Friday, March 19, 2004

flowering 2 The arboretum at Balboa Park is filled with opening flower buds this time of year: Here are more photographs of orchids and other flowers from the Balboa Botanical Building. [101-365] 6:55:33 AM

Distributed Generation Wind Turbines, Photovoltaics Winners in Distributed Generation Market: " In the distributed generation (DG) industry, most of the fuel cell and microturbine companies reported disappointing results for 2003, as they failed to ship expected unit quantities of their products. Wind turbine and photovoltaic companies, however, experienced extraordinary sales, and are expected to translate these sales into solid market share gains on the competition, finds ABI Research. " [Ken Novak: Future energy] 6:52:44 AM

flowering Here's a little green to start your day: [101-365] 6:50:50 AM

Gas Electric Hybrid Toyota Prius. This car definitely exceeds my expectations. Apparently Toyota is subsidizing the Prius in order to bring it to the market at this low price. This is a smart investment as they are developing the car rapidly and getting feedback from drivers. I am told that Ford is licensing last year's Hybrid tech from Toyota and that this 2004 model already incorporates a lot of improvements. The entry system is keyless and no key is needed to start the car. A brief push of the power button is all it takes to get going. The small drive selector resembles a gear shift, but could have been a couple of buttons as it is completely drive by wire. The car is quiet and actually quite zippy. The bluetooth system built into the car works well. I was able to pair my T610 cellphone with the Prius on the way home from the dealer and downloaded my phonebook into the car in about a minute. The navigations system seems to work very well. I have had Nav systems in a few rental cars over the years and they always seemed clunky, but this is smooth. When I got home I fired up a hair dryer to soften the glue/cement used to attach signs + labels to the body and removed all insignia, except the Toyota sign in front and back. They have holes underneath them or I would have taken them off as well...So, if you see a insignia-less Prius, honk because it is probably me..... I bet that Jon's acoustic bass would fit in the back with the rear seats folded down. This car is amazingly roomy! [Ottmar Liebert] 6:43:36 AM