Mexico Route 1 "Euro" Stickers

Introducing the first real product from NISMOStuff Racing.  Not exactly a hardcore fabrication product but after racing down the Baja in this years NORRA 1000 I knew I had to have these made.

Anyone who has driven Mexico 1 down the Baja Peninsula knows exactly what I'm talking about.  Military checkpoints, agricultural checkpoints, scores of dead bodies both animal and sometimes human, rampaging 18 wheelers, never ending construction zones, incredible roadside taco stands, friendly locals, slide-rule straight sections of highway, non-existent breakdown lanes, mangled guardrails, turquoise blue waters--there is nothing like it.

When I got home I knew I wanted something on my daily driver commemorating the trip and representing the difficulties involved in just traveling that road.  So I looked online...there a handful of places that sell similar Mexico Route 1 vinyl stickers for vehicles but none seemed to use the correct font or design to appear authentic.  So the above was designed and I had the result printed at a local car wrap facility using quality 3M vinyl.  The stickers are 5"s by 3.75"s.

I am selling them at this point for $5 inclusive of shipping to anywhere in the continental US.  The simplest way to purchase one or more is simply send me your mailing address along with an appropriate Paypal payment to: spalind@yahoo.com

They will ship the next business day after any order.  If Paypal doesn't work for you, just drop me a line at the same email address and I'm sure we can work something out (Square, Venmo, paper check, etc.)  Get your Mexico Route 1 vehicle sticker now--either for yourself or to hand out to the ever rabid Baja "steeker hunters"!!

Do I Now Need to Wear Skinny Jeans?

After a while of hemming and hawing about the purchase and asking for the recommendations of a number of friends/relatives I bit the bullet yesterday and purchased myself a turntable.  Not a record player--oh, no you uncouth heathen...a TURNTABLE.  And no, not like a turntable to be used for scratching and DJing...a turntable for listening to vinyl.  Yes, vinyl, not records...

I say this all tongue in cheek of course as I am now fully on board with this accoutrement of aspiring hipsterdom.  I purchased the Orbit Audio Basic turntable for a number of reasons, foremost being its low cost yet extremely high ratings and reputation amongst the vinyl/audiophile community.  Additionally, it is extremely upgradable as well so that if this becomes a solid hobby of mine I can continue to improve it soundcasting capabilities with replacements to its platter, arm, needle, etc.  Unfortunately because Orbit is such a small, hands on company assembling these joy-to-the-ear devices in Boston, it will be at least a month wait before mine is delivered...

Still, I can right away start wandering in my hipster-shabby clothing to the local fleamarket, Goodwill or garage sale and come back holding some obscure, supercool vinyl that has now been saved from the rubbish heap...My black skinny jeans and giant plastic glasses are on order...

Orbit Basic Turntable...

3D Vinyl Wraps...

Well, that took longer that I would have expected...

Taking vinyl wraps to the next level, 3D versions are now available.  OK, so it doesn't look like the various aspects of the wrap are flying at you or anything but it is a way to give depth of field to the look.

With vinyl wraps getting better, cheaper and quicker all the time, how long before auto companies merely produce cars with a "plain" coating that is super rust resistant and then offer you one of thousands of custom wraps from the factory?  Then the dealerships could make money off these customers every few years when they want to refresh their wrap or change its look.  Would be a boon for used car dealers as well as they could "rewrap" a car to give it a fresh look for sale to a new owner rather than spend hundreds if not thousands on "reconditioning" trade ins.  Hmmm....

3D Wraps Now A Thing...

Taking Slot Cars To The AI World...

With AI here being Artificial Intelligence.  I doubt that the researchers over at MIT and in this case Carnegie Mellon are thinking too much about kids toys when they sit down for their work...but...as is nearly always the case...the most advanced tech ends up trickling down to our kids and our toys in a fashion more rapid that we tend to think.

So it is here, where a couple of really smart guys over at Carnegie Mellon have received millions of dollars in startup, venture capital funding to develop what amounts to a kid's game.  Anki is the name of the firm (anki.com) and you can go to their website to check out the company and its products or you can go here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/16/ankis-self-driving-toy-race-cars-will-launch-on-oct-23rd-we-go-hands-on/ to see the TechCrunch article and video on their first product.

Basically what we have is a modern, updated version of slot cars.  A pre-designed track is printed on vinyl and contained within that vinyl is code that only the associated Anki cars can see.  This code and the AI contained within the car keeps the car "on the track" as it were, preventing it from running "off the track" and chasing the cat down the hallway.  Think of it almost like an invisible dog fence for electronic toy cars.

Controlled by an iOS device (for now only iOS devices, sorry Android users) you can steer the car back and forth, accelerate, brake, etc. and also do other more video game like things such as firing infrared "bullets" at competitors, slow competitors down with infrared "tractor beams", etc.  As you move along and get better and more experience, more options and abilities of the car become available and become permanent, non-transferable additions to THAT car...so you can end up with cars with quite different capabilities.

Another point of note is that the basic kit comes with two cars.  One for you and one AI controlled car making it so that you don't need to have a buddy over to play.  The AI is evidently quite good and quite capable of beating you.

Future developments that are quite easy to forecast--things like new race track designs/layouts, different car "models" and software/AI upgrades--all available for purchase of course.  To me this looks like a cool little mashup of real world slotcar racing and AI infused gaming.  Is it a "driving" game??  Probly not.  Is it just a kids trinket?  Definitely not.  Is it cool?  Hell yes.