What Could Happen?

1971 Volkswagen Beetle

1971 VW

Well, here's a quick post to put up a picture of my project car. It's a 1971 VW Beetle with who knows how many miles on it. The engine was rebuilt about 10,000 miles ago and the body was removed from the chassis to have the rust repaired about 10 years ago. Actually, the chassis was replaced with one from a 1972 VW so the car will never be *correct*, but I'm not planning to win any first place awards in shows. My plan is to restore it to nearly new condition with correct parts where it makes sense. More later.

Third Time's a Charm

In the last month, I haven't been able to write my third blog entry until tonight. How do people have multiple blogs? I don't know if it's guilt or what, I'm not even sure where I'm going with this. Maybe several directions.

Autumn in New England is surely a spectacle. I am thoroughly enjoying my 30-40 minute commute to work on the side roads. However, it is getting more and more gray as the leaves do their little dance to the earth. I don't really mind as the weather gets colder and the first snows fall, but by late January, I've had about enough. I guess a lot of people must feel that way living in the northern part of the country.

I've been thinking a lot lately that it is time to buy a new computer. I have several actually, but the most modern is a Toshiba Satellite from 2002 that sports a Pentium III 1.13 GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM and a 30 GB hard disk. That machine came loaded with Windows XP which I ran for two years until, after several "normal" patches and service packs, it started having a problem with the audio driver and would blue screen at will. If I disabled the sound it would run fine, but very quietly.

So, about two years ago I wiped Windows XP from the machine and installed Fedora Core 3 Linux and haven't had a problem, sound or otherwise. I mostly use the machine for software development on a project that I can't mention yet, but the computer does just fine running development tools and a MySQL database all at once.

The other work horse we have is an old Pentium III 600 MHz machine with 512 MB of RAM and two 20 GB hard disks. This machine is used by my wife and two kids as well as myself and is showing its age. It's slow to start and kind of sluggish when browsing the web. If I replace this computer with a new one, maybe I can move it to the basement and turn it into a Linux fileserver. I'd probably need to throw a bigger hard disk in it to actually store something useful.

The REAL question is, should I get one now with Windows XP, or wait until early next year and get a machine with Windows Vista? Several things scare the bejesus out of me about Vista. One, it seems they've completely re-written the network stack and have thoughfully included several bugs and severe security holes that mature stacks weeded out a decade ago. What were they thinking? I'm sure they will correct the problems THEY KNOW ABOUT, but does anyone really need more Windows security issues? I don't.

Second, the license agreement is more restrictive. You can't move it to another machine more than once. Upgrading your motherboard and hard disk basically fits that description. From what I understand, if Microsoft decides you have violated the license or you don't have a "Genuine" copy, the OS basically gets mamed and you can't do much, including web browsing for more than an hour at a time. The third issue I have with Vista is bloat. Have you seen the miminum requirements? 15 GB free hard disk space, 128 MB video RAM. 1 GB system RAM. These are minimums. How well is it going to run with these resources? You should probably get double.

Whatever I decide, I'll probably set up a dual boot configuration with some flavor of Linux to run as default. I'd like to ween myself from Windows but I have a nasty dependence on Microsoft Money. I'll have to see what else is available. I know some people with say "Get a Mac", but I still can't get around the price of those things! What do you get for almost twice the money? I still have time to think and weigh my options and I'm sure I'll post what happens.

Car Restoration

Restoring old cars is a fascinating occupation. By occupation, I'm not just thinking of someone's profession, but the process and work of restoring a once common, taken-for-granted, old car to perfect condition. What I find especially interesting is the restoration of something besides the usual '57 Chevy, '65 Mustang, '67 Camaro, etc. These are "classic" collector cars and are very familiar to most people. It's the same as listening to "classic" rock, or what most radio stations claim is music from the '60's, '70's, and '80's. You've heard it all before and frankly I'll bet you're sick of it. But, that's a topic for another time.

When was the last time you saw a fully restored 1972 Ford LTD sedan? How about a 1967 Plymouth Fury? Or, ANY vintage station wagon? Any one of those cars is way more interesting than most 30 to 40 year old muscle cars. Besides the many, many hours of work that goes into restoring any car, it's the thrill of the hunt for that rare door handle, or chrome trim that adds to the satisfaction and reward. Restoring a "common" classic car is almost as easy as ordering every piece new from the many suppliers and reproduction houses around the country. There's really not much hunting to do.

Anyway, that was my rant and opinion of what restoration is really about. However, I see a dark future in this occupation and it's coming sooner than most people think. Can you believe that any 1981 car is an antique now? Coincidently, that's about the time automakers starting adding computer controlled engine management systems to cars. The first ones were fairly simple and they only controlled the amount of fuel that passed through a slightly modified carburetor based on readings from an oxygen sensor in the exhaust stream. Most didn't control the ignition system at all. The computer they used was very simple (especially by today's standards) and you only needed one type to control most engines for a particular manufacturer. The only difference was in the on-board data parameters used for a specific car and engine.

A few years later they replaced the carburetor with a single fuel injection unit that was vastly simpler to manufacture. The unit only consisted of a throttle plate, a fuel injector, and a throttle position sensor. Gone were all of the complex parts of the carburetor that had been added on over the decades to compensate for the various operating conditions and emission controls required by the engine. This was a major improvement in the performance and reliability of the engine. You could start one of these engines on a 0 degree day and immediately drive away! No stumbing, stalling, hard starting, or even pumping the gas pedal!

Fast forward ten or fifteen years. Cars now have multiple computers that approach the complexity of the space shuttle. Computers are running the radio, climate control, lighting, braking, cruise control, wipers, power seats and mirrors. More and more cars are even controlling throttle position with the engine management computer. You ASK the computer to accellerate the car when you step on the pedal.

Okay, here's where it gets interesting. Fast forward to 2031. Car restoration is stuck in the stone age, why? Because no one is making the bazillion different computer systems that are required to RUN any car from the late 1990's on. The best you can hope for to restore that nice rare 2006 Lincoln Zephyr is a complete re-wiring with a generic control system run by a ten year old PDA. Maybe they'll have modification kits to actually hook a CABLE to the throttle of your 2004 BMW 7-Series. Who knows? What you may find is all of the cars from this era going to the crusher because it is nearly impossible to restore one to new condition. That would be a real shame.

Opening Day

So, I finally have a blog. Now what? Actually I thought I could write about my experiences with various things in my life. Some people write about what has happened to them on a given day, others write their opinions about world events. I may do those things as well, depending on my mood. I guess that's my right, since it's my blog. My writing topics may also be influenced by reader comments. Hopefully they won't be too harsh.

Where did the name CompWrench come from? Well, my current profession is software engineering (the Comp part), my previous profession was a mechanic, or automotive technician, depending on your opinion of the trade. Obviously that's the Wrench part. I expect most of the topics here will revolve around one of those two subjects. I'll try to keep it interesting so I can attract a regular readership. Otherwise, there's not much point in spending time writing to myself. Maybe there is some therapeutic effect from writing even if no one reads it. We'll see.

Anyway, that's good for a first post. I'll have a more specific topic next time.