How to Talk to Your Kids

Um, you aren’t expecting me to give you some stunning psychological insights into the younger generation, are you? I am good for a bit of info on the nifty techno-tricks available and adopted by the younger, more flexible minds out there, however…

More and more convenient communications gadgets are coming out. iPhones, Blackberries, Kindle book reader with cell phone internet built in…

They are all excellent ways to coerce your children at a distance!!

Your kids have probably integrated themselves into the world of the cell phone, ‘texting’ classmates, carrying their cell phone where ever they wander…

The side effect of all this technology is that there’s currently a ‘secret’ realm of communication inhabited by the masters of ‘texting’ – old, slow parental types automatically excluded by lack of skill.

We can invade this semi-private domain by treachery, ambushing our kids at will. Here’s how:

Almost all cell phone text messaging systems offer an EMAIL link, even pay-as-you-go types like Tracfones. Each provider has an EMAIL address setup, usually ##########@providersnet (where ########## is the ten-digit cell phone number with area code, and providersnet varies – for example ‘@txt.att.net’ for AT&T (cingular) phones…)

Some handy tools to help establish your EMAIL-to-cell-phone-text link:

http://fonefinder.net/ - type in the area code, exchange and first digit of the last four digits and this handy site tells you who the cell phone provider is. From that, and this site - http://www.livejournal.com/tools/textmessage.bml?mode=details – you can figure out the EMAIL address needed to send text messages to a cell phone.

Even us ancient relics of bygone eras usually can manage to fat-finger in a lengthy EMAIL message... It's much easier than texting via cell phone keypad!

Just imagine the expression on your dear child’s face when he or she realizes that mom can nag at them via text messages!! Priceless!!

When Lower Quality is Better – Medical??

What’s better than the very best medical imaging device? How about 100 smaller, cheaper, newer technology (maybe even hand held) imagers at the same price??

The issue at hand is that for many years a number of factors (chief amongst them lawsuits) have pushed medical equipment down a one-way street of reliability at any cost, and safety at any cost. This sounds like a good thing on the surface, but the unintended side effects are literally killing us.

Let me enumerate the downside for you:

1. Price – from my own personal experience working in engineering at a respected medical imaging device manufacturer, I came to see the problem that I summarize as “Your medical dollars at play”. Cost was so far down the priorities and expectations lists as to be no consideration in designs. Costs that you ultimately pay, which probably make you hesitate to get medically imaged.
2. Old reliable technology – the very newest technology is always less tried and true than last year’s hardware, so the priority for ultimate reliability effectively kills any consideration for brand-new (read: more powerful, smaller and less costly) electronics.
3. Premium performance requirements – most middle-of-the-road newer tech devices can beat older top-of-the-line ancestor devices at half or less of the cost. However, since cost is not really an object, the usual knee-jerk response to such design decisions is to go right to the top shelf.
4. Slow fielding – dramatically unlike retail devices of similar complexity, it can take years to get a medical device from initial engineering to the doctor’s office. For retail consumer devices, mere months.

Lest you get the image of a shoddy, squeaking CAT scanner dumping God-knows how much X-ray radiation into you in the place of that humming smooth model in the hospital, let me add some sanity checks.

Fail-safe, meaning “If you fail, it will do no harm” is a far easier design criteria than “Thou Shalt Not Fail”. Add to that the fact that having a cheap back-up unit is better than an expensive single unit and you begin to see where I am coming from.

Very much like computers of 1980 (remember the air-conditioned shrine of the VAX?), medical imaging devices have their own rooms with acolytes (I mean, medical technicians) and priests (doctors).

Now picture Dr. McCoy’s medical Tricorder from Star Trek, only everyone gets one, and it’s like the digital thermometer in the medicine cabinet at home…

That’s what quality at all costs has cost you.

More Amazing Gadgets

I freely admit it. Interesting devices catch my eye every time… new or old.

Here’s a bit of both: a Steam Punk Laptop – i.e. what a laptop might have looked like in the Victorian Era, if computers could be clockwork gears…

There are a number of novels about fictional worlds based upon the early advent of computing, and some folks with a lot of time on their hands took the subject way too seriously…

WARNING: be prepared to get a shiver up your spine! This 'Big Dog' robot is so lifelike in it’s motions and in how it recovers from kicks, slips and stumbles that it for all the world looks like a headless animal walking around. Download the video for full effect!!

Some Gadgets and the Like…

Plagued by teenagers? Or just want to torture them for being… well… young when you’re not? Try the Mosquito, an electronic young-person repeller (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352410,00.html) – a device that emits an annoying high-pitched screech that most mature individuals cannot hear. Watch out, though – teens have stricken back by adopting the noise as a secret ring-tone that more, uh, distinguished individuals can’t detect (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5434687).

Do you fear that someone will taser you and put a plastic bag over your head (ala the movie ‘Snatch’)? Here’s a trendy defense – an aluminum tee shirt! Yep, it’ll short circuit that taser for you – keeping you from getting zapped. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/9080/ (Note – I haven’t actually tested this product against a electric stunner, but it seems reasonable…) You might even be protected against the effects of the Active Denial systems (you remember – that pain/heat ray radio beam?)… at least on your torso…

I see a great marketing future coming in metalized clothing for thugs and social discontents. Any investors listening?

Check out the annoy-a-tron (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8c52/ ) and the phantom keystroker ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/a11e/ ) while you are visiting ThinkGeek…

Here’s a great one: tired of the strain of taking your SD memory card out of your digital camera and putting it in the correct slot on your computer? How about a wireless WI-FI card that (with software on your PC) automatically gets your pictures for you without lifting a finger?? (http://www.eye.fi/)

So… what happens if you do put your eye-fi card in your PC?? I’d have to try it…

Backtracking a bit – how about a leopard-skin taser for your sweety? http://www.taser.com/products/consumers/Pages/C2.aspx - ‘Fashion with a Bite’ Every woman should have one – it would increase the sales of my metallic clothing line nicely.

More than a Feeling - It's a Decision!!

Going by Feel

Homo sapiens – literally ‘Rational Man’ – can’t make a decision without emotion to guide him (or her).

If you aren’t aware of the truth of that factoid, you may take yourself a few moments to browse a great number of articles on this subject on the internet – here’s a good starting point: http://discovermagazine.com/topics/mind-brain/memory-emotions-decisions

Are you now emotionally ready to accept the fact that you are a touchy-feely-driven, barely rational being?

One of the studies that really struck home was the case of a previously normal man who suffered a brain injury that damaged his center of emotions. Although still scoring very high on all IQ testing, he was utterly unable to make decisions – instead he’d enter a loop on endless analysis of pro and con merits on each side of a particular choice to be made, never coming to a fixed conclusion…

For me, after a life of Star Trek watching, this whole emotion-required-for-thought is a slap in the face for Mr. Spock – the icon of icy-cold, feelingless and decisive thought.

Flipside, too much emotion can be as bad as none at all – as anyone with anxiety attacks can relate. Instead of no decision, it can be nearly impossible to make the rational decision in face of strong emotion to the contrary.

Obviously, emotional levels are a factor in rational thought, or more precisely, what is taken by Homo sapiens to be rational thought.

So, why is our intellect chained to the fickle winds of emotion??

I think there are two prongs to the answer: one, we’re not that evolved, and two, it has survival advantages.

As for the first part, hey, it’s only been a few tens of thousand years that we’ve been, quote intelligent unquote! Our ancestors, prior to Homo sapiens, really weren’t that bright… Which neatly brings us to point number two – the survival advantage to being emotionally driven.

Consider for a moment, the opposite of emotion-based decision making. To decide a course of action, you carefully examine and understand all possible ramifications to the choices and act accordingly. Sounds good, right? Well, what if you were stupid? I mean real stupid – like stupid enough to take a bite out of a woolly mammoth on the hoof, because you are hungry… Not long for the world, eh?

On the other hand, if you were afraid to bite something big and angry looking, without benefit of reasoning you might still survive… and eventually evolve some intelligence.

You can see where that might have been real handy.

Are we beyond need for emotion in decision making?

Not yet, to be brief. It’s a tool that needs constant tuning, but still helps us where raw logic fails. Some of us need more help from emotion than others... I think it is recognition of the quality of emotionless reasoning vs. highly emotional flights that created the characterization of a ‘Mr. Spock’ as a desirable way to be.

Balance, is the key – not too much or too little emotion.

To turn the question right around, do robots need an emotional element to be truly functional?? One can picture a number of situations where a machine blindly does a very stupid thing – over and over again. Some sort of analog to emotion surely is required… like embarrassment?

My guess is that as we get smarter, less dependence upon emotion is needed (but not zero), and somehow we need to put a little feeling into our machines.

You Are Part Of A Greater Whole...

Dark Gaea

“Gaea is the goddess of earth and Mother Earth herself. She is the first goddess to be in Greek mythology. Gaea arises from Chaos and is said to be its daughter.”

- taken from http://library.thinkquest.org/26264/inhabitants/gods/first/site002.htm

There have been countless attempts to justify the idea of planet Earth-as-an-entity, written from centuries ago right up to the present day. What I’d like to point out is some analogies between a living being (or beings) and our techno-social structures. No conclusions, just some musings.

Nervous System

Yeah, the Internet. And the various radio connections, and any other active form of communications – TV for gosh sakes…

A nervous system? Well, sure – connecting human to human, so they play part of the role of nerve cells in the body-Gaea…

Society as a whole reacts to the stimulus of large events, such as a big storm that destroys areas of a population center. The information about such events flows along news media channels and there is a net reaction, be it flight from the storm or aid flowing into a damaged area.

Healing and Immune Response

We humans struggle very hard to rebuild our cities after destruction, and to restore power, communications and other services. Much like a body’s healing process.

Likewise, we attempt to maintain order on many levels – from local police actions to wars between countries. Again, much like the body’s immune system.

How Grown Up is Gaea?

Taking it as established that there is one or more physical/social structure analogous to a living creature, just how far along the evolutionary scale is this meta-beast??

Not very, is my conclusion. Definitely not self-aware yet, maybe more like an infant – or even an embryo – than a ‘Mother Earth’ figure. Basic reactions are there, but no organized intent or purpose beyond mere growth seems to be apparent.

Maybe such lofty levels of thought and behavior are in the future, or maybe Gaea is too inscrutable for mere cells of her body to comprehend. Probably both.

Things to Watch Out For…

“Apoptosis: A form of cell death in which a programmed sequence of events leads to the elimination of cells without releasing harmful substances into the surrounding area.”

- taken from http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11287

The analogous form of apoptosis would be a rigid social structure that uses things like the principle of eminent domain to extremes:

“Eminent Domain: the power of a government to take private property for public use; the 5th Amendment of the US Constitution and articles in many state constitutions allow this practice provided that just compensation is made.”

- taken from http://www.emdo.blogspot.com/

Imagine such proceedings taken to the point where even the people in the buildings matter not a whit to the cycle of destruction for reuse of sections of a city.

Huh. We’re almost at that point, aren’t we?

I don’t want to get that phone call – “Mr. Barnet? Or is it Bennett? Yes, whatever – could you kindly commit suicide today? We want your space and resources for loftier purposes now… Your neighbors have all already done themselves in…”

Well, the analogy to apoptosis breaks down long before this point would be reached – I hope J

One can think of all sorts of social manipulations that could take place, ones that favor the whole ‘meta organism’ over the individuals that make it up.

Will She Speak With Us?

Hey – have you conversed with your cells today? No? So why would a putative intelligent Gaea-type entity bother to try to speak with us? And what makes you think we’d understand a single think such a being would have to say?

The Compleat Gas Mileager

They don’t want you to know these facts about getting better gas mileage.

It’s true.

Probably because they let other considerations get in the way of The Truth, like, for example, safety…

You judge for yourself, as we go along.

I’ll try to present each topic in order of most gas savings down to least, but it’s a hard-to-quantify best guess in many cases… I am focusing on what you can do with your current automobile (and without major car surgery) to get the very best possible gas mileage from it.

Don’t Stop. Ever…

Momentum is your friend, it’s how your car stores most of its energy from those expensive gallons of gas. When you are in motion you are at the lowest friction state that you car experiences (and friction is the eater-of-gasoline). Your brakes work by applying friction, and hence eat gasoline.

By way of test, my car gets 0.0 MPG when stopped, around 7 MPG accelerating and over 100 MPG when coasting through a stop sign or red light. It’s a no-brainer (pun intended).

For those of a more conservative (meaning safety) bent, this can translate into taking the route with the fewest stops (and shortest duration stops too). Slowing down by coasting is far better than flying up to a stop and hitting the brakes.

Also, allowing your vehicle to speed up while coasting down into a dip or valley and using that extra stored energy to get back up the other side means dollars in the wallet (maybe used to pay the speeding ticket). Pop it into neutral to get the least engine braking effect on the way down the hill (about shutting off the engine: – it makes steering hard, braking hard and may eat as much gas re-starting as you saved. Hybrid cars are rigged to use this method constantly and hence avoid the pitfalls).

Take those turns at a somewhat higher speed instead of hitting the brake pedals – you’ll come out of the turn with more of your precious momentum intact. If you make it around the curve.

Interestingly, hard acceleration (the infamous ‘Jack-Rabbit Start’) does NOT seem to have a significant negative impact on overall fuel economy. There are a lot of factors involved here, but if you aren’t squealing your tires on take-off, a fairly brisk acceleration may well save you gas. Why? Well, it gets you to the coasting/high-momentum/low-friction state in fewer miles than a leisurely putt-putt take-off, and the fluid clutch in most automatic transmissions are slipping away quite a bit of that engine power at low torque…

Wind Resistance!

Air resistance is exponential with vehicle speed, so a moderate pace can result in much better gas mileage. Or tailgating at higher speeds, which might get you the same benefit plus shorter trip times. With large trucks on the freeway, this technique is known as ‘Drafting’.

Obviously, choose the largest available SUV to tailgate to get the best effect, such as a Hummer or Ford Expedition. Semi trucks were the drafter’s target of choice in the past, but most states require that they travel at a slower speed limit than cars nowadays, so if you want to zip along, stick with SUVs. Like a bumper sticker.

Removing sources of added air resistance, such as roof-stored ski pods in the summer, can help to some extent. Tail winds are a great help too, and the stronger the better – surfing on a storm’s gust front ought to be a great mileage booster.

Leave those windows up at higher speeds – above 35 MPH (50 KPH). If you must be cooled, use the fan. If that’s not quite enough, AC is better than the windows down at freeway speeds. Um, unless you are drafting.

Water on the road adds a lot of resistance to rolling, so avoid rainy weather for best mileage. Curiously, water adds a bit to your ‘octane’ of your fuel which can help with fuel economy… this effect may offset wet-road losses to some extent.

Accessories

The power you use to light the road ahead and behind you is generated by the alternator. The drive belt on the alternator steals power from the engine. Hence, having those daylight running lamps lit costs you mileage!! Night driving will be lower mileage than daytime, for the same reason. Unless you keep the lights off. Wattage translates to MPG lost, so dimmer is better for best mileage. Driving with running lights when you can see at all is better than headlights on for your wallet. Hmmm… no lights and a night vision system? Maybe in the future it’ll be the norm!!

Air conditioning is not free either – robbing power from the engine to chill the poorly insulated passenger compartment (heat is alright, though – it’s waste energy from the engine, dumped into the car interior)

More and more power is consumed by accessories like entertainment systems and computers in modern cars. Shut ‘em off to save gasoline!

Weight in the car (if you can’t avoid stop/start driving) nibbles away at you mileage too, so dump the extra cargo as soon as you can. In fact, keeping the weight of gasoline down by running your tank below ½ can help your mileage.

Removable seats? Need I say what to do with them?? Extra passengers? How needs the noise as you fly around the curves anyhow?

Car Care

Soft tires eat mileage, so over inflate to save gas! The harder the better, as far as mileage goes.

Thin oil offers the engine less resistance to motion than thick, so stick with the lowest viscosity oil that you can get away with (note: this is a bit confusing with most modern multi-viscosity oils, since there’s more overlap than difference between them…) . Synthetic oils are just a smidge slipperier than nature intended, so they can help mileage a tad too.

Poorly running cars tend to eat more gasoline, and poorly working transmissions can squander gas mileage too. Modern thinking says spark plugs will last 100,000 miles – but maybe not. Check a plug, if it’s bad – change all of them.

Remember, parts are weight. Do you really need to put that fender back on? Bumpers today are nearly pure decoration, so if it’s dented and ugly – off with it!!

Fluid levels at just above minimums yield the lowest overall vehicle weight, so topping off might be detrimental to your mileage, be it gas or windshield washer fluid…

Old cars with looser joints experience lower friction than a brand new car, so keep the old one going for best mileage!

Conclusion

Yep, there’s a bunch you can do to get better mileage – as long as you ignore common sense…