It's certainly refreshing to see Microsoft display the vigor of a young Internet startup instead of the aging technological dinosaur that it has become. The development and release of Vista seems to be the kick in the pants that Microsoft has needed.
For too long Microsoft has been trapped by its own success (which has seen the firm play it safe ever since Windows 98 and Office 97.) It took nearly a decade, but it looks like they're finally brave enough to try something new. Innovation is sure to follow.
Changing gears, everyone should see "Who Killed the Electric Car." In this golden age of documentaries, this film stands as one of the best. It does for electric cars what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for global warming, except it didn't have nearly as much hype. In a perfect world the two would have been shown as a double feature.
The film follows the unbelievable rise and fall of the General Motors EV1, the first viable electric car for consumers since we made the move to petrol a century ago. The EV1 was released in the late '90s, and quickly garnered a cult following among celebrities, the environmentally minded and technophiles. It was a truly futuristic looking car, the likes of which we've only begun to see again recently.
Despite being adored by its owners and initial support by the state of California, the car was eventually pulled from the roads. Since GM only made the car available through lease, they simply chose not to renew them. EV1 owners and developers, wholly in love with their electric babies, then tracked down the recalled cars to junkyards where they learned the cars were gruesomely destroyed.
Why would GM recall an entire line of vehicles, only to have them destroyed? It's certainly not out of customer dissatisfaction; the EV1 was universally adored by anyone who was lucky enough to drive it. GM's excuse was that there was a faulty component in the cars, but if that were really the case they would have fixed the issue and put them back on the road. In truth, the car was probably nixed due to governmental, big oil and other pressures.
The filmmaker Chris Paine, a former EV1 owner and enthusiast, does a thorough and intelligent job of covering all of the possible reasons why the car might have been killed. Yes, the film is pretty one-sided, but that is to be expected. It works best when presenting the fall of the EV1 as an invaluable loss to mankind. I also completely understand the EV1 fans, who threw a ceremonial funeral for the car and they were not afraid of being arrested while protesting the demolition of the last batch of EV1s. The film paints these people as incredibly wronged, and it's hard not to feel sympathetic.
In a way, they remind me of "Firefly" fans: A small, close-knit group, who knew they were on the cusp of something great only to have it stolen away from them. While it may seem dramatic, it's hard to comprehend what the loss of this car has done to us. Sure we have hybrid cars now, but where would we be if we had a decade of plug-in electric technology to build on?
One thing to note: The film doesn't explicitly cover that most electricity in the country comes from coal. Yes, coal is a dirty fuel, but charging the EV1 is still more efficient than burning gas. The future of our energy in this country will most likely rely on nuclear technology for the majority of locations, which is actually on the whole safer and more environmentally sound than coal. The EV1 and its offspring would have become more efficient as we became smarter about our energy creation.
Devindra (dahardawar@amherst.edu) wants his electric car, dammit!