Minecraft Peculiarities

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I haven’t played minecraft since November, but was lus to play the other day so downloaded the latest version: Beta 1.3_01. I ran the program, loaded one of my maps and was met with an unplayable environment. Severe lag being the main cause, and when movement did occur it resulted in unstoppable spinning movements. I tried playing the in browser version, but for some reason it won’t let me out of the menu and into the game, it appeared to not register my mouse clicks.

First thing I did was update my Java to the latest version, this appeared to have no noticeable effect.

Next was my graphics driver which at least appeared to solve the lag issue, but the mouse would start my man spinning at the gentlest nudge. Searching for such issues mainly resulted in issues with Java and the in browser version. Finally found a reddit post mentioning Synergy (which I run). Turning off Synergy fixed the issue so my Minecraft is once again playable, although it does hamper my multi-tasking abilities with Synergy closed.

Time for a quick post

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As Toetsweek leers it’s second last head and I put in hours of work on projects which will probably only count a minor part of my final mark, i look back at 3 years of Engineering.

Someone asked me the other day what I was studying, and I responded with my standard: “Engineering”. “Fun, fun fun…” he replied sarcasticly, and so I thought about it a bit. Now it’s not that I haven’t enjoyed my last 3 years. THey’ve been great, filled with all kinds of adventures, new experiences and new people. But my course itstelf hasn’t exaclty been fun. I’ve learnt a heck of a lot, and I’ve had the opportunity to apply a fair amount of it. But after 3 years, I can finally actually say I enjoy my course.

This being said, I haven’t been this busy with varsity work ever before, but I enjoy. The 20-30 hours spent in the Electronics labs the last week, as soul destroying as they may have been, were great. I really, really enjoy design. It’s teaching me things I’ve always wanted to be able to do, but never got around to. Mechatronics, although the theory is relatively boring, the practical work is once again great.

At the moment I can’t wait till the second semester. Where we have minimal class, and we can work full out on our skripsie.

For now however I am faced with a series of tests. Saturday is Heat Transfer, followed by me riding my 9th Argus Cycle Tour on Sunday. Monday leads to Electronics with Mechatronics on Tuesday and rounding off the week with Project Management on Friday. But that’s next week. First I have a project to finish off. And let’s not get started on my private projects. OBDii is my current interest.

Cars that automatically turn off

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While watching the latest episode of Top Gear I was reminded of cars which have been designed to turn off when they stop at a robot. This is in an effort to reduce fuel consumption. This kind of functionality has generally been reserved by the green cars of the world, the Toyota Priuses and Volkswage Blue Motions. The cars which are actively trying to reduce their fuel consumption.

Why then does the latest BMW M3 come with this feature? Surely this small feature will be but a blimp on the map of M3 fuel consumption? In theory I don’t really have an issue with this though. Using less petrol is great, better for the environment etc. But there is one specific reason I would not get a car with this function.

Car batteries die. It’s a fact of life. Now the way it generally happens is that you wake up one morning to go to work, and oh no! The car won’t start. Or a slightly larger inconvenience can occur and you’re at the shops and it’s raining. And there’s not enough power left in the battery to start the car. Now this isn’t necessarily as a result of negligence, leaving the lights on etc. But car batteries only have an expected life of 3-4 years.

So my biggest fear with this function is the thought of it not starting again. Stop at the robots, lights green, put the foot on the accelerator and nothing happens. Now it’s not only yourself you’re inconveniencing, it’s the queue of hooting, impatient people behind you. Now you sit in your M3 and wave at all the angry people driving past you as you wait for someone to save you.

Now I’ll put it out there, that BMW might well have thought about this and put some special capacitor, or other energy storing device into the car to ensure that it will always start again. But who knows.