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General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Mo on November 29, 2014, 03:45:09 pm

Title: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: Mo on November 29, 2014, 03:45:09 pm
Hey Dave,

I really enjoyed your "Solar Roadways" videos. Please make more of that kind. For example, this would be also nice:

Indiegogo: Ritot - the first projection watch.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ritot-the-first-projection-watch (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ritot-the-first-projection-watch)
They raised 1.5 million!

Thanks
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: dannyf on November 29, 2014, 05:56:18 pm
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"Solar roadways"

Quite frankly, anyone stupid enough to buy into that kind of concepts deserve to be con'd.

Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: tom66 on November 29, 2014, 06:22:34 pm
Quite frankly, anyone stupid enough to buy into that kind of concepts deserve to be con'd.

Yeah, sure. I suppose everyone should have an engineering degree too?
Also, it is spelt "conned"
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: janengelbrecht on November 29, 2014, 06:43:00 pm
Personally i couldnt care less about that kind of videos.... energy is boring :)
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: IO390 on November 29, 2014, 06:49:04 pm
Hey Dave,

I really enjoyed your "Solar Roadways" videos. Please make more of that kind. For example, this would be also nice:

Indiegogo: Ritot - the first projection watch.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ritot-the-first-projection-watch (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ritot-the-first-projection-watch)
They raised 1.5 million!

Thanks

Ho-leee SHIT! They have a gaant chart! Must be genuine...  :o
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: dannyf on November 29, 2014, 07:12:22 pm
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I suppose everyone should have an engineering degree too?

engineering degrees are only useful for those who cannot think critically.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: tom66 on November 30, 2014, 01:41:54 am
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I suppose everyone should have an engineering degree too?

engineering degrees are only useful for those who cannot think critically.

Putting my "average joe" hat on here. Solar roadways actually seem like a fair idea. I mean, you have all that surface area available. And you have to replace the roads, anyway... what with all the pot-holes... So why not get some free energy in the process? It's sunlight, it must be free! It'll pay for itself in days, not millenia!

/average joe

Seriously: the things wrong with Solar Roadways are mostly physics and engineering problems -- they aren't common knowledge, or common sense. People don't deserve to be conned just because they don't understand why something  is impractical.

Are you suggesting that we allow companies free-reign to print whatever bulls*#t they  like on product packaging, because it's common sense to ignore such claims, and easy for you to do so?

Sites like indiegogo and others need some people to check projects for feasibility. Sort of like a panel of voting engineers. At least for any hardware project. And a submitted prototype too.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: dannyf on November 30, 2014, 02:39:01 am
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they aren't common knowledge,

An engineering school is for you, then.

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or common sense.

That's why some of us are more successful than others.

Quote
Sort of like a panel of voting engineers.

Only if you don't want a successful business.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: EEVblog on November 30, 2014, 02:48:07 am
That's not something you can debunk in the same way with just some simple research and calcs. You need to build a similar projection display and actually try it.
You can make some calcs based on estimated battery life and then rant about the practicality of it, but at the end of the day it's a gadget which will basically work, albeit a fiddly one.
They aren't trying to change the world, just fleece some people out of their money for another useless gadget.
So if anything, it would be a rant video, not a debunking video like Solar Roadways was. Solar Roadways and Solaroad make quite specific claims for feasibility that can be easily tested.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: magetoo on November 30, 2014, 02:59:12 am
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or common sense.

That's why some of us are more successful than others.

Are you saying it's okay to scam people out of their money?  In this context, it's hard to read what you just said any other way.

Quote
Quote
Sort of like a panel of voting engineers.

Only if you don't want a successful business.

Kickstarter have already sort of started moving in this direction and implemented rules that are a tiny bit more strict, IGG will have to do something too (after a few high profile failures, if not before).

Or I suppose they could choose to be the dodgy number two forever, but I would hardly call that a "successful business".
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: tom66 on November 30, 2014, 01:51:18 pm
An engineering school is for you, then.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I am studying towards a MEng. Of course Solar Roadways is not practical,  but I don't think the average person can necessarily determine this. And you seem to think that because they picked a different subject, say biology, accountancy or art, that they deserve to be scammed?

What kind of elitism is this? It makes engineers look bad.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: Mo on November 30, 2014, 02:58:09 pm
That's not something you can debunk in the same way with just some simple research and calcs. You need to build a similar projection display and actually try it.
You can make some calcs based on estimated battery life and then rant about the practicality of it, but at the end of the day it's a gadget which will basically work, albeit a fiddly one.
They aren't trying to change the world, just fleece some people out of their money for another useless gadget.
So if anything, it would be a rant video, not a debunking video like Solar Roadways was. Solar Roadways and Solaroad make quite specific claims for feasibility that can be easily tested.

Fair point. The thing that bothers me most about it is actually the size. And second, how they are going to know the angle of your hand to make it a nice projection.

But I agree, it is not the same as FSR (Fucking Solar Roadways). They are neither trying to change the world, nor are they really believing in it.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: dannyf on November 30, 2014, 04:09:49 pm
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I don't think the average person can necessarily determine this.

That's why you need to go through an engineering school.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: IO390 on November 30, 2014, 04:30:02 pm
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I don't think the average person can necessarily determine this.

That's why you need to go through an engineering school.

Huh? You're saying everyone in the world requires an engineering qualification? You can't honestly expect everyone to be able to see the flaws in the solar roadways thing, as tom66 said.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: c4757p on November 30, 2014, 05:44:39 pm
It's an interesting assertion, juxtaposed with the idea that people don't need consumer protection laws because they can just educate themselves and make their own decisions; caveat emptor &c &c. I guess everyone just has to be an expert at everything.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: tom66 on November 30, 2014, 06:13:20 pm
That's why you need to go through an engineering school.

Ok hypothetical example. Someone tries to sell me a copy of a famous piece of art. The price is right (not extraordinarily cheap) and I want this piece for my personal use, not to resell or such. I don't have any kind of art knowledge so I can't tell if it's a genuine article.

So because I'm an engineer I deserve to get conned because it's not my subject area and well I should have gone to art school too? 

Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: Zero999 on November 30, 2014, 08:48:33 pm
Don't worry about trying to convince danny, the one who thinks it's OK for companies to con people into buying ridiculously priced cable and magic stones which improve the sound quality of your stereo.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: nitro2k01 on December 03, 2014, 10:36:51 pm
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"Solar roadways"

Quite frankly, anyone stupid enough to buy into that kind of concepts deserve to be con'd.
Forget those who donated to the Kickstarter campaign. Their end goal is to con the taxpayers by getting public funding for building these roads. With that insight, do you still agree with what you said?

Also, danny, why do you remove the name of the user you're quoting? Are you typing the tags by hand? If so, I would recommend that you start using the quote button and then remove the parts you don't like. Or is it some kind of idea that you want to "let the words speak, not the name"? If so, I would contend that it makes the conversation hard to read, as people respond back and forth, and single comments don't exist in a vacuum.
Title: Re: Dave, please make more "Solar roadways"-style videos
Post by: EEVblog on December 03, 2014, 10:49:18 pm
Fair point. The thing that bothers me most about it is actually the size. And second, how they are going to know the angle of your hand to make it a nice projection.

Sure, but that's stuff you can't debunk without actually doing experiments. Those issues might be (perhaps partly) solvable with some clever engineering.