Honda Fit

Ah! New Car smell, it’s one of the best smelling things on the planet. In this case the source of  this smell is a spankin’ new Honda Fit that I recently acquired. I really delivers much more than what it looks to give. On the outside it’s a standard 4 door compact hatchback car, a bit longer than the MiniCooper and not much wider. I personally think the design on this car is awesome!

Enough yappin’! Why did you choose it???

First of all and most important price. I didn’t want a car that would cost more than 20% of my paycheck to own and maintain. So this car hit the spot because it’s cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. It takes 25 dollars to fill it up and gives 35 miles to the gallon and since it’s Honda the maintenance checkups are dirt cheap. Also, since I’m planning on keeping this car for quite some time I need it to be a versatile car, as in “I need to fit a lot of things in there”. I am surprised as to how Honda managed to get so much inner space in such a small package. Plus you have the often proved Honda rock solid reliability. And last but not least, Dealership service, those guys really know how to treat a customer. They really help you out with your problems before and after you buy their cars. They work with you to find the best deal or the best alternative. Unlike Toyota, where they treat you all fancy pantsy until you buy their crap car then they proceed to rape your ass for all that it’s worth and give you shit service.

So you said it was cheap as hell. It must be a crapbasket on wheels then.

Not quite. It’s certainly is not the cheapest car you can buy, but I think it gives the best bang for the buck. It’s some basic security equipment, Front airbags, ABS, steel reinforcements on the doors and predefined crumple zones. The last meaning in case of a crash it will bend in a certain way as to minimize impact on the passengers. Alloy wheels, mp3/wma/ipod ready/usb ready audio (that sounds surprisingly good) and other amenities it’s closest competitors don’t offer. Sure you can get a slightly bigger car but no other car in it’s price range is as versatile as the Fit.  Plus it sports a very comfortable ergonomically designed interior, the plastics don’t look or feel cheap, the seats are very comfortable and the cars sounds awesome, not just the tunes you play on the HU but also the engine. Oh did I mention it handles great on the road?

Bottom Line

I do recommend this car, you’re not gonna win any races or stand out in a crowd, but if you want a car that drives you around comfortably, that you can take on road trips, and that you don’t have to get a second job in order to keep it running then get the Honda Fit. It does that and it does it impeccably.

Canada's Earth Day logo

Yesterday was Earth Day, a day to stop our busy lives for an instant and reflect upon what it means to take care of this planet. Most of the things that have really fucked this world up are not up to you and me, but we can all contribute no matter how small an effort we make in the end it all adds up. All the recycled plastic bottles, all the light switches that we turned off, all those minutes we manage to shave off while taking a shower. We should really make an effort to change, even if it´s in a small way, the way we use the Earth’s resources…and not just on Earth Day…we should do it everyday.

How did you celebrate Earth day? Me? Well, I changed my 2.7L pickup truck for a 1.5L ULEV Honda. Going green wasn’t the main reason…but it sure played a part in my decision.

Here are a few tips you can do to give our planet a much deserved break:

1. Turn off a light switch.
2. Buy a thermos. Ditch those disposable paper cups at Starbucks and get a thermos. As a bonus your coffee stays hot for longer.
3. Shave 5 minutes off your shower routine. That’s 7-8 gallons you save.
4. Give your car regular tuneups.
5. Fix all your energy leaks, poor insulation, etc.
6. I you can bike instead of driving (I sure don´t do this)
7. unplug stuff you don’t plan on using.
8. TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER MONITORS.
9. Turn off or put your laptops to sleep.
10. Take care of your trash. Separate your trash, recycle it.

Bonus

• Whenever possible buy local.

Tell us what you did for the environment and what you plan to keep on doing.

Most people use fancy smartphones or project planning software or some complex corporate system. I mainly use the ToDo list for more immediate stuff and to keep track of every little detail on a daily basis. Here are a few reasons why I really enjoy using a ToDo list:

1. Easy to add entries.
2. Easy to modify entries.
3. Lets me keep track of the stuff I did during my day.
4. Is not confined to a specific project or even to work. I just cram all the stuff that needs to get done work and not-work related.
5. It really gives me the feeling that I am progressing through my activities.

Bonus

• I LOVE scratching off those activities!

So most people use pen and paper but not me. I’m a bit more of a geek so I use one in my computer. And I only one a ToDo list, not a calendar with tasks and I’m not too fond of online ToDo Lists. I really value my privacy. So I started looking around and found two apps that caught my attention:

1. TaskPaper
2. Things

TaskPaper

Free app (or at least it didn’t demand that I register it) Of the two I like this one best. It’s got the ease of use of a text editor but with a few extras. Adding entries is real easy. Just add a – followed by a space and you got your task. Or with the special shortcut you can add a task to any project no matter where on your computer you are. You can also classify each task or project with tags. You add a tag by inserting the @ symbol before any word within the task. It instantly becomes a tag, now you can search and group tasks or project by tags. How cool is that!

Easy Breezy

The thing that really made me change from Things to Taskpaper is the ease of use and that you can select only one project and print it out so you can take to your meetings and it won’t looks as messy as if you did it by hand. You can also search by tags and print the lists of entries that are grouped by that tag or tags. oh and also it has different themes! ooooh.

Check out their webpage here.

Things

Eye Candy

Things from Cultured Code, real shiny slick interface. Very powerful features like drag and drop emails and turning them to tasks, also uses tags, enables projects and has a more powerful method of prioritizing and grouping tasks like the inbox, scheduled, etc. It is searchable and also has universal shorctus so no matter where you are you can add an entry. Oh and perhaps the best feature of all is that is syncs with the iPhone. Wow! so complete, so refined, so … expensive. Yes it costs 50 bucks. So why did I choose a text editor over this? Well for one the money I’m not too keen on paying $50USD for a ToDo list. Another thing is that I couldn’t fully understand Thing’s way of grouping tasks: next, scheduled, inbox, ugh! too complicated. Next, I don’t use the default mail app nor do I have an iPhone. So I couldn’t care less for those features. So basically this is my list of Things big no no’s:

1. Memory Hog
2. Too complicated system of groping tasks
3. Couldn´t print out a single proyect
4. 50 bucks ugh!
5. Interface is too elaborate.

Now don´t get me wrong i think Things is far more capable than Taskpaper, it´s just that I didn´t really feel comfortable using Things. And in the end, the only thing that matters is that you get your work done.

Check it out here.

What tools do you use to keep your day organized? Tell us in the comments section!

Toyota? They are the best cars on the market!

Oh yeah they are of the highest quality and the maintenance costs are super cheap! I can pay my 50 km tune up with a smile and a hug and STILL get some change leftover.

and how about when you go a see a Toyota car at the dealership

Well this costs $50k more than its closest competitor because…you guessed it…its TOYOTA MADE!

and you know one thing? They are correct! (well except for the kiss and the hug part) They are very good cars that will last a long time and will give you many years of driving comfort without breaking down on you. What I am ranting about here is the DEALERSHIPS. They suck so much they could suck a golf ball through a garden hose! Let me throw a little bit of context to you guys before you start whining that I’m soiling the almighty’s name.

I’ve owned two Toyotas: a Tundra and a Hilux. Both have been very good trucks, solid stable (the Hilux tends to have a hard time going parallel to the curb but thats ok). Those two trucks will chew anything you throw at them at spit it back out in the form of a Ford F150 or a GMC Sierra. Now when I took my Tundra back to the dealership, because I wanted something a little bit less than a V8 iForce 4.8L “Earth Fucker” engine, everything went down smoothly. The dealership took the Tundra and it got paid off and I was all happy with my newly acquired 2.7L VVTi “4 seats and a steering wheel” Hilux Pickup truck. About two weeks after I proudly rolled off the dealership I get a call from Toyota Financial MEXICO. They regreted to inform me that the guy who determined the value of the Tundra after I had returned it made a mistake and I needed to pay 10,000 pesos because of a miscalculation. Now that’s not a mistake, that’s a Grade A Class Original Fuckup by a Grade A Class Original Fucktard! Now after one whole month of name calling and me acting like an asshole I worked out an agreement to pay half of what I owed. Now it only felt like a victory because I still got fucked but at least I got away with something.

The score so far: Toyota Mexico dumbassery -1, good hasslefree service 0

Toyota’s accelerator pedal gets stuck, accelerates on it’s own.

Effectively tries to kill you.

So much for good quality. I mean when was the last time you heard of a Chrysler that tried to Kill you? And those guys have as much quality as a 2 dollar hooker.

Score please! Toyota crap-tastic! cars -2,  two dollar hookers 0

Oh yeah! Well, what about their marketing strategy and pricing policy. Fair enough, that marketing department sure is doing their work. But what about their pricing policy…hmm lets see.

2007 Toyota Fj Cruiser

Price: 350,000 pesos

2010 Toyota Fj Cruiser

Price: 450,000 pesos

Now I don’t know of another car company that has changed it prices so much here in Mexico. I may be wrong so please if you have more accurate info please, by all means, correct me. Imma give you another example that Toyota Mexico’s pricing department is run by a bunch of monkeys with IQs smaller than their shoe size. Toyota introduces a small SUV called the Rush. It’s good looking and fresh, looks like a good deal too. Yeah a good deal for 3 months after that they stopped selling it. Why? Oh because of unforseen circumstances Toyota couldn’t sell that car within it’s price range. I thought that to make an feasability study to see it selling the car here is economically viable or not. You don’t just bring the car over and see what happens.

Toyota: Drinking two bottles of Vodka and throwing darts at pictures of cars on the wall and selling those cars for 15 minutes here is NOT a pricing strategy.

Total Score Toyota’s drunken craptastic dumbassery -3, Imma buying maself a Honda 0

There you have it folks! Opinions! Opinions! Put yer opinions in the comments section!

Photo: Graham Hughes / AP

Today March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day, where people all over the world get together and celebrate St. Patrick, recognized as Ireland’s patron saint. This celebration has come to be more and more a celebration of Irish culture more than a religious celebration. St. Patrick’s day is typically celebrated in the US, Ireland (of course!), Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Each country has their particular way of celebrating but the most common way is to have a big parade and drink beer or ale.

No matter how you choose to celebrate this holiday the important thing is that you can share this day with friends and family.

Sláinte

1. Stop all unnecesarry apps from running in the background. This is a huge power hog, keeping Twitter, Gmail and messengers (oh and let’s not forget the resource whore Vigo) open in the background will just drain processing power and with it battery power. You should quit all apps that aren’t critical to help you with your task at hand. To do this just press and hold the menu key to open the app chooser (sorta like alt+tab on windows) and select the app you want to close. Click again on the menu key and select close from the menu.
2. Switch Networks. Sure 3G is faster than 2G or EDGE but it alse sucks up more power. So if you don’t need the lighting fast speed of 3G you can change your network to 2G. To do this Go to: Options>Mobile Network and on the Network Mode choose 2G.
3. Turn off Wifi and Bluetooth. Again if you don’t need these you should turn it off. Using the Bluetooth dongle stuck in our ear hardly qualifies as essential. Give Wifi the same treatment. To turn them off click on the menu button then Manage Connections and uncheck Wifi and Bluetooth.
4. Dim the screen. Turn it down to level 10 (out of 100) brightness and set it to autodim itself every 30 minutes. It’s super annoying but its super power saver. To do this go to: Options>Screen/Keyboard and set Backlight Brightness to 10 and Backlight Timeout to 30 seconds.
5. Keep talk time to a minimum. Talking on you BlackBerry is really strains the battery, you should keep voice conversations to an absolute minimum, instead encourage your contacts to use email or blackberry messenger both are less power consuming than talking.

These are my tips for saving power on those ciritical moments. Did I forget some? Share with us your power saving tips in the comments section. We are glad to hear from you. Expect more power saving tips for the iPhone too!

Choosing the right cigar takes time

Ah! There is nothing like getting home after a grinding day at the office, pouring a glass of your favorite liquor and lighting up a great tasting cigar. But first you need to get that great tasting cigar. I’m gonna tell you about my personal experience in finding and smoking the right cigar.

Why smoke a cigar?

I prefer smoking a cigar instead of cigarettes because of the taste. I quit smoking cigarettes but found myself craving the taste of tobacco. In my case I used to soke cigarettes because I NEEDED to and because they are so convenient to smoke I was a pack a day smoker. Now I smoke cigars because I WANT to, because I enjoy the taste. Yes smoking cigars is still hazardous to your health but the difference is that I light up once a week. I don’t grab a cigar to smoke in between meetings or on my way to work. Plus I think cigars have less added chemicals.

Characteristics of a good cigar

Humidity

Storing your cigars properly is important

Cigars must have the proper humidity in order to give you the best possible smoking experience. If they are too dry they willtaste bad, consume quickly and unevenly and will leave bits of cigar all over your mouth. As a rule of thumb you grab a cigar down the middle and lightly press it, if you don’t hear any cracking sounds that means the cigar is good to go.

Size and Types

This is a more personal choice. Some people like them thick others thin big small etc. I’ll give you a description of the different styles available.

Flavor

If you are a beginner then you should first start smoking cigers that have a lighter flavor. Usually honduran cigars are good for starters. Plus they are not as expensive.

Let’s say you are doing a very very VERY simple blog app, with just two tables in your database.

Fig. 1 Posts table

Fig. 2 Comments table

Then you run the bake script in order to create the app. Bake the models first, in this part the Bake script will ask you about the relations of the model and the other tables.

Fig. 3 Post Model relations

Fig. 4 Comment Model relations

Then you create the controllers of each model, normally you would bake a scaffold controller in order to see that the relations are ok, but as you are a GREAT web developer, you ARE sure that the relations are OK and you bake the controller without scaffold and create the basic class methods (index, edit, view and delete). Then, create the views for each model and soon you are on your way to be a great blogger. You create the first post and then you will try to do a comment on that post just to be sure everything is ok. This is the out come:

Fig. 5 Post View (app/posts/view/1)

Where are the related comments section? well, maybe you need to create a comment on this post to see it. You go then to add a comment (app/comments/add). SURPRISE! you don’t have a drop down input showing all the posts in the system, instead you get a simple input box.

Fig. 6 Add Comment View (app/comments/add)

You run and see the Comments controller to verify this and you noticed that there’re some lines missing:

$posts = $this->Comment->Post->find(‘list’);

$this->set(‘posts’, $posts);

The lack of these lines will create the simple input text instead of the drop down input you expected to see. And now you are wondering, what the hell happened with CakePhp? it was so perfect, now the “relationship” is broken! (get it? Relationship! As relation between tables? … Oh please geek it up!) Ok, so you found a small bug in Cakephp 1.2.6 and 1.3 beta. How do we fix this?

The Workaround

Ok, it took me a lot of time but with a little help from my friends at irc.freenode.net #cakephp. You need to bake the controllers using scaffolding, then bake the views, verify that everything is ok and then bake the controllers again without using scaffolding this will fix all the relation problems. Please beware NOT to bake the views again so you’ll end up with the same problem.

After this workaround you’ll end up with this:

Fig. 7 Now you have a nice drop down input

Fig. 8 Now you have all the relations in order

So, it maybe look like a silly bug but believe me, if you don’t know the answer and you have a ton of relations in your app and you are just about to make all the changes without using the Bake script, you will seriously consider using other framework cause it’s a hell of a job. As of today, this bug is not closed and you will have to wait for a new version to close this up. I still love CakePhp to develop new apps and I understand that there’s a lot of room to improve, so I hope this post help you understand this bug and maybe the way CakePhp works. Have a great day!

Thanks to:

IRC #cakephp on irc.freenode.net

dehuman @ #cakephp on irc.freenode.net

Cakephp

I would like to thank all of you who have contributed to this community I like to call ScoringCriticals, this is your blog also where you are free to post your opinions and comments on the different subjects that are portrayed here.

I would like to thank Derick for contributing as a guest author, cheers mate! We all are looking forward to reading more of your posts!

Thanks to StumbleUpon for bringing us all those cool readers and keep on stumblin’!

Don’t forget to rate our posts and comment.

Cheers,

Aldar @ ScoringCriticals

Colts @ SuperBowl 44

Well it’s that time of the year again when the NFL season comes to a soul crushing end. The Indianapolis Colts lose the big game, oh those dreaded words i really did not want to hear. Both teams played great football but in the end the Saints delivered and the Colts didn’t there really isn’t much more to it.

I really do hate it though that people start talking about a carreer going down the drain because they lost the big game. Headlines like “Manning’s Legacy Broken” really piss me off. I think that Peyton Manning is ( very arguably) one of the best QB in NFL history , I think he had an outstanding season and I firmly believe that one loss, even a superbowl loss, will send all of the work he has done down the drain. I’m trying very hard no to sound like a fanboy here but I really do believe that a single action or a single game or a single bad call can end anyone’s carrer or rep.  There are far too many variables playing out there that it would be foolish to pin the loss on one specific decision/person/pass. Football is played as a team so you win as a team and you lose as a team, there is no individual glory.

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on winning they really did deserve it. They also played an outstanding season. Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts on getting to the SB and giving the best out there. I’m still proud of you guys.

GO COLTS!