Archives for March 2008They keep killing the Electric Car.
Why did it fail then? Personally, and the quickest response… it was the 1920’s. Do you know the quality and maximum charge of the batteries that were used back then? The lack of power, distance, and the (what looked like to be) unlimited supply of gasoline forced it to a halt. Since then, electric cars have been halted on numerous occasions. In the 70’s, 90’s, and again in 2003-2005 (with the introduction to hydrogen cars). Whats your excuse now? For those who do not know what happened in 2002-2005, GM came out with a pretty nice car. It was the EV1. They marketed it and while there was a demand, they scrapped it. They took all the cars back and they junked them. (that is putting a major summary on the story, as there were a lot of factors including pressure from the oil companies that were involved in the decision, along with government factors and lack of public awareness). Slowly, we have seen companies trying to give birth to the electric car yet again (and about time, especially with the oil/gas prices ;)). For those that do not know, the batteries used in the EV1’s could have been easily upgraded and give you the opportunity to not only charge your car overnight, at home, but have up to 200 miles+ per charge. (or so they say - but never implemented). The Future? Nissan is one of the companies who are developing an electric-only car with its french alliance partner and hope to mass market it by 2011. Mercedes is another who is trying to create an electric-only car. Personally, Hydrogen cell cars were never really an ideal alternative, as the costs would be worth more than 2x what your house is worth. With an electric car, currently while not mass produced is may be a bit expensive, but as it is mass produced in the next little bit, the price will drop significantly. (hopefully) Even though things look good, there are companies which try to delay things by any means. Its depressing. Have a Happy Easter
Have a… It’s important to be with our families. Be Unique. Be Yourself
I am sure that some of you, at least some of you, got into blogging thinking that you would have much success with it. I did. That said, I frantically read the blogs I thought that could benefit me in some way or another. What I have learned: You have to be yourself. You can’t just drone on about a topic (even though you may consider yourself an expert) and not put in your own personal flavor to it. Some people do this and good for them. It is just not my style. Out of all the comments I have received as a blogger, and all the e-mails I have received asking me questions, I often get the “I like your writing style” statements and the “your a pretty cool blogger” remarks. Now, if only I got those “Your cool” statements in real life ;). I have gained a readership not only with some of my posts (my most memorable post are probably my photoshop tutorials, sadly enough), but also with my sense of writing. What does it mean?!? Though I am not saying you shouldn’t follow in people’s footsteps. I am not saying that at all. You should not try to mimic their success by doing the same thing that they are doing though. Blogging is like a game to me. I often like to talk about things which spark my interest or that I find interesting. What you should take from this: Try to find a style that suits you and do not conform to what others think you should have as a good blog. I did that with this current design/layout and although I like it, it is not my style. I am changing it within the next few days and adding my own bit of flare and unique tastes to this blog. You should have people want to read your posts because their your posts. Create a “brand” if you have to. I might do some flash video posts in the future, if I get my butt in gear and actually play around with my flash program. Sneak Peek: By the way, the picture currently in this post is a bit of a sneak peak of what the new layout’s feel will be like. I hope you will enjoy Do you Stumble-Exchange often?
Note: This post has been edited from the original, as things have changed quite a bit over the past month. Some of you may have heard this, others may have been tagged by a group of individuals, but it appears that stumbleupon users are fighting spammers. Many of these users are trying to crack down on a lot of the spam that are coming from forums and ’stumble exchanges’. A month Ago: It started with a single person. “SUhallofshame” (get it, Stumble Upon Hall of Shame). Man, has a lot happened since then. Digital Point stopped allowing stumble exchanges. Half of the sites that have used exchanges are now gone. He, among others, are giving ‘thumbs down’ on any thread and post that they can find that offers exchanges. A month ago or more, I would have disagreed with this as a lot of quality sites are part of exchanges. However, now, is a different story. My Confession: I admit, I exchanged in the past. Quite a bit. I will get flagged as a spammer, so be it. However, after actually stumbling on Stumbleupon for a while, I noticed something unique about the community and what they stand for. I do not stumble-exchange anymore. I am against it. So do I still get marked as a spammer? Whether I do or not, it does not matter. The idea of stopping certain webmasters from posting spam sites to people is quite noble, in my opinion. I often stumble through websites, looking for something interested, but am often plagued with spam sites or made for adsense sites. Bias? Maybe. Maybe not. A lot of webmasters who first start out, try to get a name for themselves by posting to social bookmarking sites, submitting to directories and search engines, etc. I was naive to do this as well when I first started. I wish I could delete every single one of those exchanges, but I cannot. Back Then, and now: I took stumbleupon for granted. However, Stumbleupon brings quality traffic to my blog. I visit websites through stumbleupon to find good websites that I can read, or have a good laugh over. I thank you for that. The reason why I decided to edit it now is because over the last 24 hours I have gotten a lot of bad reviews for this one post, when the original post was against what I believed in. And… this means?Frankly, if you do not believe me. Its ok. It doesn’t matter. I will continue to stumble to sites and be happy. I lost the trust of stumblers because I exchanged a lot in Stumbleupon. Despite the rather snarky and rude remarks/comments of the last few people. I do not believe that this site is poor quality just because I need a bit of a boost, thats a rather narrowminded way of looking at things and I think you need a time out ;). | |
Time and time again, it has happened. Why do we resist change so much? Why do we say no to the things which could benefit our society? This rhetoric has been going on since as far back as the 1920’s.
Though I dread the idea of sounding like a motivational speaker, it must be done.
