Teens Arrested For Motorized Office Chair

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Teens Arrested For Motorized Office Chair

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday August 19, 2008 @05:10AM from the crazyboy dept.

German police have confiscated the world's fastest office chair and arrested its 17-year-old inventors. The duo added a lawnmower engine, brakes and a metal frame to the office chair and were reported to be driving it all over the streets of Gross-Zimmern. Police did not comment on the chair's handling or acceleration but I look forward to it being profiled on Top Gear.

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So much for the seeds of .... by BitterOldGUy · 2008-08-19 05:10 · Score: 5, Funny

German engineering.
1. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Deadfyre_Deadsoul · 2008-08-19 05:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I for one welcome our rocket chair creating overlords.
  
  What did the cops get them for, speeding?
  
  --
  ~DF
2. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by MyLongNickName · 2008-08-19 05:17 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Oh, please. Making the chair is cool. Driving it on public roads is not so cool. I admit, I chuckled when I saw the picture, but they should have tested it out in an empty parking lot.
  On the other hand, this invention is uber cool!!!
  
  --
  See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
3. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by janeuner · 2008-08-19 05:18 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  God forbid that a bunch of kids make something on their own. They might, you know, invent something useful.
4. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by HungryHobo · 2008-08-19 05:23 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  not much chance of that but it's still cool :D
5. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ByOhTek · 2008-08-19 05:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I think the problem isn't that they invented something, it's that they were very irresponsible with it (driving a motor vehicle on the streets without proper training or safety measures).
  And I wouldn't call a lawnmower-engine powered office chair "useful". Interesting, and amusing, but not useful.
  
  --
  Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
6. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Anne_Nonymous · 2008-08-19 05:27 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  >> they should have tested it out in an empty parking lot.
  It's an office chair isn't it? I'd like to roll up to a departmental meeting in one of those.
7. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ShieldW0lf · 2008-08-19 05:28 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Except that road regulations are not about safety, but control. Regulations give a false sense of predictability, leading to inattentiveness, and a false sense of entitlement, leading to road rage. Road regulations make the road less safe for everyone.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
8. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by R2.0 · 2008-08-19 05:28 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  "I for one welcome our rocket chair creating overlords. "
  In fairness, the picture is wholly unrelated to the story - unless they have started making Barcalounger shaped office chairs and 8 hp piston engines that shoot gigantic flames out the back. Both of which would be AWESOME!!
  
  --
  "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
9. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by R2.0 · 2008-08-19 05:30 · Score: 1
  
  "And I wouldn't call a lawnmower-engine powered office chair "useful". Interesting, and amusing, but not useful."
  The fact that it amuses IS it's utility.
  
  --
  "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
10. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ByOhTek · 2008-08-19 05:32 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Actually, there is a /slashdot/ use for them.
  Sell them to Microsoft.
  Enclosed building. Gas powered engines. Do the math.
  
  --
  Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
11. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by MBGMorden · 2008-08-19 05:39 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  It's an office chair isn't it? I'd like to roll up to a departmental meeting in one of those.
  
  Depends on which company we're talking about. If Microsoft, I shudder to think what Balmer could do with one of these. It'd be as if millions of programmers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
  
  --
  "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
12. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · 2008-08-19 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, but Ballmer might throw it through a window, letting fresh air in....
  
  --
  Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
13. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by e2d2 · 2008-08-19 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  Man, those anti-MS jokes never get old...sigh.
  So a string walks into a bar right..FUCK THE WORLD!
14. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by MiniMike · 2008-08-19 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  It's been done. Think Windows ME...
15. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Anonymous Coward · 2008-08-19 05:43 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  >Road regulations make the road less safe for everyone.
  While I agree some do (speed infractions, for example), some are incredibly useful and make the roads much safer.
  Examples:
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right.
  When a light is flashing yellow for one direction and red for another direction, who must stop? Regulation: Vehicle approaching flashing red must stop and wait until traffic on flashing yellow passes.
  A vehicle (for example: cyclist) is travelling at 25 km/h. There are several cars stuck behind him. Should the cyclist pull over, or continue to impede traffic? Regulation: Slow vehicles must pull over to let faster vehicles pass. He must pull over.
  There's plenty of other ones, especially obvious ones like having to wait for oncoming traffic to pass before making a left turn, those are just some obscure ones...
16. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by zamboni1138 · 2008-08-19 05:44 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Imagine how much less congestion there would be on our highways if we all drove office chairs to work.
  Yes, I do understand that semi trucks would be an issue.
17. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by pxlmusic · 2008-08-19 05:51 · Score: 1
  
  MORE POWER!
  
  --
  "If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."
18. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ShieldW0lf · 2008-08-19 05:54 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right.
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  
  When a light is flashing yellow for one direction and red for another direction, who must stop? Regulation: Vehicle approaching flashing red must stop and wait until traffic on flashing yellow passes.
  Solution: Use a roundabout on slow roads, and a merge lane on fast roads.
  
  A vehicle (for example: cyclist) is travelling at 25 km/h. There are several cars stuck behind him. Should the cyclist pull over, or continue to impede traffic? Regulation: Slow vehicles must pull over to let faster vehicles pass. He must pull over.
  Solution: Build periodic passing lanes on all major roads, allowing people to drive around slow moving vehicles without requiring them to get off the road.
  
  These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion, and you being encouraged to believe that you have the right to expect and demand that I do. Which means you're inevitably going to get into an accident when your preconceived notions fail to mesh with reality, which you've stopped paying attention to.
  
  Good engineering accommodates the errors and omissions of users. Bad engineering relies on laws and conventions to overcome inherent systemic flaws. Laws and conventions are, therefore, indicative of bad engineering.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
19. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by e2d2 · 2008-08-19 05:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Much like the shamwow, it's from Germany and you know those guys make good stuff.
20. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by wertarbyte · 2008-08-19 05:58 · Score: 1
  
  They can build a dozen of those. As long as they do not use it on a public road everything will be fine - at least legally.
  
  --
  Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
21. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Legion_SB · 2008-08-19 05:59 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  >> Oh, please. Making the chair is cool. Driving it on public roads is not so cool.
  
  If they were potentially causing a danger on those streets, then OK. But if they weren't being reckless and disrupting safe traffic, then this deserved a "hey kids, cut that out", not a pair of handcuffs.
  If I made that chair, you bet I'd go find a nice non-busy stretch of road to haul ass on.
  
  --
  'a';DROP TABLE users; SELECT * FROM DATA WHERE name LIKE '%'... if you're reading this, it didn't work.
22. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by The+Grim+Reefer2 · 2008-08-19 06:00 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Where do you suggest they go to get "proper training" for a motorized office chair? ;-)
23. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ShieldW0lf · 2008-08-19 06:01 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I don't tailgate. Tailgaters are idiots who let their impatience sabotage their capacity to speed. Good speeders never tailgate, because they know it reduces their reaction time and maneuverability, increasing the likelihood that they will be forced to come to a stop.
  Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents, dipshit. One of the things that gets created when you have a glut of rules is this sense of entitlement that you have, which eradicates courtesy and leads to impulsive acts of stupidity. Like what you've demonstrated in your anonymous post.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
24. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Timosch · 2008-08-19 06:06 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Solution: Use a roundabout on slow roads...
  And when leaving the roundabout, who has got priority? The car leaving it, or the one coming in? And anyway, right or left lane?
  There will always be traffic rules, and they are damned necessary. If you allow people to drive around on the highway (or even on the German Autobahn), it will not only result in the loss of their lifes, but also in the threatening and propably loss of others'.
25. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ednopantz · 2008-08-19 06:06 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  Uh.. I have driven in roundabouts and I'll take a stop sign any day of the week.
26. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Rub1cnt · 2008-08-19 06:08 · Score: 1
  
  Now...all we gotta do is ditch the lawnmower engine and drop in a boxter engine...can you see the first office chair that pulls a G and a half, and goes 0-60 in under 3 seconds? :)
  
  --
  Remember, it's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you... :)
27. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by moranar · 2008-08-19 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  Of course, anarchy in the roads would be so much safer than regulations that, for the most part, simply encode sensible use. It would not be conducive to road rage at all, no sir. Road rage is obviously caused by the regulations, and not by the idiot going 10 mph in a motorway without yielding.
  Seeing your example below, you advocate big spending (or do roundabouts and periodic exits grow on trees?) to accommodate the few bastards who can't drive properly.
  In engineering, you'd also propose protocols, languages and conventions freely interpretable, and that the end applications accommodate them? The visible result is the web, especially the browser wars era. A joy to work with, that was.
  
  --
  "I think it would be a good idea!"
  Gandhi, about Internet Security
28. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by erroneus · 2008-08-19 06:09 · Score: 1
  
  That is an interesting assertion but having lived in a culture and society where the vast majority of the population behave and think in the exact same way, I can attest to the efficacy of operating under unified regulations for traffic among other things.
  I speak of Japan, of course. In the US and likely in other nations of european decent, we have a rather strong sense of individuality and our own way of doing things... and of course we also individually think we are right. I'm not here to say who is right or wrong by exclusion of being right, but I will say that by observation, I can say that I have seen the results in traffic of such an orderly society and I've got to tell you -- the results are VERY good. In all the time I have spent in Japan, I have only been in one traffic jam and it was not caused by an accident, but rather, something exploded in a delivery truck... and even then, the onlooker traffic slowdown was nearly unnoticable... it was the fact that two lanes merged into one while the situation was being handled.
  As a US American, it's hard not to identify with the individual feelings you describe. Everyone in front of me is an annoyance unless they are not directly in front of me or are travelling at least as fast as I am.
  But believe it or not, it *IS* about safety. Most police will not ticket you for going 80MPH if everyone else is doing about the same. (most... not all... there are exceptions) When everyone behaves similarly, there is safety. When everyone behaves differently, there is danger. It is as simple as that.
29. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Rub1cnt · 2008-08-19 06:11 · Score: 1
  
  umm...have you seen the drivers in Texas? Rhand is you've ever driven on US-225? The only freeway in houston where the speed limit is a "suggestion". You do not do the speedlimit on 225...unless you want to get run over. the speed limit on this highway is 65...thats the suggested speed, the actual is somewhere in the neghiborhood of 85-90.
  
  --
  Remember, it's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you... :)
30. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 06:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Motorized wheelchairs are allowed on the roads, at least the residential streets around here, I don't see much difference.
31. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by digitig · 2008-08-19 06:15 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents
  [citation required]
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
32. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ginotech · 2008-08-19 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  agreed. roundabouts are a terrible idea, stop using them as the solution to every traffic problem.
  
  Also:
  merge lane on fast roads.
  How do you replace an intersection with a merge lane?
33. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ShieldW0lf · 2008-08-19 06:16 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Spoken like a person who never got t-boned by an idiot who didn't pay attention to the stop sign.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
34. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by hey! · 2008-08-19 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  Can you think of an engineering alternative to the regulation that says everyone has to drive in the same direction on the same side of the road (the driver's right side in most countries)?
  If not, then you lose the philosophical point.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
35. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Obfuscant · 2008-08-19 06:18 · Score: 1
  
  And when leaving the roundabout, who has got priority? The car leaving it, or the one coming in?
  The vehicle IN the roundabout has the right of way. In this case, the one leaving it, but if he's leaving it, there's no reason for the one entering it to wait. Unless, of course, you are appropriately paranoid and don't trust people who either use or don't use their turn signals.
  And anyway, right or left lane?
  Right or left lane what?
  For the OP, roundabouts are not always the answer to four way stops. They take more real estate to build (properly), are confusing to drivers who aren't used to them (most of the US drivers) , and are simply dangerous when built in limited space as a replacement for a four way stop.
  We've got two in our little town now, built in the same space as the four way stop was, as a means of "calming" traffic. (As if traffic got excited over a four way stop!?) Many people simply treat it as a four way stop and stop when they aren't supposed to (dangerous), or use the same "on the right" rule as the four way stop (exactly wrong) or don't use any rules at all and go either way around the circle depending on which way they want to go.
  I would rather have the four way stop.
36. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by R2.0 · 2008-08-19 06:22 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Good engineering accommodates the errors and omissions of users. Bad engineering relies on laws and conventions to overcome inherent systemic flaws. Laws and conventions are, therefore, indicative of bad engineering."
  Good engineering accommodates errors and omissions INSOFAR as it is practical/cost effective. Your solutions all require significantly more capital investment than the ones in existence now.
  There is also a similar hazard in that relying on engineering to make something idiot proof allows the idiots to have a false sense of security, inevitably leading them to strive to newer, previously unimaginable heights of stupidity that the engineers hadn't even thought possible.
  
  --
  "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
37. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Dogtanian · 2008-08-19 06:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  You do realise that if there are no traffic regulations, then people are free to drive straight over the roundabout, go the wrong way around it, or use it as a meeting place for a pimped-out-bouncy-suspension car convention?
  
  --
  "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
38. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by phillous · 2008-08-19 06:24 · Score: 1
  
  Uh.. I have driven in roundabouts and I'll take a stop sign any day of the week.
  That could be your problem... you're meant to go AROUND them, not IN them.
39. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Timosch · 2008-08-19 06:25 · Score: 1
  
  I realize that my own statement was nonsense. What I meant was "when entering the roundabout". And of course I do know who has got priority in this case (as I'm currently doing my driver's license). What I wanted to show is that traffic rules are necessary.
40. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by RobertM1968 · 2008-08-19 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  "
  
  Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents
  [citation required]
  "
  On Slashdot? When since? ;-)
  Though I would like to see those studies too...
  
  --
  StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
41. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ShieldW0lf · 2008-08-19 06:26 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  There were some really good ones I've read, but they were on government run sites and have been taken down. Here are some articles that indirectly support what I'm saying.
  http://www.motorists.org/speedlimits/
  http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5-studies-that-prove-it/
  http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html
  Enjoy.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
42. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by janeuner · 2008-08-19 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  they were very irresponsible
  Riding around on your toy go-kart is no more irresponsible than your average idiot on a sport bike. I suppose that they should have waited until they were 18 to go get a motorcycle license and license plate?
  
  And I wouldn't call a lawnmower-engine powered office chair "useful". Interesting, and amusing, but not useful.
  No one ever said a self-propelled office chair was useful. However, the skills acquired while making said office chair may lead to an application that is useful. Experimentation is part of creativity.
43. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by KDR_11k · 2008-08-19 06:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  You realize what regulations do? They enforce not only speed limits (wouldn't want some idiot to go 160km/h in a residential area), they also enforce basic vehicle safety standards. Easy example: Parts that fall off or increase the danger for other people in a crash. If your car is so crappy that your trunk cover falls off that's a definite safety hazard and can very well end up killing people. Adorning your car with spikes is a terrible idea, especially if it's done on the front (that you get arrested after killing somebody with them is little consolation to their next of kin!). There's simply too many things that can go wrong when you've got metal hunks of 1t and over moving at speeds in excess of even 30km/h. Humans are NOT naturally capable of handling these things!
  This whole "laws are only about control" bullshit meme is used way too often, I have no idea what people got hit with to get such idiotic ideas. We don't live in a world of Nietzschean supermen, people don't behave on their own and to allow reasonably safe coexistence with that many humans around it's simply necessary to make laws.
  
  --
  Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
44. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 06:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right. Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  
  Yes because replacing every single 4 way intersection in a residential neighborhood would be so simple, or in a city. EVERY intersection within 6 blocks of me is a 4 way stop, in at congested, 200+ year old city with small houses and tiny streets. PREDATING automobiles. I find your solution laughable and your assertation regarding engineering proposterous given that the road was developed before the automobile.
45. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by WhatAmIDoingHere · 2008-08-19 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  On my drive home, after a 25mph town zone, we go up a mountain with a passing lane at 55mph. It drops down to 50, and goes back up to 55 on a straight stretch that has no other roads, it's swamp on both sides. After that, the speed limit drops to 35mph.
  
  People go 40 the entire way. Starting in the 25. I don't understand it. They go 15 over, 15 under, 10 under, and 5 over. Which wouldn't be so bad, if the place where they want to speed weren't both speed TRAPS with townie cops who have nothing better to do.
  
  Oh, and the straight road that's a 55mph that these jerks do 40 on? No passing zone.
  
  That's what causes road rage.
  
  --
  Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
46. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Richy_T · 2008-08-19 06:39 · Score: 1
  
  Never seen a one way street?
47. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by WhatAmIDoingHere · 2008-08-19 06:40 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Friends don't let friends install M$ junk.
  
  --
  Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
48. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by fishbowl · 2008-08-19 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  "Motorized wheelchairs are allowed on the roads, at least the residential streets around here, I don't see much difference."
  I'm pretty sure the distinction will be based on horsepower and possibly on noise.
  
  --
  -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
49. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by jrockway · 2008-08-19 06:44 · Score: 1
  
  (driving a motor vehicle on the streets without proper training or safety measures)
  What's wrong with this? It's perfectly legal to ride a home-built electrical bicycle on the road, without training or safety measures. What's the difference between a bicycle and an office chair?
  
  --
  My other car is first.
50. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by operagost · 2008-08-19 06:44 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  The state of New Jersey had (and still has a few) circles (roundabouts), and the biggest problem with them is that you have to steal a huge amount of land through eminent domain to build them. Periodic passing lanes also require real estate, as do merge lanes. Obviously these are not universal solutions.
  
  --
  
  Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
51. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by k2r · 2008-08-19 06:47 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  > I don't see much difference.
  In Germany every motorized vehicle driven on public roads needs to pass a regular safety test*1 , has to have vehicle insurance and you'll need the right driving license.
  Everything else is /very/ illegal.
  The definition of "public roads" includes publicly assessible parking lots.
  That's a set of laws that really makes me feel safer.
  *1) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Technischer_Ueberwachungsverein&oldid=230576541
52. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion, and you being encouraged to believe that you have the right to expect and demand that I do.
  
  Tell me, what assumptions are you making regarding using a round-a-bout and what behavior should you expect others to use when in them? You are proposing the same need for rules and regulations with a different form of intersection.
53. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by fishbowl · 2008-08-19 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  "...unless you want to get run over...."
  I hear this all the time. But I'm also sure that the guy with the fast car behind me, likes his car enough not to get an impression of my chrome bumper on his front end.
  What's he gonna do? Ram me??? It's TEXAS. I know how to turn that into 5 years in prison for assault.
  I'll go my speed. You can pass me. Your call.
  
  --
  -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
54. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Chris+Mattern · 2008-08-19 06:51 · Score: 1
  
  What's the difference between a bicycle and an office chair?
  When you put an engine in it, the difference is that it has an engine in it. Engine-driven vehicles require licenses to be driven on public roads.
55. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by MikeyVB · 2008-08-19 06:52 · Score: 1
  
  Where do you suggest they go to get "proper training" for a motorized office chair? ;-)
  
  Since they were using it on the streets, they could start by getting a driving license like everyone else that operates a motorized method of transport in public.
  Now I am not sure about this, but I think in Germany you can't get a drivers license until you are 18 (and they were 17). Ironically, it probably would be safer for these guys to be driving a car on the streets than that contraption they built.
  I am all for inventing things like that and having fun with it - but on private property where they can only hurt themselves and their own property not other people if something happens to go wrong.
56. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Richy_T · 2008-08-19 06:52 · Score: 1
  
  I'll take only having to stop when there's traffic crossing your path to having to stop every freaking time any day of the week.
  Yeah, a couple of hundred yards of stop-go traffic during busy periods when there's no cross-traffic at all... Excellent idea.
  Get rid of most of the stop signs in the US and gas prices would drop appreciably.
57. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by moranar · 2008-08-19 06:53 · Score: 1
  
  Stupid regulations are a different beast, and I'm not condoning them. I just happen to think that there are some of them that are useful.
  
  --
  "I think it would be a good idea!"
  Gandhi, about Internet Security
58. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Anonymous Coward · 2008-08-19 06:54 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  http://www.hr-online.de/website/rubriken/nachrichten/indexhessen34938.jsp?rubrik=36098&key=standard_document_35004490&lugal=1&ibp=0
59. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by philspear · 2008-08-19 06:56 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  Problem with solution: now instead of a relatively cheap and easy-to-navigate 4 way stop, you have two weeks of construction to put in a roundabout that will cost much more (even assuming none of the 4 property owners object to replacing significant portions of their property with roads).
  So as to make the regulation uneeded, you'll have to replace all 4 way stops with a roundabout. I have no idea how many 4 way stops there are in whatever city you live in, or how much more a 4 way stop costs. I have no idea how long it would take to replace it. I have no idea whether roundabouts are even safer.
  I do know that whatever the answers to all of those questions, your suggestion is absolutely unworkable and absurd, so you must work in a state legislature.
  The laws you're talking about are laws that keep construction and taxes down to realistic levels.
60. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Fulcrum+of+Evil · 2008-08-19 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  Or, park in it.
  
  --
  "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
61. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 07:02 · Score: 2
  
  Wow, thats actually kindof depressing. What about bicycles?
62. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by jrockway · 2008-08-19 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  What's the difference between an engine and an electric motor?
  
  --
  My other car is first.
63. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by treeves · 2008-08-19 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  Doesn't look like an office chair.Looks like a recliner. Never seen those in an office, but maybe I've not been in the right offices.
  
  --
  ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
64. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by treeves · 2008-08-19 07:19 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry for replying to myself, but I guess the answer is that they didn't have an image of the actual chair, so they found some other picture to use for comic effect.
  
  --
  ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
65. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Deaddy · 2008-08-19 07:23 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Bicycles are not motorized. However, they still need to have proper lighting (in the dark you have to drive with lights on) and working brakes. Since it's only a misdeamenor, if you don't have these, the fees are pretty low (<50Euro).
66. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by mikael · 2008-08-19 07:24 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ICBC = Inter-continental ballistic chair
  
  --
  Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
67. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Sun+Chi · 2008-08-19 07:27 · Score: 1
  
  Don't be too proud of this technological terror they've constructed. The ability to destroy an office chair is insignificant next to the power of the iForce. But maybe you're not frighted by Steve Jobs' sorcerous ways?
68. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by geobeck · 2008-08-19 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  And I wouldn't call a lawnmower-engine powered office chair "useful". Interesting, and amusing, but not useful.
  But bolt on a wheeled desk and add a laptop with a good wireless connection and you've got a solution to all that unproductive commuting time!
  
  --
  Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
69. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Archangel+Michael · 2008-08-19 07:34 · Score: 1
  
  This is your thesis:
  
  Good engineering accommodates the errors and omissions of users.
  This is my Anti-thesis:
  
  Make something idiot proof, and only idiots will use it.
  
  Your Round About solution is flawed, because you have no idea how it is flawed. Suppose you build a round about, on a road without much traffic, and you build it small, because there isn't much traffic. Now an increase in traffic (rush hours especially) causes increased delays because the round about cannot accommodate the amount of traffic with any sort of efficiency.
  Likewise, a Large Round About is inefficient for light traffic areas. With lights, one can tailor the light change frequency to the needs of the traffic. Properly designed One Way streets are way better than having round abouts every block, in all but very rare cases.
  More traffic necessitates larger round abouts. Once a round about is installed, it makes it very difficult to enlarge.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
70. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 07:38 · Score: 1
  
  I ask because I'm curious about OTHER vehicles that are "driven on public roads", also there are bicycles that have been modified to be electrically or motor-assisted. And a 40lb downhill racing bike with a 180lb rider will cause more damage, is more dangerous, more difficult to control, and much much faster than a mechanized wheelchair so I fail to see how making a distinction between human and engine-powered vehicles is justified when both are using the same roads. Anything else?
71. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by janrinok · 2008-08-19 07:39 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  every motorized vehicle
  
  What about bicycles?
  Come on, I'm sure you can work it out yourself if you read it over a few more times. OK, I give in, here's the answer. If the 'bicycle' is 'motorized' then it "needs to pass a regular safety test*1 , has to have vehicle insurance and you'll need the right driving license."
  
  --
  Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
72. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 07:40 · Score: 1
  
  ... and working brakes.
  
  Fixies are illegal?
73. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by LoweD · 2008-08-19 07:43 · Score: 1
  
  A policeman can direct traffic however he pleases, and one must obey him. Yet if he was not directing, but only observing traffic, you should consult an attorney and consider contesting the citation (if you got one). Vehicles in the roundabout have right-of-way over vehicles entering it, whether in New Jersey or New Guinea.
74. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by jweller · 2008-08-19 07:44 · Score: 1
  
  I'm a big fan of the properly implemented traffic circle, but between people who can not put their heads around how to drive in them and cities that put traffic lights inside of the circle, in practice, they suck.
75. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by mrchaotica · 2008-08-19 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  Roundabouts take up more space. Also, the only real difference is that the person to the left has the right-of-way instead.
  
  These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion...
  So do your rules. In particular, they depend on the assumption that the person approaching the roundabout or in the merge lane will yield to the person already in the roundabout.
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
76. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by LoweD · 2008-08-19 07:50 · Score: 1
  
  Building roundabouts to replace intersections, and passing lanes where there were none? Engineering, good or bad, is under a budget.
77. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by mrchaotica · 2008-08-19 07:51 · Score: 1
  
  How do you physically prevent someone from driving the wrong way down it?
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
78. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 07:51 · Score: 1
  
  So as long as I avoid traditional motors I can be as unsafe as I want, good to know. How does meeting safety standards have anything to do with your method of propulsion?
79. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by SlowMovingTarget · 2008-08-19 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  Microsoft? Nah. Virtucon!
  [VROOM] "How about 'NO!' you freaky Dutch bastard."
80. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Capt.DrumkenBum · 2008-08-19 07:54 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.icbc.com/
  
  --
  If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
81. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by LoweD · 2008-08-19 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  They mightn't drop at all. Lower demand for a commodity does not necessarily mean a lower price.
82. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by janrinok · 2008-08-19 08:00 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  How does meeting safety standards have anything to do with your method of propulsion?
  In much the same way that riding a bicycle doesn't require insurance or a driving licence. I'm sorry, what is your question again?
  
  --
  Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
83. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by xaxa · 2008-08-19 08:07 · Score: 1
  
  I'd like to invite you to the UK:
  Double mini roundabout (treat it as two separate roundabouts. I lived close to that, buses were good at jamming it up when car drivers weren't paying attention. It's needed because both roads are busy, and both are as important as the other.)
  The Magic Roundabout. A road designer's wet dream -- they managed to get the traffic to go round the central circle in the opposite direction to normal. There are multiple routes between any two roads, too.
  We like putting traffic lights on them too, but there's so much congestion they're generally needed (many lights on roundabouts say "Peak Time Only", and are switched off when it's not busy).
84. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by digitig · 2008-08-19 08:08 · Score: 1
  
  There were some really good ones I've read, but they were on government run sites and have been taken down. Here are some articles that indirectly support what I'm saying.
  http://www.motorists.org/speedlimits/
  
  A conspicuously biased study from a lobby group. No responsible safety professional would define safety solely in terms of probability of accidents; it has to be scaled according to the severity of the accident. Sure, there may be more likelihood of an accident at low speed than at high speed, but if one results in a dented fender and the other results in me and my family smeared all over the highway then they're hardly equivalent.
  
  http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5-studies-that-prove-it/
  
  Another biased report from the same lobby group. If you read the report that it links to you will see that "when the casualty accidents at signalised intersections was plotted [...] it can be seen that while there is a small decrease in right-thru accidents in 1989 it is nowhere near the same magnitude of change as at the 41 RLC sites. The drop at the 41 sites was more than 30%" (my emphasis). Again, your lobby group is selectively reporting, only looking at accidents, not the severity (although in this case it doesn't matter much, because the report they cite goes on to say in the conclusions that the quality data available to the study pretty poor, so the conclusions aren't up to much anyway. Something else the lobby group didn't mention).
  
  http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html
  Enjoy.
  Now that was an interesting study -- but it said nothing about safety, only the standard of enforcement in the USA.
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
85. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by digitig · 2008-08-19 08:12 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, and I should have mentioned -- none of those studies say anything about "cultures without traffic laws" which was the subject of your original claim, so none of them is actually relevant.
  
  --
  Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
86. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Timosch · 2008-08-19 08:14 · Score: 1
  
  Well, I can only talk about Germany here, for that's where I live. Here the traffic inside the roundabout has the right-of-way if there is a special roundabout sign. If there is none (which never occurs...), it's normal priority to the right - which is of course strange, as it'll block the roundabout, but as I said: That sign is always there... However there's a special question about in the theoretical exam you need to pass in order to get your license. Well, and of course (propably in every country on the world) the instructions of a police officer stand about traffic lights, above traffic signs, above special rules like these and above the normal priority to the right.
87. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by xaxa · 2008-08-19 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Something like this. That looks like an expensive version (with a bridge), often they just widen the road a while before the junction, then provide a space between the lanes for drivers going straight over the major road.
  (The speed limit on the big road will be 70mph).
  The next junction north on that road is a roundabout, then the next is a T-junction-with-bridge-and-roundabouts (crazy).
88. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by op12 · 2008-08-19 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  Angled spikes?
89. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  But a motorized wheelchair would? How about a Segway? Isn't the point of a license to have some guarantee that you are in fact qualified to use device xyz on the public road? Isn't the point of insurance to have some guarantee that whatever damage you may cause will be paid for? I realize this is regarding Germany but where I'm at motor scooters don't require a license BUT they do require insurance and registration. Bikes require neither. Both are (supposedly) subject to all the same rules of the public roads. I just fail to see the need to differentiate and say these users don't need to demontrate that they are qualified to operate their vehicle (license) and these users don't need to insure that any damage they do with their vehicle will be covered (insurance).
90. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by c6gunner · 2008-08-19 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  How do you physically prevent someone from driving the wrong way down it?
  Directional spike strips :)
  I agree, btw, that the original "philosophical point' was silly. I'm just playing devils advocate.
91. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by xaxa · 2008-08-19 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right.
  
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  Yes because replacing every single 4 way intersection in a residential neighborhood would be so simple, or in a city. EVERY intersection within 6 blocks of me is a 4 way stop, in at congested, 200+ year old city with small houses and tiny streets.
  
  One alternative is to designate one of the roads as more important than the other. Traffic on that road doesn't have to stop at all, traffic on the other roads gets "Give Way" (i.e. "Yield") signs.
  Most quiet roads in the UK are like this, "Stop" signs are very rare (generally only at blind junctions). Busier junctions either have a roundabout or traffic lights.
  Example (a rare use of a Stop sign, probably the trees/walls restrict the view -- the next junction to the east has the normal Give Way signs and markings).
92. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by GiovanniZero · 2008-08-19 08:38 · Score: 1
  
  Stop trying to engineer a way around Darwin, you'll only make the world worse in the long run. Whoever thinks "good engineering" accommodates any errors of users could never recognize the engineering in a gun.
  
  --
  Mod me up, mod me down, do your worst you modding clown.
93. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Kent+Recal · 2008-08-19 08:40 · Score: 1
  
  Well, it's definately more of an invention than the mobility pranks that
  other kids come up with in their idle time.
94. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by RenderSeven · 2008-08-19 08:46 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "In fairness, the picture is wholly unrelated to the story"
  
  ...and the picture isnt taken in August in Germany (note bare trees and winter driving gear) and the driver isnt 17 unless they've been taking East German steroids. Which would ALSO be AWESOME!
95. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Kent+Recal · 2008-08-19 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks for taking the time to dissect this idiot.
96. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Kent+Recal · 2008-08-19 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  ...with a tank?
97. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Bryansix · 2008-08-19 08:56 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Not quite there. Speed law is not about safety I will give you that. However the regulations that deal with "RIGHT of WAY" are VERY important. It's not that they just make things predictable; they stop people from asserting a right of way that they should not be asserting. Eventually you will have a merge even in a roundabout. The law says that the traffic already going that way has the right of way and the merging traffic needs to YIELD. If they did not need to yield then both cars would assume the right of way and crash into each other.
  
  Another rule that is important is people going straight on a street and people turning right. The right turn people have to come to a stop and yield the right of way. If they didn't do that there would be side impact traffic collisions all the time.
98. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Skunkhead · 2008-08-19 08:58 · Score: 1
  
  To be correct, any motorized vehicle that can do more than 25 km/h has to be licensed etc. Electric wheelchairs and bicycles with small electric motors are ok because they are to slow.
  On another note: I know of at least two friends of friends of mine which have built similar vehicles. One was a combination of a moped and a sofa :-) (Btw, I'm german as well)
99. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Bryansix · 2008-08-19 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  That's moronic. I'm sorry that you live in NJ. The traffic IN the circle always has the right of way.
100. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:06 · Score: 1
  
  They weren't arrested for inventing, they were arrested for driving an unlicensed vehicle.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
101. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Evil_Medic1 · 2008-08-19 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  While the thumbnail is apparently not of the 'vehicle' in question, who's the guy driving-Jamie Hyneman (Mythbusters)?
  What? Seems like something they would do.
102. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by rossdee · 2008-08-19 09:27 · Score: 1
  
  The electric motor doesn't produce greenhouse gasses, or carbon monoxide. The latter would not be very useful for something used inside an office building.
103. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by tgatliff · 2008-08-19 09:35 · Score: 1
  
  And Robert Goddard also got in trouble for building a rocket go cart, and look at what he ended up achieving. The reality is that we are trying to discourage the same bright minds we want to push the outer limits of what society considers normal. My opinion is that they should have padded the kids on the back, and then told them to please do not drive the contraption on public streets...
104. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by TheGratefulNet · 2008-08-19 09:37 · Score: 1
  
  there are more strict rules in europe about 'junk cars'. my GF is from .de and she tells me that the old rusted junkers on the roads in the US, today, would NEVER be allowed in .de.
  still, I think the cops went too far. just tell the guy to stay 'off road' and it should be fine.
  
  --
  
  --
  "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
105. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by janrinok · 2008-08-19 09:37 · Score: 1
  
  As you say, it is a different country. However, the laws in Germany have their equivalents in many other European countries. Muscle powered vehicles rarely need a licence, insurance or any examination of driving competence. Anything that provides power assistance is more likely to be controlled by some form of regulation. The licence is simply a formal permission to use the vehicle on public roads i.e. it is usually issued when you have proven that you can operate the vehicle safely with regard to other road users. As you say, the insurance is the method by which payment of damage is guaranteed. And, if you have more than your share of accidents, then your annual premium will increase significantly or, ultimately, the company will no longer provide insurance. The motorized chair in Germany was (probably - in true Slashdot fashion I haven't read TFA) being operated without a licence, without the users having any insurance, not would the chair have been checked to ensure that it could stop in an emergency, that it could be effectively steered to avoid other road users or hazards and to ensure that it was operated with due regard to other road users' safety. The police don't care if you hurt yourself, but, for example, if the engine was exposed it poses health and physical injury risk to others. That is why the police stopped the prank.
  You fail to see the need to differentiate the different requirements for bicycles, motor scooters and cars. Reading between the lines I suspect that you are probably leaning towards suggesting that none of them should require a licence but I take the opposing view. I wish cyclists, indeed all road users, had to pass some kind of proficiency test before being allowed to use busy public roads. Equally, why don't they have to be insured? If a cyclists drives on the wrong side of the road and ends up going through someone else's windscreen, why shouldn't he have to pay for the damage that he caused? The vast majority of cyclists are competent, but when you meet an idiot in any kind of vehicle he poses a hazard not only to himself, but others also.
  
  --
  Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
106. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ArsonSmith · 2008-08-19 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  Regulations should be difficult to implement and easy to remove.
  
  --
  Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
107. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by rainer_d · 2008-08-19 10:53 · Score: 1
  
  But a motorized wheelchair would? How about a Segway?
  The Segway, in Germany, has a different problem: it only has one brake circuit.
  In Germany, every motorized vehicle needs to have two independent brake-circuits.
  Also, it probably doesn't help that no German car-manufacturer is envolved and so it doesn't have a big industrial lobby (which is essential to get anything new going in Germany, law-wise)
  In Switzerland, BTW, you've got to have a mandatory bike-insurance (it's a 7 dollar worth sticker that needs to be attached to your bike), which is to be renewed every year.
  The insurance only pays for damages you create with your bike.
  But as someone else already said - if you hit some pedestrian with a 18kg downhill-bike and at full-speed, that poor guy is lucky if he survives it. It's not much difference compared to getting hit by a motor-bike....
  
  --
  Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
108. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by crotherm · 2008-08-19 10:59 · Score: 1
  
  The Desk Mobile. via Get Smart!!.
  
  --
  "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" - JFK
109. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by AeroIllini · 2008-08-19 11:13 · Score: 1
  
  This whole "laws are only about control" bullshit meme is used way too often, I have no idea what people got hit with to get such idiotic ideas. We don't live in a world of Nietzschean supermen, people don't behave on their own and to allow reasonably safe coexistence with that many humans around it's simply necessary to make laws.
  
  Hear, hear! Freedom and personal choice are far too messy for the likes of these unwashed masses. It's about time someone brought about a totalitarian regime to regulate and enforce community standards of fairness, safety, health and happiness! People are simply incapable of making any sound decisions on their own: other people have to do it for them.
  It's for your own good, you know.
  
  --
  For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
110. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by sumdumass · 2008-08-19 11:36 · Score: 1
  
  You don't see a difference between something that make an invalid mobile and something played around with for fun?
  Let me tell you what it is. One is amusement. The other is putting an ability that ever other human has back into the hands of someone who lost it. Would you see the difference between an off road motorcycle and a wheelchair?
111. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by sumdumass · 2008-08-19 11:41 · Score: 1
  
  I would think that the difference might be if the rider gets knocked off, the vehicle doesn't continue under power.
  You know, like jumping out of a car going 40 verses jumping off a bike at the same speeds. Which will go further if nothing gets in it's way first.
112. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by sumdumass · 2008-08-19 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right.
  
  Actually, it is whoever arived and came to a complete stop first. While technically this might be possible, it isn't common. To make it even less common is the drivers perception of everything happening at the same time is going to be less.
  And to make it even more off, that scenario is only a rule of right away. It is a secondary law that is only applicable if you have an accident or cause a reckless situations. Of course laws vary from state to state and this is the perspective from my state.
  
  A vehicle (for example: cyclist) is travelling at 25 km/h. There are several cars stuck behind him. Should the cyclist pull over, or continue to impede traffic? Regulation: Slow vehicles must pull over to let faster vehicles pass. He must pull over.
  
  Actually, in my state the law is to just keep right. The vehicles behind you will pass when it is safe. If you pull over to let them by, it is just a courtesy on your part.
113. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by againjj · 2008-08-19 12:05 · Score: 1
  
  Motorized wheelchairs are allowed on the roads, at least the residential streets around here, I don't see much difference.
  Are they "allowed on roads" because the cops look the other way, or are they "allowed on roads" because they are legal? At least in California (USA) it is the former. People in wheelchairs are pedestrians, and are not allowed in the street except where pedestrians are allowed, but they are usually ignored since many sidewalks are often hard or impossible to navigate. Besides that, many street corners don't have ramps down to the crosswalk to cross the street unless they are new or upgraded.
114. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by daveiver · 2008-08-19 12:45 · Score: 1
  
  LOL I almost fell out of my office chair reading your comment!! BTW, great quote in your sig!! I use it all the time.
115. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by againjj · 2008-08-19 13:03 · Score: 1
  
  Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right.
  Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
  Okay, you have now replaced one regulation with another. One person is in the roundabout, one person on the entering street. Who has right of way? Regulation: the person in the roundabout. Never mind the fact that I remember very vividly a roundabout that everyone traveling through it thought was simply a four-way intersection with an island in the center, and so did not give way to those in the roundabout. Also note that bicycles generally fare far worse than cars in safety terms. As a side note, I assume that you do not mean traffic circles, which actually had higher accident rates than traditional intersections in the US.
  
  When a light is flashing yellow for one direction and red for another direction, who must stop? Regulation: Vehicle approaching flashing red must stop and wait until traffic on flashing yellow passes.
  Solution: Use a roundabout on slow roads, and a merge lane on fast roads.
  Roundabouts still have the right-of-way question, as mentioned above. A merge lane implies a traffic circle or interchange, both of which are land intensive. Sorry, not a general solution. Besides, the question still stays: who has right of way in a merge? The person in the lane being merged into.
  
  A vehicle (for example: cyclist) is travelling at 25 km/h. There are several cars stuck behind him. Should the cyclist pull over, or continue to impede traffic? Regulation: Slow vehicles must pull over to let faster vehicles pass. He must pull over.
  Solution: Build periodic passing lanes on all major roads, allowing people to drive around slow moving vehicles without requiring them to get off the road.
  And non-major roads don't get them? God, I hate people going slowly on small country roads where they don't need to. And roads that were once non-major but now carry much more traffic? How do you define major anyway? What about existing roads that do not have room to easily expand (say it is built into a mountain side)? And your use of the phrase "passing lane" instead of "second lane" indicates to me that you assume that the second lane would be used for passing. Why should it (unless there is something that says you should -- like the "slow traffic keep right" signs I see here)? Besides that each extra lane you add to a road is mighty expensive. Your solution does not really work.
  
  These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion, and you being encouraged to believe that you have the right to expect and demand that I do. Which means you're inevitably going to get into an accident when your preconceived notions fail to mesh with reality, which you've stopped paying attention to.
  True (except the the last six words, but I'll not address them). But having traffic behave in a predictable fashion reduces the number of accidents far more. I do not know if you have ever traveled in a county with almost no enforced traffic laws. I have: Laos. They have one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the world, and most traffic does not go above 20 mph (35 kph), and 95% is below 30 mph (50 kph).
  
  Good engineering accommodates the errors and omissions of users. Bad engineering relies on laws and conventions to overcome inherent systemic flaws. Laws and conventions are, therefore, indicative of bad engineering.
  I agree with the first two statements, but the last does not follow from the first two.
  I would not say that the convention of traveling on the right and passing on the left (or vice-versa as the country dictates) side for same moving traffic and the opposite for oncoming traffic i
116. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by againjj · 2008-08-19 13:10 · Score: 1
  
  Right. Since speed limits and red light cameras cause accidents, all traffic laws cause accidents. </sarcasm>
  Also, one can argue whether these are biased, but I won't.
117. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Architect_sasyr · 2008-08-19 13:49 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, so both about as useful ;)
  
  --
  Me failed English...
  FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
118. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Nqdiddles · 2008-08-19 13:51 · Score: 1
  
  Sounds like the perfect setting to dump your car and ride a bike. :)
  
  --
  And that kids is how I met your mother.
119. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by The+Grim+Reefer2 · 2008-08-19 14:19 · Score: 1
  
  Where do you suggest they go to get "proper training" for a motorized office chair? ;-)
  Since they were using it on the streets, they could start by getting a driving license like everyone else that operates a motorized method of transport in public.
  Now I am not sure about this, but I think in Germany you can't get a drivers license until you are 18 (and they were 17). Ironically, it probably would be safer for these guys to be driving a car on the streets than that contraption they built.
  I am all for inventing things like that and having fun with it - but on private property where they can only hurt themselves and their own property not other people if something happens to go wrong.
  I don't know what the laws are like in Germany for something like this. I remember years ago mopeds had small enough engines that they did not require a license in many states. Granted that has probably changed by now. Of course it used to be OK to drive a go-kart on the streets in many areas when I was a kid too. Where I live now it was fine for kids to drive those motorized scooters around w/o a license as well. I haven't seen too many this summer though. My guess is that that had to do more with the noise if there has been a law passed for those.
120. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by siriuskase · 2008-08-19 14:33 · Score: 1
  
  Something about this thread made me think of this
  http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/harry/
  But, I haven't played it in years. We used to have a version at my office using real chairs, but none were motorized IIRC.
  
  --
  If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
121. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by moosesocks · 2008-08-19 14:42 · Score: 1
  
  I think that a fixed-gear bike would qualify as "having working brakes" in most cases. At least, having the ability to stop is sufficient.
  Of course, if you're riding a fixie in such a way that you cannot easily stop, the thing should inded be fitted with a normal pair of brakes, or you shouldn't be riding at all.
  
  --
  -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
122. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by ozmanjusri · 2008-08-19 15:28 · Score: 1
  
  Seems like something they would do.
  Seem like something a surprisingly large number of people might do, including this one which looks most like the source pic.
  Though I'd normally be looking more towards Top Gear than Mythbusters for this sort of action...
  
  --
  "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
123. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by putaro · 2008-08-19 16:49 · Score: 1
  
  Hmmm...if you're on a highway (not freeway) in the US, usually the stop signs are only for crossing/entering traffic, not on the highway itself. I drove across a big chunk of England once on their equivalent of a highway and every kilometer or so there was a traffic circle which meant you had to slow down, even when there was no traffic in the circle. It wasn't very pleasant.
124. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by KDR_11k · 2008-08-19 17:48 · Score: 1
  
  Because really, the only options are fascism and anarchy, right? What kind of black and white world do you live in?
  
  --
  Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
125. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by will_die · 2008-08-19 18:26 · Score: 1
  
  Not in Germany, in Germany the vehicle to the right always has priority.
  However in most, roundabout thier are yeild signs to anyone entering the roundabout. The only exception for this are streetcars, on rails, which always have right-a-way in a roundabout.
126. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Urkki · 2008-08-19 19:46 · Score: 1
  
  These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion, and you being encouraged to believe that you have the right to expect and demand that I do. Which means you're inevitably going to get into an accident when your preconceived notions fail to mesh with reality, which you've stopped paying attention to.
  
  .
  It's really about efficiency. When people can predict what others do, everything goes much more efficiently. The cost of the efficiency is that when the prediction fails, it's worse than if there was no prediction, only reaction. However, in almost all cases, benefits of prediction far outweight the cost of occasional mis-prediction. This applies to just about everything. And the goal in engineering and lawmaking should be to make predicting as reliable as possible, rules as easy to follow and as intuitive as possible, to maximize the efficiency gains and minimize mis-predictions.
  .
  Of course roundabouts are one way to achieve this, but roundabouts, especially multi-lane roundabouts rely heavily both on rules and on trusting that others will also follow the rules in a dynamic (cars moving) situation. Traffic light controlled intersections rely on simpler rules and simpler trust in a more static situation (cars stopped behind red lights). Roundabouts make a more complex situation predictable, so they are more efficient than traffic lights, but once the situation gets too complex, once you just can't trust the other drivers to do what you predict, and can't trust them to predict what you'll do, it breaks down and you need either control (traffic lights) or communication (like direction signals, but they're both unreliable and too simple for solving roundabout congestion, and making them more complex would make 'em even more unreliable signs of what the other car is going to do).
  .
  Maybe one day we'll have cars that talk to each other, and for example in intersections the cars decide who goes when, and then just tell the drivers to either go or to stop (or just slow down in advance so there won't be a need to stop completely).
127. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by yellowalienbaby · 2008-08-19 20:17 · Score: 1
  
  Milton Keynes in the UK. Designed around a grid system, where every intersection uses a roundabout rather than traffic lights.
  
  Or, that was the bright idea when they started. There has been a tendency for traffic lights to creep in. Rush hour in MK lasts, oh, about 30 minutes.
  
  --
  Darwin Hawking Blackmore
128. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by kaiidth · 2008-08-19 20:46 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  There' s a picture on this web site, ie. this one.
  It's somewhat disappointing since it's more realistic to say they built a motorised platform, and stuck an office chair on it.
  
  There is also a side-note describing the first German championship in office chair running, which took place in April. The paper also provide a set of increasingly disturbing images of hulking male participants dressed in various pink fluffy bunny type outfits draped in a variety of poses across office chairs... Apparently the motorised approach was not permitted during the championship, although entrants were allowed to customise their chairs with handlebars.
129. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by jandersen · 2008-08-19 22:40 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, I see you don't know much about Germany. The flames are not an uncommon side-effect of a diet consisting mostly of Sauerkraut and Bockwurst - this also explains things like the leafless trees.
130. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by that+IT+girl · 2008-08-20 02:04 · Score: 1
  
  Hell yeah. Would eliminate the need for parking lots, you'd just drive your chair right inside and up to your desk.
  
  --
  10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
  20 DRINK COFFEE
  30 GOTO 10
131. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by jonbryce · 2008-08-20 03:12 · Score: 1
  
  I suggest you don't take a car to any of the new towns in Britain then (East Kilbride, Milton Keynes, Swindon, Basingstoke, etc) where pretty much every junction has a roundabout.
  Swindon has a particularly interesting example where one of the roundabouts has lanes to go round it in both directions, and mini roundabouts at each of the entrances to the roundabout. It is fascinating watching five lanes of very busy traffic flow through the roundabout without any delay even at peak times, but a bit confusing when you have to navigate it for the first time.
132. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by Richy_T · 2008-08-20 04:49 · Score: 1
  
  However, in the US, highways often go for a very long time with only trivial roads crossing them. In the UK, everything is closer so naturally you get more major junctions in a smaller space. The US answer would have just been to put four-way-stops or lights where those roundabouts were. Much more annoying.
133. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by LiquidvsMetal · 2008-08-20 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  And think of the money that could be saved by the corporations, they wouldn't have to invest in office chairs. Just think of a world where instead of Windows costing $100 it could cost $100 with Microsoft putting the savings to "responsible" use.
134. Re:So much for the seeds of .... by LifesABeach · 2008-08-20 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  "accept no substitute." - Porsche
Segway Competitor by bigtallmofo · 2008-08-19 05:13 · Score: 3, Funny

I bet Dean Kamen is wondering why he wasted his time messing with gyroscopes and other sophisticated electronics. These can probably be made for 1/10th the cost of a Segway and they could probably be made just as maneuverable.

Sure, you don't sit as highly as you stand but that's probably a good thing overall. Probably gets 200 MPG, too.

--
I'm a big tall mofo.
1. Re:Segway Competitor by geeknado · 2008-08-19 07:46 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  See, this is what /really/ should've been visualized in the Minority Report movie...Millions of office workers rolling to work in their powered office chairs, whisked up buildings and directly to their desks to toil...Silently sliding up to the bar at the end of the day...Ugh. I think I've just visualized the end of legs.
2. Re:Segway Competitor by moosesocks · 2008-08-19 14:47 · Score: 1
  
  Go see Wall-E.
  It's a brilliant piece of film, and pretty much depicts what you're talking about.
  Basically, everybody gets really, really fat...... and then the cute robot comes to save them.
  
  --
  -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
3. Re:Segway Competitor by Phyvo · 2008-08-20 05:37 · Score: 1
  
  Didn't they already do that in Wall-E?
ACHTUNG! by Anonymous Coward · 2008-08-19 05:16 · Score: 1, Funny

In GERMANY vee have RULES!
1. Re:ACHTUNG! by megaditto · 2008-08-19 06:04 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Well you gotta nip that sort of youthful "creativity" in the butt.
  Remember that German kid who wanted to become an architect? They let it slide, and the next thing you know, he was annexing Poland.
  
  --
  Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
2. Re:ACHTUNG! by Anonymous Coward · 2008-08-19 06:22 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  The kid you are alluding to was Austrian, not German.
3. Re:ACHTUNG! by Tom · 2008-08-19 06:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  He was austrian. You know, we are very precise and stuff over here.
  
  --
  Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
4. Re:ACHTUNG! by kj_kabaje · 2008-08-19 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  Damn,.... I can't believe how fast this thread got to Godwin's Law.
5. Re:ACHTUNG! by Quasimodem · 2008-08-19 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  With a rocket assisted office chair in his arsenal, he might have been the first doodlebug over London, in 1936.
6. Re:ACHTUNG! by powerlord · 2008-08-19 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  Damn,.... I can't believe how fast this thread got to Godwin's Law.
  I guess we "Zeig"ed when it should have Zagged?
  
  --
  This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
7. Re:ACHTUNG! by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:11 · Score: 1
  
  He was from down under?
  heh.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
8. Re:ACHTUNG! by rainer_d · 2008-08-19 11:02 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, he tried to enroll in the art academy in Vienna. Two times.
  He considered himself an artist.
  Of course, he was also Austrian, as pointed out by some AC below me.
  Some people argue that his German citizenship is bogus at best and Germany should just 'nix it and hand him back to Austria ;-)
  My history teacher used to say that Austria managed to turn Beethoven into an Austrian and Hitler into a German...
  
  --
  Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
9. Re:ACHTUNG! by zwarte+piet · 2008-08-19 21:14 · Score: 1
  
  No. Don't you mean that Austrian kid with the funny moustache?
10. Re:ACHTUNG! by tekpagan · 2008-08-20 00:55 · Score: 1
  
  It was a party.
  We were invited!
  
  --
  And This Too Shall Pass
Images on front page by Hatta · 2008-08-19 05:16 · Score: 1, Offtopic

I've disabled the category images, but I still see the icons in the idle section stories. How do I disable these? Am I going to have to add /. to my adblock filters?

--
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
1. Re:Images on front page by cowscows · 2008-08-19 05:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Maybe you should just get over it. It's just a little picture, what's the problem? Did an image kill your dog or something?
  
  --
  One time I threw a brick at a duck.
2. Re:Images on front page by moderatorrater · 2008-08-19 05:52 · Score: 1, Offtopic
  
  This isn't an offtopic comment at all. A new section was launched, there's a problem with the new section, that problem's posted in that section. What's the problem?
3. Re:Images on front page by truthsearch · 2008-08-19 05:54 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Give him a break. It takes a very long time to download an image over a 300 baud modem.
  And I suggest you stay off his lawn.
  
  --
  Developers: We can use your help.
4. Re:Images on front page by Hatta · 2008-08-19 05:57 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  I found a workable solution. I went to my user preferences -> Index -> sections and set the Idle section to display only headlines.
  
  --
  Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
5. Re:Images on front page by EMH_Mark3 · 2008-08-19 06:19 · Score: 1
  
  You could add http://images.slashdot.org/articles/ to your adblock filter, that should do the trick.
  
  --
  Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me
6. Re:Images on front page by Translation+Error · 2008-08-19 06:21 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Hey, maybe he's a Protestant and doesn't believe in icons! Ever think of that?
  
  --
  When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by Shadow+Wrought · 2008-08-19 05:17 · Score: 5, Funny

Isn't this the country that banned potato guns?

Yes. They kept shooting potatoes at all the motorized office chairs.

--
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Finally.... by Ritz_Just_Ritz · 2008-08-19 05:17 · Score: 1

A use for all those leftover Aeron chairs from the Internet bubble.
1. Re:Finally.... by Van+Cutter+Romney · 2008-08-19 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Hey, don't say anything degrading about Aeron chairs. They're the most comfortable things you can put your base on. The problem was with all the so-called "entrepreneurs" who thought they could spend their cash any way they wished...
  
  --
  Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
2. Re:Finally.... by Jerrry · 2008-08-19 05:27 · Score: 1
  
  Damn German cops have no sense of humor...
Borat 2 by f1vlad · 2008-08-19 05:20 · Score: 1

By looking at the picture first impression was -- Borat 2

--
o_O
Ambitious... by croddy · 2008-08-19 05:23 · Score: 1

Ambitious... but rubbish.
I guess the race is off with this guy. by Kid+Zero · 2008-08-19 05:24 · Score: 1

This guy's got two jet engines on his. Wonder how they'd like a drag?
What is the world coming to? by homesnatch · 2008-08-19 05:26 · Score: 1

What is the world coming to when you can't even build a souped-up small-engine-powered office chair to take on the road? I'm sure they were just trying to save the environment by increasing gas efficiency.
1. Re:What is the world coming to? by COMON$ · 2008-08-19 05:31 · Score: 1
  
  Actually lawnmower engines are some of the worst offenders emission wise. At least in the US they are.
  
  --
  CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
2. Re:What is the world coming to? by inotocracy · 2008-08-19 05:48 · Score: 1
  
  Mr. Buzz Kill, is that you?
3. Re:What is the world coming to? by Sj0 · 2008-08-19 09:18 · Score: 1
  
  What exactly does that have to do with gas mileage?
  600CC cars from Japan get 70MPG on the highway, but their emissions mean they need to replace the motor with bigger, much less efficient motors to get emissions down.
  
  --
  It's been a long time.
4. Re:What is the world coming to? by COMON$ · 2008-08-20 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  Depends on what your efficiency goal is, if saving money and reserving fuel is your goal then mission achieved. But more MPG doesn't necessarily mean lower emissions to help with the environmental effects of gas.
  
  --
  CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Rocket chair? by clone53421 · 2008-08-19 05:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

Is the picture misleading (i.e. not the chair referred to in the article) or did they do something significantly more than put a lawnmower engine on it?

--
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
1. Re:Rocket chair? by devotedlhasa · 2008-08-19 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently it goes so fast that he started out 17 and came back 40. Now that's fast.
2. Re:Rocket chair? by Sven+Tuerpe · 2008-08-19 07:11 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  This is the photo released by the police.
  
  --
  http://erichsieht.wordpress.com/category/english/
3. Re:Rocket chair? by DinDaddy · 2008-08-19 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm. I don't know that I would describe that as a "motorized office chair" so much as a go kart with an office chair used for the seat. They didn't even use thee original wheels.
4. Re:Rocket chair? by EricKoh · 2008-08-19 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  The picture actually depicts the artist's impression of version 6.5 of the rocket chair. As you can see, the teen is all grown up now and the lawnmower engine has been replaced with the batmobile engine...
5. Re:Rocket chair? by garcia · 2008-08-19 08:39 · Score: 1
  
  I just removed it all together -- whew. Much better. Thanks for making that option available.
6. Re:Rocket chair? by karpediem · 2008-08-19 11:21 · Score: 1
  
  And that's one bodaciously old-looking 17-year-old.
7. Re:Rocket chair? by clone53421 · 2008-08-19 12:45 · Score: 1
  
  Right. I want one of those now.
  
  --
  Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
disconnect by nomadic · 2008-08-19 05:29 · Score: 2, Insightful

You know, confiscation is not "arrest."
1. Re:disconnect by kellyb9 · 2008-08-19 05:37 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  German police have confiscated the world's fastest office chair and arrested its 17-year-old inventors.
2. Re:disconnect by Kozz · 2008-08-19 05:54 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  FAIL!
  The AP story does not contain the word "arrested" anywhere, it only says that the device was confiscated and the individuals were being investigated.
  
  --
  I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
3. Re:disconnect by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2008-08-19 06:03 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "The AP story does not contain the word "arrested" anywhere, it only says that the device was confiscated and the individuals were being investigated."
  
  Well, you apparently read the story - there's your first problem...
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
4. Re:disconnect by Rub1cnt · 2008-08-19 06:14 · Score: 1
  
  amazing how the internet changes the news. :)
  
  --
  Remember, it's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you... :)
5. Re:disconnect by conteXXt · 2008-08-19 06:16 · Score: 1
  
  Actually it's state sanctioned theft. Thanks for playing.
  
  --
  The truth about Led Zep should never be told on /. (Karma suicide ensues)
Outrageous!!!! by kellyb9 · 2008-08-19 05:34 · Score: 1, Insightful

... until i saw the picture. Probably should've let someone know he was going to attach a rocket to an office chair.
1. Re:Outrageous!!!! by arlanTLDR · 2008-08-19 05:50 · Score: 1
  
  That's not the actual chair. First off, thats a recliner, not an office chair. Second, that driver is much older than 17. Third, if you click on the article the picture's not there. And lastly, The actual "vehicle" used a lawnmower engine, not the engine from the bat mobile
2. Re:Outrageous!!!! by Kozz · 2008-08-19 05:58 · Score: 1
  
  Well, you know, it's nice to have idle.slashdot.org as an outlet where all the editors can, in fact, editorialize and otherwise have fun with the articles, even if posting unrelated or misleading photos. The editors can get it out of their systems and keep the other articles they post factual, unbiased and objective. *grins*
  Cue flamebait mods in 3..2..1..
  
  --
  I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by whoppo · 2008-08-19 05:35 · Score: 1

I, for one, welcome our new potato gun banning overlo... oh wait... someone already did this one.

--
chown -R us /base
Re:I'm sure... by Mesa+MIke · 2008-08-19 05:38 · Score: 1

It'd probably BSOD before he could throw it.
Cause for pause by Broken+Toys · 2008-08-19 05:38 · Score: 2, Funny

I hope this doesn't affect the funding from IKEA for my rocket propelled plastic lawn chair.
I'm calling it the Blstöv.
is slashdot the new digg? by jaymz2k4 · 2008-08-19 05:45 · Score: 1, Insightful

because its starting to feel like it... :(

--
jaymz
Maybe good in the straight by Hangtime · 2008-08-19 05:46 · Score: 1

but I wouldn't trust it going into the Hammerhead or Chicago. ;)
*for those of us who Love Top Gear*
1. Re:Maybe good in the straight by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2008-08-19 08:08 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  yeah but I wonder what kind of time the Stig could set around the track?
  
  --
  Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
2. Re:Maybe good in the straight by knightf0x · 2008-08-20 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  You could put a star in a reasonably priced chair
3. Re:Maybe good in the straight by RyuuzakiTetsuya · 2008-08-20 13:01 · Score: 1
  
  will the chair lose it at Gambon? Will they have to lift during the followthrough?
  
  --
  Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Office chair? by bcattwoo · 2008-08-19 05:47 · Score: 1

How does one get a job where a recliner is considered an "office chair"?
1. Re:Office chair? by guruevi · 2008-08-19 06:11 · Score: 1
  
  That is in case your job title starts with a (capital) C and ends with a (capital) O. This makes it more unlikely to get bedsores from sitting there until the next stock report.
  
  --
  Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Picture is wrong? by zappepcs · 2008-08-19 05:48 · Score: 1

If the picture is accurate... talk about being in the hot seat?

--
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Does that picture match the story? by NotQuiteReal · 2008-08-19 05:49 · Score: 1

The "rocket chair" picture show something more like a recliner on a rocket cart.
Not an "office chair" with a lawnmower engine.
I think people are just making stuff up.

--
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by wertarbyte · 2008-08-19 05:57 · Score: 1

No law explicitely forbids potato guns. But a potato guns using an explosive air/fuel mixture is by definition a firearm, which posession is prohibited here in germany (and most of europe as well) without the proper authorization.

--
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
Re:I'm sure... by nsayer · 2008-08-19 06:01 · Score: 1

He probably will, at some point.
Ridiculous photo accompanies article by TheModelEskimo · 2008-08-19 06:03 · Score: 1

The photo attached to the /. article is plainly not the same chair as the one in TA:

The pair had added a lawnmower engine, bicycle brakes and a metal frame to the revolving chair - making into a go-kart-like vehicle.
...no lawnmower engine, no bicycle brakes, no revolving chair. What is going on, editors?
Confucius say by Profane+MuthaFucka · 2008-08-19 06:05 · Score: 1

Confucius say "World fastest office chair still not fast enough to catch office gossip."

--
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
now this is a great idea by pointbeing · 2008-08-19 06:06 · Score: 2, Funny

Yes. They kept shooting potatoes at all the motorized office chairs.

And a new Olympic sport is born.

--
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
How I yearn for the days by nightfire-unique · 2008-08-19 06:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

I suppose this is probably one of those "happy-days" fantasies, but how cool would it be to live back in an age where regulation didn't exist. Where danger was all around. Where you could invent, and wow people. Where accidents happened. Where imagination was your only limit.
The lawyer has replaced the priest.

--
A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
1. Re:How I yearn for the days by Otter · 2008-08-19 06:22 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You'd most likely have died in infancy from improperly pasteurized milk. Pretty freaking cool, huh?
  
  --
  What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
2. Re:How I yearn for the days by st0rmshad0w · 2008-08-19 06:55 · Score: 1
  
  The human population has doubled in 40 years, we could survive the loss.
3. Re:How I yearn for the days by nightfire-unique · 2008-08-19 06:57 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You'd most likely have died in infancy from improperly pasteurized milk. Pretty freaking cool, huh?
  And yet, somehow they got by. People exercised their own judgment, self control and personal responsibility. No government body was looking out for them; they simply smelled the milk before they drank.
  
  --
  A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
4. Re:How I yearn for the days by claygate · 2008-08-19 06:58 · Score: 1
  
  As cool as dying from prescription medicine poisoning, clogging of arteries by trans-fats or diabetes brought on by a sedentary, sugar-filled lifestyle. Choose your poison, keyword being choose.
5. Re:How I yearn for the days by lobiusmoop · 2008-08-19 07:19 · Score: 1
  
  In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.
  
  --
  "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
6. Re:How I yearn for the days by gad_zuki! · 2008-08-19 07:21 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  >And yet, somehow they got by.
  Sure did, except your mom had 9 kids of which 5 survived into adulthood.
  Good old days!
7. Re:How I yearn for the days by maxume · 2008-08-19 07:28 · Score: 1
  
  If your government requires that you take pills, eat trans fats and live a sedentary, sugar filled lifestyle, you should consider looking into the other available options.
  Or maybe I misunderstood the point you were trying to make.
  
  --
  Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
8. Re:How I yearn for the days by nightfire-unique · 2008-08-19 07:40 · Score: 1
  
  That was an issue of lacking medical technology and techniques, not a lack of regulation.
  
  --
  A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
9. Re:How I yearn for the days by R2.0 · 2008-08-19 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  "You'd most likely have died in infancy from improperly pasteurized milk. Pretty freaking cool, huh?"
  Actually, he probably would have been breast fed, and by the time he got to the age of drinking milk, he would have had a quite robust immune system.
  
  --
  "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
10. Re:How I yearn for the days by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  ummmm Thisk about your neighbors. TYhink how astupid they are.
  Do you really wanting doing something that's going to effect people on other property?
  Do you want your neighbor erecting a 100 foot rickety tower that could fall and crush your house?
  Dumping highly toxic chemical on your property?
  Firing a gun willy nilly?
  "The lawyer has replaced the priest."
  I would rather have a lawyer then a priest.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
11. Re:How I yearn for the days by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:22 · Score: 1
  
  Some people got buy, but the 15+% of people who died as infants didn't get by.
  Whole communities died from food isue without knowing it was the food. Hell, the symptoms used to find 'witches' was possible from bad grain.
  "People exercised their own judgment, self control and personal responsibility."
  What world are you from? that has always been rare here on earth. Time has made the past seem far more glamorous then it every was.
  Yeah, we can 'get by' as a race, but I would rather do better.
  So you live in your little world where strapping an engine to an office chair is perfectly acceptable to drive down public roads, the rest of us will live in the reality that many people share the roads and as such some common laws must be in place.
  The next time you are in the number one lane(aka fast lane/passing lane) and the person in front of you is doing 5 miles under the speed limit, just remember that are exercising "their own judgment, self control and personal responsibility. " and you should get angry.
  This is cool , and all, but test it someplace where you aren't a danger to other people.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
12. Re:How I yearn for the days by Arguendo · 2008-08-19 09:40 · Score: 1
  
  And yet, somehow they got by.
  I think the entire point is that some people *didn't* get by. Only the lucky ones are standing around telling us how they all "got by" in the old days.
13. Re:How I yearn for the days by solevita · 2008-08-19 11:37 · Score: 1
  
  When, exactly, did this anarchic utopia exist? Since the rise of history people across the world have been tightly controlled by regulating powers. Not the governments of the modern world, perhaps, but certainly powers from above that imposed restriction. Medieval Europe, anything from the Bible's New Testament, the American continent since its "discovery" by Europeans. In prehistoric groups, and in examples from modern day hunter gatherer communities, considerable evidence exists that people were and are bound by rules that dictate their behaviour. Your previous example of the priest demonstrates the point perfectly; religion is a strict social controller and has been for a very long time.
  
  By definition humans have to follow regulations, whether prescribed by a government or not; it's the only way to get on in any sort of society. Don't believe me? Go and sleep with your best mate's wife; it's not illegal, but it probably breaks a social norm that exists between you and your best mate. When he then gets upset you'll see how impossible it is to live in a world without regulations.
  
  Had this occurred in the past these kids will still have annoyed other people and their fancy chair would still likely be taken off them. Your rose-tinted "oh, the past was great" statement is really just you inventing some happy time and place that operated just as you'd like. In the real world such a thing has never existed.
14. Re:How I yearn for the days by B4D+BE4T · 2008-08-19 11:56 · Score: 1
  
  There are plenty of countries that still have little to no regulation. Why not move to one?
  Definitely not a place I would want to live. Most are considered third world countries where people struggle just to survive from day to day. But hey, if you think that would be a fun way to live, I say go for it. To each his own.
15. Re:How I yearn for the days by dbcad7 · 2008-08-19 13:00 · Score: 1
  
  And what the hell is wrong with natural selection ?
  
  --
  waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
16. Re:How I yearn for the days by darkmeridian · 2008-08-19 13:59 · Score: 1
  
  The "good old days" were freaking terrifying. Children went to the pool and ended up in an iron lung for the rest of their lives. You'd eat beef, get TB from the cow, and die. A factory worker would stub his toe, get an abscess, and then die. Little kids were forced to work in mines and sweatshops. No one who lived in the good old days can honesty say they preferred it back then.
  
  --
  A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
17. Re:How I yearn for the days by MindlessAutomata · 2008-08-19 16:16 · Score: 1
  
  Only because third world countries don't have the infrastructure to create silly regulations over.
18. Re:How I yearn for the days by evilviper · 2008-08-19 18:45 · Score: 1
  
  That was an issue of lacking medical technology and techniques, not a lack of regulation.
  Okay. PROVE IT
  I think it's safe to say some 90%+ of us have never needed medical attention, at least well into adult-hood.
  Hint, you can point to herd immunity and sanition, but you still won't be able to cover the huge infant and child mortality rates. You're not completely wrong of course, as both issues contributed, but largely so by dismissing one of them.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
19. Re:How I yearn for the days by codeButcher · 2008-08-19 20:00 · Score: 1
  
  I recall drinking raw milk regularly until at least teenage and thereafter on every occasion when being back at my parents'. Come to think of it, our water came straight out of a bore hole - no chlorine anywhere near it. My grandparents are buried not exactly in the back yard, but about 300m from the house. I also recall my brother building a car from some square tubing and a lawnmower engine - great fun!
  And no, I'm only in my thirties now :-)
  
  --
  Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
20. Re:How I yearn for the days by Candid88 · 2008-08-19 20:52 · Score: 1
  
  "Where imagination was your only limit"
  Well the only limit here was that they shouldn't have started driving it down public highways.
  The offenses for which they are being investigated are: "defying insurance regulations, driving without a license and violating registration requirements." ...all of which refer to their driving of the unlicensed 'vehicle' on public streets.
  I believe the exact same would have happened back during the "happy-days".
21. Re:How I yearn for the days by joh · 2008-08-19 21:14 · Score: 1
  
  Well, all of your (and mine) ancestors back through the ages obviously did *not* die in infancy...
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by Thornburg · 2008-08-19 06:15 · Score: 1

So compressed air (or CO2) potato guns are fine?
looks more like a... by FudRucker · 2008-08-19 06:15 · Score: 1

from that photo it looks like a Lazy Boy reclining chair with the foot rest extended...

http://images.google.com/images?&q=lazy%20boy%20recliner

--
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
It Needs To Happen by DynaSoar · 2008-08-19 06:28 · Score: 1

"I look forward to it being profiled on Top Gear."
I look forward to the new specialty magazine, "Chair & Driver". There can be a professional circuit section, with souped up motorized wheel chairs, and a 'dirt track' stock chair section for vehicles like this. And just wait until Ky "Rocketman" Michaelson http://www.the-rocketman.com/ gets into it.
Oh wait, he has: http://www.the-rocketman.com/full-throttle.html
Seriously, this thing should fall under an unregulatable category, much like ultralight aircraft in the US that couldn't possibly meet FAA licensing requirements without growing into an entirely different vehicle.

--
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
That's noth'n... by drgould · 2008-08-19 06:35 · Score: 1

Motorized barstools are cooler.
Re:Open post to the mod who by AndGodSed · 2008-08-19 06:37 · Score: 2, Interesting

I second your last sentence.
Daring is a dying art. Someone - I forget who - said "Youth is wasted on the young."
Today I am thinking it is more of "youthfulness is suppressed in the young."
I want my kids to do things like this one day, and guide them rather than stop them completely.

--
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
HEY, GET BACK TO WORK! by Verdatum · 2008-08-19 06:38 · Score: 1

Compiling!

....Oh....carry on.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by grungeman · 2008-08-19 06:42 · Score: 1

I think this still has to be clarified. A potato gun is basically a muzzle loader, which is not banned in Germany AFAIK.

--

Signature deleted by lameness filter.
Thank you. by BitterOldGUy · 2008-08-19 06:46 · Score: 1

That's all.
Why an office chair? by Quiet_Desperation · 2008-08-19 06:46 · Score: 1

Why not a La-Z-Boy or other recliner?
Too much chance of falling asleep at the wheel?
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by jasmak · 2008-08-19 06:53 · Score: 1

I don't know about in Germany, but here in the US a CO2 powered gun is considered a firearm. I have had personal experience with this when playing paintball in the woods near (within hearing range of) some houses.
Some lady called the cops and they came in with guns and ended our game. They told us that it was against the law to use "firearms in a residential area" but ended up just taking our pictures (in case there was paintball vandalism in the future) and giving us a warning.
It still makes my heart beat fast thinking of the day when I am playing a GAME and two cops come up behind me pointing pistols at my head yelling "Put the gun down!"

--
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Picture by Sven+Tuerpe · 2008-08-19 07:02 · Score: 5, Informative

There is a picture of the actual vehicle on the Web. It seems that the office chair really constitutes just a minor component of it, which becomes obvious if you compare the vehicle to the racing chairs used in official championships (page in Germany, I'm sorry).

--
http://erichsieht.wordpress.com/category/english/
1. Re:Picture by jadin · 2008-08-19 09:16 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Why couldn't the editors use the actual vehicle? It actually looks pretty cool, the sensational jet engine photo just lowers the overall nerd factor. It also makes the story far more debatable, any chair with flames out the back will obviously be stopped by police in short order, but the engineered one you linked, much less likely.
  Oh, right. This is idle.
2. Re:Picture by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:24 · Score: 1
  
  How disappointing.
  It's just a go cart with an office chair. I thought it would use it's own wheels.
  
  --
  The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
It looks like a wheel-chair... by stankulp · 2008-08-19 07:02 · Score: 1

...which could probably come in very handy.

--
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by wertarbyte · 2008-08-19 07:45 · Score: 1

There might be other regulations due to the energy put into the "bullet", but a fire arm is defined as a weapon that propells a projectile through a barrel by using an explosive. Guns using compressed air do not fit into that category, but they might be covered by some other regulation.

--
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by wertarbyte · 2008-08-19 07:48 · Score: 1

I don't think so. To own a weapon of that kind, one would have to have own a "Waffenbesitzkarte" (weapons posession document), which is only issued to those of special interest: collectors, shooting sportsmen, hunters.

--
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
Play the "Jackass" theme along with the picture by Trip6 · 2008-08-19 08:06 · Score: 1

It will make for a true multi-media experience!

--
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
Not arrested by mseeger · 2008-08-19 08:10 · Score: 1

arrested its 17-year-old inventors
Even in germany you don't get arrested for things like this. You get cited (several violations of laws) and may have to appear in front of a court. But this doesn't even close to standards set for an arrest. The worst that can happen is (if you don't carry your identification) that the police takes you to their station for identification. But this is not an arrest. You won't even have to post a bail. The punishment may be heavy though. The court may even block you from obtaining a driving permit for several years. Fines for drivinig without an insurance may cost you several thousand euros. Public roads are not a builders lab... If he hurts someone without being insured, this may ruin several lives.
Sincerely yours, Martin
Make it idiot-proof.... by maz2331 · 2008-08-19 08:31 · Score: 1

...and someone will just make a better idiot.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by R2.0 · 2008-08-19 08:43 · Score: 1

Sucker. Firearms are very strictly defined under most state laws, and paintball/BB/pellet guns are NOT in that classification. Why didn't they arrest you? Because they couldn't - they just wanted to shut up the neighbor lady.

--
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
My sig says it all by EmbeddedJanitor · 2008-08-19 08:57 · Score: 1

"Engineering is the art of compromise".
Safety vs cost vs time to maket vs .....

--
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Re:Open post to the mod who by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:10 · Score: 1

You want your kids to build an office chair with an engine and take it on the busy highway?

--
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
People complaingin about the picture: by geekoid · 2008-08-19 09:25 · Score: 1

Bill Gates isn't actually a Borg either, perhaps you should whine about that?

--
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Re:bouncy car convention by mencomenco · 2008-08-19 09:38 · Score: 1

Correction: what we are in fear of here is a bouncy-suspension chair convention.
Combining teen driving with bouncy chairs and Punk/Goth styling certainly means the end of civilization as we know it!
Actual image - not so impressive by Lars+T. · 2008-08-19 12:02 · Score: 1

http://www.localxxl.com/lokal_nachrichten/gallery/show/post_id/1087041

--
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Pics by Britz · 2008-08-19 12:14 · Score: 1

This article has pics
http://www.presseportal.de/polizeipresse/pm/4969/1248483/polizeipraesidium_suedhessen
Its in German, though.
Something to listen to while you read by my_left_nut · 2008-08-19 12:25 · Score: 1

load the flash and scroll over to the Autobahn link
Funny. I don't see any office chairs there.
Ridiculous article too by EmbeddedJanitor · 2008-08-19 12:34 · Score: 1

The whole damn article is ridiculous.
The kids were not hassled for making the chair but for operating it on a public road.
Analogy alert: If a man bought a knife and stabbed someone it would get reported as "Man arrested for buying knife" or "Man arrested for spending $5"
We're getting a lot of stupid articles these days.

--
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. by Landshark17 · 2008-08-19 15:12 · Score: 1

Potato Cannon + Motorized Office Chair = Best. Drive-by. Ever.

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This sig is false.
I now have this recurring fantasy... by Landshark17 · 2008-08-19 15:18 · Score: 1

In which German policemen use the chair as a prototype and begin their own underground office-chair racing league. I can just imagine them zooming around police station basements all over Deutschland.

--
This sig is false.
that's not a lawn mower motor by simplerThanPossible · 2008-08-19 17:09 · Score: 1

wait... do "motorized office chairs" have their own icon on slashdot now?
ILLEGAL?! What's Next?! by IHC+Navistar · 2008-08-19 18:14 · Score: 1

I don't know about Germany, but I know here in the U.S. you can't be fined for not having a permit that you cannot obtain.
Personally, I think that they can't be prosecuted for driving without insurance only if insurance is offerd for such 'vehicles'.
This reminds me of the time when I had my dog pull me down the street into town on my skateboard.
All I got was a few chuckles from a passing cop.

--
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Like this? by ThomsonsPier · 2008-08-19 22:18 · Score: 1

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/top-gear-stupid-cars-p1.php
the next idle headline by nimbius · 2008-08-19 23:21 · Score: 1

Ballmer taps german firm for redmond renovations.

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Good people go to bed earlier.
Nice feature by garphik · 2008-08-19 23:33 · Score: 1

Now go carts will have comfortable chairs
Looks interesting. by Cynthia1971 · 2008-08-19 23:58 · Score: 1

With the way gas prices are, this doesn't look like a bad mode of transportation.
Would love to see by Schmyz · 2008-08-20 06:16 · Score: 1

...Richard Hammond from TOP gear try this one out.

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Joe Investor
Laws and Regs by xycadium · 2008-08-30 21:58 · Score: 1

They are being investigated over a variety of possible offenses, including defying insurance regulations, driving without a license and violating registration requirements.

I do find the list of charges very interesting. I'm guessing the insurance regulations may have something to do with a seatbelt maybe and the violating reg req has something to do with horsepower in use on the vehicle? This will be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope /. keeps up on the story.