Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Popular Mechanics South Africa

On 30 September 1906 (111 years ago), the world’s first international balloon race began. The Johannesburg Boat Show starts today. In 1985, a US and French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic, 73 years after the British luxury liner sank. The Open Book Festival takes place in Cape Town until the 10th. Enjoy more reading at the South African Book Fair in Joburg today. The African Bird Fair starts today. In 1946, the first mobile long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation took place between Houston and St. Louis. In 1928, the first rail detector car was demonstrated in New York. The Pretoria edition of the Homemakers Expo happens today. In 1908, former carriagemaker William Crapo “Billy” Durant founded General Motors. A new issue of Popular Mechanics goes on sale today. Aaaaaar!…

MAPS MAPONYANE is an actor, model, presenter and businessman. He does it all. He keeps his personal and professional life in order with the help of his Samsung S8 and S3 Gear smartwatch. Samsung S8 Q What are some of the things that you do on your S8 that help you in your career? A I do everything on it. It is super efficient. I can run multiple apps at once and it comes with a fast charger, so I have extended battery life. I can get a full charge in an hour. The S8 has high storage space, so I can download files and pictures for work and I can watch my videos or photos from shoots in the best quality. How long have you had your S8? Pretty…

IN THE LAST WEEK OF FEBRUARY IN 2017, a significant part of the Internet broke. Amazon put out a press statement in the days following the outage, explaining how a team in the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) US-EAST-1 Region was debugging an issue and made a mistake in the command to take a small number of servers off one of the subsystems. The command took many more than intended off. Quora, Medium, Zendesk, Adobe cloud, Autodesk cloud, Citrix, Flipboard, Coursera, Mailchimp and even Strava can be counted among the astronomical number of affected services. Our sister publications have recently migrated their website image hosting to AWS; that went down, too. A solitary error in a single line of regularly used code sent ripples to the widest reaches of the…

Before you rush out to put your gaming rig to work, there’s one thing you need to know: mining on your graphics card isn’t very profitable anymore. That said, there’s still some money to be made. So let’s make it. Q Can anyone with an internet connection mine crypto currency? A Yes. Most crypto currencies are built on the blockchain and mining is the process of adding blocks to the chain. Well, technically validating blocks. What are blocks and please explain why they appear in a chain? Blockchain is a software-based transactional ledger that exists in a peer-to-peer distributed network. For this example we’ll use bitcoin. Any bitcoin transaction is added as a block to the blockchain and is immediately viewable by any computer that is associated with that blockchain.…

A simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates energy, which can be used to power a car, producing only water, not exhaust fumes.” That was US president George W Bush in 2003, proposing R15 billion to research fuel-cell automobiles. Six years later, president Obama killed that funding, nudging the hydrogen car onto the list of technology that was, and always would be, about ten years away. Meanwhile, over in Japan, Toyota and Honda have been at work, spending millions in R&D to make the new hydrogen-powered Mirai and Clarity. It’s more reasonable than it sounds. Fuel-cell cars are as appealing now as they were a decade and a half ago. It’s still the only way to get zero-emissions driving with petrol convenience; pull up to the pump, wait five…

The three of us line up at a red light on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles. Eddie Van Halen is on my right and Heath Cofran of Alpinestars on my left. We rev our engines hard, the giant V-twins beneath us shaking our skulls while we wait for the light to go green. Blaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! Eddie flies off the line so fast I’m surprised the helmet doesn’t pop off his head. Heath is right with him, tucked forward so his front tyre stays on the tar. I’m white-knuckled and cranking on the throttle. My heart pounds and I’m giggling because the power doesn’t slow until we stop at the next light. I manage to pull off a controlled skid behind them before offering a thumbs-up and a smile. With massive power…

1 BMW 4 SERIES Things began easing into perspective when I glanced into the rear-view mirror and saw the 3 Series behind us being passed by the noticeably wider, lower-slung and more assertive face of one of our 4 Series convoy. What seemingly started out as an idea for a more rational approach to a 3 Series coupé has morphed into a full-on product line with its own coupe, Gran Coupé and convertible versions. This is not surprising, given similar shifts by rival premium sports sedans, to placate buyers hungry for a more individual look that doesn’t go completely over the top. Tech highlights include LED lighting front and rear, optional Professional navigation (whose interface has large convenient tile-style control pads) and optional Multifunctional Instrument Display. Crisper new lines and…

WRITE TO US, ENGAGE IN DEBATE popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za WINNING LETTER WORDS THAT JAR In the 1940s my Dad bought Popular Mechanics. Those magazines influenced my life. I still read them. Two things stand out. 1) Astonishingly, you find fascinating material to fill over a hundred pages month after month, and 2) You use words that mechanics love, which is what I want to talk about. If I may, I want to indicate some words that jar with mechanics and engineers. Quite regardless of dictionaries, mechanics, like every trade and profession, have their words to communicate ideas and information quickly and efficiently. Journalists are national treasures, but being of a different profession their words can sometimes jar with the demographic they are shooting for. Ninety-nine per cent of the time Popular Mechanics…

WHAT IS IT ABOUT SCENIC SIGHTS that makes jaws drop, eyes open wide in astonishment and fingers prepare to tweet “awesome!!!!!”? We’re closing to finding that out after researchers at the Data Science Lab at Warwick Business School took more than 200 000 images of places in the UK that had been rated for their beauty on the website Scenic-or-Not and showed them to a deep learning model in an effort to find out what makes a scenic location beautiful. The deep learning model processed all 200 000 images and labelled them with information on what was in the picture: ‘valley’, ‘grass’, ‘no horizon’ or ‘open space’. Using these labels, the researchers were able to investigate which attributes of a scene led to higher scenic scores. The scientists then trained…

THE CONFIDENT TRAVELLER Check security protocols Some countries have extremely tight security procedures and some might even ask you to switch on your laptop to search its contents, especially during periods of heightened terror threat. Allow enough time for this when you’re planning to get to the airport, to make sure you don’t miss your flight. Keep documentation Yes, some even ask for receipts. At the very least, you should have serial numbers for devices such as laptops. Most devices have these readily available on the casing or printed on the battery. Go smaller Laptops have hinged parts that need extra caution, but if you absolutely need to take one, make it the lightest one you have. If possible, carry fewer and smaller devices, preferably a tablet for business and…

A bike is the fastest, and certainly most fun, way to get around any city. It’s also the sweatiest. Enter the electric-assist bike, or e-bike, which gives you a boost while you pedal. The bikes have been slow to catch on in the US because they’re expensive and often weigh more than 22 kg. Worse, the battery packs look more like industrial goiters than integrated components. The Volta, from Los Angeles based Pure Cycles, has none of these problems. The new e-bike, which on appearance alone looks fun to ride, weighs 18,6 kg, making it light enough to haul up and down stairs. The price tag ($2 500, available September) registers at least a grand lower than comparable rides. The space-saving 22-inch wheels are quick but sturdy. Instead of bulging…

BIG QUESTIONS. ANSWERS YOU CAN’T FIND ON THE INTERNET. AT BIG CAR COMPANIES’ HEADQUARTERS, DOES EVERY EMPLOYEE DRIVE THAT CAR? PRETTY MUCH. Though some carmakers surveyed did their best to evince a magnanimous spirit towards those woefully misguided employees who might elect to drive a competitive vehicle, one gets the sense that, generally, American auto-workers are, ahem, strongly encouraged to cruise the streets propelled by the hand that signs their paychecks. Of course, many autoworkers gladly drive the house brand out of loyalty. General Motors plant communications manager Mary Ann Brown said that after 40 years, she has “blue blood”. “I am extremely loyal to my company. They’re the ones who pay me. I tell people, ‘What is someone going to think if they come to your house and they…

NINTENDO SNES CLASSIC EDITION The Nintendo Switch may have fulfilled our “play anywhere” dreams, but the company wasn’t done with pleasing the inner child. With the Nintendo Classic the hottest stocking stuffer for Christmas 2016, of course we would see the Super Nintendo this year. The original was the first console with shoulder buttons on the controllers and be compatible with an external Super FX chip (included in the cartridge of games that needed extra graphics processing). This one doesn’t take cartridges because all the games are stored inside. One of those games is Star Fox 2, which until the release of this console was considered to be a myth. Alongside it are 21 games including the original Super Mario Kart, Mega Man X, Street Fighter II Turbo, The Legend…

When it was announced on 26 May 1959, only 14 years after the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that Tokyo would play host to the 1964 Olympic Games, it signified a new dawn for the country of the rising sun. Still recovering from the massive blow they were dealt in World War II, the Japanese saw it as a chance to return to the global stage with confidence and show the world what they are capable of. They wasted no time in doing just that. According to The Wall Street Journal, the then-poor Japan spent the equivalent of its entire national budget on an unprecedented building programme that transformed the city’s infrastructure. It paid off. Thanks to Syncom 3, the world’s first geostationary communication satellite, the 1964 Olympic…

Snow that rests on an animal’s fur has to look different from snow that’s closer to the skin, where body heat causes the snow to start melting. In the latest Planet of the Apes sequel, War for the Planet of the Apes, apes and humans battle for supremacy and the future of their species. Again. For the effects company responsible for the simian half of the battle, Weta Digital, the stakes felt nearly as high. “Every movie feels like a start-up,” says visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon, who was nominated for an Oscar for each of the first two Apes films in the current reboot series. Weta can’t just use the same technology from the prior movies. It has to be better. This time, they’ll even have to do it…

COMPILED BY THE EDITORS l popularmechanics@ramsaymedia.co.za WEARABLE FATIGUE. It’s a thing. Especially at the pace that some of these companies put out new devices. At this stage, until the new wave of these products hit with all new tracking metrics, it is sound advice to stick with the one you already have. Except when a new release comes with the exact sensor that you’re holding off on the Apple Watch for. Like Garmin bringing in stress monitoring to what is essentially its third-from-the-bottom product. That’s the next big thing, checking how you respond to your environment throughout the day. There’s a South African start-up underpinning that kind of innovation, it’s called LifeQ and the COO Dr Riaan Conradie has some interesting objectives. TomTom originally used the company’s homebaked optical heart…

THE DOCTOR’S EYES FLIT from your face to her notes. “How long would you say that’s been going on?” You think back: a few weeks, maybe longer? She marks it down. “Is it worse at certain times of day?” Tough to say: it comes and goes. She asks more questions before prodding you, listening to your heart, shining a light in your eyes. Minutes later, you have a diagnosis and a prescription. Only later do you remember that fall you had last month. Should you have mentioned it? Oops. One in 10 medical diagnoses is wrong, according to the US Institute of Medicine. In primary care, one in 20 patients will get a wrong diagnosis. Such errors contribute to as many as 80 000 unnecessary deaths each year in the US…

*Combination of functional movements that are frequently used in HIIT workout routines like those used in CrossFit **Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, ResearchGate, Mayo Clinic THE ANSWER, if you were looking for an easy one, is CrossFit. Technically speaking it’s a seemingly randomised mix of high intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training, continuous moderate intensity exercise (CMIET) and sport-specific training. You basically want to adjust your training to being very functional in a gym environment and then schedule in some dedicated sessions for your chosen sport, like a long run or hitting the mountain-bike trails on the weekend. Whereas there is a ton of research around what the best exercise is, most studies and hypotheses circled back to two existing bodies of work. The first is a 2014 study…

THERE ARE STRONGER fences out there. Fences more precise in their dimensions, more uniform in their materials. Fences that took less time to build because they were planned out ahead of time, or even bought as an E-Z prefab kit. Mine I kind of made up as I went along. We needed the fence because we have deer. Many deer. Also foxes, bobcats, coyotes, the occasional river rat, chipmunks, squirrels, and something that makes tracks we haven’t been able to identify. I don’t know how many of these animals enjoy eating vegetables, but enough that the fence was mandatory. This is ostensibly a how-to article about fencing in your backyard vegetable garden, but even if you were to follow these steps by the number, your fence would turn out different.…

IN BRIEF DRIVER AIDS ABS, EBD, brake assist, G-Vectoring, adaptive headlights, lane departure warning, Smart City Brake Support, driver attention alert, blind-spot monitoring. ENGINE inline 4 CAPACITY 2.0 TRANSMISSION 6A POWER 115 kW TORQUE 204 N.m PRICE R380 600 URBANE URBANITE Compact crossovers are an odd species. Though not big or capable enough to be taken seriously as true all-terrain vehicles, they lure disenchanted hatchback buyers hankering for bulk, a more commanding driving position and something just plain different. Join the queue. Mazda’s CX-3 ticks all the aforementioned boxes. But besides that, it also has a zippy, growly yet refined powertrain and sharp handling that makes it a fun car to drive around town. A kind of smaller clone of its bigger CX-5 stablemate, it leans more towards the car-oriented…