According to some recent publications, the level of CO2 emissions for the cars of a European country is not evolving since 2001, while there have been huge improvements with car engines. In fact, the problem is people just care about the diesel or gasoline consumption, since it is what directly impacts them.
But what about CO2 emissions? And how to check them?
This information is easily accessible for new models, since it is becoming a criterion for adding extra taxes, with the upcoming CO2 sticker in 2008 in France, or lower some in Belgium with lower taxes for cars under 120g/km.
But for older cars, how can you figure out if your car is somewhat green, or confront it with more recent models performances?
I have found a nice website: Ademe, a French site that allows you to get your car emissions level.
What I was able to seen there is, even if my car is a 8 years old Saxo VTS 1.4i, it is just as good as any similar new car with a similar engine: variation is only 1-2 g CO2/km and 0.1-0.2 l/100km.
Did really car running on unleaded gasoline evolved during the last 8 years? The only explanation I can find to this ridiculous difference is a change in electronic settings, running engines with poorer air/gasoline mix and so unsatisfying performances.
I think I will stick to my Saxo VTS for some more years...
Indeed some new technologies will soon become available, on the market, since gasoline hybrids are not very interesting, around 120 g/km, it is nice, but the overall consumption exceeds the one of diesel for the same car, and those are achieving far better performances!
Something interesting will come from hybrid diesel, that could reach 90g/km, but current hybrids are still missing some interesting improvements already used on electric public transportation systems, like super capacitors, that can absorb large amount of electric currents without the memory effects of the batteries.
Replacing part of the batteries with super capacitor, in sufficient capacity to store 70% of the car maximum cynetic energy (1/2*M*Vmax^2), would allow to store all the possible energy recovered when braking, and deliver it directly for the next acceleration phase, the rest would come from the batteries, that would only recharge when the car is cruising at a stable pace, avoiding too many charge/discharge cycles.
For the moment, I only see one usage for hybrids: gangstas, who want to cruise at low speed, without noise, running on electricity, to shoot other gangstas, and then accelerate on the electric+thermic engines to get a quick getaway...
jeudi 22 novembre 2007
lundi 19 novembre 2007
Facebook: challenge your friends...publicly?
Facebook is cool! You just hang around, find friends you have not seen for years, everyone leaves happily in the better world!
That was my first impression with Facebook. When you have found everyone you had lost, what do you do? Nothing?
WRONG!
If you are on Facebook, one of your friends should try to turn you into a vampire, a zombie a werewolf or a slayer! OK, right here, as a newbie you think for yourself: fine, I found him and he turned me into a Vampire... Friendship on Facebook is not as friendly in real life.
And then you try to earn points to become a really nasty Vampire, with an army of vampires, and you try to beat your friends. Starting a war on any subject, a competition on every single issue. Dealing with virtual living deads is OK, but I feel somewhat unhappy with some other tests: likeness or worse the IQ test!
What is it for?? Passing an IQ test in English on Facebook, is not very interesting, especially since English is not my mother tongue, I managed to score well, but felt disgusted because it looked like an old competition I did not have since primary school.
How social is it to walk in the city with everyone wearing a tee shirt displaying he IQ score??
Facebook, and globally "social networks" are missing something important: social networking is not about exhibitionism, you shoud be able to share your information relatively to the level of trust, confidence you have with the others: I don't want someone to be able to find me through my IQ score: what if someone you don't know tells you "He you, you are as stupid as my cat!" or worse "I want to be your friend because my IQ is lower, and you should be able to give me good advices!".
Come on, shame on this!
Societies are far more complex: human interactions are made from what we say, and more important: what we don't say!
Friends or not friend, is not enough!
Even if people were able to make groups, that would not be enough: some people should be able to earn the right to get access to your information, even if you don't know them, while some of your friends should not be able to learn too much about you!
I would like a self organizing social network, anyway the social network itself should be evaluated:
That was my first impression with Facebook. When you have found everyone you had lost, what do you do? Nothing?
WRONG!
If you are on Facebook, one of your friends should try to turn you into a vampire, a zombie a werewolf or a slayer! OK, right here, as a newbie you think for yourself: fine, I found him and he turned me into a Vampire... Friendship on Facebook is not as friendly in real life.
And then you try to earn points to become a really nasty Vampire, with an army of vampires, and you try to beat your friends. Starting a war on any subject, a competition on every single issue. Dealing with virtual living deads is OK, but I feel somewhat unhappy with some other tests: likeness or worse the IQ test!
What is it for?? Passing an IQ test in English on Facebook, is not very interesting, especially since English is not my mother tongue, I managed to score well, but felt disgusted because it looked like an old competition I did not have since primary school.
How social is it to walk in the city with everyone wearing a tee shirt displaying he IQ score??
Facebook, and globally "social networks" are missing something important: social networking is not about exhibitionism, you shoud be able to share your information relatively to the level of trust, confidence you have with the others: I don't want someone to be able to find me through my IQ score: what if someone you don't know tells you "He you, you are as stupid as my cat!" or worse "I want to be your friend because my IQ is lower, and you should be able to give me good advices!".
Come on, shame on this!
Societies are far more complex: human interactions are made from what we say, and more important: what we don't say!
Friends or not friend, is not enough!
Even if people were able to make groups, that would not be enough: some people should be able to earn the right to get access to your information, even if you don't know them, while some of your friends should not be able to learn too much about you!
I would like a self organizing social network, anyway the social network itself should be evaluated:
is it really a friend to you?
Misconceptions in electric appliances
Last week, I came back to my 3 in 1 waffles/grill/croque-monsieur maker, that was in fully non-working condition for 2 years.
I barely made two sessions of waffles, 3 times did I had the chance to use the croque-monsieur functionality and once, and to the device dead, the grill function.
My first diagnostic, years ago was a problem with the juice coming from the meat, that could have short-circuited the device to its defective state.
OK, it was assembled with strange screws and I did not have enough motivation to go further.
Last week end, I was sleepy and was suddenly in the mood of understanding the internals of my dead 3 in 1 WGC-M.
Here I go, first, transform the strange screws in effective ones, thanks to a circular saw, the hardest part is not understanding, just opening it without destroying the whole case: apparently, manufacturers are using more engineers to design a device that you can only open by almost destroying it, than to conceive the way it operates: it is just like if you bought a pair of nice looking shoes and needed to get rid of one of your toes when you want to remove them!
I paid for the device, i want to be able to open it, removing a sticker voiding the warranty has never been a problem for me, but destroying the device to solely reach its internal parts does not sound very normal to me.
The more expensive and well designed a device is, the more serviceable it is too!
That said, I managed to open the device, tested the thermostat, and after opening the full shell, I found a nasty component: a thermofuse!
What is it: a 10A fuse, that mold if there is a short-cut and also if it is too warm. It should have melt if the thermostat was not working anymore or a stupid guy just heated this side with a lighter, the problem is that the thermostat was on the bottom side, while the thermofuse was on the upper one, so with some meat, the bottom gets cold, and the thermostat just rises the temperature of both sides while the upper one may be further of the meat, and then becomes hotter than the normal usage.
A thermostat on one side and a thermofuse on the other, nice try, but with this kind of engineering the device is a one time grill since a thermofuse turn the complete device out of order for good.
I fixed it just by removing the thermofuse, as a quick workaround, my next tweak will be to add a second thermostat to the upper part, and have 2 independent plates for a more environmentally friendly device, and also had a thermofuse on each side, with a higher temperature on the upper side. That should be good enough and fairly inexpensive customization.
The only problem is the overall design of this SBIHTOTWGC-M (Sorry But I Had To Open The WGC-M)!
May I now eat my Waffles?
I barely made two sessions of waffles, 3 times did I had the chance to use the croque-monsieur functionality and once, and to the device dead, the grill function.
My first diagnostic, years ago was a problem with the juice coming from the meat, that could have short-circuited the device to its defective state.
OK, it was assembled with strange screws and I did not have enough motivation to go further.
Last week end, I was sleepy and was suddenly in the mood of understanding the internals of my dead 3 in 1 WGC-M.
Here I go, first, transform the strange screws in effective ones, thanks to a circular saw, the hardest part is not understanding, just opening it without destroying the whole case: apparently, manufacturers are using more engineers to design a device that you can only open by almost destroying it, than to conceive the way it operates: it is just like if you bought a pair of nice looking shoes and needed to get rid of one of your toes when you want to remove them!
I paid for the device, i want to be able to open it, removing a sticker voiding the warranty has never been a problem for me, but destroying the device to solely reach its internal parts does not sound very normal to me.
The more expensive and well designed a device is, the more serviceable it is too!
That said, I managed to open the device, tested the thermostat, and after opening the full shell, I found a nasty component: a thermofuse!
What is it: a 10A fuse, that mold if there is a short-cut and also if it is too warm. It should have melt if the thermostat was not working anymore or a stupid guy just heated this side with a lighter, the problem is that the thermostat was on the bottom side, while the thermofuse was on the upper one, so with some meat, the bottom gets cold, and the thermostat just rises the temperature of both sides while the upper one may be further of the meat, and then becomes hotter than the normal usage.
A thermostat on one side and a thermofuse on the other, nice try, but with this kind of engineering the device is a one time grill since a thermofuse turn the complete device out of order for good.
I fixed it just by removing the thermofuse, as a quick workaround, my next tweak will be to add a second thermostat to the upper part, and have 2 independent plates for a more environmentally friendly device, and also had a thermofuse on each side, with a higher temperature on the upper side. That should be good enough and fairly inexpensive customization.
The only problem is the overall design of this SBIHTOTWGC-M (Sorry But I Had To Open The WGC-M)!
May I now eat my Waffles?
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