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Comments
...now back to your regularly scheduled cafe discussion ....
Owen
I've seen a lot better games this postseason!
~c
-Ian
-juice
Craig
-Brian
My F-XT is showing up on my dealer's website inventory page, but my salesperson is off today. Don't know if that means it's physically there or if it just shows up once it's allocated,etc.
-Brian
-Frank P
-Brian
-Frank P.
Guess who's getting a call at 9:01am tomorrow? ;-)
-Brian
Steve
~c
Yes, I remember those days with something less than reverence. The horrendously noisy dot matrix printers of old were happily consigned to the depths of my memory, for good reason.
I once found myself doing an accounting job in a remote logging camp where I worked in a 30 foot site caravan, perched on two tiny wheels and propped at each corner by improbably balanced stacks of timber wedges. At the best of times, it was unstable but did the job for my lonely accounting office.
I used an Olivetti M21, a suitcase sized luggable PC made in Italy whose keyboard dropped down to reveal a small amber screen allowing about 20 lines of spreadsheet entry. I use the personal "whose" because of the Olivetti's great charms and frequent failings. Its inherent weakness was the mounting of a chip (used to convert keystrokes to input) directly under the keyboard where repeated vibration (say, from typing) would shake the chip loose. I became adept at dismantling the keyboard, re-fixing the chip and then carrying on. I even effected a more permanent repair, using the nail file from the one woman in the logging camp to open the case and her nail polish to seal the chip partially in place. In those days, we were considerably more attached to the computers than we are today. I understand that Blackberries are the latest thing to feel attached to, but my M21 had all of the uncertainties and appeals of an Italian lover. I pondered whether the frequent dropping of the keyboard chip was the equivalent of my secretary's sorties to the coffee machine.
When I needed a printer, I borrowed the office Mannesmann Tally 330 printer. Its innards included a huge electromagnet surrounding the print pins, This printed, I think, 330 characters per second, the massive print head whipping back and forth with gusto and shaking anything in its path. The beast weighed about as much as I did and dragged down my car as I took it into the logging camp. If the Olivetti M21 was a tempestuous, female Italian, the Mannesman was a solid, hard-hitting German heavyweight. It never failed and would batter anything in the print head's path.
Installed in the site caravan, I set the beast up near the centre of the office (over the axle), connected it to the Olivetti and retreated to a desk some distance away at the end of the caravan.
The beast happily zapped from side to side, pounding out spreadsheets noisily and shaking the whole office. I should have been smarter but did not realize until too late that the wedges at my end of the caravan were shaking free. With my weight and that of the desk cantilevered 10 feet from the wheels, the caravan suddenly sank three feet. That threw me against the back wall of the caravan with my desk pressing against me. I had only half got out from behind it when I looked up to find the printer, on its table, walking rapidly toward me down the slope, veering from side to side as the print head whipped back and forth, dragging the PC and sheeetfold paper behind.
For a longish time, I though I would be crushed to death by a maddened German printer, exacting revenge upon its Italian sweetheart's other love.
The saving grace was the shortness of the power cables which reefed free, terminating the print job and slowing the printer's advance.
I finished the job by hand.
Cheers
Graham
DaveM
Besides, "crazy" would have been going there after hours, sneaking back to their back lot, and verifying the VIN. ;-)
-Brian
Brian: you mean you didn't bring bolt cutters? ;-)
The Fence is getting shaky, I feel someone falling off soon!
-juice
Brenda - I worked with one of those beasts. I did video taping for my high school sports dept so that they could analyze player performance. Pretty high tech for 1973. It was an Ampex reel to reel and used Memorex 1" tape. The 'portable' camera head looked like something out of a newsroom studio.
Steve
-Frank P
Back then you had to get it right the first time, plus you have to be efficient with use of memory.
Nowadays you have 1 Gigabyte of local RAM to waste, and programmers can afford to be completely inefficient with memory and disk space.
Mine was the last class at the U of MD that had to take Assembly Language, mandatory. BS class of '90.
-juice
Hey I still have an NEC 286 12mhz sitting in my basement. 1 mg of ram and a 40 mg hard disk - I was gonna rule the world with baby!!
10 Let HP=330
20 Let HP=HP + 10
30 Goto 20
I could live with that infinite loop!
-juice
I've got you beat!
DaveM
-juice
-Ian
Hey, I've also got an Amiga 1000 and a Commodore V-20. The Amiga just needs a new hard drive.
MNSteve
A female friend wanted me to look at a 2004 Crossfire with her. She'd caught wind of the lease special, which really is a pretty good deal considering MSRP (something like $2k down, $289/mo for 36).
Local dealers didn't have any six speed manuals, which is what she wanted. (drives a miata.) Figured we'd drive an auto anyway, more just to check out the car than anything.
Short version: the interior is absolutely awful. Trunk is sparse as the vehicle's shape and size would dictate, but the cabin is just ...BLEH! Too much plastic, and cheezy plastic at that. Gimmicky buttons, awful color scheme --this vehicle was silver with silver/black/rust interior. Yep, RUST. The seats and the lower dash were this dusky orange-brown... rust.
Ride was reasonable considering the 18" F / 19" R wheel combo, decent balance between sport and touring. The 12-valve Mercedes 3.2L V6 made adequate but not terrifying power. The five speed automatic was fairly impressive although as I said she was after a manual.
I liked the exterior although it might be too quirky for me.
___
300C
This is big car but done really well. Folks, I was honestly shocked at the interior quality-- modern yet reserved and tasteful-- the power, and the ride quality. The V8 is fairly potent and is mated the same fabulous 5 speed automatic.
The dealership is 20 minutes west of our metro area but right in the vicinity of one of the only worthwile stretches of curvy road around. Sadly, yes it is true that Kansas is flat and boring.
The 300C handled itself quite well with the ESP stability/traction control on and also off. Body roll was surprisingly low, and I was taking posted 45mph corners at 70-80. :-D (Aside: she scared the crap out of me going much slower! Needs some seat time at an autocross or track day, hoo boy were those some abrupt control inputs.) Brakes were easy to modulate and powerful when you asked that of them, but not too touchy. (cough BMW cough cough)
Oh yeah, since this was the lot's demo car with 700 miles on it I felt absolutely no guilt in switching off the ESP and seeing what she had. It just won't do the 1-2 shift all that firm, which is fine and excusable in this type of car. But it will light up the rears NICELY from up stop and makes a pleasant, happy tire smell if you powerbrake it.
Honestly, I came away thinking that the Crossfire was a poorly made-over SLK with an interior design team that needed to be subjected to some horrible form of medieval torture. But at the same time, the 300C impressed me quite a lot given the same 40 minute exposure. It's a lot of car for $35,000 decently appointed. She thought the same... except she felt too young (29) to buy a 300C right now. I'd take one over any similarly priced import sedan I've driven recently: 325, 330, G35.
~Colin
I really really doubt it'll give the new Legacy GT a run for my dollar, but the 300C piqued my interest and it should be much the same but with a wagonish backend. Although it does have that !#*^%^&$# Dodge Grill.
~c
No performance specs on the Legacy GT yet, but I'll lay $$ that a 250hp rated 2.5T will be as fast as the Forester. That just happens to match the Hemi 300 specs for a lot less. I'd get the Legacy GT over it without thinking twice, but I doubt they'll be cross shopped much by others. Still, I'd like to do a 300 test drive. Actually like the looks of the 300 much better than the legacy.
Nicholas
pretty wild car design ideas from German design students.
Bob
We're still married, so that qualifies as my 'printer recollection love story'
Cheers!
Paul
While I haven't seen it in person yet, my impression of the 2005 Legacy is much more positive though. I really like it.
The stock stereo was decent but I don't think it was the top-end offering. I may dig around on Chrysler's site a bit just for kicks-- but it needed an aftermarket sub for sure.
~c
My first year in college I remember going to engineering computing and being told we were going to learn "cutting edge technology" Fortran 77. We used punch cards for another year before finally switching to PC's. Don't ask me anyhing about Fortran now:-)
Mark
I'm actually surprised that you were impressed with the 300C. At least I'm not alone with the impression it left me when I got in one. I'm actually going for a 'good' test drive either tomorrow or Monday.
After being criticized about the car being heavy and having this or that, I'm glad to see that 'someone' else enjoyed the car and gave some positive feedback.
I'm really liking this car more and more. I just saw the Magnum commercial last night... nice wagon!!!
overall, I say bravo to one of america's first re-entries into the powerful RWD sedan market.
someone needs make a car like this 3/4 scale, like 3 series size... 3200lb or so. WOW.
~c
Crossfire doesn't really interest me, I'd just get a Miata or MR2, or even a Solistice, for a bunch less.
Interesting how much you liked the 300C, though. The Magnum is actually priced lower, and might (just might) be cross-shopped with the Legacy XT or at least the Outback XT.
-juice
I wonder if some of the $3k-4k price difference is the brakes and ride quality though... guess I'll find out in a month or so!
~c
-juice
I just hope it's the frills and not the firm bits that are missing in the Magnum.
~c