Matt Ingenthron's Stream of Consciousness

Wednesday March 16, 2005

Some Rational Energy Thought for the Automobile

I found this a very interesting posting. Again, with most things /., it wasn't so much the posting but rather the comments.

I'm particularly heartened by the person who posted this link. It's part of what I keep saying when it comes to this issue. The real question isn't whether or not we as consumers (and constituents) should be pushing automakers (and law makers) to build electric/hybrid/hydrogen/natural gas cars. The real issue is where the energy will come from, how it will be stored, and how it will get converted into us moving from place to place. The regulatory issues here are HUGE too.

I do hope we come up with a modern source of energy for people. So does the continent of Asia. As soon as you add two billion people to consumption of energy, the equations will change. Maybe I am in the wrong industry.

Sunday February 27, 2005

Some weekend sport driving

So, this week I drove an RUF Porsche, a Porsche Boxter, a Mazda Miata, a G35 coupe (the car I own), an RX-8, a Mercedes Benz E55 and a Corvette (C5, no C6 was available). The really cool thing is I drove these all on a couple of different tracks. Laguna Seca, a track set up on the streets of downtown Seattle, Midfield raceway and an anonymous oval track (aren't they all?). I only slid off the track a few times and slammed into a couple walls.

By now you're thinking, what kind of money does he have to do this? Answer: $50.

This was the last of my Christmas gifts. I picked up Grand Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2. I also got the Logitech steering wheel and pedals (a worthy investment) for it, so now I can run all of these tracks from home.

My review? I'm not a big time 'gamer' but I do like a good racing game now and again. The physics are awesome. The car dives when you break, leans on the corner of the wheel you're turning with, the sound is very realistic. When you slam into things you shouldn't (not that I'd ever do anything like that) the image goes all blurry. The controls are better than GT3. In GT3 I almost couldn't stand to drive with the standard controller, as the car never really returned to center. I've never had trouble getting a real car to stay within the lines. :) In GT4 I didn't have that issue. Some of the stuff is a bit fakey, like being able to bounce off the walls and keep going, but I'm okay with the idea that this game isn't about damage to the car and what not. Leave that to metal gear and grand theft auto. Give me realistic physics, images and a realistic game feel. I think I have all of that, but I'll need a few thousand more laps in the driver's seat to get it right.

Monday July 26, 2004

Lexus Taste of Luxury

One of my colleagues here at Sun invited me to the "Lexus Taste of Luxury" events this weekend. It's one of those things where you are told how cool the Lexus's are compared to other vehicles. Lexus did a nice job hosting this event. Good food and great driving. I drove, in no particular order:

• BMW 745i
• Lexus SC430
• Lexus LS430 (sport edition, who knew they had one?!)
• Jaguar XJ8 convertible(?)
• Cadillac XLR
• Mercedes ML500
• Cadillac Escalade
• Lexus RX330
• Lexus IS300
• BMW X3

and possibly a few others....

I have a few rants, but overall it was a lot of fun. I think I only knocked over three pylons (cones for the rest of you) the whole day. They didn't take times or anything like that, but I was consistantly catching up to the car in front of me. :)

Inaugral Automotive Entry

I'm getting ready to make a quick entry about my automotive pursuits from the weekend, but I decided first I should explain this category and why I created it.

There are certain things that go together with computer geekyness. A computer geek need not have all of these traits, but the correlation between these items and computer geekyness is high. Examples are:

• Enjoying mathematics
• Being very practical in things financial
  (with the requisite areas of weakness of course)
• Being practical in things automotive
• Enjoying taking things apart and figuring out how they work
  (I think this trait leads to computer geekyness, because it's not a secret that these things haven't evolved enough to make sense to most people)
• Finding out where the limits of things is
  (ex.: overclocking, racing, not working on things until up against a deadline)
• Enjoying automomobiles and motorcycles
• Having an ability to work very well with people of a similar mindset

You'll note that two of those are mutually exclusive. Or it could be said they share a mutex which is locked by one or the other interest at birth or shortly thereafter in early socialization. But I digress...

Anyway, automotively speaking, I'm in the latter category. I've always been interested in cars. I don't know why this is. When I was young I watched a lot of CHiPs, and my mother reports that I would have a HotWheels^TM car in both hands at nearly all times. I don't quite know why this is, as my parents weren't overtly automotive enthusiasts. Pehaps with enough data, some kind of explanation would emerge, but I don't have that data-- so I'll just blame it on genetics.

I'm slightly different in that I don't pledge allegiance to any one particular brand or type of vehicle. They all have their merits (with the occasional exception).

I've done SCCA solo in the past (and want to do more), I currently drive an Infiniti G35c and I enjoy carving up the Santa Monica Canyon roads on the weekend. I wish I had more time and money to persue this stuff some more-- I just haven't had it.

That gives you a primer. Now you can listen in on any of my rantings/ravings in this area as time goes on. It is, afterall, called a stream of consciousness.