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The Smithsonian used to be hard core, back when they were in the Arts and Industries building. The assumption was that visitors knew something about the subject and were there to see the historic original.

Placing technology in its historical and social context is part of the job of the modern museum.

Rosa Parks Bus. Driving America

How much can you learn from a static display ---- how much more from the dynamic?

John Bull: Riding the Rails

The Model T was introduced in late 1908. You're talking about where Tesla would be in nearly 2030.

Back in 1908, the Model T cost $850, or over $20k today. But remember that the part count in such a vehicle was many orders of magnitude lower than that in a modern car. Here's what a 1908 Model T looked like under the hood. Not much there! Also remember that the Model T was hardly the first gasoline car produced in America.

Of course, the Tesla is hardly the first electric car produced in America either, by over 100 years. The first successful electric car was introduced in 1891. The first successful internal combustion engine car was introduced in 1885.

The Model T was introduced in late 1908. You're talking about where Tesla would be in nearly 2030.

Back in 1908, the Model T cost $850, or over $20k today. But remember that the part count in such a vehicle was many orders of magnitude lower than that in a modern car. Here's what a 1908 Model T looked like under the hood. Not much there! Also remember that the Model T was hardly the first gasoline car produced in America.

How would they be able to reduce the resources cost? - They need cheap metal or equivalent. They have one of the biggest shipbreaking yards in the world so there is the cheap metal, hardly worth selling off since it is second rate material. - tires, probably not included when the car is bought or at an additional cost. - electronics, If they would understand electronics they would be able to buy a far more advanced car, so you can leave that out. - interior, probably just covered so people won't cut themselves while driving. Maybe some wooden chairs. I think it would look something like : http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1908/tbig.j pg

What do the mod guidelines state again? Oh yeah - mod down for crap like "Me Too!". Okay - I guess I'm destined to be modded down for this, but definitely "Me Too!".

If you're every near Detroit, make a point of visiting Ford's Greenfield Village. Henry Ford built a replica of Edison's Orange Park laboratory (as well as other things like the Wright Brother's Dayton, OH bicycle shop) and it's really awesome to wander the lab and imagine what it was like during its brief heyday. The movie "Edison: The Man" starring Spencer Tracy was filmed at that location.

I bought a replica of Edison's original light bulb at the gift shop which is most likely as close as I"ll get to having an original (although I do have some wax cylinders for the Edison phonograph). As an aside, the bulb runs on - God forbid - A/C! Ewwwwww!!!!

In regard to Einstein paraphernalia, it's still possible to find first editions of Einstein's "Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie" at ABE and elsewhere for a somewhat modest price. I paid $25 for mine (it's got some waterstains but is intact and readable) several years ago.

As the article notes, they have them at the Henry Ford Museum.

I have Abe Lincoln's head (the museum has the chair he was sitting in when he was shot), a figure of Henry Ford and a locomotive.

I think they also have machines that make the Wienermobile and other museum attractions as well.

Not the best reason to check the place out, but HFM and Greenfield Village are great places to go. It is an amazing and sometimes weird collection of the industrial era.

If we are talking about software installers, people in the Windows world can keep their installshield wizards.

As far as I'm concerned, a good package manager is a thousand times more elegant than a bunch of installers which all get to have their own weasely way with your system, and never really uninstall properly.

And if it comes down to pretty graphics, there are tons of usable frontends for things like apt (kynaptic), urpmi (gurpmi) and up2date (I think it's called up2date-gnome or something similarly strange) which allow complete management and upgrade of system packages in batches without ever having to see a scary command line. I think anti-opensource people are barking up the wrong FUD on this one.

As for software being complex, Linux distributions can be either complex or simple, depending on which distribution and how you decide to use it. I know people who use Ubuntu and have never seen a command prompt, and others who use Slackware or Linux from Scratch and don't bother with a GUI at all ... it's all about choice. And not like the Ford Model T color options, either ...

Holy crap. Sony has gone insane.

As other posters have pointed out, this has been tried and tried and tried and tried. Intellivision. Atari. Coleco. Even priced efficiently, it's never worked and for good reason: the WHOLE POINT of owning a console is to ONLY HAVE A SINGLE, STANDARD CONFIG!!

I bought Half Life 2 when it came out, and I still haven't been able to play the damned thing despite owning a machine far more powerful than the specs require. The thing keeps crashing, and after several months of watching the Steam forums Valve came up with a workaround for the many, many others who had the same problem: go into BIOS and jiggle your memory timing! Well, that's great. Only my particular motherboard doesn't have that option, and even if it did, I sure wouldn't be screwing around with BIOS just to get a single program running. Far as I know, Valve *still* hasn't fixed the problem; as far as they're concerned, it's already fixed. Just jiggle your timing, guys.

That whole experience drove me away from Valve for good and back to my trusty PS2 for gaming. Yeah, games have bugs, but if a game doesn't work then it doesn't work *anywhere*. In the console world, you simply never have game developers telling you to jiggle your friggin' memory timings just to get their damned product to run. Again, that's the whole advantage of being a console gamer over being a PC gamer; take that away and no thanks, I'll keep my real computer, thanks. Microsoft isn't this stupid and my slimline PS2 is doing just fine.

Dammit, Sony, don't you realize that Microsoft isn't your greatest competitive challenge here? Or Nintendo? Are you so stupidly blind that you can't see that the PS3's most dangerous competitor is the PS2? You know, that extremely stable platform with thousands of quality titles that developers know inside and out, the one that isn't trying to be anything other than what it is? Don't you realize that there are millions of folks like me who aren't debating between the PS3 and the 360, but over whether or not to ditch our trusty PS2s for this trick pony that's looking more and more like a '48 Tucker?

If you're in the market for a futuristic dream home, you should probably take a look at Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House:

http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/opening.html

(It's a shame they never went into large-scale production)

-PHr3N371K

Especially considering that they *did* invent the car...

Bucky a loon? Naw, he was just way to far ahead of his time and too much of a threat to given much credence. If he had been given a better chance, he could have had quite an impact on many industries. Elements in his house and car could still be considered innovative today, but would threaten established industries.

Should be perfect for Florida and other places with "high winds"[....]

Then it'd probably withstand pretty much any level of wind--until something that wasn't streamlined (e.g., palm tree, SS Minnow, old lady on bicycle) slammed into it . . . .

Maybe advanced materials are what's needed to finally achieve Old Bucky's goals (even though they supposedly could have been built for the price of an automobile instead of the price of a house). I'll buy one.

How about the Yoopers, the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village, and Michigan Tech?

If you are near an IMAX, they are running their History of Flight special. Breathtaking!

Except the Gas Pedal was really a lever. Perhaps you need a ride in a Real Model T and not whatever you think you might be talking about.

An elegant solution to the labor problem with house building.

Try the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. For the old school geek -- both Edison and the Wright Bros' workshops, plus 120 years of heavy-duty industrial goodness.

Also, just down I-75 in Dayton, Ohio, the United States Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB. Lots and lots of nifty (but decommissioned) military aircraft.

If it happens to take you four days to hitchhike from Saginaw (Simon & Garfunkle reference) perhaps you can stop in Dearborn and check out The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. Sure, its an historical preservationists nightmare, as most of the buildings in GV are completely out of context, and out of their original state or country for that matter. But you get to see Edison's orgininal lab and Webster's home where he wrote his dictionary. In the museum you can see Lincoln's Ford Theater chair and JFK's Dallas limo. And some really freakin' huge steam engines and locomotives.

If you're in the Midwest, pop by Dearborn, Michigan. (Southeast corner of the mitten.)

Lots and lots of technology history everywhere you look. Even if you skip the automobile stuff (which I do) there's at least two day's worth of stuff to look through. Very little stuff is re-creations.

Edison's lab, the Wright Brother's shop, more steam-powered machinery than you ever thought possible, every wheeled mode of transportation imaginable, gadgets, gadgets, gadgets, R. Bucky's Dymaxion house. Through the end of the year they've got quite a bit of James Bond stuff on display.

Henry Ford Museum

thanks for the link to the pics, they were cool. If you ever get to metro-detroit Mi area you got to go to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, it's a must see if you're into historic trains plane and cars.

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house is not completely underground but it does look cool...

Dymaxion house //WARNING: Flash site

Help, let me out of this coffin I CAN'T BREATHE!"

Henry Ford appears to have been a great proponent of the 40 hour work week. He actually looked at the economics of the work levels.

HENRY FORD: Why I Favor Five Days' Work With Six Days' Pay

Ford Timeline

American Labor Timeline This does say that the move towards 8 hour days started in the 1880's. Ford didn't go to 8 hour days until 1914. But his company wasn't started until 1903. The assembly line started only in 1913. It was the assembly line that increased production enough that it made sense for Ford enough clout to cut hours.

Not discounting the deaths/beatings/other stuff, Ford was a pioneer for the forty hour week.

Less well known than the Geodesic Dome is Fuller's Dymaxion House, a very cool hangout in my opinion with lots of features like "O-volving" shelves built in. See the nice restoration project pages at the Henry Ford Museum for more info.

Manually turn on the electrical system to crank the engine.

Manually adjust the timing of the engine WHILE DRIVING with a spark timing lever(!)

Manually crank the engine (!)

Manually shift gears (some)

Manually operate a choke (most of you'll probably ask what that is)

Wait for the car to "warm up" (recommended but not necessary for most cars on the road today)

Actually use a parking brake. (most people with automatics never use them any more)

Just for fun, try going here to try and go through the steps of starting a Ford Model T. A bit more involved than just getting in your car, turning the key, putting it in gear and going, isn't it?
Now, to address the statement that cars have gotten more complicated. In a sense they have. But only in unnecessary things. Not to operate. The oldest car I've owned was an '81 Chevy Camaro. My current car is a '97 Olds Aurora. Let's compare the two:

The Camaro had a carburetor. It was finicky to run and to start. It had drum brakes that needed to be adjusted from time to time. It had a coolant system that had to be changed every 40,000 miles. Oil, every 5000.

Now my Aurora, by contrast has a modern sequential fuel injection system. I don't have to give it gas to start it. I don't have to let it warm up or worry about it stalling (but it's a good idea to anyway for reasons outside the scope of this post). I believe the recommended interval for coolant changes is 100,000 miles. Oil is something like 7500 miles, *but* the really cool thing compared to my Camaro is that it *tells me* when to do these things. It has a computer on board that takes into account how many miles I've driven AND how hard those miles were (city / highway). Then it lets me know when to do these things. I still don't listen to them, I change my oil every 3000 - 5000, but it's certainly a more complex system that is more simple for the end user.

What else is more complicated about my Aurora? The onboard computer has lots of features for calculating fuel mileage, ETAs, etc. But do you need to know how to use it to drive the car? No, not at all. Even the switch for the power seats is simpler than the manual levers in the Camaro. The seat switch is in the shape of a seat: _/ just push the part of the seat in the direction you want it to go and the seat moves. The car turns the lights on for you when it's dark out. IT has power mirrors which are a lot easier to use than rolling down the windows and adjusting them manually, I could go on and on...

The only things the newer Aurora adds to the complexity are things that you can pretend don't even exist and still be able to drive the car. (The computer for instance)

The point is that GM and Ford and Toyota, and everyone else are making cars simpler to use. Many cars can't be had with a manual transmition any more. I know of no major production cars built since the Jeep CJ5 (I believe 1986 was the last year) that can't be had with an automatic in some trim level. And The CJ5 was a special case since it's wheelbase was too short.

Next to address the notion that old people don't understand computers, young people do. Why I must agree that the number of youth that embrace technology vs. the number of older generations is disproportionate, it's not nearly as much so as you are assuming.

A couple of months ago, I would have agreed with you, but something changed my mind.

A couple months ago, my best friend who works for Bristol Meyers Squib as a Java / Perl programmer / general intranet developer. Built himself an Athlon box. When he did that, he decided to send his old Celeron box, which had served him though college to his younger brother who's about 14 and is a very bright kid. He packed it up and mailed it to him. About a week or two later, he got a call from the young lad. Apparently he was upset because in the state the box was sent to him, java was turned off. This upset him as he was used to going to certain sites to play java Tetris or some such nonsense. Well, my friend refused to tell him how to turn it back on. Saying instead to figure it out for himself. He never did. He just gave up. It's still not on.

This kid isn't alone. My ex-girlfriend is currently going to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University studying Aerospace Engineering (literally rocket science). When Napster shut down, she ran to me to help her find MP3s. With much reluctance, I set up a Gnutella client for her. She had trouble using it. Then when ERAU blocked whatever port it used, she was completely lost. She no longer downloads MP3s. She's 19 years old and quite bright. But she's lost when it comes to computers.

I don't know where you are meeting all these kids that swarm all over Linux, but it sure isn't anywhere *I've* ever lived. Most kids today think they're "leet" by using macro programs in AOL chat rooms. Why? Because a big percentage of kids today aren't evolving beyond AOL. Let alone ditching windows for Linux.

These examples above serve to illustrate a trend:
15 or so years ago, being computer literate meant knowing how to program. Then it meant understanding a command line file system. Then it meant being able to navigate a GUI. It's rapidly reaching the point where it will mean being able to use a handful of standard applications such as AOL, Office, and Solitaire.

You're anti-Microsoft bias comes through loud and clear in your post. Wake up!!! This isn't *about* Microsoft. Making things easy for the novice user isn't something only Microsoft is trying to achieve. It's something EVERY software company with a product aimed at the novice user are trying to achieve. If they're not, they're fools. It just so happens that Microsoft is one of the leaders in that field with OSes. Weather it's because Windows is what people are used to, or weather it really is more intuitive is debatable, of course.

You're right, times *do* change. But you're absolutely backwards in your assertation that making things harder will encourage people to learn more and will make people embrace a technology. There is a difference between core usability and extended feature sets. The idea, weather you're designing a car or an OS is to make the basic usability foremost and s-i-m-p-l-e. Then you can start adding bells and whistles so long as they are not necessary to use the basic product.

Agreed! I'm sure that the Wright brothers, Diesel, Sir Whittle, and others feel no guilt for the actions of criminals.

...actually Santos Dumont did the first powered takeoff and landing of a heavier than aircraft.

Just not true...

According to http://www.maria-brazil.org/SDumont.htm he flew in 1905 (other than his dirigibles). So if you take the weight of the aircraft, without the lifting gas inside, then yes it was heavier than air...but it's basically a balloon with a motor and balloons had been around for years before he did this.

According to http://www.hfmgv.org/histories/wright/wrights.html (and countless other sources) the Wrights flew in December 1903. I dont have any formal education that would allow me to call myself an authority on temporal physics, and I do understand that time is relative, but this is 12+ months between the two events. Dumont was in in France if I read correctly, and I know the French are different than us Americans, but I think time still works the same there.

I know people who grew up in the Soviet Union and *they* were told that the Wright brothers were the first at powered (and controlled) flight of a heavier than air device, so why is it others have problems accepting this? They accept it and were educated by the US's greatest adversary (and I know we were told/taught things about them that are false too).

I'm not trying to take away from Dumont's achievement, it's impressive nonetheless, but it's just not factual the way you stated it.

I've grown sick of the world and its people's mindless games

You mean, there's more of them? [sigh] The world is definitely in trouble.

Nope. As I see it, if I'd gone to university for Electical Engineering, I'd be getting paid exactly what I am now, I'd have less practical experience, and I'd have a debt. However, I make more money than we pay the engineers (of approximately my age) here. And, to boot, they usually end up asking me questions about how to design such-and-such a circuit. In trade, while I can do resonance and other fairly involved calculations, I usually just pawn it off on them, feigning ignorance. :)

Thanks, yeah, it does. I need to do it every now and then. And, let me tell you, it's been a tough week. AutoCAD 14 and Mechanical Desktop on a Pentium 133 notebook. With Windows 2000. And I'm expected to support that. Hell, I can't even pretend to look surprised that you-know-who can't make it work.

It's like loading up a Ford Model T with the world's largest fishing sinker collection and then trying to take it out onto the Santa Monica Freeway.

[sigh]

"/. posts stories like this once every couple of months, and it's always one of the same five scam artists with a prototype that has flown--once--a couple hundred feet. "

umm you mean like these guys?

(read the last paragraph)

Ford CEO Jac Nasser currently communicates with Ford's white-collar employees via a weekly e-mail newsletter. Putting computers in the homes of all Ford employees would allow him to access the automaker's entire work force via the Internet, even those employees who do not have desks because they work on assembly lines.

Looked at from a historical perspective, this deal could represent a major social revolution. It appears that Ford will be the first major company to offer all of its employees home computers at no cost. It was also the company that pioneered the five dollar day. This dramatically boosted workers take home pay in the early 1900s and allowed assembly line workers to afford the Model Ts that they produced.

This does not even consider the goodwill that the company and the union will engender in the workforce by providing a free computer for use in every employee's home. Think of the educational possibilities for the children of each Ford employee.

What would happen if a benefit like this were available to the employees of other large companies?
--

Dave Aiello