July 30, 2009
Whoops.
Either the Russian Navy is practicing for decap shots at fifty klicks range, or... Heh.Stiff upper lip, chaps. She'll hold. Be cool. She'll hold.
July 28, 2009
July 26, 2009
Marketing done right
I pretty much never say "Hey, I wish I'd been there to get hit with this marketing ploy," but...um...I have to say it now. Mad props and jealously, especially for anyone who actually got to play the cabinet version of Space Paranoids.Flynn's ftw.
July 25, 2009
July 22, 2009
I still wouldn't buy one.
A colleague today let me test-drive his 2006 (997) Porsche 911 Carrera S. I've spent much of my life fending off enthusiastic Porsche owners by explaining how much I hate the things. While I respect the engineering, I don't like the looks, found them severely uncomfortable, and generally lacking in any sort of soul. I drove a 911 when a teenager, and the experience was a profoundly negative one (no, I didn't stuff it, the shiny side stayed up) but I felt very much like the car was sneering at me as being 'unable to handle it.'I have a word for people who buy cars like that. That word is 'masochist.'
Anyway, ever since I started working with this gent, he and I have gone back and forth about various performance cars. I have no great experience driving them (I was born and raised in New York City, and haven't strayed from my urban canyon existence much) but I do own a German car of my own and enjoy it quite a bit, even if it's not really a performance car.
Anyway, this co-worker was gracious enough (actually, enthusiastic was the word I'd use) for me to take his baby on a quick jaunt through Houston downtown and onto the 59/45 freeway for several exits and back. So I did. I understand his feelings; I like my car so much I often urge other people I know like cars to give it a try.
So. I didn't stall. I didn't lose control. I didn't really go that fast - at 7pm on a weekday there are all kinds of cops hanging around Houston's freeway system and downtown area. I did, however, get to do several really severe lane-slices, to take unfair advantage of several on-ramps, and generally wind it up to the top part of its rev range in the lower gears. I think I kept it under 85. I'm pretty sure I did. He claims that the car really only gets 'happy' at 90, so what do I know.
Anyway, yes, it does have light steering. It does have a remarkably good kick in the pants for a flat six, just so long as you have the revs high. Since I drive a V8, my shifting instincts are all wrong - and I kept watching the speedo not the tach, shifting up reflexively once I got near what I thought was my current cruise speed. My colleague tried to convince me to drive the Porker with its revs up high -above 4500 - so as to have torque on tap. He was right, in that if you put the boot in it with the revs in the right range, the thing spools up fearsomely quickly.
But I don't think it's for me. I like a car that can growl along at just above idle, but then when required pull like a cockslapped oxen (haha oxymoron) off the line.
So I liked it. But if I had the scratch for a good 997, I'd be looking for a used Aston Martin, or maybe one of the new supercharged Jags. Because I love looking at my cars. And looking at a 911 for any length of time makes me want to reach for a newspaper and squash it.
July 20, 2009
July 16, 2009
Somebody's getting fired
...and if not, they should be. Legal departments are (in)famous for causing PR nightmares, but you'd think that working for a company as obsessed with public communications as Apple and for a CEO as mercurial in that pursuit as Jobs, the line troops would know better than to make this call. If not, whoever did should probably be looking over their shoulder.
July 10, 2009
So it's not just me.
A-fucking-men. Peter Luger's was by far the worst experience I've ever had at a steakhouse. The only thing that was good was the thick bacon slices. However:
- The steak? Gristly, bland, and overcooked.
- The service? Rushed, surly, and unresponsive. Granted this was a dinner rush time. But still.
- The ambience? If your food is good, then I can understand the ironic crappy-broken-chairs and stuffed-into-small-space thing with 'well-used' environment. If your food sucks, then you're just either too cheap to redecorate or too full of yourselves to care.