The Pensieve

On my daily commute to my office, my only companion are the various FM radio channels. Most of them were hyping the World Tobacco Day on the 31st of May which included how much a person would have spent if he smokes a few packets to the various health issues. All this was nice until on that same day, where there were a few ads on the same channels sponsored from a tobacco company enticing listeners on their new offerings! Oh what irony!

Merry Christmas wishes to one and all! In other news, the partial Internet free days make me ponder on reliant we have become on these series of 'tubes' that send and receive data from various servers. This brings in light of the hassles that you may face when you become fully attached to online applications. My e-mail provider provides LDAP and is online-only. You have a plethora of online-apps that provide basic word-processing, do your taxes, view pictures and store presentations etc. If you have the cable cut, you loose access to everything. Telephone and credit card companies are urging their users to move online, to receive bills and statement alerts via e-mail rather than the traditional mail in the pretext of accessibility and saving the environment. I'm not against saving the environment, but most of us are moving towards a system where there is only one way to get informed about the various activities in life and if this one way gets disrupted, I wonder what woul...

Honda recently offered a slash in their new Civic Hybrid model. Though not all are sure if it was a publicity move or an inventory clearing sale, I believe with good mileage figures and a growing concern on how green everyone should be, hybrid cars will see an increase in prominence in the Indian roads. The Indian market is price sensitive. Be it an industrialist who is buying a Rolls Royce or a car enthusiast pining for a BMW, the inevitable question remains: "What is the mileage?". This has led to a slew of Diesel cars in the market . Though economic to us, it still fails against the 'green' parameter. The other competitor to hybrids are the all-electric vehicles which may be termed greener (assuming that the cost of production, battery is far less harmful than the actual emissions), they lack in range, ability to quickly recharge (which seems to be a 5 minute affair for it's counterparts) and the lack of accessible recharge locations (do you think at the curren...

Hypermilers... One of my earlier post glanced upon the techniques to achieve better fuel economy while driving. And I chanced to stumble upon an article that has expert advise and a group obsessed with saving fuel. Some of their techniques match mine, but most seems specific to highway driving and/or driving a hybrid. But with a little effort, these can be applied to city-driving too and you may be able to reap some benefits while driving through the traffic laden routes at Chennai! A point to note: Safety comes first, fuel economy next. In the mean time, I am trying to layout a traffic simulation application, where you can try out different kinds on signals (the regular contdown style, more intelligent ones that can sense the traffic buildup) and to find the right timing and location to ensure your car / bike keeps running. Will post the architecture / design of this system when it is done...

Paradigm shift while driving... While the preference for most while going for a car is towards performance and economy, most stop after their purchase and do not follow up in honing their skills to practice safe and economical driving... Most reviews of automobiles state the raw power and how fast the vehicle can go. Granted, a speed of 175+kmph is high for Indian roads, I do not see anyone doing this during their normal day-to-day ride which would represent more than 98% of us, commuters. The recent Ford Fiesta Max Marathon drive had helped in changing the way people drive their cars. This is a different race, not focused on speed and time, but on economy and mileage. A few do's and dont's that worked out for me: Plan to use the brakes less . Fuel is spent in keeping the vehicle running. Brakes reduces the efficiency by introducing friction and thus limiting the speed. Which means that you start planning ahead to avoid the brake. You then tend to leave ample space betw...