Minority Report

Today was an interesting day in the news.  There was a story about OnStar and a new service capability that they have with some 2009 and later GM products.  Apparently, should you car get STOLEN then OnStar would be able to access your car and command it to slow down in order to allow police to pull the vehicle over.

Interesting…. several years ago, there was a great movie that came out starring Tom Cruise called Minority Report.  In the movie, when Tom Cruise was trying to escape being captured due to FALSE INFORMATION his car was effectively TURNED OFF so that the authorities could apprehend him.  He had to break the windshield in order to get out of the vehicle and escape.

So how do you sell something to people that gives authorities control over them?  First make them fearful that someone might steal their precious car….then explain to them that all will be ok because their car is equipped with a control system that allows authorities to effectively shut the car down if that happens.

Well, doesn’t insurance cover the loss of a stolen car already?  Does controlling the speed prevent the thief from driving the car into the guard rail (pehaps because he’s pissed that the damn thing is slowing down!) and damaging the car beyond repair?  But wait…what if someone decides that you have unpaid parking tickets…couldn’t they theoretically shut your car down until you pay????

Something to think about….perhaps….I’ll buy a Honda……

DC

Full of hot air

I pulled into a Petro Canada Gas Station (wilson and olive, oshawa) for air today and was shocked to see that they wanted 50cents for air!!  Now I know that some places charge a quarter and donate it to charity and that’s cool, but I thought that 50 cents was pure robbery!!!!  Then I pulled across the street to BEAVER GAS and was pleasantly surprised to find that their air machine is FREE!!! 

Since everything is increasing in price and our pay is not, 50 cents means something these days!  Especially since we’re being robbed at the pump by petrochemical profit mongers every day. 

Time to Cruise in Durham!

Whether your a Classic Car enthusiast or a Motorcyle Fan, it’s almost time to start cruising!  There are a number of Durham Region Cruise groups to choose from depending upon your interest!

Durham Cruisers is a Motorcycle Enthusiast group that has has regular weekly cruise in events that support every make and model of Motorycle, so no matter what you drive, you can make new friends and have fun with a group of people that have a similar interest!  Visit www.durhamcruisers.com  for more information and calendar of 2008 events!

The Durham Region Harley Owners group offers a variety of cruising events too, but these are event for Harley Owners!  Their calendar of events can be viewed at www.durhamhog.com

If Cars are more your thing, you might want to look at www.roadlegendscruisers.com a Oshawa based Classic Car Club that has lots of fun events! Then for a list of many Ontario Cruise In events from a wide variety of clubs visit http://www.kruz-radio.com/Cruisenights.html

Happy cruising and have a safe and fun summer!

Welcome

It took some time to move the entire Durhamcentral.com site to a new server and get things setup properly.  Finally we got to the point where we could re-launch the Durham Region Blog.  A fresh start with new fresh content. 

Watch this spot for Restaurant comments and reviews, write ups on interesting things to do in Durham Region and other content, including me babbling from time to time.

DCadmin