This is such a cool ride; I finally caught up with Hawk, an engineer who designed and built this Ghost Rider Dune Buggie. It’s street legal, which has a title and tag, and Hawk said that ‘people wave at him wherever they see him in his dune buggie, they are friendly like that,’ and his wife called it ‘The Redneck Mobile.’ I’m glad that I’m not the only one that thinks this is a cool ride; someone once pulled him over and asked if he wants to start a dune buggie club.

This has a 1600 cc Volkswagen engine with a 5 speed, and its top speed of 85 mph. His wife told me that he got a speeding ticket once, might be the time that he was testing for speed by going downhill, yep still got it, but I guess the cop didn’t see it his way. The video shows a 1600 cc Volkswagen engine, similar to the one used on this dune buggie.

Who said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, not always true, in this case, an ergonomic keyboard I believed that a true appreciation for this type of keyboard comes with age. Once someone complains of wrists pain in any office, the corrective action would be to change from a traditional keyboard to an ergonomic keyboard. I think for someone that handles workers compensation, one of the most fearful terms to hear is carpal tunnel syndrome or someone complaining of wrist pain, which is tendinitis. Tendinitis is tendon inflammation resulting from repetitive work, such as uninterrupted typing and can cause carpal tunnel symptoms. I’m not a big fan of this fancy keyboard, and this takes up too much space in my opinion and the keys are out of place. I had to use it several times in the past because my boss has one, and another older lady in the office also has one and I hated it, so I refused to try it out for a day as suggested.

One of my co-workers had to try one out today to see if she would like it. I helped switch the old one out for her, to log back into her computer, she had to type Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys at the same time, and guess what, she couldn’t find the Delete key. It was almost comical watching her looking for it, and it’s obviously right at the same spot as the traditional keyboard, her old one. Also, she was complaining of not being able to find the F key, and the layout was very confusing to her. In less than an hour, I had to switch the old one back for her, by then she was frustrated. I explained to her that it’s called an ergonomic keyboard, and she said, “I think it should be called an ignorant keyboard.”

It was my turn next, but to save myself from misery, I told my boss that I didn’t care for it. I don’t think I would be able to work or blog with this thing and besides my keyboard sits on a keyboard tray both at home and at work, and an ergonomic keyboard is too big and it’s more suitable for those that sit their keyboard on the desk or table, so the next person to try is an older lady, maybe she will like it.

According to wikipedia, an ergonomic keyboard is a computer keyboard designed with ergonomic considerations to minimize muscle strain and a host of related problems. Interesting I thought, and I’ve noticed that an ergonomic keyboard like the traditional keyboards before it, splits the keyboard in half at a 12 degree angle to straighten your wrists with the alignment of the keys instead of bending your wrists at an awkward angle, my boss said that the curving keys is designed to better meet the placement of your fingers, and not cramming them together like traditional keyboards do. As for the cost, a simple ergonomic keyboard can cost as little as typical keyboards, or up to 2-30 times more. Most true split keyboards cost ten to twenty times as much as typical computer keyboards.

I noticed that those that like ergonomic keyboards are also over 50 years of age, at my workplace anyway, and we’ve decided to call it old people’s keyboard. I like the traditional keyboard and do use it a lot to type, and I don’t think I will be trading it for an ergonomic keyboard anytime soon. I can hear people telling me, “You just wait till you get older, you’ll be running out to get that thing.” My point exactly, appreciation comes with age.

When I heard about this Kiha E200, this is commuters’ paradise, I remember taking the subway in NYC, talking about the pollution, and noises, most commuters don’t have much choice. I recall while living in NYC, I spent many hours on the train and managed to read amongst the noises. If only the US would have worked toward something such as this.

The Metro-North and the Amtrak, which I took in the past are a bit better than the NYC subway, comparing to cars, trains are a relatively small contributor to global warming, and in the United States, railways contribute just 4 percent of transportation-related emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. The Japanese train boosts fuel efficiency by 20 percent and reduces emissions by up to 60 percent.

Japan is a world leader in the development of hybrid cars and low-emission buses and plans are already well advanced to run a hybrid tram in Tokyo, this is very admirable that they’re working toward a technology that’s going to save the environment.

The Kiha E200, as it is known, is equipped with a diesel engine, two electric motors under each of its cars and lithium ion batteries on the roof. The diesel engine only kicks in with a rumble when needed to climb a hill or if the batteries run low. The batteries are recharged when the train slows down. After the power is switched off, the motors continue to turn for a while, and that energy wasted in a non-hybrid train is used to recharge the batteries.

The Kiha E200, which seats 46 and can hold 117 people including standees, is debuting on a line that runs about once an hour on a 79-kilometer (49 mile) route through a mountain resort area. Hybrid car is somewhat expensive, and hybrid train is no exception, the Kiha E200 train cost almost $1.7 million, double the price of a standard train, but I’m hoping that as the technology develops, the price will come down.

Read more here, and here.

I think this is very cool, keyboards that can change the color skins, and brightness according to your need and mood. Luxiium, a Korean company, offers the Luxeed, a white or black keyboard with LED keys.

The custom colors are selectable for each key, and you can also create color skins for the keyboard so that you can switch skins for a game and then change back to your normal colors for regular usage. It looks like the whole key lights up in the white version, whereas in the black, only the letter itself lights up. Very slick!