Zippo MPL

I bought two Zippo MPLs about a year ago. These are fancy multi-purpose lighters you can use for your wood stove, candles, what have you. They worked great for a few months. As the weather got cooler, their gas output got less and less, and finally one of them wouldn't light at all. It has a small adjustment knob at the bottom but even with the highest setting, it wouldn't light. I had to send it back to Zippo for repair. I contacted them over the web, they sent a special box for me to mail the lighter with. After a few weeks it came back and was working great. Recently my second lighter started acting up the same way and I thought, I don't want to send it back and go through that ordeal again. So, I started taking it apart, after I took at the hook at the bottom and a few pieces more I realized I didn't have to unscrew anything. The adjustment knob comes off when you pull it out. You can then put it back in with a little turn and now you have another quarter turn to increase the output. If it is not enough, pull it out again, put it back in with a little turn and now you have another quarter turn for more output. If you look at the bottom side of that adjustment knob you will see that it is designed to limit the min/max output within a certain change. When it got shipped from the factory it must have been summer time so the output was enough, but when the weather cooled, the gas didn't have much ooommph to escape to put it in scientific terms. I was thinking why wouldn't they describe this simple adjustment in a small piece of paper when they ship it? I am sure I am not the only person who ran into this problem. The lighter is very elegant, the mechanics are wonderful, just what you'd expect from Zippo. Hopefully they will fix this minor problem in their Zippo MPL 2.0.

3 clicks

The wealth of information I can find on the internet with just a few minutes of googling never seizes to amaze me.

Yesterday driving from Northern California to Santa Barbara, after I filled up my tank and driving off the gas station, I noticed the check engine light stayed on. I pulled over and checked for obvious leaks, engine oil and transmission fluid. That's pretty much all I know to check. I had an oil change recently, so there could have been some loose cap somewhere but didn't see anything obvious. So, I just kept driving. I had my eyes on the temp gauge, just in case. I was dreading to take the car to the dealership. I was afraid they'd hook up their diagnostics computer and charge me 50 bucks for 5 minutes.

This morning, I googled some keywords: "check engine light rav4". After 15-20 minutes of looking through various automobile discussion board posts, I came upon a very simple suggestion: "Make sure the fuel tank cap is turned at least 3 clicks after refilling; after that, remove the EFI fuse for 60 seconds and replace it". Well, that's something I can do without getting dirty. I know where the fuel cap is, I wasn't sure about the EFI fuse, but I read that it was under the hood inside the black box. So, I followed the suggestions. I opened and re-closed the fuel tank cap with at least 3 clicks and then opened the black fuse/relay box under the hood. The fuses were clearly marked on the underside of the cover, thank you Toyota. There were three EFI fuses marked as EFI1, EFI2 and EFI3. Removed them all with the extraction tool and replaced them after 60 seconds. Restarted the car and voila, check engine light was gone. Thank you google and Internet.

9/22/04 update: well, actually the check engine light came back on intermittently, even after our mechanic cleared it with a computer. We had to take the car to the dealer and they ended up upgrading the software in the car's computer. So far so good.

Apple Unveils Adapter to Link iPod to Some BMWs

Well, it was about time Apple did something like this. I have had an iPod for over 6 months now and I love it. Where I use it most though is in the car. I rarely use the ear phones, definitely not in the car. There are choices on how to hook up an iPod to a car stereo, such as a cassette adapter or radio transmitters like iTrip and I do have both. I don't like either of them. I don't like the cassette adapter cable sticking out of the car stereo and I don't like the sound of the rollers' noise rubbing against the adapter, especially when the car is quiet. iTrip is an improvement, no additional cables and it taps into the iPod battery. However, the sound quality drops, there is background hissing noise and when you get an overlapping radio station in the neighborhood, it is not that easy to switch to a different station and continue playing where you left off, especially not while driving a car.

I always wondered how long will it take Apple to team with car manufacturers so that the car stereo would have an iPod dock on them. You get in the car, you insert your iPod into the iPod slot on the stereo, just like you'd insert a cassette. The car stereo takes over all the iPod controls and display output; if you have controls on the steering wheel, all the better. So, Apple linking iPods to some BMWs is a great first step, though a little costly solution to upgrade your iPod's capabilities.

Another annoyance about playing iPod in the car is you need to remember to turn it off.
Why doesn't Apple come up with an iPod setting that says "car mode" and the iPod shuts off when the external power is disconnected. When the power is connected again, the iPod continues to play where it was left off, just like a CD or tape would continue. I don't think it takes rocket science to add that feature. If you are running errands and have multiple stops lack of this feature becomes really annoying.

Enough bashing about iPod, I think it is a technological marvel and absolutely beatiful design. I am sure these features will be common place for iPod in a matter of time. At least the "car mode" should be just a software upgrade.

Better late than never

As I was reading the info about google's blogger, it said that blogging has been around for five years. Being in high-tech sector it took me five years to create a blog? In fact, I didn't know what blog was until about 6 months ago. Same happened to me with IM. I didn't see the need for it for a long long time. Finally I gave in and started using it. It worked fine for a while then I had all kinds of glitches using Trillian. I liked Trillian because I could IM with AIM, Yahoo and MSN. That looked like a great advantage. I am still only using it on an "if I have to" basis. Perhaps there is a better multi-IM client out there.
Let's see how long this blogging will last for me.