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Solar Powered Jacket Charges Your Gadgets
blorg writes "Wired News has a story about a new jacket from SCOTTeVEST that uses flexible solar panels on the shoulders to recharge gadgets in the pockets. The idea is that you can now keep all of your gadgets charged, even if you are spending an extended period of time away from a power source. The solar charging is an addition to an existing jacket with features including 42 hidden pockets that can be wired together through the jacket lining."
In the interests of political correctness I wish to formally protest this device.
It doesn't take into account the needs of miners, subway operators and sewer workers. I dream of a world in which these forgotten peoples and we surface dwellers can join hands in peace and rejoice in equal-opportunity recharging.
Thank you.
Trolling is a art,
Anyone get flashbacks to old Sci-Fi shows? with the gigantic shoulder pads? Can we get high stainless steel collars on our jackets too now?
the solar cells weight the same as batteries and their production uses up more energy than they provide in their entire lifetime.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
Now I have an excuse for wearing my pants dropped around below my butt... because I'm wearing solar powered boxers! (and I'm _loving_ it!)
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
Can't wait to walk past TSA with this hooked up to my pda, mp3 player and gameboy advance.
Last one in jail is a fascist.
Now I can walk around looking like a high-tech docking station. Wonder what the neighbors will think.
How do you wash it? Dryclean? A soft moist cloth? Those lysol wipes, and that cool foamy spray stuff to clean your desk with?
and you will realize how charged u want to stay.
Pff power source who needs it! This is great.. In the past couple years we have seen some new KEY inventions. This is one of them.. I am keen to see how this works in the real market. If it works like they say it will it will be a revolutionary product. Also love the fact that the jacket looks so well! This will be great for avalance victims.. Great for people who do remote sports. Good job SCOTTeVEST
This presupposes that geeks would expose themselves to natural sunlight.
But what I really want is a solar-charged version of North Face's MET5 Jacket for an extended heating period.
Get prepared to answer about one million questions when you put it through the xray machine. To be on the safe side, arrive about 2 days prior to your departure time.
So they make a geek toy that requires sunlight to operate? How will we maintain our pasty complexions?
I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words
Awww mom!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Waoh, the rumours of the daystar are TRUE!
'The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age,' -Hamá, the doorward
Does anyone else see a fundamental flaw in the assumptions about the potential market?
... and I have to say that its crap.
The build quality is ludicrous - the magnet clasps fell out 3 days after I put it on.
Plus, even though I ordered a medium, it still seems like you have to be a fat, overweight geek with 17 gadgets in his pockets in order for it to fit right.
My opinion is this: don't get one unless you're going to walk around with $2,000 of gear stuffed into the pockets, because it won't fit right otherwise...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Slap on some sunscreen, you may get burnt from the sun otherwise..
Darl: "Your honor, the vest is called a SCOttevest. It is a clear indicator that our IP has been incorporated in this vest!"
Judge Scott: "I'm not amused."
This is a geek thing. Don't geeks stay inside all day. Where will they see the light to recharge? From their car to the house? From their house to work? That's like a minute a day.
Evolution or ID?
Perfect For
- Skiing/Snowboarding
- Photography
- Traveling
- Hiking
- Law enforcement
Law enforcement... cool. Now the cops can keep their 50kV stun guns charged all the time!-- Power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
pulled off a flight recently because of wires sticking out of a motorcycle jacket?
NYtimes article (no reg required).
Wonder what they'd do to you if you were wearing one of these? Interrogation? Beatings? Electrodes on your nipples?
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
1) Most (good) gadgets run for several days, you can power them up during the night
2) When you're out walking, you'd want to USE the damn gadget, not recharge it.
3) Is the jacket durable enough? Aren't solarcells a bit weak to be worn all the time?
I bet I've read this shit back in the 80s... Why are all slashdot articles nowdays _sooo_ boring? What should we do finally get public articles moderation?
...when it starts raining? ...when you try to get through airport security? ...when someone h4X0rs your jacket via Bluetooth? ...when you can't find your pager/cellphone because you have 42 different pockets?
Personally, I think they haven't thought this one through. Solar power is for wimps. My jacket has a 17-foot lightning rod attached for energy collection. (It was either that or the rubber-soled-shoe/shag-pile-carpet combination, but that only works indoors.)
These sigs are more interesting tha
I just have to ask....will the power controller run linux???
Evolution or ID?
The jacket is a cool idea, but unless all of the devices worn on it are bulletproof (which would be pretty slick) I'll pass.
As it is, I had an Ipaq as well as several other PDAs before. They where just to fragile for me to consider carrying them that close to me all the time.
About the only thing I feel comfortable carrying on my person would be my cellphone and pager - everything else would have me trying to constantly remember things like "Ok, PDA in pocket X, make sure I don't sit/do jumping jacks/box/etc etc".
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
wouldn't this require us to... *shudder*... actually go out in sunlight???
Fiends. Next thing you know they'll be selling tanning beds for vampires.
Their parents will get suspicious when the geeks want to rig the basement up with a few dozen 300 watt lamps.
Trolling is a art,
You have two options for charge that jacket:
1) Use it with you inside, but you can damage your skin appearence or get cancer that way
2) Leave the jacket staring on the sun, but the sun will damage your jacket (specially colors) and soon you will not be able to use it on yourself (you still can just carry it with you though)
I would prefer carry just that flexible solar panels on my pocket/car/wallet
What we need is NEON panels! Harness all that wasted lightbulb light back into batteries or something! (I was joking, but now that I actually read this back to myself, this seems like an excellent idea. Is there any possibility that this could ever work? If not, why not? Just curious.) *cragen
The problem with solar is that it's inefficient. So if everyone has their own portable solar station with them they waste a lot of material and ironically energy.
Why not just put more outlets at airports, restaurants then supplment the powergrid with more solar?
So far of the five airports I've been to I've never seen an electrical outlet anywhere. That to me is just plain stupid.
Even in the new Ottawa airport there aren't any. So they spend billions on some "art nouveau deco" for the airport then don't spend the time to wire it up. Hazaa!
This is why business people are stupid. They never think to steps ahead of right now...
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Not a bad idea for a jacket -- though I do have a gripe with the battery pack. Though small (sized like a cardpack) -- it will still probably make the jacket feel offweight. I wouldn't mind just using the solarpanels by themselves to charge up my devices (since most of them already have built-in batteries).
Massive networking attempt for friends
TSA people will love this.
On the other hand, warwalkers should.
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
Are they going to market one with Steve Mann's name on it?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I like to wear a jacket on a bright sunny day. This is like the old solar powered flashlight.
Now where did I put those keys?
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
As most geeks I know don't spend much time in the sun.
;-)
Perhaps a Flourescent powered jacket? or CRT powered Jacket?
-Henry
--- #@$DF@#2%@^%3^&*$%FRHG%%[NO CARRIER]
Or would there not be enough movement and/or efficient parts to generate a decent amount of power?
Wonder what they'd do to you if you were wearing one of these? Interrogation? Beatings? Electrodes on your nipples?
Electrodes on your testicals, followed by extradition to Germany for consumption by the world famous cannibal guy.
Don't fuck with Homeland Security.
for phonIE gadgets/recharging?
this stuff is unbreakable, wwworks on several (more than 3) dimensions, & is free, as in possibly surviving the georgewellian fuddite corepirate nazi life0cide against the creators' planet/population.
georgewellian fuddite corepirate nazi felons' (Score:mynuts won, all you really need is oxygen?)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 14, @09:25AM (#7972904)
badtoll plan for US, shrouded in greed/fear/ego based ?pr firm? stock markup FraUD hypenosys/deception?
there can be only won? lookout bullow.
consult with/trust in yOUR creators.... get ready to brighten up.
$2000...!!! thats my laptop(a fujitsu p2110) and IPod.... total they would both fit on a sheet of 8.5x11" paper and be no taller than 1.5" so $2000 in gear isn't very much. the laptop was $1800 new and the IPod was like around $300(however much a 15 gig one was a year ago)
All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
Well, ok, not only solar energy, better than this actually. The Renewable Energy Magazine is a great resource in the domain. It is also free providing you work with renewable resources. I have been reading this magazine for a year and learned so much on renewable energies. Worthed. See http://www.jxj.com/magsandj/rew/index.html
Animoog.org
one of their jackets causes all planes to be grounded and the airport to be evacuated the next time I take a trip and it's delayed for 8 hours?
If you're a mensa, you're supposed to fly under the radar, not put it in your sig, you simpleton.
Cool! Now I know why Bird-Man has to recharche......
- no sig.
How much power do these two little solar cells generate ? I highly doubt it's sufficient to feed all gadgets at once.
Stop clogging up the comment boards with multiple poor top-level posts... they're all terrible attempts to be funny and my neck hurts from shaking my head so much. PLEASE go outside and get some air and exercise.
A solar powered jacket would require you to be... outside... with that big bright light up in the sky shining down radiation(!). No thanks. The better solution would be to drink mass quantities of carbonated sugarwater, then converting the extra glucose in your bloodstream into the power that you need (to operate the computer that orders you more Coke, that gets converted to the power you need to...)
--
Power to the Peaceful
...the wearable, washable, fully rechargable, solar powered...
Cowbell.
Walken. Teh Spoke. Word.
--------------------
Brought to you by the "Desperately Seeking a New Slashdot Catchphrase in '04" committee
I want one. But not being from the country of the jacket's origin, I'm not
:-).
familiar with the sizes. The size selection (see web site) is as follows:
small
medium
large
large - tall
x-large
x-large - tall
xx-large
xx-large - tall
xxx-large
xxx-large - tall
I'm about 182 cm (~ 6") tall, and my arm reach from fingertip to fingertip
is also about six feet as well. Quite slim (didn't grow up on hamburgers
Now, what of the above sizes would fit this guy?
Does anyone know if there are (or coming soon) some alternative to AA NiMH rechargeables? Wanted: lower weight, should not drain during storage, should not drain / die in the cold / heat (like, EG, -10C..40C). Anything?
Why didn't they stick a hood on that thing and integrate headphones into it? That would be cool.
They actually liked my suggestion! Way to go, Scott!
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
It's not designed for Morlocks.
I'm not buying crap from this guy. I'd never heard of him until I got a spam listing one of his products (in all fairness, I have no reason to believe that this original spam was in any way affiliated with him). Apparently an image was linked from his web site, so when I reported it, his ISP got on the LART list. (this part is my conjecture) He ignored the request for info from his ISP, and as per their policy that he agreed to, they disabled his site. He didn't find out for a couple more days and then got really pissed at me (end my conjecture). So he emailed me and threatened to sue me for things like trying to destroy his business, taking his name (his last name is my first name), and some kind of trade infringement since we have the same name and we have businesses that work with portable computers. I told him where to stick it and to learn to be responsible for his web site and customers, he said I'd hear from his lawyer. A few months later I got a not-quite-spam from his company. (more conjecture follows) Either his ISP didn't think it was spam, they ignored the LART, or he learned to actually check up on his web site.
Either way I make sure to tell people not to do business with this loser.
funny munging
Nah. They'll just think you're growing pot.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
There are a number of wired jackets which would cause security problems. A lady with a self-warming leather jacket was stopped recently, and there are self-defense electrified jackets which would definitely be seen as a weapon.
[
Can I get one with a built in tin-foil lined hood?
Beep beep.
How is this news for those pale skin, 'dew drinkin' parents-basement-livin' nerds? Most of us probably haven't seen the sun for several months - if not longer!
;)
Acts of massive stupidity are almost never covered by warranty. --me.
Thanks for the post! The traffic from slashdot caused our website to crash. Please bear with us.
Scott Jordan, CEO www.scottevest.com
What about a baseball cap with a solar brim? Plug it into your jacket for added solar surface area (more watts). Whats better, in places like Texas where I live you don't wear a jacket but a few months out of the year, but a cap can be worn year round. Use it as a stand alone device. In the Western part of the state a cap brim would pull in more juice than a jacket cap combo in lot of places. Just sounds like the natural next step to me.
No. Even though I'm a Texan I don't thing a solar Stetson would sell. Well, maybe a few....
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
This is a good idea, but I beleve it is implimented in the wrong way. People are not going to buy jackets that have this. Why not put this technology/idea into a backpack? You could place the solar panels on the sholders on the backpack, or even a sort of side bag that has become so popular. Woul this not be a more appealing idea? Personally I would buy a backpack that had this feature. My laptop always needs those good ol' rays of cancer.*gigle*
They are assuming we go out into the sunshine, hell i spend my entire work day in a windowless closet of a server room with the light out to keep the heat down.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. -Fight Club
Wow, this jacket looks awesome. I bet it's a real chick magnet too.
-
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
...who wears a jacket on a sunny day?
does it recharge under fluorescent lighting???!!!
Also, remind you of the suit George Jeton wore through all kinds of punishment when he thought he was going to die, then his wife washed it instead of dry cleaning, destroying it before it could get the Goodspacekeeping Seal?
Me neither... gimme!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Someone already joked about getting it through security...I think it would be near impossible.
Recently there was a woman wearing a leather motorcycle jacket with a built in heating system that connects to the bike via wires...these wires were hanging out of the jacket..all of a sudden we have a terroist situation...a plane delayed awhile and this woman was accosted...Sorry, thats not making me safer, some hunyuk terrorist wanting to take down a plane is going to be smart enough to make sure no WIRES are hanging out of his bomb laden jacket....Good lord
Apple free since 1990!
I came across some cells from the late 70's and they still produce electricity. Compare that with the production cost of a rechargeable battery or an alkaline and I am sure you will see that over the lifetime of the solar cell (which has yet to be determined) they end up costing next to nothing in comparison.
Solar Power. When will people learn. *shakes head*
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Trevor baylis (the wind-up radio guy) did this
see this link
Now we can all pretend to be satellites on halloween.
Yeah, give this poor guy some time to dig the web-serving Palm Pilot out of his solar-powered pockets and reboot it...
do not read this line twice.
"... features including 42 hidden pockets that can be wired together through the jacket lining."
I don't know, but something tells me this jacket seriously wouldn't go down too well in an airport. In this world where almanacs are the work of the devil, lets just say such a jacket might get some odd looks...
Would be for the jacket to also accept firewire, USB 2.0 and bluetooth connections from the gadgets then act as a WiFi router back to your computer and/or the Internet. Now that would be sweet.
Walk by an open Access Point and suddenly you get updated for your email, the latest RSS feed from SlashDot, the MP3 tracks from that CD your friend just baought and ripped, etc.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I didn't see any mention of a pocket for my penis.
For you /. types who need a reason to go outdoors, hook your solar-jacket up to one of these, and you'll never go back inside again!
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
Haha she's got a cah-BOOSE!
Hey kid - it's 90F outside - why are you wearing that jcacket? This jacket clearly has you covered if you live in high lattitude countries which are cold enough for a jacket, yet sunny enough for solar cells...
Will security keep you longer than normal cause of wires from the panels going throughout the jacket?
I assume that Scottevest's web servers are running on solar power, cause they are only slightly delivering content! Poor bastards.
"Ain't I a stinka..." - Bugs
For the full Press Release see: http://www.scottevest.com/htmlemail/icp_release/in dex.html
However, due to all the traffic, I think our server is down temporarily. We are working on it!
Scott Jordan
Scott Jordan, CEO www.scottevest.com
Saw one post on here that said it's not too tough, and website is dead. So my question is while it'd be nice to have this type jacket for extended (2 days+) outdoor use, is it tough enough to survive that? If so, great for keeping a cell phone or portable radio charged for emergencies. If not, seems worthless as most devices will go about 8 hours or more w/o charge and most people get to outlets within that time...
This sig left intentionally blank.
Lately, I find that if I browse Wired, The Register, and Anandtech, I get 80% of /. content, only several days sooner.
I'm starting to miss Katz....
and Could I plug this in to keep my joy buzzer fully charged?
How does this make us any different from a brown cow that has been genetically hacked to be green and provide its own food via photosynthesis? :)
With all the added power requirements, maybe another jacket should be added to the server farm?
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
the wired article sez 100 more than 200
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The subject line says it all! With 120 pounds of gadgets and 27 cables, my hiking trip is only 30 feet!
Remove the need to spend half an hour putting your jacket on and connecting all the cables...
Karem
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
No the parent-parent poster talked about $2000 dollars worth of stuff in your pockets, as being excessive. And the parent post said that is just a laptop and an ipod. Though personally I doupt a laptop would fit into this, though as I havn't seen a picture, maybe I'm wrong.
http://slashdot.org/~Scott%20Jordan
Nothing but posts supporting his product. I just get bad vibes from this product/guy for some reason, and this post somewhat confirmed what I was thinking: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=92802&cid=797
Get a jacket from the local surplus store and be done with it.
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
This jacket sounds like it has some quality issues, but I like the idea of the small solar panels. I observe with a fellow who uses a mini solar panel to recharge the battery on his telescope drive system. It works great and, from what I understand, it didn't cost that much to setup... around $500.
I had one of these for a year in high school and everyone thought it was just stupid. :(
Think bigger, ScottEVest.
In addition to the paradox of geeks in the sunlight, Does anyone see the fundamental flaw in that you have to go out into the sunslight wearing a *jacket*?
(In florida, it doesnt get cold enough to wear a jacket, and in the sun you would cook yourself alive in under 5 minutes)
and a person's posting history... Scott Jordan has posted about six comments, virtually all of which promote, or have to do with, his product/company.
Not to run down a CEO who reads slashdot... that alone certainly puts him in a tiny minority... but he's far from a regular slashdot contributer... see for yourself.
Scott Jordan's posting history
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
that I'd blackball the man yet... his account appears to be at least year old or so (at least it wasn't created by some troll 5 minutes ago).
But your point is well-taken... he may read slashdot, but it doesn't look like his posts have contributed much more than a few plugs for his product.
I concur with your call for caution.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Seemingly aimed at the technophile environmentalist on the go...
Technophile and environmentalist seem mutually exclusive to me. How can you claim to be an environmentalist while using a bunch of gadgets that are full of toxic materials, and non-toxic materials that have toxic by-products? I think the energy you save by having a solar jacket is nothing compared to the amount of environment that has been destroyed by the equipment you are charging up.
but I might recommend a variant on the Army/Navy store tac vest... a photographer's vest.
You wouldn't believe how many pockets, clasps, D-rings, etc come on one of those.
I have one... love it.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I can see 4 guys going up a ski lift, wired together as a mini lan playing doom3 or listening to mp3s. I see them skiing down the slope implementing a wireless and having some kind of spy like hunt and destroy game. I can see gps being used to locate them when an avalanche gets them. The only problem I see skiing are are trees.
Can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these?
There actually existed a crazy TSA proposal that all airline passengers would have been required to strip naked and put on (at the passengers' expense, of course) flimsy tight-fitting sci-fi looking spandex jumpsuits with no pockets and with little booties sewn into the feet like childrens pajamas, in order to be allowed to board airliners, so there would be no way to conceal weapons or bombs on their persons. Their normal clothing they wore to the airport would be packed into containers and sent along with the checked baggage in the cargo hold, and they could change back into their street clothes once they got to their destination airport.
Good looking chicks would look fine in these jumpsuits, but most folks would look mighty scary. I don't think most would want to see me in one, as I guarantee I would likely have a constant erection showing thru for the duration of the whole flight if I had to wear a flimsy spandex jumpsuit in public with nothing underneath, especially if there were any good looking chicks on the flight wearing them also.
You could put a small laptop in the back pocket (in the small of your back), but then you'd sit on it all the time.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
"Hey look! The sun's coming out, it's starting to warm up! Why, it's so nice out I think I'll take off my jacket!"
I resent that! My flouresent lights can charge my gadgets as well as the so-called "sun". In fact my favorite gadget, my precious pocket calculator, is solar polared!
let's see, I need to wear this jacket while standing in the nice, bright, hot sun, sounds kind of dumb to me. course I live in Arizona where standing in the sun is a good way to die. :)
Do I correctly understand that you don't want a solar-powered jacket-charger because going outside will give you wrinkles? And that you would consider hanging the jacket outside with all your gadgetry in it, but have decided against it because the jacket might be bleached by the sun?
It is possible that you are not the target market for this garment.
My grasp of English was far more worser than it is now
Heh... well, OK... at least you're trying.
My primary point with the original poster is that he might want to avoid looking like a dunce in the same post where he trumpets his intellect. I don't have a problem with Mensa folks... but boasting about your membership is generally considered crass and obnoxious.
Far be it from me to discourage someone from picking up a second (or third, or fourth) language... but if english is not his native tongue, he might consider writing his self-aggrandizing Mensa sig in the language where he (presumably) has mastery, or leaving it off entirely. If not, he runs the risk of native english-speaking bozos like me chuckling over it. I speak a some german and spanish... but I'd never presume to brag about my intelligence in those languages... the native speakers wouldn't be able to stop laughing long enough to correct my grammar.
Just a thought.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
From the article:
...said Sass Peress, CEO of ICP Solar Technologies, which licensed the solar system from GSE Technologies and is partnering with ScotteVest to create the solar jackets.
Who do I contact if I want to license the rest of the universe?
oops.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
This guy has been pushing this idea for years in Chicago, though I think he recently moved operations somewhere to save on 'expenses.'
/soooo/ cool because it had a walkman-shaped pocket (and a matching headphone-shaped one too) on the outside with a hole for your headphone wires. (The walkman pocket was the size of a paperback dictionary, but that's another story). Anyway, the thing was over a hundred bucks, which was just laughable. Anyway, that's what I thought of when I saw the original eVest.
/less/ stuff these days.
Granted, this is all my opinion, but it really speaks volumes on the state of tech innovation in Chicago.
Guy (lawyer maybe?) wants to be a tech entrepeneur and make buckets of money. Comes up with half decent idea, using connections and VCs desperate inability to turn down deals in 1999, gets funding. I have to say, back in the day when a phone/pda didn't do all this stuff, I was intrigued. For about a second, until I realized that for $300+ I could buy my own vest and wire it however I wanted. Then it reminded me of this vest I saw in 1984, which was
The problem is, he doesn't want to make a couple of handcrafted products, he wants to sell millions, and have them in Sharper Image, Harrington's, etc. He has succeeded in getting PR in Wired and NT Times, no small feat, if you consider this idea is getting stale, and most geeks I know want to carry
In order to get anyone to keep noticing it, it had to become the uber-vest. 42 pockets? For $300-400. Are you f&%)ing kidding me? You can get a cheaper/nicer vest for flyfishing or photographers, and load it up all you want.
Like I said, a sad state on the 'lemme in on the tech cash' mentality of innovation in Chicago in the last few years. IMO, of course. Probably I am most annoyed at his inability to just produce a product without trying to make it a billion dollar home run. I'm surprised he's still getting PR on this nonsense.
...because it assumes the user will actually go outside in the sun.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
I can just see it now... "Is that a power strip in your pocket...?"
Be careful! Bears shouldn't consume large furry dogs.
recharge by OQO ultra-portable?
A goal is a dream with a deadline
This assumes that if there is enough sun out to power the jacket that I will still be wearing it...
Do I correctly understand that you don't want a solar-powered jacket-charger because going outside will give you wrinkles?
Not going outside but staring in the sun to charge your devices.
It may give you wrinkles you're used to think because it reduces elasticity of the skin, but the major problem is that it kind broke your skin.
In a tropical country near Antartica (where all CFC gas go to broke the ozone layer) we see that a lot, even with people on their 30's.
It also give you freckles and dark dots, i often swin on the outside, i take care but still have some of it, i know what i'm talking about.
And there is also cancer that damages genes of few cells now and will show it's results just ten or 20 years later, when the damage was already done.
And that you would consider hanging the jacket outside with all your gadgetry
No i was just saying that the jacket is pretty useless after it's appearence is damaged because of excessive sun expose
How long does it take to recharge a cell phone, or a PDA? Are you willing to stand outside in summer in a jacket to get your gadgets recharged?
And don't get anywhere near an airport or other security area. The poor lady who had a heated jacket had a bad enough time, can you imagine explaining 42 different devices plus wiring?
What's really shameful is that the screen on my Casio PDA isn't sunlight viewable. So I'll have to be constantly ducking in and out of archways... duck out, charge up for a few minutes, then dart back inside to read some more exciting ebooks on the ease and simplicity of our digital lifestyle...
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I may be a geek, and I may like the idea of a jacket with lots of pockets for my toys, but I dont really want to be a walking target that screams "I'm a first class dork".
Can't we have something like this but in the form of a leather trenchcoat? Hmm, maybe I will Mod my coat. Why not? People do case mods and such, why not "hack" and "mod" your clothing?
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
It doesn't take into account the needs of ... subway operators
What does this have to do with Jared?
OK, maybe you don't wear your solar-powered jacket on rainy days, but how does this overly-electrical thing deal with getting rained on? Is it washable?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
And for sure it needs to come in XXXLg sizes.
"Chicks" indeed!
That's very perceptive of you Mr Stapleton and rather unexpected in a G Major
Heavy Jacket+ Sunlight = Lots of sweaty geeks.
Doesn't anyone else think they should make a smaller, lighter version, and judging from the responses here, made by a different company? I think a nice vest with solar power and one or two power connectors would do fine for a lot of people... I mean, honestly, how many gadgets do you carry around with you all the time?
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
I'd settle for just a single battery that recharges all of my mobile devices. Charging the unibattery with a solar jacket (plus a wallplug) is a nice bonus.
--
make install -not war
Would it be possible to design a coat which converted your radiated heat energy into enough electricity to recharge a mobile device?
Maybe it could even use the kinetic energy of your arms.
"Yes, Mr. Stone? Do you have a question?" "No, I'm just waving my arms so I can use my PDA."
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
...you power your solar jacket
Oh, look, the Sun's out, let me put my coat on.
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
Just when Spheral Solar is finally working out the manufacturing angle. Their tech has the advantages of crystal cells but is flexible.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
I will wear it on my flight to Cuba.
Good idea but useless to those of us living the the greater Seattle area. Extended forecast for the next week in a single word..."rain".
Any chance of a hydro-power option that utilizes rain?
-ATH
Here's another less jackass looking idea. Use the same material they use in tan-through swim suites to cover the solar panel. A little less sunshine gets through, but it lowers the dork factor.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I can't seem to find anything on their website concerning the use of solar cells embedded in the sleeves... All i can see is a jacket with a ton of pockets. Am I missing something?
.. like a Solar Powered Torch!
I always had an idea along these lines that perhaps a device could be made that fits into normal airplane windows and could turn solar energy into electricity to power laptops or recharge other devices. With planes flying above the cloudline, planes are awash with loads of sunlight. Plus with plenty of downtime on planes, it could be good for recharging phones and PDA's, espically since they can't be used on planes anyway.
A solar Tshirt, bikini or whatever might be a far better idea.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
We can convert our landfill areas into an alternative source of energy.
We can clothe the homeless and they can plug into the grid at the end of the day to earn a few extra bucks.
Or we can just give them to the geeks for hacking ... oh, wait! That's where they came from!
I did NOT call Mr. Jordan a bad person... if you read my posts, I specifically stated that I would NOT blackball him.
/. readers. If his product is good, the market will bear it out.
My caution is to those who would swoon over his company's products because the CEO has a slashdot account. In his half-dozen posts, he's simply plugging his product. Not that plugging your product is bad... this man clearly has a business to run, and I'm not an anti-corporate communist like some
However, the fact that he has a slashdot account shouldn't make anyone rush out and buy a jacket, particularly when his account has been very sparsely used, and almost entirely for advertising. I think my exhortation to exercise a little caution is reasonable, not ridiculous.
His product may rock... but getting excited simply because the CEO reads slashdot? Heh... by that criteria, I'd still be using windows.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
"features including 42 hidden pockets that can be wired together through the jacket lining"
Am I the only one who read this and thought 'automatic logging war-walking'... anystreet USA... GPS reciever, lappy in backpack... Solar to extend running hours... and just start walking... -all day-...
Atrox
-Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
Right, because as CEO of his own company, he has nothing better to do than contribute to Slashdot on a daily basis
Nobody said anything about daily participation... but an account that's at least a year old, with only six posts, all of which plug his product?
Next jacket I need, this company gets serious consideration
Good for you... though for my own part, were I using slashdot as criteria for buying a product, I'd probably be more likely to buy from a guy with a longer posting history... but that's just me.
Not that tr0lling slashdot makes you a better person... it might actually make you a worse person, depending on how you post. For instance, would you buy something from a GNAA troll? The Penis birdman? the Goatsex guy? A long posting history can give you a better feel for how a person thinks, believes, or reacts... If I were to use slashdot to help me make a decision about buying a product, I'd be more likely to buy from Bruce Perens than Sir Haxalot (never met either guy, but I must say Perens gets the nod, if I'm going on nothing but their posts).
If the guy is trying to win over the geek community, he could start in a lot worse places than slashdot. However, geeks are pretty cynical, and notoriously suspicious of anything that smacks of marketing-speak. Here's a good example: how many times have you absolutely laughed out loud at those OSDN personals ads? C'mon... admit it... you see right through that stuff, just like 90+% of the Slashdot readership. I've never attempted to sell anything here (sales is not my line of work), but you'd be hard-pressed to find a tougher, more-cynical crowd... I'd think it would take serious geek cred to sell anything in this forum... and the only way to get that cred is to be
1. tech elite
2. famous/infamous
3. build it up the hard way by posting early/insightfully/entertainingly/often.
I give him a big thumbs up
Well... I don't know about that... I'll give him a small thumbs up.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
1. You're exactly right. This national laboratory study is generally considered definitive.
2. Idiot Check:
Bulk unsubsidized price of a 100 watt solar panel:
$350
Lifetime energy production:
100W * 8 hours a day * 300 days per year * 25 years
6,000,000 Wh (6000 kWh)
Retail price of that electricity: $.10 / kWh
$600
Not a lot of profit margin for the manufacturer there is there?
I'll confess that I am beginning to lose my patience with debunking this over and over again; it was true back in the 1950s-60s when solar power was an elaborately hand-assembled product, and before you techie people caused the silicon market to blow up so hugely. (Though these are probably CIGS instead of crystalline silicon.)
But I live in Oregon you insensitive clod!
....on the design of the epaulet on the jacket's shoulder. I bet noone has _ever_ thought of putting a strap of material on the shoulder of a jacket before.
Maybe the fact that the epaulet is located a couple of inches further forward than it would normally be will be enough to grant the patent.
See here