2007-07-25: More CarPC progress
So in the last couple of days I went and got some hardener for the fiberglass resin (why is it you never run out of both at the same time?) as well as some fiberglass mat and started working on the in-dash LCD. It is now most definitely not going anywhere (one layer of resin-soaked shirt to get the shape, then two layers of mat), I can actually pick the entire dash up by the monitor of the mood strikes. pr00f brought up a point that I'd already thought of about the legality of it. I will probably have to watch it driving in other states (hah! like I will feed the 454 beast enough gas to get me to another state!), but from what I understand of Indiana law, I should have no problems unless they change the laws.
It should be noted that the LCD is positioned so that it offers minimal obstruction to the driver's view. It probably blocks an area about an inch tall, and the width of the LCD, from seeing the passenger side front corner of the hood - not entirely unlike strapping a CB radio to your dash. It's not distracting in the slightest, and of course I will configure my player to not display any form of movie on that head while the vehicle's in motion.
I still have to use fiberglass to repair a couple of areas that were cracking, as well as I need to build ant-hills to house and aim the two dash speakers. After that, it needs a thorough going-over with bodyfiller, then more sanding, and finally some paint, and I can stuff it back into the truck and begin working on the next stage - installing and powering the PC. I'm having a blast so far.
Other than that there really hasn't been much else going on. I've almost got this piece of shit, eyesore of a trailer out of our backyard, which will be awesome to have it gone because it's sitting right on the future site of our woodshed. The large pile of garbage which has been shifted around for a couple years now (the house was full of trash when we bought it), is finally starting to look like it's dwindling. There's a couple of guys that live in town who will scrap almost anything. Not the easiest way to make a living, but they took a bunch of metal crap out of the garbage pile. There's more, but they didn't feel like going through it.
However, the pile is sitting where our pond needs to be extended, so try as I might to procrastinate, I'm going to have to move it someday soon. When I do, I'll sort out anything that looks even remotely scrapable and put it in a pile and they can come and get it. Anything they take is something that I don't have to dump (and thus, pay to get rid of).
So some guys at a telecomms worker's forum appeared to get all up-in-arms over my Intertel PBX page. Apparently it looks to them like I'm trying to solicit business as a telephone installer, which I guess I can see to a point. But why I would use language such as So I kicked [DJ's] ass off the couch at 6 in the morning
and and put the whole 8'x4' mess on the roof of the car. A quick trip over to the new warehouse and we went to play paintball
on a portfolio where I was trying to get prospective clients to take me serious is anyone's guess. We in the lair are in agreement that perhaps I'm on to some new kind of marketing and I don't even know it.
For the record, I wasn't paid anything to do this. The guy basically bought us a couple cases of paint as a "thank you". There was no contract, and he didn't give a shit if we couldn't get it working. He was all set just to leave the machine and give it to the landlord until someone else mentioned I might be able to make it work in the new place. On the whole though, it gave me a bit of a chuckle that some folks would take something they found on the internet written in such obvious jest (well maybe it's not obvious enough?) so seriously. I did learn a couple of things, but these guys weren't exactly forthcoming with information. If I feel like it, I'll update the page to point out a couple of the mistakes I made.
So yeah, overall I think it was a pretty good lesson in humility. I think I'm going to make it my goal this week to be nicer to people who know less than I, and make sure to be forthcoming with tips and information (I usually try to be). I didn't think such a goofy article would generate this much hoo-hah.