Economy Driving 101

picture via The Telegraph

Fossil fuel is a limited resource. So sooner or later the gas guzzleing muscle cars we love will only be driven to an exhibition.

A day will come where the general personal commuting will be done on vehicles running on electricity. Yes, hybrids will die too. Therefore, here I am giving some tips on Economy Driving in a serious note.

• Its the driver not the car

Many people I know give fuel economy a big weight when buying a car. If you drive like an idiot, stepping on the gas flat out and breaking suddenly your fuel economy will drop drastically even though you drive a Maruti. The rule of thumb in driving is keep attention on whats coming up. Accelerate and brake gradually and ACCORDINGLY !!! 

Even if you drive a hybrid, if you don't drive it properly you won't get the expected fuel economy level from it. More on hybrid vehicle driving in SL from Ashoka here.

• Short & Long distance driving

Short distance driving is always low in fuel economy. What I do is sticking to low speeds (40kmph max) and let the engine do most of the braking by using gears. But if you have an automatic transmission vehicle, සොරි ඩොට් කොම්.

In long distance driving try to avoid stops (avoiding the engine to cool, engines give their best performance out in the optimum temperature) and use the over drive gear as much as possible. And maintain speeds around 70-90 kmph. 

• Use the landscape

Simply know as "බණ්ඩක්කා පාර". Discovered by old Delica drivers in the hill country, which can be efficiently exploited only by people from hill country. Delica vans had manual breaking, so what they do is switch off the engine when going downhill. The problem (as most drivers think) is modern break systems are servo assisted, meaning the engine needs to running for the brakes to work. So don't switch off the engine, put on neutral gear and save fuel.

Important! please don't do the above on steep hills. I do, because I am used to up country driving. 

• Choose the fuel

Petrol is the fuel of petrol-heads (hence the name). Diesel is called as the fuel of the saints by Clarkson. But, in the real world diesel does the job (almost) as same as petrol with less affect to the purse.

Diesel is the best fuel for long distance driving. ඔය සමහරු කියන්නෙ, ඩීසල් සුවඳටත් එංජිම වැඩ කියල. 

So my opinion is go for diesel when ever possible. Bear in mind, if you are a speed freak, forget about fuel economy.

• Check the car condition

Okay this is the final thing. If you don't love your vehicle and care about it, don't expect anything good in return from it. Follow the services on time, keep the engine well tuned, make sure the tire pressures are prime. 

Lets discuss, add your comments. This is what I think. Share.

Colombo _International_ Book Fair... #CIBF2011

Colombo International Book Fair 2009 by Skandhakumar Nimalaprakasan

The Colombo International Book Fair is happening for the 13th time at BMICH now. I have been to the fair couple times and I have seen a rapid growth in it, but the question is, is it "International"??

සමයං... I don't think so, because it is very unorganized and a better job can be done by the organizers. Like most of the public events of Sri Lanka, it is held back by the ancient thinking patterns of the authorities. So here goes my suggestion to make the experience more "book-worm" friendly.

Change the orientation !!!

Now the exhibition is planned according to the publisher, I suggest a layout based upon the book category/genre.

There should be basic divisions based on language, Sinhalese, English, Tamil and Foreign Languages. Then these should be divided into sub divisions such as,

• Translations (these into more sub divisions like Russian translations, Chinese translations, etc). 
• Novels, Frictions & Short Stories (more sub divisions like Romantic, Horror, Science Friction, Teen, Kiddies, etc)
• Academic (sub divisions by academic level such as O/L, A/L and by areas of study such as IT, Project Management, HRM, Finance, Economics, etc)
• Hobbies & Lifestyles (sub divisions such as handy-crafts, cookery, gardening, photography, etc)
• Biographies & Autobiographies
• Magazines, DVDs and other media

I am sure that I missed many segments ( මම පොත් ගුල්ලෙක් නොවෙමි ), but the point is by following a structure like this books can be found and enjoyed! The problem I had in my every visit to the book fair was I got lost in the ocean (a pretty tough one) of books.

Okay... By now, you might be thinking, "How the heck can the publisher get his money?" and "I like publications of this *blah blah blah* publisher, how am I supposed to find books by them?"

I suggest the "Sri Lanka Book Publishers Association" to use a simple information system and to use bar-codes, or to be more up-to-date.. QR codes to mark books. 

Each item on sale should have an ID and information such as division 1/2/3.., publisher, language, discount percentage and so on. Many publishers already uses computerized system to keep track of their publications, so for them it is a matter of migration. And by use of OCR, information from traditional publishers can be easily computerized. Initially this data gathering process will take time, but in the coming years only the new publications are needed to be added.

Many POS terminals can be installed throughout the premises to make the purchase a less hectic process. As and when a deal is done the money can be transferred to the publishers account automatically. Around 1-2 (max)% from the book's value can be charged as service charges on behalf of  Book Publishers Society of Sri Lanka.

So that solves how the money is sent to the publisher and how SLBPA earns.

For the second question, the solution is Help Desks or Kiosk Machines. Kiosk machines can be placed so that a reader can search publications by any criteria they wish. After finding, the reader can be provided withe a small direction sheet.

So that's my plan. Obviously this plan can be more streamlined. I think the biggest benefactors of this new approach would be the publishers. The resources they need to invest on the exhibition can be cut off by a huge portion. A trained group of personals representing SLBPA is all that is needed to operate the exhibition. Giving MORE ROOM for the book lovers.

Idlers and perverts can do their work without being a nuisance to book lovers. Non-book-worms like me would actually spend some money to buy a book, and won't come out empty handed like I did for the last couple of years.

Logos Hope book exhibition is a good example of a well organized book exhibition. But the problem there is the limited range of choice and unavailability of best sellers.

දැන් මේ වැඩේ ලංකාවෙ මිනිස්සු එක්ක කරන්න පුළුවන්ද?

my answer for that question is... කොහොමහරි කරන්න ඕනෙ, බැහැ කියල බෑ...

Now tell me, is this a fairly good plan or not. What are the loop holes? Where did I missed out? Lets get this plan together! And make sure the authorities see this and implement the damn thing! Cause WE ALL WANNA BUY GOOD BOOKS!!! :D

P.S. මම මේ ප්ලෑන අස්සට social media දාගත්තෙ නැහැ, හැබැයි දාගත්තට පාඩුවක් නැහැ සරියට වැඩේ කරනවනම්. ඒක පස්සට, මේ වැඩේවත් මුලින් කරගමුකො.