Godzirra!! (broken Engrish accent)

• 3.8L twin turbo v6
• 473 hp / 433 tq
• super high tech AWD system
• 0-60 in 3.5 secs
• 1/4th mile in 11.7 secs
• 7:38 Nurburgring time
• $70,000 estimated price

For all you out-the-know non-car people, those performance statistics are utterly amazing for that price tag, especially that ring time...

So why do I hate it?? Ok, I don't really "hate" it, but something about it pisses me off. No, it's not the fact that it knocks my beloved American car off it's pedestal. It's not because I want it but can't afford it either. It's because of all the damn hype and PS2-armchair-racers.

God, I've never heard so much hype and smack talk over a car before. From Nissan claiming that they are targeting the half million dollar Porsche Carrera GT, to MotorTrend's latest "Corvette Killer" cover story, to the endless JDM fanboy comments on Autoblog... it has simply ruined the car for me. It's no longer just a new, badass world beater made by Nissan. Now it's some monstrosity used to fuel internet flame wars, power the hype machine, and bring out the insecurities of every lesser sports car owner (like me!*).

There is just too much stigma attached to the car for me to ever consider buying it. It's what every pimply, Gran Turismo playing, Fast and Furious watching teenager has wet dreams about.

Still I have to give credit where credit is due. Those performance stats are incredible, and kudos for Nissan for not reincarnating this "legend" into some flaccid underperformer.

* That ring time is suspicious. For starters, it was made with a preproduction car. Plus Nissan spent like a year with it at the ring. You give me 365 laps around the ring and I'm bound to get one really good one... :P Then there is ubiquitous cut slicks debate, hehe.

Oh, and it looks like a catfish.

I'm dating Uma Thurman.

I don't think a week goes by that my girlfriend Aimee doesn't get told by someone that she looks like Uma Thurman... and that's in normal clothes. You should see her in her Uma Halloween costume! Oh wait, you are. Pretty neat, huh?

I love Uma Thurman as an actress. She's actually one of my favorites. It's her characters... they're all badass. She always plays a take-charge-get-what-she-wants-while-still-being-sexy woman. Kinda like Aimee in real life... :)

A pro photographer happened to be a guest at the same party. He got some really good pics of her as Uma, so stay tuned while we wait for Aimee's flaky friend to get them to us.

Things I Want 1.0

Westinghouse 42" LCD I like to play video games late at night. Aimee has to wake up very early for work. My gaming TV backs up to our bedroom wall. Not good. I need a second high def TV to take upstairs for late night gaming. LG Motorsport Pro Long Tube Headers w/ Cats

They'll add 30-35 rwhp and hopefully add a mean sound too. I don't really need this, I just kind of want them. Maybe I'll wait till my warranty expires. Besides, they are very expensive. Apple MacBook I'm getting a little tired of tinkering with Linux. Really I just want a decent text editor for Ruby/Rail. Is TextMate really worth $1500 though? It doesn't even have an outline view. Apple Mac Mini Might as well get a Mac for home too. :) Apple iPod Nano (classic) Funny thing, I've never actually owned a portable mp3 player (for very long anyways). My car radio has an aux input that I'd like to use. Might as well stay with the Apple theme, right? Am I the only one who doesn't like those new fatty iPod Nanos? External DVD Burner It just makes sense. Burning DVDs isn't a common task for me, especially on multiple computers. What I mean is, most of my DVD burning happens on one computer, so why bother getting a DVD burner for all of my other computers? I do, on occasion, need to burn a DVD on one of those other computers. Also, if I'm going all Mac, I don't want to spring for the Superdrive on all of them... :)

Newsflash: Ricers scared by V8 exhaust note!

Apparently, ricers don't know what a V8 sounds like. According to many V8 owners, revving ricers are quickly shutup when the V8 owner revs back at them.

The story goes like this. Ricer comes up on an unsuspecting V8 and revs at them to entice them into a street race. The V8 owner is way above street racing so tries to ignore the ricer. The ricer persists and finally the V8 owner revs back with his massive V8 engine. Never having heard a V8 before, or possibly not knowing that a Mustang/Camaro/(insert American car here) has a V8, the ricer is so taken aback by the brutal, intimidating sound that he (or she) shuts up and minds his place.

"Well we were at a light and he starts revving his fart muffler(or lack of muffler). well i started to intimidate him with one fast 5000 rpm rev. this was funny (big smile). THAT SHUT HIM UP. (thumbs up)"
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=31650

"He revs his engine at me so I rev mine back (B&B Bullets on a C6 A6) and man it was funny. His face looked as if a Frenchman slapped him with a white glove."
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1840663

"So i came down in the stang and did a nice rev which shut him up."
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/kill-stories/46776-does-get-any-better-ricer.html

I have failed to compile a complete collection of quotes, but rest assured, I have heard this same story too many times to count.

So there you have it. Ricers are scared of loud, deep notes and only rev at cars that they expect aren't going to rev back with said loud, deep notes. Also ricers are ignorant of which cars are equipped with V8s producing these notes and often rev at them by mistake.

If you can't detect it, this post is dripping with sarcasm. I think it's ridiculous that these people actually think other people are "scared" of their loud exhaust.

Better Rails Migrations

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Better AppConfig Plugin for Rails

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Nvidia Woes in Linux - (K)ubuntu Feisty

I've been tooling around with Compiz-Fusion in Linux. It's pretty neat, but my old graphics card wasn't up to the task so I bought a cheapo $28 fanless Nvidia GeForce 6200 128 MB AGP. There are some interesting caveats to getting an Nvidia card working in Linux, particularly (K)ubuntu.

If you install the drivers from Nvidia's website (which I suggest because those are always the latest and most up-to-date), you have to disable the module that is packaged in linux-restricted-modules-common:

sudo vim /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common DISABLED_MODULES="nv"

Then be sure to remember to delete any files in /lib/linux-restricted-modules/:

sudo rm /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_new_installed sudo rm /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_legacy_installed

Those hidden files are created if you've ever installed Nvidia drivers from the (K)ubuntu repositories, but for some reason, they are not deleted if you uninstall (as in the case when before you install from Nvidia's website).

Then just run the Nvidia installer, reboot and you should be all set.

Many thanks to adamk in this thread.