Hybrid Technologies Mini Cooper

Hybrid Technologies, has taken a number of cars and converted them from gas powered to electric.  This movie/article was in Popular Mechanics and was a test drive of their Mini Cooper conversion.

Sadly, the Mini Cooper goes from +2 Coupe to -2 Coupe, with the batteries being (as the article puts it) 'your +2'.

So, no room for my kids in the back seat.  But it would be a great little commuter car.  Fun to drive, fast, and no need to pay $3.10 per gallon of gasoline.

I like it.  I didn't particularly like the $50,000 price tag.  But it's cheaper than an eBox.  Cheaper than a Tesla Roadster (though certainly not as much of a head turner).

But, if I had $50k laying around for a car....this would be on my short list....

 

Technorati tags: Electric Vehicles, EBox, Tesla Motors, Hybrid Technologies

Dudette, your getting an HP!

My mother has been searching for a new machine for quite some time now.  She originally wanted to buy a Dell.  She actually went through the order process, but didn't press the last button to actually complete the order (which she found out a few days later).

So frantically, she's been looking for a machine to spend her money on.

Originally she wanted to stick with Windows XP, and wait (IMO correctly) for Vista SP2 to ship.  That was a challenge from a mainstream manufacturer.

But the Sunday newspaper came, and she found a new machine.  It's an HP with an Athlon X2 3200 chip in it.  One gig of RAM.  300 GIG of disk space.  Nice.  Fast.

The best part?  It came with a 19 inch widescreen LCD monitor.  This monitor is HUGE.  Bright.  Beautiful.

The machine came with Vista Home Premium edition. 

I've not been a big fan of Vista, mainly because my current hardware won't handle it, and the software I use on a daily basis at my day job doesn't fully support it yet.

But on this machine, with this HUGE monitor.....I'm beginning to be a convert.

I'm a 100% laptop guy.  Have been for about four years.  I would find it very difficult to go back to a desktop.  But....if I had a desktop with this kind of speed and that kind of screen real estate (I think the resolution is 1440x900), I would SERIOUSLY consider it.

I just hope that it runs without issue for a while........maybe she'll go on vacation and I'll get to play with it with my digital photos to see what kind of speed it really gets when processing RAW..... :)

I want to install the eval of Lightroom on it and see what it looks like.  But I haven't been home long enough to pry her hands away from the keyboard long enough to try. Soon....

 

Technorati tags: Vista, HP, Lightroom, Dell

Blacksburg and the idiocy of news stations

Blacksburg, Virginia Tech, and the nation suffered a terrible tragedy today.  Unthinkable. Painful.

My only connection to Blacksburg is through my company's email hosting provider, Webmail.us and through a friend of my wife's who moved to Blacksburg to work there a few years ago.

A senseless tragedy has occured.

One of the reasons I don't watch the news is that senseless tragedies are played out on the news every day.  I tire of watching it all unfold.

But today, wanting some additional information, we switched on one of the news stations (one of the cable stations).

They were analyzing what the administration could have done differently to avoid this tragedy.  Seemingly pointing the finger at the administration, saying essentially that the administration had not acted swiftly enough to "close off the campus". 

The administration was initally working on the information that it was something that happened in a dorm, and that the shooter was at large.  They alerted the faculty and students, but didn't lock the campus down.  Why?  Well, probably because they thought that it was an isolated incident.  Hindsight is almost always 20/20.  I can guarantee you that the administration would lock the campus down now, given what they heard.

But blaming the administration after the fact, before all the facts have come forward and have been brought to light is utter lunacy.  Those people who point the fingers at the administration should have the finger pointed at themselves and asked "Is this what we reallly need to do at this time?  Point the finger at a community that is already suffering a horrific tragedy?  Does this help them?"

I think that those folks who DO point the finger, when they ask themselves that question, they will answer NO, this does not help.  It might help in the future after we've analyzed the situation, but right now, it does no one any good.

It is a senseless tragedy.  Only God knows why it happened.  News reporters do NOT know why it happened anymore than the rest of us.

Let VT and Blacksburg mourn before pointing fingers.  May God have mercy on their souls and be with the familes and friends of those who have been lost.....

 

Technorati tags: Blacksburg, WebMail.US

Merlin Roadster lives?

I was driving in Everett about two months ago, and I saw what looked to me like a Merlin Roadster, a red one, on the back of a flatbed tow truck. 

I tried to get close enough to enough to take a closer look, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn't catch up with the tow truck.

Two weeks ago, in Lynnwood, I saw a Merlin Roadster, black, driving around.  I flipped a quick U turn and followed it for a while, hoping that the guy who was driving it would stop and I could ask him some questions about it.

I followed him for a while, but I think he didn't want to be pursued, as he dashed where I couldn't, and he was gone....sure wish I could have asked him some questions.

The Merlin Roadster was a great concept car from Cobin Motors before their flameout due to stockholder turmoil.  I know that the Corbin Sparrow is now the NMG from Meyers Motors.  I'm hoping that the Merlin Roadster was picked up by someone and they will start building them.

Here's a photo I found on the web someplace....

 

If anyone knows of one of these around the Seattle area, I'd LOVE to hear from you.....leave me a comment.....

 

Technorati tags: Corbin Sparrow, Corbin Merlin, Merlin Roadster, Three Wheeler

Lightroom Eval - Interesting, but....

I've been looking for a Digital Asset Management solution for my photography for some time.  They are either too expensive, too cumbersome to use, too slow, or just frankly don't work.

Adobe has been having a beta version of their new software called Lightroom out for evaluation for a while now, and version one shipped quite recently.

So I downloaded a thirty day evaluation version.

Things I like about this product so far:

• I'd have to change the way that I file things, but I think it would work for my DAM needs
• It works very similarly to a product I used to use called Raw Shooter.  Raw Shooter was purchased by Adobe, and I see a lot of things that were in Raw Shooter that are in Lightroom.
• It generates HTML galleries or FLASH galleries.  Nice feature.
• There seems to be a huge user community working on tips, tricks,hacks, etc for use with Lightroom.  Very nice.  Luminous Landscape owner Michael Reichmann has a 4.5 hour DVD available which explains and shows all the nuances of Lightroom.

Things I don't like about Lightroom:

• My main machine is a 1.5 gz Celeron.  With 512 meg of RAM.  On this machine, Lightroom is INCREDIBLY slow.  I don't know if boosting the RAM would help or if it would require a new machine completely.  Any Lightroom experts out there who might lend me advice?  Please leave a comment.
• It *seems* to integrate well with Photoshop.  I don't use Photoshop.  In fact, I only really use Breeze Browser Pro for my RAW conversion work now that Raw Shooter has been swallowed up by Adobe. 
• It isn't an inexpensive product.  Yes, it's less that full Photoshop, but $199 is still a fair chunk of change if a new machine would be required to utilize the software to it's best advantage.

I think if I can find a way to utilize this software on my current hardware, and if I can get some business for our side business, this might be a definite possibility for a DAM solution for my needs.

 

Technorati tags: Lightroom, Adobe, Raw Shooter, RAW, DAM, Luminous Landscape

Angioedema

I learned a new word today. Angioedema.  It's apparently a virus that causes large splotches on a persons body, similiar to hives.

It also causes swelling of the lips.

Apparently, I'm blessed with it.  Prednisone and Zantac75 for a week and it should be solved.

Not fun.  But, there are good things about it:

• It won't kill me
• It's not contagious
• It's treatable

The doctor said "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." .  We'll see.  I'm not convinced.

 

Technorati tags: Angioedema, WebMD, Hives, Virus

Improve Neighborhoods and solve oil dependency

Here's an idea that will help revitalize neighborhoods and solve our dependency on foreign oil.

Telecommuting.

Neighborhoods in many parts of the country during the week are vast wastelands of emptiness.  Neighbors don't know neighbors.  They don't watch out for each other.  In the morning, everyone leaves the home, heads to work or school and leaves the neighborhood empty.

With the advent of broadband penetration and VOIP, many people can work from home, thereby keeping their homes occupied during the day.  It also stands to reason that since they are not commuting to work everyday, the gas/oil that they would have used previously is shuttled off to other more prevelant needs, such as trucks and airplanes for delivery.

I believe that when you work from home and are in your home more frequently, friendships will blossom with others in your neighborhood.  Because people are home more often, consistently, crime should decrease.  Both from the fact that some people are now working from home and from the fact that those people who are working from home can watch over (their now friends) houses.

Stores are within walking distance.  So are schools.  More drop in dependency of foreign oil.

Products that you need to shop for (electronics, books, magazines, clothes) can be shopped for online and delivered to your doorstep.

Thoughts?

 

 

Technorati tags: Telecommuting, Revitalizing Neighborhoods, Oil