Archive for March, 2011

I’ve been driving since I a Junior in college, the was roughly about 11 year ago, with a green, beaten down, but superbly reliable Isuzu Panther. After that, there were the 99 Gold Isuzu, the ’93 Blue Mitsubishi Magna, the ’03 Black Toyota Vios and the latest, is the newly acquired the ’10 Black Chevy Cruze.

I got in sometimes in August, and it should be galloping its forst 10k sometimes next month. So how does it like to run an American in a street of Jakarta.

Fuel consumption wise ? Not fun. My Cruze gulped about 7-8km/liter, in-town. For a car with 1.8 liter engine, thats more than what its competitors i.e. Honda Civic or Toyota Altis drunk for the same distance. But good news bound to come if you drive the out-town. Its fuel efficient can almost double. I’ve the opportunity to drive it to Jogja some months ago, thats a total of 1100k return, and it only needs to full tanks refill, that approximately 15km/liter fuel efficiency.

If it’s a very thirsty car, what about the power ? I have to admit, driving Cruze traffic is rather moot point. The car, the way it came as it was, has so much energy potential, sadly, this potential are not those that useful in the hectic, crowded and raring traffic of Jakarta. But try to take it out at the night or early morning and Cruze some of the Jakarta sprawling highway at the the city outskirt. It is going to be a total fun.

The 0-100km/h in less then 10 secs, and than you can easily climb the speed up yo 180km, in almost no time. Never tried till 200km/h though, as the road is way too wavy to drive in such a speed. Driving the Cruze on that particular intensity is total joy. The suspension hold the car swell, not as hard as Civic, but much more stable than Altis. It balance the needs of convenience against stability.

Maneuvering the car also easy and fun to do. The steering wheel is responsive, and it holds well, while you jerked alternatingly. While the brakes are sufficiently responsive, even in a wet condition. Press it light and the system will adjust slowly, helped by the automatic engine brake, press it hard, the brake will manage themselves to have the car slowing down in steady but rapid manner.

And while the exhaust system is standard, you can hear the silent engine roared, as you press the pedal on, trying to get any accelerations. The sound are satisfying at the very least, and kinda making me wonder, what will happens, if you change the exhaust system, and changes the muffler too.

Interior wise ? I have nothing to complaint about. My auto version comes with the 6 CD Changers, leather seat, and aux audio in. The inside is silent, and the music flows unperturbed.

So really, I don’t have much complain about the car, the exterior looks cool, its interior is comfortable, and the power does not disappoint. Sure the fuel consumption could be better, but thats really depend on how you handle your right feet.

Bottom, line, the Cruze is good as it is, and if I don’t really have many wish list to improve it. For now I’m content with just upgrading the rims from 16” to 18” (and thats not even big enough). But in the near future, I’ve got some ideas already.

Rear lips diffuser, double exhaust and muffler, tweak the engine a little, and add upgrade the rim to 19”. Then I’m set.

Soft and satisfying series of clicks rose as I slowly typed the words, letter by letter. The screen softly lighted and colorfully ambient, and with every scroll and tap of the pad, a magical swish and crisp feedback were apparent and undeniable.

My new MacBook Air (courtesy of apple.com)

That my friends, are the sound of my new MacBook Air 11.6″

Than surely, you will rasp and grunted, this joker buy a fancy and overpriced MacBook Air, for what ? so that people can look at him in marvel when he sit in Starbucks one sunday morning, flapping up his fancy toy while sipping his fancy coffee ? Or maybe, he is after the jealous look that people will throw when he walking rakishly wearing his navy suit and brown semi brogue wingtip ?

Sure, but that is beside the point. The main reason why its MacBook Air, and not some common people netbook, or the more powerful Pro, or the utterly egoistical AlienWare is because, I’m lusting for a a simplicity, a simplicity that comes in every Apple product, and a simplicity that will have you focus on your mind rather than technicality. It’s also a simplicity that makes you want to create rather want to relax, and thats my friend, is a MacBook Air is all about, at least for me.

Rest assure, that this decision doesn’t come easy, it goes through several steps of decision making, all are throughout thought with and deliberately analyzed.

First I was weighing about the OS. Mac or Windows. Truth to tell, I’ve been faithful to Windows since Windows 3.x, all the way to Vista (have not purchased any systems since my BenQ S41 few years back), all complete with the utter sluggishness, tendency to crash, with the needs of reinstallation once in a while. But there was a time where Matlab, SPSS, Labview, and a bunch of DOS based, electrical system simulation program were all part of my daily academic life, which no longer the case today, as at home, I mostly dealed with simple blog interface, light picture editing and occasional gaming. Which obviously means that the need of Win based OS, is no longer called for. Additionally, I’ve been quite fed up with Windows reliability issue. Having you browser froze in the middle of online transaction is devastating, and having the windows system crash when doing some lay-outing and foot editing is no longer funny. There I’m kinda made my mind that I’ll go with Mac based.

At this point, the options were rather closing down to two possible choices, the Air or the Pro. Both come with its own advantages and disadvantages. The Air is light and thin, it also comes with the SSD, which in theory should means a certain degree data integrity (no more the annoying hardish crash), but its expensive, and despite the coolness, it really loosing some of the features which is not really a good news considering the price, to add to the worries, its also not powerful enough to do HD video editing or High Res photo works. The Pro, however for the same price, come with all many features that Air is lack off (DVD room, networking port, card reader), more powerful (faster processor, bigger RAM and bigger storage), but it also have some weakness, first, its heavier (about a kilo more), and bulkier, and it still use the normal mechanical drive which is prone to physical shock of anykind, in short, much less portable than the Air.

Presented to those options, I contemplated my past and future use of a laptop. My past always troubled with the hard drive that crashes many times offer, partly due to the way I’m handling these equipments, also in my past, I use laptop for gaming, and some heavy graphic editing (I was once a photo geek), but past is passed, and behold the future. First I’m no longer use laptop for gaming (for that I have my PS3 and Ipad), second I’m no longer use my laptop for heavy graphic editing (gone are my days working as an ad man), and at this point of my life, I put much more emphasis and practicality rather than robustness (I don’t even have any SLR), and laptop that boot up in 30secs, sleep and wakeup in order of seconds, and minimize risk of data damage due to portability excites me more than having a laptop with “yes we can” attitude. So from this point the Air is obvious choice.

And with the Air is in mind, the struggle now is deciding whether the 13 or the 11 is the one. I’m talking about the screen size. Where from value for money point of view the 13 is rather tempting-the the SSD size is decent, the processor is faster, it also came with SD slot, and the screen is bigger-and all this comes only IDR1mio more expensive than the 11 with the same SSD size, but slower processor, smaller screen and no SD slot. But being smaller means its a lot more portable, and sexy too, and thinking about practicality having an 11″ laptop is much more practical by my standard of use. Also, having a 13″ Air is making my earlier argument about being light, thin and less bulky becoming mooted. It is true though, that many internet review recommended the 13 rather than 11, especially if the laptop is going to be the primary platform in my house. The reason is that the 13 can do all the work that the Pro (just a bit slower), and yet have the portability like the Air should be (just bit bulkier than the 11), and from their point of view, it still can do all their usual needs (mainly HD editing and High Rest foot editing), some even recommend that if you do choose the 11, make sure that it is your third or second system (being the #1 is PC, and number #2 is Pro). But the truth is I’m not a geek, and I despise having too many system in my tiny apartments (even if its just one too many), and I really don’t need to do any HD video editing or RAW foot editing (remember that I don’t have any SLR)

So really, by this point, I really looked forward for the 11.

The moment of truth really came when I dragged my self to the showroom today, having look at both size hand by hand, have a feel on it, and weighing all my decision all over again, and the price I have to pay that entails any of the decision. But if anything finally made up my mind, is the feeling of happiness when looking to the utter perfection of the MacBook Air 11, the eye does not lie, at least at that particular moment, and some good 12 hours later, I’m happily typing this article, while still reminiscing my feeling of jubilation, when I saw my friend swiped his credit cards to pay for my MacBook Air.

So, if you happened to pass by a good looking chap, fancying a nice linen jacket, sipping an americano and typing in a cute litte Air, that could be me.