WELCOME? Welcome to what, magic DVD player land? Listen, just open the damn tray so I can return Clue to Netflix.

Technology Review is not only a fantastic magazine, but a great website too. Be sure to pick up this month’s issue if you’re not already a subscriber. It’s extra good.

The Model Engine

Jessica and I tried to complete the Smithsonian Motor-Works Engine kit last night. Not only did 1 of the parts not fit (way off), it looked like the package had been opened before and one of the wires that fires one of the LED “spark plugs” broke free from the LED with zero force. Did I say it looked like the package had been opened? I meant to say the package had been opened. A whole “rack” of plastic pieces had been removed from their plastic attachment grid. If you’ve ever assembled a model before, you know what I am talking about. Anyway, these aren’t acceptable things after you’ve spent 2 hours shaving nibs off of tiny plastic pieces and wearing your hand raw on the end of a screwdriver while driving no less than 30 tiny screws into plastic. It ended up in a trash bag then the dumpster in the alley. I wrote a review today at the site linked above but I’m not real confident they’ll publish it (no swearing, I promise). You can also get the same kit, theoretically unopened, from The Discovery Store (just search for engine). Here’s a video from someone else who had better luck. It’s a shame, too, because Jessica was completely into it and wanted to learn.

The Car

After 72,000 miles, 20+ autocross events, and 1 track day at Sebring, my rear wheel bearings let me know that they were ready to be laid to rest. Turns out I also had a used AC compressor I had been avoiding installing. $1100 in parts and labor later, I have air conditioning and rear wheels that aren’t about to fall off.

Last week I finished up my install of my Sun Auto HyperForce system. I had to make a custom bracket and shorten the wiring harness significantly due to my lack of stock engine bay layout, but that was mostly expected. We’ll see if it does anything power-wise when I can get around to datalogging some. The car does feel like it revs more smoothly though.

The Reading Pile

Too lazy for links:

• Distributed Services with OpenAFS
• MAKE Magazine latest issue
• Juxtapoz latest issue
• Thinking with Type
• Your Money or Your Life
• The Practice of System and Network Administration (2nd Edition) — 1st edition was awesome

And now Jessica is home, so I’m going to sign out here. Peace and chicken grease.

Pros: Laminated map. Solid equipment. Good scenery (we saw stingrays, porpoises, a turtle, and a few of the usual Florida birds). Well-marked route.

Cons: $40/half day per single-seater kayak is a bit pricey. Map kinda sucked. Kayak was uncomfortable compared to others I’ve been in.

Previous quotes from Jessica.

How much toothpaste is enough to use? Would teeth be better cleaned with a second application of toothpaste halfway through the process? Curious minds like mine like to know these things for some reason.

At any rate, I then moved on to considering whether the seal of ADA approval actually meant anything. The ADA (American Dental Association), established in 1859, is not regulated. Do they actually test products for approval? How do they do the testing? What‘s tested? Is this all just another marketing sham with large sums of money paid by manufacturers to get the ADA seal on their products? That‘s something I won‘t be able to determine without a lot of investigation, but they do apparently have a pretty substantial lab and testing facility. Here‘s the ADA Seal Program page. The lab is toured in a video link to the right on that page.

Before I leave this post, it‘s worth noting that the top corporate contributors to the ADA Foundation (a separate arm of the ADA) are GlaxoSmithKline, Colgate, and the suspiciously named “ADA Business Enterprises, Inc.”. Having said that, a pretty thorough examination of the ADA via its website indicates that it is either pretty straight–up or remarkably thorough in the construction of its public appearance.

I wish I had the time and money to go to Chicago to talk to them. I think it would be interesting.

The article has been read by 800 unique visitors since the day I added the donation paragraph. Since 2003, the article has become THE turbo rebuild how-to on the internet (for this line of turbo). It is linked to from all manner of automotive forums.

To date I have not received a single cent.

It is time to implement plan B.

81.7% of the downloaders couldn’t be bothered to cough up $5. More info can be found at Ars Technica.