One Very Strange, But Beautiful Concept Car!

Yesterday, Gizmodo did a post that I totally ignored, because, for one thing, I simply assumed that it was either about a piece of jewelry, or two, some type of strange looking ear buds or something? Boy-oh-boy, was I wrong - dead wrong! It wasn't any of those things. No, believe it or not, it just happened to be one of the strangest looking things that I've seen in a long time, namely .....

.... A CAR!

That's right dear readers - a bloody car! As you can see, in the above picture, via ecofriend.com, this is indeed one hell-of-a-strange looking vehicle. At first thought, I thought that it was not only strange looking, but rather down right ugly! But, of course, I'm beginning to think otherwise. No, it will never come close to looking as sexy as my favorite dream car, the Mercedes SL 550, but look at those lines - smooth, sexy and as curvy as any super model that you would find on a catwalk in Paris, London, Rome, Milan or New York.

This car is, naturally, a lot more than one that looks different (and thats putting it mildly), because this car also happens to be totally environmentally friendly. The designer, Harsh Vardhan, thinks that apart from cities, cars should be completely different and powered by technologies that all car manufacturer have thus far avoided. No, gas driven engines for this baby...... no way! Harsh's little baby would be powered by an on-board electric motor, one, that in turn, would be totally generated by magnetic fields! Probably not something that Shell, Exxon, or any of the incredibly rich oil states would welcome, but who cares about those fat cats anyway - they already have more than enough money.

Ecofriend writes:

"The Transporter TW (Twin Wheel) is based around an electric engine which produces a magnetic field to drive the large wheels. The wheel rims are suspended over a superconducting fluid where the changing magnetic field produces the motion needed to propel the vehicle. The power generator and motion is thus smooth, nearly noiseless and green. The occupant of the vehicle sits perched in a cockpit and operates the vehicle. He sits in a swivel seat, and he enters or leaves through a port at the rear of the cockpit."

Well, describing those two wheels as large has got to be another understatement, since the wheels loom larger than the rest of the car itself! Traditionally, cars ride on top of their tires, not within them as this one does! Strange, but still oh so very cool, don't you think?

This car, at least the one in the design above, is a one seater, but no doubt they would eventually have a two-seater version at some point. After looking at this thing, it came to mind that Harsh Vardhan would do very well applying for a job at another company that likes to 'Think Different", namely Apple Inc. I can just imagine what kinds of wild, cool and totally different creations that he and Jonatha Ive could come up with if they combined their significant talents as one.

Totally awesome, that's what!

So, there you have it, one strange, but, at the same time, one very beautiful concept car and my last post for the week. See you all, hopefully, this coming Monday, so until then, take care and have a great weekend everybody.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Friday, July 03, 2009

Psystar: So Crazy That Their Nuts, Absolutely Nuts!

It's crazy enough that a company would go up against any gargantuan company, let alone a giant that was famous for it's sue-happy nature, one like Apple Inc. But that's exactly what one start-up, Psystar of Florida, did a year or so ago when it decided to start building and selling unauthorized OS X based Mac clones.

Even more crazy, that after filing for bankruptcy protection, that it claimed it needed because big, bad old Apple was putting an unfair financial burden upon them for suing them, they then turned around and insanely rubbed salt in Apple's wounds by introducing even more Mac clones!

Well, Apple clearly wasn't in the mood for playing silly games, so it appealed to the courts, asking to see Psystar's business records for it's case, but Psystar insanely said no, because, well - they had a perfectly sane reason - they didn't bother to keep any business records! Apple, of course, basically said "your nuts" and appealed to have it's case against Psystar proceed without any more silly delays, something that the bankruptcy proceedings would have normally given Psystar.

Of course, no rational judge in his right mind would agree to Psystar's silly assertion that it didn't keep any business records, so the judge promptly awarded Apple it's request, meaning it's case could immediately proceed without any further silly delays.

Well, speaking of silly, Psystar, who didn't find it necessary to keep any business records, and after filing for bankruptcy because it claimed it had no money, did what any company who was out of their cotton-picking minds would do - they just proudly introduced brand spanking new Xeon Hehalem based Mac clones for sale!

Gizmodo's, that great site on technology, says that it doesn't know what to think, stating:

"Psystar's been subject to all manner or canonization, criticism, popular support and backlash, but now I don't know what to think. On the one hand, all their talk about monopolies, freedom and victimization always stuck me as a little hollow. (David and Goliath? So you're going to kill Apple?) On the other, it now appears as though the guys who run Psystar are either clinically insane, extremely persistent, unusually ballsy or just poorly advised to an extreme. Or all of the above. As Mark said on the story, "they wont stop unless Apple cuts off their hands. And even then, who knows." That spirit alone has got to be worth something, right?"

Well, maybe Gizmodo's not too sure what to think, but I sure do and it's simple - Psystar's crazy! So crazy, in fact, that they are totally insane - that's what I think! What else can you call a company that behaves in the crazy way that Psystar does, acting like the courts and Apple practically don't exist! Psystar, as Gizmodo said, is acting like nothing really happened and there's nothing, absolutely nothing for them to worry about, so it's business as usual!

Let me see here. First, Psystar steals Apple's intellectual property, totally ignores the courts and then acts like Apple is the bad guy in all of this, and that they are the good guys, the little innocent David who heroically battle's the big bad boy, Goliath - I mean, think about it - how crazy is that? With Psystar acting stranger and stranger and seemingly more so, with each passing day now, I'm really beginning to think that Apple's assertion that someone, or some group, is really behind Psystar. The more I think about it, the more it doesn't seem like such a crazy idea after all!

So, in conclusion, I can only conclude that one day, and someday in the future, when you look up in the dictionary for the meaning of the words crazy, or insane, etc. you'll probably see Psystar's name illustrated as an example, because, quite frankly, they are so damn crazy that I think that they are completely insane and absolutely nuts!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, July 02, 2009