[Hutnicks]

For some reason, I get a kick out of finding a way to use a product intended for one purpose in a completely different way. For example, I could cut one of these in half:

http://www.amazon.com/Auto-Expressions-Sheepskin-Shoulder-Pad-Grey/dp/B000CAINRK

I bought a bagful of shearling offcuts ages ago for just that purpose.

 

[SP Wild]

Id purchase the Koss ESP950s like that if I could.  The Porta pros are just champs allround.

 

[billybob_jcv]

lol - let me give you an idea of what it's like to live with a technophobe.

Yesterday she had to drive to an unfamiliar location that was about 2.5 hours away. She put the address into her phone's GPS application and started on the trip. She had just left, when she got a phone call telling her that the location she needed to go to had changed, and the new location was in a different city.

My wife couldn't figure out how to stop or exit the GPS app on her phone, so for the next 2 hours, the phone kept trying to direct her to the original destination. Her answer to this was to turn down the volume on the phone so she couldn't hear it telling her "when possible, make a legal U-turn". The phone finally ran down it's battery and shutdown.

A few hours later, when she had recharged her phone, she called me and told me the story. I said: "Why didn't you just reboot the phone?" There was a pause, and then she said "Yeah, I could have done that if I had thought of it."

Don't misunderstand - my wife is very intelligent - however anything having to do with technology just seems to make her disengage her brain and instantly become the She-Hulk.

 

[billybob_jcv]

This seems promising: http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/31/tesla-panasonic-gigafactory-deal/?ncid=rss_truncated


Why is it that I can absolutely loathe and detest EV like the Prius & Volt, yet the idea of a $40K Tesla has me very excited? I think that it's not only because the Tesla is a darn fine car, regardless of it's powerplant, but also because I really like the idea of an upstart company exposing the very chummy ties between the gov't and the traditional auto industry. I think Tesla's direct sale model is the inevitable future - the auto industry should not be immune to the natural upheaval in the old, inefficient distribution model.

 

[ssrock64]

David Clark also makes some interesting headband pads: http://www.davidclarkcompany.com/aviation/comfort.php

Hmm... Mrspeakers is Dan Clark, so we may have actually been onto something about those Dog Pads

 

 

[billybob_jcv]

That is exactly how internet myths get started...

I think it's just as likely Dan (who is from San Diego), crossed the border and had the dog pads created by a Tijuana tuck & roll upholstery shop...


Back to Tesla - isn't it everyone's dream to someday be able to go on the internet, configure the car you want, and then have a truck come to your house and delivery your new car? Jeez, I think I would pay a premium to not have to deal with Cal & his dog spot:

 

[Oregonian]

That is exactly how internet myths get started...

I think it's just as likely Dan (who is from San Diego), crossed the border and had the dog pads created by a Tijuana tuck & roll upholstery shop...


Back to Tesla - isn't it everyone's dream to someday be able to go on the internet, configure the car you want, and then have a truck come to your house and delivery your new car? Jeez, I think I would pay a premium to not have to deal with Cal & his dog spot:

Don't tell me Cal is STILL on TV???  I remember him from Phoenix and San Diego in the 80's and 90's........................man I feel old.

 

[SP Wild]

The big traditional retailers finding it tough in Australia when internet imports are cheaper. The reserve bank has stated that the retail slump is holding the economy to slow growth.

Neither major parties have bothered to raise an eyebrow. Why would my government not adjust laws to achieve retail parity?

The only logical conclusion is that 'they' are steering 'us' on line. The system has two faces, one which bemoans the loss of traditional values whilst at the same time removing traditional value system.

It appeals to both left and right wing. It consists of a bi partisan system on regular rotation to appease both segments. It is here to prevent civil war...which our subconscious desires.

We are allowed to bicker. They promote it. It allows for a vent release, we can call it a national debate, certainly not a civil war because that is the point of the system.

After all is said and done... We go home, get online, find a bargain and purchase along with my new devices to occupy me, I lose that viva la france fantasy.

 

[ssrock64]

SP Wild, what's the mood in the country about the oncoming death of Holden and Ford Australia? Car guys in the U.S. are saddened by it because we love your big full-size performance cars, but I haven't yet heard anything about it from an actual Australian.

 

[SP Wild]

  SP Wild, what's the mood in the country about the oncoming death of Holden and Ford Australia? Car guys in the U.S. are saddened by it because we love your big full-size performance cars, but I haven't yet heard anything about it from an actual Australian.

 
Blows me away that no one seems to bemoan the absolute loss of all auto manufacturing in Australia.  Toyota is also abandoning local manufacturing with the exit of Ford and Holden...that is everyone.  The economic argument kinda makes sense, but I fail to see that running a country, or a family household is the same as a business....they are not.  The reaction I get is....'Everyone saw it coming', because it makes them sound learned, just wonder why no one did anything to rectify if everyone saw it coming? 
 
This generation doesnt care about stuff like this...fair enough...Austraia is very stable.  The Ford vs Holden vs Jap imports game was played by last generation.  This generation is all about Android vs IOS vs Windows.  Car hooning is over, the up and comers want modern conversatively styled corporate mobiles.
 
The worse case scenario is our fearless leader in the future (US or China - the Abbott governments has reached an understanding that we also need to kiss China's ass also and not just the USA, just as we abandoned kissing UK ass for US ass after WW2...Australia to me is a middle child with daddy issues) faces instability due to as yet unforseen circumstances and unable to come to our military aid.  Unable to re-establish large scale manufacture quickly enough, due to the absence of such infrastructures in Australia and lack of experienced know how, we are unable to maintain our US sourced defence machines without parts support and unable to produce our own.  Even Sweden...a tiny population, possess the know how to design, engineer and manufacture modern jet fighters.
 
The other side of the coin is that Australia is seen as a world leader in modernisation and war is primitive.

 

[Magick Man]

Umm, thanks guys, I think. I believe we'll just hold on to them, though we did hire security for the garage(s). Walked by one this evening and I was like, "Wow, he has a .40 cal and a 12ga pump". I hate that, but it is what it is.

Blows me away that no one seems to bemoan the absolute loss of all auto manufacturing in Australia.  Toyota is also abandoning local manufacturing with the exit of Ford and Holden...that is everyone.  The economic argument kinda makes sense, but I fail to see that running a country, or a family household is the same as a business....they are not.  The reaction I get is....'Everyone saw it coming', because it makes them sound learned, just wonder why no one did anything to rectify if everyone saw it coming? 

This generation doesnt care about stuff like this...fair enough...Austraia is very stable.  The Ford vs Holden vs Jap imports game was played by last generation.  This generation is all about Android vs IOS vs Windows.  Car hooning is over, the up and comers want modern conversatively styled corporate mobiles.

The worse case scenario is our fearless leader in the future (US or China - the Abbott governments has reached an understanding that we also need to kiss China's ass also and not just the USA, just as we abandoned kissing UK ass for US ass after WW2...Australia to me is a middle child with daddy issues) faces instability due to as yet unforseen circumstances and unable to come to our military aid.  Unable to re-establish large scale manufacture quickly enough, due to the absence of such infrastructures in Australia and lack of experienced know how, we are unable to maintain our US sourced defence machines without parts support and unable to produce our own.  Even Sweden...a tiny population, possess the know how to design, engineer and manufacture modern jet fighters.

The other side of the coin is that Australia is seen as a world leader in modernisation and war is primitive.

One issue is that manufacturing costs are so high in Aus, all countries with higher than average labor costs are losing their factories (unless the company is firmly based in that country and gets special tax breaks). New cars are much more expensive due to more restrictive manufacturing processes (emissions regs) and more exotic materials, so something has to give, unless everyone wants to pay 30-50% more for their cars, overnight. US states are paying companies to build their factories in their states, to counter the higher costs. It's crazy.

 

[Hutnicks]

One issue is that manufacturing costs are so high in Aus, all countries with higher than average labor costs are losing their factories (unless the company is firmly based in that country and gets special tax breaks). New cars are much more expensive due to more restrictive manufacturing processes (emissions regs) and more exotic materials, so something has to give, unless everyone wants to pay 30-50% more for their cars, overnight. US states are paying companies to build their factories in their states, to counter the higher costs. It's crazy.

 
Wouldn't be posting that info up here.
 
 
Wages are one thing, but the largest cost we see up here are the benefits packages that used to be so common. New hires get nowhere near the coverage they used to and pension plans are become as scarce as talking chickens. The trend here has devolved into practices of hiring "temp" labour so no benefits at all are paid. In the case of one Billion Dollar cable company they have "Temps" that have been working a 40 hour plus week steadily for over 10 years.

 

[billybob_jcv]

What happened to all the Australian regulations about requiring a percentage of local content in the cars?

I was thinking about the cost of new cars on this morning's commute. I think now more than ever before, the car manufacturers are simply pricing themselves out of the market. Are the number of *new* cars being sold into the retail channel (not to corporate & rental fleets) going up or down? I'm still seeing a lot of new cars on the road - but I don't see how most people can afford them. I suppose the 5 year lease with massive residual charges and low mileage allowances are the way it's being done - leverage the future to satisfy your current desires. Typical short-sighted human thought processes. :rolleyes:

I was also thinking about another question...

Let's suppose that you wake up one day, and ALL the cars and people in the world are GONE. They aren't dead and there are not bodies and wrecks strewn over the roads - they have just disappeared. The streets, roads, highways and interstates are completely WIDE OPEN - not a soul anywhere to be found.

OK, now, in that world here's my question: How fast would you drive? There's no traffic and no traffic laws. How fast would you go?

I suspect that in this scenario, the vast majority of people I see on the road would drive exactly the same speed. The don't seem to *drive* their cars, they simply ride in them with the absolute minimum amount of brain power devoted to the operation of the car and the road around them.

It's probably more than just the desire to drive - the vast majority of cars (excluding exotics) are now designed with the typical highway cruising speed in mind. These cars are NOT happy when they are actually *driven*. The transmissions now assume you want to cruise at 60 MPH and never need to pass another car. So - if the manufacturers could remove the road speed restrictions AND the cluttering of the roads with all those other cars, would they build cars that are more comfortable cruising at higher speeds? Would you drive these new cars at the higher speeds? How high?

 

[Magick Man]

I love how people say, "you shouldn't post that!", then they quote you... really?


(there's a reason for it)

------------------

How fast would I drive? If it's for fun, as fast as I could without being "at serious risk". So it would depend on the car. As you know, exotics and high-end GTs are usually quite comfortable at 150mph+.

 

[Hutnicks]

I love how people say, "you shouldn't post that!", then they quote you... really?

(there's a reason for it)

---

How fast would I drive? If it's for fun, as fast as I could without being "at serious risk". So it would depend on the car. As you know, exotics and high-end GTs are usually quite comfortable at 150mph+.

Well, you can edit a post. See it's like ........................magic
hint.
 
No laws no limits. Probably about 120 to cruise with bursts up to whatever on long visible straights. I suspect in a post apocalyptic scenario like that deer and wildlife in general would become a vastly larger problem and punting Bambi at a buck and a half is a bad day for everyone. At 120 I think you can get on the brakes quick enough in daylight to avoid it.