YTechnology

Shown here is the 1991 Toyota MR2. Thanks to the mechanical skills of a family enthusiast, it purrs, growls, and turbo whistles like a dream.   My hardware ability doesn't go much further than oil changes. Rather, my expertise is in software, and I wrote an app for Android and iOS to diagnose the flashes of the check engine light. This second generation MR2 predates the OBD2 connector, a standard used to diagnose engine, transmission, and emissions problems quickly and easily. Instead, we have a flashing check engine light which needs some deciphering, followed by a lookup in the service manual. Basically, you count flashes to arrive at fault code number. A short pause (~1.5 seconds) indicates the start of the next digit. A medium pause (~2.5 seconds) indicates start of the next fault code. And a long pause (~4.5 seconds) means the sequence has ended and will repeat. The video below corresponds to the codes 41 and 51. Using the the MR2 Check app and selecting the 3S-GTE engine...

A fun narrative has Elon Musk really being from Mars and badly wants to go home. In my imagination, I add that Elon, having watched the movie E.T. , realizes that if he directly sought the help of space capable governments, he would likely be captured, imprisoned, and eventually dissected. Clever Martian that he might be, Elon would parallel the real life story of One Red Paperclip , where one man started with a single red paperclip and through 14 trades, ended up with a two story farmhouse. And so goes Elon, first with Paypal and selling it to eBay for more than a hundred million dollars, then using that fortune to start SpaceX (2002) and Tesla (2003), and later Starlink (2015), all in the hopes of amassing enough money and technology to get him home. Also in my fevered imagination, Elon is BFF with Bernie Sanders and AOC, because addressing the looming menace that is climate change is really that important. That they approach the climate threat from opposite ends -- private business ...

  The car in front of me misjudged a traffic light and stopped in the crosswalk. Braking early, I left a gap should the driver wish to back up. Then I wondered, would an autonomous vehicle extend the same courtesy? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before being courteous, autonomous driving has yet to master the rules of road. There are two prevailing approaches: solve for general AI or use geo-fencing.  The former, pursued by Tesla, is harder to achieve but will make autonomous cars capable of driving on almost any road. The latter, used by GM Cruise and Alphabet Waymo, is easier to achieve, but restricts autonomous cars to certain locations. GM Cruise is already accepting fares for its driverless taxi in San Francisco. The service, however, is bound by both time and space, allowed only to run between 10pm and 6am (lighter traffic) and within a 7x7 mile area. Choices and trade-offs such as these are common when planning and building a future. Thirty years ago, Apple introduce...

AI would stop the car in the straightest, shortest, possible line.  That would be my answer to the  trolley problem  which asks an autonomous vehicle to chose between hitting a pedestrian or avoiding a pedestrian by veering off a cliff and taking you, the occupant, with it. In the same vein as "Who would win in a fight, Hulk or Superman?" the trolley problem is entertaining but doesn't produce practical answers. As Jason Hong laments in the link above,  "... the problems are framed such that the autonomous vehicle is the only entity with any agency. Or to put it more simply, pedestrians are completely passive and won't try to dodge oncoming vehicles." Anyone who has done the " hallway dance " would readily agree with Mr. Hong.  Indeed, my wife recounted an accident in her youth when she hit a goat with her car, doing precisely this dance. We should, instead, focus on long-range embedded road sensors to detect wayward pedestrians, and br...

It's not unusual for computer people to also be car guys and gals.  Cars are another form of hardware to explore, test, optimize, and modify.  My TSX Wagon review below first appeared on Edmunds' enthusiast car website under "InsideLine: Readers' Rides."  Edmunds have long since changed their format and the article is no longer there.  I am republishing it here with a few updates. First Impressions My wife tells me the first thing women notice about men are their shoes. Shoe size not withstanding, she explains that the kind of shoes, and the condition they're in, say a lot about who a man is, and hint at what he hopes to be. The shoes on our base trim 2012 Acura TSX Sport Wagon are 17 inch Michelin Pilot HX MXM4. In the Michelin lineup, these tires slot between the MXV4, which lean toward comfort, and the Pilot Sport A/S, which are geared for performance. Does this wagon live up to its luxury sport aspirations? On the outside, the wagon's ov...

What do Hot Wheels, the XO Laptop, and Mozart's Nachtmusik have in common?  Each one appeals to the beginner and opens the door to something more complex. There is a way of thought in Zen Buddhism referred to as "Beginner's Mind."  Approach activities with the mind of a beginner, even routine things such as eating.  That's because  "I n the Beginner's Mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." Mozart's Nachtmusik is a popular introduction for those new to classical music, whether as a listener or as a budding musician.  Listen to the clip above and you will understand better than any words I can write. The XO Laptop brought the concept of computers and programming to children. especially in underdeveloped nations.   It did not succeed as planned, but the hearts behind it were in the right place.  The Verge (2018) recently took a thorough look back, accompanied by some sharp photos: OLPC’S $100 Laptop W...

A recent project had me fitting my Mazda3 with a cloaking device.  The  goal was just to learn, as speeding without being seen is arguably more dangerous than speeding while visible. Here is a photo sequence of the cloaking device in action.  There was absolutely no photoshop trickery! Photo 1: Mazda3 Photo 2: So'wI' chu'  (Engage cloaking device) Photo 3: Qapla'! (Success!) The most difficult part of this project wasn’t the installation, although I did need special tools, including a phase coil resonator.  Nor was it the additional power requirements; I simply advanced the engine’s spark timing and switched from regular gasoline to premium.  No, the difficult part was locating the parts.  eBay and Craigslist were dead ends.  Inquiries on various car forums went unanswered.  And I sniffed around several junkyards to no avail.  The last junkyard search ended like all the others — in...