Honda Puyo

Yet another funky little car came rolling across my desk this morning, meet Puyo.

Puyo is a concept car from Honda and it was built for the Tokyo Motor Show. The name loosely translates to the need to touch and as it was built for the theme "For the endless joy of mobility on our earth" it seems to fit quite nicely. Puyo has no external edges, all super smooth lines and as the name suggests, it just begs to be touched.

The interior is pure Apollo 13 and with the single side door, it appears to be roomy while I expect that its a tiny little puppy out on the open road. It's controlled by a joystick, futuristic touch instrument panel and appears to have non of the mod cons that consumers think they need. Its pure, minimalistic, A-B, people moving fun.

Under the hood? it features ultra-high efficiency, a small frame and is powered by fuel cell technology to please both users and onlookers alike. The headlights are backed up by a luminous hue that covers the car after nightfall which gives it a glo-worm on wheel look. It also features 4 wheel steering and can turn 360 degrees on the spot. Very impressive.

While I doubt it will ever be tearing up your nearest motorway, I think this car is a great example of outside the box, looking like a box technology - if that's even a thing.

Fill Your AA With PP

Good lord its not a joke!

These batteries are able to convert energy from a number of general waste liquids into a small charge capable of powering a very low demand device like a clock, remote control or small radio.

Inside each NoPoPo battery is a combination of magnesium and carbon that generate electricity when mixed with certain fluids. According to the manufacturers site, the batteries can be filled with urine, beer, tea, saliva and a ton of other general, everyday household substances. Ewww

I don't know if its the geek in me but the first thing I thought of was the possible reality of MrFusion. MrFusion was the white appliance on the engine of the Back To The Future (2) DeLorean that emulated the 1.21GigaWatts of power required to activate the flux capacitor and travel though time. (Damn that's a good movie!) It was fuelled by.................well.......crap! from Marty's rubbish bins.

Pardon the pun but in the future could we be seeing piss tanks all over the place for refuelling your new ultra green hybrid car? Or just the usual piss tanks around seedy bars, universities and our place? Perhaps, Perhaps..Perhaps

Google Tube?

In my regular random internet surfing today I noticed that Google have added a nice little feature to their mapping package.

You now have an option to show Transit on any map. Im not sure what extent it goes to or what cities are covered but its bound to spread like wildfire when people get on it.

When travelling around it will be much easier to tell if its worth getting the tube or just hitting the pavement - old school. Especially London cos a ton of the stations are really really close together and its just as fast to walk and not pay the squillion squid fare.

Peace Out Players

Moke -> Minicraft

Sorry for the second Moke posting in a few days but I just cant help it.

This morning the Moke made its way over to Minicraft for its complete overhaul. Ive held back and haven't spoken to them yet cos I think I'm a little too anxious. Deep breaths have been required all day today and luckily its been quite busy here in the cubicle so my mind has been occupied by work, at least during the business hours.

Got bugger all sleep last night which is normal for me before a large planned occurrence. Strange how i wasn't surprised at all this time, must be getting old. Ive put it down to a combination of butterflies, stress and excitement. The ratios vary from event to event but this time it was an even level of all three.

Anyway, its Paddo night tonight so bring on the 141. My turn to drink so bring THAT on too. : )

Will post again tomorrow if the butterflies haven't taken over.

P.S. The Moke needs a name! Open to all ideas people so lets here em.

Child Tracker 4000

Ok, it isn't called the Child Tracker 4000 but this new device from nu.m8 is exactly that.

The idea is definitely a good one and most good ideas are simple: wear watch, track kid. The 2 immediate uses that come to mind are to make sure they are where they SAY they are and as word spread it could become known to 'kid'nappers etc and in my opinion, anything of a plus in that area is excellent. The tracking is done via the manufacturers site and id imagine you'll have to pay a monthly fee to keep tabs on the rugrat.

Essentially, next birthday you surprise little Tommy, Billy, *insert name here* with a braaaaand neeeew watch! WOW, Thanks Dad, you're the best. Now we all know what the first thing is that kids do with a new toy....show their friends. I'm guessing one of the will know about this little company called Google. Once the watch is Googled the name calling and teasing begins :(

I suppose for kids that are around 4-7 this wouldn't be as much of a problem but any older and they're likely to leave it at home. In the wild, if the watch is removed, battery dies or the signal is lost in any way, the site will email you so you know that somethings up.

In any case, its great to see these new devices come into the market as an actual product, not just a concept - Kudos on that nu.m8. Honestly don't think it will be that long before we all start chipping each other, we all forget to upgrade our virus definitions and are all infected with smiley spyware that pops up in front of your eyes at random times.

Ah the future!

Moking Is Not A Wealth Hazard

As some of you know and some of you don't, Ive had a fetish for Mini Mokes for around 20 years and in August one came up in Perth relatively cheaply that I was able to snavvle up.

The reason it was cheap is because the previous owner decided against putting oil in it and the engine subsequently seized. With this in mind I decided against trying to start it when I looked at the car, just incase he was completely clueless and it wasn't seized at all. When we got it home, after some squirting and hammering, we got it started!

While it now ran, it sounded very sick and it was obvious that the lack of oil had caused terminal damage to the components. We ran a compression test and none of the cylinders were great but there was no bottom end noise which was a good sign. In the spirit of 'I cant make it any worse' I removed the head and saw that all the valves weren't seated properly and if I can tell, that's an indication of how bad they were! There was also remnants of 2 head gaskets, one of the valves was missing a piece and it generally looked like crap! haha.

This was actually a good sign because if I could get away with just doing a head rebuild, it would work out much cheaper to get back on the road. So I took the head in for surgery with the radiator cos it happened to have a little leak. After a week, got it all back, put it all together...............and.................white smoke. DOH

Drove it around for about a week and up to Minicraft for them to take a look. Still not making bottom end noise but after some tests, we confirmed the smoke was due to the rings, Oh-O. Drove it home, around the traps a little and sure enough, after about 20kms, the bottom end knock started tap tap tapping at the door.

So for the last 2 months Ive been working on the appearance and on Wednesday next week it officially goes under the knife for a full engine, gearbox rebuild. Id be lying if I said I wasn't chomping at the bit to get back behind the wheel but deep breaths and a new windows wallpaper everyday has gotten me this far. Ill post an update next week but till then, time to set another wallpaper and look on the net for more spare parts!

Thankfully, the picture above is a before shot and its undergone a ton of changes since then. Ive started a Picasa album so click here for more pics. Stay tuned for updates....hopefully all good ones!

141 Paddo Beer Club

For those readers who have noticed the list of 141 beers down the left and don't know what they're for, Kylie and I are doing the '141' at the Paddo.

Basically they stock around 160 beers and have chosen 141 of them as a list challenge. When you order a drink, you simply ask for the next one on the list and, in theory, they mark it off as you go. Once done, you are awarded with a little plaque (yippee) and your name is printed up on their wall of fame. Our aim is to complete the list in 141 days which, by our calculations, means our last day is March 1.

By coincidence, March 1 is a Sunday so if your free, we will be celebrating the lists (and PYF Wednesday at the Paddo's) completion. I will keep the list up to date on the left <---- so you can keep track but we are well and truly on schedule at this stage which is tops.

Tomorrow we will be back at the Paddo to keep powering away so if your available, pop down and say gday. Should be nice weather so will probably be sitting out the front again which is always terribly stressful!

Ciao all and stay cool

Endless Monkey

As an IT nerd a Nintendo fan and a human, I can never seem to get enough monkey in my daily grind.

Finally someone has come to my aid and created a solar powered monkey climber that will go and go as long as the sun is shining bright. Its quite simple really: sun = climb. Another interesting factor is that you get the monkey climber in bits so you can see exactly whats going on in there and possibly make some enhancements or a whole new idea.

Why do I get the idea that we are only seeing the start of solar systems (for want of a better term) in our everyday lives. A guy I work with is currently getting his home converted to solar electric (with gas hot water backup and mains power backup) because the government is offering a huge kickback at the moment for those that make the switch. Normally its around $9000 and its costing him $2500.

Without knowing exactly how much they use, he expects it to fully power his 24x7 home appliances with a small amount in reserve for 'on demand' use. If he is lucky, he will have overestimated his home use and if he pumps enough spare electricity INTO the grid, he will be sent a nice cheque in the post every few months. Yes, it will be little but hey, moneys money right!

Dont Call Me' Nadzi...

Short but sweet post today but as they keep telling me, size doesn't matter.

Just wanted to say congratulations to Nards and Kat again for an accepted wedding proposal over the new year break. Its absolutely terrific news and I couldn't be happier for both of you.

I got most of the details yesterday but as soon as I hung up, Kylie had about 50 more so apparently what they had for breakfast that day is important.....must be a chick thing!

Anywho, looking forward to the engagement pertee so we can congratulate you both in person but for now:

Good Times!

Cheeseburger......in a Can

It's a Cheeseburger and it's in a can...................Its Cheeseburger In A Can!

I honestly don't know whether to rejoice or blubber at the prospect of tucking into a scrumptious burger that's been carefully grown and meticulously assembled (by a conveyor belt!!) in what appears to be a Swiss or German factory.

Obviously they have been made for hikers or adventurers that just can't live without their fix of soggy mush for a few days. Hey, maybe there IS a market here. People agonisingly climb mountains, scale cliffs, risk life and limb for an adrenaline rush or sense of accomplishment. They get to the summit, turn around and the only symbol they can make out in the ground below is bloody Maccas! Imagine the elation when your counterpart turns to you and says, "I think its time to crack a can mate, a CHEESEburger can"..............Please!

Another thing that I cant help to think is that burgers that are made by hand don't even look like that. Also it appears the burger is bigger than the can so I can only dream about the slop that resides in these things after months of transportation and shelf-life.

Maybe they would have more of a chance selling a can of WTF!