Drew Dowdell

THANK YOU!

Cancer

yeah, task manager is find. this is about the log in process I hadn't tried that. I did try the on screen keyboard. I'll try stickykeys at work tomorrow

It's a laptop. He was right handed... now he is left handed and struggling with this key combo. Windows XP

I have a user who recently had an arm amputated. He is doing ok typing but is struggling with the Ctr-Alt-Del to log in part. He is holding a pen in his mouth to hit the delete key. I've tried macros attached to programable keys on the keyboard and they don't work for that key combination. Any of you other I.T. folk out there know a way around this?

Unfortunately, the key to that is saving up to have enough down payment so that the size of the loan is reduced to what they think you can afford

This certainly tested the braking ability of the Toronado as I drove by......

It saved them money. Instead of developing an Insignia, Regal, Grand Am, AND an Aura, they developed just the Insignia (and did a great job) and slapped Buick badges on it for the places they don't sell Opel. For people who were in it for the deal, there is the still very nice Malibu. For those who want something nicer and sportier, there is the Regal. Ditto Cobat/G5 - Cruze/Verano Ditto Aveo/G3 - Sonic Only the G8 and Solctice don't have a direct replacement...... yet.

Quickly forgotten about? Electrics were a serious player for 20 years! In 1899 an electric car held the land speed record at 65mph. It wasn't until the 1920s that combustion engines finally took the lead for good. And unlike our Apollo program, the technology was not quickly forgotten. It continued to be developed and migrated into industrial use... trolleys, trains, bulldozers, buses, etc. They were not sold, they were leased. In any case, they used modern lead acid batteries, modern motors and regenerative braking. Clearly a version 2.0. Never caught on? Well, they certainly were not for everyone... but GM really didn't want to sell them in the first place. Once CARB backed down from its ZEV requirements, GM had no interest in leasing these. GEM has had no problem selling 40K of their LSVs... and they are handicapped with a 35 mph speed limiter by law. Format? You're comparison of electric vehicles to storage media formats is apples to oranges. Assuming you could get a hold of a running EV-1, you can put a 1906 Baker Electric, 1997 EV-1 and a 2011 Volt on the road and drive them side by side on the same piece of tarmac, with the same type people and the same electric... they all have a storage technology connected to some sort of motor via a control system. Keep in mind, I am all for what the Volt is and can be, even though its current form (4 door sedan) is not my cup of tea. However, its based on technology that is NOT going to follow Moore's Law... and talking "version 1.0" is setting it up for unrealistic future expectations. The public is VERY fickle. One bad batch of batteries could leave any/all of the new electrics as a modern day GM diesel. And all these dreamy infrastructure upgrades are vapor until it happens. Just like those nonexistent Ethanol stations in the Northeast. I work the one of the companies providing these infrastructure upgrades. We're a publicly traded company so there are limits to what I can say, but I'll put it this way: Among the healthy retailers out there of all stripes, they are racing against each other to get this hardware in place. It's a relatively modest investment for them yet the improvements in public image a large. Think of it this way, if Home Depot suddenly has good "green" PR and a way to lure a certain subset of customers away from Lowes for around $5,000 per install, that's a very minimal investment for them and Lowes will probably react in kind. The technology doesn't need to follow Moores law (which is for processor speed anyway). The Detroit Electric and such where "Proof of Concept", the EV-1 was Beta version 0.5 and only released to select test users (yes I know it was only leased, but GM had criteria other than your financial that you had to pass before you'd get one). But lets be honest here... due to the limitations of battery technology... not a lot of work has gone into this drive train setup in the pass 100 years compared to the gasoline engine. It's based on smart card technology and you'd do the equivalent of "validating your parking". If you didn't make a purchase in the retailer, you are charged for your charge. Is it known, will it depend, or is it only guesses at this point if these retailers will charge the user to charge their electric car? I have seen the idea where many places will have a card swipe to charge the owner. I could see it being done like on a Best Buys card etc. They could offer reduced rates and even free charges on slow days to bring buyers in. I suspect we will see many marketing plans. They may even make people go in side to activate the charge just to get them in the door. The main goal of any store is to get you in. I really don't think many of these stations will be free. Companies just can't afford to do that long term. They will be free or free with purchase initially. Once it becomes more main stream, it will be monetized.

Volvo does, but I think for a higher mileage.

The XTS will be priced well above the ES base price.

Version 3.0 vehicles, more like it. To call these version 1.0 sell the 1900's electrics and EV-1 short. They were viable vehicles at the time. Also calling these version 1.0 implies version 2.0 will be twice as good. I want to know where people think the next huge improvements in electric/hybrid vehicles is going to come from. Its not like battery and motor tech has been stagnant for the past 100 years... they are both mature technologies... and barring a major scientific breakthrough, they are limited by the rules of physics. It won't surprise me if a decade from now, our electric cars and hybrids are barely 10% better than they are today, because battery and motor tech is not coming along at the speed of computers and cell phones, like some people here are expecting. I feel that the biggest breakthroughs will come in slight weight savings... but increasing crash protection will eat that right up. Cost will also go down, but you can't double the battery pack to increase the power without affecting the weight... so cost savings will likely only help the bottom line of electric/hybrid cars. The 1900s electrics had a top speed of about 35 mph. They were discontinued when gasoline vastly out paced them. They were the Laser Disk of electric cars, quickly superseded and forgotten about. The EV-1 had a decent range, but still relied on older battery technology. Limited to being a two seater, they also were only sold in limited numbers to a limited market. They were the Sony Mini-disk of electric cars, having a few diehard fans but due to cost and limited distribution, never able to catch on. The Volt, Leaf, and coming Focus electric have the possibility of being the VHS of electric cars, being the first to gain widespread acceptance to the mainstream public. These are the initial entries that will dictate the format for years to come. Out of these three the charging infrastructure will develop, standards for pedestrian safety and charging apparatus will form, and all future entries in the market will be judged against them. And who is paying for this infrastructure? Many of the shopping centers I see are struggling to stay in business. The retailers. The company I work for is in direct contact with multiple retailers on that front.

Is it known, will it depend, or is it only guesses at this point if these retailers will charge the user to charge their electric car? Initially, the charge will be complimentary up to a certain amount of time charging. Later they will move to a "Free with $X.XX purchase" or a nominal KwH charge, probably in the $0.35to $0.75 per hour range. Profitable for the retailer and convenient for the customer (especially if those are "Quick Charge" hours)

Another early 80s Oldsmobile or Buick coupe. 98 Coupe Toronado Electra coupe Riviera I could also see myself going for a '91 or '92 Toronado as well or if I could find an '80 or '81 Seville (avoiding the 4100) that wasn't beat to hell there is nothing on my list new for me. If something happened to the CR-V it would almost certainly be replaced by a new Equinox or an '08 SRX V6 AWD

I have only drive a few of these newer system so I am not up on the latest like on the new LaCrosse. I do find the systems that shut off at lights a little annoying [just my take]. But as time rolls on I think they will make and find systems that will work well and most people will never know they are there. It is kind of like the 8-6-4 Cadillac. It was a mess but today the same idea works and you really can't tell what it is doing. I have many miles with the Chevy truck and Camaro with this system. I think we will see a lot of things tried by a despereate industry. If gas remains high buyers will also be more accpeting. The real issues is as things get even more complicated how we we repair these cars and afford to keep them running. The day is coming there will be few cars over 10 years old on the road. I don't expect the Lacrosse to be observably quicker with the addition of eAssist. It's might have a little better around town feel and that's about it. 15 hp simply isn't enough to make that big a difference. It's cars like the Volt which have the equivalent to a 200+ horsepower gasoline motor with ALL of their torque at low RPM that will be the game changers. In Sport mode, the Volt has a surprising surge of power when you step on the potentiometer. There was a review out there of the Tesla Roadster when they had an Audi R8 follow along. The Tesla was able to walk away from the R8 like it was standing still. The Mini-Cooper with electric motors built into the wheel assembly had close to 600 HP.... so... better than CTS-V power in something the size and weight of a Cooper. Even if the battery added another 300 lbs, you're still about 900lbs less than a V-series. My other reasoning is this. Remember, I work for the 5th largest energy supplier in North America. Most of our clients are big box stores. Some big box stores have already announced charging stations for electric vehicles. (Home Depot, Best Buy) And there are others coming as well. The Volt and Tesla can recharge from a 220v outlet in 4 hours. The Leaf can get to 80% charge in 30 minutes at a "Quick Charge" station. Who here can't see people blowing 1 or 2 hours in a shopping center? This kind of performance from version 1.0 vehicles really impresses me. It's for this reason that I see electric vehicles as the future.

A few things: There is currently a bug with View New Content that causes people to miss new posts. I've complained to IP soft multiple times. The acknowlage the problem but wont fix it till version 3.2 is released. It is absolutely fine to post arthicles from other sites so long as you post a relevant clip of txt, include a comment or two of your own, and a link back to the original article. what is not ok is a full dump of another website with no comment of your own. equally bad is just a link with no text.

if it's really that difficult to make 5 replies to the over 400,000 posts we have on this website (note that I'm not saying 5 worthwhile posts) before reading the politics section, then perhaps I am correct in thinking C&G's time as a forum is nearing an end.

Electric gives you maximum torque at zero RPM. It's that kind of thrust that will make hybrids more viable in future and electrics the future. It's only a matter of time.... and I say that entirely from my experience in electric vehicle 1.0 Volt.

Electric is the ultimate flex fuel.

The RX-H does a decent business. The LS-H and the Escalade Hybrid sell terrible because there is a huge price premium (and in the case of the Lexus, an insufficient boost in fuel economy) over their regular model. Gas prices could go to $5.00 a gallon and the Lexus HS200SEVIIWEvb - whatever - hybrid would still sell mediocre because it doesn't have a luxury feel but it does have a luxury price. The one to watch is the MKZ Hybrid. When you offer people the choice of engines with no cost difference like Lincoln is doing, 24% are picking the hybrid model. The Hybrid isn't available in AWD form, so if you remove AWD sales (because not having AWD could be a deal breaker for some people) the percentage of FWD Hybrid v. FWD Gas goes even higher. However, Lincoln F-ed up the experiment by offering incentives on the MKZ, but only for the gas model. The incentives are enough that you can lease a gas model for $100 a month less than the hybrid.

I'm thinking of the future. It's going to be 12 to 18 months before this thing is released. If we have a sustained period of $3.60+ a gallon gasoline, a no compromises hybrid like the 2-mode could gain some real traction in the market. After a week of driving the Volt, I am convinced that electric as the primary motive power is the future. In a car like this where silence is golden, it's a no-brainer.

I was really hoping for the 2-mode as the default engine for this car. It would be something that sets it apart from most of the other big-lux

and now CNN is using Bill Nye the Science guy as their reactor science corespondent?

Graphite was used at Chernobyl.... but this guy was saying that the Japanese reactors were graphite cooled

it was fun to watch people forget about them and get strangled.