Originally intended to document my experience of DeLorean ownership, focus is often radical and strange, boring and obtuse.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A DeLorean-Powered Fridge

Using one bit of stainless to power another!This past weekend a tremendous storm caused a colossal power failure in my city. We were without power for almost 3 full days as two transformers exploded and electrical lines caught fire just a street away.

But I was prepared for the zombie apocalypse with my 2000 watt inverter.

Our hydro company, a bunch of douchebags, refused to even acknowledge that our neighbourhood was powerless. A day passed and still no trucks and no information available. Not knowing when power would return, furious neighbours stormed the grocery stores with pitchforks and bought up all the ice supplies.

As they returned home some of the curious ones asked me why my garage was open, and why my DeLorean was running. The answer?

I splurged on a garage door opener with a battery backup - and my 32 year old DeLorean was powering my fridge. Pretty ironic if you know the original BTTF Time Machine was supposed to be a fridge.

Le extension cord. It's tres long.Most people use inverters for... well... I really don't know. Comfort camping? Doing karaoke on the way to work? Building birdhouses with power tools inside minivans in remote areas? Anyway, the inverter allowed me to plug in my fridge for quite some time. I simply ran the extension cord through the garage door, into the house and around the corner to the fridge.

It was a hot day, and the DeLorean idling in the garage quickly raised the temperature to 32C - but my Toby fans ran strong. Everything was looking good, and envious neighbours said "Wow" a lot.

In the end however, the inverter gave out. Apparently a 520 watt fridge is too much for a self-proclaimed "Heavy Duty" 2000 watt inverter to handle. Thanks, Motomaster!

But soon hydro was restored. I suppose in an alternate 1985 we would've had to throw out the entire contents of the fridge. But as it turns out we only lost some frozen bread, shrimp, corn and bananas. And I don't mind. Because I certainly wasn't about to make a shrimp/corn/banana sandwich.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

I Just Want It To Work!

Is there a museum of awesome sprinklers? If so, this belongs in the top 3. I'm having an identity crisis. I live in the future. I use futuristic technology. And I occasionally enjoy that technology.

But today's tech is total crap. Yet because of my age I'm forced to embrace this glitchy crap technology that requires 78 calls to tech support and 99% of the time they don't even know how to fix it.

How many times have you heard, or said, "the system's down." The system! THE SYSTEM! Why do we all rely on the system? What IS the system? I have a poo-making system. I put food inside me and my system turns it into modern technology. I mean shit. Sorry. "The system" is an all-encompassing term that basically means nothing because you yourself have no idea what it is. And your system is different than my system and OH DEAR GOD IT'S DOWN!

Old stuff doesn't go down and ruin your day. I'm not buying a new forty-five dollar plastic sprinkler with a fifty dollar digital timer. Gimme a break. First, I don't want to call tech support for a freakin' sprinkler. Second, I'll turn the water off when I BLOODY WELL FEEL LIKE IT.

I chose the simpler, more reliable path. I chose technology from 1960. I chose a New Old Stock Everain Turret sprinkler. With ONE moving part. It goes perfectly with my Weber charcoal grill. It goes fittingly with my TWO-STROKE Lawn-Boy mower. Clean air and life on earth be damned! I WILL have reliable technology!

And so I will set aside the mind-bogglingly awesome box it came in. And I will carefully remove the tag that declares there to be only 4 different lawn shapes. And I will water my lawn.

I will endure the taunts from other 30 year olds who think I'm some grandpa who doesn't know what a twitter is, or why people want to talk on the skype. And to prove I'm still hip and cool I'll go to Starbucks and order one of those free wifi's all the coffee shops are giving away.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Toshiba vs. Sony

Once upon a time Sony & Toshiba agreed on things

Have you heard? Toshiba and Sony are battling it out over the future of DVDs.

Both companies are very well-known for their totally radical electronics. Both hold headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. And both think their own technology is the best. And that is why the talks have stopped.

Sony, along with other big-name companies like Mitsubishi and Panasonic, developed the DVD technology known as Blu-Ray. The laser is actually blue instead of red, and is therefore ultra-lucky-happy-super-number one and can cram more information onto a disc via brute force. Blu-Ray DVDs can hold approximately 25 GB, while a dual-layer disc can hold about 50 GB. It supports multi-layer discs (up to 200 GB) as well, which means one day your Blu-Ray won't be sitting on the curb.

The downside is the price. It costs more to produce a disc like this. Also, the laser draws so much energy, the lights in your neighbourhood will dim while you are recording shows onto a disc.

Toshiba's DVD technology is known as HD. It can hold 15 GB of information, which doesn't seem like much, but that's where Toshiba's strategy lies: HD discs are cheaper to produce. A prototype tri-layered disc will hold a maximum of 45 GB.

Unfortunately there is no middle ground here. HD and Blu-Ray discs and players are not compatible. Somebody has to give and neither side is budging. What does that mean for you? Three DVD players: your old one to play your current collection, a Blu-Ray to play Sony movies, and an HD unit to play Toshiba's stuff.

I was looking forward to Santa bringing me a DVD-recorder, but I faxed him earlier this week to put a hold on my order until this mess is sorted out. The fat guy jumped the gun in 1980, and brought us a Betamax.

If we have learned one thing from the Beta, it's that Sony is stubborn. If we have learned two things from the Beta, it is one word: Wait. Somebody's gotta give, but who?

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