Boy, I autostick you where the sun don't shine

First, some background. We traded our 2 older kids and the Pontiac Montanta for a Chrysler Pacifica for the day (the day before Easter that is, although I also drove it again last week). The kids are spending the night and coming back for Easter. This allowed me to drive a Pacifica for the first time. I had ridden in it and thought it was a very roomy and versatile vehicle, that drove very well, but I had never driven it.

There are many interior things that I think Chrysler did right, and others where I think they flopped. One that they definately did right was finally having express-down feature on all windows, not just the driver's. How hard was that? They countered that though by having RDS on their radios, but no way to cycle through the RDS data. Lame. Much worse is their retarded lack of steering wheel radio controls, choosing to place cruise control there instead. Plus, their cruise must be turned on everytime you restart the car. Poor design all around on these fronts.

Anyway, the biggest thing I was interested in was the AutoStick feature. I had wanted to try this out since it was introduced back in the late 90's. It seemed like something fun to try, but I had my doubts about its usefulness. It seemed mostly like a gadget for middle-aged guys who bought an automatic for practicality, but wanted to pretend they had a manual transmission still. My dad himself said it was pretty much junk.

After driving it for a bit, I still think it is a bit silly. However, I cleared up a few misconceptions that I had, and now can see where it might be fun occaisionally. If it truly doesn't add much to the transmission cost, then it might not be bad to have around, especially since you never really have to use it.

The autostick definately gives you more get up and go quicker. As with a manual, there is no sitting around in too high of a gear, and having to mash the pedal to downshift. When I was in first, I could spool up the engine immediately. The AWD in the Pacifica would likely make this feature even more fun jumping off the line.

One misconception I had was that the autostick would actually shift for you if you revved it too high in a gear. Not true I found out as I blew up the engine (no, not really). Actually though, I didn find that it will not shift until redline. This seems like a perfectly adequate compromise. As Josh points out, really the only way to improve on that is to have user-settable shift points.

Downshifting is handled pretty slick, with the computer at some point shifting you down to a sane gear automatically. Nice for not having to shift down after slowing for a light. On the other hand, shifting down works as exactly as expected, providing passing power while on the highway, as well as very smooth engine breaking at a stop.

The shifting was very smooth and crisp in my opinion when driving spirited, and very sluggish when trolling around town. Perfectly acceptable, as I would expect the full automatic to be used while cruising town anyway.

Overall, I am very satisfied with autostick now, and find it quite enjoyable. I would not pay extra for it, but it is a nice addition for free by Chrysler. Coupled with 17" wheels on the Pacifica, a few quick mods to the suspension and possibly a supercharger, and you have a "crossover" vehicle that will cause a few surprises at the track or a stoplight.

Blogger sucks. It really, really sucks!

Had to vent. I'm sick, and tired of these failed posts and such. I noticed just a minute ago as I was attempting to post this and it kept saying "Document contains no data" that there is now a "Recover post" hyperlink in the JavaScript control for editing posts. Why would that be necessary? Maybe because their service is looking more like a fly-by-night, rather than somebody with a hand in Google's hefty pockets.

Anyway, I have 2 stupid things to post. The first is a stupid Microsoft error. I just found everything about this to be comical:

This error may be the result of trying to delete more than 4,000 messages at one time. Outlook can delete no more than 4,000 messages when it is working with a server message store.
To avoid this error, delete fewer than 4,000 messages in a single operation.
It is also possible you do not have the appropriate permissions to delete messages. If you need to delete content from a folder owned by someone else, contact the owner of the folder to obtain the necessary permissions, or have the owner delete the content for you.

Next, you have to check out this story that Ian sent to me. The idiots are winning.

Update: I have to apologize for the multiple posts, the subject of this post should have caused you not to be surprised by this though. I will fix it as soon as blogger is working right again. One note, I did find by reading http://status.blogger.com that clearing my cookies caused some of the problems to go away. Now, the only problem I am having is not all posts showing up on my edit page.

Update2: Fixed. All is now well.

FP

Well, not first post exactly, but early website. Ryan with his relaunch of the sadida.com site and his corresponding wayback machine link to an older version made me feel like shaking the dust off of some old sites of mine.

I can't find my original site from 1995 anymore, it was somewhere on tripod.com, but has now apparantly vanished into the ether. Instead, the wayback machine does have my site from when I was in college at U of I. Be very afraid, but remember the time period this is from. I DARE you to post a link to your first site. Go ahead. Do it.

"We roll tonight, to the guitar bite"

I discovered something very cool this evening.

I am very good about finding deals, and making the most of our money. I tend to seek out the best ways to save/make money and keep our spending as low as possible. One technique I have used for quite some time is always finding the best deals on credit cards.

Now, this doesn't mean I find the lowest rate. I couldn't give a rip what the interest rate is actually, as I always pay it off in full every month. What I look for instead is the best rewards. In the past this has involved points, miles, etc. Now, I am only interested in cards that give a cash back percentage in some form. I can always find a use for cash, so this makes the most sense to me.

My current card gives a huge percentage on things like gas and groceries (5 percent on both counts) and one percent on everything else. It just so happens that in the past I hadn't been able to use the grocery discount though. Superstores like Wal-Mart and such don't count, and our local store, Fareway, only accepted debit cards. Having worked at Fareway for several years and knowing how the organization is structured, I did not expect that fact to change.

Imagine my surprise when as I am paying for my groceries tonight, the checker asks "Debit or Credit"? I'm so used to hearing that now, that I disregarded it at first. I then stepped back and said, "Wait a minute, I can pay with credit now?"

It turns out I could. When I asked how long that had been in effect, I was told since last July. What??? Why wasn't I aware? Oh well, now I know...and knowing is half the battle.

This is ponderous man, really...ponderous.

Okay, this is the last post on this topic I swear, otherwise I really will turn into Engadget.

Engadget yesterday posted about some of the more ridiculous looking USB (for no good reason) powered devices out there. One of them I thought was somewhat useful, the small fan. I have a USB light right now that I find quite useful also. This all scares me, as the fact that these are USB-powered is still somewhat ridiculous.

Anyway, I saw the one that takes the cake today on a deal site. The USB Aquarium. Fake fish, powered by your USB port. Wow. All of this seems like something out of "The Incredibles" to me, "I'm still geeking out over it..."

There, I'm done. No more posts ever on silly USB devices.

"I was just layin' down some rhymes, with the G-folk, you know, kickin' it on the west siy-eede"

Today's adventure involves companies who just don't grasp customer service and/or selling to people. Why would you not try to help out customers? Why make it so hard for people to give you money? No idea.

We went to KFC for lunch, because that's what we do sometimes. This is an entire other story, but in the past we all got flack because we wanted to order the sandwiches that were on the menu. Then, KFC removed the sandwiches, only to replace them with a bunch of new, smaller sandwiches. Now, for me to get the same amount of food, they have to make 2 or 3 sandwiches. Brilliant.
Today's adventure though had to do with payment. KFC recently FINALLY joined the ranks of fast food restaurants allowing credit or debit (which is a fantastic advancement by the way.) However, KFC only supported debit cards, and they have some cheesy, I-just-signed-up-for-my-first-merchant-account machine sitting on the counter. However, Josh was going to use it today nonetheless. It turns out though, that this thing might as well be an ATM machine, they actually charge $0.99 per transaction to use the thing. Where else have you ever seen a restaurant charge to pay with plastic? Ridiculous. Especially when you consider the price of things on the menu. The new snacker sandwiches I was talking about are only $0.99 themselves. So, buy 3 of those, and your payment for the meal is suddenly 25% of the total cost. I refuse to pay ATM fees, they are evil, so I spotted him the cash instead. Lame.

Topic #2 - stupid phone co-op's with lame websites. My local phone co-op, who is great in many ways (great DSL, low-priced local phone service) began offering video via phone line as well. I was very interested in this, as I would be more than happy to drop the 800 lb. gorilla that is Mediacomm for my cable TV. However, they will not list a price for the service anywhere. They have a website that tells you they have 3 package levels. They send out fliers with the monthly bill stating the same thing. Nowhere do they tell you the price of the packages. Do you actually want people to buy this service? Tell us how much it freakin' costs. I don't want to have to call you and beg you to know how much it will be. Lame.

Last topic. When your company president is coming to town for his annual visit, don't piss off your customers because of it. I bet that's not in the company 'vision statement', and I bet the president doesn't list that in the achievements for the year. If somebody calls your store (which just might happen to be a furniture store) and wants to pick up their purchase (that you should have called them about in the first place), let them know at that time that you are not allowing any pickups while said president is there. Don't wait until they have already made plans to go to that side of town on that day to let them know. Lame pricks. You're lucky this chair is so comfortable or there would be very little slumber in my land.

Okay, Token, give me a sweet bass line.

If you think it's easy doin' one night stands, try playin' in a rock roll band...

Today's example of people who just don't get it. As is often the case, brought to you by the downward spiral that is Engadget.

The iTrip is a slick little accessory to allow your ipod to play music via FM modulation through your stereo. It is a sleek package that fits perfectly with the ipod.

Now, Engadget doesn't like that approach. Here is their choice quote:

For about the same price ($39.95) you could opt for a more generic DIY solution

Now, check out the picture on the site. Yeah, for the SAME price, I would rather get the multipurpose solution that is not a finished product whatsoever. I love raw circuit boards just hanging around the house.

<Shakes head in disgust./>