Hybrid cars built to conserve fuel

With current gas prices, we're hearing a lot right now about hybrid cars because of their excellent gas mileage. Last week, I received a question from a reader that gets at the essence of hybrid car technology. The question was, "How can a hybrid car be any more efficient than a normal car, given that the engine has to charge the batteries?" In other words, since the engine has to burn gas to charge the battery anyway, why doesn't the mileage of a hybrid car work out to be the same as a normal car?

Let's explore the technology of hybrid cars using the Toyota Prius as an example. The Prius has both a small gasoline engine and an electric motor. There is also a battery pack for the motor, a special transmission that lets the engine and the motor work together and a computer that controls the whole thing.

When you are sitting still in a Prius, for example at a traffic light, the gasoline engine does not need to run at all. By eliminating the idling, you automatically save gas. If you are traveling slowly in a Prius, for example inching forward in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the electric motor can do the driving and the engine does not need to run. Once you get above 15 mph, the gas engine kicks in. Bumper-to-bumper driving is a huge gas-waster for a normal engine. When you rev the engine to travel at 5 miles per hour and then stop again, there is no better way to waste gasoline.

When you drive a hybrid car in bumper-to-bumper traffic and it is time to recharge the batteries, the engine can run at a consistent, optimal speed to spin the generator. There is no revving and stopping. So the engine is always being used as efficiently as possible. That makes a hybrid car like the Prius much more efficient in city driving.

Add to that the fact that the gasoline engine in a hybrid car can be very small and light compared to a normal car engine. That makes the engine more efficient all the way around. Then you add to that the fact that most hybrid cars like the Prius are very aerodynamic. They also have special tires, etc. to make them more efficient. Many hybrid cars use regenerative braking to capture the car's energy during braking and store it in the batteries. Finally, there is the car's computer and display. The display tells the driver when he or she is wasting gas (for example, by accelerating too fast), and this helps the driver do a better job.

Clock for Bussines

Designed for both business or home use, Qlock takes the world clock to a new level with more features, more settings and more control

Integrated RSS/Atom feed reader

Stay up to date with the latest times and news from around the world while you carry on working. Qlock fetches your most important news/stock/blog feeds and displays them in easy to read windows.

Daily foreign exchange rates

Get daily FX rates for all major currency pairs straight to your desktop. Set Strike prices for each pair to help you keep on top of the market.

Sticky notes

These are a useful way of keeping track of to-do items, meetings, phone numbers or in fact anything that you would normally use a small sticky note for. If your monitor/desk is covered in those little things, then this feature is for you!

When the time is..

This feature is useful when you want to see other local times for any given time. For instance, if you have a meeting in Los Angeles at 4 pm and want to see what time it will be across the globe, just right click on Los Angeles, select "When the time is.." and set it to 16:00.

All of the clocks will automatically display their local time and date for 4 pm in Los Angeles. As soon as you close the window, all of the clocks revert back to their normal time.

Multiple Profiles

Create different Qlock layouts in each profile, switching instantly between profiles depending on what you are working on. This is great if you are a FOREX trader and need to see multiple times and feeds but also occaisonally more detailed information.

Qlock Sync

Qlock Sync allows you to synchronize your desktop settings across multiple PCs. For example if you have Qlock set up on your desktop at work and on a laptop, use Qlock Sync to keep both machine`s settings up to date with each other. Your entire layout, feeds, windows, settings, notes, user cities etc. will automatically transfer to our server so that you can keep your desktop upto date on the road, or where ever you are.

Automatic program updates

Qlock automatically downloads time zone and Daylight Saving Time changes, new features and bug fixes straight to your PC and updates itself automatically in the background, while you're doing other things.

Multiple alarms per city

Qlock allows you to set up to 5 separate independent alarms per city window. For instance, you can have 3 alarms for New York, 2 for London and 1 for Tokyo.

Creating a new alarm is simple and logical, just double click the alarm panel in the Qlock window, enable the alarm and set the time. After you confirm your settings, the Qlock window will continuously display the amount of time left until the next alarm.

Countdown timers

As well as setting an absolute alarm time, you can also set a Countdown time. This will trigger the alarm after a certain period of time has passed and is useful for keeping track of events like meetings, lessons, telephone calls etc..

Transparency

Qlock allows you change the transparency for each clock window. There are 3 transparency settings, Low, Medium and High that give you full control on how opaque the clock windows appear on your desktop.

Finer control

Screen real estate is valuable, it shouldn`t be wasted. With Qlock you can customize each and every clock window to suit your needs and tastes. From a single line for each time right up to the XXLarge quarter screen size.