Nirwana

Art of wallpaper removal

2010-09-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

Rule #1: If you have to work hard to remove the paper, it has not soaked up enough water/remover mixture.

Supplies and Prep:

- WP Chomp Super Concentrate wallpaper removal solution. Buy one more bottle than you think you'll need; you'll need it!

- 3" flexible putty knife or a wallpaper scraper

- Wall paper perforation/piercing tool like the Zinsser® Paper Tiger Wallpaper Scoring Tool (2966)

- Trash container that is easy to move along with you as you remove the paper.

- Large sponge or an old hand towel

- Lots of water!

Rule #2: It's really messy. Cover the baseboards and floor.

Step 1 Prepare the wallpaper.

If you are lucky and the wallpaper can be peeled off the wall, then do that. If it does not peel off, get ready for a fine upper body workout and get that Paper Tiger out and score the wallpaper.

Rule #3: You cannot put too many scoring holes in the wallpaper. These holes are your BEST FRIEND. If you think you've scored enough, score some more.

Step 2 Apply the paper removal solution on the paper or whatever remains of it if you were able to peel it off the wall. Work on 3' x 3' sections at a time. You can work on two sections at a time; soaking one while removing and cleaning the other.

Rule #4: Work top to bottom. The solution will run down the wall so the paper below will absorb the runs.

Keep applying the solution until it has fully saturated the paper; it takes a lot more solution than you think. If the paper can absorb more, give it more.

Rule #5: Be patient and let water do all the work for you; see Rule #1!

Step 3 Remove the wallpaper. In general, it should just slide off the wall in large chunks. If it does not, apply more solution and wait.

After the paper comes off, the wall will be covered in wet glue.

Step 4 While the glue is still wet, apply more solution and use the sponge or hand towel to wipe it off. These should be wet but wrung out. You'll need to rinse and wring the sponge/towel very often.

Step 5 If you are going to paint the walls, let them dry, paint them with a primer that is compatible with your paint.

The Turbo is Back!

2009-10-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we installed a 3.6L "built" motor in the Turbo and fired it up! Yeah! Finally!

This motor is actually a loaner from the engine builder because mine is not quite finished. This works for me, I'm just glad to be driving my favorite car again. We have my new turbos on the engine and a couple of different engine tuning programs; one makes around 550HP!

My dad and I made it to Thunderhill Raceway for some twin turbo fun! Here is the video:

And, a few photos:

Update: Shelby GT

2009-01-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by Ford Mustangs; first, the 2003 Cobra and now the 2008 Shelby GT. The quality, all around, of the new Mustangs is a huge improvement over the pre-2005 Mustangs, and it looks like the upcoming 2010 models will improve the interiors even more. You really get a very nice performance coupe for the money!

Of course, when a car enters my garage, regardless of how good it is from the factory, it always "needs" some further "improvements" from me :) The Shelby GT is no different, in spite of my usual "attempt" to keep it stock...

After a few track days, the Shelby received front camber adjustment to -2.5 degrees to save the front tires! I also had several bushings replaced with polyurethane versions. Other suspension upgrades include lower control arm relocation, both front and rear (the car comes lowered from Shelby so I wanted to reduce the dive, squat and lean), and an adjustable panhard bar :)

The Shelby comes with a Ford Performance Parts sport suspension which works fine, but was a bit too harsh both on and off the track; it felt way overdamped. So, the dampers have been replaced with some adjustable KONI's; which have improved the street ride considerably and I expect to test their track performance this Saturday, the first track day of the season!

Here is a photo of the Shelby at the track:

Addition to the Stable: 2008 Shelby GT

2008-09-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

When I was detailing my former 2003 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra, just days before it left the stable, I had a bit of seller's remorse; I really liked that car a lot!

Well, it didn't take long, about six months, before my desire for a rumbly V8 muscle car started to get to me :) Actually, it started with a desire for a rumbly V-Twin Harley Davidson V-Rod, but family and reason talked me out of it. I've always loved those bikes; they look great and have a modern, Porsche-designed, V-Twin! Here is a photos:

A muscle car is basically a 4 wheeled cousin to a Harley, so it wasn't long before I started thinking about getting a new Mustang (the only other Muscle car that vaguely interests me is the new Camaro, but they won't be out for a while and I need a fix, NOW! :) And, I like Mustangs better :) ).

The current replacement for my 2003 Cobra is the Shelby GT500 Mustang, which is actually the car I wanted when I bought the Cobra. At the time, the markup on the GT500 was well over $10,000 and the local dealers wanted $25,000 over MSRP! Rediculously crazy! I bought the Cobra for $28,000; a tick over the dealer markup for a GT500. Now, things have settled down and I was able to find two dealers that would take $1000 below MSRP; what a difference two years makes!

The other Mustang that interested me is the Shelby GT. Confused? Let me enlighten you, dear reader :)

The GT500 is essentially a modern version of the 2003/2004 SVT Cobra Mustang; the top of the line performance Mustang. It is supercharged to 500HP (the Cobra was 390HP), has a 6 speed transmission and several other performance upgrades compared to a standard Mustang. Ford made a marketing deal with Carroll Shelby to use his name on the car so instead of being called an SVT Cobra, it is called a Shelby GT500.

Shelby is famous for creating Shelby modified and branded cars like the Cobra, GT350 and GT500; all from the 1960's. When the latest generation of Mustangs arrived on the market in 2005, Shelby started to make Shelby Mustangs again. Such Mustangs are sent to Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas, NV, to be modified and converted to Shelby Mustangs and then sold through Ford dealerships.

The first of these Shelby Mustangs was the Shelby GT-H, which was only available for rent at Hertz rental stores at major airports. Shelby and Hertz did a similar thing in the 1960s. The Shelby GT-H cars are now out of the rental service and Hertz is auctioning them off so they are now available for purchase.

Before the GT-H's were auctioned off, there was no way to buy a Shelby Mustang, except for the GT500, which many argue is purely a marketing deal and not a real Shelby. As you can imagine, this is a hot debate among Shelby fans... I tend to agree.

Eventually, in 2007, the Shelby GT was introduced; it is basically the same as the GT-H, but could be purchased at a Ford dealer. The main differences are that the GT-H was available only with an automatic transmission, in black with gold strips and a different hood while the GT was available in white or black with silver stripes and a five speed manual transmission.

In 2008 the color was changed to blue with silver stripes and a convertible version was introduced. And that is the end of the Shelby GT production.

I bought this 2008 Shelby GT 5 speed coupe for the stable.

First track day is the 16th :)

Turbo Engine Update 2

2008-09-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Kevin, the engine builder, from Ultimate Motorwerks stopped by the house last week to show me some of the new engine's parts so I can photograph them before he puts the engine back together. Rather than repeating the photos and their descriptions, here is a link to a forum thread with the details.

If all goes well, the engine should be finished in a few weeks and hopefully back in the car by the end of September!! It's been a long 9 months without my favorite car...

Turbo Motor Update

2008-05-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

At last, the major machining has been completed toward rebuilding the blown motor in Nirwana! Yeah!!

As always, when something breaks it is a great opportunity to upgrade :) In the case of Nirwana's motor, it is getting some fancy heads which are strengthened, ported, polished and with bigger valves, more agressive cams, and solid lifters (rather than stock hydraulic lifters).

The big upgrade is conversion from 3.6L to a Porsche Motorsports 3.8L capacity with all the Motorsports upgrades for better lubrication and strength.

On top of that, the turbos are upgraded with the latest Porsche GT2 compressor wheels!

I have no clue how much power this will make and what the drivability will be like, but is sure sounds promising.

The downside, other than cost, is that it won't be finished until August/September. This means the Boxster will have to handle track duties until than; the plan was originally to do track duty only thru June. More on that in another post.

Here is a picture of on of the six cylinder heads:

About Convertibles

2008-04-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

As BillW pointed out in a comment regarding my purchase of a Boxster S, I have not been into convertibles in the past. Given that I take most of my cars to the race track, convertibles are not a good choice for various reasons:

Safety - The general consensus is that open cars are less safe than enclosed cars in the event of a rollover. There are clubs that won't allow convertibles on the track at all.

Chassis Rigidity - When you remove the top of a car you weaken the chassis which means it flexes more in corners and over bumps. This affects the car's handling on the race track because the suspension can never be precisely tuned; it needs a rigid chassis to function optimally. Most modern and high end convertibles are actually very stiff so this is not a huge issue. But still, a coupe will always be stiffer and thus handle a bit better at the limits than a convertible.

So, given the choice, for a track car, I'll take a coupe over a convertible.

On the street, my main issue with convertibles is the interior noise, mainly in heavy commuter traffic. This is with the top up; top down can be deafening.

Now that my "commute" is either a slow suburban drive to Cantrell Motorsports or a nice country drive to Pacific Raceways to do a photo shoot as Red Mist Photo, a convertible seemed like fun!

So, I've been shopping convertibles since last summer. Having owned several convertibles in the past (1969 Austin Healey Sprite in High School and College, 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder, 2000 Boxster S, 2003 Mercedes Benz SL500) I had lots of past experience to fall back on. Given that I didn't plan to track the car and that I wanted it to be quiet with the top up, I considered two cars initially: BMW 335i and Mazda MX-5. The advantage of the Bimmer is that I could haul the family in it. But, I also know from my M3 experience, that I seriously disliked not having rear doors for the kids. They both look a bit goofy with their tops up so I remained uncertain.

During the winter my right shoulder started to give a lot of pain, to the point that shifting gears hurt. It seemed time to get an automatic so the BMW was starting to look like a winner, but in the end, I just could not go for a two door family car. So, I traded my 330i 6 speed sedan on a 335i automatic sedan (fantastic car BTW!). The convertible was put on the backburner while I healed the shoulder.

The shoulder is now much, much better, the sun is starting to show its face more, and I'm shooting photos at the track more often. It's convertible time!

In order to get a new car, I'd have to sell something. Well, the only other running car that I had was the Cobra. But, it is my only track car right now! Well, I could take the 335i to the track, but really, what would be the point?!

So, now the convertible needed to be a decent track car until the Turbo or Lotus return, which is a few months away... What to do???

For me, the options were:

Mazda Miata

Honda S2000

BMW Z4

Porsche Boxster

Yet again, the poor Miata was ruled out fairly quickly, simply due to its lack of power. The Bimmer is fast and cool, but a bit goofy looking and a bit overpriced in my opinion.

I found a really nice 2007 S2000 at Honda of Bellevue so I went to look at it. When I arrived, it had a "SOLD" sign on it. I thought to myself "this is a sign that I should get a Boxster", so off to the Porsche dealer I went. As I pulled in there was a really nice looking red (I love red!) Boxster S parked out front. I walked over to it and it was a pre-owned 2006 and was for sale... a couple of hours later, it was mine! It had only 1800 miles on it because the lady that bought it became pregnant with quadruplets soon after buying it. She now drives and Escalade, I hear. I found a new baby bottle under the passenger seat, which confirms the story :)

I took the Boxster to Portland International Raceway on Monday and we had a great time (despite spinning on the first corner... rather embarassing since it happened right in front of several of my track junkie buddies).

Here are some photos of our fun:

And, here is a little trip down memory lane; me and my 2000 Boxster S at Laguna Seca in late 2003:

The shot to the right is taken in the famous Cork Screw at Laguna.

Given the safety and rigidity issues, on that Boxster, I removed the convertible top and installed a custom rollbar and left the hardtop on permanently; I think I drove the car with the top off, about 6 times in the time I owned it. I really wanted a mid-engined coupe, but all reasonably priced mid-engined cars were either convertibles (MR2 and Boxster) or Targas (Acura NSX). Since then, Porsche came out with the Cayman, which is a coupe version of the Boxster.

Goodbye Cobra

2008-04-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a year and 4 months of ownership, but it is time to say goodbye to the Cobra...

We had a 3-day track weekend at Thunderhill a few weeks ago and when I got home, I had convertible on my brain and bought a 2006 Porsche Boxster S! So, it was time to sell something to make room in the garage and the Cobra was the only choice given the Lotus Elise is still in Houston waiting for its new motor and the Porsche Turbo is also without a motor. Plus, I simply wouldn't sell either of them!

It took about a day to find a new owner! He is a big SVT Cobra enthusiast so the car is going to a very good home. His dad has a Cobra himself; how cool is that!

This Boxster S is my second; I had a 2000 Boxster S for almost 2 years from 2002 to late 2003 and loved that car. Apparently I liked it enough to want another :) It will be doing track duty until either the Turbo or Elise returns; I'm betting on the Turbo.

Here is a parting photo of the Cobra at the recent trip to Thunderhill:

GruppeOrange Racing

2008-03-19T17:14:00.001-07:00

Wow, is it the middle of March already!

I've been very busy with Red Mist Photo. I've done several more photo shoots at Pacific Raceways and I've also hooked up with GruppeOrange Racing; doing photography at race events and I also did their website.

Here is one of may favorite GruppeOrange photo from the Las Vegas Speedway event in February:

First 2008 track day for Cobra and Red Mist Photo

2008-01-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

Proformance Racing School held a sunny and safe lapping day at Pacific Raceways last Sunday. It was one of their Northwest winter "hey, it is going to be sunny on Sunday so lets drive!" last minute announcements, which we all got last Tuesday.

The Cobra wasn't exactly ready so with the help of Cantrell Motorsports and Carb Conn, they were able to get it ready for some fun. The Cobra needed an oil change and track brake pads and a new tune by Alex at Carb Conn. On Saturday at 1 PM the car was ready! Cutting it close but all turned out well.

I also wanted to get more practice at photographing cars on the track so I signed up for a half day of driving and shot pictures the rest of the day. Santa brought me a Canon 40D camera body and I bought a Canon 300mm F2.8 lens based on my finding that I couldn't get close enough to the cars with my 70-200 F2.8 lens. The 40D is fantastic; lots of great upgrade features from my 20D. The 300mm lens is a beast; I used it on a monopod, also brought by Santa, but it was quite a learning curve to use it effectively .

The pictures turned out nice but the cars were all filthy from the wet track in the morning so I really didn't expect to sell many pictures. To my surprise, I've already sold quite a few! Here is the gallery.

The Cobra performed admirably; especially the new 14" Brembos really stopped the beast with lots of braking power to spare.

Red Mist Photo makes its first sale!

2007-11-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Proformance Racing School held a track day last Saturday so I got my first chance at taking some pictures of the driver's and their cars.

The lighting was terrible (very dark) but good enough to take some good pictures. Good enough to sell. The first photo sold is this one of a very cool Acura NSX (highly modified):

My photography website is http://redmistphoto.com.

Where did the name Red Mist Photo come from you ask!? "Red Mist" is a condition where any competitor is so hell bent on catching the next car ahead of them that they loose composure and concentration. Naturally, it usually results in a driver error.

Thunderhill Raceway and Cobra Brakes Reprise

2007-11-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

Thunderhill was fantastic as usual; I simply love that track. It is very fast, some nice elevation changes, blind corners, off camber corners, fun corners, fun track!

Some photos (taken by "Head-on Photos"):

Brakes

However, the high speed between the many corners and braking into the corners really showed how even the upgraded 13" front brakes are not powerful enough to repeatedly slow down a 3800lbs car. In the first day I went through a new set of brake pads! Pads that normally last 4 to 6 track days!! Went through another set of pads on the second day! Lots of brake fade and boiled brake fluid...

After returning from Thunderhill I installed new Brembo brakes on the Cobra. This time 14" diameter rotors which are also 4mm wider; this makes them much more efficient heat sinks. These are paired with Brembo 6 piston calipers. This should do the trick!

And now, something different...

2007-10-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

I've decided to retire from general software development and from working for a company! I'm in the process of leaving my current employer, UIEvolution and have begun some new activities, all of them oriented toward high performance cars and driving them on race tracks! Go figure...

I'm currently redoing the Cantrell Motorsports website; check it out.

I'm also planning to get back into photography. First, I'm taking quite a few pictures of the cars and activities at Cantrell Motorsports. I also plan to do some track side photography at Pacific Raceways and hopefully sell pictures of people's cars to them as part of their day at the track.

Driving on the right side for the brain these days :)

Lastly, I'm leaving tomorrow for Thunderhill Raceway with the Cobra. Several friends from Seattle and Portland are also going, so it will be a lot of fun! I'll be taking the Cobra in my new enclosed Interstate Cargo trailer (pics to come later).

Here is the map of the 700 mile journey ahead:

View Larger Map

And a map of the track:

View Larger Map

NIRWANA Engine Blows!

2007-10-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

After many thousands of track driving miles, I finally performed a "money shift"; in the Porsche Turbo no less!

I tried to shift from 3rd to 4th but accidentally got 2nd. The problem with that is if you shift at red line from 3rd, which is about 7000RPM, and you shift into 2nd and let the clutch out, the tires force the engine to spin at about 9500RPM!!!

Bad things happen when an engine is over-revved in such a way. The most common thing is that the valve springs don't exert enough force to close the valves fast enough so a piston or two end up colliding with the partially open valve which typically breaks the valve.

Cantrell Motorsports dropped the motor out of the car last week and performed a leakdown test which shows that 2 cylinders have likely been damaged. So, on we go with tearing down the engine to fix broken bits; and take the opportunity to upgrade a few :)

As you can imagine, this is all going to cost a wee bit of money; hence the term "money shift"... ugh.

Here is the sad photo of the motor below its proper home (the under-exposure is intentional to convey to mood):

The Cobra does Infineon Raceway

2007-09-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

The 16 hour trip to Infineon was very much worth it!

As usual, Nor-Cal Shelby Club put together a nice event. This was their annual Mini-National Convention which includes a car show on Friday, several dinner events with guest speakers, and of course, my favorite activity, driving around a fine race track for two days :)

Each year they have a theme for the Mini-Nats, as they call the event. This year the theme was "40 Years of the GT500". 40 years ago Ford sold a limited number of GT500 Shelby Mustangs; which are of course now collector's items. And, last year Ford once again began offering a Shelby GT500 Mustang. So, the theme was a no-brainer for the club.

This guy owns both a '67 and an '07 GT500 (original owner of the '67):

The '67 has this license plate frame, and the '07 has the opposite frame:

More pictures from the car show are on Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/nirwana42/sets/72157602016042329/

Saturday was spent getting used to the track, which is a bit intimidating due the close proximity of concrete walls all over the place!

Sunday, we started to play a bit more but I never really felt comfortable pushing the car much due to those walls!

Sure enough on Sunday a car at the front of the pack clipped the inside of T12 and bounced to the other side and hit that wall too. I was about the 6th car when we came up to T12 and all I saw was lots of bright red brake lights; which is totally unexpected since this is a major passing zone. So, we all went from full throttle to full brakes very quickly; I almost rear ended the white car in front of us and I just waited to get hit from behind. I heard some tire squealing and just waited for the hit... I heard the car hit something; fortunately it wasn't my car! Two cars toasted by the walls... I caught this all on video, it is the second crash in the movie below; if you turn up the volume you will hear the tire squeal and the hit! Then, on the right you see the original victim, a red Mustang, smoking!

I had a great time, but I still like Thunderhill in Willows, CA the best. The Cobra and I will be there Oct 27/28... Can't hardly wait.

Here is a shot of the me and the Cobra in T2:

The Cobra ran great; suspension felt nice and no cooling issues.

Here is the in-car video. First of my fastest lap, then some fun with some classic 60's Mustangs, then some fun with a stock car racer and finally some of the mishaps. Enjoy!

Cobra Suspension Test

2007-08-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

The suspension upgrades from Maximum Motorsports got a nice workout on Aug 20th at Pacific Raceways. The forecast called for rain so I didn't expect to excercise the suspension much, but it turned out to be a mostly dry day.

I'm very happy with the results; there is much less body motion and the -3.6 degrees of camber in the front really helps with the understeer and tire wear is much more even (instead of wearing out the outside edges).

Here is a 10 minute video from that day; I had a little fun by adding some of the common thoughts that go through my mind as I'm driving.

Next week I'm taking the Cobra to Sears Point (Infineon) Raceway. I'm very excited because I've never driven at this track! It's about a 1000 mile drive from Seattle; I'll be towing it on my trailer.

Here is the track:

View Larger Map

Here is my travel route from Seattle to Sonoma:

View Larger Map

Cobra Cooling and a Track Day at PIR

2007-08-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Happily, the cooling modifications have been mostly successful. After testing at Seattle's Pacific Raceways showed consistent mid 230F water temperatures, I pushed the car a bit by moving from the 3.1" supercharger pulley to a 2.94" pulley (gaing over 30HP) and took the car to Portland International Raceway where it was around 90F. And, the Cobra didn't like it so much! Water temperature easily rose to above 240F which is dangerously close to the 245F "limp mode" cutoff which really is a big damper on fun! Fortunately, by driving with the heat on full blast, the water temps dropped below 240F. It was a fun and HOT day! Below is some in car footage from the event. I'm chasing an Ultima supercar; which is always very satisfying to hang with such cars in a lowly Mustang :)

We've since then dropped back to the 3.1" pulley and added some heat shroudinng around the radiator to help air move more efficiently through it.

Now that the heat issues are resolved we are also replacing the stock shocks, Steeda street/sport springs and Steeda camber plates with a Maximum Motorsports coilover suspension.

On Aug 20th I'll have a chance to try out the new suspension at Pacific Raceways and shake out the car before our early September trip to Sears Point in Sonoma (my first time there!).

Cooling the Cobra

2007-07-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

When I first purchased the Cobra I researched as much as I could about it's strengths and weaknesses when run hard at the race track; most of my information came from the forums at SVTPerformance.com.

As is common among relatively inexpensive high horsepower cars, the Cobra runs very hot at the race track. In fact, after hard lapping for about 15 minutes it starts to overheat and when it reaches 245F (coolant temperature), its engine management computer puts the car into "limp mode" which effectively cuts back maximum power; thus reducing the heat generated by the engine. In anything above 70F ambient temperatures, my Cobra, as predicted, overheated in this manner.

The culprit is a wholy inadequate cooling system from the Ford factory. I read about the ultimate solution, called the Evans Cooling System, early on, but it costs serveral thousand dollars (including installation), so I've been playing with less costly changes. None of which helped, so, in the end, I recently had Cantrell Motorsports install the Evans Cooling System.

The two main things the Evans Cooling System addresses are the thermostat and oil cooling.

In the stock system, the thermostat is flawed in a way that allows too much coolant to go through the bypass rather than through the radiator. The kit relocates the thermostat and the bypass routing. Here is a picture of the new thermostat location, the black round thingy in the center.

The stock system utilizes a water-to-oil heat exchanger to cool the oil. The problem with this setup is that it effectively uses the radiator to cool the oil. Add this to the flawed thermostat design, the coolant simply can't be cooled enough.

To address the oil cooling, the Evans system does away with the water-to-oil heat exchanger that is an integral part of the oil filter housing. The oil filter is relocated under the bumper and Cantrell added a Mocal oil cooler just ahead of the left front tire.

This picture shows the relocated oil filter and the new oil cooler (note, this is someone else's car, but my setup is basically the same).

This picture is of my oil cooler.

And here is Brandon at Cantrell Motorsports, doing his usual magic on my car :)

The first test of the new system came last Wednesday (July 4th). Ambient temperatures were in the 70's and low 80's and the Cobra was able to run at full blast for 30 minutes with no overheating!! Yeah!!

Coolant temps hit a high 236F, but stayed there. Post-intercooler intake air temp (IAT2) was in the 160's F. Both temperatures are still too high; coolant should be closer to 220F and IAT2 should be closer to 130F, especially to maintain full power.

Stay tuned for updates on future Cobra cooling...

1987 Carrera Joins the Stable

2007-06-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

I seem to be drawn to the older Porsches lately. Several of the main Porsche magazines seem to have at least on 70's RS or RSR clone story in every issue. This got me thinking about and looking for an RS clone. But I soon concluded that I would rather have a nice unmodified 911 from the late 80's. Mainly because they were the last of the original 911's and they are galvanized so they are not potential rust buckets like the 70's 911's can be.

So, I set out to find a pristine 86-89 Carrera... And on Sunday I found it!

1987 Diamond Blue Carrera with 26,000 miles and in like new condition.

Nirwana gets some track time...

2007-06-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take NIRWANA out for a bit of fun at the local track, Pacific Raceways. This was an Alfa Club event so it was possible to give rides; something that is getting harder to do, especially in the Northwest. So, I was able to invite one of my co-workers, Russ, who is a bit of car guy himself, and was interested in a ride.

NIRWANA, a 1997 Porsche Turbo, continues to be my all time favorite car for both daily driving and track time! It is the most responsive car that I have driven; it feels so amazingly alive! And, with over 470HP, that liveliness is very enjoyable :)

Below is an in-car movie of Russ's ride; notice how we just keep on passing and passing all the other cars during the session; except of the seriously turbo-charged white Miata at the end :)

Enjoy the MOVIE! (20+ minutes and 75MB)

Since I discussed the Cobra's brakes recently, I should mention that the rotors were on the Turbo were finished by the end of this track day. The cracks didn't quite connect the drilled holes in the rotors, the normal indicator that the rotors need to be replaced, the cracks were still pretty long.

Now the Turbo has some nice new rotors, which I'll be "seasoning" for the next couple of months until the next track day with one of my favorite groups; Chris' German Auto.

Cobra's new brakes

2007-06-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

The new brakes performed very nicely last Wed (June 6) at Pacific raceways. They felt better than the stock calipers which gave me enough confidence in the brakes to increase the speeds, especially on the front straight. However, I am going to try the Hawk DTC 70 pads because with the HT10's, I still could not get into ABS coming into T2, which tells me the tires can handle more braking force.

Here is a in-car movie of two of my faster laps:

Unfortunately, but somewhat expectedly, the Cobra still ran quite hot on the track, reaching 238 degrees after about 15 minutes of hard driving. So, we're going to install an oil cooler shortly.

Hint: Cobra needs better brakes...

2007-05-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

A week ago I had the Cobra at Pacific Raceways and after the second session, this is what my right front brake rotor looked like this:

This of course, ended my day at the track, sigh. The crack was especially disappointing given these were crygenically treated, which translates to twice the price of normal rotors, and this was only the second track day using them.

In a way, I was not too surprised since it is almost unanimously accepted that the stock 2003 Cobra brakes are too weak for such a porker; mine weighs over 3800 lbs, wet.

Thanks to the Internet, and Maximum Motorsports, I ordered a set of 2000 Cobra R front brakes; these are a common front Brembo brake setup, originally used on the early 1990's Lotus Esprit. They arrived two days later and I installed them on Friday; here is what they look like:

Pretty! Well, they won't look that good for very long, that nice gold coating is there to prevent rust on the non-wear surfaces.

I'll be breaking them in for a couple of weeks before taking the car out to the track on June 6th. This breaking in period is called "seasoning the rotors", which heats them slowly over time to help prevent cracking... Cross your fingers!

New to the stable: 2003 Ford Mustang Cobra

2007-05-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

I've always been a Mustang fan, well of the 60's and 1995+ Mustangs. It was inevitable that I'd eventually have to try one out.

During the winter I looked around for a deal on a curent GT500 (also a Cobra), but the dealers were asking outrageous markups; a local dealer was asking $25K OVER the $45K MSRP. That is just plain wacky pricing for a Mustang.

So, I looked at the previous generation Cobras which were made in 2003-4. These also had supercharged V8's which make 390HP, compared to the current model's 500HP. After some research on the Internet, it became clear that a boost to 500HP was quite simple for the earlier Cobras. And, they run around $25K; so, for the same amount as the markup on a current Cobra, I can get a clean used previous generation Cobra, and have 500HP!

It didn't take long before I found a 2003 "garage queen" with only 9800 miles in completely mint condition; as far as I can tell, it was never driven in the rain (in Seattle!).

Here is how it looked when I bought Dec 23rd.

A great year with the Cayman S

2007-05-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

I may have been too busy to blog this past year, but I was not too busy to have some great fun with the Cayman S.

Soon after purchasing the car I took it to the local race tracks and as expected, loved it. So, in went the rollbar, racing seats and harnesses.

During the year, the Cayman and I visited Pacific Raceways, Portland International Raceway, Thunderhill Raceway and Laguna Seca and enjoyed every mile, including the 2000 mile roundtrip of freeway driving to Laguna Seca and back to Seattle.

Here is a shot of us at Laguna Seca's famous Corksrew.

Here is Windows Movie in-car footage from Laguna Seca

This is the second time I've made the journey to Laguna Seca; last time was in late 2003 in a Speed Yellow Boxster S. Coinsidence? I think not :)

I sold the Cayman S a couple of months ago, almost a year to the day that I bought it. What a great car! But, a bit too perfect. Not boring, but not exciting either. The Elise is a much more fun track car. More on that later.

Porsche needs to build a 997 GT1

2007-05-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Ruf CTR3 just brings home to me that Porsche needs to bring back the GT1. Why? Because, it was a mid-engined car, which is a much better performance car architecture than the rear-engined 911.

It is really sad that the such a great car manufacturer is hamstrung by the 911 legacy so much that they can't actually build a proper sports car that does not cost a small fortune! The Carrera GT was certainly a superb supercar, but it really was not something you can drive everyday or to the grocery store; unlike say a Turbo, GT3 or GT2.

Porsche clearly has the engineering capabilities to create a 997-based (or Cayman-based) GT1; a mid-engined 911! Price it above the GT2, say a tick over $200K and they'd give Lamborgini and Ferrari some excellent competition.

Official Porsche GT1 page

ruf-ctr-3

2007-04-27T20:32:00.001-07:00

2-2008-ruf-ctr-3
Originally uploaded by pstoppani.

Ruf recently announced a fantastic car, the CTR-3, which is supposedly based on a Porsche Cayman. The CTR-3 has a twin-turbo motor which should finally put some power into that chassis.

Pooped out on blogging...

2007-04-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

Seems I pooped out on blogging over a year ago. Well, it was a very busy year for me. Should be a bit calmer now. I'd try to post again about my favorite topics: mobile, cars, and gadgets.

TOP 10 MOBILE GAMES DOWNLOADS FOR JANUARY 2006

2006-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

ELSPA has announced the January 2006 Mobile Games Java Download Chart©, compiled from information supplied by: 3, O2, Orange,T-Mobile, and Vodafone.

OFFICIAL MOBILE GAMES JAVA DOWNLOAD CHART © ELSPA
TOP 10 JAVA DOWNLOADS - January 2006
DATA SOURCE: 3, O2, ORANGE, T-MOBILE, VODAFONE
(title - developer)

TM TITLE DEVELOPER

1 TETRIS ® - JAMDAT
2 THE SIMS 2 - EA
3 PACMAN - NAMCO
4 WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE - GLU MOBILE
5 BLOCK BREAKER DELUXE - GAMELOFT
6 EA SPORTS ™ TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR ® GOLF 2005 - IPLAY
7 TAMAGOTCHI - LIVING MOBILE
8 MIDNIGHT POKER - GAMELOFT
9 NEW YORK NIGHTS (SUCCESS IN THE CITY) - GAMELOFT
10 3D POOL - IPLAY

UIEngine's Stately Layering Model

2006-02-22T13:55:00.000-08:00

What is the simplest way to cause a change to an application's display?

What causes an application to need/want to change its display?

What is the simplest way to model display content and display changes?

These are the central questions that the designers of UIEngine's programming language have attempted to address.

UIEngine's programming language, UJML, is XML-based. As can be seen in the previously posted examples, the language allows one to layout visual components within a element. However, unlike other similar languages, UJML does not rely on DOM-based scripting to alter the display. DOM scripting, as is done in DHTML, was deemed overly technical for people interested in designing and implementing rich user interfaces.

Instead, UJML uses a layering model where one chooses which layers to display at any point in time. Layers each are defined by a element and the program makes these layers visible/invisible based on user interactions and simple calculations.

Since a display change is typically the result of some value changing within the program, UJML associates each layer with a value. Since values are stored in variables, the layer is associated with a value that a specified variable may contain.

In the sample below, the variable layer is defined of type integer. Later, we see a layer defined (UJML refers to layers as states; this will be explained in a later post). It is to be displayed when the layer variable contains value 1.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ujml PUBLIC "-//UIEVOLUTION//DTD UJML 
    1.5//EN" "http://www.uievolution.com/dtd/ujml-1.5.dtd" []>

<ujml>
  <application>   
    <state-variables>
      <state-var name="layer" type="int"/>
    </state-variables>
    <display>
      <box>
        <width>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_WIDTH;)</eval>
        </width>
        <height>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_HEIGHT;)</eval>
        </height>
        <bg>&_COLOR_BLACK;</bg>
      </box>            
      <label>
        <text>Press FIRE</text>
        <fg>&_COLOR_YELLOW;</fg>
        <event name="onselect">
          <accelerators>
            <key>FIRE</key>
          </accelerators>
          <script>
            // User pressed FIRE or clicked on label; diplay layer
            layer = 1;
          </script>
        </event>
      </label>
    </display>
    <states>
      <-- A layer to be displayed when "layer == 1" -->
      <state var="layer">
        <transition value="1">
          <display>
            <box>
              <x>10</x>
              <y>10</y>
              <width>100</width>
              <height>100</height>
              <fg>&_COLOR_AQUA;</fg>
              <bg>&_COLOR_FUSCHIA;</bg>
              <label>
                <text>Layer One</text>
                <x>4</x>
                <y>4</y>
              </label>
            </box>
           </display>
        </transition>
      </state>
    </states>
  </application>
</ujml>

See it run...

New Porsche Turbo and Cayman GTR Announced

2006-02-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

Turbo

Wow, what a fantastic week for Porsche fans.

Earlier this week, Porsche release official pictures of the new 997-series Turbo and they also put up a mini-site for the car.

Power comes from a turbocharged 3.6-liter flat-six, making 480 hp at 6000 rpm and 457 lb-ft of torque from 1950 rpm to 5000 rpm. With the optional Sport Chrono Package you get an “overboost” that temporarily cranks full-throttle-boost pressure by 2.9 psi, pushing peak torque to 502 lb-ft. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds with the five-speed automatic, and 3.7 seconds with the standard six-speed manual.

Cayman GTR

Farnbacher Loles Motorsports will unveil the Cayman GTR at the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring race weekend, March 15-18. At the heart of the GTR is a Porsche 3.8 liter S or X-51 engine in either 375 hp or 405 hp variations. Drawing on Farnbacher Loles extensive racing success, the GTR also features a unique adjustable suspension designed to work in concert with the sizable increase in power.

What can you create with UIEngine?

2006-02-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

Let's take a look at what you can do with UIEvolution's UIEngine ...

The Chronicles of Narnia

So... how cool is that?!

A GameSpot review. An IGN review.

Trivial Pursuit

A Gamespot review.

Keeper's Quest

A Wireless Gaming Review article.

Square-Enix Gallery

A Wireless Gaming Review article.

ESPN BottomLine

WebPreview

Mobile Movies.com

WebPreview

Squareville Shuffle

Squareville Wasabi

What can you build with UIEngine?

Porsche Cayman S Joins the Stable

2006-02-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

At some point in my love affair with cars I decided that mid-engined sports cars are the cat's meow for me. Unfortunately, all the affordable mid-engined cars available over the past 10 years have been convertibles. While I've owned a few 'verts in the past, they are not at the top of my interest list, for few reasons:

1) Their chassis rigidity is always a compromise compared to a fixed roof coupe.

2) They are much louder inside, even with the top on, than a coupe.

3) They look good only with the top down.

So, in my quest to own an affordable mid-engined sports car I've had to "settle" for buying convertibles with their optional hardtops and driving them exclusively with the hardtop on, even in the summers. Believe it or not, people think that is weird... go figure.

The first mid-engined car was a 2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder; a new model for Toyota in their renewed attempt at attracting younger buyers. For me, it was a great choice becase it cost only $22K and it was so rare that I could get my money back if my fantasy of mid-engined car dynamics turned out to be a nighmare!

Well, the Spyder was a joy to drive. I kept it for a year and then sold it for the same amount as I bought it!

A year later I purchased a pre-owned 2000 Porsche Boxster S, also with a hardtop. I wanted a mid-engined coupe so badly that I had the soft top removed to get rid of its dead weight and drove the car for two years with the hardtop on the car. It was another mid-engined driving dream. I even took it to Laguna Seca Raceway in late 2003; that was a rush!

Yes, there is a pattern to the color :)

After returning from Laguna Seca I sold the Boxster... and continued to wait for a mid-engined coupe as the rumors of a Boxster coupe were indeed starting to increase in frequency... the waiting begins...

In late 2004, Lotus finally began importing their lightweight mid-engined Elise to the US. American car nuts had waited since 1996 for the Elise to get here; it was worth the wait. The yellow streak ended however; this time it was to be Burgundy.

The Elise is an amazing track/weekend car, but it isn't exactly the best choice for an every day driver.

Fear not, Porsche finally ships a reasonably affordable mid-engined coupe in mid-Jan 2006. A Speed Yellow copy joined the stable on Superbowl Sunday ...

A new adventure begins...

UIEngine "Listens" to User Input

2006-02-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Use the <event name="onselect"> tag to capture key presses and mouse/stylus clicks/taps.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ujml PUBLIC "-//UIEVOLUTION//DTD UJML 
    1.5//EN" "http://www.uievolution.com/dtd/ujml-1.5.dtd" []>

<ujml>
  <application>   
    <!-- paint background -->
    <display>
      <box>
        <width>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_WIDTH;)</eval>
        </width>
        <height>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_HEIGHT;)</eval>
        </height>
        <bg>&_COLOR_BLACK;</bg>
      </box>            
      <!-- draw text -->
      <label>
        <text>Hello World!</text>
        <fg>&_COLOR_YELLOW;</fg>
        <!-- wait for keypress or mouse click -->
        <event name="onselect">
          <accelerators>
            <key>FIRE</key>
          </accelerators>
          <script>
            // User pressed FIRE or clicked on label
          </script>
        </event>
      </label>
    </display>
  </application>
</ujml>

Learn more about UIEvolution's UIEngine.

Team Seattle at Rolex 24hrs of Daytona

2006-01-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

Local Team Seattle completed their 10th race at the Rolex 24hrs of Daytona this past weekend. Each year they race to raise money for Children's Hospital; this year, they raised over $300,000!

The team raced brand spanking new 997 series Porsche GT3s. Both cars were involved in accidents early in the race. Car 86 eventually retired but car 87 made it to the finish! Here is a writeup by driver Don Gagne.

UIEngine Says "Hello World"

2006-01-28T14:06:00.000-08:00

The standard "Hello World" application written in UIEvolution's UJML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ujml PUBLIC "-//UIEVOLUTION//DTD UJML 
    1.5//EN" "http://www.uievolution.com/dtd/ujml-1.5.dtd" []>

<ujml>
  <application>   
    <!-- paint the background -->
    <display>
      <box>
        <width>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_WIDTH;)</eval>
        </width>
        <height>
          <eval>_getIntProperty(&_PROPERTY_INT_SCREEN_HEIGHT;)</eval>
        </height>
        <bg>&_COLOR_BLACK;</bg>
      </box>            
      <!-- draw text "Hello World" -->
      <label>
        <text>Hello World!</text>
        <fg>&_COLOR_YELLOW;</fg>
      </label>
    </display>
  </application>
</ujml>

See it run...

End of the Line for Sony Robots

2006-01-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

As a huge fan of Sony's work in robotics, as an owner of their 2nd and 3rd generation Aibo robotic dogs, I'm sad to read that Sony plans to discontinue production of their robots.

Although there is apparently no official word from Sony, this blurb in Sony's financial statement seems clear enough.

Fortunately Sony will continue the research and utilize the technology in other consumer products.

I was looking foward to buying a Qrio at some point.

Checkout some videos of Aibo here.

Finally, a nice looking Ferrari: 599 GTB

2006-01-25T21:24:00.000-08:00

For some reason Ferrari's most recent cars have not been all that great looking. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome machines, but it seems their cars are either too weird looking or designed too much for the sake of the wind tunnel rather than for beauty... I expect a Ferrari to be dropdead gorgeous; my bias :)

Here are the official pics from Ferrari of the 599 GTB:

Projected power: 611HP.

But will it be "enough" :)

Official 2006 BMW M Coupe photos!

2006-01-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

BMW finally released official photos of their upcoming M Coupe. This is a coupe version of their M Roadster which is based on the Z4 Roadster. The M Coupe has been highly anticipated by BMW fans after BMW showed off the Z4 Coupe Concept a few months ago. Soon afterwards a few spy shots of what looked like an M Coupe surfaced.

The M Coupe is a true enthusiast's car and will compete head to head with the Porsche Cayman S which just came to the market this month.

The Cayman S is the coupe version of the Porsche Boxster S.

The M Coupe will have roughly 340HP and cost about $50K while the Cayman has 295HP and costs $59K.

It is a great time to be a car nut!

AutoBlog has more details, including the official BMW press release.

AJAX: Poster child and metaphore for Web 2.0

2006-01-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

Peter Coffee wrote a nice article about AJAX and how it is not the pancea for web services that so many flock to.

It occured to me after reading that article that if you replace AJAX with Web 2.0 and then replace the various AJAX technologies with Web 2.0 technologies, that the article could just as easily be about Web 2.0. Go figure.

I especially like the ending paragraph:

Google's high profile has contributed to an aura of fairy dust surrounding AJAX, making it seem both more powerful and less risky than it may prove to be in the hands of any but the most talented developers. But as Sophocles wrote in 440 B.C., "Ever do I behold thee scheming to snatch some vantage o'er thy foes. Skilled in the chase thou seemest. Say what eager quest is thine, that I who know may give thee light." That's Athena's opening speech in the classic play "Ajax."

One of Mr. Coffee's points is that AJAX is not for the faint-of-heart, which I agree with. I remember writing an AJAX grid control for a time and materials entry page sometime in 1998. I was amazed at what could be done with DHTML and XML RPC. But, I left the company before I finished the grid control and no one else at the company could finish it so they tossed it and used boring old HTML Forms. It was some of the trickiest and harriest and ugliest bits of code I've ever written.

Just say no to AJAX and say hello to UIEngine :)

Mystery Picture

2006-01-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

What is this?

The Rise and Fall of the Worldwide Web

2006-01-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

The serendipitous success of the Worldwide Web is its Achilles Heal!

The Web is primarily implemented on top of HTML pages which are plain text representations of the user interface and the data to be presented to the person viewing and interacting with the page.

HTML was intended for document sharing and viewing over the Internet. Now it is used serendipitously for just about any software application or service that one could imagine. The problem is, HTML was not designed for all these applications/services.

The plain text nature of HTML is great for search engines because everything is "out in the open". When used for public documents, this is a great way to share information. When used for things like blogs, it isn't always so great. I seriously doubt that most bloggers think about the fact that anyone can read what they are writing. People are exposing their private lives unknowingly (or semiconsciously).

In fact, anything a person writes that can be published on the web is searchable. Privacy is seriously at risk as more people use the Web.

HTML is also the source of more scams than I can count.

I can go on and on about what is bad about the fundamental technical basis for the Web, but the main point is that it is based on some very weak technologies. Unless there are some fundamental technology shifts, I believe the next Dot Bomb will revolved around the extensive potential for the misuse of information that the current technologies permit.

Imagine if the Web was based on a technology that clearly separated the user interface from the data and the data was always transmitted over secure channels. Imagine a search system that can only use voluntarily submitted data.

I want to create an alternate, safe, worldwide web based on such a model.

Web 2.0 Community-Created Content

2006-01-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

At UIEvolution we're working on ways to work well within the Web 2.0 world. So, I'm doing this blog and playing with the current Web 2.0 poster children to get a feel for many things Web 2.0.

On of the most intriguing aspects of Web 2.0 is the whole community-created content. So...

Today, I got a Flickr account and uploaded a few pics of some of my favorite cars. I added a Flickr "Badge" to this blog so people can see my pics.

Pretty cool stuff.

I suppose the next Web 2.0 poster child to play with is del.icio.us.

Web 2.0 Distilled

2006-01-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

The CEO (Satoshi Nakajima) of the company I work for, recently pointed out a great memo written by Ray Ozzie which to me distills the key important aspects of Web 2.0.

Ray's excellent summary of Web 2.0:

"Key Tenets
Today there are three key tenets that are driving fundamental shifts in the landscape -- all of which are related in some way to services. It's key to embrace these tenets within the context of our products and services.

1. The power of the advertising-supported economic model.
Online advertising has emerged as a significant new means by which to directly and indirectly fund the creation and delivery of software and services. In some cases, it may be possible for one to obtain more revenue through the advertising model than through a traditional licensing model. Only in its earliest stages, no one yet knows the limits of what categories of hardware, software and services, in what markets, will ultimately be funded through this model. And no one yet knows how much of the world's online advertising revenues should or will flow to large software and service providers, medium sized or tail providers, or even users themselves.

2. The effectiveness of a new delivery and adoption model.

A grassroots technology adoption pattern has emerged on the Internet largely in parallel to the classic methods of selling software to the enterprise. Products are now discovered through a combination of blogs, search keyword-based advertising, online product marketing and word-of-mouth. It's now expected that anything discovered can be sampled and experienced through self-service exploration and download. This is true not just for consumer products: even enterprise products now more often than not enter an organisation through the Internet-based research and trial of a business unit that understands a product's value.

Limited trial use, ad-monetised or free reduced-function use, subscription-based use, on-line activation, digital licence management, automatic update, and other such concepts are now entering the vocabulary of any developer building products that wish to successfully utilise the Web as a channel. Products must now embrace a "discover, learn, try, buy, recommend" cycle -- sometimes with one of those phases being free, another ad-supported, and yet another being subscription-based. Grassroots adoption requires an end-to-end perspective related to product design. Products must be easily understood by the user upon trial, and useful out-of-the-box with little or no configuration or administrative intervention.

But enabling grassroots adoption is not just a product design issue. Today's Web is fundamentally a self-service environment, and it is critical to design Websites and product 'landing pages' with sophisticated closed-loop measurement and feedback systems. Even startups use such techniques in conjunction with pay-per-click advertisements. This ensures that the most effective Website designs will be selected to attract discovery of products and services, help in research and learning, facilitate download, trial and purchase, and to enable individuals' self-help and making recommendations to others. Such systems can recognise and take advantage of opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell products to individuals, workgroups and businesses, and also act as a lead generation front-end for our sales force and for our partners.

3. The demand for compelling, integrated user experiences that "just work".
The PC has morphed into new form factors and new roles, and we increasingly have more than one in our lives -- at work, at home, laptops, tablets, even in the living room. Cell phones have become ubiquitous. There are a myriad of handheld devices. Set-top boxes, PVRs and game consoles are changing what and how we watch television. Photos, music and voice communications are all rapidly going digital and being driven by software. Automobiles are on a path to become smart and connected. The emergence of the digital lifestyle that utilises all these technologies is changing how we learn, play games, watch TV, communicate with friends and family, listen to music and share memories.

But the power of technology also brings with it a cost. For all the success of individual technologies, the array of technology in a person's life can be daunting. Increasingly, individuals choose products and services that are highly-personalised, focused on the end-to-end experience delivered by that technology. Products must deliver a seamless experience, one in which all the technology in your life 'just works' and can work together, on your behalf, under your control. This means designs centred on an intentional fusion of Internet-based services with software, and sometimes even hardware, to deliver meaningful experiences and solutions with a level of seamless design and use that couldn't be achieved without such a holistic approach."

Nokia 770: The Good, Bad and Ugly

2006-01-19T21:19:00.000-08:00

Nokia's new 770 has interested me ever since Nokia announced it many months ago. My main interest is in how the 770 is a very specialized device rather than a general purpose PDA or Smartphone. The latter tend to suffer from the usual "does everything but not that well" syndrome. I'm a big fan of specialized devices because the engineers tend to do a much better job of supporting the device's specialty much better than the same feature on a multipurpose device.

The 770's specialities are web browsing and email on a relatively small device.

The Good
From a user experience point of view, the engineers realized that one cannot display web pages on a small device, so they incorporated a Full Screen button as well as Zoom In/Out buttons. These work very well and quickly. The stylus is used on the touch screen to pan the display over a zoomed-in page. There is also a handy Back button. This is a considerably better user experience for web browsing and reading email than on a PDA or smartphone.

The graphical user interface is optimized for a simple usage model; things you need frequently are displayed as easy to access icons and a single menu is used for less frequent commands. Also very nice.

The Bad
Despite the nice general UI layout, the engineers forgot to address some key features; mainly in the mail application.

When reading a message, one must use the cascading menu to delete the message; even though there is plenty of sceen real estate for a Delete icon?! When you do manage to delete a message, you are always asked if you want to delete the message only on the 770 or on both the 770 and the server. Now, how many users even know what that means? How many users will be annoyed by the constant need to reply to that damned dialog?! Nokia engineers need to read About Face by Alan Cooper. They need to revist the user experience for IMAP email...

The Mail app has trouble displaying many HTML email messages; these are so common that there is no excuse for not being able to render them properly.

The Ugly
The Browser crashes a bit too often.

The responsiveness of the 770 is quite sluggish.

Nice First Try
I congratulate Nokia for taking the time to design a nicely specialized internet/email device. They've already distributed a software update at the end of Dec. Hopefully they'll fix some of the bugs quickly in the next update.

When is 408HP not enough?

2006-01-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

A stock 1997 Porsche 911 Twin-turbo (911TT) produces 408HP from a 3.6L twin-turbocharged motor. One would think that is more than enough power for any sane human being. Well, the existence of the 1001HP Bugatti Veyron is clear proof that some people don't think 408HP is not enough!

I think it is enough, but, I wanted more anyway! [I've never claimed to be sane] It is possible to increase the power of the 911TT to 600+HP but it's quite pricey. Also, I like to drive the 911TT at the local race tracks occassionally, so I need the car to be bulletproof reliable. At 600HP I'd be worried I was sitting a granade!

With turbocharged cars, the best way to increase power is to put on larger turbo chargers (yes, you can play games with the car's computer to increase boost without changing the turbo, but, that is a hack that almost never provides the power promised by the computer programmers). However, increasing the size of the turbocharger generally increases lag (the time it takes the turbos to spool up after depressing the throttle peddle). The stock 911TT has minimal lag which I really like, so increasing lag would be very undesirable!

It turns out that one can fit the compressor wheel from a larger turbocharger onto the units that are stock on the 911TT; these are K16 turbos and one can fit a K24 compressor on them with some careful machining of the compressor housings.

As it happens, a rather good turbocharger guru runs his business (Ultimate Motorwerks) out of Monroe, WA, which is just a skip and a hop from my home. So, naturally I corresponded with Kevin and did some research on the Rennlist Turbo Forum to figure out which of his various power packages were right for me. I decided on his lowest power package, Stage 1, in order to be assured that the engine can withstand some heavy track driving. This package is good for about 450HP on 92 octane fuel and 470+HP on 100 octane race fuel... Good enough?! For now :)

Along with the hybrid K16/K26 turbos, Kevin provides highflow catalytic converters and engine programming by another Porsche guru, Gunther from Germany. Highflow mufflers are also required so I acquired mufflers from Cargraphic (they sound wonderful!). To handle the added power I needed to upgrade to the GT2 Sachs clutch and lightweight flywheel. To top it off, a complete tune up, replacing all ignition parts (plugs, wires, distributor, etc.).

Below are the dyno results comparing the stock power output to the Stage 1 upgrade (note that this dyno shows HP at the wheels rather than at the crank as is advertised by manufacturers; so you'll see that stock the car puts roughly 300HP to the wheels and with the Stage 1 it does 362HP).

The car pulls like a freight train! Now the question is: "When is 470HP not enough?" ...

"Beta" Web 2.0

2005-12-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0 is a highly hyped buzzword that describes the current state of the web. Tim O'Reilly provides what is considered the seminal description of Web 2.o here.

Not only do I find it curious that people need to give the current state of the web a name like Web 2.0, but I find it to be quite an oxymoron given that one of the main attributes of a Web 2.0 site is that is in a continuos Beta; meaning that is never finished. What is the point of giving it a version number if it can never be finished?! Especially since this "never finished" attribute has existed for many websites since the beginning of the web? Why not call it The Web Today?

While I don't disagree with anything that is attributed to Web 2.0, I do think it focuses too much on philosphy and technology and not enough of substance and value; things that people will actually use and pay for. How much free stuff can people keep providing before it all collapses; again?!

The most level-headed writter about Web 2.0 is Dion Hinchcliffe; his excellent blog is here.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

2005-12-03T19:21:00.000-08:00

One of my main passions in life is cool cars. I will write about some of my past and present cars that I consider to be cool.

For me, one of the coolest of cool has always been the Porsche Turbo. I've been fascinated with Porsche's ever since I became interested in cars at age 13. My father used take me to the local Porsche dealer (in Eugene, OR) once in a while just to walk through the lot to oogle over the cars.

One of my personal goals has been to own a Porsche by age 40. I hit 40 in 2002, and, indeed, I bought my first Porsche, a 2000 Boxster S; a fantastic car! But, not the coolest of cool, the Turbo...

This Spring I purchased the coolest of the coolest of the cool, a 1997 Porsche Turbo! I got it from what I call the car nut's candy store, Park Place Ltd. (http://www.parkplaceltd.com).

Why is a 1997 Porsche Turbo rated so highly in my mind? Because it was the last of the beautiful and classic Porsche Turbos. In 1998, Porsche began introducing the modernized and water cooled 911s which are still very cool, but not as cool as the 1997.

So, I've basically attained cool car nirvana with the acquisition of this car. To celebrate such a destinguished achievement I wanted to get the license plate NIRVANA but, not surprisingly, it was already taken; no small wonder given the existance of the band Nirvana! Then I realized that a German would spell it NIRWANA, which was available.

So, my 1997 Porsche Turbo wears the plates: