Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[sx moneypit]

Get you one,they are a blast to drive!

[WDRacing]

I'll be picking up something old and domestic as my next project car.

[MinisterofDOOM]

That's what I'd do if I had a garage to keep a project in.

Either one of these:

Because they're dead sexy and I NEVER see them at car shows (and when I do, most people think they're Chargers). Also the 390 sounds amazing, especially through a nice pair of glasspacks.
My favorite "character quirk": the vacuum-operated headlight covers sometimes decide not to work, especially in the cold. But who needs to see where they're going when your car sounds like the steed of Death itself galloping forth? Everything'll move out of the way as soon as it hears you coming.

Or one of these:

True, they're insanely common. But they're also magnificent in pretty much every way. I think it's probably the nicest looking non-Italian car ever made. And you could get them with the best motors of the '60s...396 or 427 rat motors. Because I want to hear THIS every day. Because who wouldn't?

[WDRacing]

http://www.autotraderclassics.com/class ... nId=167138

Would make a good project car.

[frapjap]

FINALLY GOT THE DAMNED ALIGNMENT FIGURED OUT!
Marky Mark suggested I adjust the caster in case one side wasn't keeping up with the other. Loosen the lower control arm bolt, rotate a bit, tighten, drive and BAM. 50% better. A bit more fanagaling and its very driveable. Now it doesnt have to be towed to the alignment shop.

Whats the first heavy classic on the string of posts?

I always wanted one of these:


Especially with a drop top!

[Kompresshun]

I'm pretty sure that's a Ford Galaxie XL Ray.

I've also always been quite fond of these:

Ford Fairlane GTA



COPO Chevy Nova



Then of course the car I have lusted after my entire life and hope to someday own, the 65 Pontiac GTO

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'd KILL for a COPO Nova (or even just a standard SS 396).

http://www.autotraderclassics.com/class ... nId=167138

Would make a good project car.

Nice. I love first-gen Cougars. Gorgeous, especially in the factory dark metallic green. Everything that was nice about the early Mustang's looks, but with a little more elegance. 2nd gens got REAL ugly, but the first gen is nice. My dad had a '67 until I was about 6 years old. I have memories of sitting on his briefcase and pretending to drive it.

Whats the first heavy classic on the string of posts?

1968 Ford Galaxie 500 XL.

[frapjap]

Thats a hot Galaxie. Theres a neighbor of mine with a COPO Nova. His is bright black. Down the road from him is a guy with a Yenko Camaro (at at least a really good clone). I never, ever see the presumed Yenko around even at the local car show so I have to assume its real.

Still though, if one of these came my way, I'd be in heavenly bliss. There were so few built that I'd rather have a fake. At least its driveable!

[frapjap]

My dad used to have one of these:

A '74 Monte Carlo SS with a 454. Had swivel bucket seats in the front instead of the bench. I "drove" it once when I climbed in while my dad was changing the oil and moved the column shifter out of park into neutral. It rolled backwards down the driveway. I remember him springing up from his lying down position and jumping into the window and pushing the brake pedal with his hand.
My mother drove it to a job near the ocean every day and it eventually rusted away. Some guy eventually came and bought it for $800, solely for the engine. All 200hp of it.

[WDRacing]

I love the 74! I had a 78 in HS, looked exactly like this one...

[Kompresshun]

I'm not a Monte Carlo fan. I appreciate them, but don't really care for them. I'd personally rather have a Grand National, GNX, Grand Prix, Le Mans, or Cutlass over anything related to them in a Chevy.

Also, I barely missed out on a super deal today, which makes me super sad. I went to look at a 79 Mercedes 280CE today for $700, but the guy basically said first come first serve and it would be ready to look at today. I arrived just as someone was pulling out of the driveway in it

Not that a Benz was my ideal dream car or anything, but it looked to be in excellent condition and it ran as well. For $700 I figured I could clean it up, enjoy it for a while and flip it for some cash because it was worth A LOT more than $700. Sadly it took the guy over a week just to answer an e-mail and he didn't want to deal with multiple people coming to look. He basically said, it'll be at this address today and the number will be on it. Whoever brings the money first gets it.

[frapjap]

Bummer to have missed out! You could've made it a lawn mower.

BTW, that pork I smoked- best to date! I brined it in a butt load of molasses, water, salt, and granulated brown sugar for 12 hours. Gave it a dry rub of paprika, cumin, corriander, allspice, dry mustard, brown sugar, cumin, black pepper, fennel seed, celery seed, and marjoram. Smoked on mesquite chips for 12 hours. This f*** is delicious. Like melt in your mouth delicious.

[Kompresshun]

It sucks, but I didn't want to get up bright and early to go get it without the wife's approval. Last time I did that I ended up in big trouble AND with a car that had a ton of issues to be worked out. I just remembered what my dad would say... "If it's meant for me to have it, it'll be there when I get there to buy it. If not, there will be another one."

Ray, that sounds absolutely awesome. My chili turned out pretty good too, but I think I should've used a different chili mix. The results were still great, but it was just a little off from what I was trying to get. I know what to leave out next time though, so it should be epic next time around.

I ended up making it with ground hot italian sausage, bacon, 1/4 lb of ground beef, green onions, white onions, fresh diced jalapenos, fresh diced tomatoes, diced green chili's, chili ready diced tomatoes and beans, kidney beans, and a half bottle of Guiness Extra Stout. It was an excellent mix.

[WDRacing]

Guiness Extra Stout.

For some reason that made me very thirsty! I'm not even a huge Guiness fan, but I'll be damned if my mouth isn't watering thinking about a cold pint of it.

[frapjap]

That sounds like solid chili! Have you given thought to adding a bit of beef broth or chicken broth? It adds a dimensional depth of umami and savory to the chili. It'll seem watery at first, but after reducing for hours (which you probably did anyway) it'll thicken up juuuuust fine. Stewed tomatoes and their juices from the can are also good for a similar effect.

I missed out on an Arctic White Firebird one time right after college. T Tops, 5 speed, but a 3.1 6 cylinder. Like your dad, mine told me something similar. Go figure I own one now. Can't wait to start sanding it down and repairing the little bits of rust remaining on it this winter. Body work is soooooo much more entertaining than mechanical work.

[frapjap]

Guiness Extra Stout.

For some reason that made me very thirsty! I'm not even a huge Guiness fan, but I'll be damned if my mouth isn't watering thinking about a cold pint of it.

Its served warm(ish)

























not that it matters, I don't care for Guiness either. At the moment I'm rocking Harpoon Pumpkin UFO. Quite tasty, none of that sillyness of covering bad beer with a bunch of spices. Its allll about the pumpkin in this one. Getchya some.

[Kompresshun]

Ray, I almost put in beef broth this time and I think I did that last time I made a batch. I think that's what was missing from it, along with some different chili seasoning.

I used to drink Guiness a lot, but I rarely get it now. I still keep a bottle in the fridge ever now and again, because dark beer is good in certain recipes. I've actually got a 6-pack of Samuel Adams Octoberfest beer in the fridge right now that i've only drank one out of. First time buying it, but it doesn't seem too bad.

Ray, i've missed out on tons of deals but i've also made a lot of good ones too. I keep reminding myself to be patient, because the longer I wait, the more money i'll have to spend. Which means I can buy something I REALLY want and not have to settle for something cheap.

Oh and Brian, I picked up the new 2nd generation Nexus 7 tonight. I finally gave in and decided to buy a good tablet instead of d!ck around with cheaper tablets to make them work like I want.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm planning to pick up a 2nd gen Nexus 7 sometime soon. I'll relegate my first-gen to Chromecast-remote and alarm clock status.

[Kompresshun]

Well we went to buy a second kindle fire HD for the wife tonight, because I had rooted and loaded JellyBean on it so she couldn't use all of the kindle features anymore. In the end we decided to get the nexus for me and I just restored the kindle back to stock for her.

This thing will get a ton of use and I should've bought one a long time ago. I'm excited to be able to use it with Torque as well. Now I just need to sell my other Asus transformer tablet.

[Dattebayo]

Just rooted and loaded TWRP onto my Rugby an hour ago, not sure if I should mod the kernel to custom yet, I'm reading up on it...

XDA has a really sweet tethering release mod for it also, I just downgraded my data connection so I could afford unlimited messaging tho, GOD AT&T sucks. I wish they would die already so I can get out of this stupid contract. Not that T-mobile is any better with their stupid "no-contract" buy the phone off in increments or get stuck with the full charge BS...

[WDRacing]

Its served warm(ish)

Yeah, I've had Guiness in Ireland...warm. But in the states it's served cold. At least it is every single time I've had it. Warm beer sucks no matter what it is.

Oh and Brian, I picked up the new 2nd generation Nexus 7 tonight. I finally gave in and decided to buy a good tablet instead of d*** around with cheaper tablets to make them work like I want.

After I get done with the big move I'll be buying a nice tablet myself. I hear good things about he Nexus. Let me know how it performs.

[Kompresshun]

Just rooted and loaded TWRP onto my Rugby an hour ago, not sure if I should mod the kernel to custom yet, I'm reading up on it...

XDA has a really sweet tethering release mod for it also, I just downgraded my data connection so I could afford unlimited messaging tho, GOD AT&T sucks. I wish they would die already so I can get out of this stupid contract. Not that T-mobile is any better with their stupid "no-contract" buy the phone off in increments or get stuck with the full charge BS...

I'd recommend just loading a ROM on it that's already prepackaged with a custom kernal. I have tried custom ones before and it's hard to find a good one.

I despise At&t. We dumped them 5 years ago and never back. While Sprint isn't the best service ever, I'm much happier with it than we were with At&t.

After I get done with the big move I'll be buying a nice tablet myself. I hear good things about he Nexus. Let me know how it performs.

I thought you already had the previous generation Nexus 7?

I looked at a bunch of them at Best Buy yesterday and this honestly had specs better than tablets twice it's price. I found it funny that as usual I knew more than the guy trying to help us. He was trying to sell me the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and he didn't know the specs on it. He had no idea that it was slower than even the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire.

[WDRacing]

I thought you already had the previous generation Nexus 7?

By me I meant my wifeunit. I've been told, "don't touch my tablet!" So...yeah...I don't have a tablet.

[Kompresshun]

Yeah that's kinda why I ended up with the Nexus. She wanted the Kindle back, even though she basically only uses it to read on like once a week. It was sort of our backup tablet.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I find it slightly odd that the most useful upgrade on the 2nd gen N7 is the notification light. Not having one on my first-gen has always driven me nuts.

Of course, I've always been more fond of the Snapdragon S4 Pro than Tegra 3, so that's a nice upgrade as well.

[sx moneypit]

I am to old for all this techie $hit ,anyway good afternoon Chris and other lurking folks!

[Dattebayo]

I'd recommend just loading a ROM on it that's already prepackaged with a custom kernal. I have tried custom ones before and it's hard to find a good one.

I'd love to, except that the 3.0 kernel with cm9 and 10 has issues with the onboard cameras [read: cameras don't work at all] and that's a deal breaker for me. I must have the camera operational for my job.

I have very little ram on this device and it gets really slow using two emails and about 6 apps frequently. I'm hoping that the next release of AOKP by motorhead will fix that issue and have the camera thing solved. But realistically, I'll have a new device by then. I think I may steal my mom's galaxy exhilarate when she's not looking... I hate being poor...

[float_6969]

Wheh! Just got home from Geocaching all day. The wife got behind her mom during the months after we had the baby and has been trying to catch back up this summer. She's close now, only 4 behind now!

[MinisterofDOOM]

Customer kernels are going to be a very device-specific thing. So it's hard to make recommendations without knowing the device. Even kernels from the same author with the same design goals will vary in effect from device to device. Of course android/linux version and other factors come into play as well.

Generally, I'll look through XDA threads about a kernel and read a lot to find a stable version. Oftentimes when kernels are under constant development, you can find an older version that's more stable but might not be as feature-rich or something like that. Stability is the most important thing with kernels...you don't want reboots and apps closing spontaneously.
After that, I look for customization...tweakable clockspeed, voltage, governers, I/O schedulers (a big factor that's often overlooked and can help tailor your device's performance to the way you use it), multicore scaling, etc.
Some kernels are focused on all-out performance. Some are built for responsiveness. A lot of them are built to stretch battery life. Some are built to "just work" and others are built for people who like to tinker.

I've run lots of kernels on my One S and my Grouper and it's exceedingly difficult to find kernels that are both dependable and robust but that also respond and perform well.
In the end, I usually go back to stock AOKP kernel on the Grouper (N7) and stock CM for the One S.

[Kompresshun]

I find it slightly odd that the most useful upgrade on the 2nd gen N7 is the notification light. Not having one on my first-gen has always driven me nuts.

Of course, I've always been more fond of the Snapdragon S4 Pro than Tegra 3, so that's a nice upgrade as well.

Don't forget about the upgraded display as well. I prefer the Snapdragon as well personally.

As far as kernals go, I typically don't mess with them a whole lot unless the device functions really poorly, which sounds like the situation you're dealing with Dave.

That's why I have a really hard time with sticking with Android on phones each time I upgrade. I always worry i'll end up with a dud, but my Galaxy Nexus has been fairly solid so far. I'm due for an upgrade in January though and it's already beginning to show it's age and have a lot more glitches to it. One thing I can say about it is that the bluetooth on it SUCKS. Almost since the beginning it will randomly disconnect while using a headset or connected to the car.

For a phone, i've really gotten fed up with Android's stability. I gave it another shot this time and there are a lot of things I love about it, but the things I require it to do regularly it completely sucks at most of the time. It makes me really think twice about giving Android a third shot for a phone when I upgrade, but we'll see.