Monthly Archives: February 2015

My colleague Sam Jaffe talked to Wired about the potential for an Apple car

This entry was posted in gpblg on by (updated 3565 days ago)
My colleague Sam Jaffe talked to Wired about the potential for an Apple car

Personally, I'm not particularly enthused about what an apple car might turn out to be, but when you have $150 billion burning a hole in your pocket, you'd be crazy not to try. My biggest concern about this whole thing is that Apple's lawyers are working overtime filing patent applications and will shortly be going on the warpath against the entire auto industry.

I'm also not excited about the prospects for what the designer of the Ford 021c will produce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_021C?

Apple Making a Car Isn’t as Ridiculous as You Think | WIRED
It takes a lot of capital to enter the auto industry, but Apple’s got the money — and the knowledge — necessary for a 21st century effort.

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My daughter decided she wanted to re-key the locks on her house and it turned out…

This entry was posted in gpblg on by (updated 3565 days ago)
My daughter decided she wanted to re-key the locks on her house and it turned out to be a breeze

Last year, when my daughter moved into her house, I put +Kwikset SmartKey door locks on for her. This week she decided she wanted to re-key and the whole job took less than a minute and only cost $10 each. With these locks, you put in the old key, turn 90 degrees, insert the special tool, pull out the old key, insert the new key and turn back. That's it, the lock is reprogrammed to the new key. The kit comes with 4 main keys plus 2 alternates. 

If you have someone coming in to do some work, you can quickly reprogram the lock to the alternate key, give it to someone one and when the job is done, you switch back to the original key.?

Amazon.com: Kwikset SmartKey Re-keying Kit REKYG KIT CP SMT KW: Home Improvement
Amazon.com: Kwikset SmartKey Re-keying Kit REKYG KIT CP SMT KW: Home Improvement

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The Optimism-Pessimism Dichotomy of Engineers

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"Boss" the autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challange

“Boss” the autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challange

Over the course of the past 30 years, I’ve come to know and respect many engineers and noticed an interesting dichotomy among many of those that work in the field of transportation. They can be at once among the most optimistic and pessimistic people I’ve known. Engineering is all about applying science and technology to develop creative solutions to the problems we face on a daily basis.

Throughout most of human history, mobility often has been fraught with peril. Most of that time we have had to move on foot and while humans have some unique physical advantages such opposable thumbs and our ability to verbalize, we are sadly lacking in speed, strength and endurance compared to many other species. Despite that, we have used our ingenuity to develop tools and devices that enable us to get around more effectively.

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2015 Kia Sedona SX-L – A First-Class People Mover

This entry was posted in Carmakers cars Kia reviews and tagged 2015 car reviews kia minivan sedona on by (updated 3154 days ago)

2015 kia sedona sx-l 01If you have a family with more than two youngsters, chances are better than even that the best vehicle for you is not actually an SUV or a crossover, but a minivan. Sadly, despite the fact that minivans are among the most useful vehicles ever created, they just don’t have that cool image that even the hopelessly uncool among us strive for. That’s really a shame because the current generation of minivans including the 2015 Kia Sedona are really great vehicles.

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60 Minutes pushes the panic button again 1

This entry was posted in gpblg on by (updated 3565 days ago)
I'm sure that after last night's +60 Minutes report about DARPA hackers taking remote control of a car (and btw what a lame job they did on masking that Chevy Impala to prevent people from knowing what it was) people will start to panic again about automotive security.

First of all, we've yet to see any evidence that they did this without first having physical access to the vehicle and tampering with it as all previous hacks have required. If they did tamper with the vehicle prior to the demonstration, then that really isn't any different from someone going in and cutting the brake lines. If however, they managed to take control without any initial access, this is much more serious. I've been telling people within the industry for years that they need to set up a bounty program like tech companies do for responsible disclosure of security exploits. At least Tesla has been hiring some black hat attackers to try to puncture its systems. Perhaps, this will finally spur everyone to more serious action.?

Time for Automakers to Get Real on Vehicle Security
Recently, the annual Black Hat and DefCon computer security conferences took place in Las Vegas, and this week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a notice of propo…

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