A new car project: 1966 Austin Mini Cooper

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With the E39 project being finished, I’ve been itching to do another car project. My wife and I were always interested in getting a classic Mini, but were never able to find one in good condition. I’d scoured online resources like craigslist and the MiniMania forum on and off for years, but with no luck. I even came close one time when I found a guy that was moving and didn’t think he’d be able to take his prized car with him. Fortunately for him, he was able to keep his Mini, and another one slipped through my fingers. I’d almost given up when I found a rare ’66 mini intact with most of the parts for cheap on craigslist. I was leaving for a work trip and decided I wouldn’t even look until I was about to head back. Luckily for me I found it was still available the night before I was to return.  I rented a truck and car carrier and drove 5 hours to GA to pick it up (and 5 hours back) the day after I got back.  It was a long day, but was totally worth it.  The Mini is a 1966 Mark I made by Austin.  It’s got the original 998cc engine, but also came with a Cooper head that should improve performance.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but much of the hard work is already done.  The previous owner had already disassembled it and organized all the parts, so I can start right in on the clean-up and restoration.

The facts about iOS and Android

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Disclaimer: This article was written in late 2012 amid a patent lawsuit Apple filed against Google over their Android OS. The suit was later settled in 2014, but comments from then CEO Steve Jobs calling Android a “stolen product” incited Android fans to lash out on the internet. This article was a response to some of the misinformation and wild speculation being distributed at the time.

Lately I’ve been avoiding Google+ due to the angry hordes of clueless Android fanboys raging against what they see as evil Apple suing the world. I’ve had enough, so I’m going to set the record straight.

Development of what was to become the iPhone began in 2004, when Apple started to gather a team of 1000 employees to work on the highly confidential “Project Purple”. A year later Google bought Android Inc.

After 3 years of development, the iPhone was announced at WWDC in Jan 2007. It went on sale 5 months later in June. Android’s first beta software was released 3 months after that (September ’07) and Android 1.0 appeared for the first time on an HTC phone a year later.

Another interesting fact is that Google didn’t come up with Android on their own, but bought the company that invented it.

Apple brought the iPhone from concept to market in less than 3 years. It took Google 3 years to take a product that existed to market and they only did the software. Apple did the whole thing, hardware and software, from scratch, in-house.