Timothy Hoogland

Day 1 – Digital Overload Road Trip

Timothy Hoogland — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:02:00 +0000

So began the road trip at 6:30pm on Wednesday March 3rd, 2010. I packed all my gear into the Vibe and headed to Will’s house. After getting his gear and Ana’s gear into the car we were off. We topped off the gas tank and jumped in I-80. We drove until 8:30 AM (CST) clearing just over 600 miles. We made a few stops for more gas and bathroom breaks along the way and to switch off myself and Will for driving. Our first stop is in Scranton, PA. We rented a hotel room for a few hours to rest up and to shower. After that we will be off to New York!

Vibe/Matrix/Corolla Adapter Plate Found!

Timothy Hoogland — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:35:47 +0000

So today I was browsing the internet seeing what modifications I could do to my Vibe to get more performance without doing forced induction. I was looking at aftermarket headers and then started looking if there were any better intake manifolds and stumbled upon something awesome! Turns out there is a company called Dorman who makes OE replacement parts for cars and with their 1ZZFE intake manifold they include an adapter so that you can use it on models 03-08. Well that adapter is EXACTLY what I needed for the supercharger. The replacement intake manifold can be found starting at $172 and comes with the adapter.

So not wanting to pay $172 and have an extra manifold laying around I called the company and they can only sell the part directly if the order is 1000 units or more. But for $172 that isn’t too bad to be able to install the supercharger. For those of you wondering you can get the intake manifold from: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?catalog=42&partnum=615560&a=FR42-615560

Comcast Using DNS for Ad Redirection

Timothy Hoogland — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:00:09 +0000

So at home we have a Comcast Cable Internet connection. Lately I have been getting redirected to a “Comcast Search Page”. Now you’re probably thinking “Well that because you mistyped a URL”. Actually it’s not. About 25% of the time that I do a search term on Google.com the Comcast Search page comes up. And on this page it does have search results but it also has tons and tons of ads on it BEFORE the acutal search results. Why would Comcast do this? Profit! Everytime you get that page the advertisers have to pay a fee for that page impression. But let’s face it the real reason they did this is to take advantage of the average computer user like your grandmother who has no idea what to click on and what not to. This is a very shady and low thing to do to your customers Comcast. I have personally removed Comcast’s DNS servers from my router (I usually do before this BS just because they suck so much) and I now use OpenDNS.org and Google.com for my DNS servers. If you want to know how to do this so that Comcast doesn’t make money off your back check out OpenDNS.org.

What is to stop them from redirecting the websites that they feel are unfit for their customers? When will there be some regulation on what ISP’s can do to the traffic that is going through their networks? This is crazy that I have to use a third party DNS provider so that I do not get bombarded with ads and scams for a service that I PAY FOR! What ever happened to net neutrality? I just hope this doesn’t fall upon deaf ears.

Digital Overload Trip Changes

Timothy Hoogland — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:44:29 +0000

So it turns out that two members of GenVibe.com are on the way out to Digital Overload. We will be making a stop either on the way out or on the way back to meet KeithVibe (Keith) and on Saturday I will be having lunch with HSkater26 (Patrick). This will be a really cool trip. I am soo excited! I also ordered a AVS Bug deflector for the Vibe to avoid getting more stone chips in my hood. I am not a big fan of how they look but I would rather have that get dented up instead of my hood.

Digital Overload Road Trip!

Timothy Hoogland — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:19:11 +0000

My friend Will and I are going to be going to the Digital Overload LAN Party/Convention in Providence, RI in March. We will be driving out there in one day. Seeing as I have not traveled very much we are turning this trip to a LAN party into a 5 day road trip. We will start off on Wednesday night and drive to New York, NY. We will spend Thursday in NY and then drive to Boston, MA and spend Friday in Boston. The convention officially starts on Friday but there is really not much going on in ways of tournaments and/or gaming so we are going to the convention in Providence, RI for Saturday to Sunday and then making the drive back home hopefully landing back home sometime Monday.

I have made a road trip plan on the AAA website and estimated that taking my Pontiac Vibe will cost us about $0.11 per mile for gas. If we were to take my Chrysler Voyager will bring the price per mile for gas up to $0.17 a mile. We will most likely take the Vibe due to its creature comforts and the fact that it’s a more reliable and newer vehicle. The van is a 2000 while the Vibe is a 2005 and is very well kept.

Either way I plan on bringing my Laptop and my Nikon D50. I am super excited and it’s less than a month away! Woohoo!!!

Sirius vs XM – What one to choose?

Timothy Hoogland — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:23:18 +0000

So I have recently took the plunge into satellite radio. What tempted me was my love for gadgets and impulse buying (not the two best things to have when working in a retail store ). So I ended up picking up an XM onyx because of the price and color display. I got home and installed the antenna and then attempted to mount the Onyx on my dashboard. Now they give you a “vent mount” and a stick on “dash mount”. Neither worked well on my dash. My vents are round and my dash is curved. So anyways I finally find a way to mount it and get it all hooked up. The sound quality is crystal clear and all the frequencies are there. I am hooked instantly. The content they offer and the quality of the audio is great!

I later am reading online and come to find that Sirius makes a add-on for my JVC KD-S100 head-unit. So I pickup one off eBay for about $45. The first one I get was DOA but the supplier had one out to me the next day. So I get it all installed and call XM. Lo and behold that even though that the Sirius AND XM logos are on the boxes for the tuner AND the programming is practically the same the satellites and companies are separate. So no biggie. I close my XM account and call Sirius and set theirs up. The XM account support was terrible. I was very nice to them and up front just telling them that I was going from a dash unit to a add-on. They were VERY pushy to try and keep my account open. I called Sirius and they had me up and running in less than 5 minutes. They were very polite and not pushy about what plan I was getting. I knew what I wanted and they offered one and when I declined they didn’t keep asking.

I’ve had the Sirius installed for a month now and I am quite happy with it. The sound quality is great and the programming is still entertaining. I have thought of replacing the satellite signal with the Sirius XM streaming app on my iPhone but I was using it for a week in my van while my Vibe was in the garage drying the tints. During that week the streaming music quality would start off ok and then drop off to nothing at random. After using it for a week I decided to stick with the dedicated satellite signal.

So basically if you like high quality music and commercial free radio and have $10 a month to spare then check out Sirius radio!

StarTech.com making cheap made in china parts expensive

Timothy Hoogland — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:41:03 +0000

If working in retail has taught me anything it is that presentation is everything. For example we carry a brand called “Sabrent” and a more known brand called “Vantec”. I am going to use a PCI SATA/eSATA card as an example. The generic “Sabrent” brand costs about $14.99 where the “Vantec” that has 1 LESS port costs about $24.99. Why is that? Well one they both have the SAME chipset. Secondly the packaging looks better on the Vantec brand. Because of this a consumer feels better and is under the assumption that they are getting a better quality when in fact its the same thing.

What got me to write this article was that a friend of mien was trying to tell me that StarTech.com is the best thing since sliced bread. Well below I have the SAME EXACT product from StarTech.com and from NewEgg.com. Both have the same chipset and even have the same PCB. I took these screenshots at 3:30pm on 2/3/2010 CST. Have a look for yourself.

If you have shopped at NewEgg.com you would know that Rosewill is NewEgg’s “house” brand (think of BestBuy’s Dynex or CompUSA’s Ultra). They are basically cheaply made products from China that they buy for next to nothing and then slap their label on them. What does this have to do with StarTech.com? Everything! That is their WHOLE business. All they do is buy up cheap products from China and brand them to hell. They make very pretty packaging for the product and even printed CD’s. When you buy from them all you are paying for is markup. If you have been online for more than a month you probably have heard of eBay or NewEgg. I don’t get the hype about StarTech.com but I guess I just know better and now you do too.

Overview of Vibe Supercharger Project

Timothy Hoogland — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:50:10 +0000

UPDATE: This has been canceled/suspended due to issues locating parts (as the article says). I am just going to add racing headers and leave it for now. I may revisit the project at a later time.

I own a 2005 Pontiac Vibe that I purchased last year at the end of June 2009. I have since added a Cosmo CAI and a Magnaflow Exhaust system. My next thing to do is install the TRD Supercharger and an aftermarket ECU to tune the car once the supercharger is installed. The only problem is that Toyota stopped producing the Supercharger and the 2005 Vibe has a drive by wire throttle system whereas the 2003-2004’s came with a cable controlled throttle. So here is what I am going to need to complete this project:

TRD Supercharger Blower ◄
5th Injector for TRD SC ◄
G-Reddy Emanage ◄
Boomslang Harness ◄
Wideband Air/Fuel Gauge ◄
Boost Gauge ◄
Throttle-body Adapter Plate

Optional:

Aftermarket Header

So the things on the list with the “◄” next to them I have already located them. I found out that because of the difference in the mounting of the throttle-body between the 2003-2004 and the 2005-2008 makes it impossible to directly mount the 2005-2008 throttle-body to the supercharger without an adapter. The only problem is that the guy who used to custom make them is nowhere to be found and the few people who do have them are not willing to give them up. So I am trying to figure out how to make one or possibly modify a throttle-body spacer to work. Until then the project is on hold.

Why Windows 7 seems far better than Vista

Timothy Hoogland — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:20:09 +0000

There has been much buzz about the new Windows 7 Operating System from Microsoft not only in the tech community but also the general public. IT is supposed to be the “holy grail” of Windows operating systems and is supposed to remedy all the issues that Windows Vista was plagued with. Windows 7 comes with a few new visual effects and enhancements that Windows Vista didn’t have. Most of the features are designed to enhance productivity such as the window snapping at the top and sides of the screen and a better management of multiple windows open within the same programs. The kernel has some modifications to enhance stability and performance. All in all due to Microsoft’s ad campaigns the launch of Windows 7 was pretty widely accepted.

Every day I still hear horror stories and complaints about Windows Vista with it being slow, buggy, and unstable. Granted when Windows XP came out it was very unstable and the Windows 2000 fan-boys swore to stick to their OS just like the Windows XP fan-boys stuck to their OS when Windows Vista came out. But no one remembers the failure of Windows XP when it was first released like when Windows Vista was released. This could be due to Apple’s snide and spiteful ad campaigns or just bad press in general but the fact of the matter is that Windows 7 had a huge head start on Vista.

One of the major complaints that people had with Windows Vista was the hardware support. When Joe average computer user went to buy a new computer that came pre-loaded with Windows Vista instead of Windows XP he found that his printer and scanner from 1994 did not work with the modern operating system. So instead of blaming the manufacturers of the products they immediately blamed it on the operating system itself.

Now Windows Vista has been out for almost 4 years already. Most people don’t realize that. The good thing that came out of Vista being released in 32bit and 64bit is that it pushed hardware and software manufacturers to start releasing support (like drivers and patches) for the 64bit operating systems. Now since the NT7 kernel that Windows 7 is based on has a very similar hardware stack that Vista’s NT6 kernel has most of the drivers that were designed to run on Windows Vista ran and installed fine on Windows 7. This made Windows 7 seem like it had better hardware support than Vista due to the legwork that manufacturers had already done because of Vista’s launch 4 years ago.

I am not saying that Windows 7 is not a better operating system than Windows Vista because it is better. Windows 7 scales far better on lower end computer systems such as net-books or that Pentium 4 computer that grandma and grandpa have. This is due to the major kernel and feature overhaul that went on with Windows 7. If you remember shortly, lets say 6 months, after Windows Vista was released there was already talk of Windows 7 coming out in a few years. Microsoft better prepared and tested Windows 7 since they had the buffer time of the Windows Vista lifetime.

I personally have no problems with Vista. It could also have something to do with making sure my systems are fully stacked with powerful CPU’s and plenty of RAM to run the most unruly of operating systems. I have since converted both my systems to Windows 7 and don’t miss Vista that much since 7 is a little bit faster but then again I thought the same about Vista.

Computers and the “Magic” Behind them

Timothy Hoogland — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:33:23 +0000

If you ask the average person about their computer and what it does they will probably respond with something like it lets me talk to my friends or go on the internet. All that they know is they push the power button and the screen displays what they want to see. They don’t know how it happens or why. They just know that every time they push that button it does it. Some people may even go as far to say that it’s “magic”. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

A computer is a rather simple device. A computers primary job is to accept input from the user and output the results. Computers are really quite stupid in comparison to humans. As a human we have this thing called free will. We have the ability to make our own decisions, good or bad. Just because someone tells us to do something we can respond one of two ways. We can either honor the request and carry it out or just outright refuse it. Computers do not have this ability. They do whatever the user tells them to do. When you type in a website into your web browser someone somewhere has programmed that web browser to accept certain parameters and behave accordingly.

The biggest thing that annoys myself about the average computer user is that they blame everything that goes wrong on the computer itself. It never occurs to them that the problem is usually caused by poorly written software (Ex: Windows ) or user error (usually is the problem). So next time you think that your computer is the one causing all the issues just remember that it’s usually a PEBKAC issue.