Borowitz Report: Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky is the presumptive Democratic nominee in 2052. #satire
Phrase of the day
Unplanned situational curvature. The discovery by Apple users (though I’m guessing that they weren’t the first) that pants pockets become shorter when they bend. Or as my friend Richard put it:
https://twitter.com/elex_b/status/514649459062362112
Fill ‘er up with 2.6 gallons of diesel
The Volkswagon XL1 in New York traffic
There is now a production automobile that gets 235 miles per gallon. The Volkswagon XL1 is a two-seat, diesel-electric hybrid that is now on sale in Europe. Of course, they’re only making 250 of them, with a sticker price of $150,000 but I think the concept has now been proven. And according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, who contributed this excellent article on Medium, 235 mpg is actually overkill, when it comes to fuel efficiency.
Equally surprisingly, the XL1 may actually take efficiency further than needed. RMI senior associate Jonathan Walker explains: “VW had a different goal than we do. Their goal was to make a 235-mpg car. In my opinion, you don’t need that,” he says. “RMI’s goal is get off carbon and oil. A 100 mpg car gets you there.” RMI’s Reinventing Fire analysis, he notes, can fuel its efficient vehicles, some at just half XL1’s efficiency, with any mixture of electricity, hydrogen, and advanced biofuels but no oil. “The added capital and cost of going for XL1 levels of efficiency is not worth it,” Walker says. “You start getting diminishing returns.” In other words, more modest but still radically improved fuel efficiency can yield an affordable Hypercar that doesn’t carry an XL1 price tag.
The possibilities for meaningful fuel efficiency are exciting but not yet available to regular folks. Eventually though, manufacturers will develop vehicles that save more than they cost. It can’t happen soon enough.
Photos copyright Volkswagon of America.
Trying out a new editor
I like the look of the Brackets Editor from Adobe. It’s free and open source with a healthy number of people writing extensions for it. I’ve been using Notepad++ for several years now and while it’s a perfectly capable editor, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. We’ll see if I can get comfortable with something new. I imagine that this is what a professional carpenter feels like with a new circular saw.
WiFi Performance Boost
It’s been a while since my last real tech post and if you don’t want to geek out, it’s OK if you skip this one.
I just replaced an aging Netgear wireless router that was being used as an access point (AP), with a Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AP. What a difference! Great signal strength throughout the house and I’m seeing the same throughput on wireless devices as those connected via Ethernet cable. And best of all, no Netflix buffering on our Chromecast connected TV.
UniFi Controller Software
Ubiquiti makes enterprise grade networking components at a much lower cost than a company like Cisco (the UniFi AP is under $70 from Amazon). Instead of the typical flat box sprouting antennas, the UniFi looks like a smoke detector and is designed to be mounted on a wall or ceiling. It has a single, ring shaped light (which can be turned off) that indicates its status. Unlike most consumer networking hardware, there is no configuration software on the device itself. Instead, all management is done from an application running on a computer, which must be connected to the same network. This allows for configuration and monitoring of multiple APs that can be incorporated into a single wireless network. There was a bit of a learning curve to getting the UniFi Controller software running (hint: make sure that it’s not being blocked by Windows Firewall) but once loaded, it was easy to configure the device.
With the signal coverage that I’m seeing, we have no need for more than one access point. Yet I don’t think that this class of equipment is overkill for a typical household. Last night, we had eight connected devices and my son’s computer had downloaded 1.3GB in the first hour that the UniFi was connected. This kind of demand makes it worth spending a little extra on equipment that was designed to handle much greater loads.
I should note that the UniFi AP does not include a router. It simply connects to the router installed by your ISP to greatly improve wireless connectivity. It also requires an Ethernet cable connection to the router, through which it gets power, using an included Power Over Ethernet injector.
I will keep Ubiquiti on my list of go-to hardware providers.