Two wheels forward, one back ("tadpole") is a very stable design (assuming a reasonable CG -- low and near the front)... but rear steering is not. It's hard to get used to and is very prone to oversteer.
Hm, yes it would be if it weren't managed somehow. An electronically assisted system would relieve that problem and leave you with increased maneuverability for parking. It'd also jack up the weight and cost though.
Damn, that's some machine! Nice. I remember the old Trihawks. I got the opportunity to drive one once and it was nice but compared to that it looks to be positively sedate.
I'd bet that thing likes to be steered with the throttle.
Two front wheels and one rear wheel = understeer. The other way around = oversteer. The former is generally considered to be safer.
The center of gravity is also a big concern. The reason those three-wheeled ATV's that vlm mentioned above were a problem was that they were top heavy and the engine was too far forward. If they'd put the engine a bit aft of the rear wheels and made it a flat configuration they'd have been much more stable.
And, perhaps, fulfillment can come from sources other than work...
It had better. Most jobs get tedious in a few months at most. And thats for the better ones.
Let us welcome our future monopolistic overlords! so... they're gonna cap them at 5 gigs of data transfer a month for 200$ ? gotta pay for the bills of the bran new network!
Some may swallow that plan but it'll take a lot more than bran to pass it.
One of the reasons that I never used Windows 95 was that I had no way of modifying the interface to suit me. A lot of people assumed that my 3.1 desktop was a Mac at first because I'd modified it. Once I get it the way I want it it generally stays that way until I upgrade the OS though.
When I went to Linux I tried several window managers but ended up trying to make a go of it with KDE. The box I'd put it on was a 40MB Pentium 75 though so that was too sluggish. I ended up using something that I've forgotten.. I think it was either Blackbox or FVWM. These days I just use whatever version of KDE came with the distro. I think I've changed environments once in the past 8 years or so.
It has occured to me that Blackbox might be good for netbooks though.
I recently went from Verizon's DSL to Charter.
The DSL had become unusable for an extended period for the second time in two years. The first time they sent a tech out after a short talk with tech support. It turned out it was a badly configured DSLAM. The tech took several hours to find the problem but they did find it.
The second time it happened it took a week to get them to send someone out and then he spent about five minutes on it and pronounced it normal and left. It dropped out shortly afterwards and stayed out until about noon the next day.
We've only been on Charter for 3 months but so far it hasn't gone down once. Maybe it is crap elsewhere or maybe they just fail on a yearly schedule like Verizon but they've been good so far.
I really hope they remain a going concern. the only other options we have for internet here are a WISP through trees at long range, 3G with caps so low I'd go through them in about a week, or satellite at ridiculous prices.
The biggest problem with the Aptera is the fact that it is only going to be available in California. They say they'll look into distribution in other states later but for now its out.
The second biggest problem with the Aptera is that that three-wheeled design is treated as a motorcycle for insurance purposes in many places. Yes they say its safe but is it? I'd like to see tests done before I buy. Hopefully by the time they expand their distribution network this will be done.
Those are resolvable problems. The third problem may not be though. Where I live there is a significant percentage of the population that will associate the Aptera with.. certain political leanings. One of my relatives is a mechanic. He says he's found bullet holes in planes on more than one occasion. It seems stupid people sometimes enjoy shooting at planes.
I have concerns over driving such a distinctive vehicle when it just might have a bullseye painted on it.
That's a really easy opinion to hold until you try riding public transit four hours each day to and from your menial minimum-wage job. And I'm not making this up, I know someone with a college degree who is in this position.
That, of course, is assuming public transportation is actually usable at all. The local bus is a senior-citizens only affair. Its fine if you want to go grocery shopping or such but it doesn't get to anyplace I needed to get to. It was actually faster to ride my bicycle.
A nicely finished wooden case for a laptop would be nice. I f we could get around the microwave radiation issues and the heat issue.
He says he's going to get it up to roughly the same power that an early 80's home computer had. It looks like he's not far off.
BLISS is ignorance.
