The SYNC system has nothing to do with the powertrain. It's only used for infotainment and climate control.

Ford did an update to the MyFord Touch infotainment system last year this way. Downloaded a bunch of files onto a USB drive, plug into car, wait 20 minutes. Since it uses an automotive version of Windows CE of course it needed to reboot a half a dozen times during the update. But for power-train related updates you have to take it into the dealer.

I was a programmer in 1978, still a programmer. Did assembly language for 4040, 6800, 6809, 68HC11, and PIC. Don't do much of that anymore, thankfully.

Ah yes, the "Sync by Microsoft" warning label. Fortunately I don't have to use it much (C-Max Energi) as I rarely take my phone out of airplane mode and just listen to music from a USB flash drive.

I bought a Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid a couple of weeks ago. It's positioned between the Prius and the Volt in the marketplace. My usual trips around town fit nicely into it's electric-only range while having the gas engine for trips out of town.

"I'll be in my bunk" - Jayne

At the very least schools should be built tornado proof in tornado alley. http://www.monolithic.com/topics/schools

Robots are your plastic pal who's fun to be with. Who needs laws?

I wrote a couple of programs using PocketStudio (Pascal based RAD tool) for a Tungsten C. One of them used the IR interface to show status and do configuration on a PIC-based solar power system. The other used WiFi to talk to a model railway signal and turnout control computer.

I'm still waiting for caffeinated bacon.

Fortunately the client has facilities to test various drives over a wide temperature range (down to -40, not sure how hot they test) while running. And yes, a lot of them are crap.

We use USB flash drives for a data logger. Most of the time the data is being buffered in the ARM based Linux board's RAM to save power. Once we get a complete file's worth (4MB at the present) we power up, validate, write the file, and power down. Supercaps have been a lifesaver. There's even enough capacity to do the write cycle if the flash was powered down when a power fail is detected. That allows to not lose whatever what was already in the RAM buffer.

Did anyone else read that as "The Rectum of CISPA"?

Most years I'm busy New Years Eve making chili for the Margarita and Chili-Fest on New Years Day. Unfortunately a bit under the weather this year so that's been delayed.

If they make an artificial boy lifelike enough they might get some orders from the Vatican.