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in Photography. Check out the article here.

That 7135 is pretty hot eh? I wannnnntt. I wish Telus here would start selling it. I'm a bit worried about it's size though - 1.17 inches thick??

Here's what PopSci has to say on this. They think the big hubs will be replaced by many small local airports that will opperate in a taxi-like service..

Here's what PopSci has to say on this. They think the big hubs will be replaced by many small local airports that will opperate in a taxi-like service..

Everyone seems to be focusing on wether the vest itself is of any use, but the fact is the inflatable vest idea is old (and probably proven?). The tech advancement is using a wireless deployment transmitter/reciever, "Previous motorcycle airbags used a ripcord that could accidentally inflate the bag" -pop-sci article. The image of biker with a ripcord to his accidently inflated vest riding down the freeway is pretty hillarious though.

One of the many ways terrorists and their cells/hierarchy communicate is through the net as briefly touched on here. Even CyberCafes are probably going to be hit with new regulations from HomeLand Security and they're all pretty much landline.
It's a "War on Terrorism" and however terrorists use the net and access it, we all have to sacrifice a little right now so maybe we save lives or even end the "war" sooner, rather than later... "war" inconveniences everyone, bitching won't help. Don't get your undies all in a wad over it. The sacrifices made by our parents and grandparents during WWII was certainly at least as bad as anything we can foresee for ourselves. This too is a global war because terrorism is global. Whatever it takes is just enough, so suck it up. Besides, there's no reason most if not all the "inconvenient" new regulations can't be lifted or adjusted if and when this war ends. We have the Democrats making sure of this as much as they can before they even begin fully debating new legislation and implementing it. Republicans are onboard with that philosophy as well, for the most part. But we'll all have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

I thought that this was covered under Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. In order to simulate human intelligence, first we must be able to understand human intelligence. However, we cannot do this because human intelligence is ultimately axiomatic, and Godel states that we cannot create an axiomatic system without going beyond its constraints. Since we are obviously constrained by human intelligence, we cannot understand it, much less recreate it ourselves. If we could understand human thought, the social sciences would become true mathematical sciences, rather than humanities which use scientific thought processes. Perhaps we could eventually develop AI to the point where it can simulate lower animal behavior, but the search for machines capable of human levels of thought is ultimately futile.

I'm not talking about chaning the world with this right now. However it is worth mentioning thats comming from the Pacific Norhwest, the majority of the power I use is green. From wind farms and hydroelectric dams largely. I know it is, I pay extra for it. What I'm specificly refering in my last post is using a full cell based UPS. In that, when it's plugged into the wall, there is power available to create they hydrogen inside the machine. This keeps you from having to buy the stuff from coleman or some other supplier.

The theoretical subteranean cache of hydrogen is supposed to be largely contained inside rocks at depths well over what is currently being drilled for oil. It's also not known for certain how much Hydrogen is there, nor how easy it would be to exrect the hydrogen from whatever contains it.

While We're on the subject of clean energy, I thought this was kind interesting.

This guy has already been working on something similar and already has quite a nice gui. He even got an article in Popular Science a few months back. Seems to have done a much better job too IMO.

This sounds like hypersonic speakers. Popular Science had an article on it a few weeks ago.

cirrus design is a small startup that, according to articles in Popular Science, for one, is producing small single engine planes that come with an airframe parachute standard. I think eclipse aviation might have said something about doing this, too, but im not sure.

Point is that if these become standard, use will go up. I for one wouldnt want to go buy one and install it, but if it came built in...

How about the AirScooter!

Popsci did a bit on it here
You might save 5k too.

Hybrids don't have to be slow econoboxes --> do you really think that toyota would announce this if they couldn't get some horsepower out of the hybrid setup? Honda has a 400 horsepower hybrid in development that still gets 42 miles to the gallon. take a look here.

Or did you mean the United States' potential development of new nuclear arms in violation of a Congressional ban?

Funny old world!

In the popsci.com article (3rd paragraph) they mention that it looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey.

Besides, a Romulan bird of prey looks more like two birds glued together at the wingtips, with the bottom bird's head cut off.

Here are some other issues with personal, or almost personal flight.

Last night, I was sitting on the sofa watching the game, and I glanced over and saw this headline on the front of the magazine, and something about wondercars, and another fluffy sensationalist barely scientific come-on.

And I thought it was the latest issue of Popular Science, which it turned out was was right underneath this issue of Scientific American.

Seriously. If you covered up the name, and don't have the UPC memorized, you couldn't hope to tell them apart. They used the same layout template for the covers. And maybe for their websites, because both covers are in about the same spot on their home page:

exhibit A.
exhibit B.

Scientific American should never have started taking ads.

--Blair

More persistent-looking links to the cover thumbnails:
sa
ps

Last night, I was sitting on the sofa watching the game, and I glanced over and saw this headline on the front of the magazine, and something about wondercars, and another fluffy sensationalist barely scientific come-on.

And I thought it was the latest issue of Popular Science, which it turned out was was right underneath this issue of Scientific American.

Seriously. If you covered up the name, and don't have the UPC memorized, you couldn't hope to tell them apart. They used the same layout template for the covers. And maybe for their websites, because both covers are in about the same spot on their home page:

exhibit A.
exhibit B.

Scientific American should never have started taking ads.

--Blair

More persistent-looking links to the cover thumbnails:
sa
ps

That's nice - 180 MPG is roughly equivalent to 80 km/l to the imperial-challenged crowd. But check out the 100 km/l car done by Volkswagen(yes, that's 100 km to the litre, or 235 MPG if you don't like SI units). I'm not affiliated with Volkswagen or anything - it's just cool technology.

Essentially, because fuel-cells allow a radically different organization of cars' structures, GM is betting it can make cars cheaper. This despite the fact they'd be running on the famously expensive fuel cell. Wired wrote about this"billion dollar bet" in its August issue and quotes a GM exec: "If we're not there by 2010, we'll have dug too deep a hole to recover the time value of that money."

In other words: call us bad businessmen if you can't drive one of these by 2010. This is some good reading for those wanting to know more about what GM's plans to do with its fuel cell "platform" that it hopes to use for virtually every vehicle it makes in the future. Of course, as Wired notes, a fairly heavy dose of skepticism is NOT optional. It's very much required.

---- SNIP ----
oh yeah, hehe

• 2002-08-14 21:28:24 The first pictures of GM's "Billion Dollar Bet (articles,news) (rejected)

Note: grousing about rejected submissions is Offtopic and usually gets moderated that way. It happens, don't take it personally.

Moderators: Do your worst ;-). But there are some intersting links in there, so be fair!

I think it's important to note that Think wasn't really about electric "cars" it was about electric vehicles. The venture was very much an "outside the box" and it's product line makes that obvious. (Mostly they are small vehicles designed for short trips around town) Not surprisingly, people like cars and don't want

That said... Here's a rejected slashdot story submission about what *I* think was a fairly interesting news. I post it because I think it's on topic and intersting and I put some time in typing it up--obviously, sometimes slashdot doesn't have the space... so no hard feelings. (Maybe I just spelled everything right ;-) )

The jist is that GM is betting on fuel cells. Not electric and not "conventional" hyrbids.


Popular Mechanics is carrying an article (with pic's) of GM's latest fuel-cell concept car. The pictures are our first look (mine at least) at GM's new strategy to redefine the basic systems every car they make. It's called AUTOnomy and was written about a little while back in Popular Science. Essentially, because fuel-cells allow a radically different organization of cars' structures, GM is betting it can make cars cheaper. This despite the fact they'd be running on the famously expensive fuel cell. Wired wrote about this"billion dollar bet" in its August issue and quotes a GM exec: "If we're not there by 2010], we'll have dug too deep a hole to recover the time value of that money." In other words: call us stupid if you can't drive one of these by 2010. This is some good reading for those wanting to know more about what GM's plans to do with its fuel cell "platform" that it hopes to use for virtually every vehicle it makes in the future. Of course, as Wired notes, a fairly heavy dose of skepticism is NOT optional. Itís required.

... the last five were sold to British Airways and Air France for one French franc apiece.

Popular Science too

It's a little OT, but I saw this article over at popular science the other day.

For those who don't want to read the article, it describes VW's latest test/concept car. Two person, 600 lbs car. It has a tank for 1.7 gallons and gets better than 260 MPG(though only rated for 235. ONLY.). And no, it's not slow. They rated the top speed as over 70 MPH. Which is plenty fast, even for highway travel.

Ontopic: it runs on diesel fuel. Who wants to mod this car and make it even more environmentally friendly? "It barely even burns Vegetable Oil!"

I don't, however, know what's involved in applying the mod. Or if VW could even fit it in this car. But it would still be cool. I actually want one of these cars. Errr... this car. That would be sweet. *sigh* Time to go buy a lottery ticket.

Here

I should have included this in my original post, but PopSci also has a good article about the E911 GPS service in their most recent issue. I thought I saw it on their site, but apparently it is not there.

Here is another feature which links to a website that can map out a route in Manhattan to avoid its 2400 or so security cameras watching your every move. If you happened to read the article, a link to this also appears to the right.

By now you would think I work for Popular Science. I have no job. I employ my University with a $24,000 per year salary.

New toys - hey, isn't there a /. category for that?

I'm surprised the Slashdot crowd hasn't posted a link to this earlier Slashdot story. Here's a picture of the Coleman fuel cell unit. No updates from Coleman about when they're going to actually be distributing these things though. (Gee ... what a surprise.)

As a health care facilty, I would expect you'd have easier access to suppliers of compressed gas (i.e. hydrogen) than others.

You don't have to charge the battery in a hybrid from an external source. Ever. Just put gas in. In fact, aggressive driving with lots of hard braking would charge it faster in current hybrids.

Honda has a sweet prototype called the DualNote that makes 400hp and gets 43mpg. I would certainly be in for that!! I'd be even happier at 200hp/86mpg, though. Something small and fun like a WRX that gets 86mpg would rule.

Why not do one even better? If there was a way to safely store H2 in a medium that required no special containers or pressurization, would you buy it? Chrysler hopes so. Check this out. If I had a way to refuel it, I would already have one.

Perhaps the most important and certainly the "cleanest" storage method for H2.

Sodium Borohydride (soap).

Chrysler even made a minivan that uses it. It acts as the H2 storage medium and is easily 're-energized'. Think about it. No explosive H2 to mess with. You get in a wreck and the only thing that leaks out is soap and water. Clean streets!

a read an article in popsci that mentioned that new laser surgery being done to people with eye-problems, could be applied to people wiht perfect eye-sight to give them up to 20/10 vision!! (which means you see something that's 20 feet away, like it's 10 feet away) Are you thiking what i'm thinking pinky?
--tzan

You mean like Borax as Daimler-Chrysler did with it's Natrium minivan. The Sodium Boro-Hydride carries the H2 and it is extracted when needed. No storage problems, no compression needs. Gets 300 miles to the tank too.

Or Borax as Daimler-Chrysler did with it's Natrium minivan. The Sodium Boro-Hydride carries the H2 and it is extracted when needed. No storage problems, no compression needs. Gets 300 miles to the tank too. So what are we waiting for?

Looking at the photo of a mailman on one here, I'd say this thing looks to be wider than a normal human's shoulders. In fact, it looks a bit like a running stroller. Props to jimmcq, who posted the Popular Science article I linked.

-Paul Komarek

Popular Science also has an article that has a mini-interview with one of the mail carriers who put Segway through a real-life test for 30 days.

The Honda Civic will be $20k and of course you will actually save money in the long run because you won't need to buy as much gas.

The 2004 model year for automobiles will be very interesting as Jeep (Liberty), Ford (Escape), and DaimlerChrysler (Durango) will all be produced as hybrid SUVs which get 40 mpg ( for an SUV!! ).

I'd love to have the concept car shown here.

I don't think it's the same article, but I did find a spiff one about cars in the year 2022 (still not flying)

Look at their graphs.

Their theoretical simulations are a factor of 2 above their experimental results.

They haven't a clue how it actually works when the waves aren't dead-on the normalized filtering peak of this thing.

You can throw this article on the big pile of Popular Science notions that never see the light of mass production.

--Blair
"Hey! I just discovered that if you burn trees you don't need Saudi Oil! And they grow for free in the woods!!"

Who needs a PocketPC or Palm when you can just take your whole computer with you?

it's almost as valuable as this popular science article (hint: not worth toilet paper.)

eventually the tomshardware.com article is a translation of one that was wroten for the french tomshardware. the french version was as badly written (it sounds like it was written by young teens..)

what about objectivity:
they like xbox controller
they like munch's odyssey
they have very uncommon tastes indeed

gamecube is a console for young kids : what means ? 3-6 ?

their are factual errors everywhere in the article, a lot in the claims of the developper who seem not to know PS2 and gamecube..

i guess in france will see more and more enthusiastic pro-xbox stuff like that, especially with the xbox launch approaching.. most mainstream magazines being sold to microsoft (like Science et Vie Micro)..

Click here [colemanpowermate.com] to see an excellent presentation on the workings of this technology.

From the Popular Science Page:

"It took Coleman two years to create a distribution system and to satisfy regulators (a Department of Transportation ruling was imminent at press time), but the company is confident a $100 refill could be delivered anywhere in the United States within two days. "

...the company is confident a $100 refill could be delivered anywhere in the United States within two days.

Picture of the device can be seen on the Popular Science's website here.

This month's Popular Science has an article about the same thing. Fermilab and CERN are working to expose the Higgs Boson. The article is here.

Here's the link if you want to check out their peice.

Jainith

Titan of light

Here's the link if you want to check out their peice.

Jainith

Titan of light

I had to go to Popular Science to find out that this interesting product costs US$800. That's a good price point now that I know what it is. But I wish ReQuest could simply tell me an MSRP on their site instead of having me "contact the corresponding representative for your area code" because of some archaic territorial sales channel agreements.

Maybe it's just me and my experience with software companies who ask you to "contact us to discuss your enterprise solution" instead of disclosing price but I can't shake the sour taste that people who can't give prices up front have something to hide.

I remember hearing about it several years ago. I think it was published in Popular Science Magazine about that time. And since then it has been appearing in different places, also there were the news about alot in a coin sized Hard-Disk, and still it never got to the doing of it.