June 22nd, 2009 by Mathew Maher
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Late last year, while I was visiting my friend Chris down in Pensacola, we stopped into a Best Buy and found a sat-nav system for the Golf. After doing some price comparison, shopping around, and conversing with friends, I found and ordered an expandable satellite navigation system.
I ordered the Pioneer AVIC-F900BT Satellite Navigation system, as well as the Sirius radio module, and was able to pick up the iPod connector at a local electronics store. After pulling everything together, and doing some test fits, my dad and I were able to install, secure, and hard-wire the unit into the 2000 Volkswagen Golf. » Read more: Pioneer AVIC-F900BT Installation
March 10th, 2009 by Mathew Maher
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This past January, my good friend, Chris, drove out from San Diego (yes, drove out…).
He did this for two reasons: 1) He wanted to do a cross-country trip, and 2) He was bringing me a set of 17-inch VW OEM Santa Monica alloy wheels he got at a steal of a price!
He originally bought them off Craigslist (or eBay, don’t remember) for his 2001 Subaru Outback, then realized they wouldn’t fit his car, so he called me up and asked me if they would fit my Golf. He sent me a couple of pictures and I told him that they would, so he decided to drive out to Atlanta from San Diego to bring them to me and spend some time with his family here.
Well, I finally had the funds to wrap the rims in rubber. Chris and I talked about tires for a while when he was here, and after he got back to San Diego, and I finally settled on a set of General Tire Exclaim UHPs.
I got them mounted and installed the today, so I figured I’d post a couple of pictures.
On to the next… project! 
March 10th, 2009 by Mathew Maher
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Over the past few months, I’ve been thinking about the interior of my 2000 Golf and how I want to bring it up-to-date, and dress it up, like how Volkswagen did with the Mk4 20th Anniversary GTIs, R32s, and Jetta GLIs. These three models shipped with updated trim around the car to set it off, and bring the sporty style full circle.
The updated trim consists of subtlety placed brushed aluminum bits through out the car: radio cage, pop-out cup holders, door pulls, door handles, and front ashtray. So, I started looking around the Internet for deals on some of the parts as I plan to piece together the trim for my 4-door Golf.
A few days ago, I found a guy on VWVortex that had the radio cage I was looking for, the only draw back was that he didn’t have the trim piece for the pop-out cup holders. So on the contrary, he was selling it for a reasonable price. I contacted him and got my PayPal account lined up, and ordered them. » Read more: Dressing Up The Golf (Part 1)
February 15th, 2009 by Mathew Maher
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I’ve been thinking about some modifications to the engine I’ve been wanting to make. Now, some times my mind goes on a mild rampage and I dream of these interesting mods that would really bring this 2.0L 8-valve “AEG” econo-motor to life, but I figure I’ll start with some simple mods first, before digging into the heavier projects (like removing the engine, and installing a turbo – )
I did some poking around the VWVortex website asking about some simple intake modifications and found that ABD’s “Big Bore” was a favorite among 2.0 owners (and 1.8T owners as well).
So, I went to their website and for around $170 (with shipping) I ordered a Big Bore Intake for my Golf. I called up my friend Sam shortly after it arrived, and we got it installed yesterday after driving around for a while trying to find an air filter cone that would fit.
So, here’s the final result. Looks good, engine is breathing a bit better, and it does seem to help deliver a bit more power to the wheels during the first and second gears. Pictures are below, here’s to hoping to get the exhaust sometime soon!
EDIT: I have since installed a smaller air filter for the Secondary Air Injection (SAI) and removed Volkswagen’s plastic “2.0” engine cover.
November 8th, 2008 by Mathew Maher
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The other day, I was surfing around the VWVortex website and I noticed some people on the fourms had front mounted European license plates on their Volkswagen’s and Audi’s.
In fact, I’ve seen afew German cars around town with their own custom plates So I decided that since I want to go towards an “All Euro” theme with moding the body, that I should order one online. I found GermanPlates.com, a German-based company in the custom plate business and shipped to Canada and the USA, I placed an order for a plate that almost mirrored my Georgia-issued tag. » Read more: Newest Addition to the Golf
October 18th, 2008 by Mathew Maher
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About a week ago, Steve Jobs hosted a special event to announce the new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops to the market, and offering them as their best notebooks.
After viewing Apple’s keynote on Tuesday, October 14, and interacting with them at the Apple Store at the Mall of Georgia location, I’ve come to terms with the new models and the features they offer in the industry.
Sporting Intel’s latest chips and NVIDIA’s latest graphics, the new MacBook, Apple’s entry level machine, is well rounded out a powerful machine. » Read more: The New MacBook and MacBook Pro Review
October 14th, 2008 by Mathew Maher
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Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Over the past few years, these browsers have become common names for web browsers on both Mac and Windows systems, with Apple’s Safari arriving to the Windows platform in June 2007.
Both Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox have been big players in the recent browser wars. While Internet Explorer has been losing ground to Firefox over the past few years, the browser wars have appeared once again; this time it’s a battle between FireFox and the other guys: Apple Safari, Opera, and now, Google Chrome. 
Google Chrome hit the web browsing market on September 2, 2008 for Windows XP and Vista, and was welcomed as an alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 browser. The open-sourced WebKit HTML-engine and a Google-built JavaScript engine, dubbed “V8 JavaScript”, help power the Chrome browser. » Read more: Browser Wars: Google Strikes Back
October 3rd, 2008 by Mathew Maher
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It’s something that’s been on my mind for the past few weeks. I knew my contract with WebMD was coming to an end and I’ve put my resume out on Dice.com, CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo! HotJobs, and Monster.com, but I’ve only received view replies to jobs I’ve applied for.
The job market, along with the whole economy, has gone down the crapper and finding a job now is going to be more difficult for me. Companies are looking for the ‘all-in-one’ guy, someone who can do PHP development, Flash ActionScript and other programming languages, which I have yet to master. I was even offered a job with AT&T that required knowledge of C++ programming and Java development – I’ve never taken classes on either language. Like I said, I’ve put my resume out there, but results have been few and far between.
I was talking with my friend, Chris Bartleson, about the whole deal and he pitched the idea of joining the Navy. He’s been in for almost 6 years now and enjoys it. And the more I read the website and look at the careers they have to offer, the more intriguing the idea of joining the Navy sounds. The only part I’m some-what nervous about is the 8 weeks of basic training, and of course, cutting ties with everything here in Georgia.
» Read more: The United States Navy
