BilikFamily.com

Photos - After the girls went down to bed tonight, I was a bit bored so I setup a small album of a dozen recent photos. Every album I do seems to show too much of someone or not enough (if any) of someone else. I guess that's just the way it goes when you take random photos. This time there aren't any pictures of Claire, but there are plenty with Michelle. She's been a bit underrepresented in recent albums and I miss her during the day when I'm at work. Having plenty of recent shots online will make the work day go smoother and hopefully faster.

Pico Hydropower - There are a number of webpages I subscribe to via RSS. One site that appeals to the engineer in me is called Metaefficient. Their purpose: "We continuously search out products that are more effective and healthier for individuals and the world.". Sometimes it's gadgets, new technologies, new materials, new ways of doing things, etc. Today's item caught my engineering eye: Micro and Pico Hydropower. They are little turbines placed in streams that generate between 200 and 500 watts of power. There's more info at the Alternative Energy Blog. Evidently they're being used a lot in rural mountainous areas of Vietnam where farmers have plenty of little streams that they can tap to provide basic power for their home's lighting and essentials.

Cool! Power, efficiency, alternative methods ... these things all appeal to the engineer in me. It's why we moved to heating the house with recycled wood during the winter days. I'd buy a hybrid automobile for my commuter car if my current car hadn't already been paid off for years now. (It's hard to argue efficiency when you don't have a car payment!) Still, for a brief moment I thought, “hey, I have quick running brook on my property (except in summer)... Maybe I could...” After giving it a little thought, I came to realize that compared to our typical power usage, I would get greater gains by focusing more on getting energy savings (shutting of lights, moving to compact fluorescent bulbs, etc.) than trying to tap a few hundred watts from the brook in our yard. Nonetheless, it was an interesting thought experiment.

Check Engine - Argh! Michelle's 'Check Engine' light came on this morning as she started the van. Like many others I hate the modern interpretation of the check engine light. A little over half a dozen years ago, the federal government made all those emissions controls failures trigger the light. It used to be if you saw the light, something really critical was about to befall your car. Alternator failure, low oil pressure, etc. Now, if your O₂ sensor goes out, or your gas cap isn't secure, or any number of a bunch of minor emission controls exceed normal operating ranges, you'll trigger the light. Or it could still be something serious. But 9 times out of 10, it's emissions. Why didn't they just mandate a separate light. ECS - Emission Control System. We already have a new SRS (Safety Restraint System) light. Why not one just for emissions? No, let's take a warning light the public historically took very seriously and use that one. I'm seriously considering getting one of those handheld units that reads (and optionally clears) a car's On Board Diagnostics (OBD) computers. They run between $100 and $150. With the amount that most repair shops charge to analyze and clear the codes, it would pay for itself within a few uses.

GPS - Our phones were reported to have GPS capability, but I could never get it to work. Yesterday I finally got around to doing a firmware update that Motorola had sent by mail. Funny, I never asked for the package (CD, data cable, instructions). Perhaps they lost some lawsuit... The update took about 15 minutes but when finished, the GPS feature seemed to work. It's somewhat slow compared to a dedicated GPS handheld, but I guess in an emergency it could come in handy to tell the authorities coordinates to find you.

RatherGate - Does anyone else find it odd that in all the fallout of the so-called RatherGate scandal at CBS, four people were fired, but not Dan Rather?