(no subject)

This guide to regular expressions is an excellent demonstration of one of the reasons that unix-based computing has long way to go in the usability stakes.

"Some people actually claim regular expressions (regex) is tricky. This little overview will prove them wrong... :-)"
...followed by several hundred lines of jargon-laden "guide" which is far more suited to being a reference for those who already understand the subject, than a guide for newbies.

Possibly I'm being a little hard on a guy whose first language is probably Swedish, but the frequency with which I run into documents like this purporting to be "beginner's guides" drives me nuts.

engineering-geek mode...

An interesting article in a recent Scientific American[1] about what the US car industry is doing in the field of electric cars. While hardly impartial (it was written by General Motors executives) it does highlight some interesting ideas, and shows that they're not ignoring the subject completely.

These executives seem pretty keen on the idea of what they call a "skateboard chassis". A single flat chassis, containing hydrogen tanks, fuel cells, motors and control electronics, which can accept a variety of bodies. I have a few reservations here, mostly to do with how well the body-chassis connection will hold up in a collision. Otherwise, though, this concept shows some of the advantages of the technologies that are now becoming viable.

Disregarding environmental concerns, there are several engineering advantages of electric motors. They're quiet, compact and efficient, they have good power to weight ratios, and they produce useful power at zero RPM. One side effect of all this lot is that it is possible to mount the motors right next to the wheels they drive, and do away with most of the drive train, which actually occupies a fairly substantial percentage of most cars. This approach also reduces mechanical complexity, which in turn, should reduce maintenance costs. The only reason the roads aren't already packed with electric cars is the lack of a viable means of providing these motors with power.

A second technology used by the skateboard chassis is Drive-by-Wire. Essentially, this removes the mechanical linkage between the driver's controls and the mechanisms they govern. Instead, electronics are used to relay the driver's wishes. Amongst other things, this removes the need for a steering column, which is a major threat to the driver's health in a collision, and complicates the engineering of right and left-hand drive versions of the same vehicle. However, Drive-By-Wire is going to be pretty difficult to sell to a lot of drivers - expect a re-run of the macho crap that was seen when Fly-By-Wire was first introduced in aircraft...

[1] Unfortunately, the e-version of the article is in the "pay" part of the site - I got the Dead Tree Edition.

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A good meeting last thursday night, made even better by the rare presence of swisstone, even if he did make a crack about me filling my livejournal with techie stuff [1].

Getting there was a bit strange - first, I got to see our armed forces in action in their temporary firefighting role, thanks to a burning car on Princess street. The trip from the restaurant where we ate to the actual meeting was made slightly more exciting by the lunatics playing with fireworks in Piccadilly Gardens. Having survived the bombardment, we were accosted by a woman wanting to know if my hair was real [2].

After that, we made it safely to the pub and things settled down enough for a good time to be had by all.

[1] This from a man who devoted half a fanzine to Diesel-Electric Multiple Units. Which, it has to be said, I found quite interesting, being a semi-reformed planespotter and interested in engineering.

[2]Context note for those who've not met me in real life: I have waist length hair.

Yay!

The 2,208^th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame goes to... Kermit The Frog.

[link credit: Boing Boing]