Burst Tyre

This morning, while travelling on the expressway (fastest lane), I felt some vibrations on the road. Before I can decide whether it was the road surface, or something wrong with my tyres, the whole car started shaking up and down, while I was travelling at about 90km/h.

Knowing I probably had a flat tyre, I quickly filtered to the road shoulder, put on my lights and the hazard sign plate, and discovered I had a rear flat, on the driver side.

Took out my spare, jacked up the car and changed. All in about 10+ minutes. Surprising, this was my first time changing a tyre and I didn't panic, and know how to use all my tools for the first time. Haha.. All without my morning coffee. *Proud*

When I took down my flat tyre, I didn't expect to see this :



Of course, this picture was taken after I am in somewhere safe. Looks like a burst somewhere and due to the speed I am travelling, it continued to rip half the tyre apart. If there were more cars on the road (luckily it was a Saturday morning), I might have the whole rubber tyre gone and my rims grinding the road. That would be really bad.

I attribute this to the old tyre (being 1.5 yrs old already, and travelled about 60,000+ km) and my recent incident ( Read : Not-so-good End to 2007)

So I replaced all my tyres to a spanking Bridgestone GR-80. This is much quieter and comfortable. Luckily, it was just shy of $600.

And I was just thinking a while ago, that I hadn't had much "drama" with my car. No crashes, no breakdowns, no tyre punctures... and today I have to experience it at the most inappropriate moment. I had a "safety vest" in my car, just for emergency usage, and I forgot to use it !




And one stupid huge truck had to come very close to me and my car for comfort. Lets just say, about another feet or 2, and I might be on the papers... Sometimes, I really wonder how these people drive and hit things on the road shoulder. I was well clear of the first lane.

This is a WTF Moment....

Complaints that Traffic Police, while setting up speed cameras, are hiding on bridges.

See Stomp Here.

I really do not understand the rationale. Yes, the purpose of putting warnings is to "force" motorists to slow down and prevent accident, rather than issue a speeding ticket.

But come on, this is like a drug dealer complaining about an under-cover police. CNB officers should all wear uniform, so that drug dealers will see them around and not commit crimes...

Oh, some might say that drug dealing is a serious crime, it hurts people, etc, and thus warrants a stronger policing tactic.

So a speedster thinking he is superman doesn't hurt anyone when his car crashes ?

Put in another way, drug dealers only sell to "willing victims". Someone gives you heroin, you can say "No, sorry. I don't do drugs."

When a speedster crashes into YOU, you can't say "No. Sorry, I don't speed."

Concept, Ideas, but Laziness rules

They did it in the USA. An idea that myself and KOP once thought of. Slightly different, as wi-fi wasn't that common few years ago. But I am sure we would have thought of using it as a supplement.

What am I talking about ? Using Cell-phones signals to triagulate locations for commercial purposes. The technology has been used by police and telcos - but they all rely on telcos to PROVIDE the location via their own reverse-triangulation method (using multiple base stations find where the phone is).

We weren't depending on Telcos to provide such information, but to war-drive out there to collect such data.

Now its commercially available in USA - SkyHook

I heard another company is doing the same for Singapore and Malaysia. Tapping on end users with GPS-enabled phones. Download application that records GPS locations + GSM + Wi-Fi Signals. Sends the data back to them and they compile into a database. Of course, users are paid for such data - Navizon.

Oh well, ideas are just ideas until you have the capability, time and money to make it a reality...

Eewww. Horrigible Things...

Ok, this is not the most poisonous, or most deadly, or what.. but sure as hell quite yucky...

5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World

Yeah.. Happy New Year !

Haha.. no, this is not my greetings. It's late, I know.

Just bought a new watch for myself :


(Photo taken from Seiko Site)

Definitely sub-thousand, I am not rich. Got it at a pretty good price. Now I am going to wait for the Lunar New Year to start wearing it... heh heh..


Also quite nice to know that ocassionally, new readers pop in and leave their footprints. I thank you all. :)