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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."
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.
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.
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!?"
Simpsons did it!
No, not really. Sluggy Freelance did it. Except it was called a Smegvay. Just don't let the tip over.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Because you can still get right into the plastic underneath the column and take the actual ignition switch off of the key mechanism with a scredriver and a pait of plyers.
No, stealing card isn't my side-business, but a neighbor asked if there was any way for me to get their car started after part of their kid's plastic toy was stuck in the key hole.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
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.
Riiiiiiight. So you are in better shape because of your segway...that's a good one. So how long have you been on segway's payroll? I was getting pretty fat too...then I started watching hockey on tv...now I am fit as a fiddle.
Saved over $600 a month? What kind of fuzzy math is that? How can it give you more time? A car goes much faster than a segway, therefore it will get you there faster (in most cases). Unless you are using it for short commutes, in which case your saving $600 figure makes no sense (ok, it didn't make sense to begin with). I mean, I am sure someone likes segway somewhere, but seriously...isn't this reading high on anyone else's BS meter?
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Sadly, the Segway keys are easily-hacked, unencrypted I-Buttons, as Andy Rubin of Danger has discovered.
i have more time to jog each day as opposed to sitting in traffic, i get home a bit earlier and can leave later so i started to jog more- it's that's simple. you can call bs on me all you want, i'll glady prove it any way you choose. the $600 is: $350 car payment, $150 insurance and $120 parking. do the math...i don't work for or with segway in any way, they make a cool ride, but that's where it ends.
Yeah, well, some of us see the potential in new technology and become enthusiastic supporters.
I used CompuServe and (later) the Internet to send e-mail and conduct research, long before most people knew what a modem was.
I bought CD players when all my friends said cassette tapes were fine and that I was being an audio snob.
I loved the Mac GUI when it came out, and recognized its appeal to the masses. The command-line snobs pooh-poohed it as a silly toy.
I supported OS/2 when it brought powerful object-oriented UI to the PC desktop. (Well, okay, I lost out on that one -- but it was the precursor to Windows 95 and all that followed.)
I now have a Segway. So it's not perfect for everyone. What *is*? But it works for my own particular set of circumstances, and I think it can be a good fit for a lot of other people.
BTW, people didn't see the reason for bicycles ~140 years ago. Sears sold them through catalogs for $25 in 1897. That's equivalent to $2,200 in today's dollars.
Hell, 100 year ago, people thought cars were useless toys for the idle rich. Why get those horseless carraige things when you could buy a perfectly good and reliable horse? The Model-T started out selling for about $75,000 [again in today's dollars] -- it took about 12 years to come down to about $20,000.
The Segway has only been available to the public for about 6 months. Give it time and let the market decide. 100 years from now, it'll either be a common sight that nobody thinks much about, or it will have been a curiosity that happend for a brief moment in history.
Some police in the UK are currently trialing the Segway. http://www.silicon.com/news/500022-500001/1/4180.h tml