Crappy Problems

Some people don't have a clue when it comes to being a respectful dog owner. Apparently, someone in my neighborhood is a repeat offender, continuously letting their dog take super-sized steamers right in front of my mailbox. In response to my frustrations, I am posting this sign next to my mailbox, in hopes that the responsible party will be deterred from continuing this blasphemous behavior. I'm not satisfied with those "Curb your dog" signs because they are too commonplace and do not make people think twice. Those signs imply that the underlying message is simply a recommendation, to be adhered to only on odd Saturdays of leap years when the moon is full and the temperature is 57 degrees at 2:30pm.

This sign, however, portrays consequence.

If this doesn't work, I'm upgrading to a bigger sign and a webcam.

I also had some fun over at diy.despair.com:

Building a Sailboat on the Cheap

[Update: I've taken down direct links to images from pdracer.com, and instead I'm providing you with a link to the page containing the image. PDRacer does not like externally linked images, and I have not obtained/asked for permission to copy photos from the site.]

If you live near a lake, pond, or any other body of water with sufficient depth (~2') and access, you have the wonderful opportunity of sailing on said body of water.....

But you don't know how to sail, don't have a boat, don't want a trailer, can't fit a boat in your yard, and don't have the expendable cash to buy a sunfish or equivalent. Even if you did buy a sunfish, you still can't fit yourself, both of your kids and the dog in that boat. What about fishing gear? Lunch?

These are all excuses. All you need is a small amount of time, some basic hand tools, and a roof rack, and you can be sailing in one of these lovely boats known as a Puddle Duck Racer.

This boat can be constructed from materials that are mostly available at your local Home Depot, such as 5.2mm luaun plywood, polytarp or Tyvek (for the sail), and douglas fir. As somewhat of a stunt, the boat can be built in a day. However, to build it properly takes more time, as it needs to be sealed with epoxy, paint, and so forth.

If you have your doubts about how much weight a properly constructed Puddle Duck Racer (PDRacer) can hold, then take a look at this:

Payload Records @ pdracer.com

This is a photo of the world record for most weight supported by a PDR; 1700lbs of people in hull number 136, built by Rick Landreville. This configuration is a bit unconventional (two sails, hull wider than 4'), but illustrates the capability of this little boat quite well!

This little boat allows its creator to express endless creativity. Check out the photo gallery over at PDRacer.com to see all the wonderful variations, paint schemes, and themed boats that people have built and enjoyed.

If you aren't convinced yet about building your own, watch the following videos and see if you change your mind! When you are ready to begin building, make sure to join the Yahoo Group (pdracer) for endless community support during your build!

Check out the speed Detlef Teufel gets in his PDR:


Or, enjoy a smooth cruise with Detlef:


David "Shorty" Routh put together this sweet video that makes me want to finish my PDR today!

Validation Hell

I just told my friend check out my latest post on hang-gliding, and he responded with "WTF LEARN HTML NOOB! I can't view your video!" Not only are some of my posts non-compliant, but it appears as if the template I'm using is also non-compliant. This bothers me, so I'm going to fix it.

The first thing I did was change my embedded flash video to use the "Satay Method" from A List Apart. This involved throwing the embed tag out the window in favor of solely using the object tag.

I'll keep updating this post as I find more sources of errors.

It appears as if I am screwed. Since I have no access to the full HTML source of this blog, I can't control the escaping of ampersands or the fact that an iframe is used, while the XHTML 1.0 strict DTD is declared at the beginning of the page. What's the deal here?? Looks like I will eventually have to go with independent hosting and a blog that allowed me greater control.

Does anyone have suggestions for hosting this blog?

My First Hang Gliding Lesson!

Last weekend was incredible! I found myself running swiftly down a grassy slope and eventually drifting into the sky for a brief moment! This is incredibly fun. What a wonderful sensation. I highly recommend trying this out sometime. It's not very expensive to take lessons. Mountain Wings in Ellenville, NY has package deals that are quite appealing!



Here's the link to my photo set on Flickr!

How to Save 20% on Gasoline

Recently, I realized that the fuel mileage I was obtaining in my 2005 Corolla (manual transmission) was not what it should be. I was getting around 32MPG, and could go roughly 330 miles per refueling stop. I knew that the car was much more capable, as I'd seen mileage as high as 37MPG in the past.

I decided to run an experiment. With a few changes to my driving style, I found myself getting over 40MPG! To put this in perspective, that's like going to the gas pump, filling up your tank, and paying 20% less! (for eaxmple: $2.47 per gallon versus $3.09 per gallon prior to changing driving styles). My commute to and from work takes about 5 minutes longer than previous, yet it is more consistent (no stop-and-go traffic). So, how did I do this?

Brakes: Your Enemy
Efficiency is defined as the ratio of useful output energy divided by the input energy. Differences between input energy (gasoline consumed) and output energy (proportional to miles driven) are caused by losses of energy due to heat, wind resistance, and mechanical resistance. There's not much you can do about wind and mechanical resistance, other than removing your roofrack, etc. However, you can dramatically reduce losses due to heat caused by braking.

Using the Brakes
Every time you press the brakes, you are generating heat, thereby wasting the energy you provided (gasoline) to your car to achieve the speed you were traveling at. Another way to think about this is to compare your decrease in speed while braking with the required use of the accelerator to achieve an equivalent gain in speed. This technique is simple: Don't use the brakes unless you need to, OR, AVOID SITUATIONS WHERE BRAKING IS NECESSARY. This means you should avoid tailgating. You should also try to preemptively anticipate red lights, slowing traffic ahead, and stop signs. For your regular commute, this may prove to be very easy.

Look way ahead in the distance; not just at the car immediately in front of you. If the car in front of you is very large and your visibility is limited in the distance, you may consider taking signs from reflections of brake lights on the wet road or on other reflective objects. In some cases, you can see brake lights through the car ahead of you.

Brake sooner! When you see a light turn red in the distance, slow down immediately and coast to the light, such that you never have to stop the car. By coasting to the light with some non-zero velocity, you are maintaining energy instead of wasting it all (by stopping completely). This is also much safer than braking at the last second, where gravel, oil, and other factors can cause accidents. As a note, you should not cross the intersection at high velocity as soon as the light turns green. This is dangerous, as aggressive drivers tend to speed up at the sign of a yellow light.

Engine Braking
Don't do it unless you need to slow down at a greater rate than possible by coasting. If you drive a manual transmission vehicle and do not have your foot on the gas and you do not need to slow down at a fast pace, simply depress the clutch and coast. In some areas with hills, this is possible for miles!

Keep the RPMs Low!
Don't accelerate quickly! Keep your RPMs low. Some vehicles have variable valve timing that engages at relatively low RPM (i.e. you don't need to floor the vehicle for it to engage). This can result in more available power at the expense of much greater fuel usage. Accelerating slowly also gives you additional time to anticipate upcoming slow areas, such as red lights or police activity.

Take the Slow Roads!
I enjoy my commute much more now that I've discovered some slow back-roads to travel instead of I-80. On a day without traffic, a commute through the back-roads is about 5 minutes longer than taking the highway. On a day with traffic, the back-roads can be 20 minutes shorter (or more). In addition, I can drive slower on the back-roads, thereby reducing the force of wind on the car. Wind resistance does not increase linearly with speed. In other words, if you double your speed, the wind resistance quadruples! Thus, there is a bigger hit in fuel efficiency between 65 and 70MPH than between 40 and 45MPH.


Conclusions
Drive slower, brake sooner, and avoid situations where braking is necessary! Also, do not accelerate quickly. Not only will your commute be more efficient, but you will likely find it to be less stressful and much safer. By utilizing the mentioned techniques, I was able to increase my fuel efficiency from 32MPG to 40MPG, and equivalent savings of about $7 per refueling at today's gas prices.