Hyundai moves toward "greener" cars

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hyundai. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hyundai have just won the Global Green Challenge for energy-effecient cars. Personally, I had heard of Hyundai before but had never associated them with green cars. However, their latest model the new Hyundai Santa Fe, has just done a test from Darwin to Adelaide and came out with some pretty impressive fuel efficiency stats.
According to their website:

The Challenge includes two demanding urban loops and covers a total distance of 3,147 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide. At the finish line in Adelaide’s CBD, after seven days of intense competition, the new Santa Fe R diesel had consumed a total of just 160.46 litres of diesel fuel and achieved a low 137.67 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

Apparently this car can get up to 1,200km on a single tank. With all the climate change & global warming talks (such as those at Copenhagen recently), cars like this are really what people will be looking for in the upcoming months and years. We want something lean, grean, fuel effecient and with low CO2 emissions. And it looks like Hyundai have just become the global, or at least-Australia-wide leaders in this field.

The Santa Fe R Diesel also has a few other impressive-looking features:

• GreenR - 27% more power and 7% less CO2 emissions*
  *ADR 81/02 static laboratory urban cycle test for manual
• SmartR - with push button start and safe reverse technology
• LongR - up to 1,200km on a single tank
• SafeR - 5 star ANCAP safety with rollover sensors*
  *5 star ANCAP applies to all Santa Fe variants built from October 2009
• StrongR - 27% more power and 10% less fuel consumption*
  *ADR 81/02 static laboratory urban cycle test for manual

As you can see, 'R' seems to be the keyword here, implying that this care is only the start, as they get 'bett-R'. If we keep seeing increases in the 10% range we're going to get very fast, very efficient cars very soon.

CarsGuide have a good overview of the Global Green Challenge on their website. Also checkout the Hyundai website for more info on their energy-effecient cars.

Finished Exams

I've finally finished my exams now.....
YIPPEE! :D
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that!)
So, basically I'll have a lot more time to spend on this and other blogs. But, as usual there's a catch. I leave for World Youth Day in two weeks. If you want me to post about something in particular, please let me know (my email is ignis.animi @tt geemayl dot 6om.) Otherwise, I'll just keep doing my normal stuff.

Btw, paid posts have made over $150 in the past month off this blog. w00t!

Online Coupons

When was the last time you bought something online? If you're like me, that's probably fairly recently. Now, one of the great things about buying online is that you can use coupons from anywhere with your order. If a special deal is available in Australia, and an American wants to take advantage of it, they can in most cases. If they know where to find the coupon codes.

While searching for Godaddy coupon codes, I recently found Best Online Coupons as a source of free vase, cash discount and other online florist promotions. I picked up a few discounts for godaddy here, which worked perfectly when completing my order. This site has the biggest range of coupons I've seen anywhere. Whether you're buying a computer or searching for discounts on food products, chances are you'll find a coupon here. I now check up this site before buying anything, to see whether I could get it for cheaper. Some of the discounts are quite significant, so you could end up saving a big deal throughout the year.

So what if you don't shop online? Now's a great time to start. Postage and handling are often reasonable, so shop around and find the deal that's best for you. If you use the online coupons as a starting point, you can then search to see if that is really the best price. More often than not, the discount coupon will make the store a lot cheaper than the competition.

Using these coupons I was able to register a .com domain with Godaddy for 10 years for $70. That included email hosting and a basic ad-supported webspace. I recommend you try out these coupons - there just might be one for you!

A breath of fresh air

I've had some sort of allergy for quite a while where I'll be sneezing all day some days, and fine the next. At first I thought it was the computer, but thankfully that turned out to be safe! I still haven't found out what causes the allergy, but it seems to be related to the air. When I went on a trip to the mountains recently it stopped completely for a few days. So I went around and had a look for a air cleaner.
The site at Air Cleaners Guide offers a comprehensive overview of the types that are available. From looking here I think the Hunter might be for me, as it's so cheap. Hopefully it will be able to solve my problems for a while at least - I don't want to be blogging in-between sneezes!

Weak US Dollar drives business in Europe

The LA Times reports that the new Nintendo Wii Fit is hard to find on US shelves, partly because of the weak US Dollar: '"[Nintendo] is also is shrewdly maximizing its profit by sending four times as many units to Europe, reaping the benefits of the strong euro," says Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "The shortage demonstrates one consequence of the weak dollar. We're seeing companies ignore their largest market simply because they can make a greater profit elsewhere."'"

Hopefully this will help the Australian market too. At present the conversion rate is about $0.95.

Looking upwards....

I've always been an astronomy fan. Even before I built my first computer, I was lying out on the ground looking upwards through a small pair of binoculars, pinpointing the constellations and trying to find Orion's nebula. Unfortunately I was hampered to some extent by lack of proper optical instruments. The binoculars were fairly cheap so I didn't get a very clear view. Now I've found OpticsPlanet, which seems to offer good quality optical instruments online.

The site claims to offer a "great place for people to explore, learn about their hobbies and find the best gear to suit their needs". When I first visited I expected to see a flashy, graphics covered store, but was surprised by the clean-ness of this site. It loaded in no time, but certainly doesn't skimp on content.

The pages are clearly SEO'd, with many terms highlighted in bold, lots of specialized pages and lots of content on each page. But this is good for me as well, because I can find detailed information about practically anything on the site. Almost every second or third word is linked, so if you want to find more information, it's not far away.

Verdict: OpticsPlanet offers a wide range of products, and with the best price guarantee offers the lowest prices around. If you don't mind the SEO'd site flavour, and you're looking for hunting, astronomy, or other optical equiptment, this site is for you. Otherwise, you can try looking at the site through Lynx!

More links: OpticsPlanet Microscope

Music Lyrics

We all have to take a break sometimes. Even us tech people. Yes, you do need a break!
For those who like rap, check out Rap Music Lyrics. They've got a pretty good range of artists, and although I'm not into rap myself it looks pretty good to me. Has anyone else tried this site yet?

Build your own Sign - Online

I've been looking for a service for quite a while that will design and print signs online. Build A Sign.com provides exactly what I have been looking for. They have low prices from what I have seen across the web, and a huge range of pre-made signs for such purposes as country flags and real estate signs. I highly recommend you check out this site, especially if you live in America where the postage is cheaper. The prices at this site make it worthwhile for me to purchase signs for home usage, not just business. And the online facility makes this a lot easier than going into town (yes, I know, I'm lazy!). Definitely worth a look.

Quote

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
- Krishnamurti

Update

As you've probably noticed, I haven't been very active on this blog lately. A combination of real-life events and my other blog have conspired to rob me of the time I was using to develop The Big Byte. Hopefully I should have a little more time now, but I still won't be able to research and write articles as much. I hope you'll be able to put up with my ramblings about my current projects, at least until my other tasks sort themselves out. :)

In the meantime, any feedback on the site is appreciated (as always!). In particular, does anyone have any ideas about whether I should change the theme again?