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I apologize timwhit for assuming too much. Although it does not make it right, let me just say that I have seen too many irresponsible drivers in my area (speeders and DUI) and I guess it is getting to me.

Silly joke: people who drive rotary engine cars = Wankel wankers :) Cute quote: Yesterday I was cruising along at 120mph. A car ahead was going a ridiculous 70mph . I flashed my headlights to remind him to get out of the way. He did, then pulled back behind me & tried to keep up. He put on a...

True, it is hard to get power down when it's wet and when going over bumps (which I understand would be a problem for Tannin). I still get significant wheel hop despite my upgraded suspension and dogbone motor mount.

I see that 18 year-old "rice-rocket boy-racers" (pardon the lack of political correctness, no racial overtones intended) are a global phenomenon :) Indeed, real world handling on irregular surfaced roads requires different suspension design than on the track. Suspension travel is a big factor...

Sounds like you had some interesting experiences as a young driver... I don't know what kind of suspension layout the RX-4 had, but these days, if you found yourself with too much understeer, I would suggest a larger rear sway bar (my rear bar is a 28 mm hollow, which is equivalent to ~270%...

It's all fun and games until someone loses their legs.. or worse, kills the single parent of two young kids. I never drive above 90 mph -- not only is it unsafe, but my snow tires blow up at 100. Don't get me wrong, I like to speed a little and have some fun on the twisties, but when you push...

AWD, while nice for winter driving in snowy areas, is otherwise unnecessary -- and in dry climates, it is an outright detriment to performance and fuel economy due to the added weight (up to 350 lbs for the Audi quattro system) and higher frictional losses in the drivetrain. IMO, unless you live...

Howell, there are several advantages to RWD from a performance and handling standpoint: 1. Weight transfer to the rear upon take-off like you mentioned is one advantage. 2. Weight balance is closer to 50/50 Front/Rear, which makes for more neutral handling. FWD cars often have weight balance...

Tannin, I disagree that FWD cars are boring. In fact, I would say the opposite. I have driven a dozen RWD including some from BMW and Mercedes and must say that I would take my FWD Jetta on a twisty two-lane any day of the week over the entire lot of RWD's. However, if you ask me if there's a...

Only at the track. On the road, 95% of the time, FWD is not a limitation. If you drive in such a way that FWD is a limitation, you are either driving too fast or are doing something you would not be doing in the presence of a police cruiser. :) See above. True sports cars are RWD, but not...

Note that a new generation of the Golf/Jetta is due in the 2005 model year, possibly as early as March 2004. There have been rumours of them making a 270 HP W8 AWD 4Motion version to go along with new engines like the 240 HP 3.2 L VR6 and possibly the 2.0T.

Also, on the Jetta VR6 vs. the BMW 325/330xi, I was considering the BMW before I got the Jetta. I test drove the 325Ci 5-speed and found that: 1. the BMW was quieter, smoother, and generally more refined than the Jetta, but 2. the 325Ci was weak down low and could not match the 1st gen VR6...

Yes, honold. The reason is that the higher octane is necessary to prevent pre-detonation (pinging/knocking) from the aggressive timing and compression ratios used in today's high specific output engines. In the past, if you used lower octane than what your engine was tuned for, you could get...

Mouse gestures means you can use your mouse for navigational control by holding down right-click and moving the mouse (gesturing) left to go back, right to go forward, down to open a new window, etc. I know some people have 5-button mice that can accomplish that, but I don't and appreciate the...

Hey, good call, James! myIE2 looks very promising... perhaps even better than CrazyBrowser. It doesn't have the on-tab DL progress indicator that Tannin requires, but it does have useful things that CrazyBrowser doesn't have like mouse gestures and URL alias creation -- two excellent features...

Oh, and of course, the boxer configuration does quell the vibrations much more effectively than the inline 4 layout.

I am guessing it is because they are unusually large displacement for 4-cylinders -- 2.5 L flat four is the infamous Subaru engine. The larger displacement probably helps to avoid the sewing machine / lawnmower / motorcycle sound that the typical micro sized (1.5-1.8 L) inline-4's are usually...

:) To think it all started with a question on Clocker's avatar...

Since we're on the subject of engines and I am discovering that there are quite a few carheads on this forum, allow me to post this link to an article on the VR6's design. I thought it was pretty brilliant engineering by VW's engineers...

When we say unbalanced, we are talking about dynamic imlabance of the moving components inside the engine -- the reciprocating masses and firing order causing vibrations in the engine -- not static balance of the entire engine in terms of the engine's overall cg and weight distribution... The...

And BTW, I agree with you Coug, WUXGA on a laptop is pure madness. Maybe the Rock Machine and Hells Angels have moved on to other things... like getting Michael Dell high on their drugs...

Just an FYI: Most websites now use CSS and set the font styles and sizes as fixed to ensure a consistent presentation to be as the designers originally intended. IE will also let you adjust the size on these supposedly disobedient sites. To do this, go to Tools > Internet Options > General tab...

Hahaha... we have successfully hijacked another thread. Good work, team :) The thing with the straight 6, Tannin, is that if you use that as a requirement in a prospective car, you aren't going to have many models to choose from. Most manufacturers have moved away from them -- ironically, GM...

Indeed, Nissan makes good engines. I'll tell you what, though. Those iron block pushrod engines you have are extremely good despite their archaic origins. The 3800... I have heard nothing but praise for this workhorse. Possibly the most reliable GM engine. Similarly, the LS1 V8. They have done a...

I tell you what, Clocker. You give us the Pontiac Solstice as is, all is forgotten! P.S. Hiring Bob Lutz was a masterstroke, if only for the image boost. The fact that he actually allows the designers to shine is a bonus.

No wonder it looks like the Impala. Holden = GM Australia? I see there are quite a few GM family cars and US GM engines there... the 2.2L Ecotec 4-banger from the Cavalier, the 3800 pushrod V6 (and the supercharged version from the GTP), the 5.7L V8 and the LS1 version from the Camaro/Vette...

What is your avatar? It is reminiscent of the Impala emblem...

D'oh! In all 3 steps above, it should read Options, not Tools

Yes, Howell, but you have to do 3 things: 1. Tools > Advanced Options > FullScreen: - deselect "Middle mouse button toggles full-screen mode" 2. Tools > Advanced Options > Browser Tabs: - deselect "Close tabs on Middle mouse button click" 3. Tools > Advanced Options > Browser Tabs > New Tabs...

Just an FYI... Here is an interesting product for 802.11b networks -- a signal strength booster to address that annoying signal drop-off: http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=38&prid=478 Perhaps they will have something for .g soon.

You realize legislators would never pass this one for obvious reasons :)

Tips? - Install the CrazyBrowser shell for IE (http://crazybrowser.com) to block pop-ups and have tabbed browsing -- two important features that you can get with Moz and Opera that you would otherwise have to do without using straight IE6. It's pretty compact, too... maybe 700 KB? - Learn to...

Thanks. That's actually my U-shaped computer/office desk + hutch, drawers/filing cabinet that I bought from Staples. Excellent value for $180 USD, me thinks. My 19" monitor has been sitting on one side for a year and a half now and there appears to be no signs of "sagging" yet.

Que? I think the HD's run a little warmer... but I don't care. I have been known to advise people that "it's perfectly fine to wrap up a cool-running 7200 rpm drive in a blanket to control noise." As long as it's not too hot to place your hand on the drive for an extended period without...

No thanks! That's an exercise in futility if there ever was one... :)

OMG this is an ambitious project. I would love to see the final results! I was going to chime in with my own noise reduction project earlier, but I felt silly what with your custom molding techniques and all :) I decided I might as well provide a link to my simpler solution for the amateur...

I would rather get the c source code and compile it on my system fresh and optimized instead of using a buggy, bloated, proprietary interpreter that is like running a program on top of another program. And if it had been Sun? They have been trying to dominate the Internet and corporate...

Yeah, it's funny like that. Bash MS and a fun time is had by all. Stick up for MS or bash Java and you get lectured on your bad form...

No one said Java and js were related from a programming perspective... if that's what you were assuming I thought.

There must be something about the letters "Java". Both Java and JavaScript suck hard. Coincidence? I think not. Almost as bad as those abominations called Real and Flash.

Merc, I have a 9 GB Atlas 10k U160 drive that I don't need. It's about equivalent to the 4th gen Cheetah drives (18XL) in performance and noise. Would you have anything I could trade you for? I could actually use an old 7200 rpm drive like that WD Expert... Maxtor's DM+ 6800, IBM 34GXP, etc. to...

Yes, I'll confirm it is rock solid stable and runs well. I'll also confirm that it is impossible to overclock even just using the FSB despite soldering the offending jumper and flashing to the necessary BIOS version. As for Linux compatibility, I believe Future Shock at SR has confirmed that the...

So how does it work for the end consumer? The resellers sell 3 year warranties on behalf of the drive manufacturers as if they were just another product? Has anybody tried this yet?

Nobody disputes that C and its derivatives (C++, Java) are the most important languages for a programmer, but for those with little to no programming background, I still say VB is the way to go. It has two important features: 1. It is easy enough for beginners to program interesting apps...

If you are looking for an intro VB/programming book, I found Learn to Program with Visual Basic by John Smiley to be pretty good. John makes it seem like you're taking one of his intro college programming courses by writing like he speaks -- it's a conversational style that a prof might use in...

If I could only use one MS language, it would be VB/VBA. Why? 1. I need it for Excel and Access programming and 2. that's all I know... :) Good luck with Delphi. Once you programming fundamentals (variables, iterative structures, conditional/selection structures, functions/methods, classes...

So you don't deny the lavish lifestyle? :)

What Tannin didn't tell you, however, is that he is on Samsung's payroll. How else do you think he provides such good customer service while being able to net enough profit to lead the über-lavish bling-bling jet-setting lifestyle reminiscent of both 'The Don' and 'The Donald' that he has become...

... how you optimize your system's performance will depends on what you're using your computer for. This will determine what the limiting factor (bottleneck) is. And IMO, this is what you need to address. If you take care of the bottleneck, you will optimize the user experience.

Oh I agree with you, time. I did stretch the truth to make a point. While I agree with SR, ZD, Seagate, and others that short seeks predominate, I also find that from personal experience that one needs a drive that can seek quickly at all stroke lengths to feel snappy. This is why I still...