Every Joke Has A Part Of A Joke

Kids, get away from appliances, we're gonna reboot the house!

I wish I could take the credit for this phrase, but I can't. This was said by my friend and colleague Frank Jones. What makes it interesting is that he said in 1997, when the talks of home automation were rudimentary and sounded rather like jokes. In fact, it *was* intended to be a joke. Turned out to be a prophecy.

Jumping back to today - they're going to have App Store for cars. Whereas this idea is somewhat overdue already (just look at the progress of dedicated GPS devices and compare it with the clunky and stone age old GPS in your car, even if it is a few months old, and you'll see what I mean), it is indeed scary. Just take a look at the evolution of G1 software, which is in a perpetual beta house of dreams, and shudder.

I think that was a cue for Microsoft Car jokes to materialize.

How To Know If Your Car Is A Classic Or A Junker

More here. While the distribution is quite different (Latvia???), notable is a complete absence of both in Africa (except South Africa) and Middle Asia - but that's rather a sign of absence of Internet rather than absence of these cars there.

By the way, for skeptics that would say that the trends actually reflect the need for repair - nope, they don't, the repair trend is different. Which, by the way, gives me an idea - I'll be looking at this trend to decide whether it is time to dump the junker, or it will live a bit longer.

Is Your Gas Pump Ripping You Off?

Just read this article and thought of a trend that I've noticed since the pipeline to Phoenix ruptured in 2003.

To put it shortly, every time the price of gas goes up, so goes the quality - the MPG meter in my car won't lie to me (that much, that is). Goes up significantly - a couple of miles per gallon.

And every time the price of gas goes down, buckle up - the quality would be, should I say, under par...

Right now, with the price drop from $4.60 to $3.60 - guess what, I've just lost 5 MPG.

The only explanation I have is that higher prices cause more angry customers and higher risk of inspections that the companies are not willing to let happen, hence, less cheating.

Oh, and the irony? Back in 2003, people complained about $2 per gallon...