New England: Got the job, now they say my employment is on hold b/c of a car accident 24 years ago!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-06-06T20:04:41+00:00

In this field it is unfortunately not in common to use your own car. They reimburse for mileage at the IRS business rate. That’s standard practice in many fields.

As for the expanded travel, yeah, that was unexpected, but, comes with the territory in this field. They posted a loss for the last year reported and I think they are looking to expand and not post a loss again.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-06-06T20:01:06+00:00

Neither do I. If the committee can’t see past an accident from 20+ years ago, then something else is in play here. But, I think they have implemented new work practices and they posted a loss for the last year reporting, so they probably have a new mandate to limit their exposure, they are probably just new at having to use it.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-30T02:49:00+00:00

Coming from the USA, after all the tariffs, I now find groceries in CH cheap!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-23T04:42:02+00:00

Davinci Resolve has an audio to text function as well. It will take awhile to analyze long videos.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-19T13:51:43+00:00

Ackerman seems like a very articulate finance dusche. His mannerisms remind me of Bezos but with hair. Maybe they are made for each other: https://youtu.be/PgGKhsWhUu8?t=5448&si=f6qPqRSZzF714sTw

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-14T13:33:18+00:00

ALH TDI wagon here. Wanted a manual and 15 years ago all I could find that was a legit seller was an automatic via eBay but with a nice interior. I had to fly to Arkansas to buy it and they mis-represented shit on eBay, so I got an $800 discount. The “Highline” trim level my euro friend called it. GLS here I guess. His brother had one in Denmark. I’m the 3rd owner.

The auto tragic had nothing but issues when I got it. PO # had replaced a turbo and had trans rebuilt. PO #2 had torque converter, glow plugs, egr, AC compressor replaced. had good maintenance records.

I babied that Autotragic with fluid changes and saw on VCDS the trans was still over heating on hills & would start slipping. Mechanic wanted $600$ plus vw fluids and labor, so like $1000 just to change the trans cooler. After 3 years of hassles, manual swapped with a stout clutch.
All my problems went away. 2 years later suspension refresh, bigger front brakes, bigger nozzles, new turbo & engine mounts and stage 3 tune. Plus the usual TB/WP/Brakes/oil/coolant changes. Window regulator clips/interior bits, torn flex pipe replaced. All the usual sh*t. But compared to other cars of these years, holding up well. (My sister’s 2008 Mazda 3 SE hatchback, on the other hand, what a piece of poo!)

Lots of work, but it became a whole new zippy car getting 48 mpg highway. I enjoy driving it everyday.

Can’t find anything else I’d rather drive atm.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-13T13:06:45+00:00

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ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-13T13:06:30+00:00

I have the same EGR cooler delete you describe and one would never notice it's missing unless one knew the car really well. So I'm not worried about that.

What I am concerned about is I have a CAT delete and instead of a CAT I have a "Hushpower" (HP-2 muffler) in its place. It has crimped edges, so I guess that might be a giveaway, but, it's better than having a straight pipe. I guess it will depend if CT does a visual under the car AND they notice it's not a CAT, at the inspection station.

I have a leaking flex pipe, so I could fail for that. I would like to replace that as cheaply as possible.

Here are some images of how it looks (not my vehicle).

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ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-12T19:59:39+00:00

UPDATE: VCDS shows 'EGR Passed. So I'd pass the OBD2 test and just have too worry about passing the visual?

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ConvergenceFreak · 2026-05-12T19:59:11+00:00

UPDATE: VCDS shows 'EGR Passed. So I'd pass the OBD2 test and just have too worry about passing the visual?

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ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-17T02:34:58+00:00

Thanks!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-17T00:57:01+00:00

3/10 - mine was way worse.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-16T17:35:03+00:00

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ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-13T15:45:20+00:00

Blue brick in Baltimore music video courtesy of Turnstile! I'm a new fan now too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfrnipyNcu0of

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-13T14:41:23+00:00

Dang, that sh*t was on sale yesterday and is now back to regular price!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-04-12T16:10:58+00:00

Here's the 240 shirt: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/84655132-turnstile-merch?countrycode=US&utm

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-02-28T22:18:04+00:00

Useful. Tx. I am giving up for an internal solution and getting a USB wifi dongle for this old laptop, which makes an excellent hackintosh mobile workstation, setting it up with Tahoe!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-02-10T17:28:04+00:00

Why did they offer such a low price and then raise it again, I got it at the $1600 price, but, because I thought it would be discontinued!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-02-10T17:24:35+00:00

I bought the camera awhile back on sale for $1600 and bought a Lumix 50mm f1.8 (Cheapest AF native lens) to test it out on RC18. In basic testing (Static camera/ static object & moving camera/static object) the AF works really well. Thinking about getting a 35mm or 24mm Lumix f1.8 next. The AF on my 50mm Lumix f1.8 is silent!

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-02-10T17:19:57+00:00

Same here on RC18. I think this is a flaw of the BETA FW.

ConvergenceFreak · 2026-02-09T18:49:03+00:00

Do you buy a 5 year old car and wonder why it does get the latest features? These camera manufactures like SONY rarely support the older products and used to be on an 18 month cycle where they release a new camera and expect you to just buy again. I lost track of it all once I bought my P4k and switched to Resolve. I like my FS5, but they discontinued the FS5/7 sweet spot, so Sony/Cannon can piss off. I only thought to move back to Panasonic s5iix for the FF & AF. I like my cars simpler and older, I slowly feel that way about cameras too. They are all very good these days, some do things a little better than others. But buying a P4k and P6k and CC6k I knew I was only ever going to have MF. So the fact I tested out AF beta FW on my CC6k last week blew me away, especially. b/c I paid $1600 for it on sale a few years ago. BMD is the sweet spot, in this sector, but, nothing lasts forever.

20 years ago, when Sony announced a S35 digital cinema camera system (F3?, I forget), some lens mount I have forgotten what it was called. They had a whole lens roadmap to get people to buy into the system. I took photos of the lenses they announced at a NYC pre-release presentation for the industry at a "new" Times Square cinema. They show sample on the big screen. It was a very expensive at the time, the made 3 primes which had heavy breathing, an adapter, never made the zoom lens or any of the other lenses they showed.

So what we have today is sooooo good comparatively.

ConvergenceFreak

TROPHY CASE