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Showing posts from February, 2007

Portland gains Google real time traffic maps!

Portland is one of the cities who now have real-time traffic speed maps. Check it out: Portland - Google Traffic Map If you are a Mac OSX 10.4 user, here is a dashboard widget with the real-time traffic information as well: PDX Traffic . And for direct to the source, here is the ODOT Trip-Check site . I guess a short blog entry is better than nothing.

SuperBright LED tail light replacement not super bright

Recently I purchased a pair of "Luxeon" 3 watt LED bulb replacements for my motorcycle, a 2006 Kawasaki Concours. The tail lights on my motorcycle are the combo running-light / brake-light that many tail lights are, and use bulb type 1157. There are many reviews of standard LED tail light replacement bulbs, and most of them say that they are just not bright enough. The consensus seems to be that you really need to have LED systems designed for the light from the ground up - as the bulb replacement units simply fall short. The main problem, is that LED lights are very directional, they have a very narrow beam of light. Most tail light enclosures are designed for a regular incandescent bulb which puts light out in all directions. Because of this they use mirrors and lenses to direct the light out of the enclosure. This is the way that tail lights appear to fill up with light when they only have one small bulb in them. LED bulb replacements typically will just shoot