Interview with California Air Resources Board CIO 59
SilentBob4 writes "Mad Penguin has published an exclusive interview with the CIO of California's ARB (Air Resources Board), Bill Welty." From the article: " Massachusetts might have been the FOSS shot heard 'round the world, but California may be quietly building pressure for an open source earthquake of its own. On the face of it, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) is not setting the world on fire with its well-documented adoption of free open source software. It is using FOSS primarily in the back office, just like so many other governmental agencies and businesses. But if you dig just a little deeper, as shown in this Mad Penguin(TM) interview of the ARB staffers responsible for moving ARB toward a more FOSSy future, you can see that the seeds of more profound change gradually developing. "
The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:1, Funny)
Yes, even a cold air intake, or any sort of aftermarket exhaust, even though both modifications to cars generally INCREASE a car's gas mileage and effeciency.
Given their track record, their use of OSS is only going to allow them to be more effecient in their ability to make and enforce more stupid policies. We cannot allow this. Californians, write to your represent
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:3, Insightful)
If ARB operates more efficiently, surely they'll be able to put mods through the approval process faster?
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2, Funny)
Well listen here, son. We don't want your kind here. We make kneejerk posts and moderations, and that's the way we like it.
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a huge problem with your "I heart CARB" sentiment if you really do want cleaner air. Yeah, sure you can buy overpriced aftermarket stuff that is CARB approved. But what you can't do is adapt used modern cleaner technology onto an older car by upgrading to more efficient used technology. See, t
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:1)
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
they had retrofits in Australia... (Score:2)
Anyway, they could make a car "clean" by adding a retrofit oxygen sensor to the exhaust, adjusting the carb to run lean, and adding an "enrichment" fuel injector into the throttle body.
The engine runs as it did before, but this added system adds the right amount of fuel at all times to keep it right at the best fuel/air ratio. It improves mpg and emissions on older cars. On some cars you could even add a catalytic converter to complete the job.
Given that Califor
having wrote that... (Score:2)
We don't have inspections, we just have emissions testing.
I assure you the place you go to isn't going to look twice at your bolt-ons. If you pass emissions, you're done, even if you have non-CARB parts on your car. If you don't pass emissions, I don't have any sympathy for you.
Compare this to east coast states, which inspect your car yearly or so for safety and compliance in ways other than emissions. They'll fail you for bald tires, cracked windshields, and I'm sure
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
If something you do to your car is making it pollute MORE than is allowed, it is going to show up during the tailpipe test. If you do something that makes it pollute LESS, then you'll pass the tailpipe test, but still be subject to all sorts of ridiculous penaties and you fail the visual inspection.
Part of the problem with rules like this is also that they don't take into accout the air pollution caused by MAK
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh and now we find that the low molecular weight ether is water soluble (known all along) and is
Why didn't these fools mandate that ethanol be used? Oh because
allowed? (Score:2)
Ethanol sucks too, likely adding to pollution:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/05releases/r-epa-oxyge nate030905.htm [senate.gov]
(Please ignore that this link is from one of our idiot spendthrift Senators, I'm sure she just slapped her name at the bottom and had nothing to do with it.)
Because of this, CARB worked for years for the ability to return to making fuel with
Re:allowed? (Score:2)
Building the "units" that created MTBE from raw materials at the refineries cost billions.
This was >10 years ago. At the time urban areas of CA were the only ones mandated oxygenates. IIRC.
MTBE was not mandated as "the" oxygenate to use. There were others. Among them EtOH (ethanol).
That these idiots allowed MTBE to even be an option was stooopid.
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
Why? Nitrogen oxides.
The funny thing is, studies are showing that the nitrogen oxides actually... wait for it... *REDUCE* ozone in areas like California, especially those from diesels.
Also, diesels last longer (less junkyard space taken, less energy used and pollution created recycling them, less energy used and pollution created making the rep
Re:The ARB is the worst example of this ever. (Score:2)
They're welcome to come suck on my tailpipe, as it is mostly WVO (waste veggie oil [goolsbee.org]) emissions and is unlikely to have any ill affect.
CARB really needs to reconsider their death sentence on Diesel-fueled vehicles. Especially now that the droughts of the late 80s/early 90s are gone since rain reduces Diesel particulates to very low levels, unlike gasoline emissions.
Vaudville awaits you (Score:3, Funny)
the FOSS shot heard 'round the world
quietly building pressure for an open source earthquake
On the face of it
setting the world on fire
if you dig just a little deeper
the seeds of more profound change gradually developing.
I'd like to try to compete but I'm just not up to it.
Well done and thanks for the laughs
Re:Vaudville awaits you (Score:1)
Actually... (Score:1)
Flighty CARB (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think we can trust them to stick with FOSS measures. The pressure from Microsoft and other closed source shops will again be too much for CARB to take.
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:2)
Free Carpool Access (Score:1)
If owning them means being able to pimp them out with carpool lane access stickers, they will buy.
Re:Free Carpool Access (Score:2)
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:1)
I'd buy an electric car in a heartbeat if I could actually fit in one and not feel like I was in a clown car and have it go more than 60 miles without having to recharge the bugger.
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:2)
Still, with a little luck, the economies of centralised power generation {scale, and not having to lug fuel around with you from place to place} might offset so
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:1)
Plus an electric car could be augmented with it's own solar panels. The surface area of panels on all those cars would be a heck of a lot. If you covered the equivalent area of land there would be uproar.
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:2)
Don't forget the reduced energy desity of batteries. A vehicle with a 500 mile range on electric power is going to weigh a LOT more than a gas powered vehicle. It costs energy to move all that weight.
And then there's also the issue of disposing of hundreds of pounds o
Re:Flighty CARB (Score:1)
Lead-acid batteries, despite their reputation, are actually 100% recyclable. Lead is a valuable enough resource that it's never not worth the effort of recovering it. Dilute sulphur
Setting the world on fire? (Score:2, Funny)
Good FUD piece (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, they went a bit overboard on the FUD, too: "In the eleven years we've been doing open source, we have not, in my view, had one failure in applying open source solutions." Wow. These guys must be the best IT staff on the planet, if they haven't (in his view), "had a single failure in (applying) open source solutions".
Also, you're not going to find any inte
Re:Good FUD piece (Score:2)
Second, you need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
They haven't had a failure in applying an open source solution to a problem.
So, they need a database. They might not have been able to get X, Y or Z package working. But Open Source Database W works just fine for them. That's a success. They successfully applied open source to a problem.
Get it?
Re:Living in California. (Score:2)
Re:Living in California. (Score:2)
That's just one of the many reasons that I don't miss California in the least. Dealing with the CARB on my older cars I restore is another reason I don't miss it there.
Re:Living in California. (Score:2)
CARB can do it, why not schools. (Score:2)
Air Processing (Score:2)
Ready-made pool of expertise (Score:2)
Re:Ready-made pool of expertise (Score:1)
hypocrites (Score:2)