Brad Ideas - Comments

BMW vs Audi

Monthly Car Lease — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:21:49 -0800

BMW and Audi have sort of been stretching the limits when it comes to this kind of technology.

Cool post, very interesting

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:25:39 -0800

Cool post, very interesting information!
lbps loan modification

I'm torn. Obviously this

Matthew Newton — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:40:59 -0800

I'm torn. Obviously this would mean more working opportunities for those who need it, but then again the weekend is being eroded bit by bit and it irks me.

It seems that the companies don't believe they would generate enough business to compensate for running up their costs so much.

Hi

Dan Mitroi — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:41:12 -0800

Very nice trip log, Thank you it gives me some ideas for my own!
Dan Mitroi European Tourism

Frequent Flyer Porgram

Michael — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:43:28 -0800

I have similar experiences with several airlines. I changed from LH to UA 3 years back and still have LH miles which I tried
to use now. A miles & more ticket Duesseldorf to Montreal is at 60000 miles plus 618.36 CAD fees.

For the same dates you get a similar flight on expedia (Going leg identical, return leg different routing but also 1 stop) for
696 CAD. Identical flights (but not a LH ticket) go for 765 CAD. If you insist on LH paper it's 1166 CAD.

The Fee structure tends to be a bit better at

Ebay feed back

Anonymousebayer's — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:59:16 -0800

I agree that the Ebay feedbacks are bullshit.

You are in a way obligated by the sellers to give them positive feedback.
Even if you have been a perfect buyer, They won`t give you a positive feedback right away.
Instead 97% wait to see the feedback you will give them before giving you your feedback.

So if you are not happy with their product and mention it (they will revenge you)
regardless if you are right or wrong
for them a `good ebayer` is someone who buys from them, pays them fast and is satisfied with what they bought.

If you are not happy they automaticaly revenge you (you are a bad customer)

Lifi

Barry Sweezey — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:37:17 -0800

Information can be transmitted through the visible light emitted from the traffic signal with lifi. No need for a radio transmitter.

Lithuania

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:39:06 -0800

The best in Lithuania. Most of them similar
Tele2 prepaid. Its around 6 cents to tele2 and 18 cents to others network.
Bite prepaid similar rates
TeleMaxima prepaid: with 1 dollar per month charge, you get around 6 cents to all networks, but the quality of network not the best.
Ezys Prepaid. 2 cents in Ezys network and 18 cents to other networks. Thre is option to pay 2 dollars per month and call at 6 cent per minute to all networks.

I completely agree with you

Niina — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:53:28 -0800

I completely agree with you Brad. I don't understand why weekend deliveries are not the norm. Retail, Restaurant, and overall entertainment industries work weekends. Why can't the postal service. Jobs are needed now more than ever. There are plenty of people who would kill for the job. Prices for weekend delivery should be the same as every other day as well. Transportation is no way limited on the weekend so there is no excuse for the price increase. This generation needs everything everyday, and as soon as possible, which in most cases, next day. Suppliers better meet demand, or they will fail.

registering irish citizenship

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:54:02 -0800

All applications end up in the Bank of Ireland!!!! It is a Scam!!

Thanks Brad. Should make for

Matthew Newton — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:03:37 -0800

Thanks Brad. Should make for an watch.

Green flight & Better Place

brad — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:44:01 -0800

I did attend the Green Flight Challenge day at NASA, so I know about it, and automated flight is interesting but is a different problem. However, you can see my notes on airports, “flying cars” (non-standard meanings of that phrase) and others on this blog. You still need robocars to get to the airports, and of course a new air traffic control system — which was built but not deployed at NASA.

Better Place is a tough problem. Being able to swap batteries sure would be nice, but so much stands in the way. I think that the industry is too young to standardize the battery pack. Right now a lot of the innovation in electric cars is taking place in the battery pack, and I expect this to continue for some time. With Better Place, customers are not buying the battery, and it must fit a standard form factor. The first is just as dangerous to innovation — you want products that are bought by early adopters, one at a time, for high speed innovation. One size does not fit all when it comes to electric car batteries.

And the other hard part is that it’s a lot of work to get the swap stations in so many places that it really delivers the convenience people want — for human driving. For robocars, the swap station model works fine because you can have different swap stations for different battery cases, and they do not have to be super conveniently located, and robots don’t even mind a 15 minute wait for a swap (or they make an appointment for one.)

EN-V Cars or LIT cars are

Matthew Newton — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:52:29 -0800

EN-V Cars or LIT cars are how I envisage most personal transport to happen, given that such a high proportion of day to day journeys are conducted solo.

You wouldn't happen to know of any efforts to standardise battery design or is it too early?

It should be interesting with Better Place to see how taxi companies react as this will be a good early signal of how things will take off in Driverless Car land.

On another topic, do you have any thoughts on the CAFE Foundation Challenge & Pipistrel USA's efforts? (for those reading - http://cafefoundation.org/v2/gfc_main.php).

It seems like this has almost immediate potential for pilot-less development considering that a) auto-pilot technology is already pretty much good enough and b) the quantity of potential hazards is much smaller. It seems like the biggest obstacle would just be a lack of a sufficiently motivated big-money company.

The stuff locker

brad — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:01:00 -0800

If the stuff locker plan is to work, you need some reasonably standardized sizes, not just among the Taxis but with the private cars. One reason private car ownership is made easier by robocars is you no longer need to buy a car that meets all your needs because you can hire one for special needs — cargo hauling, 4WD trip, large group, longer range, your battery is almost out, couple with only 1 car sometimes needs 2, etc. If you no longer need a car to handle all those things you might be happy with a much simpler (and cheaper) 1-2 person car for example. But then you need to transfer stuff easily, so standardized lockers are a win.

I also think BetterPlace is not a great idea for private cars unless you have a lot of them around, but it’s great for robocars and taxis, which don’t mind returning to a depot as long as it’s not too far away to do a battery swap. BetterPlace needs cars to all standardize their battery shape and also for car owners to not own their batteries. However, a taxi fleet can get by with just a few swap stations and it does not need to be compatible with other cars.

Regarding the solutions, I

Matthew Newton — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:32:52 -0800

Regarding the solutions, I did see your "stuff box" idea. This is interesting and will maybe end up being a point of difference for one particular robotaxi operator?

It will be a fun exercise watching them differentiate - luxury, waiting time, cost, features... there will be lots of ways. Maybe one brand will be completely funded by advertising? (Watch an ad at the start of the trip, ride the first 5 minutes for free?).

I think the world will most likely just adopt a New-York attitude to carrying things around.

If you see the article on my blog today, Better Place has just delivered their first cars to Israel. Their battery-swap technology will surely be the most viable solution.