So what does Unleaded, Plus and Premium mean? Well it’s got nothing to do with “quality”, but everything to do with the octane rating. The octane ratings in the US are typically as follows:

• Unleaded is 87 octane.
• Plus is 89 octane.
• Premium is 93 octane or 91 in California and select areas.

Some gas stations may offer various intermediate octanes, but 87/89/91/93 are most common around the USA. So what does the octane rating mean for you? Should you go for the Premium 93 octane for your car? Some people tell you that newer cars should use 93 as it’s “premium” and will help protect your new car, while an old car can run on “unleaded” since it’s already an old car. What’s the truth?

The reality is that the octane rating of the fuel determines the detonation properties of the fuel. It has nothing to do with quality. You should be using the proper fuel for your engine, regardless of the vehicle’s age. Instead of thinking of fuel as unleaded, plus and premium, think of them as either their respective octane numbers, or simply A, B, C. Some cars need A, B or C, it all depends on the engine.

Higher octane gas such as 93 can burn safely at high compression within the cylinders of your engine, while a lower octane gas such as 87 will not burn safely at high compression and can result in harmful detonation and engine damage. To combat this virtually all modern cars can compensate for low octane fuel to prevent harm, but this will lower your vehicles performance and fuel economy. Your engine’s mechanical configuration and engine management (ECU/PCM) configuration determine the compression your engine will exert on the fuel. Essentially the octane rating of the fuel you pick must be sufficient to handle the compression your engin at stoich AFR (14.7) when in closed loop and attempting to create maximum fuel efficiency. It also must be sufficient for the compression at rich AFR (11.5-13.5) when in open loop (foot to the floor) and attempting to create maximum horse power and torque output. This means that a car with low compression does not need 93 octane fuel as it’s a waste of money, while a car with high compression will under perform or be damaged by 87 octane fuel.

The engine management system (ECU/PCM) found in all modern cars typically utilizes knock sensors, which are essentially tiny microphones within the engine block. These sensors are used to detect pre-igntion and detonation, which are conditions harmful and possibly deadly for your engine. When such symptoms are detected the engine management system will retard the ignition timing and light the fuel earlier, before it’s fully compressed within the cylinder. This reduction in timing degrees will result in lost performance and fuel efficiency, but will typically save your engine. However, since these sensors are reactive, they can not predict these conditions ahead of time. This means if these sensors are frequently being triggered there is still strain being put on the engine through the use of low octane fuel. Once the sensors no longer detect such conditions after a pre-set time the ignition timing will return to normal.

High octane fuel is typically required for high compression natural aspirated engines found in some sports and luxury cars, forced induction (turbo/supercharger) equipped vehicles, modified vehicles with nitrous oxide (N2O) systems, vehicles with modified engines, and vehicles with “tuned”, “chipped” or modified engine management configurations. All other cars can typically run at full efficiency and performance on 87 octane fuel, but you should consult your manual.

Furthermore blogs index well on search engines and they will drive traffic. It may not be a lot of traffic, but it ads up. Imagine you have 10 blogs or so (as I do). Say they each get 50 unique hits per day per site from Google, which is a very low number. That’s 500 organic unique hits per day driven to your network of sites daily from Google.

Avoid SEO gimmicks like keyword stuffing, as they may work at first but hurt you in the end. I would stay away from autoblogging to. You don’t have to write every day, just write when you have ideas. If you have 10 sites on 10 topics you’re interested in, you should have ideas of things to write about frequently enough. If you can build up decent traffic across your sites you will have a huge volume of traffic that you can advertise to when needed.

• Night time recording quality is very low.
• Audio recording is very poor.
• The camera controls can be a bit finicky and the camera may not start recording.
• Under water recording quality is low with factory cases.

To solve the night recording problem you will need a second camera or to not film at night. I really like the Kodak Zi8 camera for this purpose. It has superior night time recording quality, but inferior day time recording quality. Stick to 720p just like with the GoPro.

For recording audio I prefer to sync up an external 3D recorder that does it’s own recording. Zoom H2n Handy Recorder is my go to solution. I pair it with a Rode Dead Kitten Windscreen to eliminate wind noise. The dead kitten and appropriet gain and recording settings on the H2n recorder will completely solve all wind noise from HVAC when driving with the windows up and virtually eliminate all wind noise at lower speeds with windows down. When walking around even in moderate to high winds, wind noise will also be eliminated. I will then blend the audio from the cameras, but primarily use the 3D mic for the main volume of the audio.

There is really nothing to do about the clunky controls on the camera. You just have to make sure all needed equipment is totally for sure running before you sync the cameras and audio. I accomplish syncing the same way they do in the movies, a make shift clapperboard or similar method depending on setting. This way you can visually sync the clapper on the cameras and sync the audio to the clap noise.

Under water recording quality is solved with upgraded aftermarket waterproof cases for the GoPro. These cases offer a large flat lens that will focus properly under water.

• Officine Panerai 237 Ghost
• TAG Heuer Carrera Caliber 16
• TAG Heuer Formula 1 w/ Hidden Digital Features
• Citizen Eco Drive

My new watch box.

One excuse I hear is that “I’m driving far!”, but the reality is the lane you’re in has no bearing on how far you’re driving. Weather its 300 miles or 3 miles down the highway, the lane use remains the same! Furthermore don’t exclaim “I’m already doing 70, what’s his problem!” when someone is riding your ass.  Guess what, EVERYONE thinks that anyone slower is an idiot and everyone faster is a maniac, it’s universal. Stop worrying about how fast others are driving, focus on your own driving and being courteous. If you want to slow down other drivers, join the police department and do it properly.

The only situations where it’s acceptable to be in the very left lane are:

• Passing slower cars. Remember that passing one or two cars shouldn’t take minutes, if you’re driving 1mph faster than traffic, why not just go the same speed… Don’t take 5 minutes to pass and clog up the left lane.
• Rush hour, because the whole highway needs to be used then. When there is a traffic jam obviously all the lanes need to get used.
• Accidents in the right lanes/shoulder forcing you to go left. You should always go at least 1 lane over to the left (or right) when there is an accident, police car, tow truck or stalled vehicle left or right of you. Give people some space when they have to be out of their cars on the highway.
• If your rate of speed is so great that there is no chance anyone is catching up behind you. If you’re going THAT fast, sure it’s probably fine to hang out in the left lane. But don’t start racing someone if they’re trying to pass you…

First lets examine the public speaking aspects of the president’s job. The president’s job has become more and more Hollywood-esque through the years. Ever since JFKs youthful good looks helped him triumph over Richard Nixon politicians world wide have recognized the importance of the media. It appears that the people want their politicians to look good, have excellent oratory skills and give off that classic Hollywood charm. So what’s wrong with ensuring success through the use of technology? In fact, there is nothing wrong with it. Presidents have used teleprompters since Hoover (before televised debates) and he was a Republican!

The GOP seems to have decided to make teleprompter technology a sticking point throughout the current election cycle. They have been pressuring their candidates to avoid the technology while bashing Obama for his continued use. This is nonsense, because all political speeches tend to be pre-written and many politicians (read: GOP politicians) answer only pre-screened questions. So the delivery method of the speech, weather memorized, read from queue cards or a teleprompter is essentially irrelevant. It’s a waste of time to memorize speeches and it shows that the GOP would rather waste time while bitching and moaning rather than doing something productive. Let me explain why it’s a waste of time.

Lets focus on the technology itself. Teleprompters are no different than reading a written or memorized speech, their benefit is that you appear to have memorized the speech while you simply read it from the camera you’re facing. The job of president is filled with stress and headaches. Using teleprompter technology to prevent memorization and instead concentrate on the material of the speech can only serve to improve the quality and performance of the job. Why waste the limited resources of the president’s time on speech memorization? It’s silly. I certainly don’t want a president that spends all his time memorizing speeches. I’d rather he read his teleprompter, answer questions, leave and go service his country.

Banishing teleprompters would be akin to hiring an expensive accountant and demanding he do all the math in his head, it would be a waste of time and money.