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I prefer my technology to be utilitarian. I like plain old boxen.

If you really wanted "utilitarian", you wouldn't even have boxes. An empty frame is cheaper, simpler, and easier to work with. Computers didn't use to come in cases, you know.

They keep kids and pets out. If properly designed, they channel airflow where it's needed so that components stay cool. It's easier to handle a complete system assembled in a case than a hodgepodge of boards and boxes. Those are just a few reasons why a case is useful.

That doesn't mean your computer's case needs to be a blinged-up eyesore with plexiglass windows that leak RF all over the place and neon lights. It doesn't need to look like the only bits missing are a fart-can tailpipe and a "Type R" badge. There are those of us who build our computers to get real work done, and then there are the computing equivalent of riceboys.

Really? I thought the term came from the adding of alcohol, produced using rice, to motorbike fuel in Japan. I belive that this was done to make them go faster

I have no idea if that's true or not (I always figured the term "rice rocket" was a racial slur), but that's not how the grandparent intended it. He was talking about ricers who are take (usually) perfectly fine cars and uglify them beyond all belief. The cars are not always Japanese, but "rice" is used because it's predominantly Japanese cars. Similarly, many of the people actually doing the ricing are not even of Asian descent. The slur applies to the cars themselves, not the people.

I prefer RiceCop for my occasionaly dose of rice hilariousness.

P.S. Bryan is Korean. His definition of a Rice Boy: Rice-Boy is a stereotype. The typical Rice-Boy can be identified by his car, or rather what he does to it. Generally, Rice-Boy will start out with a car that was not meant to go fast (typically a Honda Civic), and attempt to "fix it up," usually consisting of aftermarket rims, lowering springs and an aftermarket exhaust system with a large exhaust tip.

Rice refers to the cars, not the drivers. It is a bit of a derogatory term, since it typically implies Japanese (or at least Asian) cars, but it can be applied just as well to domestic makes. There are plenty of riced J-body (Cavalier, Sunfire) cars out there, and the Focus is another rice favorite. If I'm feeling PC, I call them "carbohydrate-based staple food racers", but "riceboy" gets that across much more succinctly.

Besides, he forgot to mention the park bench wings, outrageous bodykits, stickers, and gaudy paint jobs that riceboys so love.

But if you think you're going to get another 70ft/lbs of torque in a Honda Civic by just doing that, think again.

Everyone knows that the only way to get 70 ft-lbs more torque from a civic is to cover it in Type-R stickers and put a big wing on the back.

For a good laugh at the riceboy industry, surf on over to www.ricecop.com.

I think the best explanation for what the big-ass wings do can be found here, in the first e-mail on 7/23/2002. To quote:

THE WING SERVES A PURPOSE,IT HOLDS THE TRUNK LID DOWN AT HIGH SPEEDS ,AND BLOCKS THE VIEW OF UGLY PEOPLE LIKE YOU FROM BEIND SEEN IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR

Interesting that one of the hottest hobbies, took this long to make a slashdot discussion. Modding cars is become such a big thing amongst people with all types of cars. From Neon's to bimmers, people do pretty cool thing to enhance the appearance and performance of their cars. Not all look, perform or sound too hot, but some can be better than any factory car you can get.

There's no accounting for taste, but most of the mods are total crap. Double-bookshelf wings on FWD cars, ugly bodykits that add an insane amount of weight and screw up the car's aeordynamics, neon lights that do nothing but annoy other drivers, outrageously large wheels ("rims", as the "tunerz" call them) that ride like shit, lowered suspensions without an accompanying alignment (or worse, suspensions lowered simply by cutting the springs already there, rather than replacing with proper springs), decals that are silly (yes, your Civic is a Honda, we know that; so why must you have "Powered by Honda" on your front windscreen, obscuring half of your forward vision?), re-badging (the Civic Type-R is only available as a right-hand drive car, because it's only available in Japan; adding a Type-R badge and the red Honda "H" does not make your Civic a Type-R), Z3 fender gills on non-Z3s, etc.

Unfortunately, this isn't even limited to the sport compact crowd, either. Look on ebay to see a whole slew of ruined older 911s that would be great except that the owners decided to "upgrade" them. Be very careful, because that 993 you're looking at may not be a 993 at all, but a 79 911SC with a 993 body.

Maybe somebody thinks these mods look good, and some of them do (a high-quality custom paint job, for example). Most, however, look like crap. They add nothing to the car, and just single you out as a poseur. Not to mention that most people doing these mods think they somehow make their cars fast, and then try to race anything and everything on the road. There's a place for racing, and it's not on the street.

A GOOD cat-back exhaust(catalitic converter all the way back) system DOES add about 5-6 HP. This is a proven fact(I've dyno'd my car before and after..they do). Not all of them sound like scooters either. You can get some GOOD throaty exhaust notes with the right company. Borla for instance.

You're correct, but it depends on the shape of the engine you're dealing with as well. If the car's engine and exhaust system is already pretty well-tuned, you may not even get 5-6 HP, or only at a spike in the rev range. Worse, you may even lose horespower (most of the aftermarket exhaust systems for my car will drop HP -- there are a couple from the high-end tuners like RUF or TechArt that give a marginal increase, but they're not worth the money). You may need to retune your ECU to even see the HP difference. On the other hand, a car like a Civic probably can realistically make 6-12HP off of an exhaust upgrade without even tweaking the ECU, simply because the stock exhaust isn't tuned for performance. You're not going to make 30HP like some ... carbohydrate-based staple food racers seem to think. Then again, those are also the guys that think a shit-ton of bodykit and a huge bookshelf spoiler also give them horsepower, so what do you expect? Anyway, for 5-6HP, you'd be better off going on a diet and losing 20 pounds, or getting some lighter wheels to reduce unsprung weight. 5-6HP is less noticeable than losing some extra weight in your car. Sounds better, though :)

As for the stereo..sometimes you think to yourself "damn this song rocks..EVERYONE should hear it.

Ah, but maybe I don't think the song rocks. When I'm driving, I want to hear whatever I'm listening to, whether that be the sound of my engine, the radio, or a CD. I don't want to hear you thumping half a mile away. And dammit, get some dynamat or similar and fix all of those rattles. Bass is less annoying when it's not accompanied by the tell-tale signs of a poor installation job -- buzzing, rattling, etc.

AMD will make a fortune if they include a flashy "64-bit eXXXtreme!" sticker with every processor sold.

NOS! It's not just for cars anymore!

With the growing trend of neon, clear windows, and other mods, it is seriously going into that trend.

As a disclaimer, the term "rice car" is not in any way meant to be derogatory towards asians. It is a phrase coined from imports (typically of Japanes e manufacture) that are modified in an attempt to go fast, or at least look that way. The owner of Rice Cop is in fact asian, if you take offense to the term, it's not my problem and you should be less sensitive.

The article is on gideontech.com. That's precisely what the link on the submitters nick is as well. I love it when people pimp their own shit and the editors post it. :/

I, for one, don't care about this stuff. I prefer to create my content using the computer as a tool...not as an integral part of my "art." If you get your rocks off cutting holes in computers and putting in neon lights, you need to get out of the house more. It was bad enough that people were doing this shit to cars, but now computers too? Pathetic.

Yes, I know I'm an asshole.

I want a laser canon, for those dickhead riceboyz who cut me off :)

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