On the completely freaky side of things, you should really check this site out, which is a showcase of some serious art/photoshop skills. Â This guy rocks, I can only imagine the time and effort this takes. Â There are some wicked images there, the first is probably my favourite.
I saw it on Boing Boing first.
I was captivated by Wired’s article on Shai Agassi, an entrepreneur from Israel who believes he can reboot the car industry in a fascinating way with a brilliant take on electric vehicles. The article introduced me to the (apparently) growing concept of buying a car but leasing the batteries, which seems to make a lot of sense.
“…It was an unorthodox mashup of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan—unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go—all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity—the minutes.
There would be plugs in homes, offices, shopping malls. And when customers couldn’t wait to “fill up,” they’d go to battery exchange stations where they would pull into car-wash-like sheds, and in a few minutes, a hydraulic lift would swap the depleted battery with a fresh one. Drivers wouldn’t pay a penny extra: The ERGO would own the battery.”
This is a novel take on an old problem, how long it takes to recharge a battery. It’s not going to work if you can’t get a reasonable range out of a 5 minute “fill up”. I also love the idea of an operating system for your car that has some intelligence built into it, it makes tons of sense. The potential of a location-aware vehicle alone is considerable, especially in traffic management.
It’s a fascinating read, I can’t wait to see if this is a success. He really strongly believes he can change the world, and I have all of my fingers crossed that he does it. Read it now.
We spent some time at Mom’s trailer this weekend and had a good time in spite of the rain, maybe due to the fact that we were lucky enough to be able to play Rock Band when the rain did come down. Just ask Nikki how long I have been whining about this, she will tell you. Well I have never played until now and with the help of some helpful cousins the lads and I were rocking out with, um varying degrees of success. It’s the best family game I could imagine. Maybe Santa will provide this year?
Here’s a couple is shots from the jam session.
The first double-arm transplant recipient is well on his way to giving high-fives and thumbs-up to his team of 40 doctors and nurses. Amazing.
At the risk of incurring any further backlash about the iPhone from disgruntled friends and family, I am blogging from the very thing right now.
I must say it seems to actually work, but that won’t help when the grumbling and hostilities continue. I didn’t factor that in when I was getting the thing, it’s getting to the point where I can’t show anybody any of the new little doodads I find.
I’m kidding of course, but only a bit.
And now a random iPhone picture:
Well in a fit of crazed consumption, I went out yesterday and got an iPhone. I don’t really know how it happened, I sort of woke up with the thing in my hand, a sweaty 36 month contract crumpled into the other.
Two things now come to mind:
1. It’s better than expected.
2. Nikki wants one bad.
I “got out of” my own contract by simply giving my phone to Jordy. It was a cheap trick really, not fair to Nikki since we have no other children who are old enough for her to pawn her phone off to. So now I have to be careful and not enjoy it too much, or there will be iPhone friction, which is not good.