Braking and ABLS

Even with the vehicle's Electronic Stability Control system turned off, the Active Brake Limited Slip (ABLS) system always stays on. The scenario where ABLS interferes the most for me is when cornering:

Approach corner.
Brake.
Downshift; steady on brake.
Gently start to ease off the brake <---- trail braking
Turn through corner.
Ease on gas.
Straighten + open up.

It looks like the culprit is trail-braking. ABLS kicks in at that exact point where the car enters the turn, and the foot is still lightly touching the brake. The yaw sensor detects Gs and tries to dynamically control braking pressure on all the wheels to prevent oversteer.

I am speculating that ABLS tries to anticipate oversteer by measuring G forces, rather than measuring wheel slips. This would mean that the system is calibrated to factory parts with a conservative configuration. There are a few problems with this:

1. The conservative configuration does not allow the driver to maximise the cornering potential of the vehicle's hardware. Additionally, because the system's G sensor is calibrated to factory parts, it will more significantly restrict the potential of some aftermarket handling mods. E.g., the car has sway bars to prevent body roll, stiff suspension to keep all feet planted around corners, and large+wide rear tires. The car can definitely corner faster than ABLS thinks it can.
2. Causes understeer and interferes with trail-braking.
   

Learning + sharing

I enjoy teaching, but teaching is never ever just teaching. It gets complicated, like anything that is a job.

Disarming ABLS

Cut the orange wire.

DNA is not destiny

The ABLS system works when one of the driving wheels is spinning on a slippery surface. The ABLS system brakes the spinning wheel, which distributes the driving power to the other driving wheel. The ABLS system and ABS will still operate with the VDC system off. When the ABLS system is activated, the “SLIP” indicator light will blink and you may hear a clunk noise and/or feel a pulsation in the brake pedal.

ABLS has held Mika back for long enough. Next project is a minor operation to disable ABLS.

Thirsty and Hungry, but never Thungry

I was really thirsty this morning. I would have otherwise felt hungry this morning. Now that I think about it, I've never felt both hungry and thirsty at the same time.

Fluid exchange

Dirty oil out, clean oil in. vhrrRAAHR!

Featuring: Andy McKee

Andy is the most innovative and exciting fingerstyle guitarist to emerge in years. Still in his 20's, Andy has developed a mastery of the 6-string guitar and the harp guitar that leaves me speechless. He is the most textural player of the instrument since Michael Hedges, and he creates sonic architecture worthy of the great modern composers for any instrument. - Don Ross

His fingers have an amazing voice.

Andy McKee on YouTube
About Andy McKee
andymckee.com

Poison

Ayo its poison, ecstacy, coke
You say its love, it is poison
Schools where I learned they should be burned, it is poison
Physicians prescripting us medicine which is poison
Doctors injecting our infants with the poison
Religion misoverstood is poison -- Nas

Listening to the classics makes me even angrier at the state of rap today; hippity hop no less.

Sky.fm classic rap

Scent of a Woman

Being a blind war veteran gives you the ticket to do whatever you want. No one has the right to tell you to shut up. HOOAH.

Or it is the ticket to begging on every street corner in Austin

Quotes
Scenes from the movie

Is it cheaper to own a 2nd car?

Owning a 2nd car will lower my insurance premium by a few hundred every 6 months (by having a multi-car policy). Question is, how cheap must the 2nd car be for me to save money (considering maintenance, etc)?

Sloth

Here's a pen in one hand, and a notebook in the other. An idea to change the world, but I'm too heavy to get up. The trees are blowing in the wind and the sky is white-streaked blue.

Analysis of hidden parking area at work

X marks the spot. First, notice the blue lines. These approximate the distances of the secret parking area (SPA) to neighboring buildings. It is unlikely that someone from a building other than Building 3 would want to park at SPA, since the hike would be too gruelling for these princes and princesses. That means that most of the people who park at SPA are Building 3 occupants.
Next, notice the purple lines. These are the options Building 3 occupants have, after they enter the campus from Union Ave and head toward Building 3. The first spots they see are the ones closest to Logic Dr. This makes it unlikely for someone in Building 3 to park at SPA, unless the parking capacity of the closer areas have been maxed out.

Hidden parking area UNLOCKED

It felt surreal, like a video game today, when instead of turning counterclockwise round the parking lot at work, I turned right. It was a hidden turn behind one of the buildings, that led to a shaded alley of... parking spots! I had been circling for 5 minutes earlier, and there was no parking available elsewhere. And here... was parking nrivana.
Occupancy was only about 30%, there was an abundance of spots to choose from, no trees overhead, shade from building on one side, wall of trees on another... I keep driving along as if I'm in a dream, and then I see a fellow Z. I couldn't help smiling to myself thinking, "ahhaha... so... you've found this hidden place too".
No matter what time I come to work now, I know I can find a safe place to park, far away from the door-ding goblintards. Best of all, I don't have to play the silly game of waking up early to race for parking spots outside Building 1 anymore. That game is rigged coz the early birds always win...

More gas

Note to self: more gas on downshifts.

Another ding!

That's a ding a month over the last 2 months, even for how careful I park. Show a little consideration, fucking door dingers!

Fear

Fear reminds us that we are vulnerable; that we are weak.
Feeling weakness, pain and getting hurt; reminds us that we are human.

Then comes the challenge. Do you let these things stop you, and quit? Do you back down when things get rough? Do you stop when you can't breathe or when your body is damaged? Can you only perform when you are at 100%? The challenge is to overcome. And this reveals humanity's strength: the human will. To survive. To succeed despite weakness. To overcome weakness. We don't succeed because we are godly. We succeed because we are human.

Happy is the person who isn't distracted by discomfort, that (s)he can appreciate even life's simplest pleasures.

Driving position and the quest for smooth

Good position makes all the difference.

Posture. Being seated snug into the seat gives good feedback, and more contact with the seat means more places to push against the seat with. My clutch is stiff enough that it pushes back. I was previously a little too far, causing some instability in my posture whenever I popped the clutch. With my hips snug in the seat, pushing in the clutch transfers the force up my leg through my hips, and into the seat, instead of translating into displacement. This also helps to stabilize the torso during steering effort and from the lateral forces when cornering.

Foot position. I was losing pedal control and feel from resting my whole foot on the gas pedal. I got better feedback using the ball of my foot. What this also means is that my heel is farther back, allowing me to pivot over to the brake, and be in good position for some heel-toe action. Before, with my heel closer in, I had to stretch uncomfortably to lift my right foot up off the accelerator onto the brake. This also left me in an awkward position for heel-toe, if I did not lift my foot. With the new positioning, I would be hitting the accelerator with the side of my foot, as opposed to my heel (which is unnatural for the pedals I have).

Loose grips. Having a loose grip on the wheel improves road feel, but also dissipates road shock instead of transferring it directly into the wheel. I try to shfit swiftly, but it's smoother when I keep a loose grip on the shifter, and when I'm more deliberate and conscious of timing. There are also a few things I try to consider: the flywheel speed and its acceleration, the speed of the transmission shaft, and the gears engaging and disengaging. I try to disengage and engage the gears cleanly, while keeping a feeling of where the revs are and how fast they've been dropping since I pushed in the clutch.

The article below talks about a few other things, such as having the shifter close to the 3 o'clock position of the right hand.
Brief discussion

Ayrton Senna at Donington Park, 1993

It was a cold afternoon in Donington park, which was hosting its first Grand Prix after 55 years. The rain had dropped heavily before the race, making the track very wet. In these wet conditions we were about to see the finest display of skill in Formula 1 for the last two decades, if not the finest ever.

It was back in 1993, when the duo of the Williams Renault with Prost and Hill was dominating the field. Thanks to traction control, active suspension and Renault ‘s superior engine the two Williams seemed unbeatable. Schumacher ‘s Benetton was the second fastest car in the grid, using the latest spec of the Ford Cosworth engine. Senna was struggling in an underpowered Mclaren, powered by the 92 spec Ford engine and lacking the state of the art technology developed by the Williams team. The qualifying proved once again the great advantage of the Williams cars, Alain Prost and Damon Hill taking the front row in the starting grid. More than two seconds behind were Schumacher third and Senna in fourth place. But the rain would change the odds unexpectedly….

Senna went on to school the other drivers on the wet track, showing once again why they call him the "Rain Master".

Senna at Donington (article)
Senna at Donington (video)
Ayrton Senna (wikipedia)

Double-end bag

Time to bob and weave,
slip and duck!

Driving texts

Race Car Vehicle Dynamics
Ayrton Senna's Principles of Race Driving
Winning: A Race Drivers Handbook
Drive to Win: The Essential Guide to Race Driving
Sports Car and Competition Driving
Going Faster: Mastering the Art of Race Driving : The Skip Barber Racing School
Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques

PK shoes

Five Ten Savant <---- omg

Adidas Nova

Delayed onset muscle soreness

Although the precise cause is still unknown, the type of muscle contraction seems to be a key factor in the development of DOMS. Exercises that involve many eccentric contractions, such as downhill running, will result in the most severe DOMS. This has been shown to be the result of more muscle cell damage than is seen with typical concentric contractions, in which a muscle successfully shortens during contraction against a load.^[2]

Some research^[3] claims that DOMS is not caused by the pain from damaged muscle cells, but from the reinforcement process. The muscle responds to training by reinforcing itself up to and above its previous strength by adding new sarcomeres—the segments in the muscle fibrils. This reinforcement process causes the cells to swell and put pressure on nerves and arteries, causing DOMS.

Wikipedia: DOMS

Temperamental Mika

Minimal body roll, high curb weight
decreased cornering feedback
high inertia
increase sensitivity to weight transfer and momentum

53/47 weight ratio, mid driver position
feels like oversteer, but isn't
plan the driving lines

Coilovers, sway bars, 19" low profile tires
the brutal road
jarring bumps

Heavy steering
increased steering effort
firm and constant control
but light touch
isolate bumps from steering input

Sensitive brakes
instant response, ruthless clamping power
feathery braking touch
careful, steady pressure to downshift

Shifting
1 hand leaves the wheel
rigid gearbox
short shifter, frequent shifting
stiff clutch
strong, but calm shifting

Torquey engine, heavy flywheel
unforgiving gear engages
patience and timing
precise control; perfect shifting and footwork.

Sometimes difficult, sometimes we fight, but always worth it :)

Shoes!

Achilles' fighting style in Troy

Developing a strategy for Achilles' magnificent fighting scenes proved to be an exhaustive process. "When you read the script, it says very early on, 'Achilles fights in a god-like manner,'" says Crane. "Well, that's very easy to write, but it's very, very hard to do, and that one sentence created a lot of work for a lot of people. In the end it took three months and about thirty people to come up with the way Achilles fights. He has a boxing style, but with the velocity of a speed skater and the agility of a panther. Also, he doesn't look directly at his opponent. He looks slightly to the side and only looks when he's coming in for the kill - so if he looks at you, you know you're dead."

Achilles' duels
Achilles leads beach attack

Rocky Balboa

You know all there is to know about fighting, so there's no sense in us going down that same old road again. To beat this guy, you need speed, you don't have any. And your knees can't take the pounding, so hard running is out. And you got arthritis in your neck. And you've got calcium deposits on most of your joints, so sparring is out. (P-"I had that problem") So what we'll be calling on is good old fashioned blunt force trauma, horse power, heavy duty, cast iron, piledriving punches that'll have to hurt so much they'll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it's gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train, (bang bang), yea! Let's start building some hurting bombs...

Training Montage

Superheroes

As you know, l'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well-drawn. But the mythology... The mythology is not only great, it's unique. Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent. He's weak... he's unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

Kill Bill clip