OK, I try not to go into rants on traffic because it’s pointless and never ending, but I’ll get it all out today, it having been an especially horrid Friday, even though traffic wasn’t that bad. Actually this isn’t about traffic, it’s about idiot drivers. First and foremost, the title of this post. It sure seems people think otherwise though, I had red light runners at two consequtive intersections! My other top peeve that I’m sure I’ve posted before about is, the solution to gridlock is NOT to make your way into the intersection to make sure you don’t have to wait a light cycle since your already in the intersection. Who cares about the traffic backing into the freeway even though the through lane you are blocking is clear for an entire block past you!
Author Archive for taro
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Well, as per GoPro website and the usual first fix for anything computer related, I “rebooted” the GoPro and the WiFi Back. I’m not sure if that fixed anything but I did a little test by putting the camera on the roof of car outside then going for a walk down the street. To get the advertised range of 200 yards, you need to have a totally clear line of sight. I actually was able to go out to past 300 yards and still get spotty control. But once you get things in the way, signal is drastically affected. With the camera in my room I totally loose signal by the time I reach the end of the garage, perhaps 20 yards. Single wall redwood tongue & groove construction house. I’ll have to see if the reboot will help out at the rally cross site. The site is open dirt, but with Jersey barriers in areas. There were times when I couldn’t get 10 yard range. I wonder if there was some kind of electrical interference going on, maybe the spooks, or Pearl, or aliens.
Oh, and another thing, the open air cutout extension back seems to reduce sound sensitivity more than the regular open back. Hopefully they get Bluetooth working for external mic, there actually is an icon for it now in the camera setting, but it doesn’t do anything currently. Although that’ll be yet more battery drain.
Survived this Sunday’s Rally Cross in one piece, although same can’t be said of others! Broken radiator, dropped muffler and overheatage. It turned into an overcast day, but still hot, I’ve got a headache going right now still.
So after the first day of usage of the GoPro Wi-Fi Back I have mixed feelings of it so far. When it works, it’s great, but I seem to be experiencing some struggles. First off was the remote fob battery was almost dead even though I swear I had charged it the day before. Luckily the USB on my car stereo can charge it, although the controls act a little funny when the remote is plugged in, I guess it’s a combination that isn’t expected to be used. The number one problem I’m encountering is loss of wifi connection. The supposed ideal range is 600 feet, I was no where near that far and losing connection. There was a portion in video where you can hear me comment “hello” and pick up the camera before connection was reestablished and the camera turned off. I’m going to have to get in touch with GoPro about this, it seems really bad.
Oops, at Shirokiya as special vendor is Usagiya, here until tomorrow, the 17th. A wagashiya from Tokyo they are known for dorayaki. Wagashi is traditional Japanese confections, manju would be an example that most people here would be familiar with. Easiest way to describe dorayaki is an anko pancake sandwich. Tsubu an usually, which is a sweet paste filling made from the red azuki bean. Tsubu-an includes whole or partially whole beans, unfiltered an, if you will. The “pancakes” are a finer texture and sweeter than pancakes we would be used to. If anything the closest comparison I could make is pancakes made from castella cake. Continue reading ‘Usagiya – Where’s the Bunnies?’
The belt clip broke on my Otterbox Defender case for my phone so the last few weeks I’ve been living with sticking my phone in pocket, which has been a pain. I poked around to see what was available now in ruggedized iphone cases and came across this. The Lifeproof case is touted as water, dirt, snow and shock proof. The waterproof kind of means the next two “proofs” are a given. What is nice is the surprisingly slim profile of this case. It’s actually thinner than the Otterbox and about the same in other dimensions except length! Continue reading ‘Lifeproof Iphone 4 Case’
This Saturday the plan was for Scat to cruise over and we’d continue working on the grill area of his sled. The rally FX was still in the garage as it was when I got it towed home. The only thing I had done was pull the CV shafts and put in a spare set scavenged from the carcass FX. I however hadn’t tightened anything down, so before Scat showed up, I torqued everything down to spec. As long as I had it up on stands and half the wheels off, I figured it’d be a good idea to rotate wheels. Charged up the air and hit the lug nuts. 
Odd, one was being slow. The other 3 spun right off. This last one wasn’t. This is the first time my IR impact gun was having problems and I was pretty perplexed.
Hot out of the labor camps of Chine, I got my hands on the GoPro Wifi combo kit. The WiFi Bac has been in development for a long time, it was talked about by GoPro many months ago and now finally has made an appearance in retail stores. Some people have been able to get some that were “accidentaly” released by Beast Buy. BB supposedly has an exclusive with GoPro to be the first to sell them so had them ahead of time but were not supposed to sell them before the official date. No worries for GoPro, being perhaps clever the camera requires a significant firmware update so all these people who got them ahead of time had useless little plastic bits with buttons you could press, make symbols on little displays, and plug them into USB ports and make them warm.
Dammit! It’s not looking good, all the online Toyota parts sources I’ve checked so far tell me the CV’s are discontinued, none in USA. One guy who brings in OEM JDM parts is going to check if Japan has them, in which case he said it’d take a couple months to get, curses! I could try the junkyards, but the FX16 is a bastard child, the only cross that shares the same shafts is the diesel Corolla. I’ve never seen one of those. I’m not sure if just the ends are shared with any other model, possibly the AW11 MR-2 as it has the same bolt on flange at the transaxle side. Of course that means I need to find some MR-2’s in the junkyard, which isn’t exactly common either now. There is a possibility the next gen AE92 Corolla GT-S shafts might fit, it would be the one piece spindle at the transaxle side instead of the two piece bolt together. If I have to that would be ok, although the two piece is very convenient for servicing, it’s what allows for 20 minute shaft changes.
That was kinda amusing, just got a call on our home phone from Habib claiming that my computer was full of “junk and viruses” and that he’d help me. I was tempted to play along and see what he wanted me to do, but I didn’t feel like spending any more time once we got to the point that he asked if I could go on my PC.