Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Drupal- rapid open source web development

Dries Buytaert, 29

Drupal

Simple, flexible Web publishing

Credit: Jeff Whatcott

Multimedia

•	See an interview with Buytaert to learn more about Drupal.

The Internet has made publishing on a global scale almost effortless. That's the rhetoric, anyway. The truth is more complicated, because the Internet provides only a means of distribution; a would-be publisher still needs a publishing tool. A decade ago, people who wanted such a tool had three choices, all bad: a cheap but inflexible system, a versatile but expensive one, or one written from scratch. What was needed was something in the middle, requiring neither enormous expense nor months of development--not a single application, but a platform for creating custom publishing environments. For tens of thousands of sites and millions of users, that something is Drupal.

Created as an open-source project by Dries Buytaert, Drupal is a free content management framework--a tool for building customized websites quickly and easily, without sacrificing features or stability. Site owners can choose from a list of possible features: they might, say, want to publish articles, offer each user a profile and a blog, or allow users to vote or comment on content. All these features are optional, and most are independent of the others.

With Drupal's high degree of individualization, users can escape cookie-cutter tools without investing in completely custom-made creations, which can be time-consuming, costly, and hard to maintain. The Howard Dean presidential campaign used Drupal in 2004, and today it's used by Greenpeace U.K., the humor magazine the Onion, Nike's Beijing Olympics site, and MTV U.K., among many others.

The diversity of its users has led to many improvements, Buytaert says: "The size, passion, and velocity of the Drupal community makes incredible things happen." There are tens of thousands of active Drupal installations worldwide. Thousands of developers have contributed to the system's core, and more than 2,000 plug-ins have been added by outside contributors.

Buytaert began the work that became Drupal in 2000, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Antwerp. He had a news site called Drop.org, and he needed an internal message board to host discussions. After reviewing the existing options for flexible message boards, Buytaert decided he could write a better version from scratch.

The original version of Drupal (its name derives from the Dutch for droplet) worked well enough to attract additional users, who proposed new features. Within a year, Buytaert decided to make the project open source. He released the code in January 2001 as version 1.0.

Since open-source projects tend to attract expert users, they often lack clear user interfaces and readable documentation, making them unfriendly to mere mortals. But Buytaert understood from the beginning how important usability is to the cycle of improvement, adoption, and more improvement that drives the development of open-source software. The core Drupal installation comes with voluminous help files. The central team regularly polls users as well as developers (which is unusual in an open-source project) to decide what to improve next. The process reveals not just features to add, but ones to remove, and ways to make existing features easier to understand. For example, the project's website has been redesigned to help people new to Drupal figure out how to get up and running.

Buytaert has also founded a company, Acquia, to offer support, service, and custom development for Drupal users, especially businesses. He calls Acquia "my other full-time job" and likens it to Linux distributor Red Hat, which provides custom packaging and support for its version of the open-source operating system.

With Drupal version 7, due later this year, Buytaert hopes to include technologies that will make sites running Drupal part of the Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee's vision for making online data understandable to machines as well as people. If Drupal hosts a website containing a company's Securities and Exchange Commission profile, for example, other sites could access just the third-quarter revenues, without having to retrieve the whole profile. The goal of sharing data in smaller, better-defined chunks is to make Drupal a key part of the growing ecosystem of websites that share structured data. If this effort succeeds, it will ensure Drupal's continued relevance to the still-developing Web. --Clay Shirky

Home Solar Guide

Rooftop Solar Panels: Photo by Rob Baxter, courtesy Flickr

Dear EarthTalk: I am considering solar panels for my roof to provide heat for my hot water and possibly to do more than that. Are there some kinds of solar panels that are better than others? How do I find a knowledgeable installer? --Elise, Watertown, MA

What type of solar energy capture system you put on your home depends on your needs. If you want to go full tilt and generate usable electricity from your home's rooftop—and even possibly contribute power back to the larger grid—tried and true photovoltaic arrays might be just the ticket. A typical installation involves the panels, which are constructed of many individual silicon-based photovoltaic cells and their support structures, along with an inverter, electrical conduit piping and AC/DC disconnect switches.

These systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars to install, and as such may not pencil out for those looking for the cheapest power solution. But the upside is that homeowners with photovoltaic panels on their rooftops can rest assured that as long as the sun shines, they will have power to spare without generating emissions of carbon dioxide and other noxious pollutants.

Qualified solar installers can usually advise clients on which specific types of systems will work best given the specific location of a home. U.S. homeowners can find qualified photovoltaic installers via the website FindSolar.com. And the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) provides a free searchable database of its U.S. and Canadian members specializing in home solar set-ups.

For less demanding applications, such as for heating water for your home or swimming pool, a much simpler (and less expensive) solar thermal system might be all you need. A basic hot water system usually consists of a solar collector—basically a small metal box with a glass or plastic cover and a black copper or aluminum absorber plate inside—tied into the building's plumbing and electrical works. According to the industry tracker website Solarbuzz, such solar collectors are usually mounted on rooftops.

Professional installers can get your home up and running with a solar thermal system for less than $4,000 in most cases. While the savings in your electric bill may be small, homeowners in it for the long haul will definitely save over time, all the while enjoying the fact that you have lowered your family's carbon footprint significantly.

Homeowners looking to find out more about residential solar systems should be sure to check out the RealGoods Solar Living Sourcebook, a 600+ page renewable energy "bible" now in its 30th edition. The book features the latest nuts-and-bolts information on how to harvest renewable energy in a variety of ways depending on need. And RealGoods also sells much if not all of the equipment needed.

Another reason to consider going solar in one fashion or another is tax incentives. According to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE), 17 states now offer homeowners some kind of tax rebate or incentive for the purchase and/or installation of solar power equipment of any kind. You can see what if any your state offers by logging onto the dsireusa.org website, where the searchable database is available in its entirety for free.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E - The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 USA; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek; or email: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Living and Playing in the Trees

Plantware: Photo by Plantware

The ultimate in green living is almost here. Think bus shelters, street lamps, and even houses -- all grown from trees. The process of shaping living trees to create objects, referred to as arborsculpture and pooktre, is well known among hobbyists (a simple Web search shows plenty of results for the art form). Now, researchers at Israel's Tel Aviv University are teaming up with eco-living company Plantware to create commercial structures on a larger scale.

Expect to see results in the U.S., Australia, and Israel, where the joint team has set up eco-architecture projects to create civic amenities, including playgrounds, hospital benches, street lamps, and gates. Instead of shaping trees grown in soil and water to form these structures, the team will grow trees in the air, to create malleable "soft roots." This patented engineering technique will make it easier to build larger structures. How large? Possibly as big as an entire house. According to Plantware, it will be about a decade, though, before the first prototype of this green home appears. As we all know, trees don't just grow overnight.

Popular Science Drives the new ZR1 Corvette

Chevrolet's latest sports car pairs supercar horsepower with driving comfort. Yes, we're sure it's a Corvette.

By Mike Spinelli Posted 08.25.2008 at 12:49 pm 1 Comment

2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1: Cornering and Comfort : Photo by General Motors

Chevrolet's 2009 Corvette ZR1 is the best thing to come out of Detroit since Dearborn-style pistachio baklawa. I don't say that lightly; pistachio baklawa is spectacular.

Leading with a headline-grabbing horsepower figure, the ZR1 delivers sharp, predictable handling, unjarring road feel and performance as barmy on pavement as on paper, all without artifice or intimidation. Yes, it’s a Corvette, and while that may confound anyone who assumes the badge signifies rough trade, the ZR1’s excellence won’t surprise anyone whose watched GM’s Corvette program evolve over the past decade.

It isn't the first Corvette to wear the ZR1 badge. The name also applied to a rare racing package in 1970 and the better-known “King of the Hill” Corvette in the early 1990s, powered by a Lotus-designed V8. The '09 is nonetheless a Corvette of firsts. With a base price of $105,000, it is the most costly Corvette in the model's history (and the first over six figures). It's also the first to break 200 mph right out of the factory, and the first boosted by a supercharger, or for that matter, artificial aspiration of any kind.

The ZR1 produces momentous car-geek numbers: zero to 60 in 3.4 seconds, a 205-mph top speed, 7.26 seconds around Germany’s Nürburgring, 638 horsepower, and 604 pounds-feet of torque. To put it in context, there’s only a factor of 0.001 between the ZR1 and being punched in the face by Kimbo Slice.

Certainly, the ZR1 surpasses the previous flagship Corvette Z06, which since 2004 has occupied a stratum of high-performance cars costing twice its $72,000 price. But whereas the edgy Z06 can be riotous, the ZR1 embodies Theodore Roosevelt’s principle of speaking softly and carrying a 600-horsepower supercharged V8 in your pants. Plus, you just know the world has gone a bit flatsided when the 505-horsepower Z06 feels underpowered.

2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1: Horsepower, Comfort and Did We Mention, Horsepower : Photo by General Motors

Let’s forget for a moment exactly how much power the ZR1 has. OK, that’ll do. It’s 638 horses, enough to pull 80 Budweiser beer wagons. Stomp the gas and a few seconds later you’re wondering why some guy with a funny accent is asking to see your passport.

ZR1’s power delivery is smooth and linear, belying the Roots-type supercharger and integrated liquid-to-air charge cooler, which peeks through the ZR1’s polycarbonate hood window like a H.R. Giger-drawn waffle iron. Never before has an engine-and-compressor combo felt more united in its power proposition. Part of the credit goes to Eaton, whose latest four-lobe supercharger design is less parasitic than previous incarnations, meaning it saps less engine horsepower from the 6.2-liter V8 to run the compressor. All told, the powerplant offers 90 percent of peak torque from 2,600 rpm to 6,000 rpm (nearly half at 1,000 rpm) and half the horsepower at 3,000 rpm. In effect, it’s all one big sweet spot.

GM brass wanted the ZR1 positioned as a daily-driver supercar, so engineers took extreme measures to tamp down the noises associated with high performance. For instance, they scrubbed the supercharger’s characteristic whine out of the ZR1’s engine note by adding twice as many drive-gear teeth to increase the sound frequency (if you see packs of dogs following the ZR1 around town, you’ll know why). The downside is a general lack of the visceral attitude one might expect from a car with nearly as much horsepower as a Ferrari Enzo. That is, until an exhaust valve opens at 3,000 rpm, and there ensues an aural discharge that would send members of Mötorhead to the local druggist’s for earplugs, ibuprofen and a copy of Quilting magazine.

Carbon-ceramic brakes from Brembo provide the kind of stoppage you’d expect from an arriving 737. These are the same high-heat-handling discs used in the Ferrari Enzo. Actually, as one engineer said, they’re the size of those on the track-only Ferrari FXX in the front and the lesser Enzo in the rear (did I just say “lesser Enzo”?). These disks get the clampdown from six-piston front calipers and four-piston rears. Corvette and Brembo techs also reworked the system to head off the squeaking and grabbing typical of racing-grade carbon-ceramic discs when cold.

2009 Corvette ZR1: Detroit's Supercar: Photo by General Motors

We’ve established the ZR1 can accelerate and decelerate, but to ignore its handling capabilities is to miss where the ZR1 excels. The ZR1 pulls more than 1g on the skidpad, and by the time the massive tires do break free, rear first of course, the ZR1’s controls have already offered ample tactile warnings that the end of the road is near. Also, GM/Delphi’s Magnetic Selective Ride Control is standard. It’s an ingenious device that uses shocks filled with metallicized fluid, whose viscosity can be altered by adding or subtracting an electrical charge. That means the dampers can be adjusted on the fly, within milliseconds of the car’s bank of sensors sussing out road conditions, g-forces and whatever the driver had for dinner over last year’s holidays. The ZR1 isn’t the only GM car that gets this system, but it’s tuned specifically for the ZR1. To one’s backside, it means a startlingly supple ride quality that makes the ZR1 the best long-trip supercar ever built.

Harping on the Corvette’s sub par interior has become a contact sport for car journalists, who continue raising the bar on clever metaphors for chintzy plastic. By covering most of the dash with leather, Chevy’s upped the touch quality in the ZR1 interior to, say, that of a car in the $50,000 range. Not too bad, and certainly not a deal-breaker in this case.

Ultimately, the 2009 Corvette ZR1 may never score a single kudo from kids with pictures of Lamborghinis and Elisha Cuthbert in their lockers. Japanophiles who deify the 2009 Nissan GT-R will go on posting put-downs on Internet fan forums. And Chevrolet engineers who worked the ZR1 program will still sleep soundly as kittens. Yes, the ZR1 is that good.

2009 Corvette ZR1
Horsepower: 638
Torque: 604 lb-ft
Power-to-Weight: 5.2 pph (pounds per horsepower)
Weight: 3,324
0-60: 3.4 seconds
0-100: 7.0 seconds
Quarter mile: 11.3 seconds @ 131mph

Home Prices Plummet to New Record

National prices fell 15.4% in past 12 months. Las Vegas was the worst-hit city, while Denver and Boston saw the biggest price increases.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- National U.S. home prices fell a record 15.4% in the second quarter compared with last year, according to a report out Tuesday.

The latest S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index showed no signs that the pace of home-price declines is easing. The loss was even larger than the record 14.2% drop posted in the first three months of 2008.

Both the Case-Shiller 10-city and 20-city indexes also posted record year over year losses in the second quarter, down 17% and 15.9% respectively.

A small piece of good news: In June the pace of monthly declines slowed ever so slightly compared with May. Prices for the 10-city index declined 16.9% year-over-year and the 20-city index was down 15.8%.

"While there is no national turnaround in residential real estate prices, it is possible that we are seeing some regions struggling to come back, which has resulted in some moderation in price declines at the national level" says David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's, in a statement.

Still, all 20 cities covered by Case-Shiller are in negative territory for the past 12 months, pointed out Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research. "[The moderation] is not good news," he said. "It's just a little less bad."

And with mortgage loans difficult for many home buyers to obtain and foreclosure rates still rising, inventories of homes for sale continue to expand, depressing home prices. There is now an 11.2 month supply of existing homes on the market at the present rate of sales.

"The inventory problem has not been solved," said Larson.

The worst performing city in the index was Las Vegas, where prices plunged 28.6% year-over-year, followed by Miami, down 28.3%, and Phoenix, down 27.9%.

In June, Phoenix prices dropped 2.6% from May, the largest decline of any city in the index.

Denver and Boston were winners for the month, with home prices climbing 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively. Both of these markets have had three consecutive months of higher prices. Charlotte and Dallas, both up 1%, have recorded four straight months of gains.

2009 Cadillac CTS V vs. BMW M5 SMG at Monticello race club

Monticello, New York — Un-precedented. That is the only way to describe this showdown between BMW's legendary M5 and Cadillac's all-new CTS-V. That Cadillac and BMW accepted our invitation to pick the drivers and pit their cars against each other at a neutral site for hot laps and winner-takes-all bragging rights speaks volumes to where these companies are in the sports-sedan hierarchy.

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Cadillac is the hungry challenger, making no secret that it has benchmarked the M5 in producing its new 556-bhp CTS-V, right down to specifying the same Michelin PS2 tires. So hungry, in fact, that it agreed to the faceoff three weeks before it would allow any journalists (including us) to drive the car.

BMW knows it builds a car all others seek to emulate. It also knows it has a new M5 in the works. Still, the company is game to put its 3-year-old M5 to the test, bringing two versions, a 6-speed manual and 7-speed SMG model piloted by veteran BMW racing ace, Bill Auberlen. Cadillac shows up with a single, jet-black CTS-V with Performance Vehicle Operations Director John Heinricy as the designated hotshoe.

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It's dawn and we're at the Monticello Motor Club, 90 miles northwest of Manhattan. The club's grand opening is in two days. Outside the main gate is a throng of more than 100 workers who are being held up — by us. "We've got a little over an hour to do hot laps before I have to let them in to finish up the track," says Jason Bannerman, the track director. For not being finished, the track looks far prettier than most I've seen finished. When it's done it'll be an extraordinary place.

The 3.4-mile loop we used is incredibly smooth and very green. So new, no one has yet done timed laps on it. Bill and John are eager to learn the track and begin circling in borrowed rental cars. A rolling chicane consisting of track staff and a street-sweeper keep them from playing out that scene from Days of Thunder. They're flagged in before the rental cars give out.

The massive construction around the grounds has left a lot of dirt on the track. It's a new surface and will take a few race days to become seasoned. John and Bill are a little apprehensive about some water on the back side of the track that's in shade and also the ever-present dust that seems to be embedded in the surface. They don't seem to worry much as they reach just shy of 150 mph down the main straight on their first run. The first session goes for 20 minutes and the first overall track record is appropriately set by the CTS-V at 2 minutes, 47.55 seconds. Heinricy has countless hours behind the wheel of the car and is right at home; he's also an experienced racer — it shows. The glossy black and chrome of Lord Vader's ride taunts Auberlen into action. He has been racing BMWs for years, but hasn't been in an M5 for four years, yet gets situated quickly. He switches cars from the 6-speed manual to the 7-speed SMG-equipped car and rips out a 2:45.96 and the Cadillac crew cringes. Team BMW is suppressing grins.

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Heinricy is confident his 6-speed manual V can run with the ultra-racy paddle-shifted M5. Looking at the stats, the V has a big advantage with 56 more horsepower, 168 lb.-ft. more torque and only a 150-lb. weight penalty. He puts the power to good use and stretches the legs of his V to 149.18 mph and runs a 2:45.55. Our Vbox GPS data shows that both drivers and cars are performing nearly identical laps. With the water patch drying and the sun warming the track surface, both drivers start running cool-down laps between fast laps. It's the last session and it's too close to call yet. Auberlen runs two hard laps and comes in first with a smile. His timing beacon says he did a 2:44.70 and the GPS data agrees. Heinricy is still out and Kevin Smith of Cadillac's communications is perspiring. The V is flagged in, Smith's stopwatch says it's close. The V ran three fast laps, each one faster than the previous by a tenth of a second. The final one is a 2:44.23, just under a half-second faster than the BMW. Could the M5 go quicker? Maybe. But for now we'll have to let the track get back to its construction.

Cadillac won by the skin of its teeth and all the participants walked away happy. Cadillac has made a CTS-V that can best the BMW M5 for likely the cost difference of a Chevy Malibu, while BMW knows its 3-year-old M5 is still close competition for the newest CTS-V. I'm sure BMW will be glad to raise the bar again with the next M5, but for now the V is king.

Best desings according to Kelly Blue Book

The eye of the beholder is a strange and wonderful thing — if Kelley Blue Book is anything to go by. The good folks at KBB perform a regular survey, called Brand Watch, that measures consumer perception of exterior and interior designs. The latest results put Honda at the top of the "non-luxury sedan/coupe/hatchback" category for exterior design. Winner of the corresponding luxury segment? BMW.

For interior design, the class of the non-luxury sedan/coupe/hatch pack is Toyota, with Lexus winning the premium spot. Not so eyebrow-raising, but odd that there’s no mention of Volvo in this respect. Still, there does seem to be an element of reassuring predictability when it comes to the sports car/convertible stream: Porsche takes the exterior honors and Audi’s interiors get the nod.

Domestic brands do pretty well, especially trucks. In both fields, consumers liked Chevrolet's products the best. Click here for a full list that also takes SUVs and minivans into account.

The anonymous XKR

Chismillionaire is a big fan of this cat- it's gorgeous, roomy, sounds great, and makes the Aston Martin V8 Vantage superfluous.

How many times have you heard someone poke fun at the current-generation Jaguar XK for having a Ford Taurus grille? If I had a nickel for each time, well, I could probably afford one. And I'd be happy with my purchase; the XK is a wonderful grand tourer, equally capable of both interstate dominance and winding-two-lane composure. Just as enjoyable is driving the XK through crowded downtowns, where the car's impressive chassis is overshadowed by its muscle-car growl and head-turning bodywork. I don't care what anyone says about the grille (it pays homage to the original E-type, you chuckleheads, not the Taurus) because this car gets as many adoring comments as I've ever heard.

The problem — for Jaguar at least — is that no one knows what the XK is. The outstretched hood; slitted, fastback greenhouse; and wide shoulders are all traditional sports car, only with modern touches like big wheels and slabbed sides rather than panels that curve in like the last XK. They know it's both powerful and fast, they just don't know who builds it. In just the first day of driving, it was called an Aston Martin, a Maserati, and even a Mercedes. No one said "Hey, cool Jag." What's the deal? Are people just clueless or does it point to why Jaguar is in its current state?

Britain's big cat faced a situation similar to Cadillac, having built memorable cars on into the Seventies before slipping into a depression of unreliability and dated designs. People forgot about Jaguar. The 2003 XJ fixed the engineering issues, but the slick aluminum spaceframe was disguised under the same old design details. The XK trumpets in a new era, but the world hasn't gotten the message — this car doesn't look twenty years old, so it obviously can't be a Jag.

Jaguar's making good, attractive cars again (just look at the XF), but the marketing department needs to catch up if the XK is going to have any hope of luring in Mercedes SL, Porsche 911, or BMW 6-series buyers. The emotion is back, but the sales aren't. And please, stop calling it a Taurus.

Source- MotiveMag.com