Subaru Crew Cafe

dcm61

The Explorer "name" first showed up on Ford F-100/150 pickups, as a trim level, prior to the Ranger-based SUV we all know. That may (?) go back to the '70s, but I'm not sure.

And Ranger was a trim level on the F-100 (maybe 250 & 350 also) in the late '60s / early '70's.

And of course everyone remembers 3 on the tree and 4 on the floor. ;-)

DaveM

hondafriek

What a crock concerning stick shift, I guess the best explanation is when Mr Elton was in the lineup for brains he thought the lord said trains instead of brains and said no thanks I have one:-)

  Cheers Pat.

dcm61

Now, I would definitely agree that driving a Ford F-100 with 3 on the tree and no power steering is dangerous. :-) Been there, done that.

But a modern car with a 5 or 6 speed ????????

DaveM

hammerhead

Dave: 4 on the floor still lives here in the form of our good ol' PowerWagon... 383 2bbl 4spd.

Pat: 3 words when dealing with that article: consider the source. Either he's yanking someone's chain, or he's just a nimrod. PC run amok.

Cheers!
Paul

rsholland

http://www.autoweek.com/article.cms?articleId=101272

The hybrid assist is only at stop lights, still it's a step in the right direction. Plus, it has four 115v outlets in the bed (which are turned on by a switch on the dashboard), and the generator can power for up to 32 hours, if your house loses its power.

Bob

kens

You 'boomers crack me up. ;-)

Ken

robr2

You 'boomers crack me up. ;-)

Actually it sounds like juice and I are both "tweeners". We missed the good times the boomers had but we can't be slackers like Gen X'ers!!

rsholland

found on the Honda Stream minivan. Video is about 10 minutes long.

http://world.honda.com/HDTV/news/2003-4031127a/

Bob

ladywclass

I think *I* am at the 'tail end' of the boomers and I'm 50!! so you young upstarts are something else .. :P

dcm61

Nope, you're just north of the middle.

I'm near the tail end at age 43. The one's at the very tail are now age 40.

The baby boomer generator is 1946 to 1964.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about boomers: http://www.bbhq.com/whatsabm.htm

Interesting, I'm actually a tweener (1960 to 1964/5).
http://www.tweeners.org/usatoday.htm

DaveM

robr2

Yup - that's me: a Tweener.

ateixeira

Yeah, I usually get grouped in with Gen X. I'm 1968.

Cool video on DI and lean burn technologies. Honda must've learned a little something from supplier Isuzu. ;-)

The mileage obtained is amazing, though.

-juice

lark6

I guess I qualify as I was born in 1963.

I learned to drive manual on a '68 F-100 Ranger and a '62 Falcon, both three-on-the-tree and neither with power anything. The Ranger was a handsome truck, though hindsight being 20:20 I have to wonder how Ford got away with using the tire-chewing Twin-I-Beam front suspension for so many years. We could never keep it in proper alignment for very long.

Ed

robr2

I saw my first one this weekend. I have to say what a handsome automobile. Of course it had MA dealer plates starting with VOA on it, so it isn't like someone actually bought one.

kens

I know there are a few die hard Mac fans here (Bob, this question is for you) so I thought I'd probe you for some Mac buying advice.

I'll probably be in the market for a new home computer in the next 6 months. I've been using Windows for a while, but I am contemplating going back to Mac. I guess I'm one of those people who after using the iPod started to think, why not completely switch over to Mac. My main home applications are email/browsing, photos, music and potentially video anyway.

Price-wise, I'd like to keep it under $1,500.

Here's what I'm considering: 17" 1.8GHz iMac or Single 1.8GHz Power Mac.

I currently have a nice 18" NEC Multisync monitor that I could reuse with the Power Mac.

Thoughts?

Ken

rsholland

Ken, well as you know I'm a MAC guy because being a graphic designer, that's the industry standard. I really can't talk intelligently about PCs, as I've never owned one. I've used one a few times, and I prefer the MAC; maybe it's because I'm so familiar with them.

I know a while back, most people I knew who were familiar with both platforms, also preferred the MAC.

The new OSX is great. It's much more stable than the old OS9, and it's very different from OS9, so there is a learning curve to deal with. If you should crash in one program in OSX, you don't have to re-boot. The crash just affects that program. At least that's true most of the time.

As you know, MACs are more expensive than PCs, and from a business standpoint could create a problem in terms of transferring files; I'm speaking mainly about font issues though.

Speaking of fonts, Adobe now sells what is called "Open Type" which works on both the MAC and PC platform. I just purchased the whole Adobe Open Type Font Folio, which includes every font they make. I'm very slowly in the process of converting over to Open Type.

Craig is also a MAC guy, and he's been on OSX longer than I have. I'm sure he can elaborate on this far more than I can.

Bob

locke2c

hmm, I like iTunes also but never once has it compelled me to think "hey let's change OS!".

~Colin

tsy

Ken, if you're really interested in doing some video editing it's much more user friendly on the Mac. You can do it on the PC also, it's just a little harder.

I've only crashed my powerbook once (doing a huge video) wheras I crash PCs on a regular basis! ;-)

Another advantage is most of these viruses tend to be Windows based rather than OSx based, which means you can laugh at all your friends with PCs. ;-)

As for iMac vs Powermac, the only advantages of the Powermac is expandability. You can add a second monitor to the Powermac (with the right card) but I don't think you can do this with the iMac, although I'm not sure about the newer ones.

If you don't care about expandability, the iMac is just fine. Nice, slick little package.

Turn away from the dark side. . .
;-)

tom

ateixeira

Keep buying PCs so people like me (tech support) have jobs! LOL

-juice

tsy

LOL! Sorry juice, you're right. I wouldn't want anyone to lose their job.

Get a PC, and help keep America's tech support happy! ;-)

tom

ateixeira

And we thank you for your generous support! ;-)

-juice

kens

Thanks for the responses so far. Actually my idea of switching to a Mac isn't iPod driven at all. I grew up with Apples and then later went to Mac in college. It was only in the last 10 years or so that I went to Windows because of work. But interestingly, iPod sales have been driving people to switch.

Ken

locke2c

that's some silly folks considering it has tons of functionality on Windows. to me the idea of tossing out all my software is absurd. the unix thing also has no appeal, because I like linux just fine.

I did have something that was almost a mac though-- far better at the time, even. I got an Amiga 500 when I was about 12. 13, maybe.

~Colin

rsholland

I like that feature a lot. I listen to the Radio > Americana > Grassy Hill Radio all day. I love that station.

Bob

tsy

I end up replacing all my software every few years anyway (basically just Office and some buisiness stuff).

Besides, you can run a PC emulator on the Mac and run most of your PC stuff anyway! ;-)

Mac vs PC, Chevy vs Ford, Boston vs NY, Dogs vs Cats, spiderman vs superman . . .

we could go on forever! ;-)

tom

c_hunter

One of the best things about OS X is that it's very friendly towards Windows and Windows users, which is important in this day and age. Everything from file formats, to file extensions and e-mail encoding is common now. And of course, if you buy Office 2004 for Mac OS X you're pretty much going to be compatible with the business world (I do prefer the previous Office v.X better, as it was faster than Office 2004, but I digress...).

The OS is rock solid and stable, and very powerful. Even if you never touch the Unix shell, you'll appreciate running on a Unix OS. I absolutely love having machine uptimes easily over a 100 days! In fact, it's like a contest with me, and I am always disappointed when I have to reboot after installing software or an OS update!! The machines can run forever as long as there is power.

Ken, my biggest advice is to get as much RAM as you can reasonably afford. I consider 768MB to be the bare minimum for solid performance under 10.3. My new 15" PowerBook has 1.25GB RAM and my PowerMac at work has 2GB. My PowerBook came with only 256MB, and it was a real dog until I upgraded it. RAM is especially important if you want to run a lot of apps (I usually have 15-20 running at work) or do heavy duty work like video editing or computations. Apple RAM is overpriced, so I always order RAM from a reputable 3rd party (make sure you buy from a vendor who tests their RAM). Places like www.macsales.com have done well for me.

One benefit of the G5 is that you can order it with a better graphics card if that is important to you. In fact, the G5 is a whole lot more flexible in terms of customization and upgrading than the iMac. If you can stretch your budget a little, a dual processor G5 is the ultimate. The performance is really awesome with two processors -- you will never feel the machine even break a sweat. If it's a computer you plan to keep for a long time, a dual G5 with lots of RAM and a good graphics card will age very well.

That said, it's hard to argue against the new iMac! It's got a G5, nice screen, and awesome design. Price is pretty good too. I wouldn't mind having one on my desk! Since the iMac has limited RAM slots, it's even more important to max that out with RAM early on.

Finally, here's what I have lurking in my home office:

http://members.cox.net/craig.hunter/g5-cluster.jpg

Those are four dual-processor 2GHz G5s, which I just got last week and have not even set up yet! They will be used to run ground vehicle aerodynamic simulations for some consulting work on a DOE grant. When I was considering the computing performance, size, power consumption, etc... and rolled that into a price/performance comparison, the G5 was hard to beat. I would have needed about 10-12 single processor Pentium4 machines to get the same price/performance as the four dual-G5 units.

Now I just need to develop some fun applications for all those spare GigaFlops....

Craig

p.s. Ken, if you need any more info or want to pursue possible discounts on hardware, contact me at "craig dot hunter at cox dot net"

rsholland

Hands down! No way can I compete with that!

Bob <1 G4 dual-boot 1.25GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD & another older G4 not even worth mentioning>

c_hunter

Get a good two or three button USB mouse with a scrollwheel!! The OS will recognize it and it supports lots of features (like right click, etc). No need to install drivers or anything. I am still baffled why Apple insists on shipping a 1 button mouse....

Craig

ps: Bob, I can always rent out some spare CPU time to you on the cheap!

c_hunter

Interesting article about the iPod Halo effect:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/05/BUGUN- A46SB48.DTL

Craig

jfl

Ken, I find that my old iMac (1999) does everything I have to do at home. My younger daughter has appropriated the home iBook and we got my older daughter her own iBook for college.

I find that I upgrade computers every 5-8 years and I don't have the need for a top of the line unit. I'd get the iMac because it's compact.

Jim
Mac 512 > Centris 610 > iMac > iBook
+Work supplies me with a laptop PC.

kens

Keeping SW really isn't a big issue for me. On my home PC, I run mostly Adobe applications which I buy at cost from a good friend who works there. Other than that, it's just some antivirus SW and tax-prep. Everything else is really free/shareware. I think the standard suite of Mac SW would meet 80% of my needs.

Thanks for the in-depth reponse, Craig. That photo of your G5s was pretty awesome!

Glad to know that Macs can take multi-button mice. I guess this is an example where they put form over function.

Halo affect: Yup, I get the Chronicle and when I read that article, I thought "hey, that could be me".

Here's a noob question: can Macs use a DVI monitor? Like I wrote earlier, I have a nice 18" LCD monitor that I could reuse and shuffle some of that money towards buying more CPU.

Ken

rsholland

Glad to know that Macs can take multi-button mice

I have a 1-button mouse and it's fine. If you "Control-click" it gives you the same features as the left/right click mouse.

Bob

c_hunter

The new G5 models have a DVI and ADC connector on the video card (and also come with a DVI to VGA adapter). So you should be able to use your DVI monitor directly and get a nice clean digital image!

Craig

tsy

My powerbook doesn't even have a VGA connectrr- only DVI. I need an adapter to run a VGA monitor or video projector.

Mac has a really nice 23" studio display- you might want to upgrade from your 18". ;-)

tom

rsholland

Mac has a really nice 23" studio display

That's what I have and love it. Believe it or not, I've got the dock at the bottom completely filled left to right with apps. If you really want to splurge, get the 30" monitor.

Bob

kens

If you really want to splurge, get the 30" monitor.

At that point, my monitor would be bigger than our TV!

One thing at a time. :-)

Ken

locke2c

LOL

I have a flat-tube 32" and though I rarely watch it I am seriously thinking about a part-time job at Best Buy next Christmas to get a nice fat discount on a Big 'Ol HDTV. not sure what kind-- I like plasma but the maintenance prospects a few years out are scary. Probably not a big tube though; love the image, hate the size, weight and cost.

~Colin

tsy

I'd like my computer monitor to cost less than my car! LOL

tom

rsholland

$3,200.00 I believe. But, hey, it's the STi of computer monitors.

Bob

kens

Colin,

Have you considered DLP as an alternative? They've come a long way and don't have the same burn-in issues as plasma. They're also less expensive than plasma or LCD.

Ken

c_hunter

Seems like a bargain -- when the 22" Cinema Display first came out several years back, it was $7K !!

I could definitely see the use of a 30" display -- sometimes I manage to run out of room on my 22" when doing heavy CAD work.

Craig

tsy

Craig, there's an easy solution. Just get 2 of them! ;-)

I had a rental DC minivan for the week- it has fake carbon fiber trim on the center console. An interesting choice for a minivan, I guess they're trying to be sporty?

It's a very unispiring vehicle and no where near the quality and comfort of the 3 Japanese vans, which is a shame. Maybe the next one will be better? It's going to have to be to compete.

tom

rsholland

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosconsumer/0412/08/G01-26960.htm

rsholland

the all-new MB ML (at least in V6 configuration), which will also debut at Detroit this year.

http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/mercedes8e_20041208.htm

Bob

ateixeira

If you have a dark basement, consider a projector. It takes no space, costs less than a large screen HD TV by far, and can project much bigger image sizes.

Mine is 91". You can get them for $2-3 grand, good quality/resolution.

My 2 year old can carry it, it's so light. The projector sits on a shelf, and I bought canvas by the yard at an art store and basically just put it up on the wall, so it takes zero space.

My speakers are suspended, so it really feels like a theatre. Bob's seen it, I think Lucien might have also.

My point is if you have the right space for it, you can have a much better home theatre for about half the cost of a fancy plasma.

91".

But does size really matter? ;-)

-juice

ateixeira

Of those 3, the Pathfinder is the only one that changed significantly, IMHO. ML and GC are minor evolutions.

And even then I'm concerned about Nissan's cost cutting lately.

-juice

c_hunter

Wait until your bulb blows! Spare bulbs for our LCD projectors at work run $500-700 a pop. Normally the lifetime is very good (few thousand hours) but ocassionally they pop early (like a gunshot going off).

The rate we watch TV, I'd be replacing the bulb every 1-2 years and that could get expensive.

Craig

beanboy

and put two names to faces here on the Edmunds Soobie board. Nice!

-B

rsholland

http://TheCarConnection.com/index.asp?article=7820&sid=173&am- p;n=156

bigelm

^ Going to look into it when it comes... possible trade in when lease is up.