Slashdot Mirror
Have You Seen This Segway?
Kringle writes "An April 28th theft of a Segway from a home in Kent, Washington appears to be the first of its kind. The Smoking Gun has a copy of the police report. The good news is that the thief didn't get the keys and is lugging around a big paperweight. No word yet from the Grand Theft Auto team about including a Segway in their next game release."
someone got one at a decent price!
You have got to be kidding me.
Who would want to risk time in jail for one of these things?
never,In Japan.
---- udon
These arrogant a-holes who wheeling around all willy nilly telling people about their new toy was bound to get one stolen...
my way your way gateway segway
... a "Microsoft Bob" CD was stolen from a home in Wazoo, Nebraska. No one is exactly sure why anyone would want to steal either item. A police source was quoted as saying, "We're not sure what their motives are."
My journal has hot
What a drag!
Probably some crack-addled junkie who wanted to go for a joy ride, that's all...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
what? he doesn't have an insurance policy against theft?
i see the future, segway chop shops... awe yeah.
Runnin' On Empty
Why, for the love of God, why?
Had the thief gotten the keys, it would be funny to watch the getaway. He's speeding 11 MPH from the scene of the crime laughing nefariously. Hmm... very frightening.
Does anyone know whether or not a segwey can be "hotwired" so to speak? Do you _really_ need the magical keys (there's 2 I believe, they determine the maximum speed) to use one?
Above all, I wouldn't want to be using that thing when the police put out the APB.
"He's slowly getting away, sir!"
Right where I left it, in the pile of stupid, overhyped inventions!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
The segway would make poor paperweight. You'd have to get the damn thing up the stairs first.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
No word yet from the Grand Theft Auto team about including a Segway in their next game release.
No word yet from the Paperboy team, either.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
"Theres no way they can hot wire it."
BMW used to say that too. Thieves are better at these things than most people think they are.
Vonal Declosion
So they arent stamping ID #'s into all the parts so that any stolen Segway is a trackable segway?
If not, why not?
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
I would be interested in buying a used Segway if anyone knows where I might be able to get one.. wink wink
spending $5K on something would mean you'd want to secure it with more than a bike chain. I gotta give props to the theif. Nobody will notice them zooming around if they can hotwire it. They'll blend right in. Anyone check Ebay yet?
Skinner: Damn...they're very slowly getting away!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Man the stealth marketing on slashdot is really getting thick in these poor financial times!
The segway is fucking stupid. It doesn't matter what video games you pay to have it placed in. Its just a dorky overpriced peice of indulgent american crap.
Fuck off pigs.
Yes, but has anyone found a way to get the Seqway to boot Linux?
Really brings new mean to "Linux for Mobile Devices".
If I had something intelligent to say, I would have said it.
paperweight? These things have got to be easy to hotwire right? They're totally electric. My guess is the key isn't much more than a fancy toggle switch. Connect two wires together, go. Probably replace it with a toggle. Does anybody actually have any data related to the key mechanism on these things? Unless the key happens to be something along the lines of a smart card that talks to the CPU someone has a fully functional Segway. The biggest problem is figuring out how to pawn it. These things are so rare it's going to be hard to pass one off without being noticed.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Since the Segway thief used the Segway as his getaway vehicle, a little old lady with a walker was able to catch up with him and make a citizen's arrest after the Segway dumped over when he ran over a dandelion.
Can you imagine trying to take out a group of Harikrishnas? They would probably clobber you.
What I want to see is a cross-country trip (like forest Gump) on one of these things.
a.) Some punk kid who knew what it was and didn't know how hard it was to hotwire.
b.) Captain Crunch found out how to hotwire it with a few wires and a toy from a box of cracker jacks. (+1 for 2600 reference)
c.) Druggie who had no clue and is trying to sell it.
d.) Vandals.
e.) It's a publicity stunt by the company selling them in a bid to both get attention, and show how "useless" it would be to steal one (Implying that even if yours is stolen, Insurance will replace it and the thief won't benefit from ti anyway)
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
If they had gotten the keys maybe we could have watched the chase on "Cops".
Who would steal a seggay? Actually, a paperweight is probably a better use for it... at least your neighbors won't point and laugh at you
You have to be a real lazy SOB to have to have your ass dragged around sidewalks by some expensive over the top scooter. Sure its a cool invention but the jagg hole who invented it surely must have realized that there is no market for it.
If you want to commute a short distance to work ride a bike, if you want to move on a sidewalk, WALK !!! And if you want to make an argument for disabled people, wheelchairs are a far better solution.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
I'd like to see you make a perfect insane stunt with that one! :-)
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
"He's asking anyone who sees the Segway or knows where it might be to call Kent police at 911."
911? IIRC, that's that newfangled emergency number. You know, for emergencies. Like heart attacks and SARS. Not missing pieces of metal and plastic.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
- Name witheld by request.
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Ford Pinto thieves must be getting desperate if they have to turn to stealing Segways...
He's asking anyone who sees the Segway or knows where it might be to call Kent police at 911.
I hardly think seeing a stolen segway qualifies as an emergency, do you?
Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies...
Seeing as how many of thses things are sold, Dean Kamen must be a little happy about this.
Of course, the last thing we need are gang members with 'gats' riding these down the hood.
i cant seem to come up with a sig.
"it can't be hot-wired"
i love how supposed "technical" people reveal their lack of knowlege.
ANYTHING can be hacked or hot-wired.
I find it funny. someone basically leaves a $5000.00 bicycle outside and is suprised that it was stolen, this should not suprise anyone espically with a high-profile item like the segway.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
However, unlike Pinto's, Segway's don't explode in a huge fiery blast as the result of the pressure of putting a bumper sticker on the back bumper.
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike...
Update: Statistics now show that 25% of all Segways have been stolen.
sulli
RTFJ.
Sorry, you have to stay in Canada with all the other mad cows.
Oh hush, Kamen.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
Anyone care to explain why in the police report on the SmokingGun website the name of the guy is "Robert Ballantine" and in the King County Journal it's "Gary Valentine"?
Martin
The segway has to be started with a 128bit encrypted key.. which might be able to be reproduced, but imagine sitting there trying to force crack it...
Key on. Change code. Key off. Change code. Key on. Key off. Change code. Key on. Repeat 10,000,000 times.
I think what he has is a very large waste of closet space.
News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
I wish I could filter out the annoying Pickens articles...
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
I mean, why would he lock up a $5000 piece of equipment with a bicycle chain?
My theory is that he had major buyer's remorse and decided to cut the chain, get rid of the segway and collect the insurance. Why else would he pick such an easy to cut chain?
*everything* is Orwellian to cats.
For grins, I searched EBay and found out that the gent that lost this one can get another one, deliverable immediately, for $5500.
Why? That is another question. I was almost run over by one of these things on the sidewalk in Manhattan the other day. Mr. UpperWestSide Yuppie was navigating the sidewalk, including the wheelchair cut-outs at intersections with some aplomb, but I really had to suppress an urge to just knock him off the damn thing.
I can only pray that they don't figure out a way to build and market a Segway stroller. Oh my God, the thought just makes me shudder. GPS, 802.11g web nanny-cam....the horror, the horror.
The best way to do is to be.
can someone plz tell me what a segway is? some sort of geek-engineered dildo? really. i want to know
I mean with all the other people riding around on these, its unlikely they ever find him in the masses of people. Now if the theif had only stolen something less discernable, maybe he'd get caught trying to use it.
Aw heck, I bet 5 minutes on ebay would turn this thing up.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
for a low-rider Segway with under-body neon lights, a huge spoiler, and plastered with all sorts of Chinese ideograms
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I think Segway creator, Dean Kamen, just decided business was slow and he would just start stealing his few customers' Segways so they would have to buy additional ones. That's exactly what happened. Plus he can recycle some parts!
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike......
GTA VC has something that's worse than a Segway already, it's called the Faggio. (yes, it really is called that!)
...and left.
Segway Goes Bananas?
Good grief. Can't ya just see the owner having a hissy fit over how amazingly special he and his Segway are, and how this is no ordinary theft, and the cop wedging the "unique" commentary in there just to shup him up?
That said, I'm intrigued by this concept of a two-wheeled walking machine. Pair it with a two-legged rolling machine, and you've got yourself some serious innovation!
There are no suspects. [Case] closed.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I made the switch to Linux a week ago with the false idea that I could do everything that I did win Windows. Now, while this *is* true, I still can't do anything *well*.
-Mozilla and Konq. suck dick so I had to buy a Linux license for Opera.
-I can play some older games with WineX, but newer games fail to work with no advice on how to get it working(I just bought Vice City, too)
-My scanner works half-assed at best (Streaking colors, white-washed)
-Multimedia support looked good (http://sound.condorow.net/), but in reality they all fall short of my needs. (Loading soundfonts for my SB Live was a chore in itself, not to mention the fact I can't adjust the volume of individual MIDI channels)
-My Quickcam is very, very slow.
-Everything is bloated (memory and hdd space, speed seems OK)
-I'm sure there's some more, but I can't remember
So, Linux may *look* good on paper, claiming that everything works, don't let it fool you: it sucks.
The easiest thing to do would be to make sure the eighteen people in the US who are actually driving these around are the real owners.
He invented the internet, and now he has invented the scooter. Too bad he did not invent the Kryptonite segway lock.
Yeah, and imagine telling the other inmates what you're in for. Reminds me of the Serta mattress "counting sheep" commercial where they're tossed in jail for ripping off the 'do not remove' tag from a mattress.
"What're you in for?"
"Oh, we were caught rip" "RIPPING A MAN TO PIECES!"
---
"What're you in for?"
"Oh, I got caught stealing a seg.....ment of a man's intestines...right outta his body...with my bare hands! While he watched!"
Oh yeah, hard time in the big house for this one...
I'd love to see the look on the judge's face if this guy is ever brought to trial. "You stole a _what_?!"
GOURANGA! -> Elvis has left the Town -> ???
Couldnt they just look on ebay and arrest the person who claims to be selling a Segway because they lost the keys?
Ok. Here in America people are getting fatter and fatter right? The Segway exists to appropriate the one bit of mild exercize people get daily: walking. Of course I understand its use for postal workers and similar industries that make frequent stops, but this machine is totally wrong for normal people.
...after you are done reading slashdot.
I'm sure in 30 years time, there will be a study done linking Segway use (if everyone has one eventually) with heart disease. It's simply not right to encourage people to have a 100% sedentary lifestyle. Get up and MOVE.
There's your answer
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Rofl! I think you meant to post one story down!
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike......
Some Gang Banger stole it so they can do some 'drive bys' ...however, if the problem becomes more pronounced they would seriously have to consider a name change.
What a headline.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike.........
5 million years apart and we still roll on the ground...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike...
Yes, the Grand Theft Auto franchise went down the tubes today. The gameplay now consists of beating hookers to death, then knocking on doors and speeding away on a segway laughing like a school girl before they answer.
One of the first things they ask you when you dial 911 is if it is an emergancy. They are simply a dispatch service. You can actually use them to call your local police department to ask about parking tickets (though it is nicer to look in your phone book instead).
White male, late teens to early thirties, considered unarmed and extremely stupid.
Somebody call the Profiler! (or CSI)
Last week I tried switching from my MAC Os to Windows... om my how this thing sucks.
It's poorly written, it doesnt do anything well and the versions of all the professional software for windows stink compared to the MAC versions...
I reccomend that everyone stay away From microsoft and keep a MAC or if you must use intel that modern OS called linux. stay away from that outdated Windows OS.
I can't believe no-one's said it already, so looks like it's down to me to trollishly quote The Simpsons - "He's gradually getting away!"
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
If you get given one, yank out the Laser Inertial Gyro microchips for use in your own projects. (Made by BAE Systems, a company like Lockheed Martin but with more tea and less money.)
Well worth the effort of nicking one, assuming you happen to have decent systems integration skills _and_ a criminal bent. You could have not only the worlds first fly by wire RC helicopter, but one made entirley of stolen parts.
Beep beep.
5 million years apart and we still flood Slashdot with useless comments...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike...
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
You'd think that at least the King County Journal could read the police report before printing the article... one says "Robert Ballantine", the other "Gary Valentine"
Three dits, four dits, two dits, dah!
Radio, radio, rah rah rah!
If someone cops your scooter, call CSI.
Lovely place, I lived there for about a year as a kid, nice sea air, lots of slugs and lots of rain. It was better then where I am at now. Dull boring western wisconsin, where on a good day you can only have a faint scent of manure. I should get a segway and cruise on out of this joint.
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
If he/she had taken the keys, are you suggesting they could've speeded off with it?
(picture of police shooting the tires out as the thief tears down the avenue on a Segway)
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
Two tidbits from the report that made my day.
The officer's description of the Segway:
"Unique Motorized Two Wheeled Walking Machine"
This one speaks for itself:
"Ballantine indicated that he was the only one to have the machine in the south puget sound area"
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I used a Mac after using Windows.
It was poorly written, rudimentary in certain ways (does a 2nd mouse button really cost that much). Not only that, it was pretty much useless: you can't do much with it because there is hardly any software that runs on the thing (unless you get the Windows emulator, which sort of defeats the purpose). It is hard to compare Mac professional software to PC professional software: hardly any PC software has Mac versions. This holds true for all software, even games.
The Macintosh machine itself was slow (a leisurely 800 or zo MHZ in an era when all new PC's scream past 2 ghz) but that is a problem with the hardware, not software.
"I reccomend that everyone stay away From microsoft and keep a MAC or if you must use intel that modern OS called linux. stay away from that outdated Windows OS"
Linux is a good alternative, if you must run a PC. Like the Windows, and unlike the Mac, it is an "open system": you aren't forced to buy double-priced hardware just to use it.
You mean Wahoo
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
A good atricle on the security of the Segway is located here.
Has anyone checked to see if it's up on Ebay?
Check under the "overpriced status symbol" section
An IBot has four modes: "Normal" (basically a conventional wheelchair), 4-wheel (all wheels powered) stair-climbing (really!) and Balance. Take an IBot, remove all the modes except Balance, remove the ability to reposition the chair vertically, replace the chair with a foot-level platform, and replace the joystick with a fancy system for guiding the vehicle with instinctive body movements. Result: a Segway.
Eventually, you're going to see physically disabled people cruising around town in IBots. Balance seems to be the most popular and useful mode, so a lot of people are going to mistake them for Segways. Undoubtedly, some asshole will come up and say, "You stupid Yuppie! Why don't you use the legs God gave you!?"
5 million years apart and we still fling our poo at eachother...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
You know...come to think of it - i left my segway outside too!
Damn thieves!
Tonight, they're going to take it out for a whirr-by shooting.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Sorry, but just cause some reporter says you can't hot-wire it, doesn't mean it can't be done.
I guess some people do believe everything they read - and I thought it was just a figure of speech.
One says "Gary Valentine" is the owner, while the other says "Robert Ballantine".
Either one of the reports has the wrong name, or we're talking about different incidents.
Since "Ballantine" appears in a handwritten police report, it is more credible.
YOU do that too?!
Ah, Kent.
:-)
One time, while we were living in Kent, someone busted out the passenger side lock on our car to get inside to steal stuff. Their haul? Two 24-packs of soda. Sprite and Coke, I think.
What? They were expecting us to keep gold bars in the trunk of a Cavalier? C'mon. There was nothing visible inside the car.
Is this story in any way related to this Segway theft? Maybe not so much. But I was just happy to see Kent, WA mentioned in the news.
They make pinwheels there, too, down in the valley.
This is not an official Fugazi sig.
You just can't imagine someone making a fast getaway on one of these. Even sillier, however, is the threat faced by people who use unicycles as transport... if anyone tried to nick one of those you'd find it abandoned a few metres away after they gave up in disgust.
Did they look behind the bins round the corner after the thief realised he just didn't want the damn segway anyway?
Phil
"Cattle Prods solve most of life's little problems."
f) duggie who actually thought it was cool.
i put together a guide on securing a segway ht, it's just like securing a bike (which i also have and need to secure). lots of common sense for the most part, also you can get a cheap insurance policy (under $150) for the ht against theft.
http://www.bookofseg.com/secure.html
cheers,
pt
Welcome to Slashdot. Among the many things you'll see here are posts that start along these lines:
:)
1) Imagine a beowulf cluster of...
2) All your base...
3) Profit!
4) In Soviet Russia...
5) Micro$oft Sux
Also, feel free to post duplicate stories and mangle spelling and grammar. Again, welcome to Slashdot.
This idea that the Segway was going to replace our jobs in web development with urban transportation infrastructure reengineering jobs, produced a societal trauma that left us all with the illusion that /., Wired magazine and NASDAQ were still relevant to our lives -- along with a syndrome of other symptoms that should probably receive disability insurance indemnification as well as a place in the DSM IV under "Acute Segway Trauma Syndrome".
Seastead this.
What is with all of the Segwey astroturfing? Talk about a pathetic product. Tons of hype months before its unveiling. Tons of hype after. No one cares. The product is nothing more than an overpriced scooter, that will most likely be just as overpriced to maintain (who sells the spare parts).
I laugh whenever I remember how the astroturf machine was spreading rumors that this IT thing would revolutionize our way of life.
Again, pathetic.
The fact that Slashdot keeps posting these obvious Segwey astroturf "news" items makes me question whether or not they are being paid to post this rubbish.
Just because we are nerds doesn't mean we are stupid. Give us more news articles on math, science, and engineering breakthrus. If you are going to post news articles on high-tech gadgets, then only post articles about gadgets that are worth a geeks time and money.
I would rather see a news article about the latest LED flashlight, as opposed to another Segwey article. In fact, I am in need of purchasing a new LED flashlight. Any suggestions?
911 is for EMERGENCIES ONLY, and can get overwhelmed when too many people call for non-emergencies.
That's why many cities are instituting 311 numbers as a general dispatch/information to keep people from clogging up 911, 'cause people are too freakin' lazy (or, in your case, misinformed) to use the proper number.
Afaik, the Segway uses a version of the iButton which stores a small amount of other data in addition to the serial number. So, what the Segway probably does is check that the serial number matches what it expects, and also reads the data in the iButton to determine things like the maximum speed it's allowed to go. IIRC, at least one of the Segway keys is speed-limited, for "valet parking" etc.
So, to hotwire a Segway electronically (as opposed to somehow bypassing the electronic circuitry, if that's possible), you need to at least (a) determine what iButton serial number your Segway expects (hmm - wonder if it's printed on the Segway somewhere?) and (b) build a small iButton simulator which generates the required signal, using the documented OneWire protocol. However, you'd need to do some additional work to simulate the data storage on the iButton. You'd probably need to reverse engineer an existing Segway iButton key for that part - which should be easy, if you have access to a key.
Bottom line: hotwiring a Segway would take some work, and it would be tough without access to a Segway key to play with, but once you'd done one, it might be pretty easy to do the next one. A big question is how easy it would be to determine the serial number it expects, if you don't have the key. That could be a real barrier.
BTW, if you want a much more secure authentication mechanism, the Java version of the iButton will do public/private key encryption on the button, so it can be sent a challenge encrypted with your public key, and it will decrypt it with your private key and send it back to the challenger. Now that should be hard to hack.
If Segways become popular, then there will be no need for homosexuals' sixth sense of "GADAR". Segways are the equivalent of puting a Rainbow sticker in your rear window.
Has anyone else noticed that The Smoking Gun has blurred out the guy's home phone number, but not his address or name? You would think if they really cared about his privacy, all of would have been blurred out and nothing would have been lost from the police report. But that's just my two cents.
It could be this, this, or this one.
If you're like me, you would have to guess this is his.
ASTROTURF!
First someone buys a segway, then someone steels a segway. What's next Chimps will be included in the human Genus. That's it I'm going clean my cousin's fur, I mean hair.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Since it's a segway story and I ranted recently on these things I'll do it again here.
First off if you are considering buying one of these things, goto your cabinet, find one of those things they call a pot, hit yourself on the head.
Secondly, realize that you can do all that a Segway can do WITH A BIKE!!!! All that and you get EXERCISE. Now I understand that the segway is a perfect personification of the Lazy Fat American Dream, but really exercise is gooooood.
A bike also weighs less, costs less, and can go down stairs, on grass and dirt.
Don't get me wrong the tech is pretty cool, but it's evil I'm sure the thief will return it with a note "Sorry it looked awfully fancy for a paperweight, I thought it might actually have been useful."
-- taking over the world, we are.
for the crime of conspicuous consumption.
Scooter Jacking.. the crime of the future.
"Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better" - Steve Taylor
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The northwest segway club reported record membership. The 3 Segway owners are reported as being too damn lazy to walk.
Anti-theft devices don't really help you in this situation eh? What a piece of shit... When people could spend time trying to cure diseases, they would rather spend time making a faggier ride than a bananna seat bicycle. Electronic fag bashing!
God spoke to me
Did he think he would be able to ride the thing without anyone giving him weird looks and calling the cops that some wacko is riding around on this screwed up "gray thing".
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From the article:
:)
Valentine wonders if somebody passing through took the Segway and unable to start it, abandoned it. He's already searched the area and along the river.
My bet is on the *bottom* of that river
No word yet from the Grand Theft Auto team about including a Segway in their next game release. If you can't devistate a human body with it, then it doesn't belong in GTA.
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
If people want to smoke, take drugs, sit and grown fat, etc... go ahead and let them. They are only killing themselves. Things like this make me think we should legalize drugs. Then all the people that are easily peer pressured or lacking will power will wipe themselves out. Sure it sounds bad but if that's what people want to do with their own bodies then who is to blame?
In unrelated news, another local residence was burgled. This time the thieves absconded with an entire box of Super Sugar Crisp Cereal. "What kind of monsters would DO such a thing?" sobbed the distraught homeowner, whos identity was being kept private until next of kin could be notified.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Once I actually got so frustrated that I did call 911, and as soon as the operator got on the line, explained, "This is NOT an immediate emergency, but I need the non-emergency number for the police." The operator understood my plight, and transfered me to the appropriate person to handle the call (i.e., the "not a real emergency but the person dialed 911 so talk to them letting them think they are being taken seriously" operator). I eventually got tranferred to the right department, but even then could not get a non-emergency number for future use.
The reason? The department did not want to get sued for someone dialing the non-emergency number in an emergency and not responding in an urgent enough manner. They'd rather have someone clog up the 911 lines, albeit briefly, and get redirected.
Of course, as always, YMMV.
You could've hired me.
6) please click links with goats and tubs in them as they are often relevant to the topic
Finally Kent (the city I live in) is in the news! Sweet! I really wish I had a Segway though ): Ahhh well....better get back to programming...
http://codeus.info
Throwing a segway? The thing weighs more than 70lbs.
I'd hate to just throw that from a stationary position. Wouldn't be able to get much distance at all...
Now, if you grabbed it by the handlebar, and twirled like a discus throw. Or, more properly, a hammer throw... you might get some nice distance there.
Hmm... anyone want to voluteer a segway to test this way?
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is... Oops. Frank, I've got your sig again! Where's mine?
Buy it now for only $5,500!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
5 million years apart and we still roll on the ground...
I think i see how we're 99.4% alike....
Interesting point, actually. I keep pretty regular tabs on the BMW message boards, and when the new M3 came out there was a rash of break-ins -- but few actual thefts. It seems there was a "bug" with the car in that if a thief popped out a certain part of the driver's door, the alarm wouldn't go off. They'd then hop in and check the glovebox in the hopes that the new driver had forgotten to remove the "emergency" valet key from it's home in the user's manual. So basically a lot of people came home to find broken doors and "roughed up" cars.
The other thing, especailly in a place like NYC, is the miserable flatbed truck. There are so many friggin' tow trucks running around this city, nobody would even bat an eye if they saw a flatbed loading a new BMW up. Snap, zoom, and off they go with your car....no hotwiring even necessary.
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
"Yer right, Cletis. That IS one fancy-pants lookin' push-mower. If'n ya only had the keys..."
Roger Schmeckel, a grossly obese Sysadmin from the washington area was unable to function without his stolen segway.
Aparently once considered "only fat" by friends and colleagues, the complete cessation of any physical activity brought on the the purchase of the segway has caused Schmeckel to gain an astonishing 250lbs in 3 months. He is now unable to walk from his desk to the kitchen without assistance.
Schmeckel is quoted as saying -- "I'm just glad all my friends from the EQ community have banded together and helped me out during my time of need".
Tape at 11.
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
Amazon employees have fought a huge battle at their new office (the shithole US1) to be able to bring their bikes into their cubes. Management says NO. $1000+ bikes are common, of course.
They can, however, drive Segways inside the building...
Here you Astroturfer
I wanna watch the 'High Speed' chase on TV!!
It might make the record book as the slowest and weirdest police pursuit.
...and I think the rednecks in their large trucks would run you over if they saw you on that thing anyhow!
(Now, don't get me wrong, I liked it there. But I'm a redneck. You can't fight genetics.)
A segfault.
(Shoot me for that one. Please.)
Usually if the cars been roughed up it was done by someone who didn't know what they were doing, can't assume things like valet or hidden keys will be around, no time for that :). BMW does make a hard car to steal though, even for the experts. For instance to steal alot of vehicles theives just pop open the trunk and gain illegal entry through the back seat without breaking a thing (except the backseat bolt which is usually flimsy). BMW has always welded that entry point shut using the actual frame of the car and actual heavy bolting in some cases. Nowadays if you wanna steal a BMW in particular you have to start talking about windows of time and escape routes especially in a place like NYC (i live here but again IANAT). It's too much overheard for just one person so if you have a bmw and it was stolen several people were involved besides the actual theif. The flatbed truck thing is often used and it's also easy to say you must of gotten the wrong car should you be stopped especially if you have a legit repo truck for a couple of hours :).. again IANAT.
Car theivery is just too risky a business with little reward unless you steal exotics but even exotics nowadays don't pull in the coin they used too, simply everyone has a Lambhorghini and Ferarri.. you could talk Bugatti but thats not along a regular car thief's lines (hard to keep and hard to get rid of). The only car theives really left are of two types. One; They are already rich and are either planning to heist new concepts which rarely ever happens and/or rare antiques and thats also hard. Two; They steal and part out cars like Hondas, Altimas etc etc just to make a meager living. It's not worth it.. Probably could make a better living getting a business degree and learning how to screw a business out of some money.
Did anyone happen to get a description of the getaway vehicle?!?!?
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
First off, I like how the officer describes it as a "motorized two wheeled walking machine", and then squeezed in the word "unique" in the police report... I wasn't aware the Segway actually WALKS! =)
Funy thing is that a slight modification might make a nice riding mower. What kind of a slope can it take? I'm waiting for someone to invent a "flowbee" style hovercraft riding mower. The faster the better.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Sadly, the Segway keys are easily-hacked, unencrypted I-Buttons, as Andy Rubin of Danger has discovered.
"You can use statistics to prove anything. 13% of all people know that." -- H. Simpson
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
So they are going to tie up an emergency phone line for this guys segway? How about calling the non emergency number? Unless there isn't one in that state.
Microsoft aggravates my tourettes syndrome.
the accord has been the number one selling car for years. They are everywhere.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
There's an awful lot of astroturf around here lately.
Could we please get a separate "Segway" topic icon so I can filter these things out?
Yeah, I know, I don't have to read them. But they take up space that more useful things could fill, like news on EEG research on people wathcing grass grow, or the latest Kool-Aid related college prank.
That's just really sad that someone would do something like that.
On a completely unrelated note, does anyone know how to hotwire a segway? Thanks in advance.
----- sXe
1 (attempts/second) * 3,600 (seconds/hour) * 24 (hours/day) * 14 (days) = 1,209,600 attempts
Brute force busted in less than two weeks with the right set up. You would think that they would use more than that number of keys with 64 bits. I hope they are not using an NSA style 64 bit key, 0.0.0.0.0.0.x.x
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Shouldn't that be "HERD" of the game??
>...he had chained up his ^unique motorized two wheel walking machine. Ballentine indicated that he was the only one to have the machine in South Puget Sound.
>>...where the word "unique" was crammed above the flow of the rest of the text as an afterthought.
Uhhh, no it might have a few mods or other identifying marks. Not special, just differnt so that the police know what to look for. As Beavis said with a bucket full of stollen golf balls, "It's amazing how mass produced things are nearly identical."
>>Can't ya just see the owner having a hissy fit over how amazingly special he and his Segway are, and how this is no ordinary theft, and the cop wedging the "unique" commentary in there just to shup him up?
Yes, I can imagine that but the thought came from you. Look for the sissy within and discover the source of your loathing.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Probably the only Segway in a 50 mile radius.
This guy, also located in washington, started renting out a segway around the same time...
Segway Thief?
You do stand on the segway...thats a quantum leep for some ppl in terms of their exercise...
Your signatures belong to me.
1 Certified PreOwned Segway from HotCable Motors. Low Miles, New Tires, Missing Key, sold as is. 4800 or Best Offer.
a couple years ago some morons broke into my car and stole all my stereo equipment, AND MY HP-48GX CALCULATOR! (a reverse polish notation calculator for those that dont know)
Years later, I still laugh when I think about the morons trying to use such a calculator, since entering something as simple as "2 + 2" yields an error for invalid syntax (again, for those who dont know RPN, you would have to enter "2 ENTER 2 ENTER +" to get the result.
they probably thought it was broken and ditched it.
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
Screw a perfect insane stunt. I want to shoot people on Segways, run them down with a car or garbage truck, or just knock 'em off and beat them to death.
In that case I hope they make it multiplayer because I want to do Segway drive-bys.
Drrrrrrr...
RATTATTATTATTA!
Drrrrrrr...
Yeah, the Angels can keep their Harleys. As far as I'm concerned, da 'Seg' is the meanest machine out there, and environmentally friendly too!
See you online!
You are bidding on a The Segway HT i167, Human Transporter!! No reserve and ready to ship IMMEDIATELY!!!! Not "available soon" or "on order" no nonsense here! Just a BRAND NEW never stepped on, Never used at all segway! No waiting till August or September, no scheduling training 2-4 hours away or more! Buy here now and I'll ship right away! You can ride right away!
I have possession of a Segway:
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!
Sounds desperate enough to be the thief...
This is Papa Bear. Put out an APB for a male suspect, driving a... car of some sort, heading in the direction of, uh, you know, that place that sells chili. Suspect is hatless. Repeat, hatless.
Any Simpsons fan knows how deadly these things
are!
My neighbor just finished building a battlebot that looks a lot like a Segway. :)
When I confronted him, he said it "fell of a truck"; I don't believe him
> Secondly, realize that you can do all that a Segway can do WITH A BIKE!!!!
Yes, but will a Segway cause infertility in men? Biking is fine and dandy for those who are done having kids, but I still need live amo.
Now if I could figure out a way to swim to work, THAT would be cool and fun. There is a river on the way, but it's dangerous and I would be swimming against current (and up a couple of dams I think).
But I'm never done reading slashdot... that's the whole point of it !
i cant resist... the stolen segway... ;)
Link I need to download instructions to hotwire a Segway . . .
*Man trundles by on a Segway*
*BASH! BASH! BASH! YOINK!*
*Hops on Segway*
*Trundle*
*Trundle*
*Man gets up off footpath and starts walking after you on the Segway*
Him:"Come back here!"
You:"Oh crap!"
*He ambles up to you and starts ambling along beside you*
H:"So... thought you could steal my mightly Segway did you? Thought I wouldn't be able to catch you hey?"
Y:"Crap, crap, crap!"
*You look everywhere for some way to make it go faster, an accelerator, a button... anything* H:"Come on... just get off"
Y:*whimper*
nthing here
Cover your eyes and click this link!
SSK@hv6em~Q5Xesu7fwhLgTS2qnW9aoPAgM/RL-segway/1//
For anonymous surfing of the story.
Anyone who'd shell out 5,000 clams for a Segway has too much money anyway. You could get a LARK for half the price and it can go places the Segway can't. It has 4-wheels so you don't need no stinking balance-gyro, you can sit as you go, and it has a large basket to carry your groceries... or your dribble cup or diapers. If you're too damn lazy to walk, at least enjoy the ride sitting down. :)
I still chuckle as I recall the debut of the Segway and all the hype. The "City Fathers" scrambling to make new laws for helmets, speed limits, no riding on the sidewalk, the creation of special "Segway Lanes" akin to bike lanes. I have yet to see one in use on the street still and I'm downtown in a major U.S. city all the time for work. That p.o.s. will go down in history as the dumbest and most expensive personal use Dodo-Bird of modern times... anyone who buys a Segway and chains it up with a bike chain in the front yard deserves to have it stolen.
He probably threw it into the Puget Sound and claimed it was stolen so he could get his money back through insurance
"It is essential that justice be done
Well, the site in my sig is all about freedom of the press. Well, it's a site where anyone is free to post any news they want without censorship.
It's not there to justify my post, it's on all my messages.
In the country I'm writing from, I have the freedom of speech. If you're in the USA, you do too, at least for the time being.
I wasn't trying to justify the theft was right. Just as I won't try to justify a 1st year law student standing in a subway with a law book in his hand saying "you can't hit me, it's against the law" to a bunch of thugs is a good thing. He'll more than likely get bitch slapped. Is there a law against taunting? Not that I'm aware of. It's constitutionally protected as free speech (just as this), but it's probably not a good idea.
When the recent war started, I was where a bunch of protesters were (coincidentally). I was wearing a shirt that said "Greens+" on the front and "Swallow The Leader" on the back. It's an advertisment for health supplements from a store someone I knew worked at. Everyone that has said anything about it reads a sexual reference into it (funny that). A guy walked up to me talking about Green Peace. I smiled and nodded. I guess the peace-nik's can't read. There was also a guy at a piercing shop with a picture of a pistol on his shirt. We're all making our statements. Mine was for oral sex. His was pro-war, and the protesters were obviously anti-government peace-nik's with a cause they didn't understand.
(free speech remember? I can saw what I want. {{Pbthhh}})
But I already know your answer.. "Opinions are like assholes.. Everyone has one..." That's fine. You can say it. It's your right.
Want to do something about it? Find some obscure but news-worthy news that you probably won't find on a major news outlet due to censorship, and post it to FreeInternetPress.com
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Seriously though, didn't someone on here say these are virtually impossible to crack? 128-bit encryption or something?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Segway creator Dean Kamen recently purchased 10% of RockStar Games.
No word if this has anything to do with RockStar Games making the Segaway look like a reasonable form of transportation in their popular Grand Theft Auto 3 game, rather than the slow piece of shit coat rack that it really is.
In (more) other news, I've recently aquired a Segaway. The keys seem to be missing, so I will part with it for only $100. First come first serve, and cash only please.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
"There's no way they can fit all that up her..."
I'm sorry, I digress...
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
Some police in the UK are currently trialing the Segway. http://www.silicon.com/news/500022-500001/1/4180.h tml
f.) Cowboyneal
... the way the Alpha Betas treated the Tri-Lambs in "Revenge of the Nerds"?
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
True, but not true. If you come onto my property and start sawing my stuff I can call the cops and have you arrested for vandalism. In some jurisdictions that is even cause for justifiable manslaughter.
So... just be careful where you pull out your chainsaw and where you stick it. Make sure have the property owner's permission.
Not even sure what sawing has to do with free-speech, but I'm sure there's a wacky drugged out artist who can confirm that sawing is an art and protected by free speech.
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas"
Sen. Davy Crocket to US Congress, Nov. 1, 1835
(week's compilation link)
...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Don't waste time debating the wide-eyed, endless, unnervingly uniform, scarily sanguine protestations of these Segway Cultists folks, you'll end up spammed, email hate-bombed, and IP-blocked. Dean Kamen has recruited an army of feverish acolytes that rivals Steve Jobs' disciples in terms of portable reality distortion fields.
Da Blog
Meehawl is here! >WONK WONK
FreeBSD or else.