RE: Paying at the pump just got more risky!!
It' true .. happened to me. I was using my card to buy a $4 latte at Starbucks when it got declined. I immediately called my bank and they advised that their systems had put a stop on the card because just minutes prior a charge was also placed in a store a couple hundred miles away in NY.
In the end, the crooks had gotten away with over $800 before the stop kicked in. I had to file police reports and the bank credited me for every charge that wasn't mine, but not a fun experience.
Brian
RE: Any UFOs or ??? stories?
This isn't exactly a UFO sighting, but rather a brief summary of trip in honor of UFO sightings.
I think it was about 1994 or so ... a co-worker and I were doing a consulting gig in Las Vegas. We decided to do a bit of research and make a trek to the mysterious Area 51. Then there was considerably more mystery to it and just finding maps and directions was a challenge. But we made some connections, got the necessary details, loaded up with water and headed on our way.
We eventually arrived at the gate with the infamous warnings of authorized deadly force. Noticing a line of tri-pods with cameras tracking us, we decided to see if we could work our way around and over a hill to avoid being seen and try to get a good view of runways and what not. Being very careful to stay on "our side" of the projected line of trespass.
To make a long story short, we succeeded to get nearly to the top of our hill when we took a short rest. We were in the midst of a conversation when my buddy stops mid-sentence and tells me to be quiet ... there is someone just at the top of the next hill.
Spinning around and crouching down, I see two completely unmarked men with automatic weapons laying on the ground peering through binoculars toward the area where we left sight of the cameras. They were clearly sent out to investigate and had lost track of us!
This is about the time we realized that we were in the middle of the desert in a place that didn't exist and boy wouldn't it be easy for us to just "disappear".
Adrenalin pumping, heart racing ... not sure if we should lay down and hide or run as fast as we could, I made a rather hasty decision to stand and introduce myself. So, walking boldly in the direction of the two men, I got within about 30 yards and hollered out a hearty "Cheers!" This was the last thing I remember before waking to bright lights ...
Ok, not really anything that dramatic. The men surprised me by jumping up, turning tail and darting as fast as they could back to an unmarked white blazer ... they jumped in and drove off as fast as they could. I can only guess that they were not in fact authorized to shoot, only to see where we were and not be detected ... once they realized we were the ones detecting them, they had to scram (because, they didn't exist).
RE: RVWholesalers -- TT purchase feedback
We are looking at our first TT. In searching local dealers we have discovered RVWholesalers in Ohio and are interested in the advertised savings possibilities. Does anyone have feedback on their experience buying from them and then their service network? We live in NoVA so its not too far to go if the price is right. Any feedback on how competitive their prices are with local dealerships? It seems like we can get some good bang for our buck through them.
Thanks for your feedback.
I live in the Frederick, MD area and made the decision to purchase from RVWholesalers as well. Their prices were very good, much better than initial prices offered by any of my local dealers. I am sure that I could have negotiated to within $1000 or so with the local dealers, but I also just ran into really poor service at all of them (Triangle, Beckley's, Endless Summer).
So, looking around we came upon RVWholesalers and so decided to make a nice little vacation of it ... so it wasn't so much that we were traveling hundreds of miles to purchase an RV, it was more like we were going on a vacation, visiting Columbus Zoo, etc. and picking up an RV along the way.
That said, I think that RVWholesalers as a company understand Internet sales extremely well. I think they need to do some training of their employees with regard to effective email communication. But, that is my one and only complaint. On all other points they excel. Every single person I dealt with was very professional, knew what they were doing, knew what the next guy was doing, and made the entire transaction very, very, pleasurable.
I would definitely purchase from them again and won't hesitate to recommend them.
RE: Can't push up my expandable end by myself
I agree, it can be a challenge to do solo. What I have found is that even with careful tucking, that about 3/4 up you need to retuck. And this isn't easy for one person to do for both sides, requires holding it up from some time, moving side to side while holding, etc.
I little pulley w/ clamp would sure be nice to help lift and hold while tucking, re-tucking, etc.
RE: New Roo/Shamrock Floor Plans
Though it isn't labeled, it looks like the wardrobe might be there between the slide and the front bed.
Floor space is nice ... and this may be sour grapes, but with our family of 5 we can't all sit at the dinette. One of the things we liked about the 233 was the location of the dinette right across from the sofa. And thus, if you drop the sofa down it comes right up to the dinette table and allows for additional seating around the table. With the slide this wouldn't work.
Though of course I guess you could always just bring along a small chair ... hmmm, yep, sour grapes.
:R
RE: Game programming
Game programming is very complex, not just in the complexity of code that is written, but the process of game *development*. As a career pursuit, commercial games aren't just written by an individual programmer, or even a small team. They are multi-million dollar affairs with designers, writers, programmers, artists, producers, publishers, etc.
It helps to have that kind of general understanding as there are multiple pursuits and disciplines one could pursue which all lead to a career in game development ... it isn't all programming and what you sometimes find is a person really interested in "creating games" and what ultimately turns them on might be 3-D object rendering and not necessarily plinking in code all day long.
That said though, if programming seems to be piquing the interest ... ... my best recommendation would be to begin with some really good and sound foundation learning. Don't throw them in the water with a haphazard collection of freebie tools and no guidance. That is a sure recipe for frustration and could very well just poison the interest they've just found.
Here is a link to a very solid introduction to "Computer Science" ... which is really about foundational programming, including game programming.
http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Introduction-Computer-Science/dp/1887902996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221073768&sr=1-1
Unlike the more traditional college CS101 courses based upon c++, this one is based upon Python which is a higher level language and I think would be much more easily grasped by a 15 year old.
If they find a passion, they'll eat through this in no time at all and can move on to more game specialized studies (for example Pygame, a component of Python gaining momentum specifically for more rapid game development).
Good luck!
RE: GPS Question ??????
Without a satellite, it would have to use a barometric altimeter. Most do not have one.
And if it was barometric, then it would change with the weather.
The referenced unit does indeed have a precision barometric altimeter. And yes, they are impacted by changes in weather. Which is why they allow for calibration against either known current pressure or known current elevation.
You need three satellites to determine the position on the surface. A fourth one will allow elevation to be determined. Simple high school math.
Also correct, but an entirely different point altogether.
RE: Help....Roo/Shamrock 233 vs Jayco 232
We have a Roo 233 ... we did look at the Jayco as well and probably could have gone either way, but went with the Roo for a few reasons:
1) Queen beds. We are stuffing two kids into one of them so wanted the additional space.
2) Layout. Personal preference, I'm sure, but my wife preferred the layout of the appliances in the Roo.
3) There seemed to be *a lot* of enthusiastic Roo owners on the various forums, particularly here, with lots of folks doing interesting MODs and such. I figured that would be valuable to me down the road as I started doing some of my own tinkering.
4) Other little details, heated mattresses in the Roo, etc. At this point though I think we were largely decided and just further trying to justify the decision. ;-)
RE: Excel question
In an Excel spreadsheet, I have a row of data that I want to show all the time, such as column headers. As I scroll down the columns, I want to see the headers.
How do I do that? A couple of years ago I had help in setting up on another spreadsheet, but I can't even remember what it is called, and so when I ask "MS Office Assistant" or search thru the menus, I'm not finding anything familiar!:h
There are two options which will help, "Split" and "Freeze Panes", both under the View menu. That first will divide the screen into sections. You can adjust the size by moving the division bars around (or eliminate by moving off screen). Then use Freeze Panes to cause the screen to "lock" at the divider location. So, just set the split to just under your header, then freeze. You'll be all set.
Brian
RE: Fuel efficency experiment
I think you are spot on ... changing driving habits I think is one of the surest ways to improve gas mileage and, as you discovered, relax a bit.
As someone who regularly commuted 55miles each way to work, I had gotten in a habit of aggressive driving and driving way to fast. I started taking the approach some time ago of slowing down, not just while towing, but everyday driving as well.
Slowing down up hills, taking foot off the gas on approach to a red light, accelerating much more slowly, etc. It has made a remarkable difference. In my daily driver, I've gotten an increase in MPG of over 30%. And this isn't taking it to the extreme point of being really annoying, just driving "reasonably".
And ... I'm *much* more relaxed.
RE: Learn from my mistake
Thank you very much for sharing this story! Being very new to this I have been unsure of how the whole latch even works and have had my fingers up under and feeling to see if it was seated, etc. Didn't think twice about it ... I sure as heck will now!
RE: Triangle RV World in Frederick, MD
I live in the area and visited all three of the RV dealers in the immediate area:
Triangle
Endless Summer
Beckley's
I found either of Endless Summer and Beckley's to be better than Triangle in terms of selection, pricing, facilities, and general sense of dealership quality.
That said, I ultimately ended up going out of the area after being disappointed by sales reps at each of the other two dealers. I don't want the thread to turn into more "Internet" dealership banter, but I did purchase from RVW and had a terrific experience from start to finish.
RE: 1966 Winnebago, what to do?
She's a beauty! Don't gut her ... fill her with little green men, park her next to the Little Alie Inn and charge admission.
Brian
Ha, sounds like you know about Rachel. :C
Indeed ... I have even had the distinct pleasure of dining at the Little Alie Inn. But that is a story for another day. ;)
RE: 2009 Roo Bunk end leaks?
We have a 2009 Roo ... no leaks. We have not driven in the rain yet, but have camped in a very heavy downpour and it has sat in our driveway closed up in quite a few heavy rains.
RE: 1966 Winnebago, what to do?
She's a beauty! Don't gut her ... fill her with little green men, park her next to the Little Alie Inn and charge admission.
Brian
RE: Newbie w/alot of Questions
We were torn as well ... we're a family of five and so were looking for something that could comfortably sleep all of us without having to pull out a sofa or use the dinette for a bed.
We were considering various "bunkhouse" TTs but ultimately went with an HTT with three "pop outs". The deciding factors were:
1) We like *camping*. The HTTs all seemed to feel more like being under a tent to us and really let in the light and air and just felt a lot more like being out camping.
2) More trailer for the length/weight. Being new to towing a trailer, I was a little hesitant to bite off too much trailer. With the HTT, I figured I basically got a 29' trailer floorplan into a 23' trailer because the end bedrooms folded in.
Brian
RE: Rockwood Roo - Awning Color
Hey you Roo owners. What is the top color of your awning? I have a 2009 Roo 23B and cannot figure why the awning is blue, when the TT is white/marroon/tan/and metalic gray accent striping. You would think it would be one of the colors of the trailer. I think it takes away from the good looks/styling of the TT.
Blue ... and I like it. In fact, while sitting under it the other day I was thinking it would be nice if the underside were a nice light blue ... like those wide southern porches which give you that sense of the open sky.
RE: Well Water in tank?
What about using the well water to wash your rv? We don't use it to wash our cars, but we also can't take the rig to a regular car wash (or truck wash for that matter).
I'm curious why the question? Do you have a particular issue with your water? Really, it doesn't much matter if the water is from a well in your backyard or pumped from a municipal source ... what is the quality of the water in either case? Have you had it tested?
I know that my previous municipal water had overall worse results in many categories than I now get from my well. I don't hesitate to use my well water for drinking, washing cars, or any other use, but I also know the quality levels of my water and take corrective action for those qualities that I find unacceptable (sulpher).
Brian
