Lean is good, lean works

For me simply one of the worst inventions of the last years,  a 2ton+ pseudo-tank, pseudo-all terrain vehicle , pseudo-roomy/family vehicle, the SUV.

I usually don’t mind a shit to the vehicle one drives, neither alone value/rate a person for his/hers wheels, but for SUV drivers i open an exception, in my opinion all those guys/gals moving around in BMW X*, Audi Q’s, Volvo XC*, Touaregs, Cayennes and the likes are just plain retarded assholes, who should pay 10x times more road tax than the other drivers.

Why? Well, there are two main reasons, the first is that from the technical point of view they just suck, SUVs suck at off road, the ratio from total space/inner cabin space sucks, awful aerodynamics, prone to rollover due to high center of gravity, high fuel consumption, and the list goes on. So, all this sets up the other reason why i hate SUVs, because many (if not most) of SUV drivers know all these reasons but yet they choose them over better, more sensible options, because they are a status symbol. So these narrow minded people spent some tens of thousands just to show-off a status symbol… so for me is like “Hey, look at me! I drive a 40.000 euro SUV, here i am at the top of the world! Im successful!”, yet stupid enough to make a idiot choice.

Even in a collision, either with other vehicles or pedestrians, they are plain dangerous due to the oversize mass. So, this brings me closer to the post title, these vehicles should be heavily taxed (i mean really heavily), and the lighter more fuel efficient vehicles on the the other hand should be promoted with tax isentions. Also there should be a law limit to vehicle weight.

We really must be a dumb society to embrace SUVs, that are a ménace to the environment, the economy and other road users. Can really someone explain to me?

India’s environment Minister Jairam Ramesh even goes a little further and calls it (SUV driving) criminal. As the days go by i am more and more biased into his opinion.

Updates:

30-12-2010: SUVs and other gas guzzlers will be forbidden in Paris – http://www.leparisien.fr/avon-77210/les-voitures-polluantes-bientot-indesirables-21-12-2010-1199315.php

  1. roomy

Codebits 2010

Just arrived from Codebits 2010. By far the best technology event/contest/conference/meeting/etc in Portugal.

This year i submited no project, due to a logistic problem regarding (lack of) rocket propellant. Anyway, this is a project to be pursued outside Codebits, as it is just plain fun.

I attended several talks (unfortunately is impossible to attend all), but i must highlight Spacebits by Celso Martinho – 100% pure fun, Inovation u r doin it wrong by Mario Valente – food for tougth, and Everything OAuth by Bruno Pedro – made this subject clear as water. Also, attended the soldering workshop by the Lisbon AltLab folks, made a pair of reciprocate blinking leds, with some really lame soldering (come on, no soldering experience at all). Got me a tv pong kit to try to assemble next weeks and improve my soldering skills.

For sure i couldn’t miss the Quizz Show, its too much fun. This year it was the old guys (João Pedro Gonçalves and Celso) who kicked all the competition, and showed off their geek culture.

The final stage of Codebits was also really interesting, the teams project presentation, the overall projects quality was really good, as allways some guys/apps freeze while up on stage (been there, done that) which is cruel regarding the hard work, but is always funny for the audience. Overall must agree with the selected winners, maybe except the guys that presented a earthquake data collection project, only because i didn’t actually see any prototype working just an idea presentation (a very good ideia by the way).

Thinkered a lot with node.js and socket.io (Javascript continues to build up) and eated lots off pizza, m&ms and burguers… i also took home some books, photos and videos:

For me, the only (minor) glitch in Codebits, was the very low light environment, that sometimes made difficult to work on the laptop, maybe they were just promoting Apple backlit keyboards…

Note to myself: next laptop must have a backlit keyboard

Anyway, its just plain amazing how you can compress in 3 days so much learning and fun at the same time. Ear (and sometimes talk back to)  so much talented and diversified people (from CEOs to students) . Still can’t understand how some friends and colleagues couldn’t care less about Codebits.

And the cherry in top, is that its all free. Thank you SAPO, see you next year.

ps – also lost somewhere between home and Codebits, my Saturn v 10$ model that bought at KSC, really not a big deal but had some sentimental value