention center. Coincidentally it is right next to Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world when counting floors and not antenna height (in which case the Sears Tower is taller by a few feet). It has a shopping center on the first 5 or 6 floors and also a bunch of restaurants. We had in tow a sales representative chick from Phillips that one of our the guys in our party had mislead into believing that we were interested in buying her tuners; he bailed on us after a while so the remaining of us asked her to dinner.
We ended up at a traditional Chinese place - very nice looking, very elegant and classy. We had one of our colleagues order the set menu for 4. This meant a bunch of small-portioned things; two soups, vegetables, steamed white rice, a platter of chicken and beef, a plate of some sort of organ and a whole fish (they served the head and tail, too). It was a bit "off" for Simon and myself; the chicken had been cleaved into medium sized pieces from a whole chicken. They consisted of skin, bone, ligaments and meat. The chicken in the soup was still on the bone, too.
I ended up eating my rice, the vegetables, working my way through the first soup (which was pretty good) and the chicken soup. That was it, though; I was starving this morning.
Another night we went to "Snake Alley" which is officially called "Tourist Night Market." We looked at all of the stalls and I took a bunch of pictures. We ate at a really good Chinese seafood restaurant and I ate everything (clams, crab, prawn, soup) and really enjoyed it. I bought a feng shui energy detector. I'll have my pal Wendy Tse translate it for me when I get back to the office.
We also hosted the entire organization at a really fun "Las Vegas Style" buffet lunch at a local hotel. The food selections were outstanding and everything was really great.
It was oppressively hot and humid and the rains poured down every morning, but it was a good time and a very interesting place. I'm sure I'll be back and very soon as well.
Photos here.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Beatles "Love" Show in Las Vegas
I saw the Beatles "Love" show in in The Mirage Resort in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 8, 2007.
It was quite beautiful and arty.
Most Cirque du Soleil shows are more athletic and gymnastic and tend to feature various "acts." This show was different; more of an ensemble feel, lots of activity going on, lots of ensemble and group dancing, high energy with the occasional trapeze or rope artist or other sorts of things, including solo dancing.
Great sound, great lighting and effects. The show is in the theater that used to be the Siegfried and Roy space. It's in the round and I can tell you that the show uses every cubic inch of the space; every square inch of stage and all the way to the ceiling.
I had front row seats and everyone in the very front section ringing the stage is inside one of the effects; the rest of the house saw the outside, we saw the inside and were part of the show; we were allowed to manipulate part of the set. It must have looked really cool from the outside because it got a huge roar from the crowd when it finished.
The show is considerably longer than the soundtrack; there are other songs not included plus there is some great great great inter-action set pieces featuring projections of actors (in silhouette) portraying the Fabs acting to dialog created by edited-together interview statements, studio banter, maybe even some flexi-disk stuff. You don't see the actors as anything but silhouettes so you aren't distracted by a less-than-look-alike.
There are large video screens around the venue that add video effects and occasionally other screens are dropped from the ceiling showing Shea Stadium clips and other performances.
Both "Something" and "While My Guitar gently Weeps" are very poignant set pieces as well. Sniff sniff (tear? what tear? I wasn't crying! I had something in my eye!). "Help!" is a high energy very fun section of the show with rollerbladers and "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" has a gorgeous starry sky. "Revolution" has hippies and riot cops squaring off on trampolines.
There is even a reference to drinking tea(!).
If it's not the most expensive show in town it's close but both of us really enjoyed it and being front row was quite frankly worth every penny of the $165 per ticket price.
It was quite beautiful and arty.
Most Cirque du Soleil shows are more athletic and gymnastic and tend to feature various "acts." This show was different; more of an ensemble feel, lots of activity going on, lots of ensemble and group dancing, high energy with the occasional trapeze or rope artist or other sorts of things, including solo dancing.
Great sound, great lighting and effects. The show is in the theater that used to be the Siegfried and Roy space. It's in the round and I can tell you that the show uses every cubic inch of the space; every square inch of stage and all the way to the ceiling.
I had front row seats and everyone in the very front section ringing the stage is inside one of the effects; the rest of the house saw the outside, we saw the inside and were part of the show; we were allowed to manipulate part of the set. It must have looked really cool from the outside because it got a huge roar from the crowd when it finished.
The show is considerably longer than the soundtrack; there are other songs not included plus there is some great great great inter-action set pieces featuring projections of actors (in silhouette) portraying the Fabs acting to dialog created by edited-together interview statements, studio banter, maybe even some flexi-disk stuff. You don't see the actors as anything but silhouettes so you aren't distracted by a less-than-look-alike.
There are large video screens around the venue that add video effects and occasionally other screens are dropped from the ceiling showing Shea Stadium clips and other performances.
Both "Something" and "While My Guitar gently Weeps" are very poignant set pieces as well. Sniff sniff (tear? what tear? I wasn't crying! I had something in my eye!). "Help!" is a high energy very fun section of the show with rollerbladers and "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" has a gorgeous starry sky. "Revolution" has hippies and riot cops squaring off on trampolines.
There is even a reference to drinking tea(!).
If it's not the most expensive show in town it's close but both of us really enjoyed it and being front row was quite frankly worth every penny of the $165 per ticket price.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Linköping, Sweden
I spent a week in Linköping, Sweden last week.
Outbound I had 3 flights; LAX to FRA, FRA to CPH and then CPH to my final destination, Linköping, SE.
The FRA layover was tight to begin with, only 1:45, but the plane left late and never made it up so I had to "walk briskly" to my connecting flight. I made it OK but then I was REALLY late for the final leg. I made it though with about 2 minutes to spare after being asked a stupid question by the counter person ("Why are you so late?" "Ask Lufthansa and SAS, I did my part.").
The week was pretty boring at times so I ended up re-writing a spec for the software guys since they didn't know how to do it themselves and only partially participating in the meetings. While I was there I saw 3 Swedish National Championship hockey games on TV; the hometown team won all three.
Going home was only slightly better; I took the train from Linköping to Stockholm, overnighted at an airport Euro-Motel 6 and then got up waaaaaaaaay too early to head home with that plane ending up being late and my 2 hour layover being reduced to a brisk airport walk again only to find out the homeward leg was 1 hour late, too.
By the time I'd gotten home I'd been up 20+ hours, feel asleep too early and then woke up at the wrong time so last night I fought to stay awake until 9 PM.
One thing that really love about my job is that we are getting more and more international on each successive project. My San Diego location has gotten away from writing software and are now more of a hardware design and systems engineering location. For example, for this "Japan" project we have a team in Japan as main interface to the customer. The hardware and systems are being done in my location and the software is being done in multiple locations; Linköping, Sweden, St Petersburg, Russian and Bangalore, India.
We had folks from all of those locations in Linköping last week. During lunch one day last week, we discussed where we wanted to have the next meeting. Mikhail from St Petersburg commented that he was only about an hour or so flight from Stockholm. I looked at him and said , "I would love to come to St Petersburg. That would be the most incredible trip I've ever taken."
I was thinking about how amazing my career had changed in 20 years; to go from ultimate Cold War Doomsday Machine aerospace asshole to Silicon Valley start-ups to international travel for a huge high tech company to a place I would NEVER have been allowed to go to even 15 years ago by my first employer.
Photos
Outbound I had 3 flights; LAX to FRA, FRA to CPH and then CPH to my final destination, Linköping, SE.
The FRA layover was tight to begin with, only 1:45, but the plane left late and never made it up so I had to "walk briskly" to my connecting flight. I made it OK but then I was REALLY late for the final leg. I made it though with about 2 minutes to spare after being asked a stupid question by the counter person ("Why are you so late?" "Ask Lufthansa and SAS, I did my part.").
The week was pretty boring at times so I ended up re-writing a spec for the software guys since they didn't know how to do it themselves and only partially participating in the meetings. While I was there I saw 3 Swedish National Championship hockey games on TV; the hometown team won all three.
Going home was only slightly better; I took the train from Linköping to Stockholm, overnighted at an airport Euro-Motel 6 and then got up waaaaaaaaay too early to head home with that plane ending up being late and my 2 hour layover being reduced to a brisk airport walk again only to find out the homeward leg was 1 hour late, too.
By the time I'd gotten home I'd been up 20+ hours, feel asleep too early and then woke up at the wrong time so last night I fought to stay awake until 9 PM.
One thing that really love about my job is that we are getting more and more international on each successive project. My San Diego location has gotten away from writing software and are now more of a hardware design and systems engineering location. For example, for this "Japan" project we have a team in Japan as main interface to the customer. The hardware and systems are being done in my location and the software is being done in multiple locations; Linköping, Sweden, St Petersburg, Russian and Bangalore, India.
We had folks from all of those locations in Linköping last week. During lunch one day last week, we discussed where we wanted to have the next meeting. Mikhail from St Petersburg commented that he was only about an hour or so flight from Stockholm. I looked at him and said , "I would love to come to St Petersburg. That would be the most incredible trip I've ever taken."
I was thinking about how amazing my career had changed in 20 years; to go from ultimate Cold War Doomsday Machine aerospace asshole to Silicon Valley start-ups to international travel for a huge high tech company to a place I would NEVER have been allowed to go to even 15 years ago by my first employer.
Photos
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Week Over
Week Over
Well, another week with our Japan team and our KDDI customer is over. We had a good series of meetings; they seem to be warming up to us loud obnoxious Americans.
We were at Donovan's last night, one of the top 10 steakhouses in the country. We were utterly stuffed with food; I made all of the Japanese guys order a Stone Brewing Co Arrogant Bastard ale with dinner. Stone is local in San Marcos and an award-winning brewery. The ABs came in 20 ounce bottles. We had a good time and the wait staff were very cool and very helpful with the English (or lack thereof).
Today I went over the specification with them; it took about 2 hours. I am always intrigued as to what things get noticed or commented on in a review like that. Things I figured were no-brainers we wold discuss in depth, things I figured would be issues were breezed right over. I did find a few errors much to my chagrin; one or two are things that should not have been in there (but weren't caught by the internal team either so it's not like it is all my fault). We will do our best to get them to accept those deletions with the rev B next month. I was happy with my performance and that things went smoothly.
I left work early today and came home to relax. I expect to be asleep early tonight. Tomorrow I will visit my folks and try to figure out why their Mac is behaving sluggishly. I have a few ideas about what is causing it, probably the indexer that is included in Mac OS 10.4.
I need to update the rental agreement for the "Kumquat kids" and get that signed this weekend, too, hopefully.
Today I drive up t the parents' house to help them with their computer and see how they are doing.
Well, another week with our Japan team and our KDDI customer is over. We had a good series of meetings; they seem to be warming up to us loud obnoxious Americans.
We were at Donovan's last night, one of the top 10 steakhouses in the country. We were utterly stuffed with food; I made all of the Japanese guys order a Stone Brewing Co Arrogant Bastard ale with dinner. Stone is local in San Marcos and an award-winning brewery. The ABs came in 20 ounce bottles. We had a good time and the wait staff were very cool and very helpful with the English (or lack thereof).
Today I went over the specification with them; it took about 2 hours. I am always intrigued as to what things get noticed or commented on in a review like that. Things I figured were no-brainers we wold discuss in depth, things I figured would be issues were breezed right over. I did find a few errors much to my chagrin; one or two are things that should not have been in there (but weren't caught by the internal team either so it's not like it is all my fault). We will do our best to get them to accept those deletions with the rev B next month. I was happy with my performance and that things went smoothly.
I left work early today and came home to relax. I expect to be asleep early tonight. Tomorrow I will visit my folks and try to figure out why their Mac is behaving sluggishly. I have a few ideas about what is causing it, probably the indexer that is included in Mac OS 10.4.
I need to update the rental agreement for the "Kumquat kids" and get that signed this weekend, too, hopefully.
Today I drive up t the parents' house to help them with their computer and see how they are doing.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
I Still Hate Cars
My dealer has two locations; I usually use the closer-to-me location as it is less busy BUT they couldn't do this work (alarms are dealer-added options and they have a guy who does them and the guy is at the other, big location). I got into a defensive conversation with the service manager idiot at the cloer-to-me location (I called over there first since, you now, they fucked the car up so I figure I'd give them first shot at fixing it) who told me "they do battery cable replacements all the time and they don't affect the alarm blah blah blah"
Oh. Shut. Up.
What a dick.
OF COURSE you guys fucked this up; it was PERFECTLY FINE when I gave it to you and when I got it back it was fucked up.
I took my car over to the dealer this morning because it has continued to "act up" with random beeps and burps and farts and the car alarm went off twice early Monday AM (1:15 and 1:45).
I wrote up a detailed explanation of what had happened and left the car with the (helpful and cheerful I must say) New Car Accessories Service Department manager.
I was impressed; an hour later they had called me and said they'd replaced the alarm "brain" and at no charge.
Turns out the car alarm was in fact interfering with the proper operation of the rest of the car because "Mode 2" was only 100% active after I drove off the lot today. In the past the doors would lock automatically as soon as I took it out of "P" (even in Mode 2) but today they were unlocked, I took it out of "P" and... they stayed unlocked.
"Ah ha!" I said to myself. "I am smarter than they are."
I feel like calling "Dave the Dickhead" at the closer-to-me location and informing him that now he can truthfully say that he has seen a car that was fucked up as a part of replacing a battery cable and he should shut up about it the next time someone has a complaint.
And this is why I hate people.
And cars. I hate cars, too.
Oh. Shut. Up.
What a dick.
OF COURSE you guys fucked this up; it was PERFECTLY FINE when I gave it to you and when I got it back it was fucked up.
I took my car over to the dealer this morning because it has continued to "act up" with random beeps and burps and farts and the car alarm went off twice early Monday AM (1:15 and 1:45).
I wrote up a detailed explanation of what had happened and left the car with the (helpful and cheerful I must say) New Car Accessories Service Department manager.
I was impressed; an hour later they had called me and said they'd replaced the alarm "brain" and at no charge.
Turns out the car alarm was in fact interfering with the proper operation of the rest of the car because "Mode 2" was only 100% active after I drove off the lot today. In the past the doors would lock automatically as soon as I took it out of "P" (even in Mode 2) but today they were unlocked, I took it out of "P" and... they stayed unlocked.
"Ah ha!" I said to myself. "I am smarter than they are."
I feel like calling "Dave the Dickhead" at the closer-to-me location and informing him that now he can truthfully say that he has seen a car that was fucked up as a part of replacing a battery cable and he should shut up about it the next time someone has a complaint.
And this is why I hate people.
And cars. I hate cars, too.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
I Hate Cars
Last weekend I took the car in for its 45000 mile service, which is an oil change and some other stuff. The guy told me I need to replace the rear brakes and the battery cable (it was all corroded).
"OK, fine, I'll bring it in next weekend," was my reply.
Now, after a few days I noticed something; whenever I went out to my car in the garage the doors were locked. For 18 months I've driven into the garage, turned off the ignition (doors automatically unlock), open the door, get out, close the door. The door stayed unlocked forever. 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day 1 week, whatever, the door would be unlocked when I came back in the garage and opened the car door.
As of last weekend (but I only really noticed it mid-week), the door would be locked when I went out. I don't like this; I don't want the car doing things uncommanded. I figured the tech did some sort of firmware update or made a little change to the car's configuration file to work on it.
So, today, I took it back for the battery cable and the brakes. I told the service writer about this; the first thing he saw was that the alarm was in "valet" mode, which he knew because there was a glowing read LED down under the dash board. He set it to "normal" mode and that was that, I assumed. When I go the car back I noticed something as soon as I got home; pressing a remote control button makes the horn go "toot toot" along with the regular and familiar to both of us "beep beep." OK, that is really annoying and also the car was still locking it's doors automatically. So I call the guy up and tell him this, supposedly he was taking notes and will call the service department and the main dealer on Monday.
Yeah, sure he will.
Several hours ago I heard the car's horn go "toot toot" all by itself. I thought it was outside so I ignored it. Then I heard it again a while later; I went out to the garage and it did it again right as I opened the house garage door. "Crap, this thing is fucked up," I thought. I knew that removing the battery cable was a traumatic thing for computer-controlled cars like mine and I was right. So, I got out the Owner's Manual and learned a few things. First, I can supposedly change the beeps for when I hit the remote; I tried to change them but was unsuccessful, I think. I also learned that this car has 4 (yes, FOUR) different automatic door lock modes. I read them all but the differences between three of them are very very subtle, mostly to do with when they lock (car in P, doors closed, ignition on vs car in anything except P, doors closed, ignition on vs something else vs MODE 2!!!!!!). Mode 2 is "No automatic door locking at all. Ever. You have to lock them yourself!"
"AHA!" I said, "A-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
So, I read the instructions on how to get it into Mode 2. Here they are:
0. Get in the car and close the door.
1. Depress the door lock button to unlock all the doors.
2. Put key in ignition, turn to "ON."
3. Within 5 seconds of doing that, press and hold the door lock button in the "lock" position for around 5 seconds.
Are you with me still?
4. Watch the "Door Ajar" indicator light on the dashboard - it will flash the number of times equal to the mode it's in.
5. Repeat until you are in the mode you want.
It was in mode 3, so I had to do that sequence three times to get it into mode 2.
Eventually I saw 2 "Door Ajar" light flashes. Yea, I'm in mode 2!
Let's test it! Start the car, put it in R (carefully, the big roll up garage door is still closed).
CLUNK! The doors lock.
Goddammit!
OK, well, fine, fuck that; I'll try again tomorrow in the daylight.
Time to try something else; let's try to turn off the horn tooting. I see the little red LED under the dash (under the steering column, waaaay down there actually). I remember the service guy reached under there to do something so I figured he was flipping a switch (My MSEE comes in handy every once in a while). I reached down there and - Yes! - there is a push button behind the LED. I press and release. Nothing. I press and hold. And hold. A few seconds later the red LED comes on. Yay! No more horn tooting.
So, if I can get the car into Automatic Door Locking Mode 2 I will be happy and forget those clowns over at the dealership trying to "fix" this. I'll leave the alarm in "valet" mode (I have no idea if that means it is disabled or not but who cares? When was the last time anyone called the cops because they heard a car alarm go off?). I have an owner's manual for the alarm, I think, because it was a dealer-installed factory add-on. I get a break on my insurance because I have a car alarm so it is worth something.
I hate cars.
"OK, fine, I'll bring it in next weekend," was my reply.
Now, after a few days I noticed something; whenever I went out to my car in the garage the doors were locked. For 18 months I've driven into the garage, turned off the ignition (doors automatically unlock), open the door, get out, close the door. The door stayed unlocked forever. 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day 1 week, whatever, the door would be unlocked when I came back in the garage and opened the car door.
As of last weekend (but I only really noticed it mid-week), the door would be locked when I went out. I don't like this; I don't want the car doing things uncommanded. I figured the tech did some sort of firmware update or made a little change to the car's configuration file to work on it.
So, today, I took it back for the battery cable and the brakes. I told the service writer about this; the first thing he saw was that the alarm was in "valet" mode, which he knew because there was a glowing read LED down under the dash board. He set it to "normal" mode and that was that, I assumed. When I go the car back I noticed something as soon as I got home; pressing a remote control button makes the horn go "toot toot" along with the regular and familiar to both of us "beep beep." OK, that is really annoying and also the car was still locking it's doors automatically. So I call the guy up and tell him this, supposedly he was taking notes and will call the service department and the main dealer on Monday.
Yeah, sure he will.
Several hours ago I heard the car's horn go "toot toot" all by itself. I thought it was outside so I ignored it. Then I heard it again a while later; I went out to the garage and it did it again right as I opened the house garage door. "Crap, this thing is fucked up," I thought. I knew that removing the battery cable was a traumatic thing for computer-controlled cars like mine and I was right. So, I got out the Owner's Manual and learned a few things. First, I can supposedly change the beeps for when I hit the remote; I tried to change them but was unsuccessful, I think. I also learned that this car has 4 (yes, FOUR) different automatic door lock modes. I read them all but the differences between three of them are very very subtle, mostly to do with when they lock (car in P, doors closed, ignition on vs car in anything except P, doors closed, ignition on vs something else vs MODE 2!!!!!!). Mode 2 is "No automatic door locking at all. Ever. You have to lock them yourself!"
"AHA!" I said, "A-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
So, I read the instructions on how to get it into Mode 2. Here they are:
0. Get in the car and close the door.
1. Depress the door lock button to unlock all the doors.
2. Put key in ignition, turn to "ON."
3. Within 5 seconds of doing that, press and hold the door lock button in the "lock" position for around 5 seconds.
Are you with me still?
4. Watch the "Door Ajar" indicator light on the dashboard - it will flash the number of times equal to the mode it's in.
5. Repeat until you are in the mode you want.
It was in mode 3, so I had to do that sequence three times to get it into mode 2.
Eventually I saw 2 "Door Ajar" light flashes. Yea, I'm in mode 2!
Let's test it! Start the car, put it in R (carefully, the big roll up garage door is still closed).
CLUNK! The doors lock.
Goddammit!
OK, well, fine, fuck that; I'll try again tomorrow in the daylight.
Time to try something else; let's try to turn off the horn tooting. I see the little red LED under the dash (under the steering column, waaaay down there actually). I remember the service guy reached under there to do something so I figured he was flipping a switch (My MSEE comes in handy every once in a while). I reached down there and - Yes! - there is a push button behind the LED. I press and release. Nothing. I press and hold. And hold. A few seconds later the red LED comes on. Yay! No more horn tooting.
So, if I can get the car into Automatic Door Locking Mode 2 I will be happy and forget those clowns over at the dealership trying to "fix" this. I'll leave the alarm in "valet" mode (I have no idea if that means it is disabled or not but who cares? When was the last time anyone called the cops because they heard a car alarm go off?). I have an owner's manual for the alarm, I think, because it was a dealer-installed factory add-on. I get a break on my insurance because I have a car alarm so it is worth something.
I hate cars.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
The Trip So Far
One of my "travel laws" is that the more money you spend the greater the barrier between you and the place you are visiting.
I only somewhat feel like I am in a foreign country and I really don't feel like much at all like I am in Japan.
We flew first class (on United, which meant it was crappy first class, worse than Biz class on Singapore or Cathay Pacific) and we are staying at the Westin Tokyo in an Executive level set of rooms. Breakfast is an international buffet, so we eat American (with the exception of including broccoli on the plate) We hop in a taxi and ride over to the Motorola building. The only indicator of foreign-ness is the translator and we had one of those in San Diego in November so that's not too exotic either.
In other words, the barrier is very very high. I expect the weekend to bring the barrier down for a while; we are going to finally do some exploring of the town.
Today's meetings are the tough ones; we meet our customer and give them the "bad news" regarding the schedule slips and other stuff. Our Dear Leader will earn his salary today.
I only somewhat feel like I am in a foreign country and I really don't feel like much at all like I am in Japan.
We flew first class (on United, which meant it was crappy first class, worse than Biz class on Singapore or Cathay Pacific) and we are staying at the Westin Tokyo in an Executive level set of rooms. Breakfast is an international buffet, so we eat American (with the exception of including broccoli on the plate) We hop in a taxi and ride over to the Motorola building. The only indicator of foreign-ness is the translator and we had one of those in San Diego in November so that's not too exotic either.
In other words, the barrier is very very high. I expect the weekend to bring the barrier down for a while; we are going to finally do some exploring of the town.
Today's meetings are the tough ones; we meet our customer and give them the "bad news" regarding the schedule slips and other stuff. Our Dear Leader will earn his salary today.
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