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Comment Re:This fake too? (Score 2) 448

They plan to power a dogtag sized Bluetooth device by harvesting typical WiFi signal power.

The antenna will be at most about half an inch on each side (0.0125 meters, for a total area of 0.00015625 square meters.
Near a wireless network station used in homes and offices, the field intensity is typically below 0.5 mW per square meter.
Further upthread, someone posted the power required by a modern, low power Bluetooth chip, in its lowest powered sleep mode it requires a current of 900nA and 1mA when idle. Let's say it operates on 1 volt (it's probably 1.2v) so we will actually underestimate its power requirements by saying in its lowest powered sleep mode it requires only 900nW (that's 0.0000009 watts).
At 0.5mW (or 0.005 watts) per sq. m, the maximum energy a dogtag sized device, assuming 100% efficiency (not possible) will be able to harvest is 0.005 * 0.00015625 watts of power. This will work out to about 780nW.
780nW is less than 900nW. QED.

And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt (100% power efficiency, and a lower working voltage for the Bluetooth chip that it probably uses, and only considering the chip being in sleep mode, its lowest possible power mode, and not considering at all any other circuits the device will need - it will need more than just a bluetooth module, it'll need at least a minimal microcontroller of some sort).

Comment Re:Awesome! (Score 1) 99

I'd change browsers if there was something to change to

There's Seamonkey, and there's Pale Moon. Make the effort to switch. Vote with your feet; it's the only possible way to force Firefox to actually start listening to users.

Comment Re:Imagine a bike that only needs tires and brakes (Score 1) 345

You'd not want a hub motor because it increases unsprung weight which has an adverse effect on handling. Same with electric cars - Tesla for instance doesn't use hub motors but the traction motor for the Model S is attached to the structure of the body.

Then again, we are talking about a Hardly Rideable rather than a motorcycle...

Mars

Elon Musk: I'll Put a Human On Mars By 2026 275

An anonymous reader writes Elon Musk says that he'll put the first human boots on Mars well before the 2020s are over. "I'm hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years, I think it's certainly possible for that to occur," he said. "But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multiplanetary." He acknowledged that the company's plans were too long-term to attract many hedge fund managers, which makes it hard for SpaceX to go public anytime soon. "We need to get where things a steady and predictable," Musk said. "Maybe we're close to developing the Mars vehicle, or ideally we've flown it a few times, then I think going public would make more sense."

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