Brian Feldman's New Writeupshttp://everything2.com/?node=New%20Writeups%20Atom%20Feed&foruser=Brian Feldman2002-08-29T17:35:35ZSMT (thing)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/SMTBrian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-08-29T17:35:35Z2002-08-29T17:35:35Z<p>The <a href="/title/Sequential+Manual+Transmission">Sequential Manual Transmission</a> is <a href="/title/Toyota">Toyota</a>'s name for their electro-hydraulically <a href="/title/shift">shift</a>ed <a href="/title/manual">manual</a> <a href="/title/gearbox">gearbox</a> found in the <a href="/title/MR2+Spyder">MR2 Spyder</a>. Initially in a <a href="/title/5-speed">5-speed</a> but now also in a <a href="/title/6-speed">6-speed</a> <a href="/title/flavor">flavor</a> (with an extra <a href="/title/overdrive">overdrive</a> <a href="/title/gear">gear</a>), its operation is controlled by two steering-wheel-mounted buttons on the front for initiating a <a href="/title/downshift">downshift</a> and two on the back for initiating an <a href="/title/upshift">upshift</a>, as well as a more familiar floor shifter with a <a href="/title/%252B">+</a> to upshift when pulling toward you and a <a href="/title/-">-</a> to downshift when pushing away.
<br>Operation is simple. The floor shifter has three gates:
<br><pre>
_ _
R | |_ _
|_ || |
N |__ | S
|_|
+
</pre>
<br>To start the car, the selector must be in the middle, <a href="/title/neutral">neutral</a> gate. After started, it may be placed in <a href="/title/rear">rear</a> or <a href="/title/drive">drive</a> which will cause the gear to shift but not the clutch to be dropped. The car will not <a href="/title/creep">creep</a> like an <a href="/title/automatic">automatic</a>, only roll like a regular manual with the <a href="/title/clutch">clutch</a> out! Giving it some <a href="/title/accelerator">accelerator</a>, the clutch<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Toyota MR2 Spyder (thing)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/Toyota+MR2+SpyderBrian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-08-29T17:07:12Z2002-08-29T17:07:12ZThe <a href="/title/MR2">MR2</a> Spyder is the third-<a href="/title/generation">generation</a> in the lineage of <a href="/title/Toyota">Toyota</a>'s <a href="/title/mid-engined">mid-engined</a>, <a href="/title/rear-wheel+drive">rear-wheel drive</a> <a href="/title/sports+car">sports car</a>s, and a major blast to drive! For 1999, it replaced the second-generation <a href="/title/Mister+Two">Mister Two</a> with a car that returned to its' light-hearted (and light-bodied) roots, weighing in at just about 2200 <a href="/title/pound">pound</a>s, lighter than even the first-generation and the <a href="/title/Miata">Miata</a> by a significant margin! With the <a href="/title/MR-S">MR-S</a>/<a href="/title/MR+Roadster">MR Roadster</a>/<a href="/title/Spyder">Spyder</a>, Toyota resurrected its sports car, in <a href="/title/ragtop">ragtop</a> form, for all the markets which could not sustain it since the mid-90s. (Meanwhile, since <a href="/title/1984">1984</a> the MR2 has not gone out of production in some form in <a href="/title/Japan">Japan</a>).<p>
The Mk3 MR2 is powered by the <a href="/title/1.8L">1.8L</a> <a href="/title/1ZZ-FE">1ZZ-FE</a> with <a href="/title/VVT-i">VVT-i</a>, with around 140 <a href="/title/hp">hp</a> depending on the configuration for whatever <a href="/title/country">country</a> it is destined for. Despite modest power, the lightness of the car coupled with the extremely low-geared <a href="/title/transmission">transmission</a> make it quite <a href="/title/quick">quick</a>! The transmission choices have so far included a <a href="/title/5-speed">5-speed</a> <a href="/title/manual">manual</a>, a 5-speed <a href="/title/SMT">SMT</a>,<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…lambda (idea)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/lambdaBrian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-04-14T22:04:11Z2002-04-14T22:04:11ZAs an <a href="/title/addendum">addendum</a> to the previous <a href="/title/examples">examples</a>, the way to <a href="/title/explicit">explicit</a>ly create a <a href="/title/closure">closure</a> in <a href="/title/Ruby">Ruby</a> is to use the <a href="/title/syntax">syntax</a>
<blockquote><tt>closure = lambda {|x| x + x}</tt></blockquote>
or
<blockquote><tt>closure = Proc.new {|x| x + x}</tt></blockquote>
<a href="/title/For+example">For example</a>,
<blockquote><tt>lambda {|x| x + x}.call 2</tt> would return <tt>4</tt></blockquote>
Of course, the neatest part about it is that there's nothing special about the lamba <a href="/title/function">function</a> that makes it necessary to create closures with! You could even create your own closure-creation <a href="/title/method">method</a>, like so:
<blockquote><tt>
def my_lambda(&block)<br>
raise ArgumentError, "tried to create Procedure-Object without a block" if !block_given?<br>
block<br>
end
</tt></blockquote>Toyota Camry (thing)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/Toyota+CamryBrian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-04-14T05:12:20Z2002-04-14T05:12:20Z<a href="/title/Toyota">Toyota</a>'s Camry is a reliable, <a href="/title/spacious">spacious</a> car which is very <a href="/title/practical">practical</a>, though unimaginative. As I only have experience driving my <a href="/title/5SFE">5SFE</a> Camry with its <a href="/title/slushbox">slushbox</a>, I can't say if there's any more fun to it with a decent <a href="/title/transmission">transmission</a> and powered by a <a href="/title/V6">V6</a>; the tiny four-cylinders combined with the <a href="/title/curb+weight">curb weight</a> starting at well over 3100 pounds for any of the more recent model years lead to an especially slow car. A huge <a href="/title/fault">fault</a> I place on this car is that way too much was compromised in order to make it and keep it one of the most popular cars. This translates to a very <a href="/title/sluggish">sluggish</a> automatic, power steering which is too detached and far too <a href="/title/amplified">amplified</a>, wheels which are much too small and thin for a car its size, and a dangerously bad suspension providing extremely bad <a href="/title/grip">grip</a> and <a href="/title/roll">roll</a> characteristics.<p>
<a href="/title/Engine">Engine</a> power has creeped up over the years, so hopefully new ones should be less agonizingly <a href="/title/slow">slow</a>. Additionally, the <a href="/title/wheel">wheel</a> size was finally increased; this translates to HUGE improvements in<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Come be Entertained by Baltimore's Divine Waters (thing)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/Come+be+Entertained+by+Baltimore%2527s+Divine+WatersBrian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-04-13T23:04:53Z2002-04-13T23:04:53ZIt was really cool meeting more E2 people! I've put up some <a href="/title/photo">photo</a>s, so far without <a href="/title/caption">caption</a>s (I'm lazy.): see http://green.bikeshed.org/~green/photos/E2%20Gatherings/4-13-2002%20in%20Baltimore/ (and bug the <a href="/title/gods">gods</a> to give us ability to do real <a href="/title/link">link</a>s :-P.<p>
<a href="/title/Patterson+Park">Patterson Park</a> is a particularly <a href="/title/pleasant">pleasant</a> place, which made me wish I had brought my <a href="/title/bike">bike</a> along to use there. The <a href="/title/competition">competition</a>s I was able to make it in time to witness were largely quite entertaining and quite worth <a href="/title/marvel">marvelling</a> at the creativity of those competitors! I'm a person of quite bad memory, so the best way to see what it is like is to take a look at the <a href="/title/photograph">photograph</a>s; I'll make sure to <a href="/title/caption">caption</a> them soon, and see if any of them <a href="/title/jog">jog</a> my memory explicitly, but it is quite <a href="/title/unfortunate">unfortunate</a> that I wasn't able to show up in the <a href="/title/morning">morning</a> and had more of a chance to experience the day.<p>
Biggest highlights for the short time I was there: the <a href="/title/pink+shirt">pink shirt</a>/yellow and black <a href="/title/shorts">shorts</a>, <a href="/title/scrubs">scrubs</a>, <a href="/title/justice+team">justice team</a>, and of course, the<!-- close unclosed tag --></p><!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…Canon Digital Elph/Powershot S110 (thing)http://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman/writeups/Canon+Digital+Elph%252FPowershot+S110Brian Feldmanhttp://everything2.com/user/Brian+Feldman2002-04-12T20:05:20Z2002-04-12T20:05:20ZThis is a wonderful little <a href="/title/digital+camera">digital camera</a>, which is almost exactly the same as the previous <a href="/title/Canon+Digital+Elph%252FPowerShot+S100">S100</a> model, and retails for around $400US as of early 2002. The branding for the camera outside of the US market is the <a href="/title/Ixus+v">Ixus v</a>. The camera features improved electronics which allow it to save power, for example, when transferring files via the <a href="/title/USB">USB</a> interface.<p>
However, this upgraded <a href="/title/Elph">Elph</a> also improves upon its predecessor by including support for creating 20 <a href="/title/fps">fps</a>, 640x480/320x240/160x120 <a href="/title/MJPEG">MJPEG</a> <a href="/title/AVI">AVI</a> movie files! This feature gains it a <a href="/title/microphone">microphone</a> on the front and the ability to play back both <a href="/title/video">video</a> and <a href="/title/audio">audio</a> through its <a href="/title/A%252FV">A/V</a> <a href="/title/adapter+cable">adapter cable</a>. Picture quality is around what you expect for motion capture with <a href="/title/high+compression">high compression</a>, and it will record as much as about 3.3MB or whatever's left on your <a href="/title/CompactFlash">CompactFlash</a> card at a time (presumably, this capacity when uncompressed is most of its <a href="/title/internal+memory">internal memory</a>). This translates to 30 seconds of 160x120 video, 20<!-- close unclosed tag --></p>…