Today while trying to figure out how to use two graphics packages, I discovered that people without internet connections apparently don't deserve documentation. I am still ignorant of how to rotate shapes in both Inkscape and Xara LX (two programs that will never ever challenge any real vector graphics software) assuming it's even possible, because the documentation is provided as a web link.
Today, parallel gasoline-hybrids are often touted as a cleaner, greener alternative despite the simple fact that avoiding purchasing a new car and sticking with your old one saves more energy and environmental impact in almost all cases. Rather than using the new technology to simplify the vehicle, hybrids are more complicated than their predecessors, and the results are not positive. The added weight of the electrical system means that the vehicle is either unusually heavy, or unusually expensive due to the necessity of balancing weight and crash safety. And the hybrid power system, most especially the batteries, comes at a substantial cost premium as well as substantially increasing environmental impact.
Yes friends, it is time for another tedious rant on the subject of sport utility vehicles. Those who are interested, read on. Everyone else will please step along smartly, thankyou.
In the continued saga of my 1993 Impreza LS, the fuel pump crapped out for real this morning (cycling the key on and off repeatedly did nothing) so I ended up having to swap it. I haven't fastened down the carpet since the last time I looked at it, so it was a fifteen minute job or so. The replacement is from a 1995 (IIRC) Legacy, but pretty much all Subarus use the little JECS canister pump also used by Nissans and such and only earlier, FWD Subarus have less displacement (and thus presumably less fuel delivery) than my '93 LS. This swap is even easier than on (for example) the 240SX because Subaru uses a slick connector for the fuel pump and sender. This connector, which is male on the outside, also has two male connectors on the inside, into which the sender and pump plug separately.
I am a frequent customer of geeks.com. They sell computer hardware, and a bit of software, and some random electronic crap thrown in for good measure - some of which is pretty exciting. My latest purchase was a 3.5" USB 2.0/IEEE 1394 FireWire Aluminum Ext Hard Drive Case which is a cute little shiny aluminum number. Unfortunately, it has a heat problem and shuts down after a couple of minutes.
I had bent my right front stock steel wheel on my 1993 Impreza, so I decided to get some new wheels. Buying one wheel is kind of silly when they are (or should be) cheap, and fourteen inch wheels suck anyway so I was planning to get some 15" steel wheels from a Forester. These look kind of like alloys, and they're bigger than the stock wheel so you can run a lower sidewall. So I call up my local Subaru recycler, Subaru & Suzuki Auto Recycling (they do Kia too) and asked them what it could cost to get four Forester steel wheels.
As you may or may not know, I live on Cobb Mountain in Lake County, California. This is a really beautiful piece of country, and many parts of it enjoy microclimates - almost nanoclimates, really - that really mitigate the impact of weather. Unfortunately, my particular portion of the hill isn't in one of these areas and we get the worst of all worlds; hot in the summer, where people just around the corner from us are ten degrees warmer, and cold in the winter, although that's an affliction shared by pretty much the whole hill. Clear Lake is at about 1000 feet, and we're at about 2700 with only one significant mountain range between us and the coast (since we're on top of the second one.)
Stu Nicholls is my hero today; he created a simple, working CSS fluid drop shadow. I literally tried six other drop shadows before I found his, which worked without additional freaking out in my drupal theme.
I was reading through a story on Slashdot that made reference to an old system.ini entry for Windows 9x that tells Windows to do its level best not to use the paging file, AKA swap space. This has no relevance to Windows NT; however, there are some similar registry settings that do work in NT.
One reference I located doing subsequent searches is Martin Krohn's Windows XP Tweaking Guide. This has numerous handy tweaks; I will boil the ones I intend to actually use down here, as this (or a subsequent blog post) will be a kind of worksheet explaining what I did and what did and didn't work.