@illogical I would choose between Fedora 40 KDE Spin & Debian 12 KDE, depending on your software needs. Personally I am running Debian 12 KDE since I need stability & software compatibility.
{musings-of-alfonsojon}
Do not delegate your humanity.
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In November of 2022, I acquired a 2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ with just about 185,000 miles and in need of some TLC. I’ve always found myself fascinated by the Jeep Cherokees, and have always wanted to purchase one. I like how simple they are, how relatively easy they are to work on, and how reliable they are known for being. That said, after over 20 years on the road and 185,000 mi, this car is definitely showing its age and is in need of quite a bit of work to become a daily driver. I have no intention of making this an off-road first vehicle, and instead would like to focus on daily comforts and features. Ultimately, I’d like for this car to be my daily driver for shorter trips, for winter, and for camping.
The Problems
This XJ has a number of issues, which I’ll quickly outline here:
- Engine knock on cold start
- Exhaust leak
- Rust
- Doors are too far gone for me to want to fix
- Tailgate is too far gone for me to want to fix
- Rear quarter panels behind bumper end caps are rotted out
- Rear uniframe is in need of repair near fuel neck filler hole
- Rocker panels are bubbling
- A/C does not work
- Heater core is leaking, jammed blend door (dried coolant)
- Minor coolant leak near radiator
- Driver-side window regulator is dying
- Driver-side window lockout is broken, preventing passengers from rolling their windows down and up
- Missing gas tank exhaust hanger
- Fuel gauge doesn’t work properly below ¼ tank
- Tailgate mechanism is stubborn due to rust
- Needs brakes
- Needs e-brake to be adjusted
- 4WD is noisy – fluid is likely ancient and in need of change
- Spark plugs and wires need done
- U-joints likely need replacement
- Unhappy with existing light bar installation
- Dim headlights
- Broken fog lights
- Missing fuel tank shield & exhaust hanger
The Goal
I have intentions of slowly chipping away at the problem list one junk yard/Rock auto purchase at a time. First on the docket is the heater core, window regulator, and brakes. With these, the car will be fully operable again, for a short time anyway. Ultimately, I’d like to protect the XJ in areas it is prone to damage while also improving the safety of it.
Immediately:
- New spark plugs and coil pack – done
- Window regulator for driver – done
- Driver’s window switch assembly – done
- Replace fog lights – done
- Upgrade to aftermarket headlight wiring harness – done (will post details separately)
- Brakes – WIP
- Heater core/AC evaporator/Blend door & clean HVAC assembly
- Install AJ’s Offroad Armor Tanker Tire Carrier rear bumper
- Install Rusty’s Rear Corner Cut Panels – WIP
200,000 miles:
- Rebuilt engine
- Block heater
- Exhaust
- Suspension – Old Man Emu 1.5″ front/3″ rear
Whenever:
- Headliner
- Carpet
- Check out the floor pans and cry
- Air conditioning
- Replace fuel pump
- Frame stiffeners for rear of vehicle
The Upgrades
Audio
Stereo
Joying 8.8″ Stereo: https://www.amazon.com/JOYING-Android-Universal-Bluetooth-Subwoofer/dp/B08K36DPLH
Subwoofer Enclosure
Body
Interior
- Heated mirrors
- Heated seats
Electrical
Headlight Harness
K Suspension offers an affordable harness which routes your XJ’s headlight power directly to your headlights, preventing the interior switch from having to handle the amperage of your headlights. There is a higher quality version of this from Jeep Cables, but I found the K Suspension harness was perfectly adequate. https://www.ksuspensionfab.com/store/p6/H4_Upgraded_Headlight_Harness.html
XJ “Big 7” cable upgrade
The cables in my XJ are tired and asking to be replaced. I have already had to make emergency repairs once, so I will be replacing them with the “Big 7 Kit” from Jeep Cables. https://www.jeepcables.com/products/xj-big-7-complete-kit-cherokee-87-01
Headlights
I am going against better wisdom and am looking at this headlight set because they look cool. They probably aren’t the best. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWBXB4TT/
Drivetrain
- Block heater
- Remote start
- NP242 Transfer Case
- THOR intake? 👀
- Replace fuel tank with ZJ tank (thanks waemid)
- Rear disc brake swap (thanks waemid x2)
- Rusty’s XJ Fuel Tank Skid
- Rusty’s Crossmembers
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I have a spare iPhone 11 that I have been using as a backup phone while my other phone, a Pixel 6, is being troubleshooted. There are a few things about iPhones that I find frustrating, and I’d like to discuss those a bit.
Text Selection
Something that has been frustrating me a great deal about iOS is trying to select text. I have frequently switched operating systems on my mobile devices ever since I have had a mobile phone in the mid-2000s. Text selection is a pretty basic feature that I expect out of most any operating system. my Blackberry was amazing at it, Android does a pretty good job, but something about iOS feels so unpredictable and frustrating. I have difficulty adjusting the cursor left and right to delete text or fix typos. I often accidentally select all text or a word when I’m trying to adjust the exact position of my cursor, and I’ve yet to figure out exactly what I’m doing wrong to cause this.
App Performance
Back a few years ago, it was pretty expected that Android didn’t work as well as iphones, and you would routinely have to reboot your Android phone in order to resolve temporary issues or glitches. I find myself having to frequently reboot my iPhone 11 in order to resolve issues with applications such as Facebook, Mail, and Instagram. Additionally, I cannot find a way to force stop an application in iOS.
Customization
The default iOS keyboard is decent enough, but I prefer using an alternative keyboard such as gboard. I find that gboard is not as good on iOS as it is on Android, and run into issues using voice dictation frequently. I’ll need to continue searching for a keyboard I am comfortable using. I also dislike the home screen customization, though it has improved significantly. Things I would like from the home screen are the ability to place an icon or widget anywhere, and a more organized app library. I would appreciate if the App Library had all of my applications listed A to Z the similar to how it is on Android. The view when searching is quite nice, and frankly should be the default.
The App Library on iOS 17 
Searching the App Library on iOS 17 Restrictions
I am partial to using Firefox on all of my devices, because I do not believe all web browsers should rely on the Chromium engine. Because of restrictions Apple has imposed upon developers, browsers cannot use anything other than the built-in webkit engine provided by safari. this means that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox on the iPhone do not use their native rendering engines and instead are a wrapper with their own UI on top of the built-in Safari rendering engine. This is not preferable and restricts freedom of choice. I appreciate the freedom that Mozilla Firefox gives me, but I’m unable to truly use a native version of Firefox due to these restrictions. On Android, I have the ability to disable the built-in Chrome browser and use Firefox as my default, even in applications that rely on an embedded web browser as Firefox has the ability to provide that. no such ability is present on iOS. Lastly, I would appreciate the ability to side load applications directly from the device. On my Android devices, I use a mobile application store called F-Droid for open source applications. No such ability is available on iOS.
My overall review of iOS
IOS is a very performant mobile operating system with a very clear design language and ease of use that is rivaled only by Android. That being said, I wish that iOS had more customization features, more rights, and gave the end user more choice in how they use their phone.
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Started the teardown – removed the rear fender plastic & bumper corners. Found a lot of rust! Started chopping it out but need to remove the bumper to finish.
I’m removing the bumper the wrong way by cutting holes to get to the bolts. Turns out the bolts are also rusted out so I’m stopping here for now.
Also painted some body damage to stop rust from spreading until I can fix it right. It isn’t pretty but it works!
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@taylorlorenz Ah yes, associate of Tim Apple
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Help Insync keep developing a native Linux OneDrive/Google Drive client!
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@TechConnectify Hey! I've noticed the posts about Tesla/etc are being marked as "sensitive", which causes them to be hidden like this on the mobile app. Not sure if this is intentional but wanted to give a heads up in case it isn't
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Microsoft is finally removing Syskey encryption from Windows. This means less people will fall victim to scams from tech support scammers messing up their computer.
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I always find JS benchmarks between browsers, demoing how “fast” XYZ company’s browser is, but they only include a single benchmark (such as Octane). One thing I’ve noticed is many sites are beginning to use WebGL elements, and games such as Polycraft are becoming more popular. I decided to pit a few common browsers against each other, to show which one is the best for WebGL.
- Firefox (6,380)
- Chrome (5,190)
- Opera (4,740)
- Vivaldi (3,800)
- Internet Explorer/Edge (0; test crashed)
