Upgrading the stock radio in the Crown Victoria is pretty simple — but parts of the process are also needlessly complicated. I started out with the basic AM/FM unit which is, well, just a bit too basic:
Removing the radio is a simple affair. There are two ways to go about it — you can either take apart some coat hangers and bend them so that they fit into the holes into the front of your radio (I like to call this the crackhead method) or you can spend $5 on Ford Radio Removal Tools on eBay. I went with the latter option. You simply have to stick the removal tool in until you hear it click, and then pull both tools away from the radio, while pulling it out of the dash, as shown here:
Once the radio is out of the dashboard, you simply need to disconnect the two cables that connect the speakers, power, and antenna. The thick black cable connects the radio to the antenna, and the large connector connects the speakers and power:
This is where it gets tricky if you have a 2003+ P71 Police Interceptor, or any other fleet model. I decided to upgrade this to a stock Ford radio that was pulled out of a 2004 Mercury Marauder, which contains the almost exactly the same electronics as the Crown Victoria. This is what the radio looks like:
I did some research and learned that the Marauder radio should work in the 2006 Crown Victoria as long as both of the vehicles use “Phase II” connectors for the speakers and power. Every site I read stated that all 2003+ Crown Victoria / Marauder / Grand Marquis models are set up with Phase II wiring harnesses. What these sites missed, unfortunately, is that all Police Interceptor and fleet (taxi/limo) models are not equipped with the Phase II wiring harness. They are, in fact, equipped with the older “World Plug” system. This makes the installation much more difficult, as you are left with two choices:
1. Cut the old wires and install a new harness. You will have to solder the new harness into place.
2. Make a World Plug to Phase II converter cable, and plug everything in without cutting any of the original wires.
I went with the latter option. A local car stereo shop (they sell online as well, at http://www.installer.com) was able to make the converter cable for me for about $35, soldering and all. This allowed me to simply convert the car’s harness from the World Plug system to the Phase II system. Once that was done, I was able to get power to the new radio without any problems.
There is only one issue you should look out for once you’ve made these changes. If you end up going with the converter cable, it will add at least 5″ of wire to the existing wiring harness. This is not good since the radio I installed took up the entire radio bay inside the dash. I had to spend a lot of time getting the radio to fit in just right — this will take you at least 30 minutes before you get it just right.
My broadband situation sucks at the moment. I’m currently subscribed to AT&T’s U-Verse VDSL service, which has been great up until the last week or so, when they’ve started making a lot of changes to the service. I’ve spent a few hours tonight researching alternate providers for broadband here in Houston. There are three choices from two different companies here in my part of town, and all of them seem to suck one way or another. Let’s look into this a bit more:
AT&T DSL
Price: $34.99/month plus $14/month for phone line (required)
Speed: 6016/768
Pros:
No limitations whatsoever on bandwidth usage. I’ve pissed away 1TB/month before — no issues.
Consistent broadband speeds. Service does not slow down at all during peak hours.
Good official support on DSLR.
Cons:
Slow speeds. I was able to order 6mbps service back in 2003, and they still can’t do any better than this!?
Phone line required. This adds $15/month to an already bloated bill.
No IPTV service available, have to get satellite TV, which is a bit of a pain in the ass.
Overall:
Great service, but it feels “so 2003″. The packages haven’t changed at all, the speed is crappy at best, and the service itself just seems like it’s stuck in the bowels of time!
AT&T U-Verse (VDSL)
Price: $ I have no idea, because at the time of writing I can’t even log in to my account to check the bill — all because the site is “down for maintenance”!
Speed: 6144/1024
Pros:
Static IP address
Consistent Internet speeds, just like DSL.
No bandwidth limits, just like AT&T’s DSL service.
Fastest upload speed in town. That’s nothing to brag about though, since 1024kbps isn’t all that fast. This should probably be a con.
“High tech” — well, at least higher tech than the DSL service. AT&T’s new U-Verse service at least has more room to grow than antiquated ADSL, which has a protocol limit of 8192/1024…
No POTS phone line required!
Cons:
Awful TV service. They took away all the west coast feeds, the DVR is choppy, the interface (while better than Comcast’s) still needs a lot of help.
Weekly outages for “maintenance”.
Disorganized call center staff — you’re better off just going to bed and hoping that the service will fix itself by morning.
Overall:
U-Verse used to be great, but now it feels like it’s starting to go to hell. The Internet speeds were never that great to begin with, but the TV service (I really loved having west coast feeds!) really made up for it. Now that those are gone, I’m having a really tough time finding something I like about this service.
Comcast Cable
Price: $54.99 without TV, slightly less with cable TV bundles.
Speed: 8192/768
Pros:
Fastest downstream in town. 8mbps with temporary 16mbps boosts.
DHCP IP address, which won’t change unless you swap the modem.
No POTS phone line required!
Cons:
Dealing with Comcast. Imagine getting kicked in the testicles by one of those football players who does the kick-off or whatever it’s called. That’s how bad talking to Comcast is.
The downstream means nothing. Comcast will shut you off if you’re one of the top users in the area — heavy NNTP, P2P users beware!
Crappy upload speed.
Much more expensive than the other options, even though you get only slightly ‘better’ service.
Cable TV service is expensive, interface is crappy, outages are frequent in my area.
Final Words
As you can see, all three of the major options here in Houston suck badly one way or another. This brings me to the question I’ve had on my mind for a few years now: How hard could it be? I’ve spent a lot of time browsing AT&T’s and Comcast’s sites, only to read things about free virus protection and free access to over 10,000 wireless hotspots. Frankly, I don’t give a damn. I don’t want Comcast’s bloated security software, and I don’t want to sit at McDonald’s like an idiot with my laptop, using my free AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspot service. I have no need for “state of the art anti-spam” or a “best rated Internet user portal”. I want an ISP that gives me a fast Internet package (let’s say 15mbps down, and at least 2mbps up), a static IP address, and maybe (if I should be so lucky) IPTV service that doesn’t suck.
Essentially, I want an ISP that wasn’t designed for absolute idiots. I want common sense from my ISP. I want good, honest, reasonable service. I just want… things to work.
How hard could it be? 
I bought a new car about two weeks ago. Today I needed to duplicate my car key since I just had the one. One would think that any car parts shop would have a key duplicating machine, but they didn’t! I tried O’Reilly, AutoZone, and Advance Auto Parts. The clerks at all three stores looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about duplicating a key.
Is this idea really all that crazy? I always had the impression that one could purchase car parts (i.e. keys) at any parts store, but I guess not. I ended up having to wait in line at WalMart to get the damn key duplicated. But now that that’s done, I have 4 keys to my car. Should be enough to last for a while. 
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