Thursday, November 20, 2008

Tesla Owners Map


Tom Cathy Saxton over at Idle Loop has put together a Google Maps mashup showing the location of Telsa Roadster owners. I'm the first pin in Nevada. Now if I can just make friends with the guys in Sacramento, maybe we can swap HPC access!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Tesla HPC



The Tesla Motors HPC (High Power Connector) has been installed in our garage. As you can see it's not too big. Note the two inverters for our solar panels are much larger than the HPA.

They give you plenty of cable, that's for sure.

BTW, last week they delivered 17 Roadsters, two over the target of 15. They have now delivered around 50 or so of the Signature 100. Can't wait for number 97!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Web Camera Fun

I've been playing around with web cameras. I've been having trouble with the one on the front window but I think today I finally got it figured out. The above snapshot shows me standing in the driveway looking at my iPhone. I'm looking at the same shot you see above. How's that for recursion?

Initially I hooked up two web cams. The first was an old D-Link DCS-900w that had been pretty beat up. The other was a new Airlink 500w with night vision. The old one seems to be broken in a weird way. It works when connected by Ethernet, but the WiFi connection just won't work. I also noticed that the garage door opener wouldn't work while this camera was plugged in. I did a few tests and confirmed that the camera was interfering. My theory is that the D-Link is spewing some pretty nasty radio frequency noise. Of course, it was also interfering with the WiFi connection for my new camera too.

Now that the D-Link has been put out to pasture, my new Airlink is working well. Hopefully it will keep working. I'm hoping to catch some wildlife in the front yard.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Mountain Biking in the Snow



Yesterday I rode up from Incline Village to the Flume Trail. It took about an hour to get to the north end of the trail. There were parts that were almost entirely covered in snow. Luckily I brought a jacket for the ride down.

This is the first time I've ridden up to the Flume Trail from the Incline Village side. It seems easier than the climb from the Spooner Lake end. It was late in the day, so I didn't actually ride the trail, just did the climb.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Clinton Was Younger

I'm not as old as Obama, but I'm close. I was thinking that he might be one of the youngest presidents. Well it turns out that Clinton was younger. Obama will make the top ten, but only around the middle. Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest at only 42 when he became president! It looks like Chester Arthur will get bumped off the list.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

Telsa Raises $40 Million

According to the NY Times, yesterday was a good day for Tesla. Even with the current economic downturn, Telsa has been able to get a commitment of another $40m from their current investors. While most of these investors are super wealthy, I'm sure they've all experienced significant drops in networth over the last month or so.

Personally, I'm excited to hear about this. I'm scheduled to get my Tesla Roadster this month. [Update: Telsa is delivering slower than expected. They now say December.] I ordered (and paid for) my Roadster in August of 2006. I've been anxiously awaiting it ever since. I was initially told I might get it by December 2007. Frankly, a 1 year slip seems understandable for a complex product like the Roadster. (Remember Microsoft's Longhorn delays?) I love the idea of electric cars. When I was a kid, my dad bought an electric riding lawnmower. It was so cool to mow the grass without all the noise. (And boy, did we have a lot of grass.) Back in the 1990s I test drove the EV1 and was tempted to get one, but the 70 mile range didn't seem practical.

Hopefully, this next month I'll finally get an electric car, one that gets 220+ miles on a charge and can hit 60mph in less than 4 seconds.

Tesla Motors, keep that faith!