The Autoprophet Geocache Challenge (SOLVED)

Update: SOLVED! We have a winner.To promote the new season of Top Gear, BBC America sent me some stuff to give away to my readers. They didn't say how I had to do it, so instead of a boring lottery, I have decided to do a geocache.The Top Gear swag is hidden inside a brown cardboard box, wrapped up in a plastic bag to keep it dry. The prize includes a 2010 Top Gear calendar, a "Stig" coffee mug,...

Apple iPad

I have been reading about the newly revealed Apple iPad, and I am thinking, "do not want".  Here's why:No on-board memory card slotNo Adobe Flash supportClosed OS--all apps must come from Apple store No camera--this thing should be able to do Skype out of the boxNo on-board USB portsNo multi-taskingThis is because Apple decided to make the iPad basically an over-sized IPod Touch, not a shrunken Macbook.  Myself, I'd be more interested in...

The Fluid Flush Scam

A family member took her compact SUV for its 100,000 mile service recently, and the service manager attacked her with the dreaded "fluid flush gauntlet".  He showed her samples of her transmission oil, power steering oil, brake fluid, and coolant, and tried to sell her about $500 worth of fluid flushes.  He also tried to convince her to change out her rear differential fluid, which is rather expensive, because it comes from nearly extinct...

Cool Cover Song

Wow, I like.  5FDP does "Bad Company"."I was born, a shotgun in my hand"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTn6qciodo...

Toyota Wins Crown Of Shame

I think we can all now agree that Toyota has won the crown of "most severe quality issue" from the previous champions, Ford and Firestone.  Toyota is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this, both directly and indirectly.  Directly, through replacement costs, and lost sales while the plants are down, and indirectly through their damaged quality reputation. ...

P.S.A.: Pregnant Women Should ALWAYS Wear Seatbelts

Yesterday, a pregnant woman and her unborn child died on I-94 in metro Detroit.  From the Detroit Free Press: A 23-year-old pregnant woman died in a car crash on I-94 on Tuesday morning, along with her baby, who was ripped from her body along the freeway. Shardae Homesly of Detroit was not wearing a seat belt as she rode in the front seat of her SUV, driven by her fiancé, Michigan State Police Sgt. Linda Mys said.The couple...

Eggs On Windshields: Urban Legend

I got a chain email the other day, warning about a new carjacking tactic. Bad guys would throw eggs at a persons windshield, and then follow them. The person would supposedly have to stop, because windshield wipers would smear the egg around and make it impossible to see.According to Snopes, this is pure urban legend. Li...

Chevy Volt Driven!

Finally, GM has allowed someone in the press to drive a Chevy Volt with the gas engine enabled and write about it.   Paul E. at DetroitBureau writes,In normal mode, Volt delivered reasonable acceleration, launching from 0 to 60 in what we estimated to be around 10 seconds.  But switched to Sport mode we got an unexpected jolt.  Electric motors deliver maximum wheel-spinning torque the moment they start to turn, and with Volt,...

McFly's Hyundai eBay Nightmare

User "McFly" of Hyundai fan site Gencoupe.com won a used Genesis coupe on eBay in an non-reserve auction for $16,000.  The dealer, Glenn Hyundai of Lexington KY, screwed up and forgot to put a reserve price on the car, which is worth closer to $19,000.  Since the auction is supposed to be a legally binding contract, McFly called and tried to finish the deal.   However, the dealer refused to sell the car at the eBay price. McFly...

Politics

THANK YOU MASSACHUSETTS!...

CFL Dissapointment

I have been using the spiral-type CFL bulbs in a few places at home, such as in the basement. But recently I broke one of these off by knocking something into it. I replaced it with a new fully encased bulb from GE, which has the flourescent tube and electronics encased in a round glass bulb, looking very much like an over-sized traditional lightbulb.I'm not happy with this product at all. It takes a very long time to warm up and come up to full...

On Comment Spam

A quick note to all you comment spammers who keep dribbling your business all over my blog. I watch the comments, and when I see spam, it is deleted. So don't bother, you are just wasting your ti...

U.S. News: Ford To Fix Toyota Pedals

Oops."Of course, this only works for new vehicles," grumbles Motor Authority. "Existing vehicles subject to the recall have only the accelerator pedal replacement as a solution." Ford is set to outfit these vehicles with reshaped accelerator peddles and replace their floor mats....

Jalopnik's Many Faces

Jalopnik, on the 2009 Car Of The Year Award winning Hyundai Genesis:There was an audible "Wooohhhh" sound when they announced the Hyundai Genesis as the 2009 North American Car Of The Year moments ago, marking the first win and nomination for a Korean automaker. The Genesis benefited from the new factor as well as the fact one of the other nominations, the Ford Flex, is barely a car and based on a familiar platform. As much as we were...

Top Gear GIve-Away

If you are a fan of the BBC's Top Gear program (which I am, I watch mostly on YouTube), the new season begins January 25th on BBC America.Here, for example, is Top Gear's hilarious review of the Spyker C8 sportscar"There are two Hollands... one where everyone goes on holiday in a caravan, and there are tulips, and you've got the other, which is full of drunk Lilliputians, vomiting on Philipino girls"As part of their promotion, BBC will be giving...

Bizarre Audi Commercial

If only Hitler had tired to gas Jews with VW powered clean diesels!This commercial is in such poor taste, is is shocking....

Video: Corvette Clutch Burn-Out.

Oops. That wasn't the tires smoking!Corvette Burnout Fail Destroys Clutch - Watch more Funny Vid...

Electric PT Cruiser Nightmare

When you are trying to be bleeding edge, sometimes you bleed.Blogger Barret Lyon, who writes at Verbophobia, tried to buy a plug-in electric conversion PT Cruiser, being sold by a startup company.My lawyer and I hired a superstar electrical engineering expert named Art MacCarley, Ph.D., PE., who happens to be the Department Chair of the Electrical Engineering department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Dr. MacCarley drove to my house and spent the entire...