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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."
someone got one at a decent price!
... 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!
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!"
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
I would be interested in buying a used Segway if anyone knows where I might be able to get one.. wink wink
Skinner: Damn...they're very slowly getting away!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
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
"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!
Update: Statistics now show that 25% of all Segways have been stolen.
sulli
RTFJ.
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.
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. (> <)
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_?!"
--News Release-- The makers of the popular Grand Theft Auto game series have announced their intention to add the Segway scooter to their video game. The Segway, affectionately dubbed "Speedy Gonzalez", will be equipped with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank rockets. A JATO (jet-assisted takeoff) rocket pack will be added to increase the drag racing potential of what one GTA player has referred to as a "bad-ass ride, dude!". There is no word as of yet concerning the possible addition of the famous Renault line of cars to the GTA lineup.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
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.
The Segway verifies that the key's code matches a code stored in the Segway, they are encoded with each code used once per million Segways, so the odds are really small that even your buddy's keys would activate another Segway. By the way, there are 3 keys, each activating a different max speed. (Source for all this: guy came to school to demo the Segway =D )
-insert a witty something-
Technically every home owners policy I've ever seen would cover this, at least to a certain dollar amount. It would cover your lawn mower sitting out back and it would cover your Segway joking secured with a bicycle chain.
A good atricle on the security of the Segway is located here.
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!?"
Tonight, they're going to take it out for a whirr-by shooting.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Yeah a real joyride. Dragging a 93Lbs Segway down the street sounds like a joy ride to me. :)
RiGgA
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His homeowner's policy wants his auto insurance to pay for it, his auto insurance wants his homeowner's to pay for it - Catch 22.
He's fed up with the whole thing, so he just wants to pay a $300 reward (no questions asked) for his Segway's return. He even said during the interview that the thieves just needs to tell him that they found it in the bushes.
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.
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.
It does qualify. If they were crazy enough to steal it, who knows how nuts they are?
Tired of legitimate data sources? Try UNCYCLOPEDIA
"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
Sadly, the Segway keys are easily-hacked, unencrypted I-Buttons, as Andy Rubin of Danger has discovered.
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.