Month: November 2009 (Page 4 of 6)

Hilarious: Street computing in Akihabara (Koike Style)

November 13, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

The latest trend in Akihabara: Koike Style!

Koike Style is basically nothing else than using your computer while moving. This can involve walking/cycling/bus rides/whatever. It actually is quite a silly look to see someone walking with a laptop, or standing still pressing the laptop against their lap and typing as fast as they can to keep the laptop from falling! :D

I can see the use for it, but what I don’t get is why most of them use a full size laptop and not something compact as netbook or an iPhone to stay connected! ;)

Site updates!

November 12, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

As you may have noticed I made some minor site updates in the past few days!

Logo changed
I changed the logo to a bit more car related logo. The old logo showed a set of Celica Supra rims in a close-up but it wasn’t really clear immediately that you are on a car related site. Hopefully it is clearer this way. ;)

Facebook
I opened up a Banpei Facebook fan page!
It will contain all updates from all blogs I write for and some other interesting links I encounter daily.

If you are not a fan yet, you can become one directly by clicking on the link in the fanbox:

Banpei.net on Facebook

Sidebar from left to right
I changed the sidebar back from left to right. It simply wasn’t working correct under all browsers and I wanted to be able to post content to Facebook. Facebook interpreted the left sidebar as the actual content. :(
So, if anyone still has problems with the display of the sidebar: please contact me!

Changed banners
I removed the banner from the sidebar. It freed up a bit of space there and the sidebar looks a lot better now! Instead of that banner I put up a big leaderboard at the top of the page. There is not much content yet, but there will be a lot more interesting content there as well.
Also if you wish to advertise there or any other place at my site: please contact me! ;)

Video: how to change a tire by a machine?

November 12, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

As a follow up on last Mondays How to change a tire by hand? an high tech machine to change tires automated:

Now that certainly is a big difference compared by doing that by hand! :D

Actually in both titles change should actually have been remove: in both videos the tires get removed and no new tires will be mounted on the rims again.

Also this machine was new to me: I’m still used to the old hub rotating machines where you stick an arm on the hub (and between the tire and the rim). Not anything near this machine with three different arms to loosen the tire from the bead and another arm to push the tire and another finger coming from the first arm to actually remove the tire… Maybe I only went to old fashioned tire shops in the past! :D :D

Carina sightings: my Carina on Google Streetview

November 11, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

Google Streetview has been updated in the Netherlands yesterday. Of course I checked some familiar spots first including my house.

For some reason the images of my house are mixed up with the images of a street right next to it. Fortunately enough there are images of my Carina on Streetview:

My Toyota Carina TA60 on Google Streetview

Unfortunately this is the only “good” picture I could capture since the other images were from the street next to mine…

I also found some of the Down on the Street entries as well, so I’ll post them next Sunday.

Video: how to change a tire by hand?

November 9, 2009 / banpei / 2 Comments

I have no idea why, but maybe this guy thought it would be bad for his power to weight ratio to bring along spare rims with tires on a drift session. So he only brings along a spare tire and some tire changing tools!

First he starts to separate the tire from the bead on both sides which takes him roughly six minutes to finish. Unfortunately the video stops after they guy explaining the next steps. But I can imagine he would be sitting there changing his tires the rest of the day! :D

Norwegian Toyota Celica A40 got milk?

November 8, 2009 / banpei / 0 Comments

At first I didn’t really understand what the Celica and drifting had to do with milk at all, but when they showed the punchline it was clear to me!

They show you how you drive when the windows of your car are covered with metal sheets and think can be compared to a fully blinded milk carton. Well I don’t know what they normally do with their milk cartons, but I always feel how much milk is left. ;)

So what’s left of the comparison between the milk carton and the (blinded) Toyota Celica? Something you can feel as well? :P

I do think the Celica used is real: it has got too many details! Take for instance the pizzacutter rims: they are not Celica A40 rims so they had to be added later on. The interior of the celica is also too detailed and if you look at 0:14 you can see the tape used to hold the “metal sheets” between the window and the sheets. So probably the CGI characters and bouncing tires are added later on…

And they have another commercial as well:

So, a screw cap is better than plunging open the carton?

BTW: it is nice to see those marketing guys use nostalgic Japanese cars for their advertising! :)