ideally that touchscreen & those knobs in the dash should accept inputs from external devices and be able to communicate back with them, then the inbuilt software in the vehicle can be worked-round if obsolete
I have 2 windscreen mounts in my car - one for satnav as and when needed, the other for my android phone. The car's a 2001 Volvo V40 XS (cheapest version) without a car computer but with a full OBD-2 compliant interface - a bluetooth adapter lets me use my phone to give a constant readout of speed, RPM, engine temperature and spot fuel efficiency
If OBD could be extended so as to allow media/entertainment and car climate control over OBD we could forget standardised interfaces and just mount a portable Android tablet in a clip over the dashboard console and handle all-in-one. This would however require future Android versions to be able to split-screen and display several apps, else it risks jack-of-all-trades apps that end up the optimal tool for none. It would allow all the UI customisations you make to your personal car to be migrated to any other vehicle while you use it.
In 'Cryptonomicon' (Published 1999) Neal Stephenson introduces a character (Avi Halaby) and a few locations (a town and a pub called the Bomb & Grapnel) who are set up, created, founded in the Baroque Trilogy of novels (Published 2003,2004,2004)
- Halaby's family background is included as an irrelevant throwaway comment which jars with the storytelling trend, until 5 years later when one of his characters in a storyline centuries earlier, founds the dynasty
Mainly because melting-down failed nuclear reactors reactors arent actually as dangerous as common perception would have you believe. Comparatively safe zones can start within hundreds of metres of the breach and in many cases the radiological effects on long term health are on a sufficiently long timescale that normal human mortality steps in first. The experience of Chernobyl taught us this. Total long term deaths resulting from that meltdown were initially expected to be in the hundreds of thousands. In practice so far the death toll is less than 100 (yes, one hundred) - plus a much larger number of people living-with-health-issues
Private sector doing something about homelessness in the long term. I bet Michele Bachmann is positively moist at the prospects for this sort of entrepreneurship in America
should be noted that at the current time the touchpad is not supported in Linux distros, so it must be used either entirely from keyboard shortcuts, or with a usb mouse/trackpad/rollerball. Still a great deal but thats quite a failing in a laptop that doesnt have a touchscreen (unless you buy the C720P touchscreen version which is 50% more expensive)
Americans drug their children instead of dealing with their behaviour. We are aware of this. ADHD isn't a disability, its just the result of too much energy and not enough exercise.
Which can apply to most media subscription services: What's Excluded?
I suspect that new releases wouldnt be in it, which dilutes the customer value somewhat as in the UK at least, new books start appearing in Charity shops within a few months of the release anyway, and their price for old-releases only has to compete with the negligible cost of pre-owned literature.
In Accounting theory there's a concept called Semi-Strong Form Efficiency which basically suggests that the markets will indicate the nature of as-yet unreleased information. In other words, tacitly acknowledging that the volume of insider-trading is high enough to detectably move the market.
I bought a used Blackberry when it was still a current phone and was appalled to find it required a Blackberry account to work properly. This was just at the point when even dumbphones like the Sony W810i I was using could receive email in real time and notify the user, with nothing more than some configuration and a basic GPRS connection. Needless to say I never considered going any further and my Curve 4310 sits in a drawer for use as a spare handset just in case
I think a 75 horsepower all-aluminium motorcycle engine plus generator in one corner of the boot would be the solution. Ideally, removable on some sort of pallet or dropping subframe so as to reduce the weight for local use.
the 'miles of range' your car reports in would represent a mixed power consumption profile as it wouldnt know whether to expect inner-city crawling (which is probably the best possible situation for an electric), steady motorway (sorry, Interstate..) usage or steep hills on back roads. 50 miles charge per hour at 19 kilowatts could easily represent 70 miles actual distance at a steady speed. OK the trailer might drag that back to 50 miles but my point stands. If you set out with 2 hours charge onboard and the generator running, you'd run out of charge after 3 to 3 and a half hours then be limited to what the generator could support unless you waited a while. Every time you stopped , braked, drove downhill.. you'd gain even more miles. It would be tricky but its possible.
Further up the thread a Volt owner posted about that, claimed his was 10% more efficient above 50 with direct drive than through the electric transmission - the effect being particularly noticeable when the batteries were drained.
If you have land - and depending on the tax costs - it might be just about viable to keep an old conventional pickup for the snow days and harvest the fuel savings from the electric for the other 150+ workdays
Does it need to? If you set off from home with a fully charged battery and the generator running, it could meet a significant proportion of your power needs while cruising.. and when you stop for lunch, or for calls of nature, traffic lights and traffic jams.. it keeps running and charging the car up. I'm pretty sure most cars could maintain a steady 60mph on 25 horsepower anyway.
Arguably though, the big companies are taking small steps towards a future everyone can see but few can grasp. I wouldnt buy a Volt but even I can see that it would get me to and from my office daily without using any liquid fuel, and if I clocked up enough miles doing that the fuel economy on longer runs would be insignificant as a consideration. I like and respect Tesla for going all the way electric so early in the game but big changes come not with the actions of the advance guard but with creeping acceptance by the main body of suppliers.
They're all a lot nearer to making proper electric cars than a few years ago when a Prius without a charging socket was the closest available (and easily beaten by most diesel cars on efficiency)
Here in Europe the PT Cruiser did better than expected after adoption by older drivers - something about the body-shape, doors and ride height apparently made it comparatively easier to enter and exit for the stiff and arthritic than many of our more conventional vehicles
Slashdot Mirror
Look up the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars - battles for control of the drugs via ice cream van trade
ideally that touchscreen & those knobs in the dash should accept inputs from external devices and be able to communicate back with them, then the inbuilt software in the vehicle can be worked-round if obsolete
A standard interface would be nice too
I have 2 windscreen mounts in my car - one for satnav as and when needed, the other for my android phone. The car's a 2001 Volvo V40 XS (cheapest version) without a car computer but with a full OBD-2 compliant interface - a bluetooth adapter lets me use my phone to give a constant readout of speed, RPM, engine temperature and spot fuel efficiency
If OBD could be extended so as to allow media/entertainment and car climate control over OBD we could forget standardised interfaces and just mount a portable Android tablet in a clip over the dashboard console and handle all-in-one. This would however require future Android versions to be able to split-screen and display several apps, else it risks jack-of-all-trades apps that end up the optimal tool for none. It would allow all the UI customisations you make to your personal car to be migrated to any other vehicle while you use it.
In 'Cryptonomicon' (Published 1999) Neal Stephenson introduces a character (Avi Halaby) and a few locations (a town and a pub called the Bomb & Grapnel) who are set up, created, founded in the Baroque Trilogy of novels (Published 2003,2004,2004)
- Halaby's family background is included as an irrelevant throwaway comment which jars with the storytelling trend, until 5 years later when one of his characters in a storyline centuries earlier, founds the dynasty
Mainly because melting-down failed nuclear reactors reactors arent actually as dangerous as common perception would have you believe. Comparatively safe zones can start within hundreds of metres of the breach and in many cases the radiological effects on long term health are on a sufficiently long timescale that normal human mortality steps in first. The experience of Chernobyl taught us this. Total long term deaths resulting from that meltdown were initially expected to be in the hundreds of thousands. In practice so far the death toll is less than 100 (yes, one hundred) - plus a much larger number of people living-with-health-issues
Private sector doing something about homelessness in the long term. I bet Michele Bachmann is positively moist at the prospects for this sort of entrepreneurship in America
should be noted that at the current time the touchpad is not supported in Linux distros, so it must be used either entirely from keyboard shortcuts, or with a usb mouse/trackpad/rollerball. Still a great deal but thats quite a failing in a laptop that doesnt have a touchscreen (unless you buy the C720P touchscreen version which is 50% more expensive)
Americans drug their children instead of dealing with their behaviour. We are aware of this. ADHD isn't a disability, its just the result of too much energy and not enough exercise.
I think you will find that none of your friends are still on MSN messenger, as its closed down
Also, a word for your personal safety, using phrases like 'check your ignorance' will get you bitchslapped in polite society
Which can apply to most media subscription services: What's Excluded?
I suspect that new releases wouldnt be in it, which dilutes the customer value somewhat as in the UK at least, new books start appearing in Charity shops within a few months of the release anyway, and their price for old-releases only has to compete with the negligible cost of pre-owned literature.
*slashdot activity drops as people go off to search for Jamie Lee Curtis videos....*
In Accounting theory there's a concept called Semi-Strong Form Efficiency which basically suggests that the markets will indicate the nature of as-yet unreleased information. In other words, tacitly acknowledging that the volume of insider-trading is high enough to detectably move the market.
aaaaargh noooooo (Dont give them ideas, they're desperate to think of one...)
I bought a used Blackberry when it was still a current phone and was appalled to find it required a Blackberry account to work properly. This was just at the point when even dumbphones like the Sony W810i I was using could receive email in real time and notify the user, with nothing more than some configuration and a basic GPRS connection. Needless to say I never considered going any further and my Curve 4310 sits in a drawer for use as a spare handset just in case
I think a 75 horsepower all-aluminium motorcycle engine plus generator in one corner of the boot would be the solution. Ideally, removable on some sort of pallet or dropping subframe so as to reduce the weight for local use.
the 'miles of range' your car reports in would represent a mixed power consumption profile as it wouldnt know whether to expect inner-city crawling (which is probably the best possible situation for an electric), steady motorway (sorry, Interstate..) usage or steep hills on back roads. 50 miles charge per hour at 19 kilowatts could easily represent 70 miles actual distance at a steady speed. OK the trailer might drag that back to 50 miles but my point stands. If you set out with 2 hours charge onboard and the generator running, you'd run out of charge after 3 to 3 and a half hours then be limited to what the generator could support unless you waited a while. Every time you stopped , braked, drove downhill.. you'd gain even more miles. It would be tricky but its possible.
Further up the thread a Volt owner posted about that, claimed his was 10% more efficient above 50 with direct drive than through the electric transmission - the effect being particularly noticeable when the batteries were drained.
If you have land - and depending on the tax costs - it might be just about viable to keep an old conventional pickup for the snow days and harvest the fuel savings from the electric for the other 150+ workdays
Does it need to? If you set off from home with a fully charged battery and the generator running, it could meet a significant proportion of your power needs while cruising.. and when you stop for lunch, or for calls of nature, traffic lights and traffic jams.. it keeps running and charging the car up. I'm pretty sure most cars could maintain a steady 60mph on 25 horsepower anyway.
Arguably though, the big companies are taking small steps towards a future everyone can see but few can grasp. I wouldnt buy a Volt but even I can see that it would get me to and from my office daily without using any liquid fuel, and if I clocked up enough miles doing that the fuel economy on longer runs would be insignificant as a consideration. I like and respect Tesla for going all the way electric so early in the game but big changes come not with the actions of the advance guard but with creeping acceptance by the main body of suppliers.
They're all a lot nearer to making proper electric cars than a few years ago when a Prius without a charging socket was the closest available (and easily beaten by most diesel cars on efficiency)
not correct - General Motors makes cars in Germany in its Opel subsidiary's factory, some of which are exported to the USA with Buick badges
Here in Europe the PT Cruiser did better than expected after adoption by older drivers - something about the body-shape, doors and ride height apparently made it comparatively easier to enter and exit for the stiff and arthritic than many of our more conventional vehicles
Also, Eurostar ("199mph under the channel") is limited to 62mph in the channel tunnel and 186mph absolute max at all other times.
"I was fucked in the ass by a shark yesterday"
Nobody's ever said that before