Recent Comments:
Reagan's Ex-Secretary of State asks Gov. Schwarzenegger to bring back the electric car {Autoblog Green}
Mar 27th 2008 4:09PM If anyone wants to watch or listen to the live feed from the CARB meeting, go here: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/broadcast/?bdo=1
FCC redefines "broadband" to mean 768Kbps, "fast" to mean "kinda slow" {Engadget}
Mar 19th 2008 8:31PM Unfortunately it is high if you live in a rural area like I do. Well, if you can count northern Los Angeles County as rural. I have a choice of Hughesnet, Wildblue, or a fly-by-night company called Digitron. Hughesnet (who I have) starts at 700Kbps. I buy a small business package that is 1.5Mbps down/300Kbps up and costs $100/mo plus $600 in equipment and installation. Wildblue starts at 512Kbps/128Kbps and the highest level of service they offer is 1.5Mbps/256Kbps. Digitron starts at 512Kbps (with no mention of upload speeds) and maxes out at 1500Mbps. And if that's not bad enough Hughesnet and Wildblue impose asinine Fair Access Policies which for me (and I pay extra for increased capacity) means I can only transfer 500MB in a 24 hour period. The base plan only allows you 200MB.
So this FCC bump, while it may not seem like much to those who can get cable, DSL, or fibre, is a big deal to those of us who are more limited. It will force our small selection of providers to get with the times and upgrade their equipment and impose fewer limits.
LaCie silently launches Mobile Disk, Desktop Hard Disk {Engadget}
Mar 10th 2008 6:20PM We use a fair amount of LaCie drives in the industry I work in because for some reason people think they're the industry standard. I've seen a lot of them die, many at very inopportune times.
I personally opt for either Seagate or Fantom Drives. Lately I've gone to Fantom for externals because of the awkwardness of the Seagate Freeagents. I have five 500GB Fantom externals that I use daisy chained via firewire and they all work perfectly.
New York '08 Preview: Nissan to unveil all-electric concept {Autoblog}
Mar 10th 2008 1:08PM I live in Los Angeles and commute 37 miles each way every day. I rarely ever get to go faster than 50mph due to the amount of traffic. I think a vehicle with a 75MPH top speed would be perfect for all of my non-road-trip driving. The road trips are rare enough that I could either borrow or rent a car. That said I would rather have a range of about 120 miles (unless there were a range extender) to give a lot of cushion for running the A/C, which is vital in this part of the world during the summer when triple digit temperatures are common.
GM and Toyota: Don't expect fuel cells any time soon {Autoblog Green}
Mar 6th 2008 9:17PM Hallelujah! Finally, the end of the hydrogen hype is on it's way. If GM and Toyota are ready to go to bat for electric cars then we're about to see a big shift in the alternative fuels debate.
Is leather the "ultimate recycled material?" PETA thinks not {Autoblog Green}
Mar 6th 2008 2:58PM I have leather seats in my Prius. So why doesn't PETA go after Toyota? How about every other automaker? Good luck finding a car company that doesn't offer leather.
If you don't like leather, don't buy it. There are bigger problems to deal with, particularly when it comes to animal treatment.
VIDEO: Fifth Gear reviews electric Smart car, turns it into series hybrid with off-the-shelf generator {Autoblog Green}
Mar 4th 2008 7:25PM @Chris
You have a good point there, but going gas to electric via a small generator may be more efficient due to the fact that the generator is likely to be operating at a more efficient RPM than the gas motor driving a regular car. That's one of the ideas behind the Chevy Volt is that you have a very specifically designed engine that only runs at it's most efficient speed when charging the batteries.
That said the key words there are "specifically designed" and an off the shelf generator plus off the shelf EV parts are likely to be less efficient than the original gasoline power train.
There was someone who rigged up a RAV4-EV with a generator on a platform on the back and they had a lot of info on it, including if memory serves some info on efficieny, but I can't find the website right now. If I find it I'll post it here.
Apple MacBook Pro (with Penryn and multi-touch) unboxing {Engadget}
Feb 28th 2008 1:51PM Actually, Joel is correct. They've been using this design since the launch of the Powerbook G4 Aluminum which was released on January 7th, 2003. They made some slight changes to it in 2006 along with the introduction of the Intel processor, but the overall design is the same. This means they've been using roughly the same case for over 5 years.
Video flashback: Electric car ridiculed on Two and a Half Men {Autoblog Green}
Feb 26th 2008 8:09PM They used a Prius. Look at the shape of the rear hatch, the head rests, the computer screen bump, and the windshield wipers.
Dilbert creator Scott Adams hates on the Auto X-Prize, green car drivers {Autoblog Green}
Feb 22nd 2008 5:12PM Dilbert drives an EV1 in the Dilbert TV series. His EV1 has a rocket in the trunk that can be used to avoid toll booth lines, although he still has Dogbert "make the engine noise" on one occasion.
