terrawombat

I looked into getting a Panasonic Toughbook laptop for when I go out on site for my job. Unfortunately, my boss didn't like the $3,500 model I had picked out, so we compromised. Instead, he got me one of these for my personal Samsung NC10 Netbook: http://www.netbookmounts.com/cart.php?m ... t_list&c=4 The fitment is great and it's pretty functional. It does take away some of the convenience of the tiny size of the Netbook, but it's not that bad. When I first opened the case today, I noticed a sticker on the inside that said, "Unlawful to use computer while driving a vehicle." I thought to myself, "yea, that could be dangerous." It also got me thinking...a trip to Home Depot, about $15 in supplies and a couple hours of work and here's how I spent my Friday night. I am now a mobile command station :D I'll be honest, I'm somewhat embarrassed of the workmanship on project and I will definitely be going back to it when I have more time to refine it. I'm going to reroute the pipe a bit so that the passenger seat can move forward more than it does now. I also want to CNC a piece out for underneath of the laptop and use thumb screws so it'll be easier to remove the laptop from the car mount. Once I'm satisfied with the product, I'm going to remove the mount, paint it black, and add some sort of sheathing to clean it up. For now, it's fully functional and I have a 300 mile roadtrip ahead of me tomorrow. The iGuidance GPS software on the PC along with the USB GPS unit will be helpful along the way :brows:

No, our computer is special. It uses dual fuel cell processors that run on Xenon and Oxygen to generate a tremendous amount of electricity. So much that we sell it back to the grid and earn enough profit to employ 10 people. We just come into our 'office' every day where we take turns napping and refilling the Xenon fuel tank.

I love responses like this. Yea, just go back to PA and get the seller to do a lot of work he probably doesn't want to. It's just that simple! I just tried to get a '98XJ with a salvage title 'recertified' for legal road use. There is NOTHING wrong with the truck. It was totaled and branded a salvage vehicle because some thieves smashed in rear window and a couple of cut wires that were used to hotwire the ignition. Anyway, I was told that I need to find the ORIGINAL owner of the Jeep and have him provide me with COLOR photographs of the XJ before it was broken into. My response was: "Ok, that's may be the response that you're programmed to give me. Now give me a response that's actually practical."

I very shallowly broke up with my girlfriend a few years ago because she had voiced concerns of me not spending enough time with her because I was always at my shop working on my cars/trucks/motorcycles. At first we just dealt with it, but it became glaringly obvious to me that it was a serious problem for her. I decided I wanted to make it work so I spent less time in the shop and more time sitting on the sofa watching TV and movies with her. This lasted maybe two weeks. I was constantly thinking about the laundry list of things I needed to do in my shop. She would sometimes talk to me after TV shows and ask me what I thought about this and that and I honestly couldn't answer because I dozed off thinking about how I was going to patch the rusty floors in my MJ and approx. how much sheet metal I would need. I started canceling our boring TV dates and making up some really lame excuses why she couldn't come to my place that night (I was working late, needed to help a friend out, etc). Truth is, I was down at my shop. Serious problems arose when she started to drive by my shop and saw all the lights on and knew I was down there. We decided to end it shortly after these stalker episodes of hers. She was a really great girl and an awesome companion, but she needed me to be around too much, which I attribute to her complete lack of female friends. I think I was her ONLY friend... I've been dating a girl for the last 2.5 years and it's a long distance relationship. We're 150 miles apart and we see each other maybe 1-2 times/month. It works out well because I can spend as much time in my shop as I damn well please during the week and then can see my girl on weekends. It's not going to be this way, forever, though. As soon as she finishes up school (and if we're still together), we'll likely find jobs in the same location and move in together. She doesn't mind my little 'addiction' at all...or so she says. She also owns an '06 TJ so she scores some points in my book :D

These things look really, really fun and I'd really like to buy one. There is just one thing holding me back - I can get a real MJ for about the same price as one of these :D I think I may purchase the body for a future project and do a ton of research on the other components.

But it's your mother. Given all of the things provided to me by my parents (including life) over the last 25 years, I would be the most ungrateful SOB on the face of this planet if I turned in one of them because they opened my mail... I just asked them politely to stop and they did for a while - I think they just need a reminder. It doesn't really bother me much anymore since any 'sensitive' material - bills, statements, Craigslist Personals :brows: - is all delivered to me online...where every hacker in the world can see it! Just as long as it's not my parents...

Haha - except it would only be funny to me. My father would need a definitive answer on what each item would be used for. I could just say it was for a project and that'd be okay with my Mom, but my Dad would pry and pry and wouldn't accept an answer unless it made perfect sense to him. A few days ago I bought a set of brass punches and a brass hammer because I sat at my desk at work and thought to myself - I really need a brass hammer and punch set...I could have used this on my last RMS job and there are always things I booger up with my BFH. So, I ordered a set and it was FedEx'd to me yesterday, which naturally means it goes to my parents house...where it was opened and inspected by my father. I silently creeped up the driveway and tried to take my package without anyone noticing, but I was caught. My father appears out of nowhere and asks what I need a brass hammer for. I said nothing at the moment. Well, then why did I buy it? My response (and this has been a response I've used a lot recently) was because I can. My parents used to open up my checking account statements, too, but I couldn't really blame them since it was a joint account in my name and my father's name. That was really annoying...I would get questioned about EVERY transaction. My favorite was a couple of charges for lap dances for my friends at a strip club in London. There were three $24 charges from the same location within a 10 minute span. The charges showed up as 'Delicious Restaurant' which was awesome because I told him that I bought three rounds of shots for everyone at a bar that must have been called Delicious Restaurant...

You shouldn't lose any diff fluid, but I just did this repair last week and my axle tubes were filled with 22 years of dirt and crud so when I was reinserting the axles into the tubes, they picked up all kinds of crap. I wound up pulling the diff cover and cleaning out the dirt that got in there.

Everyone has a UPS or FedEx horror story. Truth of the matter is - you're stuck with either. In my experience, FedEx is far better than UPS at handling lost/damaged package claims. I had a very large, very heavy, $8,000 piece of shop equipment delivered via FedEx Freight. The place I bought it from didn't package it like you'd expect something of this nature to be packaged, so naturally, it was damaged. My first thought was to refuse shipment, but I had waited three months for this thing to be built so I wasn't about to wait another three more. I quickly assessed the damage, took some photographs (I had my camera ready because I had a funny feeling it would come damaged), and determined that the damage was mainly cosmetic and the operation of the machine wouldn't be hindered. I was right, sort of. Somehow the electronics mainboard was fried even though it was tested at the factory prior to shipment. The factory refused to replace it since they had records that it tested fine, but they'd happily sell me another for $500. I called FedEx and they were very helpful and apologetic and long story short, they cut me a check for $750. We did just get a new FedEx delivery driver and he never, ever delivers packages to MY house, always my neighbor. Luckily my neighbors are my parents so it's generally pretty easy to get the package. The problem is that my parents love to open up my packages to see what I bought. It's usually just car parts and nothing embarrassing, but it's just annoying.

Want to lend me the money for this '88 MJ Pioneer? :brows:

And I'm looking at an '88 MJ Pioneer that has a rubber mat in the bed with an AMC logo either tonight or tomorrow after work :brows:

Also consider building some rails to go around the racks to keep cargo in place while you're on the trails. Polaris loves to include the flattest racks possible on all of their ATVs with an optional wrap-around rail. Unless you're going through trails carrying absolutely nothing, it's a pain when things you thought you securely fastened slide off the back and you don't notice until you're a mile away...been there, done that!

Well, in that case, I won't even comment...

A co-worker of mine just got an HTC phone with the Android operating system and I messed with it for a good hour or so trying to get a feel for it. I've used the Android OS with my roommates Motorola Droid a number of times and I just can't get used to it. It feels "clunky" and unresponsive at times. I'm not sure how the HTC HD2 does, but the Motorola Droid is a JOKE when you take it out in the sunlight. Seriously, did the designers of that screen expect their users to live in dark caves while they used their phones?

Yea, the old timers at my work (no offense, Pete!) tell me that same thing all the time. I'm a techie geek and if there is one thing I cannot stand about some of the technology today it's that they cannot combine everything into one, compact device. My phone makes calls, too, but it also is a fully functioning GPS with turn-by-turn navigation, a wifi hotspot for when I, or anyone of my friend around me, need it. It'll take some pretty decent photos and record video. I could use it as my computer if I really needed to. Now, I haven't been able to get rid of my digital camera yet, but my old, clunky portable GPS is long gone. My old MP3 player got thrown in the trash and my personal laptop sees very little use. I'm excited for the future when cell phones will be able to be the ONLY device you need. I hate carrying around more than I need to and having 10 different AC chargers. I dread that future... I like separating functions out into multiple devices. Sure it means I have to carry more, but it also means that if I lose or break one, I still have the other functions. Meh - I'll take that chance. I outgrew my last pair of cargo pants in middle school - I need to consolidate. It also has a lot to do with me being a motorcyclist...I always pack light and take only what I need. If I can take a single device with multiple functions, then I've won 8)

Yea, the old timers at my work (no offense, Pete!) tell me that same thing all the time. I'm a techie geek and if there is one thing I cannot stand about some of the technology today it's that they cannot combine everything into one, compact device. My phone makes calls, too, but it also is a fully functioning GPS with turn-by-turn navigation, a wifi hotspot for when I, or anyone of my friend around me, need it. It'll take some pretty decent photos and record video. I could use it as my computer if I really needed to. Now, I haven't been able to get rid of my digital camera yet, but my old, clunky portable GPS is long gone. My old MP3 player got thrown in the trash and my personal laptop sees very little use. I'm excited for the future when cell phones will be able to be the ONLY device you need. I hate carrying around more than I need to and having 10 different AC chargers.

I can see why there may be confusion considering we're talking about Apple phones ;) A MAC (Media Access Control) address is an identifier for any network adapter, whether it be a Wifi card on a laptop, wired ethernet card in a desktop PC or Mac (Apple), to the Wifi chip in your new iPhone. Think of it like a social security number for network cards. The industrial plants I go to for my job require that your MAC address be registered on their network in order for you to use it. So, think of them like the U.S. immigration services and think of me like the illegal Mexican that just crossed into your state :D So, what I can do with my iPhone is use the 3G service I pay monthly for and transmit it to my laptop so that I can have internet access.

Yea, there are a couple posts on here with some screenshots :D Enjoy your new iPhone, I don't know if I can ever get rid of mine now and go back to the 'normal' phones. I'm still on the 3GS and will likely stay there until I'm eligible for an upgrade. The iPhone 4 looks pretty cool, but it doesn't do anything anything more than my current one to warrant the switch. My favorite feature (although it is a jailbroken feature) is being able to get internet access on my netbook anywhere 3G is available via tethering. All of the client sites I visit are strictly LAN networks because of the potential for Wifi to interfere with their communication devices in the plant. You also need to have your MAC address registered on the network to get on and there aren't many ethernet jacks to hook your PC up to.

I can tell you that the alternator for the '00 and '01 XJ is NOT the same as the one found in the OP's '88 MJ.

Nobody wants to do it, but when the government says you have to, people usually just say ok.

Adding RAM has a much more obvious effect on older PC's in terms of overall system speed. Once you get in the 4GB+ range with RAM, you won't see much difference if you're just doing the basics like internet browsing, e-mail, etc. We have a powerhouse PC in our office with dual Xenon processors and 12Gb of RAM. It's not much better or quicker with opening internet browsers and e-mail clients than other 'standard' PCs in the office, but when you run a complex computation fluid dynamics (CFD) model on it, it leaves the others in the dust :D

Well, that's certainly a spelling of Comanche I haven't seen before. I'll have to add that to my list of common misspellings so I can broaden my Craigslist searching.

I remember reading a thread somewhere (here? NAXJA?) where someone converted a Comanche to 97+ XJ stuff and when he went through inspection, they noted the registration said it was an '86-'92 (don't remember what year it was), but it had an ODBII connection so they could hook their fancy schmancy computer up to it. Upon realizing this fact, they had the owner change the title and registration to say it was a '97 so that the next inspection idiot would know he could hook up their reader to the computer.

Are those two very large cracks in your MJ windshield?

Nope - don't know the VIN, but I could get it. I know it's definitely been painted and will certainly look out for the tell-tale signs of sub-par work. How much would you want for em? Or what parts in trade? (I can start looking for tan cloth buckets to fit MJ rails...) Straight trade for tan cloth buckets - I know they're not that easy to find. I like how I'm already making deals on a truck I don't even own yet :D