I broke one once in a similar manner..

The usb connections were broken from the board - I cracked open the plastic case and re-soldered them to the board - works great now.  If you can't do it, let me give it a shot.  Though, with all of your megasquirting - I'm sure your soldering skilz are up to par.

my favorite:


from:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/15/iraq-shoe-tosser-guy.html

from the samba:

Coatesville, PA - http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=650515


and
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=659882

project in NH
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=651098

that heater channel is too much rust.  I don't know about you but I FUCKING hate doing rust repair.  I replaced the pass. side heater channel (and a shit ton of other panels) in my bug and it was a pain in the ass.  If the body sags at all, it's tough to get the doors to line up correctly.  If you think about your hourly wage and then compare it to the amount of time and money you'd have to spend to make the car right - you'd be better off buying a solid car from out west and having it shipped.  That doesn't even take into account the annoying part of grinding metal for hours on end and having to coat/paint underneath the car.  I'd keep looking and find one that doesn't have serious underbody/heater channel rust.  You'll spend more but will be worth it in the end.

your fan's got 'the rage'

Sounds like a fan switch to me too.

that's a good price if it's mostly solid.  it wouldn't take much to make that a badass car.

3k? 
16v?  what a dick.  that's a great car... but it's not worth $3k and no way in hell does it have a 16v.  and if it did have a 16v - even a 2L16v - it wouldn't be worth 3k!  160k?  wtf.  really, the guy's attitude is what sucks about that car.

granted, I'm just pissed because I miss my '97 2.0 - that thing was great.  it probably does get 35mph. 

the bullshit binary political system needs to progress.  I was shocked to find myself agreeing with most of what ron Paul was saying.  Even though I disagree with a lot of what would he would do,  a lot of what he says makes sense.  Still, I'm voting Obama.  McCain continues to dangerously flip flop and the absurdity of his vp choice evidences his poorly masked desperation to win.  The same people that controlled gwb's campaign and his entire presidency's:
blatent disregard for the law (to say nothing of common sense)
Structured and orchestrated perversions of truth ( think WMD's, bin laden tapes and the timing of their release, oh and the anthrax bullshit)
Enormous erosion of civil liberties via the "patriot" act
Vp power grab
Exploding the national debt to pay halliburton, blackwater and lockheed.
I could go on but it seems to me that I'm just as desperate for something different.  Granted, I think that obama's policies will give handouts to undeserving people too...  I'd just rather see disadvantaged undeserving peope get something rather than enormous multinational corporations that pay almost no taxes relative to their size, all while reaping the benefits of our country's protection and laws.     

I think the fanny/freddie thing may have been started during the Clinton admin. but Greenspan and artificially low rates combined with deregulated predatory lending accentuated the problem.(countrywide)   Helping everyone get into a home seems like a good idea, but when gigantic companies decide to get in on the action, we see what happens.  At base it's all human greed.

I'd rather concerned and contemplative inaction over apathy any day.
/rant

I've had a battery tender for years...  it has always brought my batteries back to life... I even used to use it at the dealer when we'd have a 'bad' battery.  I didn't buy a new battery for years.
it's black with a yellow & green label.  VW used an almost identical one with a vw sticker and I'm pretty sure that BMW sells the same thing at their dealer.

I don't know much about the actual charging type but it has a red and green lights that tell you the charge status.

I saw this guy on Monday night at the game - it was hilarious.

my text speed is speeding up, still not like typing on a keyboard but in some ways it is much better... like when I have to add punctuation.  Though, I've never used a horizontal blackberry keyboard for any significant amount of time.

I'm still on the 1st gen iphone and loving it... not going to upgrade until they cram 32+gb into the phone next summer...  but by then... who knows.  at the rate our economy is going wireless data speeds will be shit into the foreseeable future.  The next economic crisis will be the phone bubble... new phones every year, a crisis because people can't pay their early termination fees.

nice work.  did you get a new one or hack a 1st gen?


I shortcutted DCI on the homescreen, obvious but I still thought it was awesome when it was there in the bottom right:

5 stars.

tempting:

http://gizmodo.com/5030749/iphone-apps-we-like-dynolicious-car-performance-meter