Archive for March 26th, 2010
Ford to save millions of dollars, drastically reduce carbon emissions just by turning off its computers at night
Filed under: Etc., Ford, Green Daily
When a corporation as large as Ford decides to do something as simple as shutting down its computers at night, the savings can be astronomical. In the case of Ford, powering down computers can save the company $1.2 million each year.
The new program called PC Power Management, utilizes energy saving settings provided by Microsoft Windows. The energy settings will be used on company laptops and desktops to reduce energy waste. A managed shutdown will occur each night and during the weekend period. Additionally, computers will be awake to receive updates during pre-selected non-business hours, freeing up time previously used for updates throughout the working day.
According to Ford, an estimated 60 percent of the company’s computers remained on after business hours resulting in wasted energy. The new managed shutdown will eliminate waste to the tune of over a million dollars in savings for the company and reduce its carbon footprint by an estimated 16,000-25,000 metric tons per year. Continue after the jump to read the company’s full release.
[Source: Ford]
Continue reading Ford to save millions of dollars, drastically reduce carbon emissions just by turning off its computers at night
Ford to save millions of dollars, drastically reduce carbon emissions just by turning off its computers at night originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Moving Day in a Ford SuperDuty Afflicted with “Added Lightness”
Colin Chapman’s “add lightness” design philosophy works great for sports cars like those made by Lotus, the company he founded. But it doesn’t quite fit on a big diesel-powered truck designed to tow seven tons. Yet that is exactly the philosophy applied to an unfortunate 2011 Ford F-250 Super Duty when it was relieved of its tailgate — and its handy “man step” and backup camera — altering its cargo-hauling ability.
All this happened the day before I was going to use it to move into my new condo. If there were ever a situation calling for a generous helping of ingenious engineering, this was it.
Handling the small stuff was easy, thanks to SuperDuty’s gigantic SuperCab, which has more room than some New York apartments. With little effort, five 18x18x16 boxes will fit in the back seat with room to spare in the footwell for smaller boxes or long objects like bed rails, brooms, and hockey sticks. But when it came to the big stuff, it was time for the ratchet straps.
The first load consisted of just one object: a queen-size bed. With the collapsible bed-extender folded out (the SuperDuty extender is beefier than the one found on the F-150), it fit perfectly in the bed…but there was nothing to keep the mattress from sliding off the bed frame and onto the freeway. Two diagonally placed ratchet straps later, it wasn’t going anywhere. It should be pointed out that this situation would have occurred if the tailgate hadn’t wandered off in the middle of the night without possession of a large torx bit to remove the screws that hold the extender in place.
The second load consisted of a motorcycle with a bicycle thrown in for good measure. This was the most normal of the three loads carried that day, because straps and tie-downs always are necessary when trucking a motorcycle.
This normalcy, however, would not last. To empty out my apartment in just three loads, the entire cab — not just the rear seat, but the front passenger seat as well — was filled with boxes and assorted items, such as spare motorcycle parts, couch cushions, table parts, and cleaning supplies. The truck bed would receive a medium-size refrigerator, a loveseat, two vacuum cleaners, table top, and an office chair. Arranging all this in a way that would not only fit, but also not fall out, would take the better part of a half hour.
Aside from impairing its utility, the absence of the considerably heavy tailgate also exacerbated the stiffly sprung truck’s freeway hop, making for a largely uncomfortable unladen driving experience. Curiously, despite being the range-topping King Ranch edition, this truck was equipped with just one auto-down window. Is a rancher towing a loaded horse trailer going to care about this? Doubtful, but it’s odd that Ford chose to not fit it with four-window auto up and down switches during the redesign.
As for the moving experience, the only takeaway from that time-consuming undertaking is that yes, it is possible to move using a truck without a tailgate. Truth be told, adding lightness to a friend’s truck the night before he (or she) is going to use it would make for a great prank. Unfortunately, grand theft isn’t quite as funny.
Report: GM scouring Internet for customer complaints and responding
Filed under: GM
File this one under, “See What Happens When You’re Hungry?” General Motors has created a dedicated team of customer service agents whose sole job is to track down company and product mentions, good and bad, in the social-mediasphere. If the mention is a bad one, the team will attempt to connect the unsatisfied party with a GM representative who can help resolve the issue.
The revelation underpinning the team’s formation is that “GM has found that its customers have higher satisfaction with the company if the automaker is proactively looking to help people.” Shocking, we know. It began last summer with another 50-person squad – among GM’s five call centers – just doing web chats with people shopping for GM products. After that, five people were pulled together to monitor Facebook, et al to gather references to anything GM.
Not everyone can be helped, naturally, such as the woman griping about her 100,000-mile Cadillac on Twitter. But the fact that GM is reaching out to customers to proactively address issues… well… did any of you see that coming? And it’s going so well that the five-person will be expanded come April. Go GM. Finally.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
Report: GM scouring Internet for customer complaints and responding originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Fontastic! Artist creates font based on Volvo 240 Station Wagon
Filed under: Classics, Wagon, Etc., Volvo, Design/Style
Times New Roman? That’s for boring people. Graphic artist Alex George is clearly not a boring person. We know this because his love for the the timelessly awesome, relentlessly bulletproof, and “absolutely candid” Volvo 240 Station Wagon spawned what you see above. This, friends, is a font based entirely on the design of the inimitable, beloved “brick.” It’s called, quite simply, 240SW. And it’s brilliant.
You can view more of Alex George’s work over at his blog. By the way, if you happen to have a used 240 wagon for sale, Alex would like for you to let him know.
[Source: Alex George via HemmingsNews]
Fontastic! Artist creates font based on Volvo 240 Station Wagon originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lewis Hamilton busted for doing burnouts in public?
Filed under: Motorsports, Australia
Police only recently released the name, after only confiding that a 25-year-old Briton with Swiss residency was arrested in a Mercedes sedan doing burnouts in a Melbourne, Australia suburb. Yep, that’s Lewis Hamilton, driving down a stretch of section used for the Albert Park track in a Benz sedan and lighting the tires up (sounds oddly familiar). The road was open for public use, and the public watchdogs – Victoria state police – nabbed him for it.
Under Oz’s anti-hoon laws his car was impounded and will be held for two days. Hamilton might have been celebrating topping the timesheets for Friday practice. If he can win the race on Sunday, he might be able to celebrate winning a brand new car getting the Mercedes out of impound. And who knows, if Bahrain was any indication of the season, after qualifying this could be the most exciting thing to happen all weekend.
[Source: The Age | Image: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images]
Lewis Hamilton busted for doing burnouts in public? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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