Recent Comments:
Lightning GT caught rolling around the track {Engadget}
Jul 24th 2008 8:48AM > and be honest, is this thing enough to sway your feelings from the Tesla Roadster or the Fisker Karma?
You mean, would I rather spend my imaginary $100K on the GT instead of the other ones? Man, that's a tough call, why do they have to complicate things with so many choices?
Audi pilot program tells drivers how to squeeze the lemon {Engadget}
Jul 23rd 2008 9:47AM VW already did that over two decades ago--more like three, actually. I remember some Passat and Audi models of the early 80s had an LED mini traffic light on the dash that communicated with roadside beacons to indicate the color of the next traffic light at the current speed. This of course only worked in one or two cities, and I believe was ventually abandoned. But it's definitely not a new idea.
UFO crashes in Potters Fields Park as part of Vauxhall promotion {Engadget}
Jul 21st 2008 6:38PM Luxury?! The Vectra is Opel's bread and butter business, its Civic if you will.
Windows 3.1 gets installed on Nokia's N810, looks badly out of place {Engadget}
Jul 17th 2008 10:30PM Win3.1 wasn't an OS, just a desktop environment.
Amazon Video on Demand store streams film and TV, launches today {Engadget}
Jul 17th 2008 3:47PM Netflix and Amazon, yes, Roku and Amazon, no.
Amazon Video on Demand store streams film and TV, launches today {Engadget}
Jul 17th 2008 9:03AM Perhaps this is one of the new services hinted to by Roku officials soon to be available on their Netflix box.
iPhone 3G review {Engadget}
Jul 11th 2008 2:11PM > Just. Don't. Bother. Looking. At. The. Apple. Ones. Too much to ask?
Uh, which leaves exactly how many stories for today?! I guess I should stick with /. until things die down a bit here.
Boeing's Skyhook JHL-40 blimp gives us hope for yesterday's future {Engadget}
Jul 11th 2008 10:51AM I went and checked out the "new" company. Ugh, same people running it the second time around. Salient von Gablenz quote:
> The idea of the CargoLifter survived the economic crash
Umm, it wasn't any "economic crash" that took them down, it was severe mismanagement of resources and a lack of proper focus. If they learned the wrong lessons from their first failure, I don't see them succeeding this time, either. However, they do seem to be more technology focused this time, so perhaps they do stand a chance. Good luck!
Boeing's Skyhook JHL-40 blimp gives us hope for yesterday's future {Engadget}
Jul 11th 2008 10:41AM Don't get me wrong, I do like the idea of freight airships very much. It just takes some novel engineering approaches to save the problems. CargoLifter were going to solve the change in buoyancy problem by swapping cargo with ballast, taking on or releasing the equivalent weight in water. That way they could use the full lifting capacity of the ship and were shooting for a 160T payload capacity. The downside was that it required a certain infrastructure at the payload destination, at the very least an easily accessible source of relatively clean water. Boeing's approach provides more flexibility at the cost of reduced payload capacity and higher fuel consumption (because of the lift engines).
I do wish them well, it would be great to gather some operational experience with such a new mode of transport. I am disappointed at the very limited projected range of only 200 miles, though.
Boeing's Skyhook JHL-40 blimp gives us hope for yesterday's future {Engadget}
Jul 11th 2008 9:22AM Yeah, but ships ride the interface between air and water, taking advantage of the huge difference in density. Airships are analogous to submarines, and I haven't seen freight submarines take off in any big way. The problem of payload release with an airship is a very significant one that doesn't really exist in any other mode of transport. A ship can discharge its entire cargo and sail completely empty if required, something an airship cannot do. One solution is what Boeing is trying to do--use only a smaller fraction of the airship's net lift for cargo, and compensate for the loss in buoyancy when fully loaded with dedicated lift engines. That way only when empty does it truly behave like an airship with neutral buoyancy.
