Intelligent carsMay 9, 2007
I read an interesting post on Slashot today about "Intelligent" cars and how they can save as much fuel as hybrid cars. The idea is that if your car is fed traffic information, it can do a good job predicting when it should go into neutral and coast, thereby saving fuel.
This is something I realized last year after I learned to drive a manual transmission: If the light up ahead had gone red, then there's no sense driving up to the light and stopping with your breaks. Instead, you can save gas by going into neutral and gliding to the red light. Or if you're driving at 60 km/h on a long downhill stretch, you can go into neutral and maintain 50-60 km/h until you reach the bottom of the hill, at which point you put the car back into gear.
Obviously there are limitations to these strategies: If there is a car behind you, you're not going to want to slow all the way down to 50 km/h before putting the car back into gear or you're apt to make your tail man more than a little impatient. And you also don't want to wear your breaks out by always having your car out of gear when you need to stop. (The engine helps break the car, reducing wear and tear on your breaks)
Another practice that I've heard some people talk about is actually turning your car off if you know you're going to be stopped at a red light (or anywhere for that matter) for more than 15 seconds.
Anyway, I look forward to the day when our cars are able to communicate with the traffic systems around them so that they know when the lights ahead are going to turn red, etc, and can save time and fuel by acting appropriately. This would be a fascinating project to work on.
What does it mean to love God?April 13, 2007
A few weeks ago I prepared a short devotional on Matthew 22:37:
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and will all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.more...Same place different timeDecember 2, 2006
Today we were in Toronto for Meredith to write her CFA level 1 exam. During the afternoon session, I went for a jog along the Toronto waterfront. As I was following the trail, I had a flash back to last May when our group of four guys were biking from Waterloo to Ottawa and were cycling along that very same path. I had this mental picture of being there on both accounts... jogging along the path while watching myself cycle past. It was strange to feel so connected to that moment even though separated by time and season.
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