It's definitely true. I've had to replace a number of household white-goods items recently - dishwasher, oven and washing machine - which all failed due to bad design. As someone who once did design consumer goods for a living, it was easy to see where the failures had been either engineered in, or negligently ignored.

The washing machine failed due to intermittent contact between the spinning drum and the plastic casing that enclosed it (only a perfectly balanced load would avoid this contact, a rarity in practice). Eventually this wore through, allowing water to be ejected under pressure straight onto the back of the bare PCB that controlled the machine.

The dishwasher failed because the relay that controlled the main heater was underrated for the current draw of the element, leading to heavy contact wear and eventual failure. The PCB tracks connecting the same relay were also undersized and showed signs of delamination from the substrate due to heat. Which failed first was a matter of luck, but one of them definitely would, but after a period of working (3 years in my case).

The oven was the worst. The casing was so badly engineered that hot air from the back of the oven was fan-forced through a gap directly onto the back of the electronics controlling the timer functions, display, etc. This was gradually cooked to the point where the plastic surround that supported the PCB became depolymerised and so it just fell apart one day when the front panel buttons were pressed. The entire PCB was carbonised but somehow still did function, but as the mountings were now disintegrated (not even glueable), it was unrepairable.

It really annoys me that these things are made this way. It's not even cost-cutting, because the faults were not due to reducing costs of materials or construction, it was designed that way. In other words designed to fail. And the problem is people are now brainwashed into believing that five years lifespan for goods like this is OK, even 'doing well'. It's NOT! These things should last 20 years or more. I would definitely buy a brand that could be shown that it was engineered right, and that brand would surely clean up by having a much stronger reputation.

natural moron blur

Nah, that's just too much tequila.

What's the advantage of Maglev here? It is just using energy to do something that a wheel would do perfectly well without expending energy. The small frictional advantage doesn't seem to be something worth adding all the extra complexity and energy expenditure for.

"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig".

Likewise, I expect this produces terrible music and not very good code.

The headline should change 'in' to 'as'.

lack flash

Seriously? Flash is dying if not already dead. HTML5 supports video, so every site potentially has video.

Lots of sneering from motorcyclists, that's to be expected. But in fact this type of design has been attempted for many years (it's called the "feet forwards" or FF motorcycle) and the rationale for it is pretty sound: a small, efficient, personal transport that is as nimble as a motorcycle but has the comfort of a car.

The main problem with attempts made to date has been the one of staying upright when stationary. Some designs had open sides so you could use your feet, but that obviously compromises bad-weather comfort. Others have pop-down stabilisers but that's inelegant and difficult to make work at the right moment. If this has solved that problem and truly allows an enclosed cabin, they might have actually finally done it. I think this could well have a significant market, but probably not one with existing die-hard motorcyclists. I like it; it's pretty cool and I wish them well.

While batteries are at the energy densities they are, this size of vehicle makes a lot more sense than an SUV-sized behemoth. I've done the maths, and excellent performance and range are perfectly doable with LiPO4 technology, 20kW of power at a gross vehicle weight of 400kg. I think it definitely has a future.

Welding is an art.

True, but that's because humans do it by hand, and are not necessarily aware of all the changing variables, let alone be in a position to do anything about them. In theory a machine that does have the appropriate sensors would always do a better job as a result.

And there, in a nut, is why the USA is nose-diving into oblivion. If you believe it can't be improved, it won't improve. Rampant capitalism is NOT the answer to every need, and Sweden proves it. By treating internet access as a piece of necessary national infrastructure, instead of just letting "the market" fight it out, you arrive at a far better end point far sooner. It's got nothing to do with idealism, all you need to do is compare the actual results.

Then we can put them on light poles and get good high-resolution courts-evidence-quality images of the people who are running out of nowhere to attack you, beat you senseless, and stealing your $500 bicycle when neighborhood is quite 100% gentrified yet.

Your "vision" of the future is one I find creepy and chilling. It's what's already happening, and on the face of it (your argument) seems reasonable. Until the wrong people are fingered and framed, the fact that you cannot move without your every step being filmed and tracked, you get a knock-on-the-door-in-the-night from the goon squad because you were caught on camera dropping litter. It's a very very slippery slope. Personally I'll take my chances with the muggers and bike-stealers (in real terms, crime is lower than it has ever been at any time in history per head of population), if it means that we don't build such a nightmare panopticon.

The problem with trying to USE Van der Waals forces for anything is that in order to stick together, both surfaces must be microscopically smooth

Better not tell Geckos about that, they'll die out once they hear.

I can understand the taxi drivers' alarm but they're like Hansome cab drivers in the 18th century - change will come, sorry. But how about getting upset about something more important, everyone? Like the constant erosion of your freedom and privacy by the state? By the constant erosion of your wealth and societal benefits by bankers and other sundry plutarchs? Protest about something that matters, while you can.

Anything that has to lift itself against gravity will need to expend energy to do so. Wheels on the other hand, don't expend energy just keeping the vehicle off the ground (ignoring small effects like rolling resistance). It doesn't make sense to replace a passive lifting device like a wheel with something that will need a ton of extra fuel before it even moves from A to B. It is OK for aircraft since the distances, speed and number of people moved per flight makes it worthwhile, but for a ground-based vehicle it makes no sense whatsoever. We already have roads, and the best lifting device to use with them are wheels. For the same reason Maglev trains are unlikely to succeed - it just doesn't add up to a gain replacing wheels with magnetic levitation.

It doesn't make any difference whether the TT is passed 'legitimately' or by 'tricking', the point is that if the test is valid (which is obviously a huge debate in itself), then a trick sufficiently sophisticated to pass it must be considered just as intelligent as passing the test legitimately. What difference does it make?

Real intelligence is nothing but a sophisticated trick pulled off by having a sufficient density of firing neurons. We're all performing that trick constantly. Some better than others actually - there are plenty of people I meet that couldn't pass the Turing Test.

Maybe he deserved this, sounds like it.

But it doesn't justify the mass surveillance being put in all over our public spaces. It can't even be justified on the cost, but far worse is the erosion of your freedom to go about your business without being tracked and monitored permanently. It might catch the odd transgressor, but that is not an acceptable enough reason to piss away all our privacy.

Oh but you have nothing to hide, so what? Well, it was Joseph Goebbels who first made that pithy remark about having nothing to fear, and look where that ended up - many perfectly innocent people had everything to fear.

The only reasonable response to mass CCTV is for everyone to wear a balaclava. Once the system is rendered useless, they might reconsider spending taxpayer's money on it. And it sends a strong message that we simply don't want to be tracked, even if we are not criminals.