What do you think of the Seqway?

Well just don't go too fast on your bike through a crowd. As for people jumping out and reaction time, this would apply equally to the Segway, and I'd imagine a bike would be easier to stop and quicker to steer out of trouble. As for this tipping issue - have you ridden a bike? How many cyclists just randomly tip over? In fact a bicycle is self-stabilizing, thanks to the fact that it has large rotating wheels. That's why you can set a bike rolling on its own and it will stay upright for some time.

As for the Segway, clearly a case of the tail wagging the dog. Just because something is technologically possible doesn't mean consumers want it. The whole point of selling products is to meet consumers'
needs - if they don't need it, no matter what a technological marvel you think it is, they won't buy it in any significant numbers.

Nope. Aaaaa. Wrong!

The whole thing about the Segway is that it adjusts to both the rider and the outside world - you can push hard into someone else, but the Segway will compensate and stop you. It will keep you upright without hitting anything else.


You can hit a curb, somthing on the ground, whatever. Biking in a large group of people, something the Segway is designed for, is significantly more difficult than hopping on a Segway.
Of course, WALKING is probably easier than anything else



Dean Kamen believed in it hugely, but it's not panning out, at least not with the vigor he had hoped. I ain't buying it now.

You're right about how the little states won the election for Bush.

the system that we currently have today is HEAVILY in favor of states with smaller populations... that's right... the states with the fewest population have the most say in our system.

the number of votes each state gets is approximately proportional to population... the number of electors is the # of districts in each state, ie number of house reps + 2.

for a small state like wyoming which only has 1 district, those 2 extra electors represents a TREMENDOUS amount of bonus representation. For a state with lots of population like New Jersey, 2 extra electors means very little.

If you consider population/elector... the smaller states have a significantly smaller ratio than larger states in part to that 2 extra elector bonus. That means it takes fewer votes to win those states. Those states are primarily in the midwest and in the last election, Bush won nearly all of them.

My state, New Jersey, was won relatively easily by Gore... what that meant was that my vote counted alot less toward the overall result than someone's in wyoming.

i think this electoral system is VERY VERY broken. Even the concept of states is starting to become very antiquated, and arguments of States' rights are continuing to become more and more absurd as we become more closely tightknit as a nation.

Changing the electoral system would definitely change the way candidates campaign. It was easier and cheaper for Bush to reach more people... nix that... reach more ELECTORAL VOTES by going on a trip of the smaller states that were generally farm-based and more willing to vote republican anyway...

changing to popular vote system would mean that republicans wouldn't have such as easy time winning elections. Campaigning would have to be done in more population centers like the New York, granted...

but this goes back to what i was saying about our classification of States as being rather arbitrary and antiquated. it may have been an issue back in the late 1700s when people were wary of an overarching government, but our electoral college is a relic from that time that refuses to go away because politicians find it useful as a loophole to slip into office...

when people talk about States' Rights and how wyoming needs to be represented on the same level as New York, they're also saying that the representation should be shifted away from the INDIVIDUAL.

I'm going to be a little bitter now... I seriously think this is how George W. Bush, our frat boy president made it through college with a C. He rode the curve for all that it was worth. In the same way, he won the election.

I don't see a good argument against election by popular vote. An individual in Rhode Island would have just as much of a say in the matter as you, or me, or some guy in california, or in alaska, or so on.... as it stands here, a farmer way out in the midwest has more say than a programmer who toils away in Silicon Valley.

The bottom line is that politicians... in particular, our Republican politicians, don't like change. they fear change, and this might be disastrous for their party if this occurs.

Back on subject: anybody know a place where i can test drive a segway?

You may have a point:





I find this one kinda cute though:

On the 'cycling in a crowd' thing. The fact is that the faster you go on a bike the more stable you are, with the stability controlled by the electronics in the segway it equally stable going insanely slowly as it is moving at full speed.
Walking still the best method for moving through a dense crowd though, but at least with the segway you could still stay on it at a slow walking pace. Riding a bike a such a 'speed' would require total concentration (and you would still probably still bump people with your front wheel, Getting off it and pushing would probably be easier (unless you do the cycle currier thing, and just go full speed in to and through the crowd and hope everybody gets out of the way!).

Also on the cycling through a crowd thing, from a different perspective. If there's a large crowd that you can't cycle through on the path to work or something, then chances are that you'll move at the same speed walking as you would on a Segway, and the Segway will only make you look like a fool and stand out in a large crowd.

Not just that, but everyone is forgetting just how wide the damn thing is. Combine that with the fact that it's designed for linear motion and then tell me how you're supposed to get through a crowd without running into something. When you're walking you can turn sideways to avoid contacting something or even bump off an object and still maintaining forward motion. The segway doesn't allow for that. And as such it requires traffic control. Otherwise you'd have complete chaos. The sidewalk would be like the mini version of a freeway with no lanes and no center divider. So where do you put these lanes then. The sidewalk? Not gonna happen. The street? Yeah, sure. Kamen's an idiot. Any rational person would have recognized these problems and realized that they require a huge change in our transportation infrastructure. And I haven't even listed all of them.

I do see your argument now, yes.


I see the validity of this, yes. Is your state a winner-take-all electoral vote state? Or do you split them up?



I agree that the system is broken - I cannot believe that we haven't fixed it already. If the party in control of the House and Senate would have been on the losing end of the 2000 Election, we would have had fixes, I think. I guess we did try fixing something in Florida... somehow...

However, states' rights should stay. The concept of states is being pushed out by certain people in Washington (John Ashcroft, for one). States serve a very different need than a centralized government... but I should leave that for a different forum.


Oh wow... but North Dakota doesn't get any candidates up here at all! We get no visits... big cities and swing states get visits.



Bing bing bing! Tell him what he's won, Johnny!


False. If the farmer lives in a state that doesn't have a predetermined voting outcome - that their people actually think a little bit for themselves, and don't mindlessly vote for whomever is in their chosen political party - then the vote counts more.
However, I like popular vote. I'm just giving you a hard time.


All politicians. Especially in a loophole like this. They'll only change it if it directly benefits them in the here and now or very near future.


Wish I did. Wish I could try one out... maybe GM?

Saw one today... in the lab where I work.

Bigger than I thought... when it shrinks substantially I'll get one

The Segway strikes me as a bit pointless. From what I've read, it certainly seems to have some clever technology in it. I can see that it could be very useful for some people - the 'zimmer frame granny' comes to mind (although whether said granny would be prepared to use one is another matter) - people for whom walking is an effort, but who don't require a wheelchair to get around. However, the price is just ridiculous. So far as I can see, my legs, either by themselves or attached to a bike, outperform the Segway on any reasonable criteria.

It was supposed to revolutionize the way we get around. It didn't. It costs more than a lot of used cars, and it's electric, which means crappy range, no use in the winter, and it can't really handle stairs that well.

I also, think of it as an insult to my feet.

- Rob

i rode one this weekend.
novelty wise, it was awesome. so funny.
wouldn't want to ride through downtown on one tho.

Yet another thread resurrection.

Now this thing I like!

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/genera...,710982,00.html

you're just jealolus.
but seriously, if I started a new thread I'd get someone telling me to search before posting.

I am more impressed with the technology than the device. I mean it is designed for rich people skinny people. $5,000, 200lb weight limit.

Crippled people can't use it because you have to stand...who are they designing this for? Though if I won the lottery, I'd buy one

Didn't Steve Jobs say "cities will be built around these" before they debuted. The Segway is a perfect example of a great technology with an as-yet-unseen practical use. Some cities have "beat-walker" police using them and both the U.S. Postal Service and UPS have conducted tests, with their carriers/delivery people trying them out... But that was last year. Other than that, the buzz would seem to be over.

I do have to (more than a year later) again recommend the book "Code Name Ginger," by Steve Kemper. Good stuff for techno-geeks or anyone interested in the development of a product from concept through launch.

It's cool. I'd like to have a go on one.... but I wouldn't really want to own one. With 5000 squid to spend I'd buy a nice mountain bike - transport + you can blast it through the woods on a Sunday afternoon

Make one that can tackle a 45-degree pitch up a hill or glide easily through up to 24" of snow and you've got something. Otherwise, I point and laugh at people riding them.

Now that looks fun!

GOB on "Arrested Development" uses a Segway.