Haje’s Brain

LinkedIn is a social networking site, just like MySpace. The big difference is that Linked In is focusing on professional networks, and is often described as a career-network for grown-ups.

LinkedIn is located in Palo Alto, California, and is funded by Greylock and Sequoia Capital, the venture capital firms behind Google, Yahoo!, Cisco, and Apple. LinkedIn’s CEO Reid Hoffman was formerly Executive Vice President of PayPal.

The philosophy behind LinkedIn is that you are more likely to conduct business with people you trust, and that you are more likely to trust people you know, or people you are connected to via somebody. This means that if you are looking for a good writer, and you one who is a friend of a friend, you can ask to get introduced, and then initiate a business arrangement.
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VTEC is a technology invented and developed by Honda, for used in internal combustion engines. It can in theory be used in all engines that use camshafts, but has in practice only been used in cars, motorcycles, and 4×4 vehicles.

VTEC stands for Variable Timing Electronic Control, and is short for Variable valve Timing and lift Electronic Control. It is a technology which allows cars to behave differently at different engine speeds, by actuating different cam lobes at different speeds.
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There is, sadly enough, no simple formula for calculating the IQM in Microsoft Excel (well there is one way, but that isn’t exact, as it strips away the partial numbers, which is no good). However, there is a complicated way
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Lonely Planet recently published a Guide to Experimental Travel. The idea is to travel somewhere, and take a surreal approach to exploring a new place, by taking an alternative idea to route selection. In theory, this means that you might stumble across some typical touristy-type things, but you will also experience sides of the city / place / country that you wouldn’t discover otherwise.
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The book is basically what it says on the cover: Ten-and-a-half short chapters, which together cover a lot of ground. It is not, as you may be led to believe, a book about history, however.

Rather, it is one of those books that somewhat reminds me of those Official Soundtrack albums they keep releasing: “Music composed for, and inspired by, X”. The stories are, in fact, all fiction. But rather than being history, they cleverly become part of history. Or they will do - for anyone who reads the book. It is also obviously inspired by history, in a way that no other book I have ever read is.
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Horsepowers, shiny alloys and the badge on the front of the car are all good and well, but it is of no use if you do not arrive at your destination in one piece. Vehicle safety is very much in the public consciousness - and so it should be: After all, nobody has time to spend time in hospital, or worse.

In the automotive world, the NCAP crash test - NCAP stands for New Car Assessment Program - is the main player. For us in the UK, the Euro NCAP is the most important influence: it tests most of the new car models by subjecting it to the infamous NCAP crash test, in which crash test dummies are placed inside the car, and the vehicle is subjected to various crash tests.
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Quite frequently, when I search for parts for my car on eBay, I come across auctions for power boosting chips promising the world. Based on the description, however, it becomes quite clear what it actually is, and what it does:

you would be buying a Performance Boost Resistor, which would add 5-20 BHP to your engine. it will fit any fuel injected vehicle that has an ECU, but not turbo or diesel models. it takes about 5 minutes to fit, and can be removed without any adverse effect to your engine. so you can put it in your next car.

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In the automotive world, from a consumer’s point of view, a “platform” is a set of characteristics shared between several vehicles.

From a manufacturer’s point of view, it is the other way around: The platform on which a vehicle is built is the fundamental basics on which the rest of the vehicle can be built. This can be compared with building a house: If you build a foundation and then stop building, a skilled architect can turn the building into a whole array of different buildings, limited only by the limitations of the foundation.
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Diesel-fuelled internal combustion engines have traditionally had a big problem with soot particles, and a particulate filter aims to solve this problem. A particulate filter is a device that goes in the exhaust system. They will be mandatory on all new Diesel engines sold in the EU in 2007, when the EU5 emissions regulations kick in.

The interesting bit of this whole malarkey is the Particulate filter - it is so simple, yet rather nifty technology at the same time.
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Volkswagens’ technology labs have come up with another innovation for their VW Golf series: A combination of a supercharger and turbocharger. The SuperTurbo is aimed to be was introduced on the 2006-model of the Golf.
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