Windows Vista

The latest beta of Microsoft’s next operating system, Vista, is available for previewing from here – Windows Vista: Customer Preview Program.

You have two options, order a DVD ($6 for the disc + $4 for shipping) or you can download the DVD iso. I was going to just buy the DVD, six bucks didn’t seem too bad, but the shipping put it over a threshold that I didn’t want to cross. I tried downloading it at work, but I could never connect to the download site. Downloaded it from home, 3-1/4 Gig in about 2 hours. Trouble is I don’t have a DVD burner at home, They do have a portable at which which I borrowed tonight. Burned a disc for me and another for the DVD burner lender. Seeing as the laptop really has nothing on it but XP and some programs I decided to install it on there.

Started the install and went out for dinner. When we got back all that I needed to do was set the usual language and time zone stuff and Vista was up. Runs pretty slow, but that is because they recommend the minimum system RAM be 512M with 1G being better and the $500 laptop only has 256M (shared). It found the wireless router fine and connected to the net no problem. IE7 has tabs on the browser, what a concept. I’ve got to get it connected to the desktop for file sharing yet….

Started up went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 203

The Internet Can Wait

Brian the Red: I was just thinking, Web Surfer.

Web Surfer: What?

Brian the Red: We got a great life ahead, you and me, and nobody’s going to take that away from us.

Web Surfer: Why are you looking at me like that?

Brian the Red: I’m memorizing your IP Address. I want to memorize everything about you so no matter what happens, I won’t forget you.

Web Surfer: What’s going to happen?

Brian the Red: Nothing’s going to happen. You’d never forget me either, would you? That thing you said you saw in me. Something in my eyes, remember? If some day somebody came up to you, maybe a football player, and he acted like he’d seen you before, you’d notice that same thing, right? You’d give him a chance? He might be a good guy. He could even be a quarterback.

Web Surfer: I don’t understand.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 201

If It Ain’t One Thing, It’s Another

Not only has the Sticky Image Plugin stopped working, but the image gallery thing stopped too. I did manage to get it going again, but the thumbnails don’t work.

As I’ve mentioned somewhere here before, the gallery script author is no longer supporting it (his web site has completely vanished,) but there is an enhanced version created by a couple other folks out there. I think I’ve even tried it, but for whatever reason didn’t like it. May have to try it out again.

My freeware HTML editor I’ve been using, TSW WebCoder, started throwing errors at me when I use it on the laptop. I went to the author’s web site to see if there was an update available and there was. Unfortunately it isn’t freeware anymore. Still seems to work OK on the desktop. Guess I’ll try the old uninstall/reinstall fix.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 200

I’m A Citizen

100_0242.jpgAfter a mere 6 weeks my membership card arrived in the mail yesterday. After today’s split with Texas and the Yankee’s loss to Oakland the FRS magic number for clinching the American League East crown is 101.

Also yesterday I had a chance to see if the new tires helped make the speedometer more accurate, short answer no. The borrowed GPS unit showed 66MPH when the speedo indicated 70. GPS said 37 when the speedometer read 40. Looks like when the speed limit on the Interstate says 70 and I want to go 75, I’m still going to have to get the speedometer to read 80MPH.

Trunk Lid Update – I finally used some calipers to measure the trunk lid gaps on Friday. The left side moved in the correct direction by .013 and right by only .007, but it looks much straighter to the naked eye.

Paid bills via tandem this morning. Went 15 miles to accomplish it too, first time we have been in double digits since New Year’s Day.

Behind the Scenes – Updated to Word Press 2.0.3

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 198

Saturday Night Is Alright…

…for not blogging.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 198

The Emperor’s New Shoes

In spite of their past mistakes, I went over the my LTS and had new Toyos installed on the car. Except for a brief interlude of the OEM Turdenzas on the Emperor when it was new, the last three sets of Miata tires have been Toyo T1-S’s in 195/50 x 15. An excellent summer tire with tons of grip, wet and dry, fairly light weight and pretty affordable. The T1-S is no longer made and has been replaced by the T1-R.

With the new tire purchase I decided to try and kill a couple of birds with the one stone of a set of T1-R’s in 205/50 x 15. The 205 is the width of the tire in millimeters and the 50 is the sidewall height expressed as a percentage of the width, so this means that the tire should appear to fill the wheel well better with its .2 inch taller sidewall. Second, according to the Miata.net tire size calculator, my speedometer will now read 1.7% low. This is a good thing because the stock speedometer appears to be almost 7% high right now and a little compensation the other way will help make it more accurate.

The LTS was busy and they told me it might be an hour and a half before they would have my car done. No problem I told them, I brought a book. True to their word, it took almost exactly that long. When I handed them the keys I reminded them the torque spec for the lug-nuts was 75 ft/lbs and asked them to at least start the lug-nuts by hand before they impacted them on because last time they stripped one of my studs. To which the guy behind the counter replied, “When you do as many tires as we do you are bound to strip a few.” Jeez, nice attitude.

When I got home the first thing I did was check the torque and it seemed about right as I loosened them all, at least I didn’t need a breaker bar to get them off. I then re-torqued all 16 to 75 ft/lbs. Next up I checked the tire pressure. The door jab sticker says that Mazda recommends that they be inflated to 26 p.s.i. I’m guessing they inflated them by counting off so many seconds, one Mississippi, two Mississippi…because the pressure ranged from a low of 34 p.s.i. to a high of 42. I used to run 29 p.s.i. in the T1-S’s, but these are supposed to have a slightly stiffer sidewall so I took them all down to 26 and we see how they feel. While I was doing tire things, I decided, what the heck, to go ahead and clean the tire installer’s greasy hand prints off my wheels. I don’t even want to get into the whole leaving the thin foil tire label on the treads so that they would slowly flake off leaving a trail right to my driveway from the store.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 194

Snack Attack

About 9:30PM, when the FRS were safely ahead of the dreaded Yankees and Donna bouncing around on the couch because of cabin fever I decided that now would be a good time to go get that snack she asked for earlier. Her taste buds are all out of whack the last couple of days. Yesterday she would drink nothing but hot chocolate and earlier today it was pink lemonade. Tonight she wanted a Frosty from Wendy’s or one of those dollar “sundaes” from McDonald’s.

So we climbed on the tandem, fired up the lights and wound our way through neighborhoods taking the long way to Mickey D’s that is about a mile and a half from home. At 99 cents it is hard to beat a cup full of creamy soft-serve vanilla ice cream with hot fudge on top. With tax it set us back a whole $1.06. Donna left the 4 cents change as a tip for the barista.

7 miles.