Subaru Crew - Meet The Members II

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  • lucien2lucien2 Member Posts: 2,984
    yes I am! LOL Sorry, I got to drive the Clubman Sat.-Mon. so I'm in withdrawal. Especially brakes. The Outback takes a LOT longer to haul down. A lot.
  • lilbluewgn02lilbluewgn02 Member Posts: 1,089
    Brenda, it's Lancôme.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    Serge, both are great stories. Best part being that they are true stories! Congrats.
  • lilbluewgn02lilbluewgn02 Member Posts: 1,089
    Sometime between last night and this morning, Michael's burgundy 2001 Outback Ltd wagon was stolen from the parking lot of Home Goods and Walmart on Connecticut Ave in Norwalk, CT. It may still have Florida plates on it. If you see it, please contact the Norwalk Police Dept at (203) 854-3001
    Here is the link to the Photobucket album http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll303/mclmk8d/2001%20Outback%20Ltd/?albumview- =slideshow&track=share_email_album_view_click
    image
    image
    Any help is much appreciated...thanks.
    Serge
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    Somebody stole his... Outback?! That's just nutty. I hope it was fully insured, because it was probably a joyrider who subsequently decided to see just how well it could live up to its name....
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • lilbluewgn02lilbluewgn02 Member Posts: 1,089
    It was insured. We called them first thing this morning.

    Now for some more bad news; my GF and and I split for now (:-(
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Identical to my dad's. Bummer. :(

    I hope they recover it intact, or not at all. I'd hate to see it abused.
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    Oh man, a bummer on all counts. :(

    Bob
  • tsytsy Member Posts: 1,551
    Sorry Serge. Hope you get both back!

    tom
  • lilbluewgn02lilbluewgn02 Member Posts: 1,089
    Michael's car: still gone, but in another week or so, we should get the insurance money, which will be around what he wanted to sell it for anyway.

    Renee and I got back together less than a week after the last post, some apologies on both sides and now we are stronger than ever; life is good.
  • rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    Good to hear Serge.

    Bob
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    And if you had to choose just one of the two to get back... ;)
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    Good point !
  • lilbluewgn02lilbluewgn02 Member Posts: 1,089
    Definitely Renee; she's one of a kind; there are plenty of Outbacks
  • tsytsy Member Posts: 1,551
    Great! And good answer! ;)
  • Karen_SKaren_S Member Posts: 5,092
    Have you played the Vehicle Rating Game? First round prizes being awarded soon!
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    I was looking back at old posts on GPS units, but in the end I think most people get used to one GUI and tend to be repeat customers of that brand. So after 3 years with a TomTom, that's where my head is at. Last week I ordered an XXL series 540TM. 5", lifetime traffic & maps. FedEx says it should be here today. A lot of features for $179. Prices have sure come down! Of course it will be less tomorrow, but sooner or later you have to move beyond the old 3" unit that was closer to $300 and didn't even speak street names.
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    and didn't even speak street names.

    OMG! Get out of the Dark Ages, grandpa! :P
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    It's bad when your father has a more modern piece of hardware!
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    Haha; that it is. I am waiting for the day when my son says, "I want my own phone." You know, people don't even call them "cell phone" any more; they are just "phone." Of course, he won't get one; my household is going to be cell-free for a LONG time to come.
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited September 2010
    We've moved from Idaho and haven't quite settled anywhere yet. But we decided to keep both cars. So now we have two prepaid cell phones (much cheaper than trying to use walkie-talkies between the two cars when we shuttled them to a relative's house a few states away).

    Plus, I have a Google Voice number and I pay $3 a month to call land lines on Skype.

    So the next question is do we even bother getting a land line when we finally put roots down again somewhere?
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Don't laugh but I paid $404 for my first GPS and I had to buy an 1GB SD card to fit the whole country's maps. It only came with 256MB.

    When I first started looking they cost $700, though.

    Now $180 buys you a giant 5" screen with everything. Garmins cost a bit more than that.
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    edited September 2010
    There often is not much of a reason to get one. A large number of my friends don't have them any more. One advantage can be the reliability ("wired" phones often work during power outages, won't have dead batteries, have a fixed location, almost never have connectivity issues, etc) in the event of an emergency, but aside from that.... ?

    What did you end up doing for getting those boxes moved?
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    I use Google Voice as well. Love it.

    All my calls routed to one phone, voice mail is transcribed (not perfectly) for free and sent to me as text, plus I can call Brazil from anywhere for 4 cents per minute, half the cost of Skype-out.

    My wife still uses a land line but to be honest I don't even give it out any more. No need.
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    I believe it. I purchased a digital camera in May 2002 that was, for the time, decent (3.2 MP IIRC) but nothing special. Including batteries (AA rechargeable) and an extra memory card (a whopping 64 MB!), it ran me $500. When that thing finally died a couple years ago, I replaced it with a 10 MP camera that's pretty nice in Feb 2009. That camera, with an 8 GB memory card, cost me less than $350.

    Unfortunately, I buy very few technology items and those seem to be the only commodity that is actually decreasing in price over time. All the stuff I buy, like flour, sugar, fuel, construction materials, and other basics, have all at least doubled since 2002.

    :sick:
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    edited September 2010
    I bet a similar camera today would be $99.

    I went to buy some wood to build a ping pong table and DANG the prices have skyrocketed.

    I don't recall exactly what I paid, but for some reason I was expected those thin sheets of primed white plywood/osb to cost the same as last time - well below $20. They were $37 each! More than double what I paid for the same thing in 2005 or so.
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    Hahah; yeah, I know. I cry every time I go to the store. :cry:
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • robr2robr2 Member Posts: 8,805
    I don't recall exactly what I paid, but for some reason I was expected those thin sheets of primed white plywood/osb to cost the same as last time - well below $20. They were $37 each! More than double what I paid for the same thing in 2005 or so.

    Believe it or not - it's because of the earthquake in Chile earlier this year. They've become a huge exporter of plywood and milled lumber products (mouldings). The earthquake was centered in their prime forestry area.
  • saedavesaedave Member Posts: 694
    So the next question is do we even bother getting a land line when we finally put roots down again somewhere?

    It depends whether the locality where you settle responds to 911 calls from a cell phone. In Chicago, there is often no response to a cell. I have had to go in the house and use the landline (which shows my address automatically to the 911 center). This has happened several times!
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    I'll wait to do the project I had in mind until they recover a bit, and prices drop. Lumber prices are insane.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    So...what's the Kelley Blue Book price on Kelley Blue Book?

    :D
  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    Do you have to consult the Escher Guide to find that out?? :P
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    In March 2001 I bought an Olympus C-3040. Listed for over $900, paid around $650. The best feature is the glass, an F-1.8 lens with 3x zoom. And I still use it as it does far better in low light than anything else we've bought since.

    But your comment about technology items being the only commodity that is actually decreasing in price over time is exactly why most of the people in my industry are struggling so. Every year we kill ourselves to come up with bigger and better, and you all think it should cost less!!! We barely recover our investment in technology.

    On the fun side, I just scored another US Patent (#7,781,733). It took 3 years for the office to process it. I think that's my 10th.
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited September 2010
    Hey Wes, I didn't want to mess with a trailer so I didn't put a hitch on the Outback or the van. We got a U-Pack and put about 200 cu. ft. of boxes and our loom in there in the 5' at the front of the trailer. Then put a bulkhead in and they took it back to the terminal and loaded the rest of it (28' trailer) with freight. Then the trailer went to a few stops before winding up where we wanted it.

    Actually, it wound up 3 hours away from where we wanted it, since the place we're storing stuff is in the middle of nowhere. So we had to rent a 10' U-Haul box truck (13 mpg!) to get the stuff off the trailer to the storage unit (and it was hard tracking one of those down too). But our stuff is in a strategic location now.

    We haven't unpacked anything but nothing seems to be damaged so far, even though the trailer wasn't an air ride moving van. One of my ex-neighbors was a freight picker for a couple of years and he did a great job helping me load the trailer.

    We're trying to wrap up this leg of our trip this weekend and then head for a friend's place in the Midwest and then probably down to Chattanooga. And we have a cat sitter lined up for the next few weeks on the road. Life is good. :D

    (congrats on the latest patent Fib!)
  • hammerheadhammerhead Member Posts: 907
    edited September 2010
    Where'd you move to? Close to snow? :)
  • tsytsy Member Posts: 1,551
    Congrats on the patent Steve! Don't you get a plaque for each patent?

    Speaking of the ever decreasing cost of technology, we just bought another LCD video projector for our church. It's 3 times brighter, 1/4 the size, twice the resolution, and 1/6th the cost of our oldest 10 year old projector!!!

    Shouldn't in car GPSs be a lot cheaper by now too?

    tom
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    Cool, congrats.

    I found out my father-in-law, a chemist, has 6 or 8 patents, I forget exactly.

    The cool part - his are for various processes used power coating, including some used by Harley-Davidson today.

    What industry are yours for?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited September 2010
    Where'd you move to? Close to snow?

    Ask me again in six weeks. And yeah, should be close to snow. We wound up in Port Huron MI today to stay with my wife's best friend for a week or two (and she's going to house sit our cats for us while we go south).
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    Hey, that's exactly the same model I bought! I agree, too... it did very well with its auto-focus and in low light. This new one, also an Olympus (SP-565UZ), is a real PITA to get to focus on what you want, and forget about close-ups or low light! :mad:

    Congrats on the patent. I bet that feels good (though likely tempered by the insane length of time it took for the Patent Office to issue it)!

    As far as costing less, I don't know. I figure if people want the biggest, best, and newest right now, they should have to pay for it. The new tech/top of the line televisions are still insanely priced, but you can also get "yesterday's" televisions for reasonable prices. By the time I actually upgrade from my 1996 Sony CRT, I'll be able to get a holo-deck for $1500! :D
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • volkovvolkov Member Posts: 1,306
    HAAA! I grew up in Sarnia. Back in high school, on a nice Friday we would cut classes and drive over for lunch at Taco Bell (didn't have any in Canada back then) and dessert at London Ice Cream. Is the big cow still around?
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    edited September 2010
    It's my first time to Port Huron and it seems pretty nice. I've spotted two Tim Hortons while cruising around so there's no reason to cross the bridge I suppose. :shades:

    It's been fun watching the big ore ships cruise by too.

    I'll ask about the cow in the morning....
  • ladywclassladywclass Member Posts: 1,713
    better a plaque than a plague ...
  • subearusubearu Member Posts: 3,613
    edited September 2010
    Small world....

    I drive to London every now and then to visit one of the DC's for the company I work for. I usually bring some Tim Bits back for the kids, and seem to always stopping by The Keg for some grub.

    Getting through Customs can be fun (sarcastic) and sometimes quite a wait going back over to the US.

    -Brian
  • volkovvolkov Member Posts: 1,306
    Yes I hear that the crossing is much busier and tedious than it used to be. Used to be 5, maybe 10 minutes tops. With the coming of NAFTA there is much more heavy truck traffic than there ever was 30 years ago. The Peninsula is a faster drive to Northern Ontario and the same route or I 94 is quicker to Manitoba and other points west than taking the TransCanada north from Toronto.
    PS The cow was at London Ice.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    I helped to sell a bunch of those camera! After people saw my C-3040Z and the pictures it captured, my dad bought a C-4040, and a cousin a C-5050.

    Plaque? I think I got plaque on my teeth waiting for the USPTO to come to a conclusion. True, we get plaques and a little bit of money (high emphasis on the "little bit" part). But yes, it's better than plague.

    You can blame Juice for this, as he was foolish enough to ask!

    This particular patent was a neat little optics trick that we pulled. I had a photographic enlarger as a kid. Black & white home darkroom. While cleaning a lens, I dropped it and it cracked in half! Well, I put the pieces back together, and amazingly the image was almost as sharp as before breaking it! Light bending is an amazing thing, and 'missing data' in the analog world gets smoothed out and goes unnoticed.

    We applied that accident to a real world problem. How to observe optically and deliver laser heating power at the same time as bombarding a surface with positively charged ions.

    Secondary electrons and phonons (sound waves) from the ion strikes can be used to selectively activate surface adsorbed gas chemistry. Localized long wavelength lasers can be used to raise the surface temperture, lowering the chemical activation threshold in a tight region. These more easily energized gases can be used to selectively etch or deposit materials exactly where we want them. Plus we get to optically watch the progress, in addition to the imaging we already have by using captured secondary electron emission.

    How do you get it all to the surface at the same time (parallel processing)? Drill a micro hole thru the glass lens and pass the ion beam coaxially thru the optical system! The light optics hardly notice the missing glass. Cool, eh??
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    That is cool, in a hot sort of way. :P

    So, what is the purpose of doing this? I mean, what is being made? I'm sure you're not doing that to create artistic reliefs, right?
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
  • steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Apparently London Ice Cream of Port Huron was bought out by Dean Foods and later permanently closed back in '08. Google maps just shows asphalt where it was. No word on where the cow is yet. :sick:

    Traffic over the bridge is a problem and people don't like going over to Sarnia for dinner so much any more and dealing with re-entry.
  • fibber2fibber2 Member Posts: 3,786
    Again, you persist in asking me what I do in my secret laboratory! I can tell you, but then I'd have to.... well, you know.

    In its simplest form, a highly focused beam of charged particles can slice materials like a microscopic knife. We use it to cut open individual or groups of transistors on integrated circuits to see what's going on inside, and why they don't behave the way they should.

    But as I mentioned before, the real magic begins when you introduce gas chemistry into the process chamber. The energy from the beam breaks bonds, and the reactive species formed will etch or deposit only where the beam is directed. Our number one application for this is for circuit rewiring. If a chip designer makes a small wiring error (and its very common given the tens of millions of transistor on a chip today) we can slice it open, etch away a wrong wire, and deposit a new conductor and insulating material to restore a working circuit. FIB Chip Editing, or Silicon Microsurgery or sometimes called 'yellow wire edits'. Remember seeing the circuit boards on old radios with a scratched out copper trace and a yellow wire soldered as a jumper?? That's what we do! Much of my effort goes into refining and improving this process to keep up with ever shrinking and higher density chip designs.

    It typically takes 6 to 8 weeks for a silicon wafer of chips to be manufactured. If a designer makes a single mistake, he has to have the error corrected in the mask set, and have another run of wafers produced. A new product under development now sits idle for up to 3 months. But in less than a week we can produce a small quantity of hand build prototypes. With a box running on these parts, the software guys can refine their code, the new system can be stress-tested, etc. We enable time-to-market, and keep product cycles on track.

    My lab toys cost millions, but the payback can be in billions of $$.
  • ateixeiraateixeira Member Posts: 72,587
    My head hurts.

    I presume this is all powered by a Flux Capacitor? :D
  • xwesxxwesx Member Posts: 17,728
    Okay, now that is cool! Thanks for sharing; I have always been the curious type. Actually, it's amazing that I am still alive... :blush:
    2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
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