Cars DB

OK, I've finally posted up a Sourceforge project for my aforementioned cars database app. So if you go here, you'll see a download link where you can download the ZIP for the project. Right now there are two binary versions: a Mac OS X app and a pure Java version. I'm going to package up the pure Java version into a Windows app as soon as I can get to a Windows box (Monday), so expect a post announcing that. For now, you Macheads get the polish and everybody else can figure out how to get the pure Java version executing. :-p Oh yeah, the whole thing is BSD licensed, I've got CVS set up and committed to, and if anyone wants to pitch in improvements or anything, I more than welcome it.

I Burn a Lot of Gas

So I finished up round three of my gas mileage checking last Thursday night. This time around I drove as I normally would to hopefully get a middle ground. However, since I didn't really successfully establish a lower and upper bound with my first two rounds, the usefulness of this round is sort of in question. However, keeping track of your tripometer and the amount of gas to fill the tank isn't exactly hard, so I figured I'd keep going.

I'll skip the driving summary this time around (it was about the same, but perhaps had a greater percentage of city driving). In the end, I made 275 miles on 11.5 gallons, which is 23.9 MPG. Man, that sucks. I don't really know what happened there. Oh well, I went ahead and recorded the next tank and that took me all of three days. Why? I drove down from Burbank to Temecula for the wine festival (a ripoff, spend your hundred bucks on a couple bottles of wine and invite some friends over) and most of the way back, in addition to some other long distance driving like Irvine to Laguna Beach to Burbank and a quick trip to Pasadena. So that tank was 312 miles on 11.9 miles (yeah, I nearly ran out), which is 26.2 MPG. Here are the rounds so far:

Round 1: 28
Round 2: 28.9
Round 3: 23.9
Round 4: 26.2

Now to contradict myself. My first post here was entitled "Mileage Estimates Are Stupid" and I'm forced to admit that they seem pretty damn good. From what you see above, I seem to be getting something like EPA's estimated 22 city and 31 highway, despite the initial perception of the test's inaccuracy. Further, as this post's title states, I think I use a lot of gas. Oh well, I'll just have to enter a bigger number into that calculator you see below.

Next up I'm going to do the big post I've planned since the start. I'll be releasing a little car tracking database app I made in Java (a standalone app, not an applet). Stay tuned!