Archive for April, 2007

Lover stolen by MB SL55

Published by Rick on April 29, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Though an avid BMW follower, I have to tip my hat to the bro-in-law’s Mercedes Benz SL55. But it’s not just an SL55. It has an RUF total performance package installed and is just plain sick fast. The supercharged engine really puts out and doesn’t kick out the back like I was afraid it would. Probably something to do with the computer assisted traction. Of course, the serious-ass tires and suspension system undoubtedly help. A manual transmission would be of great benefit.
Outside

She didn’t quite grasp the concept of putting the petal to the floor, but I quickly remedied this once we switched seats. I may just have to up the timeline on Heidi II.

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Traffic Report Woes

Published by Rick on April 18, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

/start rant

I don’t know why I still pay attention.

Every morning on my commute to work, I listen to Public Radio. I really like it. The news is probably the least biased in the country, and other programs are quite interesting. There is still one thing, however, that they consistently bomb every day. EVERY DAY! And that’s the traffic report. At best, they’re 30 minutes behind what’s actually happening, and at other times, they’re just plain wrong. 30 minutes on a half hour to hour commute is a big deal. They’ll claim an accident when nothing is there. They’ll also claim serious delays when the situation is completely smooth. Sometimes they’ll just leave certain highways out of the report altogether! Thanks! Shadow Traffic, Public Radio’s traffic report provider, seems like it should be a reputable service, but they sure don’t seem to get it right. Can’t they just call someone who lives along the interstate and ask them to look out the window?

I’ve been in Chicago and dealt with the interstates 90, 94, 290, 80, 88, 57, 55, 355, and 294 for a while now. To date, for the life of me, I still can’t always remember which one is the Stevenson, the Bishop Ford, the Eisenhower, etc. Granted, I’ve got the Dan Ryan down after three bent rims and a windshield full of rock chips, but why can’t we just call them by their numbers? That’s what they’re called on the maps and navigation systems. Or even alternate on the air. That would at least clue me in periodically.

On the other hand, Sirius’ traffic reports seem to be much more accurate. I’m still not a fan of the paid service due to lack of sound quality, but I’m considering renewing just for the traffic and weather.

GCM Travel is another service that seems to get it right, but who has internet access (or SHOULD) in their cars? At least I can give this site a quick look before I leave.

But when I’m in the car getting my morning wake-up news and coffee, I guess I’m just out of luck. This is really too bad, as my favorite radio station otherwise seems to get everything else right.

/end rant

Le Chief est mort, vive le Chief!

Published by Rick on April 12, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Of course I have to comment on this–the Big U finally killed the Chief. Now a couple hundred bored white kids with extra cash will have to find something else to protest. I’m guessing they’ll target Frosted Flakes, because, you know, not all tigers are orange. Maybe daddy will let them borrow the Benz SUV to drive down to Battle Creek and picket.
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Yeah, this does bring out strong emotions from me. Having grown up with the U of I and later attending for eight years, the Chief has is a part of me. The issue would come up and die down every few years, but when the NCAA finally imposed sanctions, there wasn’t much choice. Last dance for the Chief.

I never thought I was one for memorabilia (I hate clutter), but when I look at the wall with my degrees and U of I stuff, I’m glad I have something to remind me. Benard LaPayne took an awesome photo that every one of my immediate college friends splurged on and bought. That was a ton of money back then. And he has even more where that came from. Clicking on his web site pops up an animated GIF with music that can make alumni a bit emotional, so beware.
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To be fair, I can easily see how the typical outsider might side with the vast minority of those who oppose, as it seems any news camera always ends up pointed at the most drunk-looking college kid with face paint and a headdress. You can imagine the coinciding interview. Thanks, brilliant representatives, for furthering our message.
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I could ramble on for a quite a while regarding this issue, but I’ll just leave it as it is obvious. I don’t approve of this at all. I think something could have been worked out to satisfy both sides. What exactly, I don’t know, but for now…
illini-chief.gif…rest in peace, Chief, along with my alumni donations.

MBA, here I come!

Published by Rick on April 8, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

I’m 1/3 my way to my MBA. 16 credits into the program, I received my first growler for home study. Only 30 more to go before I receive my degree!
(*Masters of Beer Appreciation)

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Behold the Glory.

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Complete with MS clipart on the reverse side.

Construction Woes

Published by Rick on April 4, 2007 in BMW and General. 0 Comments

There’s a special place in hell for people who jet to the head of the line only to cut over and merge before the southbound split on the Dan Ryan. My worst fear has become a reality as” they” truncated the tail end of the southbound Dan Ryan where 94 splits off to 57. Lots of red and orange on the congestion map. The days of my 35 minute reverse commute are over, I fear. Coming home, on the other hand, is much quicker due to the new lane configuration.

Special thanks to you truckers out there who don’t fully inspect and secure your gravel loads before you take off. Up until now, every time you’ve sent a barrage of gravel my way after hitting a bump on the road, I’ve managed to absorb the damage with my front bumper and hood’s paint job–got some nice gashes. Well, you finally got me. This morning’s second salvo took a chunk out of my windshield. I look forward to paying my deductible to get it fixed. Really.

Luckily, my trip to the garage won’t be just for my windshield and possibly some paint job work. I hit the mother of all potholes on 94 not too long ago going a solid 45. Easily a 4-5 gallon hole, I’m sure I have a bent rim. Thank the manufacturer for the extra tough run-flat tires I have, though. By the grace of The Maker, they didn’t blowout.

Test E-Mail Post

Published by Rick on April 4, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Stiles House takes all at NCAA Bracket Challenge

Published by Rick on April 3, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

/gloat

I thought we wouldn’t make it far since I made both our picks in about five minutes when I received the e-mail invitation about ten minutes before the deadline! I thought wrong, and I’m glad I did. Prizes were awarded to 1st and 2nd place. That’s us! Special thanks to the guys who wanted to open up the office league to outsiders like me to pump up the pot. Looking forward to next year!

/end gloat

NCAA Pool Results

Cabernet causes Logitech to sizzle, NewEgg.com gets business

Published by Rick on April 2, 2007 in General. 2 Comments

Funds and free time might prevent a lot of us from playing around with desktop computer hardware as much as we like, but occasionally freak acts of nature compel us.  I was forced to upgrade my keyboard the other day when a full Bordeaux glass of moderately-priced Cabernet somehow emptied its contents onto my somewhat old Logitech Elite keyboard.  A few seconds and several explicatives later, I managed to dump about half the wine back into the glass from a hole in the bottom corner of the thing, but the damage was done.  No, I didn’t drink it.  (And it was the first glass.  Honest!)  Funny thing is that this is how my old school Gateway 2000 AnyKey kebboard died!  Well, history repeats itself, and three days later, I returned the Lady’s keyboard back to her machine and plugged in my new Logitech G11 keyboard from Newegg.  I opted for this one after Mateo got his G15 on sale at the evil BB store in BMI and raved about it.  I opted out of the LCD, though, per the advice of some reviews like this one.  I like it.  The backlit keys help a ton.  I haven’t used the macro keys, but I probably will eventually.  The thing is huge, though, and the of main keys take some getting used to.  Now I think I need a KVM switch to eliminate the other keyboard on the desk.    Anyway, a nice little upgrade.  Also bought the G5 mouse along with it.  See prior entry.

G5 jury still out

Published by Rick on April 1, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Once ever other year or so I get this itch to try the latest and greatest mouse optimized for gaming. Once again, Logitech’s latest and greatest is a source of frustration. The G5 I’ve been trying to use for the past few days doesn’t work correctly all the time. It’s just flaky. The high DPI laser sensor’s resolution change on the fly feature doesn’t really do anything in actuality but adjust sensitivity. I was hoping that movements would be tracked with more precision (i.e. looking through a scope in a game, one unit of movement to the left at high DPI/sensitivity would result in a real world/game movement that is smaller and more precise as one unit of movement at lower DPI/sensitivity). This is not the case. Higher DPI makes no observed increase in precision. One “click” to the left is one “click” to the left at any DPI–higher DPI “clicks” aren’t smaller than those at lower DPI. The DPI + and - buttons are therefore relatively useless in my opinion.

I do, however, like the scroll left and right buttons. (You can move the mouse wheel left or right as well as pushing it down.) This is handy. The problem is that the Windows XP API only recognizes 5 mouse buttons, so in all the games I’ve tried, you need to map the scroll left and right buttons in the Logitech software to keystrokes.  Straight down and left are tricky to get used to, as they’re really close to one another.  I keep hitting both at once, but I’m getting better.  Another thing this mouse needs is a button on the right hand side (like the “back” button on the left).

The jury is still out on this one. I might send the thing back and go back to my MX310.