Techies 35: Upcoming Cars

Well August has been a great month for Cars in customers in INDIA. We got A class mercedes, ECOSPORT and many more. But for this upcoming months, things are getting pretty insane for hatchback section, lets see how:-

1.) Hyundai Grand i10( Diesel)-Expected in first week of September. Hyundai has unveiled the next generation hatchback for India, christened as the Grand i10. The new model will be built in India and will also be exported to the European markets, where it is expected to debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. Hyundai has released the first images of the car along with a confirmation that this model will be powered by an all-new diesel engine.
he all-new Grand i10 follows Hyundai’s fluidic design philosophy. The front of the car is dominated by a standard hexagonal grille and well sculpted headlamps that resemble the design of the i20. The fog lamps are big with bold black surrounds adding more aggression to the fascia. The Hyundai Grand i10 resembles the current i10 from the side, but it is noticeably wider, longer and taller than the current model. This car has side moldings – but these are not standard puny strips, but shapely wide black belts that add character to the car along with roof rails. The rear of the Hyundai Grand i10 looks like a shrunk version of the i20 and the overall design makes it evident that the car will slot in between the current Korean hatchback siblings – the i10 and the i20.

2.) BMW 1 series(Petrol and Diesel) - Expected in first week of September. Expected price range would be same as of Mercedes A class.
The most important factor that differentiates the 1 Series from the Mercedes and Audi entry-level models is that it is a rear-wheel-drive. BMW cars are known for their drivability and this hatchback won’t be any different. But there is a hind side to the great handling dynamics – the longitudinal engine takes up lot of space and that also compromises the space in cabin and mainly the comfort of rear passengers.
The 1-Series is loaded with features from one segment above – it gets parking assist, lane departure and collision warning, cruise control, smart phone and music player integration with Facebook and Twitter apps,OptionaliDrive and BMW ConnectedDrive. It remains to be seen how many of those features make it to the Indian market.

 3.)Nissan Terrano- Expected in October.

The Terrano is the Nissan’s version of the Renault Duster. The Franco-Japanese alliance share more than just the facility in India and this is yet another product from Chennai with simple badge engineering.
The Terrano will share more than a few components with its French sibling.  It will be based on the same platform as the Duster, it will offer same engine / transmission options, will have very similar dimensions and cabin space, same wheel size and possibly exact same interior trims.
Nissan has concentrated mainly on the looks of the new compact SUV to distinguish it from the Renault’s product. The sole sketch released by Nissan show that the Terrano is more edgy with a sharper front features. The side profile also has bold lines but unlike Duster’s these don’t curve and are angular. The flared wheel-arches make the Terrano look aggressive, distinguishing it from most of Nissan’s models in India.
The Nissan Terrano will be powered by the same 1.5-litre dCi engine that powers the Duster. Like the Duster it will available in two different grades – the 85bhp base variant and 110bhp for the top spec version. There might also be a petrol version powered by the same 1.6-litre four-cylinder unit churing out 102bhp and 145Nm of torque.
Utility Vehicles have seen lot of success in India, but India is a very price sensitive market and lot depends upon the tag price. Generally Nissan products are positioned below the French models, so badge engineering has been easier for models like the Micra – Pulse and the Sunny – Scala. However, there is a term in the Nissan-Renault contract that states that the new vehicle has to be positioned higher than the donor car. This means that the Terrano will be position above the Duster, which in itself carries a fairly steep price tag.
The starting price of the petrol Terrano is expected to be around Rs 8.25 lakh, while the top-end diesel version will cost close to Rs 12.75 lakh. Here however, Nissan has an opportunity to better the Renault model – the Duster fairs poorly on interior quality and features list. For the additional price, the Japanese manufacturer can improve on both these fronts and can actually improve on what is already a brilliant product.

READERS's SPECIAL

CIVIL ENGINEERING AND WOMEN 

By Payal Gupta

Civil engineering is basically the male dominant field. The place traditionally meant for males. But this does not abolish the dreams and fascination of a girl towards the skillful constructions of dams and bridges..


Many people give their pity advices at the time of admissions of would-be-civil engineer girls that it may pose great difficulties to their future lives because of the difficult site terrain. But this isn’t it..civil engineering is not limited to  only on-site work, it also involves office jobs such as analysis,estimation,designing,

arbitration,tendering and many other desk jobs. Among the other engineering careers, civil is the one of the broadest field.
It also offers huge growth opportunities due to rapid urbanization.

Girls have a huge opportunity waiting in the civil engineering field. All they need is determination to work in the challenging field.
Speaking about the benefits of working in the public sector, there is a lot of scope in the areas like infrastructure, development, maintenance and repairs, permission and control, vigilance and quality control, design and planning and non-conventional technology application.


Advancement in technology and introduction of new software is making it easy for women to build a career in civil engineering, there are opportunities galore and the percentage of women in this field is on the rise.
Above all, the challenging spirit of women to the most to most difficult job options is now breaking the walls that were once the obstacles between them and their dreams.
Thus, the tradition of civil engineering for my son and computer science for my daughter has to be finished.
 At the time when Kalpana Chawla can bang on the moon, why can’t we girls opt for civil engineering?

Wallies 4

Techies 34: Hatchback Wars

IT IS ONNN... as the marketing head from BMW says... BMW now launches its hatchback.. the first ever I series.. the i3... well its against Mercedes A class. BMW i3 will run on electricity.Designed and built from the ground up to run solely on electric power, it is, as we found out earlier this month during a prototype drive, a remarkably good little thing.

The salient details are blindingly simple. It's got a 170bhp electric motor, generating 184lb ft of torque instantly, powered by a 230kg high voltage battery that consists of eight modules, sending drive to the rear wheels - and rear wheels alone. This keeps the steering uncorrupted, and gives it a tight turning circle.
It's light, too. The body is extrememly lightweight, made from a range of materials including carbon fibre reinforced plastic, aluminium and even wood, meaning the whole thing weighs in at just 1195kg. The suspension is made from forged aluminium, the drive shafts are hollow, the 19in forged aluminium wheels are 36 per cent lighter than equivalent steel rims, the door trim is made from renewable materials, and even the ruddy screws and bolts are lightweight aluminium.
That low kerb weight means engineers could make the battery smaller for a given range, which cuts more weight itself, and allied to the 170bhp motor and carbon fibre body, this results in a 0-62mph time of 7.2 seconds. Far from shabby, then. More importantly, it'll do 0-37mph in just 3.7 seconds, a far more accurate reflection of its potential around town, while top speed sits at 93mph.

Of course, with any electric car, the usual talk of ‘range-anxiety' will inevitably rear its head. As such, the ‘standard' BMW i3 offers between 80 to 100 miles, but BMW also offers a i3 Range Extender. That car comes with a tiny 650cc petrol engine developing 34bhp, mounted next to the electric motor just above the rear axle, that powers a generator to recharge the battery. There's a tiny nine-litre fuel tank, and although the 0-62mph sprint for this models drops by over half a second to 7.9s, crucially, you get between 160 and 186 miles of claimed range.
BMW reckons you can even drive the i3 using just one pedal. Obviously, there are brake and accelerator pedals, but as soon as you lift off the accelerator, the motor switches immediately from drive to generator, feeding power back into the battery. The side-effect of this is to slow the car down. If this brake-energy regen causes the same effect as proper braking, the i3 even illuminates the brake lights.

Now, when we tested the prototype i3, the motor braking wasn't as powerful as in the Mini E. But, because it's RWD, any more power on the rear brakes would make it unstable on slippery surfaces. That's not really ideal.

Inside, there's the option of four different interiors, allowing buyers to customize the interior to their specification, all featuring sustainable materials including wood, natural fibres and naturally tanned leather.

At this point, you're probably wondering about a couple of things - recharging and, erm, price. Well, the standard ‘Fast Charging' unit will replenish the battery up to 80 per cent within three hours - with a special BMW ‘Wallbox' - or between eight and ten hours from a standard household socket. And as for price? Prices for the standard i3 start at Rs 20,00,000.

It'll go on sale in November this year, though you'll be able to order it from August.

Techies 33:Lenticular clouds

We think these clouds look like delicious wisps of marshmallow! But did you know that this type of cloud is also often mistaken as a UFO? Due to their often saucer-like shape, some people tend to jump to the wrong conclusion! 

So how are Lenticular clouds formed? They are formed when a current of moist air is forced upwards as it travels over a mountain, causing the moisture to condense and form a cloud. Lenticular clouds also tend to hang around in the same stationary position for days. This is because the flow of moist air continually resupplies the cloud with the moisture it needs to retain its position and shape.

It is also interesting that this lenticular cloud is hovering over these large fans. It is these large fans that are able to supply a constant flow of air to the cloud.

Techies 32

Dell is reportedly investing in wearable tech, with an eye to developing smartwatch devices, according to a report from The Guardian. Dell itself is saying that it’s looking closely at the wearable-tech trend, with the aim of predicting what personal computing will look like in five years’ time. Sure, it’s a smart move, but it’s also an obvious one: If there’s a computer company out there with an R&D department that isn’t at least exploring wearables, they should probably just pack it in.

Of course, Dell isn’t doing anything different from what it has done for the past decade or so with R&D efforts aimed at a five-year outlook for wearables. Which is to say it’s probably missing the boat.Google is getting ready to ship its first bold experiment with Google Glass. And Apple is said to beprepping an iWatch to ship, possibly as soon as later this year, prompting the company to secure trademarks for the iWatch name in a variety of different global markets.

If this does become a trend, and if consumers actually like it and embrace it as the next wave in personal computing, Dell will be years late and probably offer something uninspiring and derivative, the same way it did with PDA and mobile/smartphone tech.

Dell had a really bad recent financial quarter, and is seeing its global share of PC sales slip continually – not great when that’s a market that’s already facing problems. News that it’s looking to wearables as a life raft shouldn’t exactly be taken as uplifting, but at least it’s a sign the company still has a pulse.

Recent Floods in Uttrakhand region, left not only the people of Uttrakhand but also the whole country with tears. Death tolls to a 1000, more than 1000 missing and 7-10 thousand people are still stuck there.. If someone you know was lost in this, is still missing.. you can check here..

Techies: 31

Nokia Watchout...Something about real wireless charging 

Yes, this is the most trending tech news now adays charging your smartfone without wires, and please when i am talking about wireless technology i am not even talking about a dock based charging. This is going to be revolutionary guys. As per the latets news Intel is the new company to join the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). The A4WP technology uses near-field magnetic resonance technology to wirelessly charge devices. Intel joins several giants including Samsung, Qualcomm, LG and HTC as a board member of the group. The group has a total of 40 global, technology industry leaders. The aim of A4Wp is to create a wireless power transfer (WPT) ecosystem that delivers spatial freedom in the user experience and industrial design of wireless battery charging of portable consumer electronics device.

Regarding the new alliance, Navin Shenoy, vice president, PC client group and general manager, mobile client platform division at Intel said

Intel believes the A4WP specification, particularly the use of near-field magnetic resonance technology, can provide a compelling consumer experience and enable new usage models that make device charging almost automatic. In joining A4WP, we look forward to working alongside other member companies and contributing to standards that help fuel an ecosystem of innovative solutions capable of simultaneously charging a range of devices, from low-power accessories to smartphones, tablets and Ultrabooks.

Qualcomm introduced WiPower Technology that was approved in January, 2013, by the Alliance for Wireless Power. It wirelessly powers mobile phones, tablets, and more devices using inductive wireless energy transfer  that doesn’t require you to precisely position a device on a charging area. Hope we can expect some new technology based on this from Intel soon.

Romans 8 : on revenge and forgiveness

We hate everything about bullies — the bullying, the being bullied, and the standing by silently while someone else is being bullied.  The bully feels helpless in the face of his own senseless rage.  The victim feels oddly and wrongly ashamed, as if something in their very being invited mistreatment.  The silent bystander feels in some ways worst of all, both victim and victimizer, complicit in guilt and yet deemed worthless enough by the bully to be subjected to watching their crime.
I once heard a Vietnam vet describe the concept of what he called “third party forgiveness.”  He said we need to forgive not just the things others have done to us; or the things we have done to others; but also the things we have seen others do to other people.
That’s a lot of forgiving.
The problem is there is something inside all of us that prizes revenge.  ”I hope that man that incarcerated those three women for ten years DOESN’T get the death penalty,” someone said to me yesterday about Ariel Castro.  ”I hope he is put in a prison where others mistreat HIM, so he experiences the same thing he did to those women.”
Holocaust victim Elie Weisel said something similar about Bernie Madoff.  Weisel should know better.  He wrote in his memoir Night that when the Nazis treated him like an animal, he found himself behaving like one.  And yet when Weisel lost most of his money to Madoff’s ponzi scheme, Weisel wrote that he hoped Madoff would spend the rest of his life in a prison cell with a video running 24-7 of his victims.  Weisel said this before Madoff’s son committed suicide.  I’m not sure if Weisel still feels Madoff needs a 24-7 video after that kind of a consequence.
Why do we want bullies, criminals and other people who have maimed us to experience the hurt they inflicted?  Why do we want to exact an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?  What is it in us that has an automatic revenge button that gets triggered the moment someone hurts us?
Is it possible that we each have a sense of divine justice?  Are we humans so made in God’s image that we automatically know that a wrong must be punished? Do we have God’s laws written on our hearts, as the Bible says of our consciences?  I can’t think of any other explanation.
And yet when we talk of exacting revenge like this, we forget the most important thing.  If our sense of justice comes from God, why do we find it so hard to trust that same God to exact justice in the best possible way?  That is part of what Paul is trying to get at here in Romans 8.  He’s saying who are we to argue with God?  God is the potter.  We are the clay.  Part of peace comes from recognizing that the potter has the right to do whatever He wants with the clay.  Romans 9:20-22.
No one could read about the hell house those three victims of Ariel Castro lived in without weeping.  The policemen who released the women were crying.  The women saw the sunshine twice in ten years. We feel the pain of those three women, even as we know we can’t even imagine their pain — and that, too, is part of our pain.  We are the bystanders who want to suffer for others but can’t.
Luckily for us, we have a God who did suffer for us.  The potter could have broken every one of us clay jars.  Instead, God became clay Himself.  He was broken for us.  He suffered the pain of hell so we wouldn’t have to.
Because His justice was satisfied on the cross, God forgives us, but His only condition is that we forgive each other.  He wants us to forgive the things we see others do to others.  He begs us to let go of hurts others have inflicted on us.  He longs for us to receive His forgiveness.  He says it’s the only way to heal.
If someone really needs to see a video 24-7 of all the wrongs they’ve inflicted on other people, God can do that, too, by playing it on the screens of their minds.  Maybe that’s already happened to Madoff.  Who knows. But maybe not, because we humans don’t really know what kind of spiritual torture other people deserve.  We don’t know what kind of suffering their consciences have imposed on them.  We don’t know what kind of suffering their hard hearts have given them.
There is nothing more painful than having a hard heart.  Hard hearts condemn us to live in a world of hate, rage, suspicion and loneliness.  All crimes come from hard hearts.  No matter whether we are cruel to others, indifferent, thoughtless or actively malicious, everything evil we’ve ever done comes from the same source: a hard heart.
A hard heart can only be broken with softness.  God has a soft heart toward us that offers us only kindness, sweetness, love and mercy.  We don’t really understand mercy.  It’s not our natural response.  But while we may not understand it, if we go there we discover it’s the best place to live.  It’s a tender place.  It’s a vulnerable place.  It’s a scary place.  And it requires knowing we need mercy.  It requires letting go of justice and the law and “well I did THAT so maybe I didn’t do THAT but you did THIS and I deserve THAT.” It lets us instead focus on God’s forgiveness for us, not on focusing on what others have done wrong.  Only when we accept the need for mercy can we love others – all others — even the bullies.  Even when we have met the bully and he is us.

Romans 7 : how to be the fastest runner

For anyone who anxiously studies the best way to do things, the New York Times ran a heartening article last fall on the best way to run.  A highly scientific study concluded that there is no one best way to run.  Myths of Running, October 15, 2012.   Hallelujah.  Just knowing that is liberating.  We can take one anxiety off the check list of our brains when we run.  We no longer have to worry about whether our heel, midfoot or frontfoot is striking first.   Because I don’t know about you, but anytime I go running I’m constantly trying to outsmart myself.  I’m trying to trick myself into going faster just a “little” longer; or in sprinting just to the “next bend”; or telling myself to at least try to pass that 100 year old woman who is walking faster than I can run….
But when we engage in those kind of mind games, how can there be two parts of our brain?  It’s the kind of interesting dichotomy brought to life so well in The Inner Game of Tennis.  We have an inner self who is condemning and judgmental and who makes the performer in us freeze up.  And then we all have a self who can just let go, who performs far better.  Fine.  Great.  Got it.  But how do we use our “self” to let go of our “self”?  We know there’s a jolly happy relaxed self who could beat Federer.  But how do we use our jolly self to outsmart our inner Cruella deVille??
It seems paradoxical to just try harder.  I mean, how are you supposed to “try harder” in order to get into the zone where we stop trying??
Here in this famous chapter of Romans 7, Saint Paul leaps straight into the heart of this paradox.  His despairing cries about human nature suggest that trying harder only backfires.  Here’s what he says about himself:  ”I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it.  Instead, I do what I hate… I want to do what is good, but I don’t.  I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”  Romans 7:15, and 18-19.
I love his honesty.  Most people like to say they’re good.  They like to say all you have to do is try hard to be a good person.  They say that’s enough.
But I don’t think they believe it.  Why else do so many people overdrink, overeat, procrastinate, pop anti-anxiety medication or focusing medication or anti-depression medication; hate their to-do lists, ignore their children, be rude to their parents, obsessively collect mailboxes or car tires or baptismal fonts?  What is behind all the nonsensical crazy things we know other people do – and therefore have to admit, in our heart of hearts, that we must do also since it’s logically impossible that we’re the only person who doesn’t act a little crazy sometimes?  Maybe we don’t thieve from the tills at work.  But we all have our stuff, the things we want to do but just can’t seem to do.  For Paul it was coveting.  He says it’s as if there’s this dark power at work inside of him and the moment someone tells him what is right to do, the dark power tells him to do the opposite.  He says there’s a war going on inside him, and he feels buffeted by it. More than that, he says he feels like a “slave” to the dark powers inside of him – as if no matter how hard he tries, “inevitably” he can’t make himself choose the lifegiving ways of, for instance, not coveting.
I think King Solomon put it best when he said the hearts of people are full of evil and there is “madness” in our hearts while we live.  Ecc. 9:3 (NIV).  What else but evil accounts for exploding bombs at the finish line of a marathon?  Solomon’s words cut through the age old debate of whether evil people are crazy.  He just says that evil IS “madness.”  It’s “mad” to want to hurt others – of course it is – and yet we’ve all done it.  Our mouths act like bombs sometimes, going off when we least expect it and maiming all within earshot.  Or we might tell ourselves not to EVER worry again – whether because we are starting to trust God, or for the practical reason that we’ve figured out worry doesn’t help anything – and then we immediately find ourselves worrying over the dumbest things.  ”Stop worrying,” we order ourselves in frustration, only to realize that now we’re worried that we’re worried.  Trying harder can just make us feel miserable.
It’s enough to make us cry, along with Saint Paul, o who can free us from all this?? Romans 7:24.
The answer is not to trick ourselves into obedience – like my friend who likes to imagine scary evil people running after him to make himself run faster.  It’s not to say God or our mother or our neighbor will hate us if we don’t tow the line.  Instead, Paul is talking about a way of living inside of the zone.  It’s a zone of acceptance.  It’s a place without condemnation.  It’s a land of joy.  When we accept the truth of Saint Paul’s riff on human nature – that evil and madness are within our hearts – we can give up.  We can stop pretending to ourselves and others and instead surrender to God.  That’s when we get to do what Paul calls “living in the Spirit.”  We get to live in the land of grace.  We live in the joy of God’s love, a joy based not on our performance but just on existing.  It’s the joy of knowing we belong to Him because He made us.
The key to receiving all this is admitting we need it.  Admitting our wayward nature opens the door for God to do the work.  He did it on the cross.  We don’t have to try harder.  We let go, and God does the rest.  God cannot work with us when we’re pretending we don’t need Him.  A doctor can only heal someone who knows they’re sick.  We have to be willing to swallow whatever medicine God gives us.  And if we are finally willing to give up trying harder to be good, God comes in and fills us with His love instead.  He paid the price for all those times even 100 year old women walk faster than we can try to sprint through life.  We stop trying to be full of “good deeds” that fool nobody except maybe ourselves, and then only on a good day, and instead we ask for mercy.
Mercy is a beautiful thing.  It looks weak but it’s strong.  When we receive mercy – God’s undeserved love – it fills us with joy.  It fills us with strength.  It gives us boundless energy.  We lose our anxiety.  We can focus on the task at hand.  We can live in the moment.  Jesus is “the answer,” as Paul concludes here.  Romans 7:25.  He’s the answer to every problem, to every issue, to every time we try harder only to have it backfire.
Our response to mercy is to be thankful.  Being thankful makes us feel like we’re running so fast we don’t even notice if anyone is passing us.  It’s like going for a long run with our i-pods set on All Songs.  No matter what comes next, it’s always a song we love.  We don’t have to try harder.  We can relax into it.  After all, when we let go, God carries us.  There is no paradox.  It only seemed like one because we thought it was up to us.  But when we surrender, God can finally take care of us the way he has always longed to.  His love makes us move faster than any runner on earth because in His arms, we fly.