SteelSkin.net – The Ramblings of Chris Nutt

I need a replacement car, the 323F just doesn’t cut it anymore. Here are my current options:

Mini One/Cooper 1.6, yes you read correctly.
Pros: Wheel in every corner, 4 seats, has some style, quite nippy
Cons: more a German tribute act than genuine article, mumsy

Hyundai Coupe 2.0
Pros: looks nice, similar driving position to my 323F and Puma, RWD
Cons: Wee bit nedish, RWD in snow, not that economical, long

Smart ForFour CDI 96hp
Pros: Economical, Wheels tight to back bumper, nicely designed interior (not bland), not afraid of colour.
Cons: Kinda ugly light cluster, rare as hens teeth

Others? please comment. Must have: personality, cost no more than £3500.

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Update 1

Bryan asks why the 323F isn’t cutting it no more:

• Central locking doesn’t work in that good time and I have one key only
• Gear box is a bit temperamental/clutch
• Can’t get out of my street in winter (lighter cars can)
• Scratched to hell windscreen is hard to see out of during low angle sunlight
• Not that easy to park

Must haves for the new car:

• Some character inside and out
• As good performance or better than the 1.5l 323F
• 4 wheels
• No bigger than the 323F
• Some luxury/mod cons
• Nice to drive
• Not a high seating position (no 4x4s)
• Similar fuel economy than 323F (in theory)
• No more than £3500

Other cars I have looked at:

• Yaris, didn’t like the dials/position
• SportKa, I’ve had two Fords from that line and I’d like something new, but it is a backup

Update 2

Thanks to information from long time owner Amanda, I now know the Mini has no spare wheel at all. So you have to buy run flat tyres.

This fires it down the list.

In my opinion that is a lot of truck placed in either the next big thing or we’ve always done it this way so why change. Look at the anger and debate of the whole concept of a ‘Post PC era’ or an end to native apps. It is ludicrous.

As computing has evolved not only have the existing machines gotten faster, but lower and lower end devices have become computing systems. The same goes for access to computing content. Computers used to be the size of rooms and only governments or very large firms could afford them. Now when the desktop PC became the next big thing it was said that those old room size machines were relics of a bygone age. However this just isn’t true, the servers we use to Google things are the size of rooms and we couldn’t afford them. When windowing OSs came out that was allegedly the death of command line. However most of the world’s internet infrastructure is still command line driven and what is Google search if not a command line interface for the internet.

The more devices we have that are computers, the blurrier the lines become until eventually a term like ‘smart’ added to the start of a device category is redundant. I’d say the ‘digital’ in ‘digital camera’ is now redundant. Like wise we will have ‘smart wallets’, ‘digital bus stops’ and so on, but in the end the redundancy will disappear, but the forms will not. Just because a new form comes along, it does not invalidate the old form, but it might invalidate a version or model.

It isn’t always obvious until the following generation that the previous generation was hindering developers. We know that many of the gameplay types available now were an impossibility on consoles like the Megadrive. If a console has more power, it can do what those before did better and with imagination things they couldn’t do at all.

Right now it is blindingly obvious once you think about it how knackered and old the PS3 and 360 are. Most smartphones have more ram than the PS3 and can output at resolutions that the Xbox just can’t do. Most releases now run at sub 720P and have to be scaled up due to small frame buffer of the 360 and the crappy amount of ram in the PS3. Blu-ray promised freedom from compromised repeating textures, but the tiny amount of ram means you haven’t anywhere to put it. Mandatory installs on the PS3 are more and more common as it has to swap information in and out of memory all the time just to draw level with the 360. Games like Rage need 3! DVDs for the 360 and that DVD drive is really noisy.

Also don’t mention patches to me as a PS3 owner I know the pain of Sony’s stop everything for a patch. Doesn’t help I use PlayTV on my PS3 for TV! I can’t watch a recording whilst the thing is in use. Things are similarly, but not as bad on the 360.

However as I said that’s not the main reason for a next gen. With the recent spate of HD remakes running at 1080P or 3D the question is asked why aren’t today’s games running at that res, framerate or no of dimension? Because the consoles are so frackin OLD. Seriously the PS3 uses a modified 7800GT, that’s 5 generations older than the GTX 560 Ti I have in my PC. The 360 is similarly ancient.

I can’t wait for the next gen of consoles and they had better have a proper OS like Android or Windows so it can do everything else a £300 box in my living room must do well to earn it’s place.

I’m sorry who other than Microsoft wants Metro UI? Nobody wanted it when it was called Zune, nobody wanted it when it was called Kin, nobody wants it now it’s called Windows Phone 7. The only Metro-ish interface they have left is the 360 dashboard and that was shoe horned onto an already successful device.

Microsoft spent 10 years trying to smash the square block (Desktop Windows) into the round hole (tablets). Now it wants to spend another 10 (?) trying to smash the round block (Metro) into the square hole (Desktop PCs).

It’s not confusing to have different interfaces for different forms of something. Cars, Boats, Trains and Planes are all transport, but do not require one size doesn’t fit all controls.