The Autoprophet Geocache Challenge (SOLVED)

Update: SOLVED! We have a winner.

To promote the new season of Top Gear, BBC America sent me some stuff to give away to my readers. They didn't say how I had to do it, so instead of a boring lottery, I have decided to do a geocache.
The Top Gear swag is hidden inside a brown cardboard box, wrapped up in a plastic bag to keep it dry. The prize includes a 2010 Top Gear calendar, a "Stig" coffee mug, and best of all, the complete season 11 and season 12 DVD sets, 6 discs in all.

The Rules:

• The first person who finds the stuff keeps it.
• If you find the booty, please send me an email at TheAutoProphet"at"gmail.com and let me know that you got it. Please mention the secret word (included with the prize).
  
• If no one finds it in two (2) weeks, I will give the whole pile to the Salvation Army for charity
• Extra points: find the bottle of beer that someone left behind (not me) near my cache.
  

The Location:

The goods are located in Oakland County, MI, in a little known municipal park. The box will not be buried, but will be mildly camouflaged.

The cache is not far from the trail, you don't have to do much bush-wacking.

Now, GO GO GO!

Apple iPad

I have been reading about the newly revealed Apple iPad, and I am thinking, "do not want".  Here's why:

• No on-board memory card slot
• No Adobe Flash support
• Closed OS--all apps must come from Apple store
• No camera--this thing should be able to do Skype out of the box
• No on-board USB ports
• No multi-tasking

This is because Apple decided to make the iPad basically an over-sized IPod Touch, not a shrunken Macbook.  Myself, I'd be more interested in a scaled-down Macbook.

I predict this will be a disappointment for Apple, until they fix some of these flaws.  Most people who would be interested in an iPad already have an iPhone, they won't see a compelling reason to get one.

The Fluid Flush Scam

A family member took her compact SUV for its 100,000 mile service recently, and the service manager attacked her with the dreaded "fluid flush gauntlet".  He showed her samples of her transmission oil, power steering oil, brake fluid, and coolant, and tried to sell her about $500 worth of fluid flushes.  He also tried to convince her to change out her rear differential fluid, which is rather expensive, because it comes from nearly extinct whales.

This is a scam.  It is pure profit for the shop.

You should not get any fluid changed on your car that is not recommended by the owner's manual, unless you have special circumstances.  More on those below.

She checked her owner's manual, and while the transmission fluid and coolant were recommended, there was no mention of power steering fluid, rear differential, or brake fluid.

And here's why: all three of these systems are sealed.  In the power steering and brake fluid systems, the fluids are primarily hydraulic working fluids, although they do have some lubrication functions.  If the systems are still well sealed, and are working properly, you may not need to touch them for more than 150,000 miles.

Part of the trick is to show you that the fluids are "dirty".  This is scary, but not necessarily meaningful.  I asked a guy I know, who is involved in the design of power steering systems.  He told me that power steering fluid picks up carbon black from the hoses, and that you can't really tell a 5,000 mile fluid from a 50,000 mile fluid based on color.  His professional advice was, "don't touch it unless you are getting noise from the system or hard steering".  And if you don't want to change it, he recommended using a turkey baster to remove as much from the reservoir as you can, replacing the rest with clean fluid.  "The flushes the service places sell are junk!" he said,"A waste of money."

So when should you change your fluids?

If the owner's manual says it is time to do it, or if something is wrong, or clearly contaminated.  If large particles are obvious in your fluid reservoir, or if there is water in the oil, or if the system has failed in some way, or is making strange noises. 

Cool Cover Song

Wow, I like.  5FDP does "Bad Company".

"I was born, a shotgun in my hand"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVTn6qciodo

Toyota Wins Crown Of Shame

I think we can all now agree that Toyota has won the crown of "most severe quality issue" from the previous champions, Ford and Firestone.  Toyota is going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on this, both directly and indirectly.  Directly, through replacement costs, and lost sales while the plants are down, and indirectly through their damaged quality reputation. 

P.S.A.: Pregnant Women Should ALWAYS Wear Seatbelts

Yesterday, a pregnant woman and her unborn child died on I-94 in metro Detroit.  From the Detroit Free Press:

A 23-year-old pregnant woman died in a car crash on I-94 on Tuesday morning, along with her baby, who was ripped from her body along the freeway.

Shardae Homesly of Detroit was not wearing a seat belt as she rode in the front seat of her SUV, driven by her fiancé, Michigan State Police Sgt. Linda Mys said.

The couple were heading westbound near Morang on Detroit's east side shortly before 11:45 a.m. The fiancé, whose name wasn't released, swerved to avoid hitting a van that began merging into the SUV's path in the far-right lane.

Think about that for a moment.  The baby was "ripped from her body". 

Some pregnant women refuse to wear seatbelts because they are worried that it will "hurt the baby". 

Forget that.  If you are unrestrained, and get in an accident, you and your baby could die. 

The safe way for pregnant women to wear seatbelts is to raise the shoulder belt slightly, so that it crosses the chest above the belly, and to pull the lap belt down a little so it crosses over the hips below the belly. 

Eggs On Windshields: Urban Legend

I got a chain email the other day, warning about a new carjacking tactic. Bad guys would throw eggs at a persons windshield, and then follow them. The person would supposedly have to stop, because windshield wipers would smear the egg around and make it impossible to see.

According to Snopes, this is pure urban legend. Link.