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Although I’m not an expert, I thought I’d share some of the things I think about when preparing our cars for winter driving. I’d be interested in your ideas too.

Lights

In the long, dark days of winter, it’s good to see and to be seen. Be sure to check all of the lights on the outside of your car and fix any burned out bulbs. You may need a friend to help you check the brake lights. I’m amazed how many cars I see during my daily commute with brake lights that don’t work correctly.

If you have fog lights, don’t forget to check those too. My fog lights do not improve my ability to see in fog (since I have HID headlights), but they make it easier for other cars to see me. It’s good to keep all of your lights clean and functional.

Windshield Wipers

If your windshield wipers are more than a couple of years old, you might want to opt for new blades. However, sometimes they just need a scrubbin’. I fill a bucket with a tiny amount of dish soap and some hot water. The solution is very watered down. Then I use an old toothbrush to scrub both sides of each blade – this loosens up dirt and grime. Next use a strong paper towel (I use heavy duty “shop” paper towels from the auto parts store) to wipe the loosened gunk off of the blade. Be sure to do the rear window wiper blade, if you have one.

Tires

While some folks swap to winter tires, many of us will just keep driving on the same tires all year round. As winter approaches, make sure you check your tire pressure. Cooler weather can result in lower pressure.

When your tire pressure doesn’t match the manufacturer’s recommendations, your tire shape will not be optimal, resulting in generally reduced performance and predictability. The recommended tire pressure values for my car are in the center console arm rest; you may find yours in the door jamb of the driver’s door.

Coolant, aka Antifreeze

We often think of engine coolant as essential to summer driving, but it also protects your engine during the winter – particularly in very cold climates. Fresh engine coolant will protect your engine from freezing – which can result in serious damage. The frequency for changing your coolant depends on the car; check your owner’s manual for specifics on your car. About once every three years is pretty typical, although some of the newer cars can go longer.

If you are going to do the change yourself, be careful! Coolant is poisonous, but has a scent that attracts many animals. Don’t leave it where a pet could drink it. Also, be careful not to let it drain into a storm sewer.

One note of advice – if you take your car to a shop to have the coolant changed, do not have the engine “flushed.” Do not do it. Don’t even think about it. Just tell them, “No thank-you.” Nope, nope, nope.

Oil

As always, keep fresh oil in your engine. Regular oil changes will do more to keep your engine in good shape for many miles than almost anything else. There are many arguments about the kinds of oil and the frequency of changes; crack open your owner’s manual to discover what’s best for your car.

Emergency Kit

You have one of these in your trunk, right?
 

Overview

I’ve had my HTC Incredible cell phone, from Verizon, for over a month. The Incredible is a “smart” phone based on Google’s Android operating system. My phone currently has Android v2.1. I’m anticipating the new version being released soon.

I’ve connected the phone to my home email accounts, Facebook, and Windows Live accounts, as well as my personal calendaring.

If you’re looking for a comparison to the Apple iPhone, you won’t find it here. My exposure to the iPhone is limited, so I wouldn’t be able to provide solid comparison.

Call Quality

I haven’t suffered from dropped calls, although the reception isn’t as good as my previous phone, the LG chocolate 3. The Incredible has a much louder ear piece, but the audio breaks-up more often than I found with the chocolate 3. Still, the Incredible is acceptable for phone calls. I think it’s odd that I need to comment on how well the phone-section of the device functions; it should just work.

Signal Reception

It appears, from the various displays, that the Incredible’s sensitivity to cell phone signals is less than my previous phones. The Incredible can also connect to local Wi-Fi, which I use at home. The Wi-Fi feature allows the phone to access the web without using cell signals, and is faster. This has also been handy when free Wi-Fi is available in restaurants and other public places.

Screen (Display)

The screen is gorgeous. It has very rich color and fine resolution. Text and images both look great. It is very easy to read long text on this phone. The screen readability suffers when in direct sunlight, but this is common for color screens. Some of the newer phones have larger screens, however I find that the Incredible is a nice size for me – fits in my pocket, and is large enough to view photos and web pages.

Battery Life

Smart phones eat their battery. People who have smart phones love their phone chargers – in the car, at home, at the office. Careful usage of the phone can yield two days of battery. However, I find that I’m charging it every night – and sometimes while at work – to keep the battery charged.

User Interface

The phone manufacturer, HTC, created their own visual interface that lives on top of the Google Android interface. HTC’s “Sense” interface is derided by some geeks as being slower and unnecessary. I have found the interface to be smooth and intuitive, so I haven’t tried to change it. It works fine for me.

Stability

The Incredible has been the most stable smart phone I’ve used. The others I have used were Windows Mobile phones (Samsung, Palm) and I found them to randomly freeze or restart – often multiple times in a single day. The Incredible occasionally restarts (reboots) itself, although it seems rare.

Applications

There are thousands of free applications for the Android phones; many are very useful. There are the content applications (such as accessing news, weather, or tech information in a format that fits the phone nicely), social media interfaces (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), a good web browser (with “pinch” zooming), GPS, and more. In fact, sometimes the sheer number of available applications is so overwhelming, it’s difficult to discern the ones that are really useful.

A glaring omission for me is hands-free calling when using a Bluetooth headset. Supposedly this will be addressed as a “new feature” in an update that is due this month. This is such a basic feature (which I’ve had on other phones for years) that I thought I was “doing it wrong” when I couldn’t get it to work. A little research and I discovered that it isn’t supported – whoops.

Camera

The 8 megapixel camera on the Incredible is surprisingly good. The images rival some inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras, although it does over-apply a sharpening filter. It’s definitely a nice addition for Facebook updates.

Video

I’ve only recorded a couple of video segments, but I haven’t been too impressed with the results. Perhaps in bright sunshine, it would do in a pinch… better than nothing.

Summary

I really like this phone. It’s fast, fun, geeky, extensible, and dependable. The Google Android operating system, paired with good hardware, yields a pretty dandy piece of equipment. Just knowing that a new version of the software, which addresses some of my concerns, is being slowly rolled out to customers now is very encouraging. The update may push my rating to five stars…

Four of five stars

Pros

• Stable
• Highly responsive
• Lots of useful, free applications
• Good camera images

Cons

• No Bluetooth hands-free dialing
• Just okay cell signal sensitivity
• Mediocre video

After over 20 years of usage, I recently declared that my trusty alarm clock was to be banished to the guest bedroom, which previously had no clock at all. I was eager to replace it with something with a higher geek-approval rating while remaining inexpensive.

I’ve worn a Casio “atomic” wristwatch for six years. Each night, the watch turns on an internal radio that listens for the time broadcasts from the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) – home of the U.S. Cesium atomic clock. These broadcasts, from Fort Collins, Colorado, bounce off of the ionosphere late at night to provide very accurate (less than 1/100th of a second delay) time signals across North America. My wristwatch synchronizes with these signals each night.

I really wanted an alarm clock that featured similar synchronization technology. In addition, I was hoping to find a clock that would provide the outside temperature so that I’d be able to dress appropriately in the morning.

We’ve owned a small Oregon Scientific temperature station, with atomic clock, for several years. My father gave it to me one year as a gift. The outdoor temperature sensor is wireless and has survived Florida hurricanes, and near zero conditions, without missing a beat. This historical evidence gave preference to an Oregon Scientific solution.

As usual, I spent several days researching potential solutions – scouring the Internet for reviews. My final choice: The Oregon Scientific Elements Collection EW 98. I paid $30, ordering directly from Oregon Scientific.

In addition to the features I desired (atomic time synchronization, outdoor temperature), the clock includes indoor temperature, an “ice alert”, and ceiling projection.

After freeing the clock, external sensor, and clock AC power-supply from their blister pack prison, I loaded the clock and sensor with (not supplied) batteries. Note that you must reset the sensor and the clock to get accurate temperature readings from the external sensor. Just resetting the external sensor won’t do the trick.

For $30 I didn’t expect a laboratory grade device and it appears I was correct. The temperature sensor in the clock, and the external temperature sensor, never agree. After 8 hours next to each other, they differed by two degrees. Still – the external sensor should be close enough for my needs.

I was able to synchronize with NIST within a few minutes by click the manual search button on the bottom of the clock. It was about 8:00 p.m. – a bit early for the best radio reception – but it worked within about two minutes showing the correct time and date.

The next test was the ceiling projector. This seemed like a gimmick to me, rather than a useful function. I expected a fuzzy, dark, unusable image – I was wrong. The clock display on the ceiling is sharp (after adjusting the side mounted focus ring), very readable, and even too bright. Our bedroom ceiling is 10 feet high, with a light texture finish. My wife doesn’t like the intense red numbers above the bed, so I’ve switched the clock to only project the time and temperature onto the ceiling if I’ve tapped the snooze button on top of the clock. I prefer the “always on” style, but it needs to be less intense to be satisfactory in a dark bedroom.

Bottom line: I would recommend this clock to other geeks looking for an inexpensive clock for the bedroom or home office.

Pros:

• Atomic time – very accurate and automatic synchronization
• Projector clarity – time and temperature are clearly visible
• Clear LCD display – large time characters with good off-axis visibility
• AC adapter – saves batteries and allows full-time projector time

Cons:

• Projector intensity – would be nice to have an extra setting to set the brightness to half of the standard brightness
• Confusing sensor configuration – took me several tries to get the outdoor sensor display (on the clock) to appear correctly

Four years ago I gave away our old TV to a friend in Florida after he’d been incredibly helpful during my preparations to move back to Washington. Three years ago I purchased a fancy new TV for our Washington home. After lots of research, I settled on a 65-inch, Mitsubishi DLP rear-projection television. It supports “full HD” (1080P) images through HDMI and rated well against its competitors.

After spending the day readjusting the set, I noticed that I couldn’t get things to look quite right. Any object on the screen that was bright (such as white letters) had a noticeable glow (Halo? Blooming?) that surrounded the object. The picture had a cartoonish feel to it.

After some research, I discovered the cause – dirty lenses inside the light engine. Apparently, this is a condition that grows worse with time, but is difficult to notice. It’s kind of like the “frog in a pot” urban legend  The new bulb provides so much more light than the aged bulb, that problem is immediately obvious.

I called GE warranty to explain the newly discovered problem and they readily agreed to dispatch a repairman. On Saturday, September 19, the repairman (who, coincidentally was the same person as before) appeared. He took one look at the TV and agreed with my analysis. However, the “take the whole TV apart” solution was not to be considered. The labor costs associated with such a dissection are prohibitive. Therefore, he is going to order a completely new “light engine” to replace the assembly in our television.

The light engine is the heart and soul of a DLP television. It includes more than the two lenses in question – it also includes prisms, the “light wheel”, and the DLP chip itself. A new light engine is nearly like getting a new television.

I'm a sucker for technology and time pieces. I also enjoy an art form called, "Steam Punk." Take something old, sneak in something new, and you have classic coolness. In this case, the something old is Nixie tubes. Nixie tubes are vacuum tubes (similar to those from old TVs and radio sets) that use their cathode to provide a digital character representation - typically a number. They were used in digital clocks and counters beginning in the early 60's. Now someone has mated 60's Nixie tubes with a GPS heart to create an incredibly accurate digital clock with old school warmth and style. It's not cheap ($400), but still very cool.