Not a fan of digital dash in cars

The hot trend in new vehicles these days is the replacement of traditional gauges in the instrument binnacle with an entirely digital LCD panel. Audi was one of the first to do this with their ‘virtual cockpit’ system, and just about every other manufacturer has or is following suit. Modern Mercedes Benz cars don’t even try to hide the fact it’s digital: the dash is just one wide flatscreen panel, as if someone simply glued a tablet on.

I guess we have the smartphone to thank for this development, and tangentially, Tesla. People prefer lots information available at a glance, so if you want Google Maps navigation overlaid on the typical engine RPM and speed dials, digital is the only way to achieve this. It’s likely cheaper to manufacture, too: one giant LCD panel with software development, versus engineering analog dials gauges in fancy shapes and sizes.

When the Audi virtual cockpit first debut, I was quite impressed: to have the navigation maps directly in front of your vision is more natural and useful than having to look away towards the right (or left for my UK brethren) at the infotainment screen. It’s probably safer, too. Audi’s system also allows configuration for the tachometer be in the center, which is the proper position in my opinion, especially in a car with any modicum of sporting intentions.

As the technology have proliferated throughout automotive spectrum, I’m not so sure anymore about having a completely digital instrument panel. Partly because I love the intricacies and mechanicalness of analog dials (like a fine mechanical watch), and partly due to the concerns about repair cost. We all know how expensive to fix our broken smartphones, so it’s not a stretch to think that if and when the electronics fail on those digital instrument panels, the repair bill will be quite substantial.

But what am I saying? Our generation love leasing and buying things on payment; who’s going to keep a car long enough for the LCD dash to fail anyways.

Lots of Lobstah makes me happy.

The new Surface Studio is already behind. Again.

Yesterday Microsoft held a hardware event for their Surface line of products in New York City. Microsoft elected to not provide a livestream because the company is simply not as cool and awesome as Apple. Comparatively, Apple’s annual September iPhone keynote was streamed on Twitter.

The team from Redmond is forever chasing the taillights of Cupertino.

The only Surface product I was interested in was the top-of-the-line machine the Surface Studio. I’ve already got a Surface Pro 4 and I’m not keen to replace that anytime soon, especially since the industrial design is still the same on the new Surface Pro 6. I guess I’m not likely to buy a Surface Studio either since I’m very much using the 2017 5K iMac I just bought last year.

It’s nice to look at nice things you can absolutely afford to buy but choose not to.

The original Surface Studio debut two years ago to critical acclaim of its brilliant screen that serves as a monitor and a Wacom-style creative surface when its hinged down in its most flat position. I quite enjoy doing scribbles and jotting down notes with the Surface pen on my Surface Pro 4, and I can only imagine how incredible the experience would be on that vast 28-inch canvas.

However great the display on the Surface Studio was utterly undermined by the lackluster internals. Due to design constraints, Microsoft had to use mobile/laptop parts for better packaging and less heat. That in it of itself is not a problem because Apple have done the same in the iMac line since forever. The issue in Microsoft’s execution with the Surface Studio is that they used one-generations old CPU and GPU chips instead of the latest available; the machine was already out-of-date at launch.

Not to mention the lack of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, and the slow hybrid SSD hard drive.

So I was eager to see how Microsoft would remedy this glaring flaw at yesterday’s event, and the answer is they absolutely did not. The new Surface Studio 2 indeed received the welcomed spec bump, but shockingly not to the current 8th generation Intel processors and Nvidia RTX20XX graphics. Instead it once again utilizes previous generation chips: 7th generation Intel and Nvidia GTX10XX. Like the original model, Surface Studio 2 is being launched with obsolete components.

There’s still no USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 in the new model, too. Overall it’s a very disappointing showing from Microsoft. After two years, this was all they could’ve come up with?

A short hike up the hill at Mori Point.

Turo turned me on to automatic gearboxes

A few weeks back I helped my younger brother move in back to UC Santa Cruz. This year he’s living off-campus so there’s plenty more to bring, mainly the stuff that belongs in the kitchen. His MK7.5 Golf GTI hatchback can fit quite a bit of stuff, but in the end we also needed a second car to haul to all.

Unfortunately, my first ever car, the family’s 2006 Toyota Corolla, gave up the ghost the same weekend. The car’s utterly weak C59 manual transmission (third gear has had a grind since I can remember) shattered a few gear internally, and it was making the most horrible noises when driving, akin to a racing car gearbox with straight-cut gears. The lever refuses to go into third or fourth gear, and we simply weren’t confident it can make the 130 miles round-trip to Santa Cruz.

We needed another car quite quickly, so to the Turo app we went the night before. 50 bucks on the credit card later the following morning, and we had ourselves a 2017 Honda Civic to use. What lovely convenience it is to be able to rent a car in that swift a timeframe; the traditional route would’ve found us at the SFO airport rental car complex because it’s be the only spot open on a Sunday. Not to mention it’d cost considerably more.

The Civic had an automatic gearbox obviously, because why would any sane person lend their manual transmission car out to a stranger. I did the driving duties, and it was the first time in the longest time I’ve driven an automatic car for an extended period. Perhaps it is because I’m getting old, but as an avid advocate of the row-it-yourself gearbox, I found driving the auto Civic to be an absolute pleasure. Automatic transmissions are actually okay!?

I get it now: in normal everyday driving, not having to do the clutch and gearstick dance at every intersection is a godsend for comfort. In a car with an auto ‘box you just push the gas and go. Manual transmission fanatics sticking to their dogma of daily-driving a stick-shift car being no more difficult than a car with an automatic gearbox are fooling themselves; I use to be that guy, but having driven to Santa Cruz and back in that Honda Civic, my position have changed completely.

Bay Area traffic isn’t going to get any better, mind.

I don’t think I’ll buy another manual gearbox car as a daily driver ever again. The bliss and ease in letting the car shift itself, particularly in traffic, is worth the “car enthusiast credibility” sacrifice. Don’t get me wrong: on an empty winding mountain road in a proper sports car, a stick with a clutch is still the choice for pure driving enjoyment.

Or you buy a 911 with PDK and get the best compromise of both worlds.

Look at the stars, look how they shine for… you.

Car dealers don't like email

It seems techniques in buying a car have changed, and and in some ways returned full-circle.

Six years ago when I bought my first car, the “hack” thing to do in order to get the best deal was to email plenty of dealerships, and then pit the respective quotes against each other. The prevailing wisdom back then was to get the numbers down concretely in email before you even step a foot inside the dealership. While I didn’t have the dealerships I contacted compete with each other because one in particular gave me the deal I had wanted immediately, the deal was indeed done completely over email. I remember spending just over an hour actually inside the dealer premise.

I really like that way of car buying.

The problem with the Internet being able to easily disseminate information to the masses is that what was once an obscure car-buying method used only by those in the know have evolved into a technique utilized by nearly everybody. The dealerships get bombarded with email inquiries, and for them it’s difficult to ascertain who’s a serious buyer and who’s simply looking for numbers to be used at a competitor. Due to this they aren’t quite as keen to do business over email as before.

I found this fact out last week when I was in the motions of buying a car for my father. I looked up the dealerships within travel distance and then sent them an email, detailing precisely the model and trim I wanted and to please provide me with a suitable quote. I wasn’t looking to shop the quotes afterwards to attain the best price: I was completely ready to pull the trigger with the first salesperson to email me an offer within the price target I had researched (TrueCar is nice).

Of the half dozen dealers I contacted, only one was willing to talk concrete numbers over email. The other salespeople replied with generic boilerplate asking when I am free to visit the dealership or to give them a call for the best price. Initially I was extremely put off by this because why can’t they respect my time and preference to communicate over email? I even wrote in the initial email that I was ready to purchase by the end of the week.

It was after mulling it over few days (and working out a deal over text-message) that I realize these days email inquiries are a dime a dozen and therefore dealers treat them as not serious. Contrast to over half decade ago when a detailed email from a customer would denote a knowledgable buyer with zero bullshit. To convey the same intentions today, one needs to do the opposite and actually call or show up: person to person communication projects a customer’s seriousness.

It’s definitely more time consuming that way, but what was once a hack is no more, and the personable “traditional” way of buying a car is now the hack. Funny how that is.

Clean Nissan S14s are difficult to find. I hope the owner of this car keeps it like this forever.

A year with Squarespace

Difficult to believe it’s already been a whole year since I’ve move to the Squarespace platform. It was also a surprise because when I went to check on my money accounts (I use Mint), a hefty charge of $215 showed up on one of the credit cards. That is indeed the yearly fee for the privilege of using this wonderful host sans any limitations.

Much like how the annual fee for Amazon Prime sneaks up on me every year, I can see why people of my generation much prefer these payments to be broken down monthly instead of annually. The emotional optics are simply easier to stomach than having to all of the sudden cough up a few hundred dollars. It’s especially jarring for people like myself who keep monthly budgets as tight as possible.

The new iPhone that costs over one thousand dollars? No it doesn’t! Split into 24 payments it’s only $56 dollars a month! An infinitely easier pill to swallow, isn’t it? That brand new BMW sedan isn’t really over $40,000 dollars; on a lease it’s only costs $300 a month!

For the less financially inclined it’s of course easy to fall into the “affordable” monthly payment trap and go way beyond proper spending limits. But for the financially savvy - which I think of myself as - sectioning a big monetary outlay into tiny bits can be an excellent strategy to maximize returns (however small they may be). I rather do a piecemeal plan and hoard as much cash as possible to at the very least earn interest in a savings account.

This is precisely why instead of the typical lump sum every 6 months, I pay my car insurance every month. I can do the bi-yearly plan no problem at all, but it’s more prudent to keep the leftover cash in an investment account to accrue some modicum of gain. Plus, it’s far easier for budgeting purposes.

Anyways, it’s been a good year, Squarespace. Please don’t raise your fees.

The charts match the chairs and floors.

How long you've had a credit card matters

One of my major New Year's resolutions this year was to implement austerity. The past few years I’ve been highly cavalier with my money, mostly towards doing an immense amount of traveling. I don’t regret any of it as it’s been some of the best times in my life, but what with me turning 30 I figured time was right to store up some cash for headier times.

Midway through the year however I decided I was going to purchase a Porsche 911 in the near future, so austerity could not have come at a more perfect time. Slavishly save money just to then squander it all? That’s just how life works. To paraphrase Ludacris’ character in the Fast and Furious franchise: what’s the good of making money if you don’t spend any of it?

Nevertheless I’m still keeping to my resolution, and it’s been going great. With less expenditure I’ve whittled down the number of credits cards I use to only a few (the Chase line of Freedom and Sapphire cards are awesome). With no activity on the spare cards, I was content to let the credit card company close on them, thinking that it won’t do much damage to my credit score.

Well I was wrong. A few weeks ago I did my periodic routine check of my score on Credit Karma, and a particular item serendipitously caught my eye: the age of credit history. Turns out the length of time a credit card is open bears a positive attribution to the credit score, with it signifying trustworthiness and whatnot. Unfortunately for me, the cards I haven’t been using are the one’s I’ve had the longest.

I can’t let those cards expire now and risk damaging my credit score, not with the need to get financing for the Porsche next year. So in the past few weeks I’ve put tiny purchases on each formerly disused card to restart the closure clock, so to speak. My score is currently in the low 800s, and I aim to keep it that way.

Pro tip: don’t let your old credit cards expire unless you’ve got an equally old credit card you plan to keep using, because it will impact your credit score greatly.

The lonely nights.

Initial iPhone XS Max impressions

I was surprised how easy the preordering process was this year. The Apple Store app opened up right at 12:01am Friday, and within minutes I was ready with a launch-day delivery unit. A stark contrast to the previous few years where the app was unresponsive for a quarter hour, and mere seconds delay in decision bumped me off of first day delivery (last year).

Either Apple’s supply chain have improved immensely, or they’ve got plenty of iPhone XS on hand for everyone. Probably the latter because the line frenzies we are used to seeing in previous iPhone launches were few and far in between. I can walk into an Apple Store right now and buy a unit in any of the three colors.

Of course I’d rather not leave the house if possible, so I optioned for home delivery. Trouble is I didn’t get home last Friday until way late into the night, though I figured the setup process wouldn’t be too much of a hassle: backup iPhone X into iTunes, plug the new phone in, and step 3 profit. The plan was going great until I turned on the new iPhone XS Max for the first time and it ceremoniously failed at the Verizon authentication process.

Turns out Apple screwed up royally with their batch of Verizon phones. Their authentication system still has my old and out-of-date PIN and not the current one from Verizon. I was adamant my info was correct, not knowing it wanted the old PIN. Verizon couldn’t do anything about it, and the Apple tech support I talk to did not yet know the extent of the situation. After two hours of futility, I finally remembered my old PIN and I was home free.

The screen is massive and glorious.

The iPhone XS Max is about the size of the old ‘Plus’ phones, but the display dominates the entire frame. At 6.5 inches, it is desperately close to mini tablet territory, and I simply love the amount of real-estate. After nearly a year of using iPhone X I’ve gotten used to its screen size, but mere minutes of using the XS Max, the previous generation phone already feels uncomfortably small and cramped. I’m very glad I chose to go with the larger model: more text, more information; watching Youtube videos in landscape is a pleasure.

Unfortunately not many apps have been updated to utilize the newfound space. Native Apple apps obviously look great and sharp, but other apps are merely zoomed to acquiesce the new size. Just as we had to wait for apps to update and take full advantage of the iPhone X screen, I fear we may need to do the same for the XS Max. Tick tock, app developers.

Other than the extra screen size, operationally the XS Max is nearly identical to the X. It’s probably speedier and smoother, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Even after a year in production, the X is not lacking in speed, especially after the update to iOS 12. The reason for upgrading to the XS Max was the bigger display, and the improved camera.

And what a sweet camera it is. I’ve only had a few days of shooting under my belt, but I can’t stop being impressed with the results. Smart HDR is simply magic, producing images in real-time that an equivalent DSLR camera would require multiple exposures and then combining them in software on a laptop. It’s awe-inspiring to see Apple continually attempt to overcome the limitations of sensor and lens physics with sheer computational might.

More to come on the iPhone XS Max as I get more familiar with its intricacies.

Straight off iPhone XS Max camera, unedited.