Digital SARS folk art: BoingBoing call for entries – QuickTopic bulletin board

The single most Blade Runner moment of my life was seeing an elderly asian man, on a bicycle with a red LED flasher, pinned to a giligan hat and with a “phone bag” old-school mobile phone and a modern laptop strapped to the bike rack, with a clear plastic garbage bag full of recyclables over one shoulder.

This was in ’97, in Allston, MA. He was wearing a surgical mask. It was not a unique sight on the streets of Boston all throughout the ’90s, mostly worn by older individuals and recent immigrants. The thinking was that they were protection against air pollution, and an American fashionista came up with a series of “designer smog masks” to join in the fun.

Reducing AFS Spring Tension

To reduce the spring tension, first remove the black plastic cover on the air flow sensor by cutting up through the silicone sealer with a sharp blade. You will see, among other things, a black gear-wheel on top of what looks like a clock spring. A wire clip engages a tooth on the gear-wheel and is held in place by a 7 mm screw.

Scribe a permanent mark on the gear-wheel at the tooth where the wire clip engages (This is so you can go back to the stock setting if need be).

This is the tricky bit: Get a good grip on the gear wheel with your fingers. Loosen the 7 mm screw and wire clip assembly. Don’t drop anything, and whatever you do, don’t let go of that spring, or you may never get the car to run correctly again!

Now, carefully unwind the gear-wheel 3 teeth counter-clockwise. This is no more than 8 or 9 mm, so be careful. Reset the wire clip three teeth to the loose side of stock. Tighten down the 7 mm screw, replace the black cover with a thin bead of silicone sealer and you’re done.

I tried one, three, and five teeth… one didn’t seem to do much, five actually reduced power. Three was just right. Stay with three teeth because the down side of too rich a mixture will be increased emissions, and possible damage to the O2 sensor and/or catalytic converter. YMMV.

I can report that this tweak helps solves some perceived Digifant driveability problems (assuming all else is in

Digifant Performance Mods Removing the Intake Snorkel

A less permanent intake modification involves removing the resonator snorkel from the airbox. You have to take the airbox out of the car and then pry out the snorkel. This greatly increases the size of the air intake and can actually improve throttle response on your Digifant car if it is otherwise in good condition.

Digifant Performance Mods Engine Swaps

It is possible to swap the 1.8 liter short block out from under your Digifant head and replace it with a 2.0 liter short block either from a 1988 – 1992 Audi 80 (engine code 3A) or a 1993 – 1999 VW A3 (engine code ABA). Such a swap should be good for at least 15 extra horsepower and a real seat-of-the-pants torque boost even if you do nothing else. This swap plus other mods could push you towards 150 horsepower.

Over the last couple of months, their have been threads about running their AJ in the car. Some people have been satisfied with the sound and other have not been. I bought my iRock about three months ago and have mainly been dis-satisfied with the sound. Their would be times when it sounded okay, other times their would be radio noise that would drive me crazy. Since I only use the iRock on long road trips in rental cars, I just assumed that the problems where related to the location I was in at the time. Unfortunately I spend a lot of time on the road sometimes driving 10 hours with breaks only for gas.

About a week ago I was testing my iRock before I started another trip and it sounded awful. I put in some new batteries, and it sounded good. Then I said to myself could that be the problem is the drifting and sound quality susceptible to the batteries I was using. I went to Radio Shack and bought their Lighter Socket 3VDC Power Adapter rated at up to 1000mA (part number 273-1855). I wired it into my iRock. The sound quality was immediately apparent. I can say after driving to Las Vegas and back that their was no drift or radio noise.

I did have to lower the volume to 75% and the bass and treble to 0dbs. The sound is just great. I have been using a cassette adapter in my truck, and I have to tell you the comparison in sound between the iRock and the cassette adapter is like night and day. The only thing that you have to be c

Google Search: Having used a digicam for 1-1/2 years, I think the most important thing you

need to be able to do is meter off of darker areas of the picture so that

you get a good exposure. This is even more important than with film, which

can also have the same problem. In short, you need an accurate spot

metering, then the ability to lock that metering for use on the whole

picture. If you have a camera which will record in RAW mode, and you use

that mode and post-process the picture, this is not so much an issue.