REVIEW: CITIZEN NIGHTHAWK

The CITIZEN ECO DRIVE NIGHTHAWK might be old news to a lot of watch people out there. It’s been around for a few years and has gotten a decent amount of attention in its day. But despite that we felt that it had a place on worn&wound, because it’s one of the best mass-market quartz offerings out there in terms of affordability, good design and value. For $237, the Nighthawk delivers in ways that many more expensive watches don’t. It has useful complications and features, distinctive looks, solid build quality, good water resistance and a solar powered movement that lasts 180 days on a full charge and never requires a new battery. Forgetting that it is a cool looking watch for a second, between the GMT hand, the slide rule bezel and the solar movement, you have 3 outstanding features that can actually be useful on a daily basis. As James Enloe pointed out in his guide of GMT watches, being able to track a second time zone has very practical implications. Slide rule bezels can allow you to do division, multiplication, convert various distance units and much more on the fly. And knowing that your watch is never going to suddenly stop as long as it sees a little sunlight here and there is a great feeling.

Case

The Nighthawk has a 41mm stainless steel case with a lightly brushed finished on the body and around the outer bezel. The case is constructed of 3-parts, as is standard, but has a very pronounced outer bezel that houses the internal slide rule. This gives the 12.5mm tall body a slightly greater perceived height. The main portion of the case has a unique form with harsh geometry and strong faceted shapes. It is an interesting form that emphasizes the aviation roots of the watch, and gives it a unique and modern look. At 8 and 3 are two crowns, operating the internal bezel and basic time setting functions, respectfully. Both crowns are straight cylinder shapes with a knurled finish and chunky crown guards protecting them. The knurling provides both excellent grip and a visually pleasing texture. Both crowns also operate very smoothly and are indicative of a good quality build. The crown at 3 also screws down, facilitating the 200m water resistance, and is adorned with a Nighthawk logo. The case back is a standard screw down type made of polished steel. It has a very light etching with basic information and a Citizen Nighthawk logo in the center. The case back could have used a drop more attention, in my opinion.

TROY-BILT MOWERS GUIDE THROUGH

Up for consideration, today is the TROY-BILT MOWERS. This rear-drive riding mower looked kind of like a combination of a scooter and a mower when I first saw it but the real test is not how it looks but how it performs on my yard. Let’s see if it can get the job done, shall we?
The first thing that I want to mention about this riding lawnmower is that it will take about an hour to assemble it and you’re going to need a number of different tools to do it (mainly, 1/2-inch and 9/16th-inch wrenches). I had to uncrate mine, attach the steering wheel, the seat, and the battery and make a few adjustments, add gas and so on. So factor in some time to do the job right.

Once it was assembled and ready to go, I decided to give it a run on my property. It did a pretty good job of cutting my grass on level ground but it couldn’t handle the hills that were not even steep. Now I know that rear-drive riding mowers aren’t good for hills in the first place, but this one did a particularly poor job and I thought it was going to flip on me. So for the rest of this review, I decided to keep it on level ground.

I did notice that the engine had quite a bit of power and it cut my grass well—even some of the tall, wild grasses I had growing on the edge of my property. While it’s 30-inch deck is smaller than other higher priced riding mowers, it’s a lot more than a push mower so it handled the job of cutting my grass fairly well. As long as it stayed on the level ground.

It also has a pretty good turning radius. An 18-inch turning radius to be exact. Sure, it’s not a zero-turn radius mower but I was able to get a lot closer to my oak trees than I have been able to do with some push mowers I’ve owned, so that’s always a plus.

While it did a really good job of cutting grass, it didn’t handle as well as I would have liked it to handle. For one thing, I found the controls were positioned oddly. This might be fine for some people but it felt really strange to me and like I was reaching. I also didn’t like the brake and clutch combination. For me, it was a bit oversensitive and this led to a quite jerky ride for me.

Another thing that I want to mention is that you have to disengage the blades in order to go in reverse. Yes, I know it’s a safety issue and more and more mowers have this feature, but this one wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked and added to my mowing time.

The last thing that I would like to say about this riding mower is that it really isn’t meant for large pieces of property. If you have a large piece of property, then you’d probably want to buy a bigger mower.



PROS

• Great for even, medium-sized yards
• Makes sharp turns rather well
• Powerful

CONS

• Assembly takes some time
• Have to disengage cutting blades to go in reverse
• Handling is not perfect

Solar panels regenerating power

Australian engineers have taken us closer than ever before to the theoretical limits of sunlight-to-electricity conversion, by building RENOGY 20 AMP MPPT SOLAR CONTROLLER that can harvest an unheard-of 34.5 percent of the Sun's energy without concentrators .

The previous record of 24 percent was held by a large, 800-square centimetre solar cell produced by a US company, but these new RENOGY 20 AMP MPPT SOLAR CONTROLLER aren't only more efficient, they also cover far less surface area, which means they're going to make solar power even cheaper.

"This encouraging result shows that there are still advances to come in photovoltaics research to make solar cells even more efficient," said one of the researchers, Mark Keevers, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. "Extracting more energy from every beam of sunlight is critical to RENOGY 20 AMP MPPT SOLAR CONTROLLER the cost of electricity generated by solar cells as it lowers the investment needed, and delivering payback faster."

This UNSW team is the same one that set a new solar conversion record back in 2014, by using mirrors to concentrate sunlight and achieve 40 percent efficiency. But this new record is even more impressive, because it didn't involve any concentration, and it was something engineers hadn't expected to achieve for several decades.

"A recent study by Germany’s Agora Energiewende think tank set an aggressive target of 35 percent efficiency by 2050 for a module that uses un-concentrated sunlight, such as the standard ones on family homes," said one of the researchers, Martin Green. "So things are moving faster in solar cell efficiency than many experts expected." 

The new cell is only 28 square centimetres (11 square inches) and it works by splitting the incoming sunlight into four bands.

The infrared band of that light is reflected back towards a silicon solar cell, and the other three bands are directed into a three-layer, new type of solar cell, made of: indium-gallium-phosphide; indium-gallium-arsenide; and germanium.

The sunlight passes through each of these layers, or junctions, and energy is extracted by each at its most efficient wavelength. Any unused light passes on to the next layer, and so on, to squeeze the most out of every single beam.

What Features You Should Look for in a Web Hosting Service for Business

If you search for a web host online, you’ll encounter pages of results that sell domain names. Choosing a host becomes a matter of thorough research to ensure that you receive the best deal for your small business. Your business web page is provides a virtual window to your business. Having a web page that loads very slowly or has errors can have negative impact on your business brand. That is why you need to ensure your web hosting provider has certain key features. Below we have listed them to assist you with your search.

Minimal Downtime

Web hosts that have a strong reputation in the industry will advertise their uptime. Ideally, you want an uptime that’s in the 90 percentile range. This value tells you how often the site goes down for technical difficulties. Hosts that don’t have an uptime advertised on their sites may have poor track records. Ask about current uptime values so that you’re aware of the service quality. The host may need new hardware or updated software to keep up with today’s online needs.

How to Stop Treating Your Small Business Like a Hobby

Sometimes running a small business may seem much like enjoying our hobby. They are often built from the passion where we like to spend our time doing, and it can be easy to see small business as an offshoot of our interests, instead of as a serious money-making venture. But this can be disastrous, as too many folks end up sinking hard-earned capital into their small business to keep it afloat as it is their pet project. But the clue is really in the name ‘small business.’ That means no matter the size of the company that you are running you are aiming to make a profit. So, you need to stop treating it as a hobby and get serious. Read on to find out how.

Make a plan

The first thing that you need to do to get serious about your small business is to think about where you see your business going in the next 5 years. You need a plan, and not just one written down on the back of a restaurant napkin sort of plan, a proper one.

One that has achievable and measurable goals, and all of the steps that you need to complete to get there. Business are not static things, and you certainly want to ensure that you are making enough profits to make them viable. So get a plan to do this in order, before you move on to any other stage.

Doing Business in the US? What You Should Know

For many small business owners, being able to move their operation to the US is the holy grail. The market liquidity, the generous tax incentives, and the idealized “American Dream” attract countless business owners and investors to the nation. Although the US has been the home of some truly inspirational success stories, it’s also driven promising companies into the ground. If you’re planning to grow your business in the US, here are some essential things to know…

American Businesspeople are Fickle

In the states, when a business owner needs something from someone else, they’ll tend to be very forthcoming, friendly and accessible. However, when they no longer need anything from the other entity, it’s common for them to do a full 180-degree turn, and become unresponsive to communication and proposals. Yet, if they suddenly need something again in the future, they’ll come running back with the same warm demeanor, as if nothing happened. You’ll need to adapt quickly to this culture if you don’t want to be taken for a fool!