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British carmaker Jaguar is now owned by the BWM - but it's still Jaguar.

The link to Volvo is wrong. Volvo has nothing to do with Volvo cars. Volvo Corporation makes trucks, marine engines, aircraft engines, and used to make cars. The automobile division was sold to Ford about 7 years ago. The correct link is VolvoCars. Long-time Volvo enthusiasts, such as myself (who loved our 140s, 240, and 740s) are somewhat skeptical of the quality of the newer Volvo cars made under Ford management. For instance the latest S40 (due out this spring) shares a common platform with the Ford Focus and the Mazda 3, but costs about twice as much because of the Volvo branding.

I like your V6 RWD chevette. Did you do the crab claw flames yourself?

I thought you might find this amusing. Ford did the same type of thing for the SEMA show. To show off their new 5.0L Cammer crate engine (aluminum block and heads, DOHC, 32-valves, 420 HP) they put one into a Focus. It isn't the first 5.0L Focus I've seen, either, but the pushrod powered one didn't have 420HP.

On a related note, I recall seeing video of a little tiny Dodge Colt, complete with roll cage and big slicks, and a 442 squeezed into the front (firewall was pushed back some) tearing up the dragstrips years ago. It tickles me to see little cars like Chevettes, Colts, or Foci staging up against Cameros. I think it would be funnier still to show up at an Import Drag night with V8 RWD power.

The Saturn example notwithstanding, Ford now OWNS Volvo, Mazda, and Land Rover. Just go to their home page.

Electronic Supercharger? Sounds like something the rice-boys cooked up. An Electronic Supercharger(currently available) can only push 1.5PSI over regular, not enough to make a significant difference.

Just how would the supercharger allow the engine to run off hydrogen anyways?

I didn't say electronic, I said electric, though it will be both electronic (electrically controlled) and electric (electrically driven.)

I refer you to a Ford page on Hydrogen Internal Combustion which was the first link in a google search on "hydrogen supercharger gasoline"; hydrogen and supercharger for obvious reasons, gasoline because we're talking about gasoline engines. Ford is also using high compression pistons, but with the use of an electric supercharger, this should not be necessary, only a good idea. A set of high compression pistons for a 4 cylinder car costs approximately $500 (for forged pistons) plus another $100 in rings, so it's not all that expensive, but investing in the labor is pretty significant. Ford is also using coil on plug, which is also not necessary, but certainly makes the ECU program a lot simpler.

I direct you to the following paragraph:

Designing a gasoline engine to burn hydrogen fuel has typically resulted in significantly lower power output--until now. Ford researchers have shown that with supercharging, the hydrogen ICE can deliver the same power as its gasoline counterpart and still provide near-zero-emissions performance and high fuel economy. The centrifugal-type supercharger provides nearly 15 pounds per square inch (psi) of boost on demand.

Ford is using the same engine in which they ordinarily burn gasoline, but with higher compression and different fuel injectors.

As far as an "electronic supercharger" (if I put an electronic boost gauge in my turbo system, that's effectively an electronic supercharger, a meaningless term if I've ever seen one - again, you want the word electric or perhaps the phrase electrically driven) goes, the ones sold on ebay won't even provide 1.5PSI over regular. They can't compress air. They're just fans. However there are real live electric superchargers such as one from Visteon spoken of here.

Note that on some cars, the so-called electric superchargers such as e-Ram may improve power by improving the dispersion of fuel into the fuel-air mix by creating a vortex effect in the intake and thus in the combustion chamber, but they could also worsen it through the same effect, in the case of vehicles with a tuned intake. Most intakes are built for price and not performance, which is why intake porting alone can produce several horsepower, but on those which are designed for power, the e-Ram will likely decrease performance.

Also, the simple installation of an actual supercharger on a car without a MAP, or Mass Air Pressure sensor, will cause the car to run lean, thus likely leading to detonation. Most cars which do not use "speed density" methods for deciding how much air is entering (at such and such speed, so much air) use a MAF or Mass Air Flow sensor which determines airflow based on either the deflection of a reed or the difference in temperature of a hot wire not in the airflow, and one which is. Since denser air will carry away more heat, this system will work to a certain degree for supercharged systems, but in many cases they're not up to the task. I believe some modern Mustangs use pressure sensors.

If they can come out with a hybrid SUV with 4-wheel drive and good cargo capacity and power to carry the weight of my musical gear, then believe me, I will be one of the first in line to check it out!

Keep an eye out for the Ford Escape Hybrid.

OK - Listen to this - Ford Escape Hybrid. Summer 2004, though.

a look a the upcoming Ford Escape Hybrid. It's gonna be the first Hybrid SUV (albeit a mini-SUV)

Perhaps this is relevent because Sears is based in Chicago, IL and Ford Motors is based in Dearborn, MI. So it would be significant if these companies were fully adhearing to laws that they may not be subject to at all of their various locations.

The oxide of aluminium that forms when it oxidises in air is the same size as the aluminium metal and so forms a protective layer. So Aluminium doesn't exactly rust like iron alloys. See here for more details...

I'd guess that it's Francium's very light weight to strength ratio that you're talking about, but I don't think it is light, according to this:

Francium does not have any stable isotopes. There is at most one ounce of francium in the whole earth at any given time as a result of the decay of other radioactive elements. It is the most unstable of the first 103 elements in the periodic table. Its longest lived isotope has a half life of 22 minutes.

Despite its radioactive complications, francium is the heaviest simple atom.

And on the Ford website a result for searching from Francium:

Search Results

Results for: francium
Sorry no matches were found.

Was this a joke, or can you provide us with more information on how Ford used the most unstable and heavy element in some magical light (or strong) alloy?

Browser integration is not dead! Microsoft works on it everyday. MS constantly innovates new features that crash Netscape, Mozilla, and Opera but provide no value. Innovation will truly end when we can no longer use any browser other than IE and at the rate things are doing it won't be long.

I would ask all the developers out there to support more than IE on your extranets. I am talking to YOU Mr. Webdeveloper in that Fortune 100 company like Ford, GM, Diamler, EBAY (Is Ebay Fortune 500 yet?). Ask yourself this, "Do I really want to limit the web to a Microsoft ONLY browser?" The point of the web was platform independence. I especially love developers who code in Java then create an O/S specific dependency.

Think about this next time you decide to implement a feature that only works in IE but provides little to no value to the end user experience. If we all wake up one morning and find we are living in a "one-browser", "one-platform" world, it is going to be horrible. However, if it makes you feel any better, I fight these battles every year and lose to the developers. Usually the management will wine and say, "it costs too much to develop for two browers" or "but if I can just let developers wiggle the mouse and use a tool to generate HTML they won't have to think and can get my project done faster".

However, web browers in general suck for application development. I think the old mainframe character terminal had better input screen capability than the modern web browers. In fact, if you compare the two they work just about the same (Push screen to terminal/browser from, Fill In Screen, send screen back to server, repeat ... ) As you can tell I am not the least bit bitter. I hate tools that generate bloated, crappy, IE specific HTML laden with self destructing Java script.

The whole "embrace and extend" concept is getting old. Can't we all just get along and make things better instead of creating a fragmented incompatible mess. A company like MS is sitting on piles of cash, the likes of which the world has never seen and instead of putting together a Bell Labs or Xerox Parc they spend their cash on marketing and lawyers. There are so few great men in our age and even fewer visionaries. I was holding out a glimmer of hope for Bill when he took over as chief software architect. So much for Utopia.

"There is nothing new under the sun." -Solomon

There really isn't much to do in the way of research here. Most of the major manufacturers list their affiliations on their web sites.

• Ford makes it easy. They list their brands right on the front page. Along with the previously mentioned Volvo, Jaguar, and Mazda, there's the surprise of Aston Martin (think it was a coincidence that the major cars in the last Bond movie were a Ford, a Jaguar, and an Aston Martin?).
• GM makes you have to look a little more. Aside from the previously mentioned Opel, Isuzu, and Suzuki, GM also has ties to Fiat and Subaru, as well as owning Saab. (Toyota isn't listed, but I mentioned it before because Toyota sells the Cavalier under the Toyota brand in Japan.)
• Chrysler/Dodge make you work harder. You have to know that they're part of Daimler-Chrysler, and then you'll see that they not only have Chrysler, Dodge, and Mercedes Benz, but also Maybach and Jeep as well as "strategic relationships" with Mitsubishi and Hyundai.
• Similarly, Volkswagen makes it pretty difficult to find their list of brands, but it can be found. They're pretty small-time, only having Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Skoda alongside the Volkswagen moniker.
• Porsche actually makes you have to learn history before you can get to its complex relationship with other brands. For instance, did you know that Dr. Ferdinand Porsche founded Volkswagen on Hitler's request? Also, before Porsche even formed Volkswagen, he did designs for Mercedes and Daimler. Over the years, Porsche (the company) and Porsche Design (separate company, same family) have consulted for quite a few different firms. As well, ties to Volkswagen have remained strong (the original 356 was based around a Volkswagen engine, as was the 914; lots of parts in all models of cars have been shared with VW; and the most recent model, the Cayenne, shares a base platform with VW's Touareg).

Ford actually has one and Honda is testing one in the US, meanwhile Shell opened a filling station" in Iceland [sorry I only had the PR firm link] as a joint venture with several companies. By the way Iceland is now using hydrogen public transit.

Heh...sorry. I live in Japan...don't see too many of either of those company's cars over here. Oh well...

I bet you do and just don't know it. For instance, Toyota sells Chevrolet's Cavalier/Pontiac's Sunfire under the Toyota name in Japan . As well, GM and Ford own or cooperate with many other brands (Ford owns or works with other brands like Volvo, Jaguar, Mazda, and even Aston Martin, while GM has brands that include Saad, Opel, and Hummer). You may not see Mustangs or Corvettes, but chances are you see a number of Ford or GM cars every day. The same holds true for many other car makers like Chrysler/Mercedes-Benz/Daimler/Dodge/Mitsubishi, Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche/Lamborghini (Porsche is indpendent, but shares parts and designs with VW and Audi, the rest are part of the Volkswagen Automotive Group, and so on (that's ignoring the low-end/high-end relationships like Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, etc).

First and foremost.. I'm not bashing michael.. but the foreshadowing "With Ford also cancelling their electric vehicle program, looks like hybrids are it for the next few years" is unnecessary.. here's why..

An official letter from GMATV explaining that the charger conversion efforts funded by GM have been terminated due to the CARB decision to standardize on conductive charging. Click on the pages at left to read the letter from GMATV - Torrance Operations.

Ok.. so it's being standardized.. nothing wrong with that.. parallel ports are standardized.. so are serial ports.. it doesn't get simpler than that..

Now, back tracking to the Ford TH!NK article..

General Information

Why is Ford discontinuing TH!NK products?
As part of its continuing efforts to develop advanced vehicle technologies, Ford Motor Company has decided to concentrate its resources on the development of hybrid and fuel-cell technology.

Right, no ELECTRICAL cars.. but they will still be concentrating on developing HYBRID and FUEL-CELL cars..

So.. in conclusion.. NO.. the plug is NOT being pulled on Hybrid cars.. from my own personal standpoint.. I believe.. once we full utilize production and strengthen the abilities and features that hybrid cars and fuel cell cars.. we will concentrate on electrical cars..

And by we.. I'm talking about the car manufacturers, of course :-P

We are barely moving towards environmentally safe cars. Think of the horrible traffic accidents in the air!

Looking at the available technologies (fuel cells,battery electric, and hybrids to name a few), there isn't a lot of choices right now on the market. One of the more interesting ones I saw were the bi-fueled vehicles, takes ethanol or gas and runs the same. Don't forget to check out GM's alternative vehicles in addition to Ford's. You can easily grab a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid like I did.

We are barely moving towards environmentally safe cars. Think of the horrible traffic accidents in the air!

Looking at the available technologies (fuel cells,battery electric, and hybrids to name a few), there isn't a lot of choices right now on the market. One of the more interesting ones I saw were the bi-fueled vehicles, takes ethanol or gas and runs the same. Don't forget to check out GM's alternative vehicles in addition to Ford's. You can easily grab a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid like I did.

If they don't manage, this will be the first gTLD to go bankrupt.

Already being done.

He is one egocentric guy, naming almost all those companies after himself...

Yeah, that's pretty unprecedented.

The fabric is an orange color that is fresh and modern, adding visual warmth to the Model U.

I read bot the MBDC and Ford releases -- not much in the way of specs. Certainly nothing about maximum and minimum speeds. Maintenance requirements and/or torque/pulling power.

I mean, I like the idea of supercharged hydrogen (Hindenburg accidents excluded) -- but I would think these are issues Ford would want to publish as it markets this 118hp vehicle against one of its own 590hp monsters.

I read bot the MBDC and Ford releases -- not much in the way of specs. Certainly nothing about maximum and minimum speeds. Maintenance requirements and/or torque/pulling power.

I mean, I like the idea of supercharged hydrogen (Hindenburg accidents excluded) -- but I would think these are issues Ford would want to publish as it markets this 118hp vehicle against one of its own 590hp monsters.

With the release of Safari, Apple has continued the time honored tradition of naming web browsers after SUVs.

(okay, so the Safari is a van, but its close enough.)

• GM 8.1L (494CI) V8 340 horsepower@4200RPM/455 lb.-ft. of torque @3200RPM
• Ford 6.8L (414CI) V10 310HP@4250RPM/425lb-ft@3250RPM
• Dodge 8.0L (488CI) V10 305HP@2800RPM/450lb-ft.@2,800RPM

Ford is still the principle sponsor of Cornell's Hybrid Electric Vehicle team and I'm sure they are at other universities as well. They haven't given up on energy-efficient, clean cars; they just believe that this particular approach isn't viable enough in the near future to continue with. Perhaps Americans just aren't ready to give up their 2mpg SUVs yet....

Check Ford Environmental Research

JACK -- "I'm a recall coordinator. My job is to apply the formula. It's a story problem.

TECHNICIAN #1 -- Here's where the infant went through the windshield. Three points.

JACK -- A new car built by my company leaves
somewhere traveling at 60 miles per hour. The rear differential locks up.

TECHNICIAN #2 -- The teenager's braces around the
backseat ashtray would make a good "anti-smoking" ad.

JACK -- The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now: do we initiate a recall?

TECHNICIAN #1 -- The father must've been huge. See how the fat burnt into the driver's seat with his polyester shirt? Very "modern art."

JACK -- Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X...

CUT TO: INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - MOVING DOWN RUNWAY

Jack is speaking to the BUSINESSWOMAN next to him.

JACK -- If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

BUSISNESS WOMAN -- Are there a lot of these kinds of accidents?

JACK -- Oh, you wouldn't believe.

BUSINESS WOMAN -- ... Which... car company do you work for?

JACK -- A major one.

Just a note ahead of time. Some of the cars listed below are only available in certain parts of California and are only available in relatively low numbers.

Pure Electric:

2002 The Nissan Altra EV (pilot?)
2002 Ford Thi!nk City
2002 Toyota Rav4-EV
2002 Lido Motors Lido
2002 Ford Ranger EV (fleet only?)
2002 Nissan HyperMini (pilot only?)
Selectria Force (out of production?)

Hybrids:

2003 Honda Civic Hybrid
2002 Honda Insight
2002 Toyota Prius

Web Sites of Interest:

EV World
US DoE Alternative Fuel Car Buying Guide (many listed)
US DoE Alternative Fuel Vehicle Listing (many listed)
California ZEV Buyers Guide

Besides being outrageous, Ford's actions also violate the basic ideals of the internet.

Linking and domain-name-pointing is what makes the internet what it is. If I make a link --these assholes, and you don't like it, tough shit. Same thing with domain-name pointing.

If you have a problem with linking or domain-name pointing, get the fuck off the net.

I disagree. The critical difference being that, when you give Ford your personal information "all information you provide is used to improve the services offered by Ford Motor Company" (though, I might add, their privacy statement doesn't really say much of anything). It was Ford's responsability to protect their customer's private information, and they failed. They are every bit to blame for their lack of security.

Besides, even the "oil" companies know better. They are amongst some of the biggest investors in alternative fuel technologies. You can bet that when hydrogen fuel becomes the dominant form, ExxonMobil will be standing by to sell it to you. All of the so called "oil" companies have realized that they will be obsolete if they miss the "next big thing", and so they would be perfectly happy to sell you the "next big thing".

Tech specs here.

Tech specs here.

Compare the web sites of companies that make their money on the web (Google, Amazon, etc) to companies that make their money off the web (Ford, Pepsi, etc). You will notice how the web-based companies have sites that do not use Flash, big images, or anything else that makes it harder or slower to read their sites. The companies that make their money off the web will typically have sites designed by their marketing department to include the "coolest" features possible, regardless of how hard it makes the site to use.

Right here. It's pretty small and light, and it's perfect for urban transport...

Sorry, I just had to do it...

I don't know how to answer this: is a wacko in one respect able to contribute in another? Evidence supports this, but the point is irrelevant.

In fucking Chomsky's case, I've already distanced myself from his linguistic and CS endeavors, since I am neither a linguist nor a computer scientist. I'm not commenting on either of these aspects. You keep dragging them up, regardless of the context, as if attempting to assuage the sting of defending a radical.

In case you missed it twice, the OP brought Chomsky up in terms of political discourse. Those are the parameters, not linguistics, not grammar, not CS, not fucking My Little Pony.

My original rant was how all Chomsky fanboys turn into dorm-room anarchists of one sort or another (sometimes, the timeline is reversed). You're the guy in the corner, frantically waving his hand, stammering, "But Teacher, Hitler was really good at accessorizing red and black! Isn't that worth something?"

(I know, Godwin's Law. Corollary be damned, I've ended the thread)

...there are laws passed to prevent people from "tweaking" search engine results so their page comes up with or even before one of the "big guys." I mean, what if more people link to a Ford sucks page than Ford?

...for revealing information about the CIA/FBI backdoors in Windows XP.
I think it's time for a new European operating system like Linux.
I can't understand why we use still this US stuff with the raise of the new european superpower. It's not that this USian things are superior technology, just look at their cars.

Sure, that's the line that everyone uses. Challenger, Ford Explorers, anything goes wrong, they blame the weather. I don't believe it. It's a conspiracy involving the manufacturers, the RIAA, the MPAA, and Big Oil.

Please explain the statement that 2600 has made. What 2600 did is register httpfuckgeneralmotors.com and have it resolve to 164.109.135.183 which is Ford's website. Ford claims that this implies that Ford has done this. Even if it did imply that Ford did this, it only implies that Ford is low class -- not something actionable under libel. In a Mass. case, calling a couple (who ran a restraunt) pigs was not actionable.

Partially right. But guess who owns Aston Martin? Yup, the Ford Motor Company. And believe me, it's disgusting to see that a $150,000 car has the same huge, black plastic doorlocks as a normal Ford Transit van. Utterly tasteless.

Check this out: http://www.RenaultSucks.com

If 2600 looses this case, I think Ford would have a case against me for doing that. Well, not here, but if I put it directly on a website rather than in a discussion thread.

In any event, I don't think what 2600 did should be subject to punitive or any other type of damages, and now that Ford has initiated the lawsuit, there is no choice for 2600 but to defend vigorously.

Also, even if, as you say, I am exaggerating the importance of the precedent that would be set by a 2600 loss, it could nonetheless put 2600 out of business if the judge awards lawyers fees, and I like reading 2600. Like I say, I hope you are right! MM

I don't see how General Motors has a cause at all. And if they do, better start hiding any hyperlinks you might have used to say something sucks. When you use your page to point visitors (via worded-link) to something that you think blows, you could argue that people aren't even sure what they're going to until they get there. They click a word like 'blows' and it takes them to something which may or may not blow. Hell, if people are as stupid as GM would have us believe, then anyone who clicked that last link is forever convinced that GM BLOWS. But obviously, this is just me expressing my opinion. The issue I'm making is that for GM to have a case, they would have to argue even beyond my use of links, by saying that someone who goes to fuckgeneralmotors.com might be confused, or might think that GM is somehow involved with it, and thusly wants to fuck themselves. GM wants to argue that people don't have the right to link to them in a critical manner, and that people who do are misusing their bandwidth by linking to a publicly accessable website, that is a completely valid target for criticism or parody.

www.fuckgeneralmotors.com

www.fuckgeneralmotors.com

Is there a difference?

2600 is not linking they're pointing the complete domain to Ford motors, why not copy the whole thing over, then do it? Ford did not invite 2600 to point the domain over to their site causing unwanted traffic going there via way of FuckGeneralMotors.com, I'm sure they could care less if there was a link that said Fuck you Ford, as opposed to having the whole domain point to them.

No amount of arguing can clarify this for anyone. Its morally wrong, and legally wrong, unfortunately 2600 is using legal loopholes in the wrong way to fight for their moronic cause.

You make a good point. I guess there isn't really all that much difference between pointing a DNS name and a plain hyperlink .. although most people perceive them to be quite different things .. the domain name somehow has more "authority". If what they did is wrong, then why wouldn't fuck General Motors be wrong too .. ? Hmm .. its not really slander either, is it. Still, either way, the public will side against 2600 just because of the word "fuck".

FP.
--

Today they sue for pointing a domain name at a site.

Tomorrow they sue for linking to a site.

is that what you want?

27. Cars burning denatured alchohol as their primary fuel

It's not denatured alchohol, but Ford Motor Company sells flexible fuel vehicles that run on E85, which is a mixture of 85% ethanol (an alchohol-based fuel made from corn) and 15% gasoline. So if it wasn't in exact hit, he was pretty darn close. :)

when the sherrif says they need new cop cars, the attitude is often "go out and seize one"

I totally agree with the sentiment of your post. However, seeing as most police departments (around here, anyway) use these, I find that unlikely...

--

What does Cisco have to do with handhelds at all? The original Pilot was produced by US Robotics, which was bought by 3Com, and then Palm was spun off from 3Com. :)

As for the "Fords outsell Volkswagens after all", apparently you think Ford's marketing is more expensive than Volkswagen's? Or maybe it's that Ford sells more types of cars perhaps? (Compare those two sites, by the way, I think you'll agree which was probably a bigger design challenge.)