Recent Comments:
Jaguar and Land Rover could strike a deal with Daimler {Autoblog}
May 5th 2008 4:18PM I am all for it.
Jags have always been stunning looking but ultimately gutless and unreliable. Perhaps with some Mercedes hardware and Siemens electronics, they might finally get those two issues fixed. High end Mercedes switch gear for the interior bits would also help.
As to Land Rover; the company needs to go on a reliability Jihad. For decades now, Land Rovers have had this big disconnect; somehow they are the "go anywhere" "best 4x4 by far," but they have lived on the bottom of reliability ratings. My '01 Discovery II suffered 2 massive failures under warranty (a new set of differentials, exhaust headers, half shafts and eventually a new crank). One of my neighbors came home with a brand new Range Rover - such a stunning vehicle, until he had to take it right back to Land Rover Portland where it spent 4 weeks getting a new electrical system.
Mazda creates disassembly line in wake of Cougar Ace capsizing {Autoblog}
Apr 30th 2008 12:32AM I understanding the PR Robot's point about wanting to insure that the Mazdas never get into the hands of customers... But just before saying that, he lists off half a dozen uses for these vehicles that would have insured that "customers" never got a hold of them. Race cars, drift cars, vehicle extraction training aids, vocational shop training rigs, driving school cars (that will be gutted and roll caged anyhow).
Mazda could easily have taken those cars and sprinkled them across dozens of specialty users. They never would have ended up in customer's hands, they all could have been transfered under a contract that insured no post-sales support or other lawsuit issues and Mazda could have build a tremendous amount of brand loyalty.
Instead, they did the most wasteful, unimaginative and boring thing ever. Kudos on the blown opportunity...
Google: Android will outsell iPhone, we still love ya Steve {Engadget}
Mar 14th 2008 12:57PM If it has to take on the iPhone, it needs to have a good UI. And thats exactly the best part of Android, the open-ness. There will be thousands of different GUIs for users to choose from,
There is your problem right there...
The entire reason Apple products are so successful is because Apple imposes very rigid guidelines on how stuff works. Geeky folks lambast the company for being so closed and for their tight control, but it is Apple's rigidity that allows them to make products that have a reputation for ease of use and reliability.
Android will be a design by committee product with a bunch of bozo executives from clueless companies like Motorola and HTC all trying to pull the platform in whatever hot technical direction they read about in an in-flight magazine.
Remember - for all of Google's hype, they have only truly succeeded in dominating one bit of the market (search). Some of their other products are strong, but the vast majority of their product lineup is half baked beta ware. Apple has a stream of knock out products on the books delivered by the current team.
MV Agusta is offering limited edition versions of the Brutale 910 R {Autoblog}
Mar 8th 2008 1:38AM Wally and MV Agusta?
That is one of those co-branding deals that I can actually get behind. Both companies are small (well, at least the motorcycle side of MV Agusta) and dedicated to making some very high tech stuff.
For those of you who haven't seen it, Wally makes luxury boats that kick all sorts of ass. Carbon fiber, Darth Vader industrial design and turbine engines:
http://www.wally.com/jumpch.asp?idChannel=44&idUser=0&attivo=2
Hisgadgetoric: The Curta mechanical calculator peppers our eyes with nostalgia {Engadget}
Feb 5th 2008 6:55AM Curt Herzstark's father ran a business manufacturing various mathematical machines in the days before electronic calculators. Herzstark took over the business before WWII and had been seeking ways to make the machines smaller. In Buchenwald, the Nazis were aware of both his background and his "pocket size" calculator and they gave him a small number of privileges to encourage his work.
After WWII, a manufacturing plant in Lichtenstein signed a deal with Herzstark to make the Curta. Interestingly, once his design was in production, he had very little to do with the ongoing concerns of marketing, manufacturing or development of the Curta Type II.
I just bought Curta #43632, a Type 1 on eBay. It is simply beautiful - everything is machined from stainless steel and aluminum (including the rotary number plates). Even though mine was made in the 60s, it still functions and looks brand new. People simply do not craft things like the Curta anymore.
Hartge goes off-roading with the X3 "Hunter" {Autoblog}
Dec 23rd 2007 5:31PM Lord help me, I am going to defend the X5...
So, when the X5 with the twin turbo diesel comes out, I am picking one up in a heartbeat. Of course, the vast majority of my driving is done on the slab or around town where offroad capabilities just aren't necessary, but I also like to ski, I also need to haul big things (I've been renting a truck 1-2 times per month lately), I like to go shooting in the woods (rutted dirt roads) and the GF and I take 2-3 big road trips a year.
For people like me who aren't going to be going up the Rubicon trail, but want a bit more ground clearance, storage space and a good 4x4 setup - but will be spending the vast majority of our time on pavement - the X5 is an excellent vehicle. BMW designed it as a vehicle for any road in any weather. No, you can't go rock crawling in it, but crappy dirt roads? snowy/icy roads? Twisty paved back country roads? The X5 handles them all beautifully.
With the twin turbo diesel, it will be a pretty kick ass machine!
The new skinny on the McLaren P11 supercar {Autoblog}
Dec 17th 2007 7:12PM This looks like a carbon copy of the Ascari KZ-1. And not in a "if you look at them with squinted eyes, they have vaguely the same shape" way... I'm talking dead ringer.
From a GIS of Ascari:
http://www.autoclub.com.au/uploaded_images/ascari-kz1-709470.jpg
Hell, the only reason I know about the Ascari is from watching Torrents of TopGear.
Jaguar and Land Rover to build coolest design studio on Earth {Autoblog}
Dec 15th 2007 11:16AM Jag and Land Rover don't have problems with design - they both have major reliability issues while LR has a weight problem and Jag has a power/driving dynamics problem.
What they should be opening up is a world class composites factory and a hardcore in-house test track. Slathering heaping buckets of great design work on top of ho-hum vehicles will earn you a few sales, but that isn't how to innovate out of the holes LR and Jag have dug themselves over the years.
Kimi Räikkönen gets hardcore with Marcus Walz {Autoblog}
Nov 27th 2007 7:53PM Ducati. The lower end bikes (like my M620) get simple trailing arms while the upper end bikes all have single sided swingarms (called SSS by Ducati types).
The 916 is where the whole SSS thing really took off for Ducati, but when they replaced that series with the 999/749 a few years ago, they went to a more traditional dual side swingarm because Ducati found (through their racing program) that dual arms work better. This is part of the reason the 999/749 was such a flop compared to it's predecessor so when it was replaced with the new 1098 and 848, the SSS was back in action.
Don't tase me, bro! The UN says it's torture! {Engadget}
Nov 25th 2007 5:17PM Tasers were never designed as a direct alternative to lethal force and the idea that "Tasers should only be used in place of guns as an alternative to killing people." is a massive mischaracterization of how they are supposed to be deployed.
Tasers exist because people who resist arrest and force police officers to go "hands on" pose a major risk to themselves and to the officer. When police need to forcibly arrest people, there are a wide range of unknown variables and people tend to get injured (again, both the suspect and the cop). People have a wide range of strength, fighting skills, adrenaline levels, mindset and substance abuse problems; what should be a simple job of cuffing someone can turn into a major fight and people can get horrendously injured.
An example is my cousin who is an officer with the SJPD. He was arresting a wanted felon who was high on drugs a few years ago (without a Taser) and had to go hands on. The altercation lasted 5 minutes (a lifetime when you are in a struggle with someone who may very well be trying to kill you) and he ended up with a badly damaged knee that required surgery. The suspect ended up with multiple contusions, scrapes and sprains - all of which were later used by his lawyer in an attempt to level charges of police brutality.
Tasers are effective because they effectively remove the vast majority of variables from the equation. Hit someone with a Taser, and 99.9% of the time, the effect is highly predictable (they fall to the ground). With very rare exception, Tasers have no lasting effects - unlike pepper spray or hitting someone with a baton, once the 5 or 7 second jolt is done with the Taser, pain subsides and recovery occurs immediately. I've been Tasered and pepper sprayed in training scenarios; being Tasered sucks, but I would MUCH rather have that then the OC spray.
Tasers are an excellent tool that have prevented lots of injuries on both sides of law enforcement. They have been used effectively millions and millions of times. Like any tool, they can be abused and vigilant police training and officer management needs to take place, but the benefits vastly outweigh the downsides. Of course, the negative outcomes get highlighted by anti Taser people and made to look like the norm, but this sort of manipulation shouldn't be used to remove a highly effective tool from our communities.
