If you’re still using a Polaroid camera to capture life on film, then be sure to snap a shot of the next Dodge Viper that you see, because both are soon going to be gone.
Polaroid has confirmed that they will no longer produce instant film after this year, and it’s rumored that Dodge will no longer be making the Viper after 2011, which means that the loss of a quirky technology and a venomous supercar come as a one two punch.
All is not lost however, as old Polaroid cameras can turn into quite the clever webcam, and the Viper’s demise hopefully means that Dodge has another supercar in the works, but the news definitely puts a damper on my dreams of Viper ownership. (The Viper was the car that got me excited about cars in the first place.)
Homemade HD Video Projectors are what happens when you combine art, technology, and determination.
The basic components are an LCD panel from an old media player, optics from an old overhead projector, a very bright light, and whatever components you can scrap together form old electronics.
Though the end result is probably not as good as what you can buy off the shelf, it’s the process that counts, and for these modders, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Fisker Automotive wants to bring the sexy back to green sport car design.
With Tesla taking a sad and slow turn towards the automotive afterlife, there’s now a gaping hole in the car world for people who want to drive green, but don’t want to drive slow to do so.
Enter: Fisker
The Karma (clever) will be a four-door plug-in hybrid sports sedan, and will start at just $80,000. (I say just because technology like this doesn’t come cheap when you’re trying to debut a whole new type of transportation.)
With initial delivery scheduled for late 2009, and an estimated production run of at least 15,000, there’s definitely some hope of this thing seeing the light of day.
And if it does, what will drivers see?
A sexy exterior wrapped around an even sexier interior powered by a Q DRIVE powertrain. (Q DRIVE is Fisker’s name for their plug-in hybrid technology.) Basically, a small gas engine turns a generator which charges the lithium ion battery pack which then powers the electric motor.
With this configuration, the car can be driven for up to 50 miles per day, as long as the car is then plugged in each night. By following this routine, the car then also only needs one fuel fill-up. Per year.
Will this change the face of green automotive design?
As with the Tesla, only time will tell; though I do hope that this one at least makes it into production, since we’re at going to need baby steps if there’s ever going to be hope of running towards a cleaner type of automobile.
Wikia Search wants to take down the Google giant with a freely licensed (open source) search engine.
Since Google is now a $200 Billion company, it’s easy to assume that they’re going to be a bit guarded with regard to their search technology; as it is, after all, the driving force behind most of those billions.
However, Wikia Search feels that by putting users in control, they can create a search engine that works faster, is more accurate, and is more informative.
How is it going to do this?
By using the power of a community of users acting together in an open, transparent, and public way.
Their belief is that “search is a fundamental part of the infrastructure of the Internet, and that it can and should therefore be done in an open, objective, accountable way”.
Though it’s currently only an Alpha release (meaning the results are pretty bad because there is no user feedback data), as that data starts to roll in, expect the results to get better at an impressively quick pace. (At least that’s the hope.)
It’s definitely an interesting project, and I hope it’s successful too, because if it can do for search what Wikipedia did for the encyclopedia, then Google definitely needs to keep an eye on this David.
With the release of Google Maps 2.0 (Mobile), Google announced a new feature called My Location. It’s still in Beta (as are most Google products) but the idea is that your phone can now locate you on the map without the use of GPS.
How does it do this?
The My Location feature takes information broadcast from mobile towers near you to approximate your current location on the map - it’s not GPS, but it comes pretty close (approximately 1000m close, on average).
It’s not exactly going to replace your Garmin, but it’s designed to help with finding local restaurants and gas stations and the like, so I think it’s definitely a cool technology with a lot of possibility.
If you recycle (and you should), then you probably separate out what’s recyclable from what’s not, put both on the curb, and never think about it again.
But what happens when you recycle?
How does it work? Is it worth the effort? Is recycling waste just going into a landfill?
The Economist decided to tackle all these questions and more, and put together a great piece called The Truth About Recycling.
If done right, there is no doubt that recycling saves energy and raw materials, and reduces pollution. But as well as trying to recycle more, it is also important to try to recycle better. As technologies and materials evolve, there is room for improvement and cause for optimism. In the end, says Ms Krebs, “waste is really a design flaw.”
The veteran of numerous rallies, races, and records, he recently drove from New York to Santa Monica in 31 hours and 4 minutes, beating the previous transcontinental record by over an hour. To give you an idea of the kind of speed it takes to break a record like that, think about this: Roy needed a sustained speed of almost 90 miles per hour.
For 31 hours!
So what kind of technology does it take to pilot a four-wheel rocket through 31,000 highly trained highway patrol?
Tasco 8 x 40 binoculars with a Kenyon KS-2 gyro stabilizer
Military spec Steiner 7 x 50 binoculars
Bumper-mounted L-3 Raytheon NightDriver thermal camera
Flush, bumper-mounted Blinder M40 laser jammers
Redundant Garmin StreetPilot 2650 GPS units
Preprogrammed Uniden police radio scanners
Ceiling-mounted Uniden CB radio with high-gain whip antenna
And last but not least, a Valentine One radar/laser detector
Since 1992, Valentine has been making a radar detector that refuses to loose. It’s a company that only makes radar detectors, only make ones model of radar detector (constantly upgraded with the latest technology), and only makes the best radar detector, so you know that they mean business.
On my recent trip to Las Vegas for the SEMA show, I had a chance to check out the capabilities of my newly purchased V1, and I must say, I was beyond impressed. Not only did it constantly keep me aware of what was going on around me (the patented arrows tell you with amazing accuracy if the radar is in front of, beside, or behind you), but it also saved me from at least one sure-fire ticket.
Coming down a hill with a clear lane and a tailwind, my car was more than happy to break the posted speed limit, and trusting in the powers of the V1, I was more than happy to oblige.
Suddenly, the V1 flashed Ka band, and maxed out the signal strength indicator, showing sure signs of a cop ahead. Heading the warning, I quickly brought the car down to posted speeds, and peered ahead for the awaiting cruiser. After about a mile of driving, I came upon the hidden cruiser, tucked neatly under an overpass with his radar gun pointed directly down the road that I had just traveled. Just past him though, there were three other cruisers parked and waiting to pick up what the radar gun picked off. It was a speed trap, and thanks to the V1, I had easily avoided it.
Chock one up in the V1 win column.
Though you can’t exactly call the Valentine One cheap, it’s a definite case of you get what you pay for. (And it’s also probably cheaper than getting a ticket.) Plus, if Alex Roy trusts it to drive across the country, shouldn’t you trust it to drive the kids to soccer? (Quickly.)
Also, having tested out a few other radar detectors over the years, I can confirm Valentine’s claims that the V1 is the easiest to use, most reliable, and gave the best warning time out of the bunch.
Your driving record will thank you.
(For more information about Alex Roy’s record run, check out his book, The Driver, and his documentary, 32 Hours 7 Minutes.)
TwitterPoster is a collection of Twitter profile pictures that have been sized according to their degree of influence on Twitter.
Though there are only three sizes, so it’s not a direct and exact representation, TwitterPoster does take into account the number of subscribers, as well as the number of tweets that each person makes, so it’s a good way to see who is utilizing the technology, and who is not.
Plus, there are different country specific posters, so you can see who’s big in Deutschland.
I simply love this picture of every single thing that goes into the making of a BMW M5’s V10 engine. If I can find a bigger version, I think I’ll print it out, frame it, and hang it up as a tribute to technology.
The Toyota Prius is without a doubt a very economical car, but it uses a variety of gas engine technologies to achieve its efficiency before you even consider the electric hybrid part of the equation. Autoblog took a very thorough look at the Prius to see if some of the technology that is used can be adapted to any car to achieve greater fuel efficiency, and the results are promising. It’s also a great look inside the technology inside the Prius, and shows that other car makers have a lot to learn.
If you’re still using a Polaroid camera to capture life on film, then be sure to snap a shot of the next Dodge Viper that you see, because both are soon going to be gone.
Homemade HD Video Projectors are what happens when you combine art, technology, and determination.
