First, let me re-state for the 100th time that I'm a technology pragmatist. I love technology, but do my best to make my purchase decisions based on my actual needs rather than pure technolust. That's most of why I don't run Mac laptops and won't buy an iPhone: they just don't match my needs (practical and financial). I do have a 4th generation iPod nano and, when comparing that to a 1st generation iPod, I wonder what 2 years of iPhone releases (at which point the buyers from last week will finally be free of their contract to sign on for another 2 years) will do.

Third, I really like running Linux and open systems. The fact that my firewall is running Smoothwall lets me tinker with it and provides much more power than other devices for the same money. Linux completely resurrected my 3 year old laptop and made it usable again after I had thought Windows had sucked the marrow from its bones.

So, when I first heard about OpenMoko, a platform for an open mobile phone, I was excited. And, today, when they announced that developers can buy the first phone based on the platform (at OpenMoko.com, I added it to my tech wish list.

I'm not going to claim that it's as sleek or even as fully featured as the iPhone. However, it is an *unlocked* GSM phone, running open source software, with full specifications of the software and hardware available, and with a nice set of features.

Even before I saw an iPhone, I knew I wouldn't buy one because it was tied to Cingular/AT&T. I've used Sprint, AT&T, TMobile and Cingular each in turn and currently use TMobile because it's the only one that actually works all of the places I regularly need a phone. Period.

Beyond that, 2 year contracts with $300 cancellation penalties in exchange for a $200 phone are criminal as far as I'm concerned. I've been buying unlocked GSM phones whenever I can and it's WAY better. When a phone dies around here (and they all seem to at some point), you just pull out the SIM and throw it in one of the old ones. The same is true if/when we travel outside the US. We can just buy a prepaid SIM and use the unlocked phones.

Now, I probably won't buy one of the developer ones, in large part because it isn't clear whether these have fully-functioning GPS and WiFi and because I want to make sure that those who will be doing the most development for this device get one before the supply runs out. However, I'm certainly more willing to drop $450 on one.

All of the sites are suffering under the strain of popularity at the moment, so I recommend bookmarking them for later. Definitely a project worth watching. Especially since they plan another 3 devices in the next year or so.

A couple of months ago, I ran across a link to a light electric vehicle called the BugE. It was notable not only because it's just a cool little bit of transportation technology that'll do 40mph, but because it was going to be far cheaper than the $25,000 to $100,000 that other electric vehicles capable of that speed tend to cost.

Today I got a note indicating that these things are finally shipping and you can order one. While they're a bit more expensive when all is said and done (about $5000 plus shipping) than the $3000 ballpark number thrown out when it was first mentioned, we're still talking about a very reasonable price for a slick little vehicle. The $5000 number is what it takes when you buy the kit, plus the lighting bits and the motor/controller/etc kit in addition.

I really like that his design specifically set out to be simple, using fewer parts than his previous designs. This makes the kits easier to build and cheaper to manufacture, which are critical to pushing stuff like this into the public consciousness. Even at $5000, it's in the price range of a snowmobile, ATV, boat, etc. That makes it a do-able project for a dedicated enthusiast (though it'll be a year or 2 before I'm up for it yet), instead of only for the die hards out there.

Given some of the recent total-cost-of-ownership I've seen for the iPhone, this would be a much more interesting way to spend that same money, as far as I'm concerned.

I've got a couple of things that I wanted to post, but don't have time to give them all a full post treatment.

Subversion and Smoothwall Fighting
I fought all afternoon with being unable to do checkouts, updates or checkins into Subversion on Dreamhost. I had that hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach since I wholeheartedly have been recommending people use them for cheap Subversion hosting.

Turns out it wasn't Dreamhost's problem, it was mine. I recently switched on the transparent web proxy in my Smoothwall firewall. Apparently, the Squid proxy doesn't cooperate with the REPORT WebDAV HTTP headers that Subversion uses, thus resulting in the errors. I've shut the proxy off until I can figure out a better solution.

So, if you're getting "REPORT request failed", check if there's a proxy in the middle.

Home Theater Projector
Something like 18 months ago, I investigated the DIY projector information from Lumenlab. Since they used a 15" LCD, I ruled it out (no room for a projector of that size in my home theater). However, 6 months ago, I noticed that they had announced that they were taking their design and getting some smaller ones manufactured.

I added myself to their list to be notified when they were available to buy and I got the email a few weeks ago. I'm now eagerly anticipating mine to end up on the doorstep.

It was $499, with free shipping. Instead of an expensive $300 bulb, they use a cheap $30 bulb that lasts 6000 hours. According to their distance calculator, I should be able to get at least a 100" 16:9 image, but will wait to buy the screen until I'm sure about the size. However, this is the first inexpensive projector I've seen that doesn't throw out a postage stamp sized image at 10 feet.

The IRS Roller Coaster
After getting a letter from the IRS "requesting" a payment in the amount of almost $1200 due to under-reporting my 2005 taxes, things have gone 180°. We tracked down the glitch (we actually paid taxes on the money in 2004 and they didn't match things up).

Then, today, we got the call that we're actually getting almost $2000 back. What a roller coaster. I hope that they lose complete interest in my financial arrangements.

The cash will come in handy following the large soapy puddle in the middle of the kitchen coming from the dishwasher a couple of days ago.

The Electric Bike
I hit Target looking for a donor bike and bought the closest thing I could find: a retro, cruiser-style bike from Schwinn. Basically, if the motor doesn't fit in this bike, there isn't a cheap bike nearby that this thing will fit into. It was the only one there that met the requirements.

With the motor, I'm not terribly concerned with leaning down, so the more upright position is actually nice. There won't be as much weight on my wrists and the bigger handlebars offer plenty of space to mount the throttle and other accessories.

So, here's to hoping that the motor spins freely.

Photo: arifm

Over the weekend, it was time to swap out the nutrient bath in the hydroponic garden, and with the forecast for this week making an overnight freeze not out of the realm of possibility, I figured I'd take the whole works inside.

It's now set up in my office, with all of the portable lights I could rig together pointed at it. I had planned on getting more of a "real" light setup before I moved it inside, but clearly my planning mojo is seriously depleted these days.

At any rate, I also made a few modifications to the setup at the same time. Because I bought such large net cups (I'd buy smaller next time), I actually moved the plants together with 2 in each cup, which made more room for future plants. I'm going to have to also do something to pull the stems together better because the stevia is pretty much sprawling out all over to the sides.

With the extra room, it made sense to start some other plants growing, so I filled the "germination station" I bought with vermiculite, basil seed, covered and watered it. I plugged in the heating pad and we'll see next weekend if they start to grow. If only a few germinate, I'll just use them. If lots start growing, I may have lots of basil seedlings if anyone wants some.

As far as bugs, etc. from bringing it inside, I haven't yet found any evidence of that being a problem. Of course, only time will really tell. I may come into my office some morning this week to be greeted by swarming pests.

Beyond the existing setup, I've been scoping out spots in my house where I could set up one or more plants with lighting. Ideally, what I'd love to have eventually is all of my "in stock" produce growing at home. I want to just grab potatoes, onions, herbs, garlic, peppers, salad greens etc. from my own supply, especially when I can control the pesticide/herbicide levels. Of course, some of those items are hard to grow hydroponically or are really inefficient. For now, the stuff I'm planning to grow is enough.

In case it's missed your attention, car-based transportation is expensive.

The gas alone at 25 miles per gallon is $0.12/mile at $3/gallon and is closer to $0.13 a mile with this week's spike to $3.20/gallon. When the prices drift toward $4/gallon you're soon paying $0.16/mile for gas.

However, most of the alternatives aren't really that much cheaper. Most hybrids drop the fuel cost from the $0.12-$0.16/mile to more like $0.06-$0.08/mile. Throw the actual cost of $25,000 vehicles, depreciation, insurance, repairs, etc. and even the $0.445 that the IRS allots for car cost seems low.

Now, what about cruising along with the wind in your hair at 20 mph without getting sweaty or even having to pedal? What if that only ran $0.003 in fuel and the complete vehicle costing less than $500? That's what electric bikes offer.

Given that the safe bet is for $4 gas and $5 gas within the next couple of years (hey, we still had $0.85 gas in 1999), and the fact that I can currently take all city streets to get to work (nothing over 40mph speed limits), I decided to do a bit of digging into supplementing my Geo Tracker (which already gets 25-30mpg) to keep my transportation costs down.

Beyond the purely financial benefits is the fact that most of these designs allow for pedaling to supplement the electrical system, meaning some exercise can still take place without the whole dripping-in-sweat experience of normal bike commuting.

So, what are the options?

First, after a first pass of reading about this stuff (which actually happened last year), I had a couple of design parameters.

I knew that I didn't want a dedicated electric bike or scooter. When the system is based on a regular bike, you can easily swap bits out to improve performance, comfort, looks, etc. Whether it's pulling the electrical off of the bike and putting it on a better bike or upgrading motors, batteries, etc., a system based on a regular bike just makes modular sense to me.

I also am not going to consider weight or regenerative braking very seriously. In the bicycle world, lighter components cost more. And, "lighter" usually means by a few ounces. 10 or 20 pounds extra on the bike itself isn't going to affect the project nearly as much as having to spend an extra couple of hundred bucks for lighter versions of things like batteries. Besides, if I want to get rid of weight, it's a lot cheaper to get rid of it off of my body than off of the bike. Before I start worrying about how heavy the bike is, I should drop 30 pounds myself.

That lack of concern about vehicle weight (at this scale it's not nearly as big of a problem as in a car) is driven by another parameter: distance over speed. I'd rather have a system that can go 20 miles on its own and 30 with pedaling, but can only go 12 mph than one that can go 25 mph for 10 miles. That means that I'm heading toward the biggest batteries that make sense, even though they'll weigh more and reduce maximum speed. Somewhere in between the ultra-light batteries and pulling a trailer full of them is a balance between those things.

So, what are the options?

One option is the hub motor kit that is sold in a variety of places. This is currently the frontrunner plan. The 600W motor and 36V system runs about $350 most places. I like this option because it's easy to install, doesn't require any messing with gearing, sprockets, etc. to transfer power from the motor to the wheel.

This kit includes the battery setup too, which you should watch for in other kits. Lots of them are sold at much higher prices and don't include even basic batteries. Installation of these hub motor kits is reasonably simple from what I can see.

Given that I always like to know what all of the options are, I've also looked into a few other designs.

One of them is the Bidwell bike pusher. It's basically a little trailer containing the motor and batteries that pushes the bike along. The guy who wrote it up has filed a patent though the only thing particularly inventive about it is the coupler that hooks it into the bike.

The biggest problem with that design is common to the rest of the R.Q.Riley designs. They all are based around tearing apart a specific existing product and then building the design. That leads to designs that don't age well. Many of their early designs are based on the original VW Beetle, which was plentiful when they designed the conversions, but they're much harder to come by now. I prefer a more off-the-shelf type of design.

This particular design is based on a scooter that runs about $400 where I looked. That puts even the Bidwell + cheap Target bike at the $500 mark.

However, I think that a similar device could be built with individual components and make the result much more powerful. This 1000W motor is $100 instead of the 350 watt motor that comes from the scooter that the Bidwell specifies.

When you pair it with a controller at $50, you're set for a lot more power with lots of money left over for the batteries (the other major component) and the misc wheel/gear bits.

I did buy a copy of their plans and wasn't impressed. Among other things, they have a section where they mention adding an MP3 player and their explanation of how to do that is pretty much, "add some speakers and an mp3 player". If you look at the patent, you've got all of the useful information on the device.

So, at any rate, what I'm planning on for next spring is a basic Target bike and the hub motor kit. Once I run some numbers on that first setup, I'll start tweaking things like smoother tires, bigger batteries, etc. I'm also planning on using a plugin electric meter that I bought a while back to monitor exactly how much juice goes into the charging to measure how many killowatt hours are actually used to move my carcass around.

Eventually, I'd like to have a recumbent trike with a 1000W motor and enough batteries for some serious range. That will have to wait. I'm also curious about what it would take to combine 2 of these hub motors to do the trike.