ZODC Garage

Studebaker Wrecker

ZODC — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:21:47 +0000

M2 is this Studebaker tow rig and it’s gonna be badass!

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modified

ZODC — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:31:49 +0000

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hardbody

ZODC — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:26:27 +0000

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Moon Buggy

ZODC — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:36:17 +0000

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Untitled

ZODC — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:32:23 +0000

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??

ZODC — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:29:06 +0000

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Untitled

ZODC — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:14:57 +0000

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Untitled

ZODC — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:38:16 +0000

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Larry Watson

ZODC — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:53:20 +0000

RIP

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old nissan

ZODC — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:42:04 +0000

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Mustang

ZODC — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:17:15 +0000

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Untitled

ZODC — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:28:34 +0000

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H-D Tank in Watercolor

ZODC — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:42:02 +0000

Its a small piece but I liked it. I really wanted to do flames on my own tank at the time too, never did though.

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Abstract Oil on Canvas

ZODC — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:38:23 +0000

This was an abstract oil on canvas still life using grays and mediums.

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Abstract Attempt

ZODC — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:25:48 +0000

It was my abstract attempt. I liked Diebenkorn and the way his abstract paintings were done, so I tried it.
This was done with oil and mixed media, even latex house paint and what ever I could find. It’s painted on a 4×8 foot particle board. When I left UH at the end of the semester, it was too big and too heavy to carry so I sorta left it there in the art building. I wonder what ever happened to it…

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Morning View

ZODC — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:18:41 +0000

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Finned, Aluminum, Chevy V8 Valve Covers

ZODC — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:19:59 +0000

MOON Original No-name Finned Valve Covers
The absolute finest nostalgia cast aluminum valve covers available today. Genuine MOON product made with quality and pride.

These finned covers are specifically for early model (pre ’84) small block Chevrolet V-8 engines. Each cover has been prepared with a 3/4″ machined hole for PCV or breather and includes an oil fill hole with a knurled cap.

Fit Specs:
Year: 1957 – 1984
Make: Chevrolet (Chevy)
Engine Type: Small Block V-8
Material: Cast Aluminum
Features: Finned & Polished
SOLD IN PAIRS
Made in USA

Gasket Set (VS649) ………………. $ 16.50/pair
Breather (MP3000B) ………………. $ 39.95/each
PCV Valve (MP3000PCV) ………………. $ 39.95/each

Custom applications are always welcomed!

Available Options: (additional charges)
Add Oil Fill with Knurled Cap (+ $45)
Add Breather or PCV Holes (+ $20 each)
NOTE: Oil fill and breather holes can be made anywhere.
Desired location is customer-specific. Please specify in the comment field when ordering. We will contact you and adjust your order total manually.
* Please note – prices are subject to change and may slightly differ depending on application & specifications.

Common Applications:
Mount a breather on the top of each valve cover
Add (2) Low Boy Breathers (MP1700LB) ……………… + $109.00 (installed)
Add (2) High Rise Breathers (MP1700) ……………… + $113.00 (installed)

Interesting Read Related to JFK Assassination

ZODC — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:14:16 +0000

There is no mention of Killam by the Warren Commission. A number of FBI documents on Killam relating to the assassination were withheld, along with documents prepared by the CIA.
http://www.maebrussell.com/Disappearing%20Witnesses/Disappearing%20Witnesses.html

Re: Cheetah, the Bill Thomas dream

ZODC — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:46:40 +0000

Cheetah, the Bill Thomas dream !

There was one last holdout that appeared about that time, but it was based more on economy than all-out performance.
Bill Thomas had been around Chevrolet products for a number of years, first managing a team of Corvettes, and then handling special-effects cars for Chevrolet advertising through Bill Stroppe.

While there he met Don Edmunds, and because Stroppe was more sod on Ford and Mercury performance activities, the tow of them left to handle the Chevrolet work on their own.
That sort of work got a little slow, however, and so Thomas and Edmunds went their own way.
They decided to get back into high performance cars to show what they could do.

Their first project was a ‘62 Chevrolet, a stocker, which was built specifically for Dan Gurney to drive in the first Riverside stock car race.
It was rather unusual in those days to see a Chevrolet up among the Pontiacs and Fords, but Gurney qualified fifth without even practicing.
In the first 100 mile 100 mile heat.

Gurney won easily, as Goldsmith, Ward and Foyt dropped out.
In the second heat Goldsmith stayed togther to finish just ahead of Gurney, who therefore took first overall.
But then, after the race, the inspectors noticed that some stiffening panels and the wheels wells were modified or removed and Gurney was disqualified.
That was enough USAC for Thomas, who decided to stick with the sports cars in SCCA.

The Cheetah was never really intended to be a race car.
Like most other Chevy specials, it’s primary purpose was to make money.
But to make money, it had to be produced as economically as possible, which meant few specially machined or welded parts.
Thomas was in close with Chevrolet Engineering, so he was able to get all the new components almost as soon as the car itself was available, and Edmunds began building a frame around the engine, driveline, and suspension.

Practically every piece in the drive train, from the radiator back to the rear hubs was right our of the Corvette. One notable exception, however, was the driveshaft.
There wasn’t any.
To get the engine as far aback as possible, they simply coupled the transmission output shaft universal joint to the one on the frame-mounted differential.

At the front, the 1962 Chevrolet knuckle assemblies were located 90 inches from the rear hubs, and a frame was sketched up to connect everything together.
The front suspension was finished with conventional tubular A-frames, with a large number of optional mountings holes for experimentation.
At the rear the geometry was standard Stingray, but the heavy stamped trailing arms were replaced with fabricated tube arms, and the transverse leaf spring was replaced with Monroe coil/shock units.
This was before disc brakes were readily available, so the Cheetah used the heavy duty Chevrolet drums, with sintered linings.
Most of the rest of the components were hand made, but in conventional design to race cars of the day.

The first body was hand-formed in aluminum, to match a simple wooden buck built over the frame and a tubular sub-structure was formed to support it.
From that, molds were taken so that the production bodies could be rapidly reproduced in fiberglass for the street models.
While that was going on, though, two more bodies were built in aluminum for a trio of racing versions.
Jerry Titus tested the first car in the fall of 1963, and was highly impressed with its’ performance-per-dollar ratio.

With a weight of 1500 pounds, and the recent 327 fuel-injected engine, it certainly had tremendous acceleration, and the brakes were adequate for a car of twice the weight.
The handling was never widely acclaimed, however, and it was obvious that Titus’ skill was making up for a lot.

A local Chevrolet dealer picked up the sponsorship, and Titus raced the car briefly, but never with any outstanding success.
After all, when they were in the same neighborhood , the Cheetah had to race against Hall’s Chaparral.
Jerry Grant also drove one of the cars, until he wrapped it up at Daytona.

Cheetah number two was never raced because it was sold to Chevrolet Engineering at about the same time that Duntov was building his first lightweight Stingrays.
It was extensively tested, and did quite well on the skidpad, but it was concluded that the lack of torsional rigidity was responsible for the erratic handling.

Edmunds left the company to get into the more profitable USAC game, but production eventually reached a total of sixteen cars.
The price was from $7,500 to $12,000, depending on the equipment and state of competitiveness, but the average cart wept for about $9,500.

Many of those cars are still running around southern California, some on the street, some on the strip and at least one on road courses.
By reverting to the manufacture and marketing of components only primarily drag parts Thomas was able to keep operating for a number of years.
But finally, in 1969, the economy caught up to him., and he quit to go into the real estate business.

The Bill Thomas Cheetah was an economy street version of the old Scarab-Chaparral school, but it was also competitive in amateur road racing.
A well detailed Cheetah was a beautiful machine, although it had a number of critical drawbacks in either everyday transportation or control on a race track.
A few of the fiberglass bodied cars are still seen today.

The Cheetah was meant to be Cobra-killer…
It was Corvette powered, with a custom-designed chassis and suspension.
There has never been another car like it.
Unfortunately, the Cheetah never made production.
A fire in the shop stopped production somewhere around the 16th car.
We know for sure that 11 cars were completed.
Beyond that is speculation and wishful thinking.
At least 8 cars survive.
I have tried to contact Bill Thomas several times in the past and never received a response.

I met his son in 1990 when I was having work done on my Cheetah.
He confirmed what other people that knew Bill Thomas had told me.
His father did not wish to talk about anything that had to do with the “Cheetah”!
The following is gathered from conversations with two people that worked at Bill Thomas Race Cars during the period that the Cheetah was being built until the fire at the shop.

The information specific to the Dixon Cadillac sponsored Cheetah is from my friendship with both Jack Goodman (owner and sometime driver) and Rolf Pickard (the used car manager at Dixon Cadillac and usually the other driver).
From 1963 thru 1966 I was racing a “B” production Corvette in the Cal Club region of the SCCA.
My family was in the business of selling used Cadillacs and we had done business with Dixon Cadillac for some time.
It was natural that we would pit together at the races.

The Cheetah was conceived and created by Bill Thomas at his company Bill Thomas Race Cars.
Due mainly to Thomas’ connections at Chevrolet, the most recent Corvette technology was available to the pair for almost every component.
In order to get the engine (and weight) as far back as possible, it was decided to forego the traditional use of a driveshaft.
On this car, the universal joint on the frame-mounted differential is coupled directly to the transmission output shaft joint.
Don Edmunds, a Thomas employee, is generally credited with the original chassis work.
Once the engine, driveline and suspension were completed, Edmunds simply created a frame to cage them, and a cage is exactly what the tube frame resembles.
The body was created in much the same manner.

A simple wooden buck was built over the frame and the first aluminum body was hand formed.
This first body had a tubular substructure for support.
Then they took molds from the aluminum body, one more aluminum body was built before the first fiberglass body hit production. About this time Don Edmunds left to for his own company Autoreasearch, Inc. to build racing cars.

The Cheetah quickly developed a notorious reputation, although some drivers such as Jerry Titus were allegedly impressed with it’s performance.
The tremendous acceleration of the 377ci motor (in the fully optioned race car known as Stage 3) versus the total weight of 1700 pounds, combined with heavy duty Chevrolet drum brakes, which were more than adequate for a car of twice the weight, kept straightaway power from being an issue for this car.
In fact, it was the massive horsepower to weight ratio that, despite Titus’ skill with the car, promoted its notorious reputation.

Sadly, the factory never produced the required 100 cars to qualify as a production automobile due to many circumstances, from the fire in the factory, to Chevy’s lack of support, and of course the car’s reputation….

Cheetah number one was never raced as it was sold to Chevrolet Engineering.
Although it was extensively tested, and did quite well on the skid pad, it was concluded that the lack of torsional rigidity was responsible for the erratic handling.
The car was later returned to Bill Thomas Race Cars.

Cheetah Number Two had an extensive race career before ending up on the street.
In July 1963, Bill Thomas tested several people to drive the development factory car, including Bob Bondurant, Billy Cantrell, and Jerry Titus.
Jerry Titus was selected.
The car was scheduled to make its competition debut in the 1963 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside International Raceway.
However, in testing at Riverside two weeks before the event, Billy Cantrell crashed heavily into turn nine, effectively preventing the car from running the ’63 event.

The debut finally came in January 1964 at a Cal-Club event at Riverside, with Jerry Titus driving.
As Titus completed lap one, in 1st place, the lower radiator hose came loose, dumping water under the rear wheels.
The car went straight off turn one, climbed the Armco guardrail, and went over the top.
Titus survived, but the car was heavily damaged.

However, it was repaired at the Thomas facility and continued to compete in West Coast tracks such as, Pomona, Riverside, Cotati, Seattle, Phoenix, and Santa Barbara through out the remainder of 1964 with Jerry Titus as the driver.
Near the end of the year, Friendly Chevrolet in Rialto, CA became the owner/sponsor until the car was sold to Jerry Entin in 1965.
Entin’s previous race car had been Max Balchowsky’s Ol’ Yaller Mk.II.

Entin’s inaugural event with the Cheetah was a club event.
It was the first race to be held at the old Stardust Raceway in Las Vegas.
Entin won !

He then campaigned the car at Santa Barbara, Riverside and throughout Southern California at Cal-Club events.
In preparation for the Times Grand Prix in 1965, Entin heard a clunking noise and took it to Bill Thomas’ shop.

Thomas was unable to find anything wrong.
Late in the race the right rear suspension pulled out going into turn 6.
The car rolled slowly and the body was lightly damaged.
Entin had the car repaired.
He then rented it out for the Elvis Presley movie Spin Out.
Entin later sold the Cheetah to Denny Doherty of the Mama’s and Papa’s, who promptly converted it into a wild street car.

The third car (the first fiberglass body) was purchased for the 1964 Daytona race by Ralph Salyer.
Ralph Salyer and Gene Crowe, his mechanic, campaigned this car which became known as the Cro-Sal Special and was modified to be the one and only roadster.

Bud Clusserath, out of Indiana, purchased the fourth Cheetah to run in the 1964 Daytona 12-hour.
Clusserath campaigned this car, but never as successfully as Ralph Salyer.

The fifth car was raced by Alan Green Chevrolet/Bardahl out of Seattle.
This car was driven by Jerry Grant at Daytona in February 1964 where, during qualifying, he got off course, hit a drainage ditch and severely damaged the car.
Thus, this Cheetah did not compete at Daytona.

The sixth car was purchased by Alan Green Chevrole to race on the West Coast and the USRRC.

The seventh car was also purchased by Alan Green Chevrolet to be sold as a street car.
Alan Green’s wife occasionally took it to the drag races.

The eighth car was not originally raced until many years later when Skip Gunnell converted it and ran vintage events.

Jack Goodman, of Dixon Cadillac, purchased the ninth Cheetah with the original intent to drive it on the street, and occasionally run a Cal-Club event in Southern California.
Many times it was incorrectly reported that this car had a Cadillac engine.
In reality, it was delivered with a stock 1964 Corvette Fuel Injected 375hp engine.
When Jack Goodman decided to go racing, the “Thomas Dual Air meter” fuel injection unit was installed along with the 1964 Pontiac NASCAR radiator, angled back 45 degrees, and hood vents.
In August 1965, one of the first Chevrolet 396 rat motors and a M22 ‘Rock Crusher‘ was installed in this car.
It competed at the Los Angeles Times Riverside Gran Prix in this configuration.
James Phillips purchased the “Dixon Cadillac” Cheetah and it went to his shop in Las Vegas, NV.
The 396 motor was replaced with a L-88 purchased from the Bill Thomas shop in early 1968.
David Pinjuv wrenched on the Cheetah for Phillips during 1968.

They raced all over the Southern Pacific Region SCCA in the A Sports Racing class.
David states that they won at Tucson, did well at Denver, got rained out in Oregon, ran Willow Springs, broke a spindle at Odessa and towed to every race within reach.
He especially remembers Tucson since he rode along for the victory lap.
“The intake gaskets had failed and there must have been 6 quarts of oil on the floor board, every fastener on the passenger door had been lost and the door came off in my hand when I climbed in”.
Tucson was a rough track.

The steering rack was shot and the third member had rotated 3 inches to the right.
The rebuild after Tucson included the adoption of Corvette disk brakes on the front.
Jim won the A/SR championship for the Southern Pacific Region of the SCCA in 1968.
After the season the Cheetah was sold so Phillips could purchase a McLaren Mk3.
There are conflicting reports where the Cheetah is now.

Cheetah number ten was drag raced extensively by Don Greib, sometimes referred to as the factory drag race car.
It was in the Bill Thomas shop the night of the fire and was a total loss.

After Chevrolet Engineering completed evaluating the first factory car, it was refurbished and made its brief road racing history, as the Hurst Performance Special.
The factory also drag raced this car and used it for publicity purposes.

Chronological Build History
This is the Cheetah build order, as accurately as we have been able to locate
01: Red Aluminum body. Bought by Chevrolet
02: Red Aluminum body. Bought by Friendly Chevrolet, wrecked and rebodied in fiberglass and painted blue
03: Blue Fiberglass body. Sold to Ralph Salyer – Became Cro-Sal Special
04: Red fiberglass. Sold to Bud Clusserath
05: Bardahl – Yellow, Jerry Grant destroyed at Daytona 64
06: Bardahl /Alan Green Chevrolet – Red
07: Alan Green Chevrolet – Green Street Car
08: Tom Fredckin(Mike & Shari Musia) – Blue Street Car , Raider wheels & Allstate tires Street cars to have Hurst shifter & Allstate whitewall tires, batteries & shocks with adaptors for coilovers Raider wheels were sold by Allstate
09: Jack Goodman – Silver Street Car became Clarance Dixon Cadillac race car
10: Don Greib – Red Drag Race Car

11: Super Cheetah (65 Cheetah) never completed, lost in fire
12: Bare frame never completed
13: Bare frame never completed
14: Bare frame never completed
15: Rebodied #1 car white in fiberglass Hurst/Allstate performance car wrecked at Riverside 1964
16: Rebodied #2 car blue fiberglass Jerry Entin

Local Motors

ZODC — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:14:26 +0000

http://www.local-motors.com/studioHome.php

This is a cool concept. Hope it goes well.

network no solutions.

ZODC — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:57:32 +0000

I did a search on Network Solutions (or “ns” as they like to use on everything) for SERVICE AGREEMENT since I have had it up to here with their downtime and sluggish service and figured I should kill time before I kill my computer (innocent bystander) by reading just what the heck I’m staying with them for… back up a few months, they were hacked, their network that is, the very soul of their so called… anyway, they completely ignored it. Then they were hacked again and they blamed Word Press. Then they were hacked yet again! and by this time could blame it on anyone. But in the meantime we customers are taking a big hit of being down, getting malicious code inserted in our sites, giving virus warnings to visitors, making us look bad, etc. etc. Now they are apparently getting hacked again (I guess) as I write this so they completely disabled ALL FTP access. Shut us customers out again to “working hard on the situation” as their alert said,

“UNIX hosting customers: For security reasons, FTP access to some UNIX hosting accounts has been temporarily disabled until at least 6 AM EDT, Tuesday, May 25. You will not be able to access your hosting account via FTP while it is disabled. We apologize for any inconvenience and we are working hard to restore access as quickly as possible”

Anyway, so I had time to kill is the point I’m trying to make. Did a search for SERVICE AGREEMENT and the first result is “Service Agreement | Network Solutions
… Service Agreement … View the Network Solutions service agreement. ..” so ok, great, let’s read. But then the link goes to absolutely nothing!!! Argh! They are really driving me mad outta my mind! The results are pages and pages of results for anything with their services BUT a service agreement!

They suck!!! AHHH!

I looked at their Facebook account (won’t “like” so can’t post), there’s a post by a fan with, “Has anyone heard of someone going to your website and getting a virus alert on their computer, this has happened twice.??? There are no issues when I go to the site myself.”
So you see what I mean, they are probably hacked again…

Steve Jobs on Flash (April 2010)

ZODC — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:02:19 +0000

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

WP is so cool

ZODC — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:09:49 +0000

I dig WP!
http://wordpress.org/development/2010/04/file-permissions/

Niche Hitch

ZODC — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:17:15 +0000

In any market, 20% of buyers consume 80% of your product volume. So if you target that 20%, successfully communicate with that 20%, you essentially un-niche the market within which is the niche to begin with.

What makes me sick about the web

ZODC — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:16:24 +0000

(Had to delete the pic, it’s driving me mad!)
This roguish grin is enough, especially when reading about how their friggin’ network was hacked AGAIN! and initial concerns and reports sent to them were blatantly ignored. Then to blame WordPress then act like it’s no biggie all the while posting to their friggin blogs (using WP), all the while brushing it off like nothing yet frantically trying to figure out what to do (or not) and then saying it was quickly fixed while in reality the hack and malicious code was propagating through their very network, infecting website, targeting directories with (home, index, login, etc) file names, finally getting BUSTED by Computer World (wurd!) and then saying it’s been resolved, ONLY to keep at it because now there’s an FTP crack happening while they say there’s a security update taking place – the grin, the, “oh we feel your pain” sympathetic psychological attempt is only adding salt to this open wound. Think about it, the issue SSL certs, have all this pull, and yet so weak. But again, this just goes to show no matter how big the company, hosts are all the same.

Network Solutions Hack-Highlights

Network Solutions Blog: “we feel you pain, not really but don’t forget to pay your hosting”
NetSol “addresses the issue but know it’s not resolved”
NetSol “we don’t have a clue but act like it with a security update“

Fire in Midwest Sky

ZODC — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:07:56 +0000

There was a mysterious fireball caught on cameras in the midwest April 14, 2010.
Report by CNN shows the video feeds and what appears to look like a spotlight against the clouds panning across the night sky. It said the visual was seen Wednesday night in Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri.

National Weather Service got reports of sonic boom, houses and trees shaking
No official cause determined, NWS says, but meteor shower was at its peak

Perspective Site Content

ZODC — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:39:44 +0000

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/31/youtube-down-for-some-amidst-relaunch/?eref=googletoolbar

“changing” its “pages to introduce new features”
the redesign is the result of an increasingly cluttered page
the change is intended to benefit [all users]
[users] were starting to complain about an experience
it’s evolution that keeps the site relevant
have to continue to keep the site fresh
keep people engaged
keep to a fresh set of standards
keep people used to and engaged in new experiences
the overall look and functionality
cleaner, simpler and easier to use

2012

ZODC — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:00:52 +0000

lazy posts

ZODC — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:57:21 +0000

the only thing updated as of late is the blog version…

HCS09 inScale

ZODC — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:09:49 +0000

Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show 2009

Awesome show and there was an impressive lineup of scale models this year! Check it out here.

Ford Model A Kits Lineage

ZODC — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:43:52 +0000

I’ve been tracing the lineage of Ford Model A (plastic model) kits from any manufacturer in 1/24 and 1/25 scale. I thought this would be simple but have run into conflicts and confusion because each kit has been offered a number of times throughout the years under a new theme or name, with new packaging – and some have extras, some have less parts. There’s really no easy way to do this so I hope to keep adding and updating this post as needed. Information is included to confirmed kits, like dates that were printed on the kits or the model kit number etc. or some tag lines from the box. Although some are indicated with “NOT CONFIRMED”.

All the models listed below are Ford Model A kits. Ford Model A’s were built from 1928-1931 and have been a very popular subject in scale models for generations. Many of the base kits are 40+ years old but are still on the market today! The ever popular 1932 Ford, Model B, Roadster, Coupe and Sedan are not Model A Fords therefore are not on this list.

Monogram: 1929 Pickup Truck (Roadster Pickup)

1st Issued (60s): Hauler “Blue Beetle”
Reissued ( 70s ): Boss A Bone
Reissued (70s): Early Iron Series
Reissued (70-80): ’29 Ford Pickup; ’29 Ford Roadster Pickup
Reissued (80s): Pickup Street Rod

Monogram: 1930 Coupe/Cabriolet (Sport Coupe)

Customizing Kit with 131 Parts; both coupe/cabrio versions; stock & speed custom parts.

1st Issued (60s): Customizing Kit
Reissued (70s): Stock No. 7551-0100 Special Interest Series; stock 5 window coupe version only.
Reissued (70s): Special Interest Series; stock convertible (sport coupe) version only.
Reissued (2009): Revell-Monogram Selected Subjects Program (SSP)

Monogram: 1930 Phaeton/Touring

1st Issued (60s): Stock No. PC64-198 Phaeton Customizing Kit
Reissued (70s): Early Iron Series
Reissued (2009): (Revell Stock No. 85-4242) Street Rod

Monogram: 1930 Woody Depot Hack/Van

- Custom Vinage Station Wagon
- Essentially the same base as the ’29 RPU
1st Issued ( ? ):
Reissued (70s): Stock No. 7553 Early Iron Series

Revell: 1929 Pick-up Truck

- Built as open or closed cab versions.
1st Issued ( ? ):
Reissued (70s): “Sundance Express”
Reissued (80s): Hot Rod Magazine series
Reissued (80s): “Happy Days”
Reissued (90s): Rat Rods 3-in-1
Reissued (2006-07): GoodGuys series

Revell: 1930 Woody

- Opening doors including the four passenger doors and rear gate
1st Issued ( ? ):
Reissued (70s): “WOODSTOCK”
Reissued (90s): Stock No. 85-7637 As a ’31 Model A Woody
Reissued (2007): GoodGuys series; now includes ’32 grille option and new wheels

Revell: 1931 Sedan/Delivery

- Opening doors including the rear panel door
1st Issued ( ? ): Sedan Delivery
Reissued (70s): “Mother’s Cherry Pie”
Reissued (80s): Stock No. 7371 “Happy Days”
Reissued (2006-2007): GoodGuys series

Revell: 1931 Sedan or Woody

- This kit came with 2 bodies
- Choice of build Sedan or Woody
- See above; looks to be the same kit as other reissues.

MPC for AMT: 1928 Tudor Sedan

- EXACT MODEL OF ROY STANBAU’S NATIONAL TROPHY WINNER
1st Issued (60s) Stock No. 2128-150
- MPC made the 1928 Model A Sedan with opening front doors.
- It was modified and turned into the 1929 Model A “The Wild Ones” kit.
- Unable to ever reissue again!

MPC: 1929 The Wild Ones – Woodie or Pick-up

1st Issued (60s):
Reissued (70s): 1928 Pickup
Later reissued under AMT

AMT: 1929 Woody/Pickup

1st Issued (60s): MPC – Stock or Custom version of Woody or Roadster Pick-up
Reissued (80s):
Reissued (90s):
Reissued (2006-2007):

AMT: 1929 Roadster

- Double kit; build two complete cars (stock and custom)
1st Issued (60s): Double-kit – Roadster and Barris Ala Kart
Reissued ( ? ):
Reissued (80s): Stock No. 4156 (Ertl #6572) Just Roadster
Reissued (90s):

AMT: Barris Ala Kart (Customized 1929 RPU)

- Completely redesigned mold/tooling of Barris-built custom car “Ala Kart”
1st Issued ( ? ): ALA KART
Reissued (90s): Stock No. 31159-1HD ALA-KART

Notes:

Lindberg: Ford “A” Roadster
1st Issued (60s): Titled as an “A” but it’s a Model B Ford (1932)

Originally Posted: September 27, 2007 @ 03:54
Previous Update: January 17, 2010

Clean Slate

ZODC — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:00:05 +0000

‘nother crash I guess…