Car Modifications - Tip on Suspension

Car Modifications - Tip of the Day:

If the stock suspension and chassis on your car is already good enough to some degree, you may not need to go with the coilovers adjustable suspension which generally has more race-spec oriented springs and shocks. You may go for a custom combo setup getting good shocks and sport springs separately.


- almirsCorner.com -
#cars #modified #suspension #springs #shocks #lowering #almirsCorner

Traditional Manual Transmissions - Why? What's so special about it?

What is so special about the cars with traditional manual transmissions that we car enthusiasts can't explain and properly convey to our family members and friends?

I personally owned cars with a traditional manual transmission except the last car that I owned which was a shiftable automatic. I learned how to drive a car on a manual car and I thought it was cool. At that time, the automatic transmissions were not efficient from the gas mileage point of view and from the performance point of view. It was definitely a bad choice that car enthusiasts did not want to make. Then technology improved over the years and automatic transmissions got much better and the number of gears equaled the manuals. Torque converters on the automatic transmissions also improved drastically along with the electrical control over vacuum control. Then came the dual-clutch transmissions that are technically automated manuals that you can also shift without a clutch pedal.

I have driven cars with all these types of transmissions and they can all put a smile on your face. Good automatics and dual-clutch transmission cars will most likely give you more consistent 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, but is it all about drag times and lap times?

There is something about cars with manual transmissions that draws me to them. I believe that word is "engagement". Yes, most of us guys are scared of engagements, weddings and commitments but there is definitely one place where we like engagement and that is behind that steering wheel, clutch pedal and that shifter.

My last car was a Mini Cooper with a 6-speed shiftable automatic; no clutch pedal present. I guess I wanted to be part of this trend that I've noticed in Orange County and I decided to get this car with this type of transmission. I had a lot of fun with this car, but I need to point out that the first thing I had to do when I got the car was stop by a performance shop to install an aftermarket exhaust so that gear shifting can be more engaging. I owned the car for almost three years and you can see a lot of my videos on YouTube under "almirx101" username. I was able to enjoy and maneuver my Mini with confidence in traffic and canyon roads never worrying about mis-shifting or not down-shifting fast enough so that I can get enough power. The car was relatively fast and gear shifts were fast enough for me, but after almost three years I started realizing that it was too easy to drive it. I guess my honeymoon phase driving cars as if it is a video game was over.

I concluded that I was missing the manual transmission and the engagement that used to put a smile on my face even in Orange County rush-hour traffic. I sold this car and moved on, but moving on meant getting a car within a certain budget. There were only a few cars on my mind but 2007 and 2008 model Honda Fit was something I was leaning towards because of the numerous YouTube videos on this car praising it for its chassis and driving engagement. That's how I started my new adventure or should I say continue my old adventure in the world car enthusiasm. I got a 2008 Honda Fit with a 5-speed manual transmission.

I can spend another thousand words talking about handling, suspension, clutch feel and how it translates into engagement, but at the end of the day, you define the word "engaging" for yourself. Have fun driving and be safe.



- almirsCorner.com -
#cars #carreviews #manual #dualclutch #automatics #transmission #driving #engaging #gears #shiftknob 

Cars and Coffee in Irvine - Dec 13, 2014

Today's Cars and Coffee was great. We had a heavy rain yesterday and even this morning we had wet roads, but car enthusiasts know what they need to do whether it is rain or shine.

Here is the link to the full album:
Cars and Coffee in Irvine - Dec 13, 2014

Here are a few top picks from me:

(1)
An old school Porsche 911 heavily modified:

(2)
Dodge Challenger SRT modified:

(3)
A classic Bentley:

- almirsCorner.com -
#cars #CarsAndDriver #CarCrazy #Irvine #OrangeCounty #California

Healthy to change your programming language occasionally ?

I did a bit of programming in Python last night. It was fun to get back into it after a year break when I did my original Python tutorial. The factory patterns is something I have done many times in .NET using C#, but I wanted to see if I can develop it in Python without cheating and finding solutions online. It was a fun exercise. My ultimate goal is to set up a little framework for building enterprise-level applications. Having this accomplished in .NET, I really want to do this in Python. The requirement for myself is:

• the framework needs to be n-tier
• at least the client and server tiers to be able to run on two physical servers
• each vertical slice or entity in this framework needs to be lightweight and it should ability to run as a service on its own

What I am trying to say that it is ok to step out of your comfort zone and attempt to build enterprise-level applications in a different programming language. It is healthy for us.


- almirsCorner.com -

#tech #programming #coding #code #Python #DotNet #Csharp #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering

DIY is becoming harder from day to day

I changed the battery on my Mini Cooper today. The engine bay is so compact that the battery is placed very close to the windshield under the plastic that is the base for the vipers. It is a 2009 model and I bought this car about 2+ years ago and this is the first time changing the battery. It took me a while to get to the battery. After I changed the battery, I quickly consulted with a tech at the Mini dealer and he told that I would need to have the car programmed to accept the new battery specifications. The computer needs to know when to start and stop charging based on the specifications.

Cars are getting more complicated these days and many components are controlled by the car computer. When my car could not start, I could not even put the car in Neutral to push it out the parking spot. These type of things make me get a car that has minimal electronics. Mini Cooper is just an example. I like my Mini Cooper, but I now totally understand why Magnus Walker sticks to 1960s and early 1970s Porsches.

DIY is becoming harder from day to day.


- almirsCorner.com -

#tech #diy #cars #ECU #computer #carbattery 

Reaching the milestone of 7,000+ views / month on my YouTube channel (almirx101)

Another milestone is reached on my YouTube channel http://www.YouTube.com/almirx101

Lifetime views: 152,276
Thank you for watching.



- almirsCorner.com -

#almirsCorner #almirx101 #youtube #milestone

Software Design and IKEA - what do they have in common?

Software design and integration could be compared to building IKEA furniture as long as the granularity of your modules is down at the low-level as IKEA parts and configuration.

What is the sweet spot? You can only achieve it if you put the "Keep It Simple Stupid" hat on as you are designing your software. Don't worry; it is not an exact science.


- almirsCorner.com - 
#tech #programming #software #softwaredesign #architecture #coding #integration #softwareengineering 

Battery life of your smartphone - can it last 48 hours?

A lot of times we get frustrated how the battery life of our smartphones is not good enough to get us through the whole day. That is true if we use our smartphones as a computer replacement or as a tablet replacement.

If we used our phones for what they were originally invented then we would get much better results. I turned off notification services on my iPhone 5c and used it ONLY for:

• quick phone calls
• quick SMS messages
• quick glance at emails
• taking a few pictures

After 1.5 days, the battery is 88%.

We should have a 48-hour battery-life challenge.

- almirsCorner.com - 

#smartphone #iPhone #battery #batterylife #48hourBatteryChallenge #tech 

Gas prices are going down. Are you buying a truck or an economy car?

Gas prices are going down. You could afford that truck and the fuel for it even though your drive to work is 20+ miles. Right?

However, it is time to buy that economical car now because you can negotiate better price and it will pay off in the long term.

Here is a good Gas Cost Calculator that I put together to help you with these decisions:

http://almirscorner.blogspot.com/p/gas-cost-calculation-comparing-costs.html


Here is an example of comparing a random economical car with a random truck using the current gas price of $3.27 per gallon:

- almirsCorner.com -

#gas #MPG #gascost #fuelconsumption #consumption #cars #carreviews #calculator

How to purge files on your server with automated batch script?

If you are constantly running out of space on your server and you need to purge older files that you don't need, then here is an example of how to do this with batch scripts on Windows platform:

http://almirscorner.blogspot.com/p/purging-deleting-files.html



- almirsCorner.com -

#batch #script #batchscript #forfiles #commandline #command #dos #doscommands #purgefiles #delete #tech #scripting #programming #devops 

Invoking a batch script on a remote machine using a script on the client

I have been doing software development for 17 years. I started on Unix platform with C++ and then moved to C++ on Microsoft platform and eventually transitioned to .NET and C# programming. In the meantime scripting has always been a fun thing to do on the side. Scripting is just means of accomplishing something quickly in order to simplify the development for the team and the deployments for the team. For example, some of the scripts that I will eventually share with you are:

• Quick scripts that deploy code to a server and start/stop services
• Scripts that monitor the changes on the server throughout the day
• Scripts that notify you when there is a change on the server and what change it was
• Scripts that monitor the logs for your application and send you the daily summary on the type of errrors
• etc.....

The following example is how you can start scripts on a server by sending a signal from the client computer. There are many different ways to implement. This is one way of doing.

http://almirscorner.blogspot.com/p/invoking-batch-script-on-remote-machine.html



- almirsCorner.com -

#batch #batchscript #scripting #doscommand #commandline #programming #devOps #automation

Cars & Coffee in Irvine - Oct 18, 2014

Here is the album with a few pictures:

Album - Cars and Coffee in Irvine on Oct 18, 2014

- almirsCorner.com -

#cars #CarsAndCoffee #Irvine #OrangeCounty #SoCal #California 

Normally Aspirated Engines - Are they becoming collectibles?

Have we reached the era where normally aspirated engines become collectibles?

Everybody is introducing turbocharged engines across all models of their cars. Benz and BMW have done it. Mini has done it. I now hear rumors about Porsche doing it and base Carrera having 2.9L turbocharged engine. I understand that reducing the size of the engine and adding a turbocharger improves efficiency and gets you better gas mileage. On the other hand we have some Japanese manufacturers (Mazda, Honda, Toyota) who are sticking to NA engines and they are building high-compression engines which also increases efficiency and improves gas mileage. 

So the NA engines are still here to stay.


- almirsCorner.com - 

#turbo #cars #Porsche #Benz #BMW #VW #carreview #turbocharger #MPG #fuelconsumption 

Programming - How good are you in null checking?

We all have written code where we did not do proper null checking and in special scenarios it ends up getting "null object reference" errors.

This post is just to remind myself and you about this so you can think about it as you are coding. I hope that the following video will resonate with you. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNoJeBxhDE

- almirsCorner.com -

#programming #programming101 #softwaredevelopment #null #NullObjectReferenceError #code #coding #coding101 #tech

Cars and Coffee - Sep 27, 2014

The link for the album: Cars and Coffee - Sep 27, 2014

1st Place:   Porsche 356

2nd Place:  BMW 2002

3rd Place:  Swag Van

- almirsCorner.com - 

#cars #CarsAndCoffee #Irvine #OrangeCounty #SoCal