Switzerland’s soon-to-exist new banknotes are now officially THE coolest money I’ve ever seen. They’re all shiny and science-y. and just generally awesome.

Katz utilizes aelscha’s monitor as a nice warm sitting spot:

A few more recent pictures are also available.

My brief Christmas wishlist, back by popular demand! Major caveat: Please do not buy me anything made by Sony. This list is subject to addition. If I add things, I’ll update the post date so it appears at the top. Note: You can leave an anonymous comment if you’d like me to strike something off the list. It asks for your name and email but these don’t have to be valid. Just enter something bogus.

• The iAudio X5 music player. Or the X5L which is the same thing with a slightly larger battery.
• The Neverlate 7-day alarm clock
• USB WeaSeL
• Anything from my Amazon.com wishlist. If that link doesn’t work, search on my name or email from the Amazon wishlist page. You’ll find it.
• Etymotics ER6i earbud headphones. Significantly more desirable if somebody actually gets me the iAudio, otherwise, less so :)
• Speak German? Read enough German to buy from amazon.de? Get me one or both of these CDs not available in the US. You really don’t need to speak German. If you have an amazon.com account it shows up there, and you can navigate by “feel.” They do appear to ship to the US!

You know the sign: “Fines doubled in work zones.” But everytime I drive down to Boston I encounter an abandoned work zone on I-95. Twelve miles of “Work zone speed limit 45″ (instead of 65) and fines doubled. Yet during the day I rarely see any roadwork, roadworkers, or even machinery. People drive 65 or above. Does this mean they can be pulled over for driving 20 miles per hour over the limit and then receive a doubled fine? Yes.

In New Hampshire, the work zone speed limit law explicitly states the work zone must be manned in order to take affect. But the Massachusetts law doesn’t. Why not? The cynic in me says it is all about the money. While police on that section of I-95 do not typically ticket people going 65 (because everybody is) they do ticket people travelling faster, assigning a huge ticket that is then doubled. Does this help ensure the safety of workers? No. The DOT has cried wolf. Drivers see the work zone sign and assume it is just another section of road. If there actually are workers present they’re now put in danger.

Some searching dug up this list of work zone speed limit laws and which states require workers to be present. Since the states rarely put this info on their work zone rule signs, you can familiarize yourself with it so you know the law. States can gain respect for their laws by making sure they only take affect when workers are present and making this clear on signs. Furthermore, some states use work zone signs that flash when workers are present. Provided the information is up to date and correct, this helps motorist know when they should be looking out for construction workers. For the states that already do this, thank you.

Update: The list of work zone laws mysteriously disappeared. They seem to be having server issues. I’ve made a mirror from the google cached copy and updated the link above.

My laptop, crow, was recently RMA’d under its very worthwhile extended warranty. Unfortunately it experienced a failure to boot at the worst possible time this semester. I had also mentioned the existance of a small scratch on the screen which I never did anything about, which technically should have been reported immediately reported if I wanted to have it dealt with under warranty. The tech support person said they would look at it and replace it if it looked like it was not a wear and tear issue.

My laptop has now been returned to me, with a new mainboard, processor (soldered to mainboard), LCD panel, and LCD frame. Basically, most of the parts have been replaced. I am overjoyed that they replaced the LCD. And, the thing that really made my day was that they did not reformat my hard drive. Linux is still installed and completely usable. This makes me very, very happy.

I often read on forums somebody saying “Well, I don’t need snow tires because I have ABS.” Or worse, “I don’t need snow tires because I have AWD.” The problem with the latter statement is obvious (AWD does not help you stop or turn) but the problem with the former is less obvious. ABS actually increases the need for good rubber between the car and the road.

Having good tires is the single biggest factor in winter driving. This doesn’t just mean having snow tires. Having bald or worn tires is worse than having all seasons. Even if you do not live in an area where it snows enough to consider purchasing snow tires, it is very important to check your tire tread depth using the penny test. If you have insufficient treadlife remaining, replace your tires before it starts snowing.

But why does ABS increase the need for good tires? ABS works using a technique called “cadence braking” to prevent the wheels from skidding during braking. When the ABS controller detects a wheel has stopped spinning (locked) it releases the brake pressure on that wheel until it spins again. It then increases the pressure until it stops, and so on. More sophisticated ABS systems can do this quite fast, and can usually shorten braking distance on dry pavement compared to a human executing the cadence braking maneuver, and somtimes even a skilled driver executing a threshold braking maneuver. In any case, the tire’s grip still matters because a stickier tire will grip longer before the wheel locks requiring less ABS action.

But we aren’t talking about dry pavement, we’re talking about winter driving on snow and ice. On snow and ice ABS drastically increases stopping distances. In snow, when the wheels lock a wedge of snow builds up in front of the tire causing a significant retarding effect. But ABS destroys this effect in its attempt to keep the wheels rolling. As a result, the ABS controller spends much of the time with the brakes released and it takes longer to stop. On ice, the wheels lock up so readily that the ABS hardly applies the brakes at all and stopping distances are nearly doubled compared to a locked wheels slide. The issues seen with snow are also seen in loose gravel and sand.

Modern ABS systems are significantly better at handling these situations, but are still subject to drastically increased stopping distances. The solution to this is twofold. The first factor is to make sure you are using good tires. As stated above, good tires mean there will be more braking ability before the wheels lock and the ABS system intervenes. The second factor is to be aware that the purpose of ABS is to allow the drive to retain some steering ability during braking and not to improve stopping distances.

There is a sophisticated solution to the problem of having to make an emergency stop where the ABS effect is detrimental. You can deliberately skid the car 90 degrees perpendicular to the original direction of motion. The car will continue to skid forward in the same direction, but all four wheels will be sliding accumulating the “wedge” and will enable a quicker stop. However, this is a difficult maneuver to get right and requires enough parking lot practice to make it automatic before using it in an emergency. In the meantime, just get some good tires and remember that ABS doesn’t help you stop.

Snowing (lightly), dark outside at 4pm, and I have Christmas present materials strewn all over the living room (and the cats aren’t eating them!). It’s definitely December.

Also, I am so proud of myself over the above Christmas presents, cause this was a crafty thing that I came up with all on my own and figured out how to make, and the first one is more-or-less finished, and it’s evident that it’s really going to work!