http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/02/15/coming_s oo n_footpowered_laptops/ "A US developer is coming to market with a device which lets users recharge batteries using a foot-operated pump.
The StepCharger, from AladdinPower, gives approximately 20 minutes of laptop power after five minutes of brisk pumping."
http://www.aladdinpower.com/ "Introducing Very Soon!
e+ STEPCHARGER(TM)
With just a brisk pump of your foot, you will never worry about a dead battery again. With just a few pumps of the "STEPCHARGER" you can instantly begin to charge your laptop, cellphone, video camera and much more . If it uses a rechargeable battery, the "STEPCHARGER" will charge it!!"
about $200
i could use this to power the laptop all day. they should incorporate these into body suits, and use the pumps to circulate cooling liquid to the suit, and power my PAN...
yo, anyone know of a foot pump to turn mechanical energy into something that can power your laptop?
I doubt you could sustain the power needed forever, but if it could be used in remote locations in a crunch, or to extend life by, say 25%, I'd buy it. It would probably come in handy more often than a power cord if it could make you last 8 hours, cuz the cord could just be left at home.
wrt this story, he wants the government to have more power than these companies. If their are multiple conglomerates, the issue isn't monopoly.
Leave it to a communist to think that the government should take care of the "failings" of the market.
The issue might be one of government-corporate collusion (DMCA), but this has little to do with what Ted is talking about. If it did, his enemy would be shitty legislators, and not the companies [every company, like every individual, will act in its own interest].
A good deal of the administration's actions are related to compromise to push through essential strategies for the war.
The war resolution, the money to support it, measures like the PATRIOT act, etc., all required compromised for other agendas.
Also, with measures like the perscription drug benefit, there was a tiny point of medical savings accounts. Go here to learn why MSA are the best choice.
With NCLB, there was supposed to be a voucher scheme introduced, which was later taken out. Now that a majority of minorities are in favor of vouchers, I don't understand why they aren't being adopted more rapidly.
That said, I am optimistic that Bush will do better in his second term, where he doesn't have much to lose. Given that Cheney won't be on the ticket in 2008, he can take measures which are normally anathema, such as social security reform, complete welfare reform (if that is even possible), and the measures removed from the health and education bills.
Given Kerry would be worse, without a doubt (even with the lies he is telling to paint himself as a centrist), I see no reason to reject this optimism.
Either way, I agree with the comment above: Bush understands the war, Kerry doesn't. Go here to hear more about that point.
[note this comment was made on a libertarian website. If you want the jackboot of a Kerry welfare/technocratic state crushing your dreams, then he might not be worse for you]
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you...
on
Red Hat Vs. The Lawyers
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
your future vice president, if you choose.
He complains about the cost of health care, while pocketing $27 million in 4 years from lawsuits that raise insurance rates.
I'm sure he'll be the one to back the tort reform bill which would cure the American disease of our suing culture...
You are saying that China has grown relatively faster than America.
If the reverse were the case, it would be amazing because America is far more rich than China.
So, yes, china is improving faster. That's because they are poorer, and have more to improve.
Don't get me wrong. Chinese growth because of its embrace of free markets is amazing, but GDP is a good measure of the value of good and services produced in an economy, even for poorer foreign countries.
Also, the US is largely responsible for China's growth in that we are the primary source of their business.
So Chinese growth is great, but without business growth (powered by the US), and the greater manufacturing demands that come with this, China wouldn't grow. Also, China has problems, like corruption, poor banking decisions, and neglected rural areas.
Either way, I asked the question not to bash China. I think China and India are the future, if the the former reforms their system towards greater freedom.
Rather, I meant to comment on European technocrats who take great pains to plan an ideal future for Europe. They claim that Europe can surpass the US in a decade. This simply won't happen because control from a central source takes away exactly that which is good from a free market: distributed trial & error.
So go ahead an chalk one up for bar-code standards and the EU. I just wish they would de-regulate large swaths of their industries, give up the ideal of a welfare state, and embrace a free market.
..."and the globe has defeated the United States."
Shadenfruede anyone?
Quick Q: which country is thanklessly driving the world economy the fastest?
EU nations? wrong..they can't muster 4%... China? maybe, but 1/8 US GDP and a large number of "unperforming" loans are a problem.
India? Well, all I can say is that I love India, and our recent boom in tech collaboration and investment:) For anyone who still complains about trade & tech jobs wrt India... maybe you should change industries. I hear the auto-workers union is very reception is that uneducated drivel.
My fiance graduated from CMU, from their masters in Human Computer Interaction. She researched intelligent tutors for a while. They can make things better than 1-on-1 tutors.
The guy funding both projects from CMU & MIT, was far more impressed with CMU's program. It isn't about just lobbing material on the web; it's about teaching people.
So in this case, look for quality and not quantity.
I'm getting a masters in Robotics right now from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon.
I don't want a PhD because I fear becoming too specialized, rather than learning something that will actually be able to solve an immediate need through job experience.
For a PhD candidate, while the advisor certainly has a large say, he student has control to choose a topic (and advisor) that has some relation to the practical world of business.
Why become a postdoc at a university if you can do serious research at a biotech company or apply new algorithms at a tech firm?
Hell, even my brother, who is getting a PhD in physics, can get a job in Wall St. any time he wants. (and you thought there was no way to apply the Levenberg-Marquardt Method to the real world!)
Maybe I'm biased because most of the PhDs I know are in computer science related fields. I have heard being a Bio of Chem postdoc sucks ass.
Either way, I'm not worried about American Education in the world of free trade and immigration. People should compete, and if parents aren't teaching their kids proper values, it is their fault. Vouchers would heal shitty schools.
Also note that the acceptance rate for PhD programs is continuously falling. This implies to me that there are more than enough people to fill the positions
...when I mod my body with gene therapy that I won't be allowed in my neighborhood WholeFoods because I'll be a GMO?
or does it mean that the market will pursue these changes (without federal funding in some cases) and all the luddites warnings be damned because people can make a choice to improve their lives?
Or does this mean that I can sit in front of my computer all day, alternating from coding robots to playing robots in UT2004, and stay in shape?
Is it exercise if it only happens when I choose it to? wu-wu-walk...WALK in the park? What is that?
all hail the beauty and wealth of a world bettered by technology!
I must say that there is simply no way Java could be used for serious computer vision work, where I specialize.
The need for speed is too great. Lack of memory-management optimization is the killer.
Having programmed in Java for years, it was painful to give it up and switch back to C++ for performance reasons. Also, Intel's openCV library and other such C/C++ libraries are very useful.
Also, in terms of ease of development (rather than speed), MATLAB has JAVA beat without question. I mean, if you are going with a VM, why not go all the way with an interpreter?
I know of at least 3 companies that do heavy work in vision. Each have around 20 guys doing research in MATLAB and at least a dozen to translate it to C++ or C# to get it to run in real time.
Surveillance in public with checks & balances in the public spotlight is THE security solution to stopping terrorist attacks.
This is certainly a lot better than surveillance of private areas not under supervision right?
I mean, if not this, then what can we do to ensure security, when you have super-empowered individuals who can kills thousands easily?
For instance, you can't stop a suitcase nuke, unless you can make big cities "hard targets" wih radiation sensors throughout the city and especially along the border. Have you heard the stories recently of people getting radiation treatment setting off super-sensitive sensors? This is perfect.
Read here for more interesting opinions, and what would need to be done to make it all Constitutional: http://www.techcentralstation.com /033104A.html
video and laser data can get very large very fast. a robot can move in ways that a mechanical drive can't handle.
I just spent $500 on a 2gig CF card for such a dynamic legged robot, and I would love this drive. My main concern was max write speed, as a single camera, at 30fps, 640x480 moncrome yields almost 10Mb of sustained data.
because a great deal of work needs to be done in reviewing the market to ensure that a potential patent has not already been patented or is in use already, people seeking patents often perform a great deal of their own research to save themselves in legal fees.
if, in the process of preparing the background for a patent application, you find that there IS previous work, what percentage do you think actually file the application?
I'm a masters student at the robotics institute at CMU. we've got a group of graduate students that play at least once a week, and we all love it.
recently, as part of one student's AI project, we played against the 'pokerbot'. Basically, it was a GUI on a laptop which needed a human operator to input cards and bets.
At first, we called it a 'foldbot' for good reason. After a few tweaks from the programmers, it became pretty good at structured texas holdem poker.
losing a hand in a showdown to a machine of your own making is the worst...
Given the crazy estimates from enviro fear mongering of how much we would need to reduce greenhouse gas consumption to make a real impact, the 10000sq.mile area is not enough. What would it replace? all...
...petroleum transportation fuels.
...which account for only 16% of greenhouse gasses produces in America.
Clearly such research is good. But beware the big numbers. First, they require large government intervention(otherwise, we needn't worry and the market will take care of things), which means that you shouldn't trust their figures to be that realistic. Second, they are talking about a change in a large sector of the oil economy. This would have to be slow by design.
Again, this is good, but more needs to be done. Anyone want to fund a Grand Challenge/X-Prize for the best price/performance renewable fuel?
What? You don't have $1B to blow?
Re:Economics motivation for conservation
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 1
yes, it is true.
but doubling the world's demand for oil will do one of two things: 1) prices will be fairly stable as currently untapped supply is access so output is increased 2) prices will rise very very quickly, causing a Manhatten project for conservation and alternative energy
the sort term might be hampered growth for both China & the world, but the long term effect is good either way.
I am much more concerned about things like the imminent Chinese banking scandal, where as many as 40% of the loans in China are "non-performing", loans given to the business driving this amazing growth.
Economics motivation for conservation
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I would like to point out a simple fact that while oil prices are as low as they are, there is little or no hard incentive for alternative sources of energy.
The US has a VERY large reserve of oil, and the world's oil fields are completely under produced. We have at least enough oil for 50-100 more years, unless everyone in China & India start to drive. US consumption can be supported for quite some time.
Either way, if you think that gas-powered cars are evil, you should be rooting for higher oil prices. Otherwise, no serious effort will be made for alternatives.
That said, a serious effort at an alternative has been found and it is called nuclear energy (pronounced "new-clear" -- i know these new fangled science terms are hard).
It harnesses the power of the atom and can be made small enough to power your small car or large enough to power your small country.
Too bad that people think it is unsafe. It is understandable though, given a total of ZERO deaths caused by meltdowns in the western world.
The amazing lack of intuition is based on decades of hacker-cool l33t mentality among programmers that they are the acolytes of a special deity, and mustn't let anyone else understand the ways without adequate trial through fire...
At least, as someone who has been programming under MSVC for close to 8 years, the transition makes me feel that way.
Two words would make the entire situation a lot clearer: ab straction. I don't know or care how the vast majority of components work. I just want an easy to use black box solution...
Such a region is failing to pass the US. Our economy is booming. They are laggards.
We are actively debating freedoms and liberties, with the Patriot Act and the backlash against it; there is little resistance against the onslaught of PC speech codes.
We make the barriers to business small, i.e. some states makes it very easy.
It only is getting harder in the EU where, where regulators are having an unopposed field day.
So, in terms of advancing technology, quality of life, wealth & opportunity, the US is "winning".
Slashdot Mirror
found my own answer:
s oo n_footpowered_laptops/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/02/15/coming_
"A US developer is coming to market with a device which lets users recharge batteries using a foot-operated pump.
The StepCharger, from AladdinPower, gives approximately 20 minutes of laptop power after five minutes of brisk pumping."
http://www.aladdinpower.com/
"Introducing Very Soon!
e+ STEPCHARGER(TM)
With just a brisk pump of your foot, you will never worry about a dead battery again. With just a few pumps of the "STEPCHARGER" you can instantly begin to charge your laptop, cellphone, video camera and much more . If it uses a rechargeable battery, the "STEPCHARGER" will charge it!!"
about $200
i could use this to power the laptop all day.
they should incorporate these into body suits, and use the pumps to circulate cooling liquid to the suit, and power my PAN...
yo, anyone know of a foot pump to turn mechanical energy into something that can power your laptop?
I doubt you could sustain the power needed forever, but if it could be used in remote locations in a crunch, or to extend life by, say 25%, I'd buy it. It would probably come in handy more often than a power cord if it could make you last 8 hours, cuz the cord could just be left at home.
...is a communist.
wrt this story, he wants the government to have more power than these companies. If their are multiple conglomerates, the issue isn't monopoly.
Leave it to a communist to think that the government should take care of the "failings" of the market.
The issue might be one of government-corporate collusion (DMCA), but this has little to do with what Ted is talking about. If it did, his enemy would be shitty legislators, and not the companies [every company, like every individual, will act in its own interest].
...has multiple labs with tons of Solaris stations, imac classrooms, and many Linux robots :)
I have 2 computers in my office, one dual boot XP/RH9, and one debian embedded platform.
But you don't really get much more geeky than CMU...
as I posted here:
A good deal of the administration's actions are related to compromise to push through essential strategies for the war.
The war resolution, the money to support it, measures like the PATRIOT act, etc., all required compromised for other agendas.
Also, with measures like the perscription drug benefit, there was a tiny point of medical savings accounts. Go here to learn why MSA are the best choice.
With NCLB, there was supposed to be a voucher scheme introduced, which was later taken out. Now that a majority of minorities are in favor of vouchers, I don't understand why they aren't being adopted more rapidly.
That said, I am optimistic that Bush will do better in his second term, where he doesn't have much to lose. Given that Cheney won't be on the ticket in 2008, he can take measures which are normally anathema, such as social security reform, complete welfare reform (if that is even possible), and the measures removed from the health and education bills.
Given Kerry would be worse, without a doubt (even with the lies he is telling to paint himself as a centrist), I see no reason to reject this optimism.
Either way, I agree with the comment above: Bush understands the war, Kerry doesn't. Go here to hear more about that point.
[note this comment was made on a libertarian website. If you want the jackboot of a Kerry welfare/technocratic state crushing your dreams, then he might not be worse for you]
your future vice president, if you choose.
He complains about the cost of health care, while pocketing $27 million in 4 years from lawsuits that raise insurance rates.
I'm sure he'll be the one to back the tort reform bill which would cure the American disease of our suing culture...
so with my 2TB drive, i'm expeced to backup at max 20GB at a time?
do you know how long it'll take to backup all my porn at that rate?!!
right... 'receptive to'... not 'reception is'
:)
how 'duh-duh' of me...
i must have been typing feeverishly to get the comment out
You are saying that China has grown relatively faster than America.
If the reverse were the case, it would be amazing because America is far more rich than China.
So, yes, china is improving faster. That's because they are poorer, and have more to improve.
Don't get me wrong. Chinese growth because of its embrace of free markets is amazing, but GDP is a good measure of the value of good and services produced in an economy, even for poorer foreign countries.
Also, the US is largely responsible for China's growth in that we are the primary source of their business.
So Chinese growth is great, but without business growth (powered by the US), and the greater manufacturing demands that come with this, China wouldn't grow. Also, China has problems, like corruption, poor banking decisions, and neglected rural areas.
Either way, I asked the question not to bash China. I think China and India are the future, if the the former reforms their system towards greater freedom.
Rather, I meant to comment on European technocrats who take great pains to plan an ideal future for Europe. They claim that Europe can surpass the US in a decade. This simply won't happen because control from a central source takes away exactly that which is good from a free market: distributed trial & error.
So go ahead an chalk one up for bar-code standards and the EU. I just wish they would de-regulate large swaths of their industries, give up the ideal of a welfare state, and embrace a free market.
..."and the globe has defeated the United States."
:)
Shadenfruede anyone?
Quick Q: which country is thanklessly driving the world economy the fastest?
EU nations? wrong..they can't muster 4%...
China? maybe, but 1/8 US GDP and a large number of "unperforming" loans are a problem.
India? Well, all I can say is that I love India, and our recent boom in tech collaboration and investment
For anyone who still complains about trade & tech jobs wrt India... maybe you should change industries. I hear the auto-workers union is very reception is that uneducated drivel.
[trade isn't zero-sum.]
My fiance graduated from CMU, from their masters in Human Computer Interaction. She researched intelligent tutors for a while. They can make things better than 1-on-1 tutors.
The guy funding both projects from CMU & MIT, was far more impressed with CMU's program. It isn't about just lobbing material on the web; it's about teaching people.
So in this case, look for quality and not quantity.
I'm getting a masters in Robotics right now from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon.
I don't want a PhD because I fear becoming too specialized, rather than learning something that will actually be able to solve an immediate need through job experience.
For a PhD candidate, while the advisor certainly has a large say, he student has control to choose a topic (and advisor) that has some relation to the practical world of business.
Why become a postdoc at a university if you can do serious research at a biotech company or apply new algorithms at a tech firm?
Hell, even my brother, who is getting a PhD in physics, can get a job in Wall St. any time he wants. (and you thought there was no way to apply the Levenberg-Marquardt Method to the real world!)
Maybe I'm biased because most of the PhDs I know are in computer science related fields. I have heard being a Bio of Chem postdoc sucks ass.
Either way, I'm not worried about American Education in the world of free trade and immigration. People should compete, and if parents aren't teaching their kids proper values, it is their fault. Vouchers would heal shitty schools.
Also note that the acceptance rate for PhD programs is continuously falling. This implies to me that there are more than enough people to fill the positions
for a bot which will be moving too fast for a mechanical drive:0 cofl m.html
d e=113572
Sandisk 2GB CF
http://store.yahoo.com/memorysuppliers/sa2gb2
It has a fairly fast write time.
What I really wanted was this, but the company sucks:
Pretec 6Gb, 12+Mb/s sustained write speeds
http://www.expansys.com.au/product.asp?co
ONLY $6,361.45!
...when I mod my body with gene therapy that I won't be allowed in my neighborhood WholeFoods because I'll be a GMO?
or does it mean that the market will pursue these changes (without federal funding in some cases) and all the luddites warnings be damned because people can make a choice to improve their lives?
Or does this mean that I can sit in front of my computer all day, alternating from coding robots to playing robots in UT2004, and stay in shape?
Is it exercise if it only happens when I choose it to? wu-wu-walk...WALK in the park? What is that?
all hail the beauty and wealth of a world bettered by technology!
I must say that there is simply no way Java could be used for serious computer vision work, where I specialize.
The need for speed is too great. Lack of memory-management optimization is the killer.
Having programmed in Java for years, it was painful to give it up and switch back to C++ for performance reasons. Also, Intel's openCV library and other such C/C++ libraries are very useful.
Also, in terms of ease of development (rather than speed), MATLAB has JAVA beat without question. I mean, if you are going with a VM, why not go all the way with an interpreter?
I know of at least 3 companies that do heavy work in vision. Each have around 20 guys doing research in MATLAB and at least a dozen to translate it to C++ or C# to get it to run in real time.
Surveillance in public with checks & balances in the public spotlight is THE security solution to stopping terrorist attacks.
m /033104A.html
This is certainly a lot better than surveillance of private areas not under supervision right?
I mean, if not this, then what can we do to ensure security, when you have super-empowered individuals who can kills thousands easily?
For instance, you can't stop a suitcase nuke, unless you can make big cities "hard targets" wih radiation sensors throughout the city and especially along the border. Have you heard the stories recently of people getting radiation treatment setting off super-sensitive sensors? This is perfect.
Read here for more interesting opinions, and what would need to be done to make it all Constitutional:
http://www.techcentralstation.co
I could use this...
video and laser data can get very large very fast.
a robot can move in ways that a mechanical drive can't handle.
I just spent $500 on a 2gig CF card for such a dynamic legged robot, and I would love this drive. My main concern was max write speed, as a single camera, at 30fps, 640x480 moncrome yields almost 10Mb of sustained data.
Anyone interested in some charity?
because a great deal of work needs to be done in reviewing the market to ensure that a potential patent has not already been patented or is in use already, people seeking patents often perform a great deal of their own research to save themselves in legal fees.
if, in the process of preparing the background for a patent application, you find that there IS previous work, what percentage do you think actually file the application?
My guess is around 5%....
I'm a masters student at the robotics institute at CMU. we've got a group of graduate students that play at least once a week, and we all love it.
recently, as part of one student's AI project, we played against the 'pokerbot'. Basically, it was a GUI on a laptop which needed a human operator to input cards and bets.
At first, we called it a 'foldbot' for good reason. After a few tweaks from the programmers, it became pretty good at structured texas holdem poker.
losing a hand in a showdown to a machine of your own making is the worst...
Clearly such research is good. But beware the big numbers. First, they require large government intervention(otherwise, we needn't worry and the market will take care of things), which means that you shouldn't trust their figures to be that realistic. Second, they are talking about a change in a large sector of the oil economy. This would have to be slow by design.
Again, this is good, but more needs to be done. Anyone want to fund a Grand Challenge/X-Prize for the best price/performance renewable fuel?
What? You don't have $1B to blow?
yes, it is true.
but doubling the world's demand for oil will do one of two things:
1) prices will be fairly stable as currently untapped supply is access so output is increased
2) prices will rise very very quickly, causing a Manhatten project for conservation and alternative energy
the sort term might be hampered growth for both China & the world, but the long term effect is good either way.
I am much more concerned about things like the imminent Chinese banking scandal, where as many as 40% of the loans in China are "non-performing", loans given to the business driving this amazing growth.
I would like to point out a simple fact that while oil prices are as low as they are, there is little or no hard incentive for alternative sources of energy.
The US has a VERY large reserve of oil, and the world's oil fields are completely under produced. We have at least enough oil for 50-100 more years, unless everyone in China & India start to drive. US consumption can be supported for quite some time.
Either way, if you think that gas-powered cars are evil, you should be rooting for higher oil prices. Otherwise, no serious effort will be made for alternatives.
That said, a serious effort at an alternative has been found and it is called nuclear energy (pronounced "new-clear" -- i know these new fangled science terms are hard).
It harnesses the power of the atom and can be made small enough to power your small car or large enough to power your small country.
Too bad that people think it is unsafe. It is understandable though, given a total of ZERO deaths caused by meltdowns in the western world.
Usability!
The amazing lack of intuition is based on decades of hacker-cool l33t mentality among programmers that they are the acolytes of a special deity, and mustn't let anyone else understand the ways without adequate trial through fire...
At least, as someone who has been programming under MSVC for close to 8 years, the transition makes me feel that way.
Two words would make the entire situation a lot clearer: ab straction. I don't know or care how the vast majority of components work. I just want an easy to use black box solution...
But that is the point...
Such a region is failing to pass the US.
Our economy is booming. They are laggards.
We are actively debating freedoms and liberties, with the Patriot Act and the backlash against it; there is little resistance against the onslaught of PC speech codes.
We make the barriers to business small, i.e. some states makes it very easy.
It only is getting harder in the EU where, where regulators are having an unopposed field day.
So, in terms of advancing technology, quality of life, wealth & opportunity, the US is "winning".
What are you talking about?
...for EU to horribly fail in its attempt to become the world's economic center and surpass America.
More statism, more government, more people being coddled by bureaucrats...