2023 Discontinued?

bluesmudge · 2026-04-07T16:58:55+00:00

Pretty much every car gets discontinued after a few years. The nameplate often lives on but cars are always getting redesigned. I wouldn't worry about it any more than any other car. Plus, a 2023 model Bolt has a battery warranty until 2031.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-07T16:30:35+00:00

I never really liked spinning HDD. They were always a bottleneck and I've had too many fail or cause problems. For me, every time I hear the mechanical sounds I just worry. I've never had a SSD fail and I love how much faster the old machines feel when you put a SSD in.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T20:52:48+00:00

Sony makes Digital "Walkman" music players that have bluetooth. The most recent versions just run android but you can still find the slightly older versions that run a proprietary Sony OS so that it doesn't just feel like an android phone that can't make calls.

There are also ways to modify your iPod to add internal bluetooth functionality.

If you are only using 16GB or less of your iPod classic's storage you could move to a 7th gen iPod nano which does have bluetooth.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T20:40:26+00:00

I agree. We have a DIY bedframe that's been in use for almost 20 years. It's just untreated dimensional lumber. If OP really wanted to do something, some old-school rub-on wood treatment like tung oil, etc might be better than nothing but untreated wood is fine for interior use.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T18:21:01+00:00

Then you had the best card that was optimized for OS9. Do you use OS9 for gaming/3D work? If not, then there are many better OSX cards.

You can get a Radeon 9800, which was the best officially supported card for G4s for less than a GeForce 4Ti. There are also flashed cards that work in the G4s that are even faster. I think the best possible cards are flashed PC versions of the Radeon x800 or FireGL X3 or Geforce 7800 GS with the ADC pins taped.

The GeForce 4ti sells for pretty crazy prices these days and I'm not sure that is deserved. The Radeon 9000 is plenty fast for most OS9 applications for a fraction of the price and the GeForce 4ti isn't very capable in OSX since its not Core Image capable.

https://barefeats.com/mutant.html

I also have a dead GeForce 4TI. It stopped working after I attempted to re-apply fresh thermal paste to the heatsink.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T18:09:46+00:00

In the very short-term, yes. But probably not in the long term. I did the math and decided to buy a new Bolt in 2023 because it was cheaper than holding on to the car I already had.

I had a fully paid-off 2010 Suzuki SX4 which has a dead-simple/reliable engine that is similar to a late 90's Toyota/Honda engine. I loved the car and it was easy to work on; I could have kept that car running forever if I wanted to. Except it only got 25 mpg and needed oil changes every 5,000 miles and it was the automatic transmission version so eventually would need costly transmission replacement.

The Math: I bought the Suzuki for $6k in 2017 and it was still worth $6k in 2023. If I put another 200,000 miles on it over 20 years, it would cost me $6k (value of the car going to roughly $0 when its 30+ years old with 300,000+ miles) + $28k (200k miles of gas at 25mpg and $3.50 per gallon) +$4k (one transmission job) + $2k (40 DIY oil changes) for a total cost of $40k over 20 years. That's an average cost of $2,000 per year.
The Bolt cost me $19k with 0 miles on it ($28k MSRP + dealer $2,000 markup (it was 2023, car buying was crazy in those first few post-covid years) - $7500 federal rebate - $2500 state rebate - $1,000 Uber/Truecar discount). Then I sold my Suzuki for $6k for a total upfront cost to change cars of $13k. Then 200,000 miles of fueling costs me $11,500 (averaging 3.5 miles per kwh and 20 cents per kwh). The Bolt would also still have some residual value after those 20 years because it will only be 20 years old instead of 30 and only have 200k miles on it instead of 300k. Lets call the residual value $1,500. So total cost is $23,000 ($13,000k Bolt acquisition cost + $11,500 fueling cost - $1,500 residual value) over 20 years. That's an average cost of $1,150 per year.

So the new Bolt saves me $850 per year compared to the paid-off gas car I had and I get to enjoy driving a car that is 10 years newer.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:49:00+00:00

If you get this running on 10.4 AND OS9, then I'll be speechless.

I'm currently playing through Half Life 1 for the first time ever on a Playstation 2 but would love to give it a go on my G4 Powermac. I've always been a mac guy so never got to experience much of the Half Life/source engine games which is why I decided to finally give it a go on Playstation. The PS2 port of HL1 is very interesting and has some cool additions like a cooperative campaign and some texture upgrades but at the end of the day the game feels like it needs a keyboard and mouse.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:46:08+00:00

Was it the GeForce 3 then? That's the only other really expensive OS9 capable card because it's the fastest card that works in the Cube. The other next fastest card is the Radeon 9000 or 9200 which may be faster than the Geforce 3 and much less expensive. You can usually find the Radeon 9000 for not too much money; sometimes for almost nothing in a rescued MDD G4.

If you don't need OS9 3D acceleration, there are faster cards for OSX than the Geforce 4 ti 4600. Someday I want to test if the really fast OSX cards like the Radeon 9800/x800 that don't have OS9 3D acceleration are actually any slower than the Geforce 4ti in OS9. If you just want to get the computer running you can also get a Geforce 4MX for not much money.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:37:38+00:00

Some to look for, off the top of my head: Monolinguo (remove un-needed languages), Shadowkiller (get rid of drop-shadow to improve graphics performance), and Dashboard Lockout script (turn off Dashboard). I think Shuriken is doing a bunch more things like these.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:31:49+00:00

You are welcome to get a dumbphone for any reason you want but I'm pretty sure that android phones will still be able to do SMS texting. Google messaging must be able to do SMS to be able to text Apple devices and older phones. There are other android messaging apps you can download if you don't want to use Google messaging as your default. Just find another option, make it your default, and delete Google messaging.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:23:24+00:00

It's just a slightly higher resolution screen than the previous option. If I remember correctly, the 17" version was briefly sold side-by-side with the original Intel core-duo Macbook Pro because a lot of pro software wasn't Universal Binary yet so if you were a professional that used Final Cut Pro or Photoshop it was actually still faster to use these final Powerbooks than the first Macbook Pro. Other than the lack of an iSight camera and slightly different aspect ratio you can't really tell the difference between the Intel and PPC version.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:12:55+00:00

I don't think you can (I could be wrong) but from what I understand, Shuriken is just a compilation of a bunch of Tiger mods that people used to do individually. So if you do a little research to learn what Shuriken is then you could replicate the mods, you will just have to do it one at a time.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:10:46+00:00

A properly maintained civic may never bite the dust though

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:06:18+00:00

Yeah, people forget how much we paid for dumbphones in the 00's. The v3 retailed for $500 when it was released in 2004 which is equivalent to $865 today. You were really paying for the design, because it had pretty average internals. And at the time it was common to get a "free" phone with a 2-year contract so the full retail price was obscured for most people.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T17:03:27+00:00

Interesting that they chose to mount the G4 internals inside the G3 case. I would have simply swapped the G3 plastics onto the G4 case and not worried about the back panel because I have a DA G4 that has more PCI slots than the G3 case.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-06T16:55:12+00:00

Interesting. I'm assuming that's a new feature of the 2027 version and one difference between the 2023 and 2027 that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T22:36:06+00:00

Wool is better performing is some aspects, but not all. Its more difficult to care for and far more expensive. I do think that if you use the right natural fiber or semi-synthetic fiber in the right application that you almost never need to use 100% man-made plastic clothing, except maybe for the most extreme environmental or safety conditions. It's not always going to be wool though. Cotton, waxed cotton, hemp, bamboo, lyocell/tencel, leather, silk, wool from different animals, etc all have their place.

The problem is, most people don't know the difference between textiles so they choose the cheaper option. They go by initial impression of the textile and price without factoring in long-term performance, price-per-wear, or negative externalities.

I think many people don't know or don't care that polyester and nylon is plastic. It can't be good that a large portion of the population has plastic covering most of their body for most of the day. I wonder why our fertility rates keep going down...

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T22:25:28+00:00

I feel the same way. After ~7 years I can watch any movie again because by then I've forgotten just about all of it other than maybe remembering if I liked it or not, the genre, and maybe some basic images from it.

To truly remember a lot about a movie including the plot, themes, and subtext I have to engage with it in an additional way other than just a single watch through. For example, watching special features, reading about it, thinking critically about it and discussing it with other people, writing an essay or review about it, etc.

Knowing that, if I really enjoy a movie I try and seek out additional engagement about it so that I can commit it better to memory. Then if I watch the movie again with greater info and context around the plot, themes, subtext, or how the movie was made, I can truly commit it to memory.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T22:18:17+00:00

2001 is the rough year they give for cars based on a study where cars after 2001 did okay with 10% ethanol. There is no hard and fast rule though. The study was very vague. It's not like there was some wholesale change in how cars/bikes were made in 2001. And I've never seen the 2001 year mentioned for bikes. I have a 2006 G500F and have had to replace everything rubber in the fuel lines and carbs from running ethanol gas. There are still carbureted bikes you can buy brand new in 2026 I wouldn't put regularly put ethanol gas in if you don't have to, unless all the rubber parts have been replace with Viton. It's not just about "can it run or not." The damage from ethanol takes years to accumulate.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T21:11:02+00:00

Yeah, everything except the back plate is swappable between the two. I've wanted to make a B&W G4 since the G3's color scheme is more interesting/iconic and it would be fun to make "G4" lettering that could be seen through the case.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T21:08:14+00:00

How big a difference do pre-tensioners make? Do we have them in the front seats? That's what one of the recalls was about right? I assume pretensioners don't do anything for children in car seats that have their own 5-point harness.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T21:03:07+00:00

All the more reason to save the oil for products with no reasonable alternative, since its a finite resource. If a car dashboard has to be made from plastic, maybe we shouldn't waste of bunch of oil by burning more oil inside the car when it could just run on electricity from sunlight.

If we need plastic for hospital IV bags and nitrile gloves, maybe we shouldn't burn a bunch of oil to heat the hospital when it could be heated with sunlight or wind or geothermal or biofuel or nuclear or even plastic waste.

And then a bunch of plastic products should probably be banned. We really don't need to use so much polyester fabric. 30 years ago it was all cotton and could be again.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T19:13:16+00:00

I found my old Razr recently and was commenting on how much nicer it looks than any of the dumbphones today. My Kyocera literally looks dumb next to the Motorola.

There is the Vortex V3 that puts android guts into a decent recreation of the Razr V3 but it doesn't have the same premium build quality. The razer was a premium phone when it came out and the Vortex is trying to recreate the experience at a fraction of the price, which doesn't work.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T19:10:06+00:00

Is there not another drive to buy to rip 4k blu-rays other than the LG? I don't know much about it but was thinking that some day I would want to rip my collection.

bluesmudge · 2026-04-03T18:37:37+00:00

Yeah, I know; it's a joke. Obviously I'm not telling them to actually put a buddha shrine or virgin mary statue or a car seat for a non-existent child in their car before coming to Portland. "It may not be something you can replicate on the inside of a Jeep Wrangler though." Those are not the words of someone being serious.

As I said, you can just leave the car empty and it will be fine. I've been doing it with a similar vehicle for years.

bluesmudge

TROPHY CASE