DISQUS

A number of the Google links state that after much investigation, the company was NOT a hoax. They shipped product, and many US journalists got working prototypes for evaluation.

This was a guy with a lot of big ideas, and he tried to make a splash. He needed to show off innovative thinking and new products to gain the favor of the investors he'd need to actually get the company out of the prototype and notebook PC business and into the deep end of the pool. Seems he overspent himself trying to prove he was worth investing in, and then couldn't keep things afloat long enough for money men to start buying in.

It would certainly be possible to handle three conversations by phasing them, but I'm pretty sure you meant "fazed". Don't you guys have a dictionary? :D Do you need a professional editor and proofreader? Can I work for really cool junk instead of money? :D

Hey, CD-based MP3 players may be half a decade old and all, but if you're looking for an economical way to bring a really insane amount of music with you, that can't be beat. When flash memory prices have come down enough that the price is competitive with CDs (which may not be long now), that could work okay. What they REALLY need is an MP3 player with tons of storage that interfaces through SATA 150. USB 2.0 won't cut it when you're trying to move 20 GB of music.

You know, this is ridiculous. I tried a four-blade razor and found it very unwieldy, and it didn't shave as closely as a three-blade razor. A three-blade is what I've been using for many years, and it gives a just slightly closer shave than a twin blade.

I think we're past the point of diminishing returns. "Too much of a good thing..."

Probably has the same mechanism as a laster level would -- a series of inclined tilt switches, each at a different angle, to let you (or the chip inside the thing) know what constitutes "perpendicular to the center of mass of the planet".

Never seen this before, and I work with mechanical things and tools by trade.

That's been a supposition with hydrogen-burning cars for a long time. If they can make scuba tanks that can be reused thousands of times without blowing up (they have something like 1200 psi of air in them), then I'm sure that they can make safe hydrogen tanks. Gasoline vapor is even more explosive than hydrogen gas, and you get a hell of a lot of gasoline vapor when you rupture a gas tank, yet explosions from auto accidents that are caused by exploding fuel from a ruptured tank are extremely rare, despite the location and construction of most fuel tank (thin-gauge metal or, more recently, injection-molded platic).

I really like that idea.

:D

I emailed their PR department for comment (I'm a journalist). No reply yet... :D

Link still "broken"... Goes to a domain name placeholder. Another URL for the company, http://www.clemensandchase.com/ , shows a page stating that the servers for the hosting company are located in New Orleans, and thus are likely being floated down a street in a canoe, appropriated for crack money...

Damn it, I wanted more design, strange products AND flying spaghetti monsters! And I can only vote once! Woe is I...

I think that link is not going where intended...

I can just see it now... Some toothless redneck calling all his kinfolk and saying, "Hey, y'all, I'ze gonna be on IMAX! You can almost feel mah chest smashin' into the hood of that there pa-trol car!"

Uh, Michael, follow the link that says "Bunch of pictures right here".

*cough* RTFM *cough*

In other news... I want one. I really, really want one. Do I care that it has no roll cage, no protection from other traffic, and only goes 27 mph (more than slow enough to get overtaken by bicycles and crushed by city buses here in the San Francisco area)?

Hell, no!

Can it do donuts, though? :D

Finally! Something in my field! :)

The CAN (Controller Area Network) protocol will be mandatory with the coming OBD-III standard. Developed by Bosch, it's an asynchronous serial protocol much like token ring (for those who are old enough to remember that!). Each device on the bus has an address, and any device on the bus can query a particular device, or it can listen for data packets from one or more other devices that broadcast regularly.

What does this mean for us? Well, for current cars, it means the different controllers (for ABS, stability control, airbags, engine management, etc.) can swap data and commands seamlessly. Add a new system to a production car? Just change a little bit of code and plug in the new box to the existing CAN bus. No new wires to string, and you can theoretically even retrofit cars in the field with minimal effort.

Other neat things? You can make plug-and-play smart sensors that transmit their data via a CAN bus. Want to use the same ECU for a turbo application, but your manifold pressure sensor only goes up to 1 bar? Simply plug in a new, 5-bar sensor and drive away (with appropriate maps installed in the engine management computer, of course!). Again, no wiring, no extra circuitry. Modularity promises to make EFI technology even more affordable, while continuing to deliver more and more benefit in fuel economy and power.

And you can run multiple CAN buses in a vehicle, too. Non-critical info (or at least, info that's not time-critical to the millisecond) can run on one bus, while just a few devices that have to move their data quickly might reside on a special, dedicated bus.

Since OBD-II is going the way of the dinosaur, expect even more possibilities for tuning at home or track on your laptop once all cars come with a CAN bus interface.

Interesting how so much of the high-end technology these days seems to incorporate very organic elements... This is the "ultimate" expression of "organic-ized" technology, and fits in nicely with the wood-paneled laptop you featured last month.

Erm. Time lapse?

If you're stupid enough to spend six large on a single set of audio cables, when you could probably hire an actual chamber music quintet for a week or two at that price, you deserve to be robbed blind. However, if you're that rich and that stupid, you could hire me as a consultant to tell you when you were doing stupid things with your money instead.

They should get some higher-power cards and try moonbounce. Anywhere on earth that you can see the moon, you can log into the network... Hm, I wonder if the government is looking into this?

Indeed. I'm giving serious thought to wiring the house in cat5e and setting everything up via Bluetooth remotes, with back-end headless PCs running the show. This is a sexy thing.

And the last line of the article... Did someone named Rotax recommend the product, or is it really made by Rotax? From single-cylinder engines to cool electronics...

Big Brother is scanning your bar code... Kinda creepy. More interestign would be a phone that can parse UPC codes and can give you information about the product you scanned; nutritional info for food, competitive prices at several local and internet retailers, and so forth. Someone has a neat book you want to read? Just snap a pic of the UPC, and when you have time, look at who is nearby or inexpensive that has the book in stock. Presto!

This does not excite me.

Especially as there is already a motorcycle helmet out that uses Bluetooth to wirelessly run a set of headphones built into the helmet. Anything Bluetooth-enabled can interface with it, and look, ma, no wires! Once they put in a mike as well, you'll be set; Bluetooth cellphone calls, two-way radio, rider/passenger intercom, radar detector audible warnings, GPS nav directions, music... You name it, all piped in wirelessly.

When they do that to a bicycle helmet, I'll be more impressed.

Now all we need is a palmtop that can run controller software commanding a file server PC -- I see 802.11b as the best candidate for the palm -- and you can set up one of those house-wide sound systems with speakers in every room, and have the palmtop function as a wireless remote control that can be used from anywhere. Having a pool party? Select your tunes from the file server and play them via the outdoor speakers, all using the palmtop as a remote. Turn those speakers off when you're done, and start the mood music in the bedroom even before you get there...

Superfly would have to have a system like this, if he was time-warped into the 00s (and hey, most of his clothes are back in fashion again, too!)

That's pretty cool. I'd never thought of Bluetooth for a wireless intercom system, but it lends itself perfectly to that very thing. It also allows for future expansion into a direct interface with the bike, as in a heads-up display (HUD). There's already a clip-on one, but integrating it with the helmet is much more elegant, and losing the wiring a huge boon. Hell, you could even Bluetooth in the voice directional guidance from a Garmin Street Pilot or other route-enabled GPS units.

It's a horrible shame, though, that it makes the wearer look like Tiny from G-Force...