NextFest 133
anzha writes "This Saturday and Sunday between 9 and 6 pm at the Fort Mason Center's Festival Pavilion in San Francisco, NextFest will be taking place. Organized by Wired and sponsored by HP, The SF Chronicle, General Electric, General Motors, and many others, this is an expo on 'almost there' technologies. Ranging from [in]famous Moller aircar to a 'transparent cloak' from the Tachi Lab at Tokyo University to antibacterial powders from Canada to many, many others. Read more here."
Should be called: The VaporWare Convention (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess, if the nextfest.net website [nextfest.net] is anything to go by, that in the future all websites will be based solely on ultra-annoying Macromedia Flash! A page focused on this type of event should be slim and trim and have a large section devoted to easily viewable/editable/blownupable (to make bigger) pictures of every single device at this convention. Or at least has a large chunk of the site like that.
Re:Should be called: The VaporWare Convention (Score:5, Funny)
Here we go again... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:1)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Insightful)
Unlike, for instance, Homestar Runner [homestarrunner.com].
Re:Here we go again... (Score:3, Informative)
Websites that use flash navigation and provide no text alternative are totally unusable by my blind friend. Text -> Speech converters can't touch them.
Then again, you're probably right that most
Re:Here we go again... (Score:2)
How's that?
JavaScript and Flash can both be turned off.
IMO, any web site that does not allow you to navigate with all of that crap turned off is not worth visiting.
And I have all of that crap turned off.
Re:Should be called: The VaporWare Convention (Score:3, Funny)
Games? (Score:1, Funny)
Gargh (Score:4, Funny)
So did I (Score:2)
Re:Gargh (Score:2)
My first thought on what this was involved Steve Jobs and black boxes!
My second thought was that there's going to be a huge market for black turtlenecks that week.
Jason.
Re:Gargh (Score:2)
I still have my NeXTStation Color...not that it's working at the moment, but I just can't part with it.
It's what WE make it. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah baby: 33 and 40Mhz of pure power . With that "mainframe on a chip" Digital Signal Processor.
Ok, one of the NeXTs has booted open source [netbsd.org], but then I figured why run NeXT if not for the OS?
So lets all show up with our NeXT slabs under our arms and start a commotion!
Re:Gargh (Score:1)
Contradiction? (Score:5, Insightful)
The cloak is designed to make whatever it is covering, a body or object, appear transparent by projecting video shot with a camera from behind the cloak onto the front of the cloak.
Hold on a sec, these are two very different things. Are they talking about two different cloaks? If so, it's not very obvious from the article. Also, wouldn't the first cloak be a mirror, as opposed to transparent?
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
(Sorry for responding to my own post.
Re:Contradiction? (Score:5, Informative)
No. Classic reflection (the sort normal mirrors do) involves light heading off in a direction other than the one it was originally going in -- "angle of incidence equals angle of reflection". Retroreflection involves things like corner mirrors and sends light back in a direction exactly opposite the one it was originally headed in.
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
I hate to tell you, but all the images on your monitor are fake. X does "real" transparency as much as it can display a "real" duck. The API has been around for quite awhile, it's been in KDE for a long time (you can turn the extension on or off, if your X server does not support it). KDE falls back to software transparency (at the widget level, rather than the X level) if it's not available.
There are no X
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
Plenty of X servers don't support 3D or a video overlay. That doesn't mean that X doesn't. X is an extendable protocol, and there's a generally recognized standard extension for transparency.
The way that the
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
No, 'reflection' means sending it onward after reversing the path-component that's orthogonal to the surface.
'Retro-reflective', I guess, means like Scotch-Lite (or whatever it's called now), where the surface comprises tiny beads each containing the inside of a reflective cube-corner, which has the property of returning a beam (close and) parallel to its entry path... like a billiard ball
Expensive and inaccurate (Score:2)
Re:Expensive and inaccurate (Score:2)
As the beams diverge they will pass through each other as if they had never interacted.
If you look at what occurs on the quantum level, you will get a mixture of 500.0 and 500.1THz photons interacting with matter in a way that is spatially and temporally determined by the interference pattern caused by the two beams. You will NOT get 10GHz photons to any ap
Re:Expensive and inaccurate (Score:2)
Re:Contradiction? (Score:2)
However, with a normal screen, the ripples in the fabric would make the reflected projector light go off in different angles, depending on the direction that the fabric is rippling. What this does, by having tiny beads, makes there always be a part of the "screen", all acr
Was I the only one? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Was I the only one? (Score:2)
And coming up later this month (Score:2)
I think I'll pass and (Score:2, Funny)
Is that "next" or NeXT"? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is that "next" or NeXT"? (Score:2)
As for vaporware, how about Hurd?
Re:Is that "next" or NeXT"? (Score:1)
Re:Is that "next" or NeXT"? (Score:1)
Re:Is that "next" or NeXT"? (Score:2)
Flying cars, yippie (Score:5, Interesting)
The exhibits include the Moller Skycar, a four-passenger vehicle from Moller International of Davis. The Jetsons-style craft is small enough to drive on the ground, but can take off vertically and fly as fast as 380 mph
They're still promising me the flying car, spiffy.
This thing is actually pretty cool:
http://www.moller.com/ [moller.com]
the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 350+ MPH and achieve up to 28 miles per gallon. Awesome.
http://www.moller.com/skycar/ [moller.com]
It's a Scam (Score:5, Interesting)
Moller's been been taking investors' money for decades, and has exactly squat to show for it. Credible aerospace engineers say that, unless Moller's invented a radically new, ultra-compact engine, there's no way you can move enough air mass to actually lift the thing.
The spiffy model on the showroom floor is nothing more than a stage prop. It doesn't fly, it never did, and it probably never will.
Schwab
Re:It's a Scam (Score:2)
The spiffy model on the showroom floor is nothing more than a stage prop. It doesn't fly, it never did, and it probably never will.
They've got some pictures of the thing supposedly doing tethered test flights [moller.com]. The first photo looks like it
Re:It's a Scam (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's a Scam (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's a Scam (Score:4, Interesting)
Accept it. The thing is real. You can argue about stability, you can argue about fuel effiency, you can argue about a whole bunch of things (especially their overly optimistic scheduling!), but the fact remains that even with only partially-outputting engines, they got cleanly and smoothly out of ground effect. They're building a free flight range right now and fitting the skycar with its 8 full-power engines.
Most of the tech seems solid. The engines for the skycar already exist, and they're quite powerful for their weight while still being efficient. If the segway can keep a person balanced and a rocket can keep itself oriented correctly through gimballing of thrust, there should be no problem keeping the skycar level even in turbulence through computer controlled thrust vectoring. Etc.
While it is no easy task, and I doubt their mass production cost estimate will ever reach fruition (having it instead be both a "rich kid's toy" and an intra-regional taxi to get people from small airports to big hubs), the tech is solid, and they've made some serious progress.
Re:It's a Scam (Score:1, Funny)
Accept it. The thing is real.
Nothing is real until it appears on ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com].
It's not a scam (Score:4, Informative)
It's true that he has been taking money from investors for decades, but he's been pouring his own money [usatoday.com] into it as well. He made about $20 million from real estate investment and millions more from his invention of the SuperTrapp [supertrapp.com] muffler. He invested that in his company. So while it's true that he has been taking money from others, he hasn't been getting rich from it, as the word "scam" implies.
Dr. Moller is a credible aerospace engineer. He is the started the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at UC Davis [ucdavis.edu]. And he has invented a new type of engine [freedom-motors.com] for the SkyCar.
As someone else pointed out, there have been tethered tests [moller.com] that have shown that the thing can at least hover.
Don't get me wrong. I think that Moller's claims are continually over-optimistic, even to the point that he got in trouble with the SEC for misleading investors. He's been over-promising and under-delivering for decades. But he has made slow, painful progress, and I've seen every indication that he really does believe in what he's doing.
To call it a scam is completely unfair.
Re:It's not a scam (Score:3, Informative)
Ahh.. so, taking an existing engine type (Wankel rotary engine) and improving it a bit is now called, "inventing a new type of engine". I'm sorry but that type of engine has been around for 50 years..
In any case I hope he succeeds, it sure looks like it would be fun to drive, or fly, or whatever..
Re:It's a Scam (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's a Scam - Is it really? (Score:4, Informative)
It's called a Wankel engine [monito.com] and is conventiently ignored by the majority of engineers because they remember the engine sealing problems with the early NSU Ro80 in the late 60's that almost bankrupted them.
Talk to most people about the Wankel engine and the chances are they've never heard of it. Many engineers laugh when you mention it, because they remember 1967 and haven't heard of all the developments since then. My old (1983) Mazda RX7 did 127000+ miles before the engine wore out.
The spiffy model on the showroom floor is nothing more than a stage prop. It doesn't fly, it never did, and it probably never will.
Unless the man is a bare-faced lier, you can find out all sorts of things about it at moller.com [moller.com].
Need I remind you that VTOL aeroplanes [wikipedia.org] have been built before (albeit with jet engines).
Re:Flying cars, yippie (Score:1)
Re:Flying cars, yippie (Score:2)
Brainball (Score:4, Funny)
Woohoo, I won I won!
ahah! (Score:2, Funny)
Yea - but the researchers referenced GITS(!) (Score:2)
"M. Shiro, Ghost in the Shell [aol.com], Kodansya, 1991" (link added by me)
With earlier
More info (Score:5, Informative)
Moller [moller.com] website.
Links are good, people!
Re:More info (Score:1)
In other words, it looks invisible as long as the person stands where the image can be projected on them and they're viewed through a special viewfinder. Is anyone else underwhelmed by this?
Re:More info (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
On the transparent cloak... (Score:5, Interesting)
The inventor, Professor Susumu Tachi from Tokyo University, believes that it has practical applications that range from surgery, where the surgeon could be wearing this cloak on his hands to be able to 'see through them', to pilots who wish to be able to see the ground underneath the cockpit, for when they are landing.
Really, the possibilities are endless. Military, Medical, Transportation, Commericial products.
Hell, even the napkin holder could use this, so you can have a huge frivolous artsy napkin holder in the center of the table (or a center-piece, something along those lines), and be able to talk to the other person across the table as if nothing were there.
Of course the technology has to improve until the applications become a reality, but just think what this could enable us to do!
Conesus.
Re:On the transparent cloak... (Score:2)
LS
Re:On the transparent cloak... (Score:2)
Re:On the transparent cloak... (Score:3, Interesting)
How would that work in this setup? Where would the projector go in the airplane? This "invention" isn't an invention. It just some trick photography. Why this stupid thing gets so much press is beyond me.
And how would that be any better than a video screen showing what a small camera on the bottom of the plane is picking up? How are you going to project something onto the bottom of the cockpit? Where would t
Re:On the transparent cloak... (Score:1)
All joking aside, did anyone else see this and have Ghost in the Shell flashbacks?
Re:On the transparent cloak... (Score:2)
does this just scare me? (Score:1, Funny)
It looks cool, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry, but I'm not paying $15/person/day (even if there's really only one day's worth of stuff according to the schedule), to see a bunch of companies throw their future-tech marketing at me. It doesn't seem that cool (and yes, I live in the area, so I could go, and I'm employed, so I could afford to go).
But then, maybe I'm just in a bad mood.
Re:It looks cool, but... (Score:2)
But it could be fun to go just to have them pitch their ideas and then poke very logical holes in them, and ask them very simple questions and watch them be completely unable to answer them.
It will be awful (Score:5, Interesting)
Second of all, it's sponsored by Wired. I remember picking up one of the early issues and there was all this stuff about VR. If this were the early 90's, VR would be all over NextFest or whatever it's called.
Anyways, it sounded like a cool idea and all until the inventor dude talked about the actual applications. He had had a party the last night, and everyone had to pretend they were lobsters. They wore the low-res headsets and had to use the special gloves to make pincer movements with their hands.
It was then that I concluded that VR wasn't what it promised to be. Also that Wired was basically a newer Omni, but without the virtue of being published by a pr0n baron.
Re:It will be awful (Score:2)
I still remember an article that suggested that computer users should be willing to give up their right for computer DVD drives under the illusion that George Lucas would suddenly feel comfortable in releasin
Oh, it's for new things? (Score:2)
Since the Moller Skycar will require ... (Score:2)
Non-corporate innovation (Score:2, Informative)
While NextFest seems to showcase some cool stuff, it does not seem to highlight the innovative underpinnings to these gadgets, which are often created/discovered by individuals, independent groups and academics. The science behind the gadgetry (i.e. The Robotics Institute [cmu.edu]) is often more interesting, IMHO.
While I know that's not the purpose of NextFest, it's just interesting to me to think that "the future is born" of smart individuals collaborating (obvio
a little late (Score:1)
Optical Camouflage (Score:4, Interesting)
Ummm (Score:5, Funny)
Like digestion for example???
Re:Ummm (Score:2)
Nano (Score:2)
Re:Nano (Score:2)
Sorry
Re:invisisble cloak (Score:2)
Re:invisisble cloak (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:invisisble cloak (Score:1)
They just need to ask their enemies to hold the projector for them, and they will solve the first two problems at once.
Brainball (Score:3, Funny)
The only game known to mankind that you play better after you die.
BlehFest (Score:4, Informative)
Not bitter, just tired of it.
Re:BlehFest (Score:2)
I subscribe to Wired, but rarely actually read it. I'm not sure if that makes me cool, dumb, or just broke.
Re:BlehFest (Score:2)
Non-vapourware from Microsoft (Score:2)
Microsoft always make people to do hand gestures at it, even when that gestures are usually like raising a finger.
brainball? sounds familiar... (Score:2)
So, has Brainball been "almost there" for over four years now? [slashdot.org]
It's meant to be "out there" (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep Time in Mind-The Future Sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
People who were living during the 1950s and 1960s saw advances that would have been considered acts of magic fifty years before; if someone from the 1890s or 1900s were transported into the 60s, they would have been totally caught off-guard. Vehicles that could allow you to travel on any road at 55 mph? Devices that allow you to see and hear images of people thousands of miles away? A large tower that could put someone on the moon? It would be a fantasy world.
Now, take someone from the 1950s or 1960s and put them into the current 21st century. Imagine this conversation:
"So, do you have your hovercar now?"
No, but now we have cars that can run on electricity, some of the time!
"Well, how about the Moon or Mars? Do you have friends who live on bases up there?"
No, we went to the moon a few times with a couple dozen people, and that was it. We have had a couple of space stations, but only one is left because the others crashed after funding was cut.
"What about diseases? Have you cured cancer?"
No, we have had some progress, but there are some even worse diseases now.
"Is there any new technology that is actually good, then?! Jetpacks? Super-buildings? Contact with aliens?"
Well, we did shrink the size of computers and made them hundreds of times faster, and anyone can communicate with anyone else in the world real-time. We can store large quantities of data on small disks. Here, check this out...
(The computer accidentally gets rerouted to Goatse.)
"AAUAAUAGGHHH! My word, what is wrong with that man's bottom?"
Face it, the future largely sucks. I want my hovcercraft.
emote-controlled PackBot (Score:1)
"Tom Ryden of iRobot with a emote-controlled PackBot being used in Iraq..."
I suspect this is so that it can be easily controlled through AIM over a cell phone.
Moller vaporware (Score:2)
I have a copy of Moller's 1974 brochure, Yes, 1974. Back then, he was going to have a test flight Real Soon Now, and commercial sales were a year or two away. Thirty years later, he's going to have a test flight Real Soon Now, and commercial sales are a year or two away.
There's no reason this can't be done. After all, the Hiller Flying Platform [hiller.org] did it fifty years ago. But Moller has no credibility left.
What is this, bash Moller day? (Score:4, Insightful)
As for the transparent cloak... it's spiffy yes. All you need is a visible camera behind you and a visible projector in front of you and you can be invisible to people who can't spot cameras or projectors and come at you from one direction. Yay.
You know what I want to see? I want to see a PDA that doesn't suck i.e. lack a HD, or wireles connection, or ability to run mainstream software. I want to see an OS that can be both stable and play the latest games without screwing around with drivers and compiling shit all day or getting "Well it plays MOST games under emulation, except the ones YOU want." I want to see a broadband connection at a reasonable price that doesn't have shitty upstream or fulltime forced NAT or get capped as soon as you actually use the damn thing. Why doesn't anyone invent any of that stuff?