An Alternative to Alternative Fuels and Vehicles

markmcb writes "While the world is working to solve energy and environmental issues with today's petroleum fuels, some vehicles simply don't have good alternatives, namely off-road platforms. For those not willing to give up their gas-guzzling habits, Matt Vea offers an innovative alternative. Using the OBDII interface in his Jeep, a laptop, and the infinite power of Excel, Matt conducts some performance tests and uses the results to tweak both his vehicle's engine and his personal driving habits for optimal fuel consumption both on and off road." Rigorous testing and good use of available technology; nice work.

Comments

Infinite power?

[Null Nihils]

"...the infinite power of Excel..."

<OSSzealot>
I beg your pardon? Since when does proprietary software have infinite power? I think you mean the infinite power of OpenOffice Calc!
</OSSzealot>

Re:It's still pollutive crap.

[MadEE]

Oil only funds bad guys(Big Oil and the Middle Eastern theocracies)

Don't forget Canada. Don't think I'm not on to you Canada with your clean streets and your cheap healthcare! The only logical step from that is world domination. Watch out!

Best way to save slashdot.

[Anonymous Coward]

"It is much cheaper -- and more fuel efficient -- to transport 2 tons of food in a single shipment than it is to transport 2 tons of food in a thousand 2kg shipments inside separate vehicles. Yes, the food you buy from the grocery store had to be shipped there, but economies of scale apply to the pre-grocery-store shipping."

So slashdot IS saying that distributors are necessary. What next? Publishers are too?

Re:Best way to conserve energy:

[Martin Blank]

They did when I was a kid, but my parents never taught me the right spells to make it happen at my apartment.

Re:It's still pollutive crap.

[ironring2006]

1. Clean streets
2. Cheap healthcare
3. ??????
4. World Domination!

but we all know that (3) is to have a huge frickin' army, so we'll never get to (4), and the US will never get (1) or (2) even though they have (3).

Now if only Stephen Harper and George Dubya shared similar views and we could combine our.............OH NOES! WTH IS THIS? ACCKKK! LET GO! YOU'RE TAKING OUR OIL? AND ALL OUR FRESH WATER? WHAT? WHADDYA MEAN WE'RE ALL GETTING DRAFTED? THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN IN CANA....*THUMP*

Re:It's approaching immorality at this point...

[elrous0]

I know of few other activities (besides lobbying) which actively make other people poorer for no reason.

One word my friend: lotteries

-Eric