imroot.com

Anyone remember the Apple commercials for the G4 that showed the Intel guys in thier fireproof suits being “smoked”? What happened Apple? Just a few short years later you are “switching” to Intel. Oh the irony. I was kindda curious about what the new Intel Macs would end up being like. Could I setup a muti-boot machine…Windows, OS X, Linux or something like that? That would be pretty cool.

Think Secret has already managed to boot WinXP on it. Both Think Secret and Apple Insider have posted info and pics about the development machine that apple has started sending out.

Ultimately the switch will probably be good for mac users…hey it might even turn me into one! Now someone just needs to come up with a program that will let me natively run Windows and OSx programs simultaneously. One window running and OSX app, and another window running an Windows based app. That would be awesome.

So yesterday while I was enjoying the BMW Ultimated Driving Expereience I was having the windows tinted on my 3 Series. To the legal limit of course. When I got back I talked to the installer about the window tinting law, telling him that my wife’s car was beyond the limit. He was nice enough to offer to retint the front two windows on my wifes bug for $100.00. He told me that he has heard that the ticket for window tint violation first offence is $104.00.

So I brought my car home after having it tinted yesterday. Parked beside my wifes car it is hard to even tell a difference between the 35% (legal) add 17% (illegal) tint. As far as visibility into the car for law inforcement, I don’t think it is that much greater with 35% than with 17%. I had a hard time seeing in with either applied. I will have to look again in full sunlight though, it was late evening by the time I got home. It made me start to wonder if my wifes car is really 17% or if the officer didn’t use his new tint detector toy properly. I might have to get it re-tested.

Yesterday I went to BMW’s Ultimate Driving Experience at Turner Field. It was loads of fun. They let you take a BMW 330, Infiniti G35 and Audi A4 around an autocross track to determine which one handles better. Like you really need to do that to know that the 3 series will rock it….but it’s a good excuse to drive someone elses car’s hard. Here is a very rough drawing of the track. They set you up with a “pro driver” who coaches you on how to take it faster and push the car. They go through a set of tires every 50 miles!

Here are my thoughts on the cars.

BMW 330i:
It was great, as equipped with sport package, variable steering, and some other things it was $45K. The variable steering is great. You really notice how much it is working for you once you take the first corner in the Inifiti G35 and find yourself cranking on the wheel. The car was equipped with the steptronic automatic transmission, which we let do the work for us, but you can shift it your self if you want to. On the visual side, I can’t get over the new 3 series hood, it looks so cheap with those crome trim pieces that finish out the grills attached to the hood. Other than that, I really liked the looks.

Infiniti g35:
It seemed like the car was overpowered for the handeling. It had a good bit of get up and go, but was terrible in the corners. It had a lot of body roll. I like the way the Infiniti looked…but if you are an agressive driver it’s not for you.

Audi A4
The thing pushed through the corners really bad. I think it is due is part to the wieght balance. The car has the engine actually mounted in front of the front axle. The steering is very assisted…I didn’t like that at all, very little feedback from the road. I liked the interior of tha car, but not the exterior so much.

The technology in the new 3 series is pretty amazing. Variable steering actually turns the wheels on the car faster as you turn the steering wheel harder. You hands literally don’t have to leave the 10 and 2 posistion to drive this course. The brakes know when you have your windshield wipers on, and dry the brakes by applying slight pressure while you are driving so you have optimum performance in wet conditions. The brakes also sense how quickly you come off the gas pedal and will start to apply a little braking the faster you come off the pedal anticipating you are going to plow on the brakes next. The integration of the technology is quite seemless and natural you don’t even realize it is all working for you until you drive the cars that don’t have it.

Anyway, it is a great time…if it’s coming to your city register and go, you will have a good time.

So I was reading this article on ZDNet about how LAMP is really giving old Microsoft a run for thier money….literally. It’s got them so worried they are packing more features into thier products…..gotta love competition, it forces products to become better. Many of the new features are copied from LAMP architecture…what’s that saying….duplication is the best form of flatery?

I have quite a bit of stuff that runs on the Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP setup, and frankly it’s probably the stuff that works the best for me. Being burdened with some legacy ASP applications, my main webservers still runs Windows and IIS….including this blog. The thing is, I really hate the acronym WIMP….Windows, IIS, MySQL,PHP.

Even though the acronym stinks…..I built the #1 Parental Control Package with WIMP….see…the two worlds can live in perfect harmony. I will save why I run PHP on Windows for another post.

On my “Favorite Things” page I list Asterisk…..ZDnet posted an interview with the the creator Mark Spencer.

This is one of the coolest things I have ever used. I had two computers (a desktop and a laptop) and was getting tired of switching from keyboard to keyboard. Most of the time I ended up typing on the wrong computer. So I got to thinking VNC could be patched to create a quick remote connection to a second computer. But someone got the idea before me!

Win2VNC is a cool hacked up VNC client that tracks when you scroll off the side of your screen and automatically send your mouse and keyboard to the second computer connected with VNC. Its like a standard dual monitor setup on windows except it is a dual comptuer setup. You can even cut and paste between the two machines!

Now I thought this was cool when I used with between my Windows 2000 laptop and my Windows XP desktop. But the other day I got the chance to try it with my Windows XP desktop and a Mac OSX desktop. It worked just as good…..and I can use my 2 button mouse on the Mac to have a right click!

If you use more than one computer at a tme you have to look into it. You need Win2VNC on one machine and a VNC server on another computer. Win2VNC only works on Windows currently.

This is a cool little program that I found on Penrod’s Blog, it turns your Gmail account into a drive that is accessible from my computer…you can check it out here. Thanks Penrod.

If you have been working with computers for any time you more than likely have known someone who has locked themselves out of a Windows NT/XP computer. Admit it, you might have even done it to yourself!

When this used to happen to me I would re-install NT/XP, but this is too time consuming. So one day when faced with this dilema I fired up google…and sure enough once again Linux and Open Source was saving the day.

I found the Offline Password and Registry Editor. I downloaded it, and in about 10 to 15 minutes later I was logging into the box with my “new” administrator password.

I have used it many times since I originally found it. I now carry it around in my laptop bag with me everywhere that I go. Check it out if you need to reset an NT/XP administrator password.

So, Georgia has a “new” window tinting law. Well they do as of June 2005. Will this one stay around this time? Last time they passed this a window tinting law in Georgia it was struck down as unconstitutional because it exempted out-of-state registered vehicles. It was debated that this was descriminatory to Georgia residents.

So they “fixed” the bill and re-passed it. Now it applies to everyone, so if you are a resident of a state that allows you to have your windows tinted you can get pulled over if you are driving through Georgia. Here is Georgia House Bill 20, so you can read for yourself.

So why are my feathers so ruffled about this, after all my car doesn’t have window tinting. My wife’s car does….which we just bought used about a month or two ago. It has very dark tinted windows. They only allow 17% of the light to pass through the window, House Bill 20 specifies 32% must pass.

So what do I do now? I bought the vehicle when it was equipped legally. I believe I ought to be able to have an exemption. However, House Bill 20 doesn’t allow for this. Why should I have to pay 100’s of dollars to remove window tinting that was perfectly legal to install when it was installed?

What’s next….will the Gerogia legislature decide it is unsafe for me have a silver car because it reflects to much light, blinding oncoming drivers, and make me have my car repainted?

I will admit that dark tinted windows can be a danger for Law Enforcement. But there are better ways to handle it. Make it a law that I MUST roll down my window when pulled over. But let me tint if I want to.

* End of Rant *

Why a new site….well the old site sucked. I want to still try to accomplish the same thing sharing cool technology things that I find. I had to find out what was so cool about this whole blog thing? So I’m trying this wordpress thing…recommended me by a moreron.