Hybrid car owners fuming over low gas mileage! Hybrid car owners natonwide (yes, all 9 of them) are incensed over the low gas mileage they've been seeing from their super efficient vehicles. It seems that claims of 46 - 70 miles per gallon are falling far short --about 40% short to be more exacting-- of the EPA estimates.
Hey, green guy! Welcome to the club. If you'd been paying attention for the last 19 years you'd have already known that the EPA estimates are WAAAAYYY over inflated. That's why my Dodge Ram Hemi pickup ("Can you say 'Hemi'?") rated at 13 city, 17 highway has never gotten better than 11.5 mpg.
Of course, you're still feeling smug because you now understand that while your Prius is tooting along at only 31mpg, I'm probably taking out Home Equity Loans to pay for my gasoline just to get to the gas station. No problem. By the time it takes you to get from 0 to 60 I'll be where I'm going and back again (unless, God forbid, you're in front of me) and time is also money. (By the way, I'll be dumping 1 overly toxic lead-acid battery into the environment every three - five years. How many batteries in that hybrid?)
Hybrid cars = Higher Taxes So you can't wait for the whole country to switch from those nasty fossil fuel autombiles to high-tech hybrid mobiles, right? Well, think again. It's gasoline taxes that help pay for road maintenance. Hybrid vehicles will require considerably less gasoline, producing considerably less revenue, but they will subject the roadways to an equal amount of wear and tear. Where will the lost money come from?
Some states are already investigating a pay-as-you-go plan with mileage charges, in one case, quoted as high as $1.23 per mile. The average Amercian drives his/her car 12,000 - 15,000 miles per year. So if you're perhaps a salesperson or a cab owner/driver or in any other profession that requires you to use your car --y'know, basic middle class work stuff-- it'll cost you an extra $15,000 to $18,000 per year for the privilege. The Good news is that people who eventually own Rolls Royce hybrids won't even feel it and they don't drive that much anyway. Of course, truckers will become a thing of the past as we switch to shipping products via the resurrected method of hydrogen balloons to keep costs down.
Oh yeah...? "...it has been picked up and used by a whole new generation in a whole new way." Is that like what the meaning of is is? And a Pringles can! Those aren't even real chips, they're virtual synthesized reconstituted spud bits. But I guess it all fits together. "WiFi" is a made up word with a made up meaning. Any sensible person could tell you it should stand for "Wireles Fiction" ---just like "SciFi."
Alice Responds.... Bill has a great historical perpective but he is missing the point. "Cantenna" is a great word and concept, and it has been picked up and used by a whole new generation in a whole new way. Of course someone will try and cash in with a commercial version. Here's to the ones who make the real cans work! # Permalink
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Thursday, August 26, 2004
Cantenna My Butt.... I love Alice, but sometimes her youthful exuberance keeps her from questioning things that she should otherwise view with a severely jaundiced eye --like the "Cantenna." (See below.) It ain't new. It aren't even original. HeathKit made a "Cantenna" oil-filled dummy load for ham radio operators decades ago so they could tune their rigs without dirtying the bandwidth. I briefly held a ham license (KA2MKI, if I remember rightly) and the idea of a can-based antenna (as well as many other designs - shameless plug for the ARRL's Antenna Handbook) has been around amateur radio for almost forever. Cheap as Scotsmen as they are, hams have typically home brewed their own cantennas with great success. (Have you CQ'd today?) I'm not saying that $20 is a bad deal, and I'm certainly not advocating oil-filled college dummies trying to steal WiFi service. It's just a matter of adding some historical perspective in case next week someone comes out with a WiFi Yagi. 10-10. C-ya!
Buzzword Altert: The "Cantenna" WiFi Booster This all started as an act of desperation. College kids in search of free WiFi piggybacking rigged Pringles potato chip cans on their rooftops to find wireless signals that would normally be out of range. They dubbed the devices "cantennas."
Now the Super Cantenna lets you do the same with a more polished $19.95 version. No chips included. According to the company, here is why you would upgrade from the snack variety of antenna:
"Why not a "home made" Cantenna? The Super Cantenna's dimensions, shielding, and polarization have been engineered for maximum signal strength and distance, using only high-quality and lab-tested materials to manufacture the outer shell and inner parts. This ensures consistent and superior performance over typical homemade 'Pringles' type antennas." # Permalink
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Major Shift in Embedded Wi-Fi Market Looks like WiFi is going inside, or rather is becoming embedded in most new PCs and handhelds. Beats those add-in WiFI cards that bent or got lost. Some stats to consider from In-Stat/MDR:
* The market for embedded Wi-Fi clients (including mobile PCs, PDAs and phones) will grow at a 66.2% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) to 226.0 million units shipped in 2008.
* After five years of healthy growth since its mainstream commercialization, the worldwide Wi-Fi hardware market (i.e., network infrastructure and adapters) finally surpassed $1.0 billion in (4Q 2003) quarterly revenues.
* There has been a significant growth in Wi-Fi-enabled notebook PCs, as 55.0% of the 32.1 million notebook PCs shipped in 2003 contained embedded Wi-Fi adapters. # Permalink
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Peeping Tom Worm The Rbot-GR virus follows a fairly traditional malware route of exploiting Microsoft security vulnerabilities and installing a Trojan horse on infected machines. However, the worm also spies on users by taking control of their webcam and microphone, then sending images and soundtracks back to the hackers, according to antivirus firm Sophos.
If you build it.... "This isn't your typical, humdrum, slate-colored computer. Not only is the PC known as the hip-e almost all white, but its screen and keyboard are framed in fuzzy pink fur. Or a leopard skin design. Or a graffiti-themed pattern. Sure, it's outlandish, but you won't see the hip-e in an office cubicle. The creators of the $1,699 hip-e claim it's the first PC specifically for teenagers."
Hippy PC, shag fur on the keyboard. a 1.5GHz Pentium Processor --yup all materials yanked from the long dead past. Actually, it's a bastardized attempt at making a PC feel like an Apple computer. We've done that before too. And you should really, really, really, never let teenagers design anything. If the little mush-heads (generalization alert!) actually knew something they'd be adults.
High Tech Wine Chiller The Angelshare WA-1 wine cooling unit is only sold in Asia right now, but it is definitely cool in the literal sense.
Then again, it also looks a bit like a high tech coffin which may be a disturbing image as you crack open your prized Bordeaux. It may also be overkill, when you consider that people have been cooling red wine for centuries without giant table cooling units, but we have to applaud any company that puts a new spin on an old concept.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super LANBoy! "Hear that? It's a LAN party calling you. So take your game on the road with Super LANBOY. Its durable anodized aluminum body packs 9 drive bays. Two low-speed 120mm fans, including one with mesmerizing blue illumination. And a windowed side panel that lets you show off your drool-inducing rig. So pick up a Super LANBOY. And travel easy."
All right, calm down. That is directly from the sales blurb. Problem is, it's all true except for the itty-bitty details. I'm not even going to bother with the "LAN party" thing. On my plane of existence it might as well be a bonfire of the vanities. But this case is super light and, when all panels are in place, darn rigid as well. In fact, with a motherboard, a pair of hard drives, and a cards installed, it is portable. (To help, Antec provides a carrying strap too.) And no, it's not even close to what the original Compaq portable weighed.
The power supply may be the real limiting factor here. I originally tucked a NeoPower 480 inside but the weight reduction was noticeable when I switched to a TruePower model. (Unloaded, the case can be carried with two fingers --one would do, but the second provides balance.)
Even if you're not the heady socialite, whisking off to LAN parties, it's an excellent arrangement if your kid (or you, if you're the "kid" in question) wants to tote a system out of a dorm room when he/she isn't going to be there for a while. It's also very nice to look at (although perhaps not mesmerizing), with the usual exception that while the acrylic side panel lets the case's insides look out, everyone will be able to look in and see the lousy routing job you did with all the wires.
Virtual girlfriend could end dating woes She needs to be coddled with sweet talk and pampered with gifts, but you'll never see her in the flesh, says a Hong Kong company that's developing a "virtual girlfriend" for new cell phones with video capability. If she's neglected, she'll be unhappy and she won't talk to you.The gifts will keep the relationship going from one level to the next -- and even though it's all made up of cold, hard data, suitors will have to pay cold, hard cash for the gifts.
Do the words "pathetic" and "loser" come to mind? But wait, the company says that you won't be able to make suggestions of a sexual nature so it's suitable for all ages! Hot diggity!
Pills to Go This product would have been great in the 1950's when people didn't buy water and took tons of pills.
For those trapped in the 50s or just without a water bottle, "Pills to Go" is a new combo pack that includes aspirin and a little vial of water. Our question: what happens if you need more than two aspirins or can't get the pills down with that tiny amount of water?
Glaciers pose potential harm to Internet According to Yahoo! News, Glaciers are melting faster than before in some regions from the Arctic to the Alps but others are getting bigger, scientists said on Friday. They are unable to crack the conundrum of why certain glaciers may be more resilient to global warming, though one reason could be that melting sea ice falls back to earth as snow and so causes some of the ice mountains to grow.
U.N. studies indicate that sea levels could rise by about 30-50 cms (~11 to 19 inches) by 2100, threatening many coastal regions and low-lying islands like Tuvalu in the Pacific.
You may wonder why Tuvalu, at best 17 feet above sea level, is important considering it's just a group of 9 atolls situated between Hawaii and Australia with about 18 square miles of land mass, no arable land, no streams, rivers, or potable water, no permanent crops, with fish as its only resource and an estimated population of 11,468. The thing is, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet domain name ".tv" for $50 million in royalties over the next dozen years. Wouldn't want anything to happen there, huh?
So you can't wait for the whole country to switch from those nasty fossil fuel autombiles to high-tech hybrid mobiles, right? Well, think again. It's gasoline taxes that help pay for road maintenance. Hybrid vehicles will require considerably less gasoline, producing considerably less revenue, but they will subject the roadways to an equal amount of wear and tear. Where will the lost money come from?
"
Bill has a great historical perpective but he is missing the point. "Cantenna" is a great word and concept, and it has been picked up and used by a whole new generation in a whole new way. Of course someone will try and cash in with a commercial version. Here's to the ones who make the real cans work!
I love Alice, but sometimes her youthful exuberance keeps her from questioning things that she should otherwise view with a severely jaundiced eye --like the "Cantenna." (See below.) It ain't new. It aren't even original. HeathKit made a "Cantenna" oil-filled dummy load for ham radio operators decades ago so they could tune their rigs without dirtying the bandwidth. I briefly held a ham license (KA2MKI, if I remember rightly) and the idea of a can-based antenna (as well as many other designs - shameless plug for the ARRL's Antenna Handbook) has been around amateur radio for almost forever. Cheap as Scotsmen as they are, hams have typically home brewed their own cantennas with great success. (Have you CQ'd today?) I'm not saying that $20 is a bad deal, and I'm certainly not advocating oil-filled college dummies trying to steal WiFi service. It's just a matter of adding some historical perspective in case next week someone comes out with a WiFi Yagi. 10-10. C-ya!
This all started as an act of desperation. College kids in search of free WiFi piggybacking rigged Pringles potato chip cans on their rooftops to find wireless signals that would normally be out of range. They dubbed the devices "cantennas."
Looks like WiFi is going inside, or rather is becoming embedded in most new PCs and handhelds. Beats those add-in WiFI cards that bent or got lost. Some stats to consider from In-Stat/MDR:
"This isn't your typical, humdrum, slate-colored computer. Not only is the PC known as the 
The Angelshare WA-1 wine cooling unit is only sold in Asia right now, but it is definitely cool in the literal sense.
"Hear that? It's a LAN party calling you. So take your game on the road with Super LANBOY. Its durable anodized aluminum body packs 9 drive bays. Two low-speed 120mm fans, including one with mesmerizing blue illumination. And a windowed side panel that lets you show off your drool-inducing rig. So pick up a Super LANBOY. And travel easy."
This product would have been great in the 1950's when people didn't buy water and took tons of pills. 
According to