Posts by Christopher Aussant

Absolutely smashing: Musk shows off Tesla's 'bulletproof' low-poly pickup, hilarity ensues

Ask truck owners

Did anyone at Tesla talk to truck buyers at all? We're a varied bunch and before anyone starts, Canadian not American.

Lots of wide of spaces to have to drive across. Work oil rigs and sometimes those "roads" to get to the job site are little more than a trail through a field. Driving 11 hours in 1 day to pick up a vehicle with the trailer, stopping for gas for about 5 minutes and back on the road again. When I still have to work that day and I've drove 10 hours of more, what time do I have to recharge this thing for an hour and a half or more?

Modifying your truck to suit your needs is both entertaining, relaxing and fun for a lot of us. Having your vehicle be unique is a major point for some of us. Being able to be recognized having the same unique vehicle for 12 years has been great.

Speaking of, 12 years. 489000km and still going strong on the original motor(HEMI, not diesel btw). My "oversized" to some V8 has to haul me and my gear and possibly my trailer up hills and through mud and snow, pulling people out of the ditch with the winch on the pushgrill or the tow strap I keep in the truck boosting people with the booster cables in my toolbox, or helping out with my spare can of gas in the back. Always made it home from work, no matter how bad the roads were where my girlfriend got stuck at my place for a week cause the roads were so bad her little Honda civic couldn't even drive down them.

Those of us who drive pickup trucks and USE them don't want this POS. Raising it up with lift kits and bigger tires may seem silly to you, but some of us offroad or drive over 6 inch high rough wood rig matting and don't feel like ripping our exhaust or undercarriage apart. Wheres the aftermarket for this? 0-60 in 3 seconds? Not so great for slick mud and ice and snow. Max torque at low rpm is nice, sure, trailer hauling would be good. For short hauls. No good for most of the trailer runs most of us tend to do. And with a giant(hah!) pickup bed can you not slap a second battery in it and put a false bottom on and double the range?

One size doesn't fit all for cars. My challenger has a very different purpose from my pickup. My truck is a WORK truck, not a glorified electric seat meant to take me through traffic across town and live as a pavement queen. When the power goes out in the winter time, like it has, and it gets down to 9 degrees or lower inside the house, at least I can go out to the truck and let it run and get warm and top it off with the spare can of gas in the back. Guess I just get to freeze to death if the power goes out for too long with one of these.

As a truck owner(had several over the years) they're there to serve a purpose. Sure some people have them for no reason, just like everything else. Some people go crazy with it(I'm sure I could be accused of that), but the other side of the spectrum is bad too. Have fun hauling 12000lbs uphill behind your prius, some of us wanna get done and go home. I'll stick with the truck I bought and modified to be better suited to the terrain I put it on and enjoy the heat pumping at me from my V8 in the middle of winter at -40C.

FYI: Get ready for face scans on leaving the US because 1.2% of visitors overstayed their visas

Alternative?

Many a cry against, but no better solution offered. I too don't want to be beaten with yet another government stick that I'm powerless against. But then I also don't want people running roughshod over the rules. You have a visa, you get 6 months, you leave and then come back. Annoying but if its the deal you agreed to before you came in, honor it. People aren't allowed to stay in a country that's not theirs anymore than they can stay in your house without your permission. What other options do we have?

Tracking everyone and sending enforcers to the site to remove people who don't leave in time is Orwellian indeed but the honor system seems to be failing. The Chinese social credit system is too far for me to like at all, but laissez-faire isn't really acceptable either. You'll always have people over concerned about privacy(theirs and others) and those not concerned enough but this doesn't actually do anything to help the problem.

Does anyone have an alternative to suggest for having people follow the rules?

SPOILER alert, literally: Intel CPUs afflicted with simple data-spewing spec-exec vulnerability

Re: A simple mitigation

I had not known this was a possibility.... Thank you for my something new learned today!

Leaked memo: No internet until you clean your bathroom, Ecuador told Julian Assange

One thing in the comments stands out pretty stark to the rest.... He is only ACCUSED of rape. He has not been CONVICTED of this crime. Treating him as a dirty rapist who should be thrown in gen pop without a trial is supposed to be wrong? Innocent until proven guilty? Or do we just get to label people you don't like with a horrible crime without ya know, evidence, guilt, jury trial..... Be a whole lot more "rapists" out there if we can just slap that on people we don't like.

Buttonless and port-free: Expect the next iPhone to be as smooth as a baby's bum

Dissapointing

I had hoped this idiotic decision to eliminate the stereo jack would be fixed, not compounded. I've had an ipod mini, an iphone 4S, an ipod classic and an iphone 6+. Seems like the 6+ will be the last apple phone I'll buy which sucks from a user stand point. It's been very handy over the years to have all my music and playlists for the last decade and a half be transferable easily between the devices. Get a new phone, slap in the card, plug into the computer and restore from backup, bam. Its like my old phone just got bigger, no changing all the settings and manually inputting my contacts one at a time like I've had to switching between phones in the past.

I don't care about the 'style' of the phone, haven't every latest feature and half baked idea crammed in especially when it reduces the function of the device. All my vehicles have stereo jacks to connect the phone to, the Bluetooth is for the phone only not the radio. Plus with the delay introduced by Bluetooth, I wouldn't want to use it as my primary source anyways.

Getting a "real" smart phone that still only does things half as good as my desktop or laptop with far better screens and inputs isn't a fun thought. Learning all location of where all the damn settings are, adding the contacts manually, replacing all the scattered charging cords, making new playlists(cause be damned if the iTunes playlists will easily translate into a different phones player without issue at least in the past). And for what? So the phone can make calls, send texts, listen to music, check the web and watch youtube and then sit around.

If apple wont give me a better produce than a 6+ for what they charge, I guess I'll just sit on my old phone until it doesn't work any more. Maybe by then they'll introduce the Iphone Classic, which will have the ability to actually work like the old ones do.

No sh*t, Sherlock! Bloke suspected of swallowing drug stash keeps colon schtum for 22 DAYS

Jeez, they're going about this the wrong way. Simply set up a meeting with him and his lawyer to discuss his case as its ongoing, and leave a bowl of Haribo Sugar Free Gummi Bears in the room with them. Sure the lawyer may eat some too, but its a small risk. Just read the reviews for those on Amazon and you'll see why its all they need.

BOFH: An UNHOLY MATCH forged amid the sweet smell of bullsh*t

I for one don't fear for Simon at all. I've read the archives several times and seen him deal with this type of succubus before. He'll be fine. However, the PFY might have to go to France to install some Windows Inclusion Network Extension racks....

Want a more fuel efficient car? Then redesign it – here's how

Thats it?

I admit to not knowing about hypermilling until now, and clicking the link in the article didn't load the page(my internet is a bit screwed right now), but I can't help but be dumbstruck by the shallowness of the article....

There are FAR more things that can be done to a vehicle that the author hasn't mentioned, done, or perhaps thought of. I'll list some off here in no particular order of importance:

1) Supercharging or turbocharging the engine. While this is an expensive and sometimes time consuming endeavor(I personally installed a supercharger on my 2010 dodge challenger srt8), the benefits are amazing. An engine is simply put an air pump. Doesn't matter if it runs on gasoline or diesel, the majority of what passes through the engine is air. In the case of the article, the motor he uses is gasoline powered. Gasoline burns in a concentration of 4-9%, So depending on the tuning and setup, the engine is pumping 91-96% air through it. Increasing the efficiency of the air movement adds performance and fuel economy. If the engine has more power, it doesn't need to work as hard or as long to accelerate or maintain speed. On the cheap one can look into a ram air setup. While not helping at low speeds, at cruising speed its a poor mans turbo and helps increase your efficiency. Although if you wish to simply slap on the fake hook scoop stickers, please step out in front of a moving bus before you do....

2) Changing engine components and polishing them. The air going to the motor should take as few turns as possible to reduce losses. Every bend in an air intake system reduces power. The air filter is a necessary evil, but there are higher performance ones out there available at decent prices. Not ALL filters add amazing power savings and mileage and do your homework. Next up, the intake manifold and the cylinder heads. Aluminum intake manifolds are available on the aftermarket for a large amount of vehicles. Polishing the intake and cylinder heads reduces friction of the air flowing inside them, increasing efficiency. Its not all about the amount of air being forced into the cylinder, the velocity of the air has a big impact as well. Valves in the head can be helped with a three angle valve job.

3) Exhaust. Scavenging is the term given to using the flow of exhaust creating a vacuum to draw the unspent gasses out of the cylinder. Its a common myth that you need backpressure for the vehicle to work properly. While the vehicle does require some for scavenging to work properly, too much restriction causes the engine to have to work harder to push the gasses out and drops efficiency. Equal length headers to a proper sized exhaust system with an h-pipe, or x-pipe depending on your vehicles needs can not only help it sound better(for some of us who enjoy the roar), and help with the mileage as well.

4) Weight distribution. Relocating the battery to the passenger side of the trunk to offset the weight of the driver in the front left is common in north America now, but across the pond I guess you'd put it on the other side. While carpooling is great, a lot of us have to drive alone so balancing the weight load in the car helps. Removing items in the car that you don't need to carry with you improves mileage as well.

5) Wax. Yeah, just waxing your car helps. Unless your car is brand new and has a perfect clear coat on top of the paint, you're going to have micro pits in the paint, and while they are small, they are numerous. Given the sheer amount of air rushing over the surface of the vehicle, putting a $7 bottle of wax and some elbow grease to make it nice and smooth helps reduce the drag on the vehicles surface. Also helps protect it from the road salt and washing it is a lot easier.

6) The temperature of the fuel. Yeah, lets get radicle here. If you're wanting to modify this for some fuel mileage, lets have some fun. The density of your gasoline changes with temperature. When its colder out, your gasoline is denser. Your fuel pump doesn't care about this density change, it just pumps its set amount of liters per hour and throws them down the pipe. Adjusting this can be done passively. Take a line off the engine cooling lines using a high thermal conductive material and run it along the fuel line to pre-heat your fuel to a set temperature (the engines operating temperature). Or you could design an in tank electric system to run off a thermostat and set the desired temperature yourself with testing to find the best temp. Getting more dense cool air into the engine and a set temperature and density of fuel with it can help achieve more mileage. This will need to be done with SOME consideration of risks. You don't want electrical fires in your gas tank. Heating and thereby expanding the fuel too much can reduce how much fuel you actually get and reduce power. A system where you can turn on and off the fuel line heat to run colder denser fuel for more power for say a hill or passing cars then hitting a switch and heating it for fuel mileage is another thing to try. Again, you have to consider the engine requirements to get the most out of this.

7) Using the research of race teams. Almost all of the improvements we enjoy in our modern vehicles are the results of the racing industry pushing boundaries to get all the edge they can. Exhaust headers, blowers, air foils, lightening the vehicle with fiberglass and carbon fiber components, etc. Someone else has already done this research, use it to your advantage.

Theres SO MUCH MORE that can be done, you've barely scratched the surface with this article.... AND this list was all off the top of my HEAD! I'm no automotive engineer, just a guy with a few tools and time on his hands....

NY Museum of Modern Art embraces 14 video games

Wow...

I never thought I would see this, but I approve. Its nice to see these games be shown a bit more respect than being seen as mere time wasters. The list seems very well done, although I would prefer to see the legend of zelda being added at the start and not in a little while, but thats probably just the fanboy in me wanting that.

Street Fighter 2 on the list is nice to see, I spent many an hour on that, but I can't help but notice an absence of shooters such as the original Doom. It may not have been the first of the genre but it certainly allowed many of my friends any myself to cut our teeth on running around and blowing stuff to hell. Maybe when they expand the exhibit I guess....

Lindsay Lohan crowned 2007's worst actress

@Annon Coward

While you make some very good points(and while making them you do so in a fashion thats not insulting, kudos) you may have missed my point. In that old cartoon movie(which I own, and actually HAVE watched recently) the characters were THE SAME as the ones from the cartoon. There didn't have to be an Earth in the movie as they were on Cybertron, the planet they originated from.

As for arguing over the differences being pointless because they have gone through several iterations over the years, I must disagree. Bay did not call this "Transformers: Bay Edition." He called it transformers, and used the characters made famous in the first iteration. All the new iterations were simply made to sell a new line of toys, same as the first one was. Money before art, the old rule still applies.

However, I will agree with you. It was a *FUN* movie in that I could go to the theater and be entertained by big robots fighting on a large screen and munch on popcorn. However, as I was a big fan of the original and most famous G1 transformers, I felt let down by all the changes which WERE unneccesary. The only reason they made a movie about transformers was to make money and every change was made in the interest to push products and make more money, but the only reason they COULD make money was that transformers was popular in the FIRST place.

People talk about 300 needing to appolagize for the crap history tale. Strange how they don't ask for Transformers to do the same.

Transformers was no where close to second best

Transformers was garbage for the same reason every superhero movie done by Hollywood is garbage. The director has to put his own 'vision' on the screen and change the story and characters and setup and EVERYTHING about it to either make it more viable to a wider audience, or put thier own spin on it.

In the Transformers cartoon, which is what became famous not Bay's jizzstain of a movie, Optimus Prime was a flat nose semi, not a long nose truck, Bumblebee was a WV bug not a Camaro(if they had to use the Camaro why not use the Hot Rod character?), the reason for being on Earth was the search for Energon, not this crap story about an All Spark, Starscream wasn't an F22, etc etc. The fans fell in love with the show the way it was, changing everything about it will only serve to do what it did: piss us off. As soon as I heard Bay was directing Transformers my expectations for the movie dropped to near nothing. I had HOPED Spielberg could rein him in and not make it his usual waste of a moviegoers time, but sadly he didn't.

If you liked the movie, well, you're entitled to your own opinion but watch it again and watch it carefully and see everything that was bad. Those transformations sequences were so busy and with the cam moving all over the place it was damn near impossible to see just what the hell was going on. Plus we didn't really need the stupid love angle with Sam and his lust object.

US man sets himself on fire and cuts off his own arm

Complacent?

One of the things I've noticed that no one has brought up is how used to the machine the farmer is. Most of the time, accidents happen because someone has become complacent and has done something dangerous 1 million times in the past and been lucky enough to get away with it. When they keep getting away with it, they forget the danger is there, and they keep doing it. It happens a lot and it kills more old guys here in the oil patch than anything else.

The farmer had probably pulled corn out of the machine the same way many times before without a problem, and thats why he didn't shut it off, de-engerize it, and test it before he worked on it. Proper procedure wasn't followed, and he paid the price for it. Yes, it was stupidity on his part, but sadly its a rather common thing.

Nintendo Wii: the world's greatest console?

Ooooh Shiny!

Why do people keep bitching that the Wii isn't a next gen console becuase the graphics aren't being delivered by a Geforce 99million or an ATI HD26000000? The console is fun, the games are fun and we have access to a large library of classic games. Sega, NES, SNES, N64, TurboGraphix 16, NeoGeo, all these systems have classic old school games that us old timers(and I'm only 25 for crying out loud) remember and want to play again.

The fun of a game comes from the gameplay and the story, not from the shiny graphics, get it through your skulls already. Thats why the Wii is outselling the competition. Not EVERY gamer is a hardcore graphic addict, some of us could care less if our game has 8 bit characters running around if its a game we enjoy.

If you really want super realistic graphics, get off your fat ass and go outside. Very high resolution out there, and it costs less than the PS3.

Wii wins console war, market watcher claims

Not a next gen console?

Not a next gen console cause of its specs? What, are you kidding me? Since when did specs alone determine a next gen console? Since when did technology become an amusment park ride? "Sorry, you must have specs this high to be on the next gen ride."

I guess Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, and other old time favorite RPG games can no longer be called video games. They're specs aren't high enough, the graphics aren't pretty enough, nope. Not a video game anymore, sorry.

Wake up Matt. Specs don't make a console. Fun gameplay, gripping storyline and reactive controls make a game. If a standalone unit can play these games, its a console. If its the latest unit from the company making it, its next gen.