The Threadless Nut

The other day, out of nowhere (which is where most things actually come from), Declan fires this at me:

Dad? Do you get a new computer when you die?

That got me wondering, assuming that there is some sort of afterlife, is there even a need for computers? What about the Internet? Does some sort of perfect awareness of all things make it unnecessary?

If there an internet there, what’s on it? Is there a huge iTunes Music Store where everything is free and without DRM? Is there any porn? Can you get spyware on your PC? Is there a fallen angel that just needs my account number to transfer his vast wealth, paying me a “modest” fee in the process?

Are the PCs any better than what we have here? Do they crash randomly and require reboots to stay running? How often do you have to upgrade, if at all? Is there a Blue Screen of …. umm… Death? Can you get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

All tough questions which will likely never be answered. All those near death and death returnees talk about is the white light and their deceased relatives welcoming them. Not one of them noticed the really important things, like were they Macs or PCs? (Though I know they’re Linux boxes)

So, the subject line of this one is only semi-sarcastic. Yes I am capable of that, I’m even capable of not being sarcastic at all, it just doesn’t happen much.

Hybrid cars have a lot of whiz-bang neato-ness that certainly appeals to my inner geek. Every time we go to lunch in one of the many Priuses (Priusii, Priiii?) that are reproducing in the parking lot (yes, I’m completely convinced that if you leave 2 of them parked next to each other for more than 6 hours, they spawn another one) we all like to look at the cool display that shows where the motive force of the vehicle is coming from, or how much gas we are not using, or how many baby seals we have saved on this trip.

However, many of you (ok, several….well, that guy over there) have heard me voice disappointment in the fuel consumption that they have produced in the real world. When word of hybrids came out a while ago, I was hoping to see MPG figures in the 70s, but it looks like they are pretty firmly set in the 40s. Of course, that’s great and all, using less gas is a Good Thing ™ and there are some aspects of it that you can’t put a price on.

That fact in mind, here’s what the price is: Cars.com study on overall costs. Of course, this study may be completely bogus and flawed, but the gist is that it costs several thousand dollars more over the lifetime (defined as 8 years at 15k miles per and $3 per gallon) of the vehicle to own a hybrid.

If you’re perfectly happy paying that premium to know that you’re using less fuel, or for any reason, that’s great. As that fish with the newspapers says in a a Spongebob toon “Take it, friends. Arm yourselves with knowledge.” Yes, I’ve accepted the fact that everything in life can somehow be related to Spongebob.

it’s a bird…

it’s a plane…

it’s a … Civic?

So apparently Honda is branching out into the aviation industry. They’ve got a pretty neat looking little jet.

Finally, something to trade the CR-V in on.

Check out more at HondaJet.

Ok, I understand that technology is helping us in all sorts of ways, but this is a case of engineers gone wild.

The Smart Pressure ™ tire gauge

Ok, this is a tire gauge, a digital tire gauge, so far I’m fine with that. Then we add the ability to enter in your target pressure. It will display your target pressure next to the actual pressure. So, this seems pretty unnecessary, but I suppose it’s still ok. You don’t have to remember what pressure you’re going for, and I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that it remembers this setting between pressure setting sessions, so you don’t have to go look anything up.

Here’s where it gets out of hand. So we’ve got a pressure gauge that displays 2 numbers next to each other. You think that would be enough, you could look at the 2 numbers, determine if pressure needs to go up or down, and adjust accordingly. No, apparently that is not enough, this thing needs to change colors to tell you what to do. Of course, now you have to remember that green means add air, red means dump air, and blue means go have a coffee, but I suppose that’s easier than figuring out that 30 is less than 32.