Robert Hall

I can relate..it really irrates me to work w/ people that let their technical skills freeze 25-30 years ago and didn't keep up and evolve.. At my last gig, I had to deal w/ a mainframe developer that was 20 years older than me and went out of his way to avoid the more modern systems or even basic knowledge of modern development environment tools like FTP, Sharepoint, Toad or other database clients, etc. He had Level 1 support responsibility for a complex enterprise application that had a mainframe part, a database part, and a web application front end..for anything remotely related to the database or web app, he acted helpless and passed the buck to me..

Some real variety today.. Very sharp dark red '57 Ford Fairlane 500 4dr ht. Silver blue Nissan March. Bubby 4dr, smaller than the Versa Bright red w/ black nose stripe '67 Camaro RS/SS convertible Gold '00-02 Rolls-Royce Corniche converible..thought it was a Bentley Azure at first Red and white Corvair pickup White '62 Ford Falcon 2dr sedan

This is too literal IMO...rather than utilize design cues from the '69, this appears to use the exact same designs from the '69 for the lighting, grille, hood scoops, etc...don't seem to work very well w/ the basic Camaro shape.

I'm glad I've never had to directly do IT support for end users.. most of my career has been in new development (both as a developer and software architect) and extending/updating existing systems. But I've had to do a fair amount of level 3 support for production systems, and it's never fun..phone calls/pages at 5am to help diagnose why my enterprise reconcilement system is off by $32 million dollars relative to the general ledger, why policy statements are printing out with blank customer addresses, why batch jobs keep crashing, etc... Working as a development lead on a few projects over the years, I've spent a lot of time working with project managers and business analysts translating business requirements into technical requirements and estimating level of effort and figuring out development schedules. Project management is one career direction I've contemplated pursuing, but I think my comfort zone is still more in the code, in hands-on application design and development...back in the hired gun contractor mode these days. I've thought about taking a Scrum Master certification class, since more and more of the places I've worked at in recent years are trying to do Agile/Scrum development.

They can't go too high without getting into Cadillac's space...they have the bling lux market covered w/ the Escalade..(the Yukon Denali seems to be in the same space). Cadillacs aren't really off-roaders. Neither are GMCs.

Interesting, but too smooth..needs dents. If I wanted that look on a new car, I'd do it myself w/ a ball-peen hammer, sander, drill, angle grinder, and a few cans of primer..also, drive into a brick wall at low speed at a shallow angle to get scrapes...

I dated a girl in college that liked Michael Bolton alot..he was the shiznit around 1989...sort of.

I don't think I'd call the Ridgeline a flop...it's been around 6 years, and I see a reasonable number of them around.. For Smarts, now the ForFour was a flop..was on sale in Europe for only 26 months.

Excellent.

IMO a flop is something that came and went in a short period of time...like the Blackwood, Subaru Baja, or Chevy SSR. (I wouldn't classify the Kappas or G8 as flops, as their premature demise was due to larger corporate issues rather than poor sales). Smart and Maybach have both been around a long time and are still being sold worldwide, and a high-end luxo car like the Maybach is intentionally low volume. I see at least 2-3 Smarts a week...I've seen a couple Maybachs in Scottsdale and in Las Vegas (hotel limos) but thats about it..

I wonder if a cow fell on it...

Lincoln blackwood and mark LT.. Wouldn't consider smart or maybach as flops considering how long they have been around.

Nope..never..this is one of those things that's going to be argued until the end of time, like FWD vs RWD.

Hmmm..denty.

Hilarious

Actually, those are perfect examples. I see those more than I do 3ers. I can go a week or two w/o seeing an X-type..I can't go 10 minutes without seeing a 3 series...very common around here...

Well, and also necessary in a large metro area...the Phoenix metro is sprawling and vast...I had a 50 mile round trip mile daily commute for a couple of years, not on the light rail path. It would be hard to live here w/o a car even in the downtown areas. And walking/biking anywhere isn't practical w/ the vile summer heat (5 months of triple digit temps). Looking at the places I've lived over the years, only in a few of them could I have lived w/o a car--college towns (Kent, Ohio and Ann Arbor, MI) the big city (Chicago) and downtown Denver..but in all of those places, I always had a car or three as I always had things to do and places to go frequently outside of the downtown area or areas not served by rail...

I wouldn't quite call it 'tiny'..over 1/2 million, slightly larger than Denver..2.2 mil in the metro area..I like that size of city, manageable...lots of tech jobs, lots of good local beers, pretty diverse restaurant scene, lots of outdoor recreation..

That is a totally badass accomplishment...

Makes sense in really dark rural areas...I drove w/ driving lights at night always in rural Ohio...

That's what I assumed...reminds me of my experiences in London, Milan, Rome, Paris and Dublin...very easy cities to explore and enjoy w/o a car.

As far as cities I'm fairly familiar with, Portland seems to be pretty nice as far as trains, livability and walkability in it's downtown core...I've been there for a few conferences for 4-5 days w/o a car with no problems getting around...great that they have light rail from the airport. Denver's downtown core is quite walkable, and has good light rail access around the city and into the burbs...lots to see and do downtown, and liveable..alas, the airport light rail line is still a few years off.. Phoenix's downtown is a wasteland for the most part..the light rail isn't used much and don't go very far...very much a spread out 20th century sprawly city built around the car...

And that city is... a European city? Or are you thinking of someplace in the US?

I suppose w/ some work a Caddy 425 or 500 could be fitted...that would be brand-appropriate, though I don't know if such a beast could be made to pass emissions. A Chevy or Olds engine just seems inappropriate.

I don't recall my GM cars being able to do that... in fact, IIUC, its against the law to drive here in NJ with parking lights and fogs only. Keep in mind, I only use the fog lamps in... surprise... fog. And fog is fairly rare here. The best fog light related feature... on the '04 GP GTP, you have to turn the fogs on EVERY time you start the car... so its less likely that you are driving with the fogs on all the time. A pet peeve of mine. The fog/driving lights on my Jeep can work w/ the parking lights only, though I don't think I've ever used them like that. I use them occasionally, mostly on dark nights when I want more light right in front of me..