NASA flying car engineer shoots down Reg coverage
Here at the Reg we're no strangers to a bit of robust reader input. We get flamed by all sorts: dog lovers, vegans, Nigerian helicopter pioneers, members of the Parachute Regiment, Welshmen. Today, however, we have a first. An actual NASA engineer has joined this illustrious lineup to pour vitriol on our output. The trouble …
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That's what I like...
... the cut and thrust of true scientific debate!
BS
"soon we'll all be zooming in to work above the traffic jams in our Puffins"
That may be the kind of quote he'd like, but it'd be total bull.
Unless flying cars use autopilot all the time when in the air, with a minimum of human input, they'll remain toys for rich businessmen with personal helipads and wallets that'll stretch to huge costs of getting a pilot's license. Put regular idiots with a driver's license at the controls of these things and be prepared to armour your roofs, walls and heads, 'cos they're going to be coming down in their thousands.
a clear case of
raging butthurt!
Could someone spare some time to fly over there (in a personal air vehicle possibly?) and untange the poor boffins knickers for him?
I've seen better flames
I suspect this chap was just having a bad day...
Hammer vs screwdriver
Sorry Doc but you can use a hammer as a screwdriver. The claw bit makes a pretty good tin opener as well.
Those chunky handled screwdrivers also make pretty good hammers.
needs to get his facts right
A hammer is also known as a manchester screwdriver; the act of hammering a screw is therefore known as manchestering.
Nah
Its a Black Country* Spanner, ain't it?
[* or Birmingham, depending on which side of the Midlands you come from]
If You Only Have...
...one tool, it should be a pair of Vice Grip brand locking pliers.
A thought a 'Black Country spanner' was simply a convenient rock?
A hammer is a 'patent delicate adjustment device' in Brum...
/says Brummie skilled in the art of percussive maintenance
Hammer Screw Driver
AHA !!!!
http://www.froobi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/11-in-1-screwdriver-unit.jpg
MWaaaahhhahahahahahaaa
Dammit i cant laugh any more i have to goto client and install ram :/
giggle ....
Icon Well dammnit i just hit my thumb Mwaaahaaa
no must go .,.....
...
teehee
Hammer Screw Driver
http://www.seeitornot.faketrix.com/funny-pictures-comedy-pics-humor-photos-104-womens-hammer-screwdriver-tool-set.htm
Like it!
" none have been flying cars – about a quarter have been personal air vehicles."
And the distinction is what exactly. IIRC when pundits first talked about flying cars they weren't talking about road going vehicles that could fly, they were talking about the airborne equivalent of the road going car. Or to put it another way; "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." I would have said that another way of describing such a contrivance would be a personal air vehicle.
Bartering semantics like this reminds me of the time that the body representing the motorcycle trade in the UK came up with the term Powered Two Wheeler or PTW to describe the supposedly more civilized end of the market. The idea being that names like motorbike, scooter and moped all had negative connotations whereas PTW didn't. There's no difference between a motorcycle and a PTW as far as the man in the street is concerned. Likewise there is no difference between a Personal Air Vehicle and a flying car.
No that's not my car, it's my personal transport pod.
Anyhow, flying cars or indeed personal air vehicles will not take off any time soon. If cars had not been invented until the 21st century I doubt they'd have been allowed either, just look at the health and safety implications. The air above every town and city full of personal air vehicles. Can you imagine the rush hour? The average motor vehicle accident results in some bent panels and frayed tempers. The same thing at 200 metres? Deaths.
And look at the regulations covering remote controlled aircraft these days. Murkyside police need all sorts of permits and insurance just to fly their remote controlled surveilance chopper. And even then they can't get it very near people or buildings. Imagine the hoops you'd have to jump through to get a licence to fly your PAV and the cost of the insurance. Forget it.
Hammers
Well my Dad always refered to a hammer as a Manchester Screwdriver.
Nah!
I always thought it was a French screwdriver.
Or was that the sledgehammer?
Spanish, I think....
That would be a "hammer cheese sandwich", I believe...
Big Brother icon because it sort of looks like Manuel, maybe? If you squint really hard?
It was going so well...
Until he used the word dude.
Dude is for students, surfers and a very selectr group of ninja turtles.
LOOK AT ME I HAVE A PHD IM SO GREAT
Hey Doc, way to make yourself look like a seething lunatic.
How many of your "advanced concepts" are now in everyday use? How many of those PAV concepts are actually in use today, because I don't have a PAV, do you?
The majority of your youtube videos are computer generated. There is one video showing a weak fan in a lab environment with no mention of power source weight.
If you want respect, you've got to act respectable. Now excuse me while I go work on some personal transport solutions which actually adress current real-world challenges and may actually see the light of day.
What a total amateur!
Call that a flame? I've seen better with my eyes shut!
GO REG!!!
> call that a flame
To be fair to the guy the highest quality most rabid flames seem to come from those who have little to do but sit behind a keyboard all day. Whilst we might doubt the effectiveness and practicality of what our here is doing, its clear that it takes up more of his time than internet flaming does.
Also
It helps to be at least a bit unhinged to write good flames. On the other hand being unhinged doesn't help being a scientist or engineer, so we have a divergence in expertise.
hammer
it was always a Birmingham Screwdriver in our line of work .....
Heard this before...
> You made no effort to get this story straight, but just to spout your own opinions – that’s why your type of journalism is so unappreciated.
Lewis Page writing an opinion piece? Whatever next...
Visionary
Well, I guess it was time someone stepped up to the plate and supplanted Paul Moller as Pie, sorry, Car in the sky visionary.
He is right, mostly
El Reg isn't really renowned for the quality of it's journalism. The phrase "bunch of ignorant hacks" may be a little unfair, but there you go, I've used it anyway!
But we still love you anyway
Moore is less
and the Reg is more, after that little tirade. Splendid stuff!
As for "what gives you the right to spout this kind of opinion" ... you mean we now need someone like him to give us permission to have an opinion? Didn't realise the N.W.O. Takeover had progressed quite that far.
Poor chap does have a point
The FoTW coverage is actually more newsworthy (marginally, but still) than the original article.
This I determined without so much as reading the original and only skimming the flame. Still, I'm sure I'm right, for I read el reg. What are you handing me that coat for? It doesn't even look remotely like mine.
"What gives you the right...?"
Surely El Reg's response should be 'Because it's our website, dickhead!'
(or refer him to Arkell v Pressdram)
Well
it's not a new BOFH episode, but it's pretty good fodder for a Friday. Too bad nobody took a leisure cruise down a flight of steps, or learned first-hand about the electical conductivity of the human body. That woulda made it perfect.
WTF is up with BOFH anyhow? Simon starts a new era then leaves it for three weeks?
Suggestion
Why can't The Reg use their expense accout to buy a $ 200 flight with one of those sophisticated, brand new, leading-edge Cessna Internal Combustion-Engine Powered Wonders ?
They can fly hundreds of kilometers unrefuelled and land and takeoff on less than 300meters of runway. Maybe NASA will actually purchase one of those Wondercrafts ?? Then the Prof could be amazed the whole day. He would not even have to increase the energy density of Carbonhydrates by the factor of three ! Imagine that !!!!!!
Carbohydrates?
If you're on about Cessna fuel, it'd be Hydrocarbons (C and H, mostly - e.g. octane), not Carbohydrates (C and some multiple of H2O - e.g. glucose).
Although some O is required to use your Hydrocarbons for flight.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm
I think i agree with the learned Doc's views in part, anyways, definately more than the commentards here, who seem only intent on whether ist's a Manchester, Blackburn, or Brummie screwdriver, none of whom have actually commented on the most interesting aspect.
The differences between the right handed and the left handed version of the *screwdriver*
Titular
It's all very well, arguing and poking fun at geeks, but - Gods dammit - I want my jet pack!
If they spent less time reading articles and more time sorting themselves out then I could be zooming about and narrowly missing crashing into trees and buildings.
I have long dreamed of the day of flying about with a rocket lashed to my back. (ever since I saw the old black and white Rocket Man films at the pictures - fairly sure I didn't just dream it)
Bah!
Dear Mr Elvis Pargeter
That told you. It's about time too.
Please check your facts before attacking any more scientists who are actually doing science.
You may have free rein (and my blessing) when savaging the useless bunch who do nothing but argue how their betters did it wrong and how Pluto isn't a proper planet and Lake Huron is just a bulge.
Yours etc (Mrs)
Propeller beanies all around!
Oh for crying out loud, Doc, you've just got to get it together. You can't rant back at English people like that, it just show us (Americans) as the unsophisticated louts they already think we are. You've got to keep your composure while you deliver some biting yet witty comeback. See the Oxford SCR scene in the movie Shadowlands for how this is done.
Hammer
Anybody who spends much time reading automotive workshop manuals will tell you that the correct term for a hammer is "special workshop tool #1".
I beg to differ
"that’s why your type of journalism is so unappreciated"
This type of journalism is exactly why we appreciate El Reg so much! Thank you.
Fail
While I like the idea of a "flying car", can you imagine many of the lusers & hoons you find on the road today, up in the air?
As for using batteries as the power source for an aircraft.... I hope that thing comes with a ballistic parachute as standard equipment.
Oh yes, being a doc and a prof engineer doesn't mean anything. Been there, done that.
Well done El Reg.
Re : Fail
No, no ... Navigation will be under software control ... there's an app for that.
Or FAR more worryingly .. a Redmond 'solution'.
..."Targetting Lusers.....LOCKED"
I look forwards to experimenting with my homebuilt EMP-thrower on said hoons - funny as seeing them on the side of the freeway with their hood up is, surely it will be outdone by watching them spiral earthwards to end in a Great Ball of Fire.......
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