Posted on 12/02/2001 6:56:41 PM PST by Enlightiator
The Time article:
It seems to me you're getting off topic here, we're not talking about spaceships, we're not talking about something to replace the car, we're talking about something to make walking more effective.
Will you acknowledge that the consumer model will initially sell for around $3000? Will you acknowledge that when pocket calculators first emerged in the early 1970's they were $200 (about $600 in 2001 dollars)? Will you acknowledge economies of scale? Or, will you let your post stand as a testament to your severely limited thinking ability.
I hear they're remaking the movie ROLLERBALL.
For that reason alone, I believe this is huge...
I want one of those power supplies to try to replage the gas engine on an ultralight aircraft, for instance...
Lets see. Banned from sidewalks because it goes three times the speed of a walking person. Banned from streets because it goes three times slower than a car. Used in a shopping mall? Get real, like I want some moron flying by me at 15 mph with parcels in their hands. The only place you could use one is on a bike path, which surely will piss off the bikers.
This dog don't hunt.
Well a little problem, sometime when the electronic fail (and they will) someone is going to do a serious "face-plant in to the pavement
Out come the lawyers and that will be the end of "IT" ... have you seen any three wheel ATV lately?
OK, thank you you for the explanation. Nevertheless, I vote for post # 350 being a joke to begin with. The illusion is as old as the cinema itslef and it has caused countless headaches for many a filmmaker (because it is distracting, and distraction tends to destroy that other illusion of the story line - the viewer ceases being a participant in the action on the screen and becomes an observer, a critic. NFG!)
In 1962 Analog, the SF magazine for engineers, had an ad for a machine. This machine not only could add, but it could subtract, and multiply and divide too. Not only that, it could perform these functions on as many as 9 digits. You didn't have to plug it in, or worry about batteries, since it was mechanical, and you pressed a lever to perform your calculations. These engineering marvels sold for the miraculous price of only $500 in 1962 dollars, which is approximately $4000 in 2001 dollars, and besides, you could fit one in your briefcase! Gosh, isn't it too bad that calculators never got cheaper than $4000.
Now, as has been pointed out, the underlying technology of this is pretty cool. Of course, it's also pretty much the same as the underlying technology he stuck in his wheelchair (which is a fantastic invention and I aplaud him loudly for it), which makes it lose some luster right there. But the whole invention (not the underlying tech, which can achieve a lot) is wholly unimpressive. For reasons that I've outlined this is no cooler (we're talking about usage here, not underlying tech) than an inline motorized scooter made with leafblower parts, as a matter of fact it's LESS cool because it's too wide to be useful on sidewalks and costs 15 times as much. As someone else pointed out: ditch the gyroscopes (so it's cheaper) and put a third wheel on the thing (which you'll need for stability and steering once you ditch the gyroscopes) and you have the EXACT same thing, only with longer battery life and for about $300 instead of $3000.
Technology is cool, but one of the things people like this guy forget is that just because you can do somethign doesn't mean you should. I work in QA, my job is telling these brilliant techheads when their idea is nifty but useless. And that's what we have here, a brilliant, nifty, completely useless over priced example of why I'll always have a job. Because somebody should have told him to go the lower tech $300 route a year ago. The way he's using gyroscopes in this is absolutely brilliant, and I'm thinking his drive system has a serious future because apparently it's amazingly efficient. But the actual device is lame and the pedestrians of this world already have choices that are better if they were same price, and much better at the actual prices.
Don't like to burst your bubble, but most cities were laid out centuries to thousands of years before the auto was invented.
The 80's band "Devo" comes out of retirement and starts a new 2001 World Tour
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