It’s been a busy month. The conference in Finland was great, although the connectivity was less so. Since then, we’ve done a family camping vacation, and I had a little scare regarding the security of my systems. (False alarm, as far as I can tell, and I did check very thoroughly.)
Some random updates:
Some commenters were concerned about my Samsung Yepp’s compatibility with Ogg Vorbis. Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to compare my player’s Ogg compatibility with an iRiver a co-worker owned; he had been disappointed in his player and had several songs that did not play on his player. All of them played fine on mine on the Yepp. That should hopefully alleviate some of those concerns.
Someone named George Jones has been trading invective with me regarding the online petition over the Toyota oil sludge problem. I’ve been asking him a few pointed questions he refuses to answer; we’ll see if he ever gets around to that. In the meantime, I’ve joined OdyClub, an online community for the Honda Odyssey, and have learned a lot of good things, including the surprising amount of respect the Toyota minivan gets from Odyssey fans. I’m still happy with the decision we made, however.
Progress has continued on the LSB dynamic linker. I hope to be able to release some real results soon.
Thank you, Jeff, for exposing the likes of “George Jones” and other entities that choose to protect Toyota—even if they have to impersonate and use numerous pseudonyms (see http://www.topix.com/forum/autos/toyota/TKAP9JUPO3R94CCI2 for more evidence of a Canadian who wishes to defame and discredit me). Believe it or not, the problem continues to date!
Several other Toyota owners are speaking up on the current Toyota engine oil sludge or gel problem. Take a look at http://www.toyotaoilgel.com. Check out http://www.uc2.blogspot.com to see what owner has faced at his local Toyota dealership and more. Read the complaints on the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/TMC2003/petition.html.
Take a look at YouTube.com under “Toyota Engine Oil Sludge” or “Toyota Oil Gel” to see how the problem originated. Then, note the almost 3,000 signatories on the online petition “Toyota Owners Unite for Resolution: Engine Oil Sludge.” It seems that Toyota owners are complaining they have been left out of the “Customer Support Program for Engine Oil Gelation.” Still others say that Toyota has kept information about it hidden from them.
Toyota owners should file owner complaints at the NHTSA and the Center for Auto Safety. They should send Toyota a certified letter to formally notify it of the problem. Then, they should ask for full repair cost coverage under the provisions of the CSP.
Toyota owners can follow “toyotasludge” at Twitter.com for updates.
Back in 2004, two key consumer sites went down at the same time. Toyota owners were very actively discussing Toyota engine oil sludge and Toyota’s follow through, or lack thereof, on the CSP. It was as if someone wanted those sites to be eradicated. The moderator at one of the sites admitted multiple hacking until the site went down permanently.
At any rate, none of the very legitimate and informative postings from those two sites is accessible now. Convenient, huh?
Charlene Blake
cblake@erols.com
charleneblake@cox.net