GIAC'ed

I got my GTI chipped today, which basically means that it got a software upgrade for the engine computer unit. Also called a re-map, basically the parameters for engine management got changed so that the car is running a lot more aggressive! So I chose the GIAC version, mainly because its a lot closer to where I lived, but also a few hundred bucks cheaper!

What does this mean in real life? Well, now I feel the turbo lag a fair bit more, because when the turbo comes on, it really is a shove in the backside! The amount of power is just amazing! There were a little bit of engine pinging at the beginning, but I was told this could be because it was a bad batch of petrol and the ECU is stil trying to adapt to the higher boost. Plus, this was done on a 30-degree-plus day with air conditioning on. After this initial adpation phase, the car is now running perfect. Even without pushing the car, the amount of power just makes driving it so much easier!

Tomorrow, I'll be starting my travels to Melbourne and Tassie! This will allow the car to stretch its legs out, and hopefully I won't fall in the speed trap, expecially seeing as it will be double demerit season!

Pooki Box for Her

Bought the Pooki box from Catch of the Day out of pure curiosity. So what did I get for $33? Here are the contents:


2x Australia Blush set
20 Christmas Cards
Alarm clock
Cold Wax
2x BBQ Cooking DVD (including Jamie Oliver!)
Seacret skincare set
Her Tools 31 piece hardware set.

So, was it worth it? It's probably all up worth more than the amount I paid for, but I probably could have spent the thrity odd dolllars elsewhere.

Venturi Mini

The Venturi Mini is absolutely awesome. I bought this little gadget a couple of weeks ago, and have been meaning to do a little review, but haven't had the time to upload the photos for it. I still don't have the photos for it yet, maybe a bit later.

So, what is it? It's a bluetooth receiver + fm transmitter + usb charger that plugs in to a 12v plug in the car - the complete in-car solution. This little gadget allows me to fully connect my N95 to my car. It's about the size of an iPhone Mini. Mine came in a sleek all black casing. On the top surface, there are four back it buttons - Music, Phone, Play/Pickup, Stop/Hang up. Wedged in between them is the bright white LED display. Just beneath this is the built in noise-cancelling mic, and below that a scrow wheel similar to one you find on a mouse but wider. On the left of the device are two 3.5mm audio jacks for in and out by wire, and a FM frequency selector. On the right there's a settings button and a usb type A female plug.

Setting up was a breeze, just plug it in, and follow the instructions display. The device plugs in quite snug, and then to keep it in place, there's a locking ring. Nexdt, set up the FM requencies. There are 4 channels you can set, and the range goes from 88.1Mhz to 107.9Mhz, incrementing by 0.2Mhz. After this, its time to pair with the phone. Pairing with the N95 is straight forward as well. Pairing only needs to be paired once. Venturi also allows you to download 100 phone book entries to the Mini, but this did not work with the N95.

So how does it work? I enter the car, turn car on, and the Venturi connects automatically. I press the music button, and then press play. Music is now streamed from my phone to the car audio. When a call comes in, I simply press the pickup button again. The music is crystal clear as are the phone calls, keeping in mind my car has a modified shorter FM antenna. The music does however skip every now and then for half a second, but I haven't isolated the problem yet. If I need to charge the phone, simply plug the phone into the usb charger. Perfect.

One curiosity, although a nice feature in my book, is that despite selecting one radio frequency, the Mini seems to be transmitting in at least 3 frequencies at the same time. This is actually quite convenient sicne I can just switch the radio in the car when there are interference without touching the Mini.

Definately one of the best in car solutions I've come across! 10/10.

Teaching old N95 new tricks

Nokia launched their new flagship N97 last week to much fanfare! This however did not mean much to me as I just got my phone repaired. However, I did discover Ovi. Ovi allows Nokia owners to sign up and sync remotely with their server both contacts and calendar. This is a really useful feature, and provides a good way to back up things. This is one area I liked about the iPhone - integration.

More importantly, they have also been progressively releasing a suite of new software that will integrate nicely with the N97 and Ovi. There's the new Nokia Music application and store - a direct competitor to iTunes. It's not as polished yet but it does the job. Then there is Nokia photos - to compete with iPhoto. This is a nice piece of software, and allows you to organise your photos by timeline as well as location, using the geotagged information from the phone. Also, you can now upload directly onto Ovi any photos of videos you took on the phone, and share it with your contacts, and even link Ovi with your Flickr account!

The biggest most useful feature however, has got to be the new email program or Nokia Messaging. Although it is still in beta, I see alot of potential for it. It's a two part systme. Firstly, you sign up to the service online. Nokia provides a service where it links up your email account, be it an ISP or internet mail such as Gmail, and pushes any new email straight to your phone. The second part is the cool application installed onto the phone. Although you can already check email using the messaging program, now you can get emails pushed onto your phone. So Nokia doesn't actually provide you with an inbox, more of a redirection. The data cost is pretty minimal (I use about 400kb per day skimming about 15 emails and reading about 3 or 4 in full). You can link up to 7 email accounts to one phone and the whole system works seamlessly!

So now my phone does everything an iPhone does in terms of integration, I don't feel so compelled to upgrade my phone any time soon! The biggest selling point of the iPhone for me is now adequetly covered by the N95. (The touch screen is nice, but not a must have). Good on you Nokia!

Christmas Dinner

Last Saturday turned out to be a huge success. We picked up the Turkey and Ham in the morning, and Anica spent the rest of the afternoon preparing the food. Eventually I came back to help as well.

So, in typical Christmas tradition, we prepared a full meal with roast stuffed turkey, and roast ham. This turned out to be around 8kg of meat, and took about 4 hours to cook using 2 ovens. The recipe can be found on Taste.com.au. The mains fed about 12 people, and we had left overs! Everything turned out really well. Pictures will be up as soon as they're processed!

Kayaking in Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour is one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, and what better way spend a Sunday afternoon padding around on a sea kayak.

There are kayaks for hire at Rose Bay, costing from around $30 an hour. If you bargain a bit, and bring a large enough group, the operators might be kind enough to rent the kayaks for much cheaper. We ended up with about 20 people, at around $20 per person, for 2 hours. There are single and double kayaks for hire, so make sure you drag along someone to paddle for you if you're not too comfortable. They also provide you with a life jacket, and if you're lucky enough, some $300 worth of carbon fibre paddles.

The water within the bay is reasonably calm, depending on the weather conditions of course. As you paddle into the harbour, the water becomes much more choppy. It is often very fun riding the waves generated by a myriad of sail and power boats flying past you.

If you ever fall off and capsize, it is a royal pain to get back onboard, so unless you have about 3 other kayaks to help you get back inside, I strongly suggest you don't go for a swim.

There are some nice quiet beaches on the eastern side of the bay, and a 40-60 minute paddle will get you to Shark Island in the middle of the harbour. Get off here for possibly one of the best places to take in the views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House!

The Coast Track

I'm still recovering from my weekend trip to the Royal National Park, completing the Coast Track. The track starts from Bundeena and ends at Otford, traversing as you might have guest, along the coast. We started the day brightly from Cronulla at 8.30am. The ferry was delayed for about 10 minutes, and we sat on the bow of the boat. THe trip is $5.40 per person one way. Arriving in Bundeena by 9am, we set off to the first track on our left. Having thought that at least someone in the group would know where we're going, we didn't even bring a map or question our directions. The heavens soon split open and we were greeted with some refreshing but large rain drops. This was to be the beginning of a very long day!

Quantum of Solace

The latest Bond film was a blast, literally. There were plenty of action as one have come accustomed to, including car chases, boat chases, plane chases, foot chases, and just about anything else you can think of. The movie felt a little bit convoluted for me, but that might be because I don't remember much from the last film, and this one makes a lot of references to that. But then you don't really go to see a Bond film for its story lines. However, there seems to be something lacking from this film, maybe there weren't enough expensive cars, or high tech gadgets, or indeed hot women! Olga Kurylenko is stunning though, and actually makes the Bond look a little soft. The franchise though, for better or worse, is definitely heading towards Jason Bourne territory. Daniel Craig is more rough cut than the suave Pierce Brosnan, maybe that'll give us normal blokes a chance! 4 out of 5 for me.

Petrol Update

Unleaded: 110.9c / L
Exchange Rate: 0.6494 USD
Crude: 54.39 USD (83.75 AUD) / Barrel

Kensington Universal FM Transmitter

I got a nice surprise at my desk at work today. I had ordered this device last Friday, and had no idea when it would turn up. Having no auxiliary input jack in my car and many MP3 players makes it very inconvenient to play my music collection. Usually this required the burning of CDs, which more often than not would fail or simply go out of date in a few weeks. Surely then, an FM transmitter is in order, and surely they shouldn't cost all that much! I bought this Kensington unit for less than $30 delivered (from CatchOfTheDay), which I thought was a pretty good deal.


So I eagerly plugged it in my car on my way home. It is quite a compact unit, the buttons could be a little bigger, but they also suffice. The frequencies goes from 88.1 to 107.9 and increments by 0.2Mhz. There are 3 presets to configure. The display is nice and clear and non-distracting, with black LED on Orange back light. There are indicators to show which preset is selected. Power is drawn from the cigarette lighter plug, and is self on.

How's the sound quality? For the frequencies I chose, the sound quality was pretty good, comparable to commercial radio stations. The cord from the unit to the player acts as the antenna, so unwrapping the cord to its length made the transmission a little better. Drop outs and interference gets more frequent as you approach a more congested area, such as the CBD. Some times the unit just gives up completely and turns off by itself. To turn it back on, simply unplug and plug again. The unit claims to turn off by itself if there is no music playing for more than 1 minute, although I haven't tested this out yet.

Overall, quite happy with the package, and highly recommended. It's application will be best served on those long road trips, and I won't have to carry all those CDs anymore!