sibble.com

I noticed a problem with the caption boxes that Wordpress creates, and the image box model around the images in posts.

adding this to styles.css:

.wp-caption {
  padding-right:15px;
  padding-left:5px;
}

will change this:

before fix

to this:

after fix

Let me know if anyone runs into any problems.

Bill is a good guy, Bill is a simple guy.  He works, drinks Budweiser, and drives a Camaro.  Bill’s driveway attracts friendly rabbits, wounded squirrels, and Peeps.  Recently, someone “friend” of his made a fraudulent Facebook profile of Bill, thinking it would be funny.  Now, this so called “friend” is receiving personal messages from friends and family.

A picture of Bill Readinger.

Help Bill out, join the cause!

Well, I picked up a new Thinkpad X61 and it quickly became my favorite notebook. It’s extremely small and light-weight (weighing only 2.7lbs). One of the reasons I went with IBM is mainly because everything works out of the box with Linux. This first thing I did was create a complete partition backup image. I was pretty happy with the notebook’s performance with Vista, however I don’t like Vista…

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 via a net-install disc (able to do this with UltraBase docking station.) Generally speaking, everything important worked without any additional configuration on my part. Some features didn’t work, so I did some research to get them working (wasn’t hard.)

Overall, I’m very happy. The only thing I’m worried about is the temperature. I guess you can’t expect perfect air ventilation with such a small notebook. One thing I did read (and also confirm) is that the wireless card generates a lot of heat. It’s located roughly around the area you’re right hand would rest while typing. It becomes so hot, that I’d rather disable the built in Intel wireless card, and use one of my wireless PC Cards.

I read a few people saying that sound did not work out of the box, but I believe they were using older kernel versions. Make sure you use the latest possible kernel available to you. On Ubuntu 7.10, the only thing I had to do was change the GNOME volume from MIC to PCM.

Here are some references I used to help get things working:

Ubuntu Gusty Gibbon 7.10 on X61s - forum.thinkpads.org
On demand frequency governor, CPU frequency scaling, tap-to-click, middle mouse wheel for scrolling, and enabling Compiz Fusion with Intel X3100 graphics.

X61 – thinkwiki.org
A lot of great information here.

I will update this post when new updates are available.

Evidentially, the mySQL db for sibble.com was not being properly backed up. And, of course, last weekend I lost the db. I don’t really blame anyone but myself, things like this happen and it’s my responsibility to make sure my data is properly backed up. Luckily, searching Google for sibble.com while using the ‘daterange’ attribute, gave me a cached index of my site. I was able to restore my posts. I will be doing more work to the website, as well as keeping up with fresh content.

Thank you Google!

I’ve been reading threads on different oils, and how they differ from engine to engine. I read on a few forums about people sending in small samples of their used engine oil when they do changes, and get laboratory results back telling you what minerals were found in it (basically telling you how your engine is wearing.)

I’m not going to comment on these, because if you look closely, and read, you will see that there are comments on the report itself.

First report

Second report

Third report

Fourth report

You can tell that the engine is still breaking in, because the numbers are going down. Basically, if it were the other way around, that would show progressive wear-and-tear on my engine’s internals. My next oil report will be on German Castrol Syntec 0W30. I’m anxious to see what the report looks like, I know it will be the best yet.

Well, I began working on the brakes of the 350Z. I got to a part that required me to break-loose a bolt that holds the caliper bracket together. It was pretty tight and I couldn’t get it to budge. I started reading the service repair manual for my car, and I found out that the bolts are torqued to about 120ft/lbs.

I did some research, and finally decided to buy some air tools. I went to Lowes and Home Depot, and I ended up buying a Kobolt compressor with a 10gal. tank from Lowes along with a kit including Ingersoll-Rand impact wrench & ratchet set. It also included several impact sockets. It looks really fun to use

Airtools set

Kobalt tank

Air gun

Hose

So, some boxes came a month or two ago

I went with Fast Intentions’s resonated test pipes. I ordered them in polished stainless steel. This is probably my favorite mod so far. It cost $300, they look sick, and they sound beautiful. I would definitely buy them again if I had to. The company is based in SoCal.

HKS Hi-Power cat-back, he box was HUGE! It was shipped perfectly.  It had some Japanese writing on it too… I have no idea what it means. It probably says “Box very big, very heavy, don’t drop!” I know HKS is a company based in Japan, but I think they also have a US division I’m not really sure. Either that or they just have a website for the US.  The vendor I bought it from is Forged Performance. They are in Georgia, so it came in only a few days. I went with the HKS because it is a true dual exhaust. I prefered the dual exhaust only because it provides much better flow, and that is much needed later on if I decide I want more power. The single-path exhaust systems are good for NA cars, which is what mine is now. However, I might not stay NA. The other thing with single-path exhaust is that they are very loud. I wanted something that sounded clean and tuned. This is what I wanted.

I carefully removed and inspected every part. There were only a couple very minor nicks on some of the mid-pipes. I’m not worried about it at all since it’ll never been seen unless the car is in the air.

I’m very happy with the looks and sound of these exhaust parts. They are high-quality parts, and I would buy them again.

The tips are titanium and the edges are actually burnt. The burnt tips give a blueish/purpleish color. Sounds great, looks great.

Haven’t been on here in a while, but I’ll be posting again as well as updating the site. I’ll also be posting updates on the Z.

So I bought some more carbon fiber. They are just overlays, I think for now on I’m only buying the real stuff. It’s not that I don’t like the carbon fiber overlays, they’re cheap, easy to install, and they certainly look decent. But it’s not the real thing; it defeats the real purpose of using carbon fiber (to make the car lighter, right?)

This manual shift cover was bought from thezstore.com Anything I buy from them generally comes pretty fast, and packaged well. It’s always exactly what their description is. It *almost* fits perfectly, I just need to get some more 3m double-sided tape to help around the edges of one of the corners.

I also bought this from thezstore.com. There are actually more pieces to this kit, but I don’t know if I like the other pieces or not. The overlay on top of the instrument panel is sold separately. I do like the instrument panel cover, it is not just a sticky over-lay. It is actually molded and fits snugly.

The race was crazy, it was a 2hr drive from Clay’s house (in Durham) to Charlotte. We left the house at 9am and parked the car in the Lowes Speedway parking lot at 1pm. The race was 400 laps (600 miles). It started at 5pm and we left the parking lot at midnight. It was pretty hot to begin with, but as night came the temperature dropped a little bit. I got some crazy pictures from the race too.

The guy standing still compared to the car flying by at 200mph looks really cool.