Chrysler's own initiate for saving our planet

When it comes to cars, and really any technology, I have found that people often have false pretenses based on rumours or what they heard through the grapevine. For me, one has been that turning off my car engine only to turn it back on again minutes later results in more fuel consumption than leaving the engine running for that period. This is essentially just not true.

I know this because Chrysler has just announced that will be equipping a select number of its models with an engine start/stop option. What this feature will do is turn your car's engine off when the vehicle is in a stopped position, and once the brake is released the engine will automatically turn back on. This option is expected to increase fuel economy by up to 5%.

No wonder America is broke...

I apologize for not updating for a few days, but I have been really busy with schoolwork and whatnot. In the meantime, just to give you a laugh I thought I'd post an interesting statistic I found while studying for a paper. Enjoy.

"Birdwatching is estimated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to generate spending of about $18 billion per year by over 24 million birders" (EPA, 1996).

Car audio frustration

Because I am in a Multimedia program I am taught to criticize site design, link placement, colours, typefaces and all that stuff only to finally learn from and apply this knowledge to my own work. I like to think I know what a good interface looks like and what it means for a site to be user-friendly. Everyday I see both good and bad sites, but today my design criticism went beyond the web and into my own car.

I just bought a 2004 Ford Focus. Before this car, I never listened to the radio; always to CDs. I also never realized why until this afternoon. My first car had an after market deck installed from Pioneer with tiny little buttons as most after market decks have. My new car's stereo has big, chunky buttons. It is so easy to preset radio stations to an allocated number and change stations whenever I want - I absolutely love it. In at least 3 years of having my first car I had never learned how to do this.

My question is this: why does every after market stereo deck manufacturer come up with a different version of the same complex faceplate with terrible button design year after year? I am 6'1'' with big, fat finger. Before my Focus I could easily press two, three, or even four buttons with one finger. I mean, I wouldn't want to put that much concentration into pressing a button even if I wasn't supposed to be focusing on the road ahead of me.

That's it. I'm quitting school and starting my own car audio business.

Does anybody in California have a real job?

Tree-hugging Escalade

Aside from the Hummer, everyone has criticized it since its beginning for essentially starting the SUV revolution. It has been held solely accountable for global warming much like Marilyn Manson is responsible for youth violence. Well to all you environmentalists out there, feast your eyes on the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid. Due out early this Spring, the Escalade Hybrid will allegedly increase fuel economy by 50% and milage from 12 mpg to 18. That may seem marginal compared to a Civic Hybrid (which can achieve somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-62 mpg), but consider the differences, both engine and size. Also, think about how many of these trucks are on the road and how many people you know who want one.

FLY Fusion Virtual Pen

I saw a commercial for this really cool device called the FLY Fusion the other day. This link will send you to the website, but YouTube also has a pretty cool demo of what it's capable of here. Essentially what it does is digitally captures anything you write inside the pen (as long as you write on the FLY paper) and allows you to upload it to your computer in seconds. Of course there are a whole slew of other cool things you can do with the FLY Fusion but that is the basic idea. I could waste more time explaining it to you, but its much easier to understand if you just check out the clip.

Once you grasp how the device works, you can really see how useful it can be in terms of education. All that time spent scanning hand-written documents and screwing around with Adobe Reader is gone. It has its own text conversion software that will turn your handwriting into digital text. The only concern I have is with how easily it recognizes the handwriting. I know I have fairly messy handwriting, so the program would have to be really smart to differentiate between not just my "U's" and my "V's" but even my "R's" and my "M's". One interesting note about the FLY Fusion is that it is aimed primarily toward kids (I saw the commercial on YTV). I wonder how it would make standard lecture note-taking more efficient?

Disasterous London Olympic campaign

This is the Official London Olympic logo. Wow. I know many of you have probably already seen it, but for those of you who have not heard all the controversy surrounding the London Olympic website, its Flash video, television commercials, and essentially the whole campaign, I will give you a brief overview.

The logo itself is a complete nightmare. It looks like something a 3 year old created in MS Paint. I'll let you make up your own comparison, but people have said it looks like a "toileting monkey" or even a "broken swastika". There are thousands of online petitioners with hopes of changing the campaign. And to think this logo is the result of over 400,000 pounds and a full year of research and testing. The company who is responsible for the design has even removed it from their website.

That's not all. The Official website launched for the 2012 Olympics (which if you haven't yet, you should definitely take a look at) featured an animated video promoting the games before it was removed. The video features a diver diving into a pool with bright lights and quick flashes ultimately triggering upwards of eight documented cases of seizures! You'll find a clip of the ads here.

Adrants Portfolio Showcase

After creating my own site and portfolio, I went shopping around online to see what this kind of thing would cost if I was to hire someone to do it for me. I found Adrants; a company that will do all this work for you, and hook you up with buyers. They have 3 stages of portfolios you can pay for depending on what extras you would like - you can check them out here. If you want Adrants to create and maintain a portfolio for you it will cost you anywhere between $9.95-$49.00 a month. What caught my eye was that they claim to have thousands of qualified buyers who frequent their site looking for graphic designers, photographers, and illustrators on a regular basis. If you're looking for an easy way to kick-start your design career, check out this site and let me know how it works out.

www.BradleyKarelson.com

My website is now up and running! It will be constantly updated, but it is complete for the time being. Check it out:

www.BradleyKarelson.com

McMaster Centre for Leadership and Learning

Today for Computers and Education class Prof. Rockwell took us on a tour of the variety of different learning spaces that can be found on McMaster's campus. One of our last stops was to the Centre for Leadership and Learning.

The idea of this space and the people who work there is to provide services to professors (new and experienced) who are willing to learn how to teach, or how to teach better. They do this through a variety of different methods including e-mails informing faculty of teaching workshops and other services this organization provides.

One of the issues that came up in the discussion on this topic was how to get professors to want to learn how to teach. This made me think back to the camp I spend most of the summers of my life at; Camp Ponacka. The owners of the camp did something I had never heard of being done before with respect to welcoming new campers. They made home visits to every single new camper before their camp session that summer, no matter the city (or sometimes even country). I feel like this could be an effective way to make new faculty feel more welcome entering the McMaster community and even perhaps more willing to attend the teaching workshops they provide. This in turn would lead to more 'technology confident' professors willing to apply computers to their teaching! I know trying to turn the professor-University relationship into a loving family is unrealistic but I think this is something that could potentially make a difference.

SEMA 2007

Another SEMA show has passed which means there are a number of pictures of both really cool and ridiculous looking cars circulating the internet. I've been through quite a few of them and have found a lot that fall in both categories. One trend I noticed with trucks is still gigantic wheels but new this year was a growing interest in American Force big rig style rims like you see on this Ford F-350. I think it really works! It's slammed to the ground, which consequently deems it useless as a traditional workhorse truck, but it really does look badass.



On the same domestic car theme is the Richard Petty paint theme on this Dodge Charger. What I like about this car is the door handles are shaved which makes it look like a two door (what it should have been in the first place). Although, chances are it is still an automatic...

On the other hand, I discovered pictures of this Trans Am. It really just speaks for itself...