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.

Medallion, Tour de Stellenbosch

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Yesterday I took to the road once again, riding a ride I’ve probably ridden more times than I have the Argus, the Mushroom ride, or as it’s more officially known the Medallion Tour de Stellenbosch . I’ve also just realised that blogging from my phone isn’t as eaay as I’d hoped, thus the hanging link.

In any case, I always enjoy the ride, and yesterday was great besides one or two concerns. Firstly being the start time. The 100km started at 6.30, which is great. Then the short route started at 8, also fine. But only starting the medium (62km) ride at 8:30 is ridiculous. I, being unseeded, ended up only starting at 9, as its getting warm, and, slightly dishearteningly, as a large proportion of the long riders are returning.

The other issue being that as we arrive to start, we’re told our ride is being cut short by 5kms due to roadworks. How difficult would it have been to just add a small loop around there to keep the distance up. The roads outside of Stellenbosch wind and crisscross so often, they could easily have got around the roadworks.

I won’t even go into what the rides cost these days compared to a couple years back. I’m just glad i pre-entered and didn’t have to pay the effective R195 late entry fee.

This was also the first race that I rode without my transponder :) so it wasn’t even timed after all that.

/me

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note: the actual title of this article is “/me ‘greater than symbol’/3 Logitech” but it appears WP sees this as some kind of html code, so…

I’ve always been a fan of Logitech products. They make good, hardy and elegant/pretty looking hardware. I’ve had my current wireless mouse/keyboard set for the past 5 years without any problems. And so it was with great excitement that I purchased a second hand set of Logitech 2.1 speakers about a year ago. They were a great set of speakers, and a massive upgrade from old cheap standard “comes with the PC” speakers I had been experiencing the last 10 years.

Suffice to say, I never knew what I was missing in terms of sound until I had listened to music through these speakers, and these are fairly entry level speakers from Logitech. In any case, it made beautiful music and pumped a previously unheard amount of bass out. That was until about three days ago when I got back from class turned on my music and nothing happened. I check all the plugs and connections in my PC and I notice that the power light is off, even though it should be on.

So I follow the wires back to the sub. A beautifully sealed wooden box. I unscrew all the screws I can find which results in a small opening on the back of the case in which I can look in. I do a quick multimeter test and it appears as though the transformer isn’t putting out any current. That’s ok, but I can’t get to the transformer, and can’t get any of the electronics out to test components. I look in and can see that all the planks have been glued together, to give a lovely, no nails, no fuss (for assembly) product.

My only option really is to try split the case down one of the joins. I manage this down the one side, damaging the fascia quite noticeably, But find to do one of the other sides is going to be virtually impossible. 10min worth of trying has me splitting the wood in places it wasn’t supposed to. So I went and bought myself a hacksaw :D

A lot of sawing and dust later and I find myself with a plank of wood with a fairly large transformer attached to it. I still can’t take most of the electronics out as the wires attached to the speaker are too short and are soldered on every where. Pull out the soldering iron, which decides it no longer wants to work, take it apart and decided I need a soldering iron to fix it. To fix my soldering iron in any case.

So that’s where I am at the moment. Sitting with a broken speaker set, broken soldering iron, and my Headphones need some soldering work themselves. But what am I to do…

I miss music in my room.