As a teenager I worked in a potato packing plant. I had to bag, sew, and load 50# and 100# bags of potatos and load them in train box cars and semi-truck trailers. I once had to fully load an 18-wheeler which had just come from Nevada where the AC had broken down while the truck was loaded with beef. This was in July or August. I can't remember how many times I threw-up while loading that trailer but lets just say it was more than a few.
I guess it's not as bad as Letterman's old list of worst jobs. #9 and #10 were "Crack Whore" and "Assistant Crack Whore".
If you don't care about trouble, and like bad advice, just try the 'asshole' approach as exemplified in the top quote.
Um... Ok. Apparently you missed the part were I wrote:
If done tastefully that letter elevates you above [scummy company] and reinforces your image as a person of integrity.
I am hardly advocating an "asshole approach". If you work for a company that is quickly becoming a hiss and a byword to the rest of the world you need to distance yourself from them. The letter I was advocating was to be used to indemnify yourself when interviewing for new jobs. I wouldn't give a flying crap if ANYONE at the old job even read it. The original question wasn't about leaving a wonderful job and maintaining relationships with them. It was about washing the awful stench of a dispicable company from you so you don't reek of them when interviewing for your new job.
If you work for SCO (or some other scummy outfit) and feel that this will be a liability in the future THEN QUIT NOW! Don't wait any longer! The longer you stay the worse you look. Write a long resignation letter explaining why you feel you MUST RESIGN. If done tastefully that letter elevates you above [scummy company] and reinforces your image as a person of integrity. When you apply for new jobs and the topic of your past employer comes up you can demonstrate why you felt you needed to leave. A copy of that resignation letter will stand as your proclomation of values. Express in your letter the values you espouse and what you wish you could give as an employee (don't make it about what you want to GET. Prospective employers want to know what you can GIVE) and why [scummy company] isn't compatible with the contribution you wish to make. Offer to provide a copy to the interviewer if they wish to read it. That letter will have the effect of bearing testimony on your behalf. Think of it as a character whitness on paper.
Being able to demonstrate to a prospective employer that you were so uncomfortable with [scummy compay]'s practices that you had to leave voluntarily draws the line in the sand and demonstrates that you don't wish to be associated with [scummy company]. If you stay until the end it sends the message that you are more infuenced by greed than by principle, and that you were "one of them". That is a bad message to send to prospective employers. That's just my oppinion. (If you quit in protest and then can't find work don't blame me though).
Making a wheel that is an electric motor would make such a heavy wheel thtat the vehicle would handle and drive like total crap. The huge weight of the wheels would require shock absorbers with huge dampening ability to keep the wheel planted on the road over uneven surfaces. It would ride like a dump-truck.
Hauppauge's PVR-350 tv tuner card: $200 Tivo after rebate: $200
It's hard to justify the cost of building your own when a tivo is so cheap. I'd like to build my own, but I can't do it as cheaply as just buying tivo hardware. (Yes, I have a Tivo).
Remember that big black bird that does Mach 3 at 80,000 ft (SR-71)? 1950's technology and still the fastest/highest jet ever. Granted, more modern data would be nice, but you can do a lot with 1960's aerospace tech.
It's too bad knowledge has been replaced with secrets. Think what we could do if everyone shared the knowledge. Instead we obsess about hiding our little sliver of information from the rest of the world and charging as much as anyone will pay to have a peek at it (after they sign a NDA of course).
True story. Boy Scout campout on the back property of a dairy farm when I was a teen. Kid walks over and pees on a bush. Electric fence runs THROUGH the bush. The rest of us were only about 15 feet away. In very halting screams he yells "AAHHHHH...CAN'T....STOP....CAN'T... STOP.....AAHHHHHH!!!" He pretty much stood there getting zapped until he lost pressure. I should be more sympathetic, but I laugh every time I think about it because we all looked at each other and thought the same thing. Karma. (Believe me, he had it coming)
We use the form of energy which is cheapest to produce. Bottome line. As soon as an alternative to oil becomes cheaper than oil there will be an almost instantanious switch to the alternative. Until that day comes everyone will keep using oil.
You are right. Hydrogen is wonderful. Fuel cells are great. But here's the clincher: MORE ENERGY IS CONSUMED IN THE PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN THAN CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM IT! This means that hydrogen is NOT an energy source. It is a storage medium (just like a battery). You can't use hydrogen as an energy source to produce more hydrogen because you use more than you produce. So where is all this hydrogen going to come from?
Some might call them terrorists, but I revere them as our founding fathers.
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton (and others)
My current autocross weapon is a '73 Porsche 914. Why? Because you can't buy a 1900 lb. mid-engined sportscar in the US anymore although there are many at double that weight. Lots of bang-for-the-buck if you want to build a competitive car. I pulled the deteriorating 30yr-old analog injection system and built digital injection/ignition around a programable ECU from a little company in South Africa. I program it with an old 486 laptop and a serial cable. Lots of junkyard parts - injectors from a Subaru turbo, throttlebody from a Chrysler, ignition bits from a Mitsubishi, fuel pump from a 5 series BMW. I have a turbo for it but haven't fabricated the exhaust. Can't decide if I should finish doing that or just finish rebuilding the 2.7l OHC flat-six (from a '76 911)thats in the garage on a stand. Nice thing about it is the programable ECU will work with either engine and they both drop right in. Much more time has been spent on suspension. 911 Carerra vented brakes on all four corners, springs, adjustable shocks, bigger swaybar, 16" 944 turbo wheels, and sticky Kuhmos.
If you have any interest in competitive driving at all I recommend you find your local sportscar club and try your hand at autocross/time-trials. It is a blast and you don't have to have a special car (although it's nice). They have race classes for all levels. You'll have a blast and it doesn't cost much. Drag races and oval racing are for people who can't drive. Road course racing is where it's all at. Try it. You'll like it. Anyway, my point is, lots of us gearheads are geeks. I'm not talking about those dumb-as-rocks "Fast and Furious" kiddies with their big wings and ground-effects plastic. I'm talking about the guys doing real car hacking stuff. Aftermarket or home-assembled ECU's (like the DIY-EFI project, or megasquirt project), engine swaps, sanctioned racing, etc.
This law could be ruinous to spammers when it takes effect January 1st."
Ruinous to spammers. I love to savor those words. They tickle my tounge as the roll off it so smoothly. I want to say it over and over. Ruinous to spammers. Try it. Say it with me. "Ruinous to spammers". You like that, don't you.:) I knew you would.
This is clearly a criminal case. Bulletproof should be charged in criminal court for using Visual Basic. I don't ever want to hear "airline" and "Visual Basic" in the same sentence.
I won't be happy until someone sends me 58,000 copies of a spam message and I get paid $250,000 for it. That's $4.31 per message. I would love it and ask for more. I would even invest in more bandwidth and a server farm so they could send it to me faster.
This scares me. I mean it's going to happen. Look at how all the year-2000 predictions came true. All the girls love my flying car (it's an old classic model) and I've got a great under-sea view of the lagoon from the living room of my home in the Coral Valley underwater bio-sphere. I really like my job doing moon tours - I mean it could be worse. At least I don't work at a rayon-undergarment recycling center. Yep, I hope things stay just the way they are now.
You have no idea. I've been (trying) hacking at computers for 10 years. Then a few years ago I got into SCCA solo racing. The 30yr-old analog injection on my Porsche 914 (you can pick up a decent one for $5k and be competitive in solo racing and drive it to work on weekdays) was getting problematic due to deterioration of all the components. Last year I planned very carefully and was able to convert the engine to full digital engine control (injection and ignition) for only $500! Emissions are down, power is up. It ROCKS! Sitting in the drivers seat I can look at a laptop screen and monitor rpm, thottle possition, manifold pressure, cylinder head temp, intake air temp, ignition advance angle, injection pulse width, acceleration enrichment, etc etc. With a few clicks on the keyboard I can change everything from idle speed to the amount of ignition retard under boost (yes, I put a turbo on it for about a 40% power increase). This is so much more fun than PC's!
Take all those old Linux cd's you've burned over the past 9 years and hang them from your eves. They spin in the breeze and the bright reflections scare off the birds in short order. The function is very good. The form is perhaps less apealing.
I have the same problem, but the solution for me is not so easy. My company is self hosted on our DSL line and hotmail refuses mail from our domain. I can't relay the mail through our ISP - we host our own domain on our own server. Hotmail is discriminating against because we are self-reliant.
Does anyone know if Hotmail is doing something similar? I can't get any mail through to hotmail users.
My company, after throwing up our hands in the face of terrible hosting service, has been self-hosted on our DSL line for several years. It's been bliss. No downtime, no unexpected outages. We run our own mail/web server and it's been great. We use email to communicate with many of our clients, and many of them use AOL. Now when they try to email us it's going to bounce? This is going to make us look bad. It's going to interfere with business.
The thing that makes me mad is that this is not how the interenet started out. 10 years ago all nodes were created equal. There was courtesy and cooperation. That's why the growth was exponential. That's why everybody got on. There was no class system. There was no AOL or Microsoft forcing behavior changes. I don't want to pay for hosting. I want to self host, but these are going to force me to pay for yet another thing I don't want or need. They are going to force me to give up freedoms I enjoy (reliability, custom configuration, security controls) or I will become "incompatible" and appear to my clients as if I am the one who has unreliable systems. Oooo this burns me! We are being punished for our competence. I am confident that I have better email security in place than any large commercial ISP. And yet I am convicted without a trial on the assumption that maybe I don't.
This is akin to a mudslinging campaign. Large ISP's will make it look like the little guy's systems don't work, making themselves appear to be a better, more reliable alternative.
The wheel and fire have to be the technologies that have most exceeded original expectation.
I'm sure that the wheel was invented by some guy who's father thought he as a loser for making useless wheels when he should have been out with the other men chasing wild goats with a sharp stick.
Yep, been doing it for 2 years also. I'm lucky though - he's a good guy who always pays on time and he knows computers so he rarely requires any kind of tech support. It's been great. We both get broadband for half price. It's above board too - we told the ISP beforehand and bought a business account. I host a domain for each of us on my server/router so we each have Gigs of web space, our own email server with spam and virus filtering, etc. It's great. We burried cat-5 in PVC conduit between our houses. He's got 4 computers on his network and I've got 3 on mine (we both have families). I've also set up Samba on the internal side so we can drag-and-drop website updates from our workstations to the web directories on the server. We've also got our own caching DNS server and Squid to speed things up. Of course we both use php/sql, ssh, bla bla bla. I love being my own host/service provider because I get to do whatever I want. If I want a jabber gateway I set one up. If I want an ftp repository I turn one on. yada yada.
Real Car Hackers do it this way:
on
Cars for Tinkerers?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Come on guys! Think outside the box. Is your car's computer proprietary? Doesn't provide all the outputs you want? So ditch it and build/buy one that does. It only cost me $600 to convert my car to a user-programable digital ECU that controls all aspects of the fuel injection and ignition timing. From the cockpit I can do live tuning, data logging, live monitoring of injector pulse width, ignition timing angle, manifold pressure, coolant temperature, intake air temperature, exhaust oxygen content, rpm, and throttle angle. And that's just the begining. You can extrapolate and display/datalog your fuel consumption rate (useing injector pulse width, rpm, injector flow rate, and fuel pressure. Some other guys are working on adding gear selection monitoring also. By monitoring gear selected and knowing the gear ratios, weight of the car, and monitoring ECU output of rpm change over time you can do real-time extrapolation and display of torque/horsepower. Put that on your dashboard LCD and smoke it.
You don't need a brand-new high-tech car to do this stuff. I race a 30yr-old Porsche 914 in SCCA solo events. I also drive it to work on a daily basis. Converting to the digital ECU (from a dying 30yr-old analog system) I picked up about 10hp (before/after dynomometer runs) AND an additional 7mpg! See, you CAN have your cake and eat it too.:) The other nice thing about programable ECU's is that they can be moved from one engine to another (4, 6, 8 cyl. rotary, it doesn't matter) so next year I can move the ECU to the new engine I'm building this winter.;)
Most programable ECU's have RS232 input/output so you can do all kinds of cool stuff with them - EASILY! Do a google search for PerfectPower, Autronic, SDS, Wolf 3D, Megasquirt, Haltec, Motec, Hawk EC21...
An array of PVR's? What in the world are you going to watch? There aren't enough good shows on on to keep a single PVR busy let alone an array of them.
Me? I'm going to build an array of vacuum cleaners. My idea sucks too, but will cost less.;)
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As a teenager I worked in a potato packing plant. I had to bag, sew, and load 50# and 100# bags of potatos and load them in train box cars and semi-truck trailers. I once had to fully load an 18-wheeler which had just come from Nevada where the AC had broken down while the truck was loaded with beef. This was in July or August. I can't remember how many times I threw-up while loading that trailer but lets just say it was more than a few.
I guess it's not as bad as Letterman's old list of worst jobs. #9 and #10 were "Crack Whore" and "Assistant Crack Whore".
These are not "glowing fish". They do not emit light. They are just brightly colored. BORING.
If you don't care about trouble, and like bad advice, just try the 'asshole' approach as exemplified in the top quote.
Um... Ok. Apparently you missed the part were I wrote:
If done tastefully that letter elevates you above [scummy company] and reinforces your image as a person of integrity.
I am hardly advocating an "asshole approach". If you work for a company that is quickly becoming a hiss and a byword to the rest of the world you need to distance yourself from them. The letter I was advocating was to be used to indemnify yourself when interviewing for new jobs. I wouldn't give a flying crap if ANYONE at the old job even read it. The original question wasn't about leaving a wonderful job and maintaining relationships with them. It was about washing the awful stench of a dispicable company from you so you don't reek of them when interviewing for your new job.
ps - I HIRE PEOPLE.
If you work for SCO (or some other scummy outfit) and feel that this will be a liability in the future THEN QUIT NOW! Don't wait any longer! The longer you stay the worse you look. Write a long resignation letter explaining why you feel you MUST RESIGN. If done tastefully that letter elevates you above [scummy company] and reinforces your image as a person of integrity. When you apply for new jobs and the topic of your past employer comes up you can demonstrate why you felt you needed to leave. A copy of that resignation letter will stand as your proclomation of values. Express in your letter the values you espouse and what you wish you could give as an employee (don't make it about what you want to GET. Prospective employers want to know what you can GIVE) and why [scummy company] isn't compatible with the contribution you wish to make. Offer to provide a copy to the interviewer if they wish to read it. That letter will have the effect of bearing testimony on your behalf. Think of it as a character whitness on paper.
Being able to demonstrate to a prospective employer that you were so uncomfortable with [scummy compay]'s practices that you had to leave voluntarily draws the line in the sand and demonstrates that you don't wish to be associated with [scummy company]. If you stay until the end it sends the message that you are more infuenced by greed than by principle, and that you were "one of them". That is a bad message to send to prospective employers. That's just my oppinion. (If you quit in protest and then can't find work don't blame me though).
Unsprung weight.
Making a wheel that is an electric motor would make such a heavy wheel thtat the vehicle would handle and drive like total crap. The huge weight of the wheels would require shock absorbers with huge dampening ability to keep the wheel planted on the road over uneven surfaces. It would ride like a dump-truck.
Hauppauge's PVR-350 tv tuner card: $200
Tivo after rebate: $200
It's hard to justify the cost of building your own when a tivo is so cheap. I'd like to build my own, but I can't do it as cheaply as just buying tivo hardware. (Yes, I have a Tivo).
Remember that big black bird that does Mach 3 at 80,000 ft (SR-71)? 1950's technology and still the fastest/highest jet ever. Granted, more modern data would be nice, but you can do a lot with 1960's aerospace tech.
It's too bad knowledge has been replaced with secrets. Think what we could do if everyone shared the knowledge. Instead we obsess about hiding our little sliver of information from the rest of the world and charging as much as anyone will pay to have a peek at it (after they sign a NDA of course).
True story. Boy Scout campout on the back property of a dairy farm when I was a teen. Kid walks over and pees on a bush. Electric fence runs THROUGH the bush. The rest of us were only about 15 feet away. In very halting screams he yells "AAHHHHH...CAN'T....STOP....CAN'T... STOP.....AAHHHHHH!!!" He pretty much stood there getting zapped until he lost pressure. I should be more sympathetic, but I laugh every time I think about it because we all looked at each other and thought the same thing. Karma. (Believe me, he had it coming)
We use the form of energy which is cheapest to produce. Bottome line. As soon as an alternative to oil becomes cheaper than oil there will be an almost instantanious switch to the alternative. Until that day comes everyone will keep using oil.
You are right. Hydrogen is wonderful. Fuel cells are great. But here's the clincher: MORE ENERGY IS CONSUMED IN THE PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN THAN CAN BE EXTRACTED FROM IT! This means that hydrogen is NOT an energy source. It is a storage medium (just like a battery). You can't use hydrogen as an energy source to produce more hydrogen because you use more than you produce. So where is all this hydrogen going to come from?
Some might call them terrorists, but I revere them as our founding fathers.
John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton (and others)
My current autocross weapon is a '73 Porsche 914. Why? Because you can't buy a 1900 lb. mid-engined sportscar in the US anymore although there are many at double that weight. Lots of bang-for-the-buck if you want to build a competitive car. I pulled the deteriorating 30yr-old analog injection system and built digital injection/ignition around a programable ECU from a little company in South Africa. I program it with an old 486 laptop and a serial cable. Lots of junkyard parts - injectors from a Subaru turbo, throttlebody from a Chrysler, ignition bits from a Mitsubishi, fuel pump from a 5 series BMW. I have a turbo for it but haven't fabricated the exhaust. Can't decide if I should finish doing that or just finish rebuilding the 2.7l OHC flat-six (from a '76 911)thats in the garage on a stand. Nice thing about it is the programable ECU will work with either engine and they both drop right in. Much more time has been spent on suspension. 911 Carerra vented brakes on all four corners, springs, adjustable shocks, bigger swaybar, 16" 944 turbo wheels, and sticky Kuhmos.
If you have any interest in competitive driving at all I recommend you find your local sportscar club and try your hand at autocross/time-trials. It is a blast and you don't have to have a special car (although it's nice). They have race classes for all levels. You'll have a blast and it doesn't cost much. Drag races and oval racing are for people who can't drive. Road course racing is where it's all at. Try it. You'll like it. Anyway, my point is, lots of us gearheads are geeks. I'm not talking about those dumb-as-rocks "Fast and Furious" kiddies with their big wings and ground-effects plastic. I'm talking about the guys doing real car hacking stuff. Aftermarket or home-assembled ECU's (like the DIY-EFI project, or megasquirt project), engine swaps, sanctioned racing, etc.
Rice. It's what's for dinner. (evil grin)
This law could be ruinous to spammers when it takes effect January 1st."
Ruinous to spammers. I love to savor those words. They tickle my tounge as the roll off it so smoothly. I want to say it over and over. Ruinous to spammers. Try it. Say it with me. "Ruinous to spammers". You like that, don't you.
This is clearly a criminal case. Bulletproof should be charged in criminal court for using Visual Basic. I don't ever want to hear "airline" and "Visual Basic" in the same sentence.
I won't be happy until someone sends me 58,000 copies of a spam message and I get paid $250,000 for it. That's $4.31 per message. I would love it and ask for more. I would even invest in more bandwidth and a server farm so they could send it to me faster.
"How long does it take a UPS like that to charg?"
More importantly, how long will the batteries last before replacement is required?
This scares me. I mean it's going to happen. Look at how all the year-2000 predictions came true. All the girls love my flying car (it's an old classic model) and I've got a great under-sea view of the lagoon from the living room of my home in the Coral Valley underwater bio-sphere. I really like my job doing moon tours - I mean it could be worse. At least I don't work at a rayon-undergarment recycling center. Yep, I hope things stay just the way they are now.
You have no idea. I've been (trying) hacking at computers for 10 years. Then a few years ago I got into SCCA solo racing. The 30yr-old analog injection on my Porsche 914 (you can pick up a decent one for $5k and be competitive in solo racing and drive it to work on weekdays) was getting problematic due to deterioration of all the components. Last year I planned very carefully and was able to convert the engine to full digital engine control (injection and ignition) for only $500! Emissions are down, power is up. It ROCKS! Sitting in the drivers seat I can look at a laptop screen and monitor rpm, thottle possition, manifold pressure, cylinder head temp, intake air temp, ignition advance angle, injection pulse width, acceleration enrichment, etc etc. With a few clicks on the keyboard I can change everything from idle speed to the amount of ignition retard under boost (yes, I put a turbo on it for about a 40% power increase). This is so much more fun than PC's!
Take all those old Linux cd's you've burned over the past 9 years and hang them from your eves. They spin in the breeze and the bright reflections scare off the birds in short order. The function is very good. The form is perhaps less apealing.
I have the same problem, but the solution for me is not so easy. My company is self hosted on our DSL line and hotmail refuses mail from our domain. I can't relay the mail through our ISP - we host our own domain on our own server. Hotmail is discriminating against because we are self-reliant.
My company, after throwing up our hands in the face of terrible hosting service, has been self-hosted on our DSL line for several years. It's been bliss. No downtime, no unexpected outages. We run our own mail/web server and it's been great. We use email to communicate with many of our clients, and many of them use AOL. Now when they try to email us it's going to bounce? This is going to make us look bad. It's going to interfere with business.
The thing that makes me mad is that this is not how the interenet started out. 10 years ago all nodes were created equal. There was courtesy and cooperation. That's why the growth was exponential. That's why everybody got on. There was no class system. There was no AOL or Microsoft forcing behavior changes. I don't want to pay for hosting. I want to self host, but these are going to force me to pay for yet another thing I don't want or need. They are going to force me to give up freedoms I enjoy (reliability, custom configuration, security controls) or I will become "incompatible" and appear to my clients as if I am the one who has unreliable systems. Oooo this burns me! We are being punished for our competence. I am confident that I have better email security in place than any large commercial ISP. And yet I am convicted without a trial on the assumption that maybe I don't.
This is akin to a mudslinging campaign. Large ISP's will make it look like the little guy's systems don't work, making themselves appear to be a better, more reliable alternative.
The wheel and fire have to be the technologies that have most exceeded original expectation.
I'm sure that the wheel was invented by some guy who's father thought he as a loser for making useless wheels when he should have been out with the other men chasing wild goats with a sharp stick.
Yep, been doing it for 2 years also. I'm lucky though - he's a good guy who always pays on time and he knows computers so he rarely requires any kind of tech support. It's been great. We both get broadband for half price. It's above board too - we told the ISP beforehand and bought a business account. I host a domain for each of us on my server/router so we each have Gigs of web space, our own email server with spam and virus filtering, etc. It's great. We burried cat-5 in PVC conduit between our houses. He's got 4 computers on his network and I've got 3 on mine (we both have families). I've also set up Samba on the internal side so we can drag-and-drop website updates from our workstations to the web directories on the server. We've also got our own caching DNS server and Squid to speed things up. Of course we both use php/sql, ssh, bla bla bla. I love being my own host/service provider because I get to do whatever I want. If I want a jabber gateway I set one up. If I want an ftp repository I turn one on. yada yada.
Come on guys! Think outside the box. Is your car's computer proprietary? Doesn't provide all the outputs you want? So ditch it and build/buy one that does. It only cost me $600 to convert my car to a user-programable digital ECU that controls all aspects of the fuel injection and ignition timing. From the cockpit I can do live tuning, data logging, live monitoring of injector pulse width, ignition timing angle, manifold pressure, coolant temperature, intake air temperature, exhaust oxygen content, rpm, and throttle angle. And that's just the begining. You can extrapolate and display/datalog your fuel consumption rate (useing injector pulse width, rpm, injector flow rate, and fuel pressure. Some other guys are working on adding gear selection monitoring also. By monitoring gear selected and knowing the gear ratios, weight of the car, and monitoring ECU output of rpm change over time you can do real-time extrapolation and display of torque/horsepower. Put that on your dashboard LCD and smoke it.
:) The other nice thing about programable ECU's is that they can be moved from one engine to another (4, 6, 8 cyl. rotary, it doesn't matter) so next year I can move the ECU to the new engine I'm building this winter. ;)
You don't need a brand-new high-tech car to do this stuff. I race a 30yr-old Porsche 914 in SCCA solo events. I also drive it to work on a daily basis. Converting to the digital ECU (from a dying 30yr-old analog system) I picked up about 10hp (before/after dynomometer runs) AND an additional 7mpg! See, you CAN have your cake and eat it too.
Most programable ECU's have RS232 input/output so you can do all kinds of cool stuff with them - EASILY! Do a google search for PerfectPower, Autronic, SDS, Wolf 3D, Megasquirt, Haltec, Motec, Hawk EC21...
An array of PVR's? What in the world are you going to watch? There aren't enough good shows on on to keep a single PVR busy let alone an array of them.
Me? I'm going to build an array of vacuum cleaners. My idea sucks too, but will cost less.