With the heat coming on I decided to browse through eBay for A/C compressors, rebuilt or what have you, and found that a new compressor is about the same price as a reman, at least from buyautoparts.com. This is partly due to where I bought it (everyone else seems to want more) but also because it's a common GM axial compressor which is used on many vehicles. It's a really small little sucker that can turn 7,000 RPM, and Mercedes wisely used a V-belt pulley which makes it easy to source.

Well, it wasn't 102 like yesterday, but it was a pretty hot one here at about 96. Around 10 AM, as it really started to warm up, I decided to take on a couple of simple W126 300SD repair tasks: steering damper replacement, and shift bushing replacement. These are both conceptually simple jobs, and replacing the steering damper is even simple in actuality. The shift bushing replacement is a little trickier, but I had purchased a parts kit that made it at least reasonable.

If you look for advice on an ssh client for Android you will invariably be told to install ConnectBot. Unfortunately, this program terminates ssh connections as soon as it makes them on my Nook Simple Touch. Therefore it cannot be used. KBOX Terminal doesn't work on it either. I don't want to install full Debian. What's left? SSHDroid is your answer; if you install a terminal emulator so you can get to it. SSHDroid is powered by dropbear, and it includes the ssh client.

On my last visit to the tire shop for my '82 300SD I got some Dorals (I thought they were cigarettes, but they're also an Indonesian tire) and an alignment. Turned out one of my braking support rod bushings was going, and also that my rear springs were shot. Consequently I have just replaced them. I spent half the day trying to use a spring compressor and the other half of the day doing the job right. Short form, drop the rear of the subframe and they will fall out.

Recently I decided to give XBMC Live a try as the alternative to making my own Ubuntu install. I figured they might have it worked out to go a little faster. It looks as though I was right, and it's a great install so far as I can see, but I also discovered that they left out bluetooth. As probably the best cheap option for a good remote is a used Playstation 3 remote available at a gamestop near you for thirty bucks or less, this seems like an unfortunate omission. As I want to use a Logitech MX5000 keyboard hooked up to an MX900's USB Bluetooth dongle/mouse charging cradle, it was especially annoying.

TSA's "nude" body scanners are completely ineffectual. As far as anyone can tell, they are designed to make it easier to smuggle stuff onto planes, as they miss stuff that normal metal detectors catch. Your tax dollars at work to commit rape and take child porn photos.

Since I got a Mixman DM2 and like to run Linux I decided to put the two together. Slight hassle, though, the kernel doesn't sit still while you're not watching. A slight tweak is needed to get the driver to work on a modern kernel; in my case, 3.0.0-14-generic on Ubuntu.

I got a used Mixman DM² and here's some notes on what I've done with it on day one. This is on Windows XP; you can use the device on earlier versions of Windows, but not later ones. Works fine on OSX and Linux supposedly, but I haven't tried it in either place.