Musings of Ryder Step

In light of all of the auto makers going down the tubes, I though it would be patriotic to post a list of American cars I would purchase Assuming I had the money. Here they are in no particular order.

Mustang GT (or GT500KR)

F-150 (With 5.4L)

Unfortunately the only other Ford vehicles that I would buy are only sold in Europe. Also I'm patiently waiting for the EcoBoost engines to be in production vehicles.

2010 Ford Taurus SHO (w/ Ecoboost! Woot!)

Dodge Viper ACR


As for Dodge, I was waiting for the Dodge Demon to release, but now that looks like it's never going to happen. I like the Dodge pickups, but I would prefer owning a F150 or Sierra.

So there you have it, a bunch of American Cars that make me proud to be an American. Ford is actually following through and bringing the Ford Fiesta to America, hopefully people actually buy it, also, their ecoboost engine is going to turn some heads. I'd love to have that engine in a performance vehicle.

There is no doubt that Google Chrome is fast at rendering web pages, also Chrome has a feature that I'm sure kids in multi-user environments love: You can install it to your profile, and it doesn't require administrative privileges. This is nice if the only browser you are allowed to have is Internet Explorer. Unfortuantely this is the default way that it installs itself, which means it sucks when you are an administrator. Let me elaborate...

To install Chrome so every user of a computer can access it you have to first install "Google Updater" tools. Which is probably the worst thing that Google has ever produced. It is effictively malware, which creates two services running in the background that are not able to be disabled by the Google Updater front end. Also it creates a scheduled task that checks for updates, and what's worse is if you delete the scheduled task, the services that are running will re-create it, over and over and over. So once you have Google Updater installed you can then install Chrome. It puts it in the "Program Files" directory and any user of the computer can launch it, unfortuantely you have just infected your system with terrible software. On the upside you CAN uninstall the updater tools, and it will leave Chrome on your computer, but that's another installation step, and at some point you have to realize it's not worth it.

Anwyays, after Chrome is installed the first person that used it on the machine I installed it on reported that the browser locked up the computer while trying to import the settings from Firefox. I'm not sure what the actual cause was but it was another headache for the system administrators.

Google Chrome, you are not yet ready for the big show. Get your act together and ditch the terrible updater software. Give us an option to install for all users or in our profiles with the standalone installer! I like some things about Chrome, but it has yet to make me stop using Firefox.

Twitter Blog: Small Settings Update

Oh twitter how you have failed this time. You have disabled an optional check box in the settings that probably 80% of your users didn't know existed. You have to manually turn on this option, but twitter has removed it entirely. Why would you remove an optional setting? Don't you think people who checked that box enjoy seeing the replies that their friends write to their non friends? As of 2:21pm on May 13th it's still gone. If the trend for Twitter is to remove very basic options, I might have to find a different comparable service.

So my wife and I ordered a package, which shipped out on April 24th. Well its May 1st and there is no sign of the package. The package came from ohio and was destined for Michigan, not that far. So I called fedex, and found out the 'normal' fedex employees can't do anything about smart post. Also my most memorable moment with the fedex employee was when she said "I don't know anything about that, I don't work for the post office." So they don't work for the post office, they just use the post office to deliver packages... Wtf? So they tried to transfer me to smart post but they wouldn't answer, so I asked the operator for the number for smart post, and she informed me they don't have one. So I call back a little later and immediately ask to be transfered to smartpost. So I get forwarded to an automated system that says to pick 1 2 or 3 and all 3 options just take me back to the main menu. So then I start pressing 0, which also brings me back to the automated menu which is useless.

In the end I got my local post office dude to forward the package to me in Florida. He was more helpful in 10 seconds than spending 20min on the phone with fedex.

Moral of the story is, if you are in a job that encourages you to not help customers, work for a new company. I can't imagine being in a customer support job where standard protocal is to redirect requests somewhere else.

Btw I wrote this post on my phone so forgive any errors.

First I'll start I'll explain what HDCP is. It stands for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, and it seems like the longer of a name, the more pointless, which is most definitely the case here. Basically what it does is 'protects' audio and video data as it travels across digital media interfaces, such as HDMI and DVI (pictured on the right). So, for example if you're playing a Blu-Ray movie over HDMI to your TV, both your TV and blu-ray player must be HDCP compliant. This doesn't seem like a big deal right? Wrong. Every device that uses HDCP has to pay a licencing fee to have it enabled, and even though every HDMI interface is required to be HDCP, DVI interfaces (likely you are using this on your computer) do not have to be. So if the video card in your computer, or your computer monitor aren't compatable, you can't watch blu-ray. The biggest problem is that this doesn't really affect your every day "Joe Customer". Because most of the time they are going to watch high def content on their compliant TVs. But who it does affect, are people who watch on their computers. One of the first widespread problems reported was with the Apple iTunes stores, and their high def movies. People who had purchased movies from the iTunes store, on their Apple computers could not play videos on their Apple monitors. They've done everything right, and paid for the content, and all they get is a black box where the video should be.

Now, the purpose of HDCP is prevent piracy of high def content. The idea is the same as why you can't hook up your DVD player to a VCR and then watch it through your TV, because they don't want you recording your DVDs to VHS. The problem is that it doesn't prevent any piracy. Blu-ray movies are readily available for download in the file sharing underbelly of the internet, so people who are tech savvy can get high definition versions of movies that are not restricted by the stupid HDCP interface. Almost every attempt to protect content has been a miserable faliure, because it pisses off regular customers, and provides a very minor stumbling block for tech savvy people who are able to easily defeat it. In the end, if you want movies/music that will play on anything, and always work, get them DRM free. Unfortunately sometimes that means being a pirate. Arrrrrrrrrrr!

1 through 3, no cars that really matter, not relevant to this article.

4 Cylinders - BMW E30 M3 - A homologation car for group A touring car racing. This car has more racing pedigree in one front control arm than most cars have all together. I love BMWs and this is my favorite BMW of all time. One of my friends owns one, and someone once asked him where he got his body kit from... he responded "ummm, from BMW". The engine has individual throttle bodies and safely revved to 7800 RPMs (Insanely high for 1986 engine technology). It's a car that is meant to be driven hard.


5 Cylinders - Audi Quattro - There is almost no competition in this category, the Audi Quattro wins hands down. This is another car with lots of racing pedegree. The stock engine made 200 to 220 hp while rally versions made 450+ hp. The Audi Quattro is one of the most successful rallying cars of all time, and it is no wonder why it is pretty much the only choice in the 5 cylinder catagory.


6 Cylinders - Acura NSX - Here is a tough one. LOTS of competition. The car that I drive currently has 6 cylinders (BMW E30 325ix), and it even surprises me that I didn't pick a BMW for this category since their inline 6 engines have been legendary in the past 30 years. Anyways, I wanted my list to include a Japanese car. The funny part is that the NSX is very European compared to most sports cars from japan. The Skyline and it's RB26 engine almost made the cut here, but I like the elegance and affordability of the NSX. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like the NSX in the picture is going down the 'corkscrew' at Laguna Seca)

7 -- I don't think any cars have this cyl count

8 Cylinders - C6 Corvette Z06 - The everyman's supercar. One of my friends already questioned my choice of the Z06 over the ZR1, but I'll stick to my guns. The Z06 is a car made to be on the track. The ZR1 is a little too plush and soft for me. The NA 7.0L engine, will do 0-60 in 3.6 seconds, which is plenty fast. I'd love to take a Z06 around a track a few... hundred times. Also the after-market is virtually unlimited for the C6 Z06 because of it's high production numbers, which is something you can't really say for the ZR1. You could probably build a ZR1 killer for 1/2 the of the price difference between a Z06 and a ZR1 (which is $30,000)

9 -- Same as 7

10 Cylinders - Porsche Carrera GT - I consider this the supercar that was designed for me: A traditional 6 speed manual transmission, the sound of the V10, it's built as a convertible (like the Mazda Miata, which was a consideration in my 4 cyl category), and oh so sexy. The reason I say it was built as a convertable, is that some cars like the Lambo Gallardo Spyder is a standard Gallardo with the roof chopped off which weakens the structual integrity, and chassis enhancments are required.

In general, I like the 911 styling, but not as much as the GT, it's drop dead gorgeous. The brakes on this car set a new standard for supercars too. It had carbon ceramic rotors and six piston monoblock calipers, the rotors are 1.3 inches thick, but still weigh half of normal cast iron rotors, this reduces rotating mass and unsprung weight. It is also the first use of a dual plate carbon ceramic clutch in a production car. It is 6.65" in diameter which makes it lighter, and allows the engine to rev easier. Another advantage of the clutch is that it's service life is far longer than other supercars, which can go through a standard clutch in 5 to 10 thousand miles.

11 Cyl - I thought of picking a 12 cyl car with 1 dead cyl, but that changes the article a lot :)

12 Cylinders - McLaren F1 - I got to use another BMW engine. The list has now come full circle. The McLaren F1 was the supercar to end all supercars. The basic design of the car was lots of power, awesome handling, as little weight as humanly possible. Today the Bugatti Veryon would be the car to compare to the F1, but in terms of design characteristics they are completely different cars. The F1 is light, Veryron is heavy, F1 is NA, Veryron is FI, F1 is small, Veyron is huge, F1 is hardcore, Veryron is plush, F1 uses a Manual Transmission, Veryron uses Auto, F1 is RWD, Veryon is AWD... and the list goes on and on. It's strange how in 13 years the definition of the ultimate supercar can change so much. I think it goes to show you that the type of cars that I desire are becoming harder and harder to find.

As I look back through my list, almost every car has the same characteristics. A high performance, RWD, manual transmission car (aside from the Audi Quattro which is AWD). Recently I have heard a lot of news about some of my favorite cars being removed from companies lineups; the Pontiac G8, and the Honda S200 come to mind. What disappoints me even more is that the only car that I can even remotely get excited about in Honda's lineup is the S2000, and they have discontinued it. What were they thinking exactly? The purpose of high performance cars isn't necessairly to make you money, but is to get people talking about your company. If you don't have anything that is exciting, you're going to lose credibility. Look at Ford, while the Ford GT was around everyone was talking about it. It gets the press excited, and gets the general public excited. GM has done the same with the ZR1. Start blowing people's minds, start at the top. If you're making an amazing halo car ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_vehicle ), people will talk about it, and it will increase your brand loyalty and recognition, if you don't people are going to look at you the same way they look at Kia or Daewoo, and I think those two brands speak for themselves.