Failed Automobile Safety Inspection

I am in Tokyo, Japan this week for work and so my weekend was busy running around doing all of those tasks necessary to get ready for my trip. My BMW is up for registration renewal and my front tires were in dire need of replacement. I took it to my local tire shop who also happens to do safety and emissions inspections. Normally I avoid shops that do more than just safety and emissions because they have a vested interest in you failing your safety inspection. It allows them to sell more services. As I was already buying new tires, I figured I had a better chance of getting an objective review of my vehicle. Nope, I was told I needed to replace my front brake pads and rotors. Considering my brake pad sensor had yet to tell me I needed new pads, I question the inspection but am forced to replace them.

It surprised the mechanic when I seemed excited to replace my pads and rotors as I have been looking to get slotted and drilled rotors and was just waiting for them to wear out. I also think it surprised him that I don't let anybody do my brakes as I am perfectly capable of doing them myself. Actually anybody who knows how to change a tire can do their own brake jobs. If your warranty is up or doesn't include brake pads, I highly suggest you take a look at an online video or two and give it a shot yourself. My local O'Reilly auto parts store loans me the specialty tool necessary to spread the brake calipers and so the only costs are the rotors, pads, and brake sensor (not all cars need the sensor).

I drove home from the tire store and immediately logged onto my computer. My rear rotors and pads are fine and so I was concerned about having slotted and drilled rotors in the front but not the rear. A quick Internet search revealed that it was fine. All of the auto parts forums also said there was no advantage to slotted and drilled rotors. In fact I am probably going to run through pads and rotors faster. I reluctantly resigned myself to the fact that I should probably replace my rotors with the same type I am taking off. I was sad as I really was looking forward to having high-performance brakes.

I called both O'Reilly and Autozone auto parts stores that are less than a mile from my house to price things out. Then I did a search on the Internet to see if I could get a better price. Guess what? It turns out you can get a kit that contains slotted and drilled rotors, new high-performance brake pads, and the brake sensor for less money than the least expensive OEM rotors and pads (OEM are what originally came on the car). So I bought the kit and made sure it will be delivered before I get back from Japan.

I have had my BMW since I bought it new in November of 2000 and only have 65,000 miles on the car. In fact, this is the first brake job I have ever had to do on it. I'm going to try out the slotted and drilled rotors to see if there is a difference. If they only last half the time as my last ones, then I will go back to OEM parts in 6 years. That is a long time between brake jobs.

Strata Conference and Hadoop World in New York

This week I get to spend a couple of days at the Strata Conference in New York. Combined with Strata is Hadoop World and that is why I chose to attend this conference instead of just waiting for the Strata conference in Santa Clara coming in February. Right now I am sitting in the keynote session where all of the major sponsors get to showcase their products. I don't really consider myself to be cynical but right now I find my eyes glazing over as I have seen way too many marketing pitches. But I won't let that keep me from giving my own marketing pitch.

So what is Hadoop and why does it matter? Hadoop is not something regular computer users will see in their homes. I'm sure there are several guys running it in their garage or basement, but that is more of an anomaly than normal. Hadoop is an open source project managed by Apache that allows users to take a bunch of cheap commodity computing hardware and combine it into a large data platform. It does this by making multiple copies (the default is three) so that the loss of hardware doesn't mean you lose data. You can also use the CPU's from all the computers in the system to process or look at the data stored in the system.

Hadoop matters to you in that companies can use it to process larger amounts of data. In the video game world, it means that companies can figure out what types of games you like to play and only market those types of games to you. It means they can figure out where you are getting stuck in a game and provide hints to help you get through those tough sections. It means that video game companies no longer rely on their gut to determine what their customers want and can analyze the data to truly see what is wanted.

This can be scary to some and exciting to others. Do we really want the companies we buy products from to know too much about us? That sounds a lot like Big Brother. However if I am in the market for a new car, automobile advertisements are seen as helpful. When I am not in the market for a car, those same advertisements are seen as annoying. Anything that can reduce the number of annoying advertisements I have to endure is beneficial. Now let us hope that is the outcome of Hadoop instead of just getting even more junk mail.