Blackstairs mountains

This photo was taken late summer before the deluge started. Looking forward to taking to the skies again in 2010!

Juicedriders.com – China trip

• Juicedriders.com is a play on words for bikes that are juiced with batteries, i.e. powered. This video shows how extensively the Chinese are using e-bikes to ferry children and goods on a daily basis. 2009 China sold 21 million e-bikes internally and have 100 million e-bikes on the road. They outsell cars 2:1 – 12 million cars hit the streets in 09, 1 million per  month! China still has an impressive growth rate of between 8-9% per annum. E-bikes are their biggest sellers. They have been riding e-bikes for years now, being originally based on lead-acid batteries

Sony – die based solar cells

• Sony have come up with an ingenious idea, pigment based solar cells that can be created in any design

Chevy Cruze at Jay Leno’s garage

• Early version of the 2011 GM Chevy Cruze. Does 40mpg, possibly more as it’s a pure electric hybrid utilising a 1.4ltr petrol decoupled engine driving a generator. 40 miles on the electric motor alone, no step-down functionality (powers up motor for power boost) unlike the Prius, although it does have a sport mode giving you 120W of power. Uses Li-ion (Lithium Ion)) batteries down the central tunnel and under the boot. After battery discharge, engine kicks in to give drive only power with charge being necessary from home; does have regenerative braking with disk based stop-through for faster breaking. Charge time 6-8 hours on 120VAC or 3-4 hours on 240VAC

Atkinson cycle!? My surname in fame..

• Ford fusion car with a Atkinson cycle hybrid engine. The Atkinson cycle leaves the inlet valve open for longer during the induction phase loosing some low end torque which is compensated by combining the electric motor during acceleration. The new Toyota Prius uses this technology along with regenerative braking and a heat transfer pump, taking exhaust heat away to keep the engine warm during pure electric phase of driving. 2.5 ltr. donkey!? Are you kidding me! The Prius uses a 1.8 VVti engine giving roughly 50mpg combined – theoretically >72mpg.
• This puppy does  42mpg urban (city) and 36mpg extra-urban (highway) with a combined of 39mpg ‘theoretically’; more like 35mpg in the real world according to the-truth-about-cars. It weighs in at circa 3,800 pounds or 1.9 imperial tons!
• Waste of money? We should see some better hybrids on the market in 2010, for now my advice is stay away from them. Is this a hybrid? No not really, more like a ‘light hybrid’ with a gas-guzzler engine. A 3 cylinder modern diesel-electric (with a particulate filter) would be the best hybrid I reckon, perhaps combined with a capacitive battery utilising emerging carbon-nanotube technology

Chevy Equinox – hydrogen fuel cell SUV

• Jay takes the Chevy Equinox for a spin. range >300 miles, output, water. Zero pollute technology apart from the carbon used to produce it. Electric motor with 1:1 gearbox differential. Three hydrogen compressed gas tanks, storing 2.2x3=6.6kg of fuel
• In Q3 2010, we should see the 2011 Chevy Cruze go to market, a lighter, leaner looking car, sweet

Atkinson cycle!? My surname in fame..

• Ford fusion car with a Atkinson cycle engine hybrid engine. The Atkinson cycle leaves the inlet valve open for longer during the induction phase loosing some low end torque which is compensated by combining the electric motor during acceleration. The new Toyota Prius uses this technology along with regenerative braking and a heat transfer pump, taking exhaust heat away to keep the engine warm during pure electric phase of driving. 2.5 ltr. donkey!? Are you kidding me! The Prius uses a 1.8 VVti engine giving roughly 50mpg combined – theoretically >72mpg.
• This puppy does  42mpg urban (city) and 36mpg extra-urban (highway) with a combined of 39mpg ‘theoretically’; more like 35mpg in the real world according to the-truth-about-cars. It weighs in at circa 3,800 pounds or 1.9 imperial tons!
• Waste of money? We should see some better hybrids on the market in 2010, for now my advice is stay away from them. Is this a hybrid? No not really, more like a ‘light hybrid’ with a gas-guzzler engine. A 3 cylinder modern diesel-electric (with a particulate filter) would be the best hybrid I reckon, perhaps combined with a capacitive battery utilising emerging carbon-nanotube technology

Jay Leno goes green?

• Jay Leno’s garage is err.. ginormous and he has some impressive gas-guzzlers for sure, but he’s also a keen motorcyclist by the looks of it and is interested in the whole EV/Green motors

• His green site

Zero motorcycles

• Nice e-Mbike from Zero Motorcycles that does 60mph, range 60 miles and can pop wheelies :-)
• Jay Leno has an vast garage and he needs to loose some pork, so e-bikes might be the route for him, arf

Frisbee – endurance e-bike

• Here you see Umberto Marchese (born 1941) at the grand old age of 60 racing in the Giro delle Dolomiti (the Dolomites in Italy) in 2007 on his Frisbee e-bike. That bike has some range and this guy is pretty fit for an old guy!

• Here Umberto is doing a run from Denmark to Italy a distance of >200Km per day, covering a total distance of 3266Km in 15 days in June of 2009

GRACE – e-motorbike?

• GRACE have created a custom built allow frame housing a 1300AH Lion battery (how would you replace them!?) frame mounted speed controller utilising a 1300W motor. They say it’s a motorbike and are asking for about €5877 for this puppy. Nice idea, but way too expensive for what is really a custom built mountain bike with a overly large motor. Range is only 30-50km range and a top speed of 45kph (street version is limited)

Park flyers

• I used to fly the Multiplex PicoJet and MicroJet back in the UK at a local field. I still have an old TwinJet which I haven’t flown for awhile due to lack of power as I used to have to bungee (catapult) it to get it off the ground safely. RCPower.com have come at the problem by using extra light foam combined with the latest in small but extremely powerful brushless motors

• Funny video of the new Welgard GH2212-06 brushless motor from GraysonHobby

Jet powered RC – where have we got to?

• I stumbled across a really great video of the Jet powered LAVI flow by 3D RC jet pilot Ralf Losemann of Germany (fully aerobatic – similar to Heli-3D), more like 2D, but still very impressive flying – never seen a model jet thrown around the sky like this before!

Model GeeBee

• Very impressive model GeeBee with radial engine. Very well flow too, especially the inverted turns, spin and flips

Worlds smallest V12 engine perhaps?

• And the worlds smallest super-charged V8!

E+ – Electric bikes

• Another company out in Northern Virginia called Electric Motor Systems have an interesting take on the e-bike, they incorporate the battery in the front hub. Some smart electronics on the handlebars including a computer providing battery usage etc. also provides a human charge cycle, whereby the cyclist recharges the battery

Bicicletta - Whisper

• This is the first truly professional looking video from an outfit over in the UK selling e-bikes. Well overpriced at £1,249.99! But hey, they have no competition yet. I don’t see the need to pay more that £500 for an alloy framed bike with suspension, and cable based brakes. There are plenty of other people entering the market within the £500 range

• Above is the Ultra Motor from Kozy Cyclery in Chicago

Amazon selling e-bikes

• Just spotted an e-bike called the Cyclamatic Power Plus for £499 on Amazon. The actual seller is Sport HQ and they do two bikes, a mountain/tourer and a foldaway. Not a bad price for an Alloy frame and a Shimano group set. Note the electric hub on the rear wheel supports and integral brake
• The battery looks like a decent size and the hand throttle is well detailed with a battery meter and on/off switch. The battery is detachable and lockable. A nicely detailed example of what an e-bike should be. It’s only 24V, so don’t expect radical torque on take-off; more aimed at longevity than out and out power

Product Features

• 17" mountain bike frame (suitable for use from 5ft 5 to approximately 6ft 2) - 250 watt brushless motor
• New Lithium-ion battery provides huge power (up to 45km range) and weighs a fraction of traditional lead-acid batteries. Also won't suffer 'memory effect' and has a very low self-discharge rate -
• Shimano Tourney SIS-Index gears with quick-shift - Adjustable height seat raises to up to 43" from the ground
• Servo "anti-cling" safety brakes - premium front suspension for comfort
• Quick release battery and front wheel - Front and rear mud guards - Legal for road use - no road tax or driving licence required. Legally, no helmet nor insurance required (although we recommend both!)

YikeBike

• Not what I call a comfortable ride, but the YikeBike puts an interesting spin on the concept compact e-bike. Lack of range and durability look like its main sticking points. OK for small local rides on smooth surfaces. Certainly a fun concept, but I can’t see it going mainstream, especially with an expected price tag of between €3500-3900

In search for the perfect e-bike

• I’m whittling down the options for creating two e-bikes out of two existing mountain bikes I have languishing in my garage. The best so far is from http://www.cyclone-usa.com using a brushless motor that mounts under the main ring gear, thus giving the advantage of using the main gears for hill climbing and cruising
• The brushless motor includes a “DC motor featuring an integrated planetary gearbox that significantly multiplies the motor torque” combined with 360 or a 500W motors. The 500W looks like the one to go for with speeds up to 26mph on the flat using a 26” rim whilst drawing between 15/20 accelerating and >40amps climbing. The best power to weight battery appears to be the 24V 20Amp/hr Lion (Lithium-ion) giving a range of up to 45 miles on the flat
• The kit:

• Fitted:

• Project – hill climber. 12-18mph >6% incline, with no pedalling!

ERockIT – EV bikes

• Just discovered this video up on break.com of an electric bike that is more of a motorbike than a pushbike. Like www.izipusa.com, Stefan Gulas of www.erocket.net has created a pedal based system that uses an pedal servo accelerometer to govern speed. Too expensive at €30,000, but for an early prototype, you’d expect that exclusive price tag

Irate granny

• Funny video of a guy in a Merc who decides to hassle an old granny – big mistake dude

Granny Airbag - Watch more Funny Videos

EV - Bikes

• I’m about to convert an old mountain bike languishing in my garage to an electric bike and have been researching who are the leaders in the field
• This year was the first time they raced EV motorbikes and Brammo Racing came third

Tesco entertainment anybody?

• My wife is a big fan of Michael Bublé, so today I moseyed over to the new Tesco entertainment site and within 10 minutes had setup my account added my Tesco club-card and started downloading the Crazy Love album for £3.97. The same album on iTunes is £7.97, so a whopping £4 saving
• Well done Tesco. Now’s who’s going to beat them? Spotify maybe? The other players had better get real with their pricing structure, because now that Tesco has entered the fray, the musical pundits will now be forced to give us genuine market prices and the torrents will eventually die off, as people will prefer to have legal ownership

Can Dad’s dance?

• Robert Llewellyn demonstrating how Dad’s end up dancing in middle age. True? yeah sadly so, arf

MIT – Project elEVen

• Radu Gogoana a MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is leading a team of engineers that are building a prototype EV (electric vehicle) that uses 8000 Li-ion batteries driving a 250bhp motor capable of up to 200 miles. They hope to be able to charge the system in about 10 minutes after final trials using a smaller battery pack. The car weighs circa 2 tons and has a 0-60mph in <9secs. The weight of the motor and batteries alone makes this car non-viable, but the research work will no doubt produce some interesting results
• MIT are also working on carbon nanotube (capacitive) batteries as an alternative to ‘dirty’ Li-ion/Li-Pol batteries. The environmental impact of these legacy battery technologies outweigh their worth due to the chemical fallout involved in production

• MIT are also developing virus built batteries, quote:

“To achieve that, the researchers, including MIT Professor Gerbrand Ceder of materials science and Associate Professor Michael Strano of chemical engineering, genetically engineered viruses that first coat themselves with iron phosphate, then grab hold of carbon nanotubes to create a network of highly conductive material.

Because the viruses recognize and bind specifically to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), each iron phosphate nanowire can be electrically "wired" to conducting carbon nanotube networks. Electrons can travel along the carbon nanotube networks, percolating throughout the electrodes to the iron phosphate and transferring energy in a very short time.

The viruses are a common bacteriophage, which infect bacteria but are harmless to humans'”

more

PDC09 – Professional Developers Conference – streaming videos

XP Mode revisited

• I have another PC at home that needs to be upgraded from Vista – Win7 and might have some malware. So I fired up my Virtual Image based version of Windows 7 and then fired up Virtual PC 2007 XP Mode

• That way, say if someone visits a site that might be infected, I just shutdown the XP session and it’s sandboxed into oblivion..
• I also recommend Microsoft Security Essentials as an alternative to AVG9, as 9x has become clobber-ware, i.e. all the good things taken out of it

Bing maps (beta) in Silverlight & PhotoSynth

• Now I’m seeing the big picture. Mosey on over to the Bing Maps site and play around with the new Silverlight interface with street-eye view. Very impressive use of PhotoSynth integration with 360 degree panoramic views. Take a walk around Capitol Hill
• Next I daresay this will appear on our mobiles. ‘Take me to the best Thai restaurant and show me how to get there with a street-eye view with GPS overlay’ With a virtual ‘you’ ghosted over the GPS overlay, as you walk along.. got to be on the cards :-)

How to change your Windows7 login background

• On the theme of how to actually change your Login screens background without any third party tools , watch this short video – beware do not change any other parts of the registry! you’ve been warned
• Here is the direct path:

• Folder path: %windir%\System32\oobe\Info\backgrounds . Note the Info folder is already there, so just add ‘backgrounds’
• Folder name: backgrounds
• File size: >256KB with .JPG extension

How the Windows 7 login screen came to be

• Denise Trabona, Senior UX Lead (User Experience) walks us through how the Windows 7 logo (login) background was developed. After a good amount of fruitful internal work Microsoft decided to look to an external  illustrator called Chuck Anderson of NOPATTERN
• You can see some of Chuck’s work on Flickr 

Kindle for the PC

• I’ve heard a lot about Amazon’s Kindle, but I don’t want to fork-out for the cost of one, given that both Apple and Microsoft are due to bring our competitors in the New Year. I discovered they do the Kindle app for iPhone, Blackberry and even the humble PC

Kindle for the PC

Bing Mobile Search – Windows Mobile

• Once in awhile I see a compelling little app like Bing Mobile, which includes live maps and GPS location or approximation via your mobile network. I tried the Google Maps equivalent, but much prefer this app. If you live in the USA you get Live Traffic and Gas (fuel) prices. The full moving map with GPS tracking is way cool and if you fall out of coverage there is still a tracer in place until you regain a signal. You can also Speak your destination and it will search according to what the voice recognition software thinks you said. Close enough providing your not in a noisy car. I’m assuming you would use this at a halt, or to find a restaurant etc. Not bad for a free bit of software. Tom-Tom and co, much be worried.. it’ll kill their market share big-time!

Download for the client

Racing Green – electric tour

• Just picked this up via #carpool (twitter) on The London Imperial College’s partnership with Radical Sports SR8 to modify an existing sports car into an EV Electric vehicle. The aim is to start from the southern most tip of South America and travel to the northern most tip Alaska. Looks like it will be a very hard ride! Capable of 390Km distance and peak power of 500 BHP! 0-100km/hr in 7s. I’d like to know the data on CO2 output based on battery usage and production. So weight for weight, how much CO2 does this car consume over the journey including it’s creation… carbon fibre production probably has fairly high carbon footprint
• Looks like we’re set for EV F1 racing at some stage.. Formula 1-EV anybody?

Microsoft Security Essentials

• Quick blog post on MSE, which is Microsoft’s free antivirus/anti-spam tool. I sometimes boot into an XP Mode virtual PC for demos and was using AVG, but noticed that AVG 8x had more functionality than 9x, more of a downgrade than an upgrade..
• Works with all Windows 32bit based systems, no support for 64bit at present

Microsoft Security Essentials

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of Sixth Sense technology

• Interesting take on emerging digital human interface technologies that Pranav Mistry is developing. He plans to make it open source

Secret knock detector anybody!?

• Picked this up via MSN videos then found his site www.grathios.com
• Me thinks this device will fall off the door as it’s suction based. Funny though and a complete waste of time. I once adapted a remote control device to open a door lock solenoid, you just pressed the remote clicker and kicked open the door. Once I forgot the clicker and had to give the door a extra hard kick with a log (sic) to force the door lock. Front doors like these are notoriously easy to break through

Full length video of Atlantis launch

• Pretty impressive launch of Atlantis. The final tank separation was clean and you can see ice coming off the last main engine prior to shutdown and pre-orbital alignment . Fast-forward to 8:30 to see main tank separation

yellowBird – 3D movies anyone?

• Picked this up from #carpool on Twitter. Pretty cool technology. I especially liked looking backwards at the skiers

P2V - Creating a Virtual Hard Disk (.VHD) from a physical disk

• I’ve started experimenting with Virtual Hard Disk (.VHD) bootable environments under Windows 7. There is a free Disk2VHD tool available for converting a physical disk to a VHD. I have already created a training .VHD which I boot to for my WorkSmart training. I used the WDT (Windows Demonstration Toolkit) version of Windows 7 Ultimate and bundled Office 2010b on to it. Works like a dream, boots fast and yes you can run XP Mode Virtual PC in that environment
• I already posted on VHD Resizer, a tool from VMTOOLKIT that let’s you take an existing .VHD file and resize it to a Dynamic or Fixed disk .VHD. The only thing you need to do after resizing it, is to boot into the resized disk and using the Disk Management tool, extend the partition size to the new size. I discovered when using BCDEDIT to enter the .VHD into the partition table as a mount point, that the new size is not reflected

Roaming hacker

• I was just reading a blog BornToLearn at MSLearn.net and stumbled across this supposed hacker – could be a spoof, not investigated it yet, but from all accounts this guy is for real – funny he hasn’t hit the prime-time TV news yet..

 

Hacking a train station

 

Hacking building lighting systems

Hacking a train station