My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2007

Joost Beta software and web application: Admittedly I don’t know enough about the technology being used in this Beta-only trial or if Joost is going to fly or not, but I know enough to say I’m interested in trying it. Two big names behind this project (originally called The Venice Projectâ„¢) are Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. These are the guys who developed Skype, the voice over Internet protocol service, and they definitely understand how to uses technology this growing broadband world. The Internet TV project began in early 2006 and has now grown to 150 people in five countries. Its still to early to know if they have another winner on their hands, but I’ll venture to guess they do. If you want to know more, check out their website or blog.

I have a favor to ask: I’ve signed up as a Beta-tester, but unfortunately have been put in the ‘hold’ stack since there is probably overwhelming interest. If any of you are already approve beta testers and have a spare token, I’d love to give Joost a try.

What is Joostâ„¢? Here’s what their FAQs says:

Joostâ„¢ is a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We’re in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programmes, channels and adverts. You can also see some things that we think will enhance the TV experience: searching for programmes and channels, for example, as well as social features like chat. There are many more new features to come!

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Posted By RichC on January 18, 2007

In keeping my ‘phone to blog’ setup alive, I’ll include a photo of one of the lowest retail gasoline prices I’ve seen for a while — $1.89. (diesel was a bit higher here, but was $2.29 off I-71 in central Ohio) According to what is being reported, this might not even be the lowest? National average pricing for unleaded is expected to move to about $2.00 per gallon.

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Posted By RichC on January 18, 2007

Daniel Tammet has written a book, Born on a Blue Day, about his life as an Autistic Savant. He is an extraordinary 27 year old from the UK and is fortunate enough to be able function normally in society. In day to day life, he does has a compulsive need for order and routine well a particular precision with amounts of foods and exact times for tea. Daniel has developed the mastery of ten languages and is gifted with numbers ability to do calculations. He demonstrated his ability with numbers by reciting the number pi up to the 22,514th digit, a European record. The book details his relationship with numbers (think “Rainman” the movie) as well as the challenges of growing up with this unusual gift/curse.

In his childhood years, he struggled with epilepsy and seizures. The medicines being prescribed made him drowsy and slowed his progress early on in school. Daniel might now be classified as having Aperger syndrome which was not defined until 1994; it is characterized by an impairment in social interaction and repetitive behaviors associated with Autistic Savants. He mentioned that during his childhood he faced anxiety and loneliness and had difficulty understanding why he was different than his peers.

Along with the biographical information, Daniel shares how he views numbers. He ‘sees’ them as colors and with personality, the number 9 is ‘blue’ as is Wednesday — the day he was born. The book provides an interesting view inside the mind of a a Autistic Savant and is well worth reading. It might also be interesting to peruse his blog or read the first chapter of his book available in PDF format.

EDIT: Was forwarded this ABC Good Morning America clip and thought I would include it.

Category: Books | 12 Comments »
Tags: autisitic, blue day, daniel tammet

Posted By RichC on January 17, 2007

I didn’t expect to enjoy watching the HGTV series “Living with Ed” as much as I have, but see it as a great way to present environmental living ideas to a broad audience. The storyline of the series is a ‘green-oriented’ husband (Ed Begley) and ‘lesser-green’ wife (Rachelle) dealing with each others lifestyle choices in of all places … Hollywood California. Both are accomplished actors on their own and each are casted as themselves having to mediate choices for their home and garden. Ed is constantly tweaking ‘his’ existing home which is slightly ‘less’ comfortable than a few other California homes that Rachelle ‘might’ prefer.

In show number three, Ed visited the ‘garage’ of car collector Jay Leno. It was quite a treat to see just a little bit of what Jay has in his garage … um, ‘warehouse.’ After talking for awhile about electric vehicles, Jay took Ed over to one of his latest eco-friendly projects: a biodiesel powered jet engine powered sports car. (see previous post) Check it out on Sunday nights at 10PM.

I’ll post a couple links below … until someone is offended … that can be ‘right click/saved as’ for those who want to view quicktime episodes of the programs after they have aired:

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Tags: green, hgtv, living with ed

Posted By RichC on January 16, 2007

A company at the forefront of the international copyright problems is looking to raise money to purchase a ‘seaplatform’ called Sealand and declare its independence. The former military platform is located 7 miles off the coast of England and it is already independent from Britain in a 1967 court ruling. Pirate Bay is looking to relocate to places less likely to enforce copyright laws and has a fundraising campaign underway in hopes to own its own sovern island … or ‘platform’ as the case may be. Pirate Bay is well known in Internet circles as the Swedish file-sharing website that enables peer-to-peer file distribution through torrents. Enforcement has been clamping down on these companies who ‘help’ individuals transfer ‘pirated’ movies, music and software.

Pirate Bay recently moved their servers to the Netherlands after being shut down by Swedish police. It has since returned to Sweden, but Swedish authorities are under pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America and similar groups, and the US government, to shut it down again.

How much Sealand would cost is unclear, but a Spanish firm has it estimated at almost $1 billion.

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Posted By RichC on January 15, 2007

As of January 2007, John Deere is providing addition information on biodiesel and other biofuels including a 6.5-minute video that overviews John Deere’s position on the use of biodiesel. Back in 2001 John Deere was one of the first companies to accept lower percentage blends in their equipment (B5) and along with Jeep initiated a factory fill program in 2005. The company continues to invest money and work with the biofuel industry to improve and encourage biodiesel use. Check out the online WMV video at this Deere Website link.

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Posted By RichC on January 14, 2007

As an original “before the salt” Jimmy Buffett fan, I’m embarrassed to have missed his 60th birthday — I was there in the 1970s and have the original vinyl albums to prove it … along with books and concert memories — right Jeff? (am I getting that old?). Anyway, happy belated birthday Bubba.
😀
Time has changed my priorities as they do most of us; we graduate college, get married and raise families, yet there are still parts that enjoy escaping to the ‘dreams’ of southern latitudes and attitudes. Yes I’ve become a bit more responsible and reality keeps me from doing anything radical, but there are times I contemplate an eccentric mañana. If I’m in the mood to reminisce or extinguish a bad day, playing a few Buffett songs will usually bring a smile to my face and pleasant dreams to my sleep.

Thanks to Andy Bowers of the Slate podcast (included in the “What I’m Listening to” sidebar), who reminded me that “the Pirate turned 60” while reading Jody Rosen’s article The Mystery of Margaritaville. Jody, in her article, attempted to dissect the Jimmy Buffett following and what really is a “parrothead” … personally speaking, she missed much of it as it relates to me. Nevertheless, I suspect she was right about a few other light and hard core concert goers. For me it is more than just an evening of escapism … the lyrics in many songs touch my love of sailing and desire to be on the ocean. The dream of self sufficiency, independence and freedom which are part of voyagers are desires of my soul. Jimmy Buffett rekindles that and helps me to reset my course. Someday … someday … yes someday hopefully soon … I’ll be sailing again and know that Jimmy Buffett music will be with me.

I’m adding a Quicktime clip of a 1998 Charlie Rose interview with Jimmy Buffett below; it was one of the first ‘video to computer’ encodings that I archived and so I updated the codec to H.264 figuring this was a good place to include it.
 

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Tags: jimmy buffett

Posted By RichC on January 12, 2007

Here’s a little more on fuel, particularly biodiesel being pumped in colder weather. On my way home from Northeastern Ohio I stopped to fill my VW Jetta TDI at my normal stop, the I-71 Sunoco renewable fuels biodiesel pump. (see previous posts) It wasn’t all that cold (40 degrees Fahrenheit) but the B20 ran very slow. I tried several times to reset the pump selecting B10, B5 and B2 … each reduction in percentage getting progressively faster, but still much slower than the ULSD petroleum only selection. For the fun of it I used my trusty Palm Treo 700p to grab a little video comparison that I’ll include below. (hey … what about that new Apple iPhone? Very tempting … thankfully its going to be Cingular so I won’t have to be tempted.)
🙂

Category: Automotive, Biodiesel | No Comments »
Tags: biodiesel

Posted By RichC on January 11, 2007

Not that I’m filling up my fuel sipping Volkswagen Jetta TDI all that much, since 600 to 700 miles per tank are average distances between fills, but finding a diesel pump without the new warning label is becoming a thing of the past. It seems only a few months ago (link) we were starting to notice the new labeling on fuel pumps, now its unlikely to find pumps without the label. From a consumer perspective, the change to ULSD has happened without much fanfare; I asked a pickup driver next to me how he like the new ULSD — “Huh???” was his reply.
🙂

Like much of the eastern half of the US, here in Ohio we still haven’t seen much of winter. Even though it has been warmer than usual, I’ve inched my biodiesel percentage down to about 10%, or B10 (an estimate) which is where I feel most comfortable. I’m sure B20 would be just fine especially blended with winterized ULSD, but similar to my political views, I’m a little conservative. Actually this past fill was the first in a long time that has not been at a public biodiesel pump, which has been a great change for conscientious Ohio drivers. As for ULSD diesel prices, I paid $2.39 when topping off on January 10th and from watching the signs … per gallon prices are down about 10 to 20 cents in recent days. (see Bloomberg article on warmer weather in US and Europe)

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Posted By RichC on January 11, 2007

According to AutomotiveNews, Ford will not be selling diesel cars in America. Unfortunately for diesel advocates, many who have been
looking for domestically produced diesel vehicles, we will be left high and dry by the Ford Motor Co. Hmm … what about those “Bold Moves?” According to Mark Fields, Ford’s U.S. division president, “diesels will be limited to Ford’s truck offerings in America” because Ford would be unable to price diesel cars fairly. According to Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s product development boss, Ford has “done a lot of assessment from a customer perspective, looking at what diesel offers in terms of fuel economy and performance versus cost and at this point in time, we would say that GTDI (gasoline turbocharged direct injection) seems to be the better alternative.”

Although Ford sells efficient diesels in Europe — including the 50 mpg Focus — they are not able to meet the new emission standard in place in the US and because they would be unable to be profitable after adding the appropriate emissions reduction equipment. Instead, Ford will focus on turbocharger and gasoline direct injection as well as hybrids. Toyota is taking a similar stance, suggesting that the new US regulations make diesels less cost effective than hybrids. (link) I hope they are both wrong and I won’t be surprised to see them banging out a ‘slap together diesel’ well after other companies are growing this smart and exciting automotive segment.

EDIT from Autobloggreen: “Honda and Nissan, Toyota’s main Japanese competitors, have committed to bring clean diesel models to the U.S. by the end of the decade. Toyota, which has been quick to capitalise on hybrids but slow to jump on the diesel bandwagon, is hoping that its agreement with Japanese truck maker Isuzu Motors in November will give it a jump start. But it now seems that Toyota may not pursue a diesel strategy in the short term while plug-in hybrids are the flavour of the month.”

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