Environmentally Friendly Cars (Hybrid and Others): Part 2

Hi Everyone,


This is the second post of environmentally friend cars.


BMW Clean Energy^1,3


BMW has produced the first Hydrogen vehicle in the world. It is named BMW Hydrogen 7. It has been around for quite some time now. BMW has the idea of making hydrogen to be the fuel for the future. BMW hydrogen engines will burn the fuel to produce H2O or better known as water.


BMW has decided that hydrogen fuel is the long term solution to reduce emissions. Hydrogen has won over wind, sun, water and biomass and meet energy needs in a sustainable way.


Not only does BMW has pioneered Hydrogen fuel, it also has several hybrid cars to choose from.


Volvo Drive²


Volvo also has initiatives of researching environmentally friendly vehicles. See videos of the four Volvo cars that has been researched namely Volvo C30 Electric, Volvo V60 Plugin Hybrid, S60 and V60 Drive and Volvo Flexifuel (85% ethanol, 15% petrol).


Volvo has developed cars based on electric technology, hybrid technology and flexi fuel technology that reduces Carbon Dioxide emissions by 80%. 


Other car companies are going green as well including our national car manufacturer, Proton. Proton Emas is set to go on sale by 2013. Here are several links to other car companies on their environmentally friendly vehicle initiatives:


Kia Eco Dynamics
Ford Electric Vehicle Technology
Mazda SKYActiv Technology
Proton Concept Cars: Emas
General Motors: Design & Technology
Mercedes-Benz International: BlueTecEco

Cheers,

Rogerkoo


¹ BMW Clean Energy: Overview, http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/cleanenergy/phase_2/cleanenergy.html


<sup>2 Volvo DRIVe: Environmental Programme - Explore, http://www.volvocars.com/intl/explore/Pages/drive.aspx


3 BMW Efficient Dynamics: Introduction</sup>
http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/efficientdynamics/phase_1/introduction.html

Environmentally Friendly Cars (Hybrid and Others)

Hi Everyone,


What do Honda Insight, Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid have in common? These are all hybrid cars! 


First launched in 1997, Toyota Prius is one of the first hybrid cars on the market. It is first available in Japan before it went worldwide 4 years later in 2001. Toyota Prius is now one of the world's best selling hybrid vehicle with 1 million units sold in the U.S and Japan. That's a total of 2 million units in both countries.¹ Honda Civic Hybrid has been around in Malaysia for a few years now. Priced around RM160,000 initially, the demand here has been slow but with a cheaper price now @ RM128,000, there is a slightly higher demand. Honda Insight was launched last year with a price tag of RM98,000 making it the cheapest hybrid car in Malaysia.² It is now in the top 10 best selling non national car in Malaysia.


Pollution is one of the causes of environment degradation. Efforts have been done to reduce pollution. Car companies started to research on reducing emissions and environmentally friendly cars in the late 1990s, from hybrid cars to BMW's hydrogen car technology and Volvo's bio-ethanol initiatives.


What are the differences between the different types of eco friendly vehicles? 


Here is information on How Hybrid Cars Work from HowStuffWorks.com.³


Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive®^4,5


Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive® (HSD) is a full hybrid system that uses an battery-powered electric motor and a petrol driven combustion engine. Either one of these can power the car alone.


HSD is a smart technology that can determine when to switch between petrol and electric and when to combine both petrol and electric for maximum efficiency with high performance and excellent fuel efficiency and thus reducing pollution.


It charges the battery when the petrol is running and when the brakes are pressed, energy that are wasted due to heat during breaking is converted into electricity for use later. The battery also receives more than sufficient energy from the petrol engine when coasting so that the car does not need to be connected to the mains at all.


The car also knows when to power off the car during breaking and powers on again after that when needed.


With both the petrol engine and electric motor running, the car will produce more power with a smaller engine. For example. the 1.8l Toyota Prius actually produces performance similar 2.4l performance car.


Honda I-VTEC and IMA^6,7,8


This is Honda's hybrid system combining both i-VTEC and IMA (Integrated Motor Assist). The i-VTEC engine serves as the main power source with the IMA providing an extra power when needed. The combined engines come with an ultra-thin brushless motor that reduces the weight by 15%. It is also thinner by 22%. It also comes with CVT and ECON mode where it increases regenerative recharging and enhances the energy saving of the air conditioner unit. 


Civic Hybrid also comes with a Power Control Unit (PCU) that carries out accurate engine management to switch the motor between motor assist, motor off, and regeneration modes depending on engine speed during acceleration, cruising, and deceleration. It achieves the highest fuel economy at all conditions. The PCU is combined with the Intelligent Power Unit (IPU) that controls the functions and regulates the power of the IMA.


The fuel consumption gives an astounding 29.5km/l reading, the highest for a 5-seater passenger car.


Future Posts:


I will have another post in which we will explore BMW's Clean Energy initiatives to research on hydrogen powered cars and Volvo's DRIVE initiatives to develop environmentally friendly cars.




¹ Toyota Prius, Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius#First_generation_.28XW10.3B_1997.E2.80.932003.29


² Honda Insight - cheapest hybrid in Malaysia at RM98k, 2nd December 2010
http://paultan.org/2010/12/02/honda-insight-cheapest-hybrid-in-malaysia-at-rm98k/


³ Nice, Karim, and Julia Layton.  "How Hybrid Cars Work"  20 July 2000.  HowStuffWorks.com. 
http://www.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car.htm  14 October 2011.


⁴ Toyota Australia: Hybrid Synergy Drive - Hybrid Technolgy - How Hybrid Works
http://www.toyota.com.au/hybrid-synergy-drive/hybrid-technology/how-hybrid-works


⁵ Honda Insight - cheapest hybrid in Malaysia at RM98k, 2nd December 2010
http://paultan.org/2010/12/02/honda-insight-cheapest-hybrid-in-malaysia-at-rm98k/


⁶ Honda Malaysia: Honda Insight
http://www.honda.com.my/insight/about/


⁷ Honda Worldwide - CIVIC Hybrid Technology: Honda IMA system
http://world.honda.com/CIVICHYBRID/Technology/NewHondaIMASystem/PowerUnit/index_1.html


⁸ Honda Worldwide - Technology Picture Book (Automobile): IMA
http://world.honda.com/automobile-technology/IMA/detail/



Cheers,


Rogerkoo

Adele's Songs

Hi Everyone,

These are songs by Adele:

I don't personally like to listen to these kind of songs. I am not sure why. For sad songs, I prefer Kelly Clarkson's or others. The tune of these two songs are so sad. For the song, Rolling In The Deep, the phrase, "We could have had it all" is found. The tone of the song is depressing and sad. 

For Someone Like You, it talks about how a guy left a girl and got married with another girl. His dream came true but not for the first girl. Now Adele is trying convey that the girl is feeling disappointed and she will find another guy like him. She will still support the guy.

These are sad songs. I do not like the tune. She may be a good singer but I am not a fan of the tune of the song. Perhaps you like the song. Please tell me why do you like the song. 

Anyway, how about this one? It is a song by Kelly Clarkson.

 

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Trillian 5.0

Hi Everyone,

Want to have a IM client that can connect to Windows Live, Yahoo!, Google Talk, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? There are a few of them currently available and the one I am talking about is Trillian 5. I have downloaded and installed Trillian 5 for Windows. 

Trillian 5 is good. It integrates all the networks together. I have no problems using Trillian 5 so far. Contacts can be sorted by name or by service. You can also display the services (Windows Live, Google Talk) next to the contact. The services are now displayed as logos in Trillian 5.0. Previously in Trillian Astra 4.2, it is displayed as text.

The loading time has been improved. It is faster than Astra. You can also customise Trillian using themes and sounds.

When you are using Trillian, you may miss some features like file sharing and video calls depending on the respected IMs. However, you do not need to download each IM client to chat with your friends. Everything is combined into one IM client. 

I recommend Trillian 5.0 to all of you.

Here is the link:

Trillian

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Android vs IPhone

Hi Everyone,

I have used both IPhone (3Gs) and Android (Galaxy Mini). Some of you may know that I lost my IPhone few months back and I got an Android powered Galaxy Mini. 

The specifications are the same except for the internal memory of the Galaxy Mini. Galaxy Mini only has 155MB of internal memory. However, it has an expendable memory up to 32GB. I am using the default 2GB card provided by Samsung in the box.

Well, I can say that I still prefer iOS but Android is on par with iOS. Either one is fine for me. Here are some comparisons:

1. Menu Options

Both IPhone and Android have easy menu options. Using IPhone is a breeze. It takes a little longer to get used to the Android menus. The options for both are nearly the same. Android seems to have more features though. Higher end smartphones running Android have more features than lower end smartphones.

2. Speed

Speed for Android is as fast as IPhone or can even be faster. I have tested HTC Desire before and it is fast! Galaxy Mini is not as fast as IPhone 3GS though. It does hang and lag. Playing Angry Birds is a little slow sometimes. The IPhone 4 however has a 1GHz processor. Most Android have 1Ghz processors now as well.

3. Features

Bluetooth compatibility

=================

IPhone can only perform Bluetooth 2.1 compatibility with iOS devices unlike Android. IPhone is an amazing phone but its Bluetooth connectivity can't be used with other Bluetooth devices. Transferring photos from IPhone to a Sony Ericsson or a Nokia or a Motorola phone can't be done. Lol.

After I switched to Galaxy Mini, I can easily transfer the photos taken using my phone to my friend's phone. No problems with detect. Both devices can detect each other.

Flash

====

There is no Flash for iOS. There are programming / coding that makes Adobe very difficult to develop Flash compatibility for iOS devices. Perhaps HTML5 can solve this. Most official music videos in YouTube can't be seen using iOS devices (for e.g Katy Perry's E.T Official Music Video, Taylor Swift's Mean etc). We can only watch other videos that plays the same song.

Flash based YouTube videos appear on Android devices YouTube search feature. There are no issues with Android devices.

Camera

======

Quality of pictures taken for iOS and Android seems to be almost the same. My Galaxy Mini's 3.2 megapixels camera pictures looks good. Good enough for internet.

4. App Store

Apple's App Store remains the best so far. Over 200,000+ apps to download. Furthermore, the interface is the best. It is easy to use. Prices are displayed clearly at the app store. The interface is sleek and you can write comments and reviews on the app. No limit on characters. There are a lot of good apps to download from the app store. Updates to apps are also easy to download. App Store will check each time you access it and lets you know which one to update.

Android's Marketplace is growing with more apps coming. Apps may be different than Apple's App Store though. The interface is not as clean as App Store. You can also write comments and reviews but it has limited characters that you can write. It does not look as nice as the App Store. Android can continue to improve its Marketplace even though its usability is ok.

Conclusion

=========

Some of you may disagree with this. Please comment. I am happy to receive them.

As I said, I still prefers Apple iOS. Android is on par with iOS. Therefore, no matter which smartphones that you choose, there is no wrong buying an IPhone, IPad or an Android based device. Both of these operating systems are good. Android is fast catching up with IPhone now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

A to Z of Christianity (Version 1.0)

Hi Everyone,


I just thought about this yesterday.


A =  Affirmation that God is the true God, Awesome God
B = Bible, Baptism 
C = Comforter (God is a God of Comfort)
D = Doctrine
E = Edification
F = Faithfulness, Forgiveness of sins, Forgiving people
G = Gentleness, Goodness, Great God, God's Glory
H = Holy Spirit, Humble, Humility
I = Identify with Jesus
J = Justification, Joy
K = Kindness
L = Love
M = Meekness, Majesty
N = God's Name
O = One Voice
P = Patience, Perseverance, Pure, Peace
Q = Queen Esther
S = Sanctification, Self Control
T = Thankfulness
U = Unity
W = Wisdom
Y = Yes to God
Z = Zealousness for God


Cheers,


Rogerkoo

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Sawadeekap,


While I was in Bangkok for the past few weeks, I managed to go to Chatuchak Weekend Market. It is also known as JJ Market in short or Jatuchak Market. You can go to market by taking a BTS (Sukhumvit Line, change at Siam station and take the Mo Chit train) or taking the MRT to Mo Chit station. From there, you just need to walk a bit, you will arrive at the weekend market.


Opened only at weekends, the market is bustling with activities. You can find everything here from cheap clothing, food items, Thailand arts and crafts, souvenir items to aromatherapy products. All things here are cheap and you can also bargain with them as well. Discounts will be given if you buy a larger quantity instead of only one item. It is cheaper than the Sala Daeng Pad Phrong night market as well. The clothes they sell are different than what we get here at KL and some may be odd or rude in nature as well. Be wise in selecting which ones to buy.


The market is covers an area of 27 acres. There are 27 sections in total. Remember to wear comfortable clothing when you decide to go there. The weather can be hot and you may start to sweat when you arrive there. Wearing t-shirts, thinner clothing and shorts are best. You will take a whole day if you want to explore the whole of Chatuchak Market. It is filled with a lot of people, both local and people from other nations. According to the Chatuchak Market website, 30% of the visitors are foreigners.


Here are some pictures taken along Chatuchak area after my visit there. Took from the BTS station. Didn't take much though. Will take more of Chatuchak Weekend Market next time.

To learn more about Chatuchak, please visit the Chatuchak Weekend Market link here.


That's all for now.


Cheers,


Rogerkoo