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This is IT?
Dave (picked at random) and 8000 other slashdot readers wrote in to tell us that they too had been overcome by the relentless hype machine that is IT, Ginger, Segway, whatever. Read about IT in your favorite hype-dispensing media outlet, each of which thinks that it has an exclusive on the story of IT. Flash diagram of IT. Time. NY Times. Reuters. And don't forget to watch the advertisement, errr, "demonstration" of IT on Good Morning Consumers tomorrow. Update: 12/03 13:37 GMT by T : Segway's webmaster John Grohol points out the segway website as well.
"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times." Bill Hicks
Is anyone else sick and tired of 20 year old technology getting slapped together into some cheezy consumer product and being heralded as the cure for cancer? Is a gyrosco-ped supposed to make me go out and spend a ton of money on something that is functionally useless?
Maybe we haven't been telling people what we want loud enough, because they're getting worse at guessing. Come on market researchers, earn your money!
...when you could just add a third wheel to this rehashed Razor Scooter out in front and improve balance *without* $3000 of worthless technology? Sure, it'd look like a motorised tricycle, but it's about as useful as one anyway. It looks like the dot-com "hype-over-substance" marketing tactic has crossed over into transportation too.
This is yet another way for people to remove themselves from nature. Just another reason for people to get fat and lazy and ride a scooter around the shopping mall instead of use the tools god gave them that just so happen to be attached to their legs.
It's trendy, gauranteed to be over priced and basically useless. It steers itself, yeah great ok. Steering was so hard, it's about time someone put an end to all this steering nonsense. I mean actually having to turn the handle bars, god forbid. This is the greatest invention since power steering.
Gimme a break. How long before the sillicon valley yuppie is spotted at Yosemite park in their BMW SUV with a Ginger strapped to the back so they can ride through the park at 12 miles an hour to digest the sites faster so they can talk on their cell phones at the next stop and plug more data into their PDA before they shuffle off to their mobile office (BMW SUV) and cellular fax machine.
I'm sick to death of this crap. To all lazy people, get a mountain bike!!! Go hiking!! Do something with those patheticlly weak limbs attached to your flabby body.
What gets me is the price - $3k for an electric scooter! Come on! For the same price you can get something that's a much nicer toy (the Kawasaki Ninja 250R has a retail price of $2,999, gets over 70mpg, does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds, and you won't look like a complete dork while riding one). Can you say 'Sinclair C5' all over again?
"dude, chinaman is not the acceptable term"
-big lewbosky?
I agree. The online reaction to this has disgusted me completely. I read comments on Slashdot these days largely to figure out what stance on issues to avoid, since almost always the majority here speaks in the name of idiocy.
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I can get from place to place at roughly 20 MPH. Therefore, it would be useful in really densely-packed places -- homes and offices in skyscrapers (as opposed to packed but spread-out urban areas like San Jose). It's open, so it would only be useful where it's not likely to rain, snow, or be otherwise environmentally extreme on a regular basis. Strike Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Boston, DC and Detroit, to name a few.
You will look so stupid riding these, that you'll get even more shit than those idiots who rode razor scooters around back in the .com days.
It's worth $3k, and all I really need to do is kick you off at a stoplight and ride off. Far easier than carjacking; more like stealing a very, very expensive bike. If you have any cargo that you can't easily carry, forget about it.
Yeah. Revolutionary. A thing that makes sense in San Diego, LA, Miama, Dallas and Atlanta, and then only if you want to get, er, Ginger-jacked and contribute to various crack habits on a semiregular basis. Oh, and forget about impressing the ladies -- motorcycles are cool, scooters just call for a beating.
On the other hand, I drive a bright red 2000 Mustang convertible with leather interior and a kick-ass sound system. Yeah, I'm racing to ditch it and pick up one of these suckers.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Let me get this straight:
.com days.
;)
How many Americans are there?
280 Million.
How many sq miles of land do you have?
3.5 million.
How many sq miles per person?
80.
(rough stats from here) That's a lotta space for you and me. Hence the automobile.
Now, pick a nation that does not reside in Europe or North America, and is not so automobile-centred. That is where this will take off. Places where cars are a luxury item, population is high and land is at a premium. Most of the developing/developed world.
This thing will not be used by anybody in Europe or North America simply because of the uncool factor. You said it yourself :
You will look so stupid riding these, that you'll get even more shit than those idiots who rode razor scooters around back in the
Yes, yes, and guys that drive cars get laid, and guys that don't...don't.
In the Phillipines, cell-phones are used to txt-msg most of the time, rather than talk. Funny how not everything is used the way Americans use it. I mean, gosh, did you know that in parts of the world, people drive on the OTHER side of the road? <gasp!>
For $3000 a person can buy a used car here. I don't know about the rest of the world, but I imagine a used car is a whole lot more than $3000, making this Ginger at least a cost-efficient, people-friendly etc, alternative solution. Just try removing yourself from the suburban shopping mall long enough to see that maybe, "changing the world" doesn't start in the U.S. of A.
OTH, if you wanna look cool in your car, while staying Saudi Arabia's bitch, be my guest.
P.S. Do you have a mustache?
NOBODY IS INTERESTED IN YOUR PATHETIC WHINING!
Anyway, you did get the credit "8000 other slashdot readers"
Get over yourself fur feck's sake.
Pathetic.