On Afghanistan's Thomas Edison

13.7BillionYears writes "The Institute for War and Peace Reporting details on the exploits of Ghulam Sediq Wardak, a 62 year old semi-literate Afghan with 341 clever inventions to his credit. His first was a radio powered by the low voltage produced by the human body. His most recent is a 1980 Volkswagen rigged to run on solar power. A handful of others are mentioned. Like many a Slashdotter, his parents were once very worried and he eschews patents. 'The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money,' he says. 'I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world.'"

Comments

Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[SYFer]

This man deserves some kind of geek homage. His picture (which I could not readily google up but would love to see) belongs on a Slashdot category icon. To "wardak" should be the expression to replace "jerry rig." If Futurama were still on, there would need to be a character named "Sediq." If we can invoke Kent Brockman here, we can honor this noble man.

I for one welcome our new clever, semi-literate Afghan overlord.

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[Anonymous Coward]

By the way, it's "jury rig," not "jerry rig." The phrase comes from the nautical term "jury mast," which is a temporary mast erected in place of a damaged one.

-Mike

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[Wetterschneider]

After poking around a bit, it seems that "jerry-rig" is a variation of "jury-rig" with the subtle difference that the former is slapdash and haphazard while the latter is temporary. The former looks like a better fit in regards to the article.

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[x-caiver]

Actually those are two separate things.
You're right about the 'jury rig' stuff, not disagreeing with that BTW.

Some dictionaries will say that 'jerry rig' means the same as 'jury rig' (that is what dictionary.com would tell you, for example). But you can find explanations of the differences. Basically think: Jury rig = temporary, quick-fix solution, possibly a novel implementation & Jerry rig = not necessarily temporary, junk solution.

See the Wordorigins.org J-word page, as well as this WordCourt page or this Phrase Finder post

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[Surak_Prime]

Actually, it's from the French navy - "Rig du Jour", or rigged for the day. It implies a temporary repair on the rigging.

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[pdp0x14]

That's lovely, Cliff, but there's no word "rig" in French.

Re:Geek, thy name is "Sediq"

[DunbarTheInept]

Nautical lingo often contains vocabulary from a mix of many languages, because for a long time it was the one vocation where people of mixed languages got thrown together in one job, and the one vocation where someone might actually travel to more than a few different countries in a lifetime, and be exposed to a variety of languages.

So using the french "du jour" with the english "rig" is perfectly plausable. Nautical lingo is almost its own seperate language anyway (When have you ever heard "rig" used in english to mean "collection of nets and ropes that hold a structure in place", in some context OTHER than sailing?)

I don't know if the poster is right or not about the origin of the word, but the fact that it contains a mix of french and english, by itself, is not the problem you make it out to be.

Interesting!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now, why can't this attitude be shared by more people? Really?

Re:Interesting!

[celeritas_2]

This is the same attitude of open source. It really should be adopted by more people, artists, musicians, inventors and innovators. A creative-without-pay attitude would be a big part in making a happier more equal society.

Re:Interesting!

[DigiShaman]

Sometimes they can't if the idea is patented. The inventor may say yes, but the corporation he sold his rights to would (for the most part) say no. At least that's the way it is in the modern world. So if you can invent, chances are you already devoted your personal resources to the company you work for...save for a few personal projects they wouldn't know about.

Proof to Microsoft of prior art!

[u-235-sentinel]

His first was a radio powered by the low voltage produced by the human body.

I would say this is prior art. Guess their patent is history :D

Re:Proof to Microsoft of prior art!

[Short Circuit]

IIRC, the Microsoft patent is more involved in using the human body for data transmission. It didn't have anything to do with power transmission or generation.

well

[abscondment]

"The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money," he says. "I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world."

If he wanted to that more completely, he could have gone about patenting his inventions and through that legal ownership making them freely available for all to use. Maybe it would be nice if someone used the system against itself once in a while, eh?

Re:well

[Neil Blender]

If he wanted to that more completely, he could have gone about patenting his inventions and through that legal ownership making them freely available for all to use.

No kidding. It's almost always the 'assignee' who causes all the trouble, not the 'inventor'. Problem is, it's pretty damn expensive to get a patent, at least in the US.

Re:well

[Pharmboy]

No kidding. It's almost always the 'assignee' who causes all the trouble, not the 'inventor'. Problem is, it's pretty damn expensive to get a patent, at least in the US.

This is probably a good thing that it is expensive. If patents were as cheap as domain names (Patents as Cheap As $7.99 When You Register 25 or More!), we would have applications flooding the patent office, thus more patents on every stupid thing in the world. It would render the internet useless in a matter of a couple years. We would have patents applied for everything, pressing certain keyboard combinations, methods of posting to a site, and other garbage that would create so much noise, that by sheer odds you would see some of these get approved.

Some people (or corporations) would be submitting hundreds of similar patents, in the hopes that just a few will get approved, so they can start sending letters for royalties. If you think the IP/patent situation is bad now, just think about spam is cheaper than bulk mail, and you get the picture.

Re:well

[Kenneth]

Finally somebody pointing this out. One of the primary purposes of the patent system is (or at least was) to assure that ideas are not lost. Benjamin Franklin also did not like patents. One of his inventions, the glass armonica disappeared completely, and although it has been re-reverse engineered, it is difficult to know how close to Franklin's original designs the new ones come.

Even if you want to give your invention to the world, you should patent it. You can then release the patent for the general public (there is a term for this, but I forget what it is). Simply saying "I'm not going to patent it because I am a better person than all those other fools" is not only quite arrogant, but forgets entirely about half of the entire purpose of the patent system, namely to document useful and interesting inventions for use in the future.

Slashdot REALLY hates patents because of the issues with software patents. I would argue that many software patents are indeed stupid, others do have value. For example, patents involving lossy compression where what is lost is determined by thousands of hours of human perceptual study costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This research most likely wouldn't happen if there wasn't some hope of return on investment. On the other hand, Amazon's one click shopping patent is plain stupid. What's in-between is a grey area, LZW compression for instance it is non-obvious, but not that hard.

However in the real world (software is wierd, it moves too fast) seventeen years just isn't that long (maybe when you're seventeen it seems like it, but trust me after about 25 time just starts to fly by).

Whatever you feel about peopel who try to make money on what they do, patents are a good way to make sure you indeed help mankind, not just now but later. If for whatever reason your invention should disappear, someone can find it and make it again. If you don't, people will have to guess from inadequate plans.

Signs of a true scientist...

[GillBates0]

But fame and riches have never been what motivated him.

"The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money," he says. "I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world."

Sadly a rapidly diminishing breed nowadays, what with overwhelming patenting and copyright laws and abuse. Hats of to this guy.

Re:Signs of a true scientist...

[miope]

Yes, definitively, we need more people like him.

I think that this guy has not only excelent skills, he has excellent "simple" ideas. This kind of "simple" ideas which nobody thaughts about. That's the essence of an inventor

I liked this part:

When he heard that unsanitary conditions promote the spread of bacteria and disease, he decided to invent an automatic hand washing system to promote cleanliness. When someone steps on a contact located beneath a basin, it activates a stream of water from the tap and opens a drawer containing soap and a towel. When the person steps off the contact, the water stops and the drawer closes.

Could anybody tell me *why* we don't have "don't touch anything" bathrooms?. I know, there are optical sensors for the tap and a few more things, but I've never seen a public bathroom (i.e. restaurant, job, etc.) designed to be used without touching things. It's not so dificult, so... why not?

Or I'm being excesively maniac? ;-)

Re:Signs of a true scientist...

[dJCL]

I saw an interesting variation on this while viewing the Canada Day ceremonies in Charlottetown this year... Near the huge line of portable toilets(with similary long lines of people... it was an interesting 2 dimensional array...) there were a group of 4 sided wash stations that pumped water when you stepped on a small foot pump in the base and dispensing soapy water. The paper towel holder and disposal bin were also built in... I'd not seen those before, but they sound similar in idea.

(Of course, I just wandered over to a local resteraunt and used the washrooms with no lineup, and therefore the classical taps to dispense water...)

Anyway, just thought you should know!

Re:Signs of a true scientist...

[rikkards]

Probably the second most dirty thing on the inside of a public bathroom after the knobs for the sink is the door handle to the exit of the bathroom.

Re:Signs of a true scientist...

[atarian]

I've "patronised" public toilets in Germany that have little IR beam/sensor things in them near the top. They detect when you move away from them and automatically flush.

The same place had washbasins with taps that switched on when you held your hands underneath them. The hot air hand driers worked in the same way.

Automatic doors would have made it al perfect but they seemed to have neglected that.

How generous

[WildBeast]

Now we know why Afghanistan is poor :)

Re:How generous

[Limburgher]

I'm sure the decades of economic isolation, Soviet occupation, Taliban rule, and then having the living fuck bombed out of them by the U.S. had NOTHING to do with it. :)

Re:How generous

[builderbob_nz]

the huge cash crop of Opium

Sure but what are the chances that this money actually goes back to the Afgan people?

Re:How generous

[Afrosheen]

Extremely high. With a record export of $2.5bn expected this year, some farmers are rich beyond their wildest dreams. I read an article last night about an Afghan man and his brother making well over $5600 per month growing Opium. While they felt guilt over it since Islam prohibits growing or using drugs, they asked Allah for forgiveness since they have no other choice. They both support around 35 people, and I'm sure they aren't complaining. When a crop of wheat on that same land only nets you about $121 per month, and you have 35 babies sucking at your teats, the choice is clear. It's a purely economic choice and the consequences aren't considered (people in my country aren't hooked on this shit, why should I care).

A post above mine has some nice BBC links, but googling 'afghanistan opium' will land around 125,000 hits. Some of those articles may lead you to links between the CIA and bin Laden, drug lords, etc. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Goal of the successful

[nuggz]

Notice how his goal isn't to make money.

The inventions are just things that happens along the way.

Re:Goal of the successful

[TheVidiot]

Notice how in Afghanistan, that makes him one rich dude!

Clearly not like Edison

[hotspotbloc]

'The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money,' he says. 'I want to render a service to my countrymen and to all people in the world.'"

Edison was notorious for jealously guarding his patents and squeezing them for every dollar he could. This man is a much better human being.

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[xOleanderx]

But edisons invention were very groundbreaking... Edison's Inventions

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[hotspotbloc]

But edisons invention were very groundbreaking

I completely agree. He can up with a wide range of inventions that made a very big difference in the world. He also was a shameless self promoter who did things like invent the "electric chair" solely to prove how "dangerous" his competitor's rival electrical standard (Nikola Tesla's AC) was compared to his DC.

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[GrpA]

Edison invented very little. His real skill was in taking the credit for other's work. Most of "Edison's Inventions" came from his employees, not the man himself.

Again, clearly not like this guy.

Edison represents everything that many real inventors resent about patents and the patent system.

GrpA

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[FleaPlus]

Exactly. He sounds a lot more like Nikola Tesla to me.

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[anethema]

It's true. Edison was a great business man, not so great an inventor.

What he was most famous for (the lightbulb) was invented long before him. He simply combined the old invention of the lightbulb, with someone elses long lasting filament, and bang, edison 'invented the lightbulb'.

Most of his inventions came out of his menlo park complex, where he had MANY employees who were told to invent any wacky thing they desired. But everything coming out of menlo park was credited to edison.

The mentioned nikola tesla was the exact type of inventor people idolize, its amazing that he doesnt recieve more recognition. He invented the AC generator, different types of transformers, the resonating (tesla) coil, the radio, and many other things.

Quite a few inventions of tesla's are somehow credited to other people in popular educational literature. For example, the radio. Ask most people who invented the radio they will say marconi. Yet tesla had patented everything marconi wanted to patent years before. There was a huge lawsuit going right to the supreme court and they ruled marconis patents invalid, since tesla's were prior art. Yet even wiht this supreme court decision, most encyclopedias will list marconi as radio's inventor.

Eiiither way, the main point beeing is edison wasnt all that great of an inventor, more a very shrewd business man. Unless you are in business, and wish to learn more about how a ruthless business man should behave, edison isnt really someone you should be idolizing.

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[Snad]

Eiiither way, the main point beeing is edison wasnt all that great of an inventor, more a very shrewd business man. Unless you are in business, and wish to learn more about how a ruthless business man should behave, edison isnt really someone you should be idolizing.

So what you're saying is that Edison was his generation's Bill Gates?

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[Anonymous Coward]

So what you're saying is that Edison was his generation's Bill Gates?

Absolutely.

Re:Clearly not like Edison

[anethema]

Yes, I would say parallels could definatly be drawn.

Bill gates is a very ruthless business man, like edison. Bill gates himself is worse than edison because he dindt actually create anything. He purchased DOS, used other's ideas for windows, and leveraged his advantage to become a monopoly.

I dont know if edison would have done the same, but he did create the foundation of a very large company (General Electric).

But, at least edison did work on some stuff, and you can say the stuff that came out of menlo park WAS usefull and bettered mankind, even if essentially none of it is in use today. The things invented at menlo park were a gateway to bigger and better things.

It just irks me sometimes that edison gets so much recognition, and tesla gets so little. Go to the smithsonian and try to find references to tesla, good luck.

Find the area about electricity, it will show the niagra falls power plant, and the caption reads something like 'and here is the first powerplant, which was startd in the magic of menlo park' or something along those lines.. This all but credits edison for it, when he had nothing to do with it whatsoever. He tryed to push an inferior standard. He would have succeeded had tesla not had some more schrewd backers, and perhaps if his idea wasnt totally unworkable. He could even have kept tesla in menlo park, and claimed credit for his idea as he did so many others, it was very close.

Tesla had a lot of crazy ideas at the end of his lifetime, and while they just sound nuts, his former genious would lead me to lend an ear, or help him out if it were in my power.

Either way, getting off topic here, but I would say edison is definatly not a person to be idolized, but he is probably a bit better than bill gates ;)

Potential Prior Art Here?

[Niet3sche]

Hmmm ... it seems to me that use of the human body as a power grid is immediately extensible to the use of it as any other type of grid upon which electron flow is contingent *cough* MS PAN Patent *cough*.

I happen to share his views that some things should be done For The Good of Mankind and should be Free, but with this aside (or maybe because of this), were I in his shoes, I'd strive for a few things:

1) Contact EFF for legal funding of Me v. Microsoft.

2) If/When MS's patent is overturned, then turn the patent over to Public Domain.

3) Don't profit! Just know that I righted a wrong and successfully defended Prior Art to boot!

just think...

[Anonymous Coward]

just think what he could have done with a formal education

Re:just think...

[senzafine]

Yea...he wouldn't have had any time to entertain his curiosities. He would probably be some regular engineer that noone outside of his town ever heard of.

Honestly though...I don't think formal education would have done him any good. He seems to be doing just fine for himself...not sure what more some schooling would have done.

i wonder

[hyperstation]

any relation to Junis?

To make the world a better place

[eamacnaghten]

An unsung hero. His motive to make the world a better place.

To be fair to westerners, many Open/Free Source Developers are coding for the same motives. I hope that brilliant Afghan will not have to face up to these idiotic IP patent attacks that is happening over here.

Tidbit of the day

[TigerTime]

Edison made 1,093 patents in his lifetime. That averages out to 1 patent every 4 weeks of his life.

That definitely doesn't sound like this guy.

Re:Tidbit of the day

[lavaface]

Remember that Edison ran a laboratory with many scientists who all contributed work towards his patents. If you think about it, Edison was a precursor to modern technology corporations. That is he provided labs for brilliant people to work and in return, he maintained ownership of all the patents. Edison had incredible ingenuity, but he was also quite capable of taking others' ideas and making them his own.

Re:1980 Volkswagen?

[orulz]

Notice that the article says 25kph, not mph. 25kph =~ 15.5mph. Sounds more reasonable like that, doesn't it?

Edison? Patents? What?

[Asprin]

I might be hallucinating, but wasn't Edison (who invented AC generators, the phonograph and the motion picture camera/projector system) a patent hawk who did everything he could to extract money for every little invention he had a hand in creating? In fact, IIRC, that's why the motion picture industry set up shop in the (then) isolated desolation of Hollywood, California -- they wouldn't have to pay his exorbitant licensing fees out there.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like comparing this guy to Edison is like comparing Linus to Bill Gates.... in a comparative sort of way.

Re:Edison? Patents? What?

[DaveJay]

FYI: Nikolai Tesla invented AC generators, not Edison. Edison pushed DC, and publicly electrocuted stray dogs using AC as a demonstration of AC's "inherent dangers" (keeping in mind that DC of the same voltage would have been just as deadly.)

Re:Edison? Patents? What?

[athet]

Try Tesla. Edison was stuck on the DC plan, which doesn't transmit over distance very well. And yes, Edison was a patent madman, any way you look at it. Not a bad comparo however, since Edison was really more of an 'embrace and extend' guy (he took credit for the entire output of his shop) and our middle eastern inventor seems more about practical good service to humanity. (but wait until someone starts waving money at him for an invention!)

Re:Edison? Patents? What?

[classicvw]

Edison wanted DC generators. Telsa invented AC generators. Edison's power grid wasn't good for more than a few blocks at the most.

Re:'Semi-literate' Slashdotter?

[Timesprout]

It isn't. This guy is way too smart to even look at /.

inventions

[Coneasfast]

many of his inventions seem to be cheaper versions of what we know to exist.

So I thought of a heater, which would turn off automatically when the water was boiled and when the water gets cold, it would turn on again. And then I made it

basically an alternative to a thermostat, but effective and cheaper.

His system involved surrounding a house with concealed wires that were attached to a battery, an audio cassette player and a camera. When the intruder stepped on the wire, it triggered the cassette player, which played a tape shouting, "There's a thief!". It also activated the camera, which would take a picture of the burglar.

again, simplified version of the modern alarm system.

i find his original ideas more interesting, the crying-baby-activated rocking cradle (does this already exist?), solar-powered well-lift, etc.

Thomas Edison? Sounds more like Ben Franklin

[Entropy2016]

From what I was taught, Franklin would invent something, then publish the design in his newspaper.
I'm not sure if Edison did that.

If Franklin did obtain patents, he obviously did so to ensure that nobody else would patent it first and keep the specs secret.

But which VeeDub?

[Buran]

I'm not sure what type of VW he's got, but given that he's in Afghanistan I wouldn't be surprised if it's not an air-cooled Type 1 (Beetle). But it could be a Type 2 (Transporter), too. Could even be a Golf -- it's the best-selling model they've got. We Americans are the only market that shuns it in favor of the Bora (Jetta) -- though I love my lil' white Golf IV!

I found a few more electric VWs with a little bit of looking:

Diesel-Electric (1.3L TDI) New Beetle

Electric 1969 Kharmann Ghia (the Ghia is a Beetle derivative)

Electric Rabbit (US Mk1 Golf)

And that's just for starters. VW AG itself considered a hybrid diesel-electric powertrain option for the Concept 1, which later became the New Beetle, but so far only the diesel portion has survived (the TDI is an option in the Golf, Beetle, Jetta, and now the Passat and the Touareg in the US, and in the rest of the model line elsewhere in the world.)

I'd love to see VW build a Golf-based CR-V competitor with a hybrid diesel-electric powertrain and the race-bred DSG transmission.

But yeah, this guy gets geek points from me. :)

Re:1980 Volkswagen?

[Buran]

Without knowing what kind of engine is being used, its specs, and other details, it's hard to say. The Beetle is a very modifiable car and it's not that heavy -- it was designed, after all, for a small 34hp engine to be able to push it to cruising speeds on the Autobahns and yet be easily maintained by the ordinary people who would buy them.

The Beetle changed little from its mid-1930s beginnings as the KdF-Wagen to the final version that rolled off the Puebla assembly line in 2003.

Re:Amazing

[Platinum Dragon]

While there's nothing groundbreaking about the 'inventions' themselves, the fact that he has persisted with his tinkering in the midst of an Arab culture speaks of incredible curiosity, freethinking, and persistence.

Errrrr... since when is Afghanistan "Arab"?

Re:1980 Volkswagen?

[amacedo]

It depends.

Volkswagen is a brand, not a model. In 1980 there we're at least the Polo, Golf, Passat and Beegle models (and their respecive subsets). The first Golf VWs were very lightweight, my family owned one in the 80s.

Solar powered VW?

[phillymjs]

His most recent is a 1980 Volkswagen rigged to run on solar power.

Wouldn't this make him Afghanistan's Ed Begley, Jr.?

~Philly

Re:tall tales

[willpall]

You can if you suck up a few meters of water, then, while allowing the pump to continue working, lift the hose/pipe/straw out of the water and let air follow it up. I do believe that your pump would have to work quickly to keep the water from "collapsing" while the air underneath displaces it.

Despite my admitted nitpick, I also smell exaggeration.

Re:tall tales

[Gorobei]

One atmosphere of pressure is about 10 meters of water. You can't pump water any higher than that. I smell exaggeration.

Um, you can't suck water higher than 10 meters. How to you think water gets to the toilets on the top floor of a skyscraper?

Rapidly Diminishing in Edison's Day

[weston]

Edison was a patent fiend. Mind you, he probably deserved the patents. That didn't mean he was above some unethical behavior, such as trying to convince people that DC was perfectly harmless (it's not) while Tesla's AC was much more dangerous (and my understanding is that AC is indeed dangerous, but more likely to burn you than stop your heart). Read the Edison's FUD section in Wikipedia's War of the Currents for an overview.

Edison was a great man, but I don't know that he had the spirit of our Afghani friend.

Re:Rapidly Diminishing in Edison's Day

[penguinland]

Mind you, he [Edison] probably deserved the patents.

From your own link:
Edison's patents "were actually made by his numerous employees - Edison was frequently criticized for not sharing the credits." He claims credit for some great works, and whoever invented them was a great person (or, more likely, people). However, Edison himself was a jackass. He employed people to invent things for him, and then he stole their IP.

Feel free to mod me "off-topic," but this needed to be said.

Re:Rapidly Diminishing in Edison's Day

[el_gregorio]

yeah, he even stole the credit for Homer's electric hammer!

Re:Amazing

[cranos]

Seeing as the previous respondant got modded down for some reason i shall pose the same question? Since when is Afghanistan Arab?

Afghanistan is closer to Pakistan in tribal links , culture and ancestory(sp?).

Re:tall tales

[TXG1112]

Of course you can. I myself have seen water come out of a thousand foot deep well. What you can't do is suck up water under vacuum over 1 atm. You can most certainly push water up thousands of feet.

Here is a company that sells pumps that do just that. (See under vertical turbine pumps).

Not a lot.

[Mold]

A formal education has a tendency to specialize a person enough that, while they may make great advancements in a field, they won't be general enough to be of too much note to most of the world.

Crazy

[2057]

But at 17, he produced his first invention: a radio that operated without batteries. It was made out of a matchbox, wires, and headphones, and was powered by the low voltage electricity produced by a person's body.

Thats insane! He's more Mcguyver then the Wizard of Menlo Park!

Re:Crazy

[Anonymous Coward]

Crystal radios don't even need the body's voltage, as far as I know. The body does, however, make a pretty good (and portable) antenna, so I figure that's probably what he did. (Regular 'transistor radio' earpieces are still the high-impedance kind needed for a crystal set, though if he fabricated his own... he really deserves a prize.)

Slashdot Honorific Life Membership

[ArcticCelt]

If slashdot start to give an annual "honorific life membership" he should be one of the first to get the title. Kudos to the guy! :)

Re:Slashdot Honorific Life Membership

[Colonel Cholling]

If slashdot start to give an annual "honorific life membership" he should be one of the first to get the title. Kudos to the guy! :)

What would he do with a /. membership? I thought the article said he was "semi-literate."

He might put the rest of us at a disadvantage...

Re:Slashdot Honorific Life Membership

[l810c]

What would he do with a /. membership? I thought the article said he was "semi-literate."

Exactly, he'll fit right in :P

Project Wardak?

[Fred_Bloggs]

I don't suppose there are any /.'ers out there in or near Afghanistan. Are there?

If there were, it would be really cool to contact Ghulam and see if he would be interested in publishing his inventions on the web. There are a lot of third world countries out there who could use them.

So anyone out there up for Project Wardak?

Cheers

Re:Project Wardak?

[Colonel Cholling]

I don't suppose there are any /.'ers out there in or near Afghanistan. Are there?

I hope so... I was wondering how you say "you insensitive clod" in Pashto.

Re:Amazing

[GoofyBoy]

>the fact that he has persisted with his tinkering in the midst of an Arab culture speaks of incredible curiosity, freethinking, and persistence.

And you think that the American legal and social system encourages tinkering? Ever read the DMCA (just to name on instance)?

he should get patents, and here's why.

[deft]

not getting patents doesnt make him better.... it just lets others rip him off.

now, lets say this obviously charitable guy gets his due, and decides some of it will be used to futhur even more charitable inventions, then his good can be multiplied greatly. maybe hire an assitant, or get some parts.

heck, he could donate it all if he doesn't want it, but he's lining someone elses pockets if he doesnt get it himself, and I doubt the other guy is as scrupulous as he is.

Re:he should get patents, and here's why.

[gl4ss]

it's not ripping him off if he wants the ideas to be implemented.. if he just displays the ideas in use and doesn't patent them then they're effectively 'free' ideas forever.

besides than that, it would probably cost him more than what it would be worth(the guy is living on 200$ per month, which might get a living in afghanistan but sure as heck doesn't make a lot of budget for applying for patents).

so, tell me, what difference would there be in him patenting the stuff he does and then licensing them for free(which is what he would want to do) and not patenting at all? and how the hell is the money lining up in someone elses pockets, you think they wouldn't forward the licensing costs to the buyers of the manufactured stuff if they had to pay for the licenses? the solar powered water pump business just doesn't work that way, if he had a patent and could demand say 30$ per pump then the price of the pump would be 30$ higher, this is something that the guy doesn't want.

so in short, he wants others to 'rip him off', he just calls it helping his fellow men.

Re:he should get patents, and here's why.

[Jamie Lokier]

so, tell me, what difference would there be in him patenting the stuff he does and then licensing them for free(which is what he would want to do) and not patenting at all?

By not patenting at all, other people can alter his inventions and patent those as new inventions - yes, citing his as prior art upon which they improved. Improvements are patentable, even minor ones. Those other people can then restrict the use of those alterations, charging license fees or even blocking all work along that line of improvement.

However, if he patented and licensed for free, then he could prevent other people from taking control of improvements of his inventions: he could force "derived inventions" to be just as free as his own (by analogy with derived works in copyright).

That's a huge difference. It's analagous to the difference between public domain and GPL, and the results might be just as significant. I don't know of anyone who's tried it yet.

-- Jamie

Not Edison

[tuxlove]

To compare this man to Edison does him a disservice. Edison was a capitalist to the core, to the point of pushing bad technology over good if it would make him more money. For example, he was an opponent of AC power, because with AC power you can have large central power centers; with DC power, you have to have many local power distribution centers because transmission is much less efficient over distance. He wanted DC power even though it sucks, because he wanted to have a stake in every one of the numerous distribution centers required to make it work. Lucky for all of us he lost that battle.

This Afghani sounds like a good person, one who actually cares about people more than money. That would set him far above Edison.

Re:Not Edison

[ScrewMaster]

No, it isn't cheaper to convert from DC to AC. Quite the opposite, in fact. A DC to AC inverter is a fairly sophisticated device requiring a power oscillator driving a transfomer, and if you want a relatively pure sine wave to drive inductive devices (transformers and motors) its even more complex and expensive. On the other hand, dropping 110VAC to a few volts DC is a trivial affair involving a transformer, a diode bridge and a filter cap. The wall-wart that runs your cordless phone is an example of that, although for more expensive devices (such as cell phones) switching converters are becoming more popular because the high frequency employed means a teeny little transformer is all that you need. Saves even more on materials.

You're wrong about distributed power stations. That would have been possible regardless of the transmission medium, but the reason that it is not done is simple economy of scale. Building lots of small facilities is substantially more costly than building a few centralized ones. Rather than being able to locate coal or oil-fired power plants in remote areas, we would be forced to have them right next door. Bad idea all around, and given the Bush Administration's propensity for eliminating power-plant pollution-control requirements I don't think I'd want to live near one of your neighborhood power plants. The closest were coming to that is the nuclear pebble reactor, which ironically may make your dream of local power plants a reality, but I still wouldn't want to live near one.

And I don't know what you mean about "alternate sources of energy", that's really easy to say but a lot harder to accomplish. Maybe if cold-fusion had panned out that would be possible, but then I'd say go even further and make small power sources for individual buildings.

Truth is, it's been over a hundred years since Edison's time, and we still haven't found anything substantially better than what we have, and if we had gone down Edison's road and made a huge investment in a DC power system without any long-distance transport capability we would have found ourselves royally screwed. Heavy industry as we know it would probably have been impossible, since there would be no way to concentrate the amount of energy they require. To give you an example, United States Steel's Continuous Casting facility in Indiana has thirty seven separate private substations, drawing power from numerous points in the grid and from multiple power plants. It took that many just to get them enough power to run the big Sumitomo concast. However, for them to have built enough self-generating capacity to power just that one unit would have been prohibitive, I was told when I was out there once some years ago. Not hard to believe, once I realized that firing up one melt requires several hundred megawatts. No, there's really no question that Westinghouse and Tesla had the right idea, and we're damned lucky that Edison blew it.

Re:Not Edison

[Cecil]

I have often wished that houses had a single AC-to-DC transformer along with DC power sockets to alleviate the need for all the wall-warts laying around. So I do sympathize with your goal.

However, even if 80% of the devices in your house take AC power it doesn't mean they use 80% of the power. Far, far from it.

Like you said, anything with a motor. That means: Refridgerator, air conditioner, ceiling fans, exhaust fans, furnace, vacuum, washer, dryer, dishwaser, pool/sump/cistern pumps, etc. Add incandescent lighting and electric stoves into the mix, and I bet you can account for 80% of household electricity usage right there.

And, as someone else said, AC-to-DC is a lot easier than DC-to-AC.

Re:Not Edison

[Idarubicin]

Every device/appliance has one, short of the original light bulbs and some heaters. Computers, TV's, stereos, microwaves, etc.. I could list at least 80% of the things in your house as needing a DC convertor.

Actually, microwaves contain a big step-up transformer--they need a big chunk of high voltage current to do their thing. If you had DC mains, you'd have to convert to AC first, then rectify back to DC at higher voltage. Others on the thread have noted that building DC to AC converters is more costly than going the other way, too.

Yes, you have many DC appliances--but they operate at different voltages. Heck, your PC has 3.3, 5, and 12 volt rails. Converting between one DC voltage and another is a real pain in the neck, unless you don't mind wasting a ton of juice.

The real killer problem is that if you want to supply DC to homes at a voltage directly useful in small appliances (say 12 V) then you need to have absolutely massive wires to carry all the current. Let's say you want 200 W at 12 V for your computer--that's going to be nearly 17 amps. To run a hair dryer (1000 W) that's going to be more than eighty amps. If you're cooking dinner in the microwave, the air conditioner is running, plus you have the computer and a few lights on, you're pushing three hundred amps. In newly constructed homes, my understanding is that 200 amp service is the norm; older buildings may only have 100 amp or even sixty amp service. At 200 amps you're looking at pretty hefty cables. If each home starts requiring cable that can handle a thousand amps, you're getting into a lot of copper awfully quickly--even if the supply is relatively local.

Internal wiring would also have to be much heavier to avoid overheating. Resistance heating goes up linearly with resistance--but as the square of current. You probably wouldn't want to have to lift a hundred-foot extension cord.

Yes, you could get away with the same thickness of wiring you use now if you supply high-voltage DC inside the home, but then you would need a step-down transformer for all the same appliances that have wall warts now.

Re:Not Edison

[DunbarTheInept]

30 meters of copper wire makes a noticable resistor in a circuit that is only operating on a small voltage like 5 or 12 volts. Thus the voltage you get at the wall socket would vary tremendously depending on how far the socket is from the house's transformer. (or you'd have to use much more expensive house wiring.)

This would mean the standard would have to have a large tolerance window on the voltage the appliace should expect to receive from the wall socket, enough of one to be largely useless. (There is some tolerance in the large voltage AC currents too, but from the point of view of a relative ratio, the difference between, say, 107 volts and 110 volts is not nearly as signifigant as the difference between 9 volts and 12 volts, even though both are only "three volts apart".)

(By the way, in response to another point you mentioned, there do exist AC motors.)

Re:He's a Wardak, alright.

[bluethundr]

Or just call any IP-benevolent inventor a "Wardak" ...

I suppose that would depend on whose idea of intellectual property rights you are talking about. I think I know where the lions share of dotters stand.

A little disturbing that a google on the term will put WIPO right there at the top so you can't miss it!

Interesting, I couldn't get to the WIPO page by clicking that link. Maybe a piering issue on my end or perhaps they've been DDoSed. Not that I would eeeeeevvver suggest that doing so would be a fantabulous idea!

Re:Thomas Edison? Sounds more like Ben Franklin

[Danny Rathjens]

"When offered a patent for the fireplace's design, Benjamin Franklin turned it down. He did not want to make a profit. He wanted all people to benefit from his invention."

Quote from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfra nklin_inventions.htm

Ah, and someone quoted Franklin on the issue in a slashdot article before:
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/03/18/1339201.shtm l

Can we please set up

[311Stylee]

a paypal account for this guy or something? He should be well-funded. He certainly seems to have proven the old fable that "nessesity is the mother of invention".

Re:Amazing

[Lochin Rabbar]

The problem that Islamic countries in general have is not that they have stopped being inventive, but that strict prohibition of usury makes it difficult to create the kind of economy that we know in the west. Much of todays technological innovation requires big bucks to bring it to market, and it's hard to start up a technological firm without borrowing money.

pressure, not weight

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pressure that affects how much something hurts when it goes over your foot, not the total weight. A "very lightweight" car is almost certainly far over 500 lbs, yet having a 500 lb anvil on your foot would hurt an awful lot. You would have a newly acquired flat foot. Car tires are usually pumped up to 30 psi, so a car with slightly flat tires would be painful, but not damage your foot very much. That applies to heavy cars just as much as to light ones.

As an estimate: assume a tire pressure of 20 psi, and approximate the end of your foot as a right angle triangle with sides 5 inches and 4 inches long. That gives 10 square inches of contact area, or 200 lbs of weight on your feet.

Afghanistan's Tesla?

[Flamesplash]

Seems like a cool guy, but I'm still waiting for the second coming of Tesla. The man had a CAD program in his head, truly a genius, and yet the last I looked for a biography I could find only one. Very sad.

Re:Afghanistan's Tesla?

[bananahammock]

Wikepedia (perhaps you've already seen this) provides a relatively thorough bio on Tesla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

(not sure how to do the clickity link)

wardak

[sh123469]

I commend this fellow. His abilities and his persistence are inspirational. Whether or not he has patented or something has been done before, he deserves praise for his inventiveness and willingness to work on and share ideas that are new to him.

False Alarm

[karniv0re]

When the intruder stepped on the wire, it triggered the cassette player, which played a tape shouting, "There's a thief!". It also activated the camera, which would take a picture of the burglar.

"Damn it Ali, your cart-alarm is going off again! There's people trying to sleep!"

Re:He's a Wardak, alright.

[nacturation]

I think I know where the lions share of dotters stand.

By the way (hey, the other guy got +5), the lion's share doesn't mean the majority. The lion's share is 100%... everything. It's from one of Aesop's Fables:

The Lion's Share

The Lion went once a-hunting along with the Fox, the Jackal,
and the Wolf. They hunted and they hunted till at last they
surprised a Stag, and soon took its life. Then came the question
how the spoil should be divided. "Quarter me this Stag," roared
the Lion; so the other animals skinned it and cut it into four
parts. Then the Lion took his stand in front of the carcass and
pronounced judgment: The first quarter is for me in my capacity
as King of Beasts; the second is mine as arbiter; another share
comes to me for my part in the chase; and as for the fourth
quarter, well, as for that, I should like to see which of you
will dare to lay a paw upon it."

"Humph," grumbled the Fox as he walked away with his tail
between his legs; but he spoke in a low growl.

"You may share the labours of the great, but you will not
share the spoil."

Re:1980 Volkswagen?

[nacturation]

What do you mean 'those countries'? There's nothing weird about the sunlight in Afghanistan...

I don't know about Afghanistan, but you get more energy per square meter from the sun on the equator than you do in, say, Portland Oregon which is at about 45 degrees North. In Kenya, you would get sqrt(2) or around 1.4 times more energy than you would in Portland. That 40% difference could easily be enough to get a car up to 25 km/h, which is 40% less than 25 mph.

Tinkering

[jtheory]

Like many a Slashdotter, his parents were once very worried and he eschews patents

We were very worried? But we didn't even know about him before the article...

Actually, I know I've seen other articles about Afghani ingenuity in "tinkering"... they've been making due for a long time with very little, so an inventive mind (especially with machines) is very useful. If something breaks, and there's no way you're going to be able to get a new one, you try to fix it. Seems like this guy really had a talent for it.

My grandfather loved tinkering as well, partly related to memories of tough times during the Great Depression (he owned an electric supplies company and had money later... but the guy still never threw ANYTHING out).

Some neat inventions: a device that would automatically close the windows when it rained, an automatic garage door opener (using a plate in the driveway), and a little train that carried concrete and such things (and children, later) around the property on sections of wooden track. His last project was a model train set he was building from scratch, with working signals and so on.

Wrong similarity...

[stienman]

'The main purpose of my inventing is not to earn money,'

Then he's definitely not like Thomas Edison.

-Adam

Re:Thomas Edison? Sounds more like Ben Franklin

[amliebsch]

Patents require you to publicly disclose the specs. In fact, you can download them for free from the USPTO website. The "problem" with patents is not that they are secret, it is that they grant monopoly power.

Life imitates fiction

[ross.w]

He sounds like Professor Branestawm.

I have a few of the books about this bloke, he was always inventing weird stuff and then having it go wrong.

Anyone can independently confirm the story?

[PaulBu]

Well, some phrases did sound a bit fishy to me, and I thought that my fellow /.er would ask for a bit more of a proof or at least confirmation of the fact, rather than getting into the usual "patents-vs.-public good" discussion.

I grew up in Soviet Russia (yeah, for real this time!) and we did have our share of "backyard inventors" kicking socks off the capitialist pigs in semi-techical news strories (yes, it was just state-run propaganda, of course, though some ideas were not too bad). And, BTW, does the name of Lysenko mean anything to this crowd? ;-/

If the story is true, it is really remarkable, though I am not really sure how the fact of him being "semi-literate" really fits into the story (we have all been semi-literate at some stages of our life, and a guy like him would have learned the "tough skill" by now ;-) ), except that to maybe make other not-too-literate people feel good about themselves. (yes, that was the part that made me a bit suspicious)

Paul B.

... in the midst of an Arab culture... ???

[PaulBu]

Hmm, man, I guess you are a bit confused... You know those characters, like, '1', '2', '3', up to '9' -- those vere actually made "in the midst of Arab culture", And I guess '0' too (though not sure), but the reast are definitely called "Arabic numerals", as opposed to "Roman numerals" of the I,II, III, IV... variety. And the symbol of 'X' as well as the word al-gebra was of the same descent.

So, I think that you do confuse current fundamentalist Arab politicians/"warriors" with "the Arab culture"...

Paul B.

A Radio?

[boatboy]

Of note- just a few years ago, he would have gotten in a lot of trouble for his little radio, especially if it played music or was used by a woman. Hmph. Maybe getting rid of a totalitarian regime can have a positive outcome after all!

Re:Amazing

[Citizen of Earth]

That, to me, seems like racist sentiment.

Just out of curiosity, is "racist" the opposite of "truthful" to you, or can something be both simultaneously?

He will do like all slashdotter...

[ArcticCelt]

What would he do with a /. membership? I thought the article said he was "semi-literate."

He will do like all slashdotter... semi-read the articles.

A nice solution?

[earlbecke]

In response to the grandparent post, creative work without pay is ridiculous. So authors shouldn't expect to get paid for commercial publication of their stories? Or we just shouldn't try to make money off of our work at all--since, god knows, no one else on earth gets paid for the work they invest in whatever it is they happen to do. Books should be published for free, without any regard for paying all those involved and the cost of production? Please. Maybe it would work for someone who is creative as a hobby who just posts stuff on their geocities site, but not for someone like me who, uh, wants to avoid getting a "real" job. (Coincidentally, suggesting that ALL programmers should do open-source work without pay of any kind is also ridiculous for all practical purposes, and seems to be what is being advocated here.)

Now, adopting a more open-source approach to creative works IS a good idea and one that I strongly advocate. In fact, I license all of my publically-available work with Creative Commons, and if you haven't heard of them, it's much like the GPL adapted for creative works. (Images, text, and even music now.)

As a writer and artist, I want money for COMMERCIAL uses of my work. I don't want people taking credit for my work itself, either. The only copyright violations that upset me are the use of my work for commercial purposes without my permission and other people taking credit for my work. If someone's making copies for personal use, to share with friends, or making a derivative work (using an image in a collage, fan fiction, quoting me, whatever), I'm frankly flattered and I don't care. That's not the same as just giving it away free for anyone to do what they want with it, but this attitude is not shared by some (very famous and successful, by the way) authors and most big publishers, which I think is sad.

That's just my take on the issue, and I think it's a nice compromise between idealism and the fact that you actually need to make money in order to survive, and of course, to afford the materials necessary to make creative works to begin with.

Re:Amazing

[dfenstrate]

the parent of this post seems to think Arab culture stifles creativity. That, to me, seems like racist sentiment.

Culture is a set of learned behavior and ideals. It's not racist, it's a behavior, unless you think that Arabs (and their sympathetic formerly taliban ruled neighbors) cannot behave in a way other than what is considered 'arab culture.'

And then that would make you the racist, because you'd be saying genetic heritage determines behavior more than anything else.

The parent post is correct. The diseased arab culture that is the source of our enemies does stifle creativity.

Why do you think that folks like you can only point to 500 year old contributions to math when someone implies that Arab Culture is a failure? Practitioners of western civilization- an identifiable set of attitudes and behaviors- have created the modern world.

Asian cultures certainly contribute greatly to the modern world, but their cultures have a lot more going for them than Arab cultures, and over the past 100 years, Asian countries have shown a great eagerness to adapt the practices of people who were better than them in many areas. That's why japan, with no natural resources to speak of, is an economic powerhouse, and became so only in the past century.

Many muslim/arab countries wallowing in poverty and despotism have a lot to learn. They simply refuse to do so.

Five hundred years...

[Grendel Drago]

A millenium ago, the Christian world was benighted, mired in superstition. Literature and art were at a standstill. The greatest minds of the era (e.g., Moses Maimonedes) fled to the Arab world, where they wouldn't be hunted down and set on fire. It wasn't safe to be a Jew in Christendom; many of them fled to Muslim-controlled territories.

Today, the Arab world is benighted, mired in superstition. Literature and art are at a standstill. The greatest minds of the era (e.g., about half of the engineering faculty at most American universities) flee the Arab world, so they won't be hunted down and set on fire. It isn't safe to be a Jew in the Arab world; many of them choose to live instead in Christian nations.

The wheel turns.

--grendel drago

Lion Overlords

[Anonymous Coward]

Some guy on slashdot:
"...the lion's share doesn't mean the majority. The lion's share is 100%...everything."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:
"lion's share- The greatest or best part."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer:
"lion's share- The greater part or most of something..."

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary:
"Lion's share- All, or nearly all; the best or largest part..."

I dont believe the whole story.

[Technomancer]

The Philips Compact Cassette was introduced in 1965 http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/tape4.html
and was first shown 1963 and mass produced starting 1966 http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/1-17/h1.html
Also, more here http://www.fact-index.com/c/co/compact_audio_casse tte.html

In 1964, when he was 22, a theft in his village inspired him to invent a burglar alarm that would also take a picture of the intruder.

His system involved surrounding a house with concealed wires that were attached to a battery, an audio cassette player and a camera. When the intruder stepped on the wire, it triggered the cassette player, which played a tape shouting, "There's a thief!". It also activated the camera, which would take a picture of the burglar.


So I dont believe he had an audio cassette player in 1964.

Also, he has to be very rich, outfitting his 1980 VW with solar panels,

120w solar panel costs like $500 or more. To power a car he needs lets say at least 10hp engine, so this is 7456.999 watt. lets say his electric engine is close to 100% efficient, so he will need only 62 panels * $500 = $31k.

the panels will need 62*1.425*0.652 = 57.6042 m^2 area which is about 7.5*7.5 meters or 22*22 feet for americans. good luck fitting this on any Volkswagen.

I SMELL BULLSHIT!

Re:I dont believe the whole story.

[AndrewHowe]

Er, no. The solar panels will charge batteries.

Calling Homeland Security...

[MrCreosote]

No Patents!!!????

He should be thrown into Camp X-Ray. He is clearly a threat to the whole American way of life!

"Traditional" vacuum flask?

[spRed]

"The young man goes to a tin teapot in the kitchen which is powered by a solar panel. When the water comes to the boil, the boy makes the tea, pours it into a traditional vacuum flask"

I call abuse of cute adjectives! I haven't read up on Afghan culture but I'm willing to bet vacuum thermoses are about as "traditional" as solar panels.

Re:Amazing

[hey!]

The parent post is correct. The diseased arab culture that is the source of our enemies does stifle creativity.

Don't take me wrong, but could it be possible that you might not actually know enough about "arab culture" to make the this kind of sweeping pronouncement? The reason I say this is the way you use the term "arab culture" to talk about a distinctly non-arab country. The Pashtuns, for example, are no more Arab than Spaniards are Scandanavian.

Why do you think that folks like you can only point to 500 year old contributions to math when someone implies that Arab Culture is a failure?

Well, making sweeping pronouncements about vaguely defined "arab culture" invites this response, does it not? Having no detailed knowledge of the particulars of the history of a part of the world does lend itself to seeing a kind of grand sweep of history. Knoweldge of the particulars allows you to see the uniqueness of each country's situation. There's value to having both perspectives, because you aren't trapped by historical or cultural determinism.

Asian cultures certainly contribute greatly to the modern world, ...

Isn't it possible that culture has other functions than to contribute to people outside of them?

like Edison?

[confused one]

This guy isn't out for profit.

Edison was a strictly for profit dude. Ever heard of Edison Electric a.k.a. G.E.?

In other news....

[kalirion]

The body of Sediq Wardak was pulled out of the flaming wreckage of a modified Volkswagon today, after a U.S. pilot mistook the vehicle for a mobile WMD factory and called in a full cruise missile strike.

Re: Edison Electrocuted Dogs

[johnrpenner]

edison was the bill gates of his time.

to spread FUD about AC electricity, he went around
electrocuting dogs to scare people away from using AC.

During the 1880s, electric service was just beginning to be sold to
towns and cities. Thomas Edison and his companies used direct current (DC).
George Westinghouse and his companies used alternating current (AC).
Both Edison and Westinghouse tried to convince potential customers of
the superiority of their systems. Edison and his staff used an AC generator
to electrocute dozens of dogs, cats, even cows and horses in an attempt to
demonstrate that Westinghouse's equipment was dangerous. Edison's lobbying
was successful and the Medico-Legal Society, charged by NY Department of
Prisons with designing the Electric Chair...

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
(Thomas Alva Edison)

If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once
with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings,
knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him
ninety per cent of his labour.

(Nikola Tesla, New York Times, October 19, 1931)