It is graduated from 1 to 11. At the bottom is the subscript "MPH x 100". I'm used more to "RPM x 100"!

For a mass production vehicle, the display may not make a lot of sense. But for the one guy who is ever going to drive the car, I think we can trust him to understand what it means. It's no worse than an aircraft altimeter.

jet engines are for flying, any other use is stupid

don't tell that to Bruce Wayne!

This is just like those breakthrough articles about the space elevator where some fascinating new development has brought us that much close to building the space elevator, such as the decision to use crushed red velvet for the upholstery

I disagree. Crushed red velvet would be almost purely an aesthetic decision. There are aesthetic considerations in the cockpit, sure. (The Rolex chronometer is a pretty piece of work, but a good wristwatch would function just as well.) But the videos present substantial engineering and design content that, if it had not been properly considered and addressed, would have sunk the entire endeavor.

The comment on not using aerodynamic down force is rather telling

I think the comment is better interpreted as "we want some downforce, but not so much that it crushes the front suspension." I suppose ideally you would have zero downforce on the wheels, so that you have essentially zero rolling resistance. But as a practical matter you need to have some for stability. better to have some than risk having none, or negative (airborne!). Plus, if the wheels aren't actually in contact with the ground, it can't claim the record as a "car."

Bloodhounds aren't exactly known for their speed.

Neither is Greyhound.

A wireless charger is fine for keeping the phone topped off at my desk where the phone's sitting for hours with the display off

Of course, at that point, you may as well have a (wired) dock, or a cable. It's not like it's that hard to get power into a phone.

As soon as you start putting something on the market, especially if you are not selling directly to the end customer (i.e., through a distributor or VAR), you have to assume that your competitors are going to get ahold of your products. Expect them to be reverse engineered. Trade Secrets do not exist once it's out in the wild.

Frankly, I'd be surprised if Cisco didn't have this stuff. I would also be surprised if Juniper didn't have Cisco products.

which is one reason there are no 2 meter geckos

Only in my nightmares...

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

There's a Wile E Coyote reference to be made somewhere...

You can be positive that K Street and its myriad of lobbying firms will be more than happy to employ him.

That's pretty much what I was thinking when I heard this snippet from his concession speech: "It's disappointing sure but I believe in this country. I believe there is opportunity around the next corner for all of us."

My second thought was along these lines: oh, sure, there's plenty of opportunity around the next corner - for him. Going from being a career politician to a $10mil/year lobbyist isn't exactly the same kind of opportunity available to everyone else, though.

The problem I see with hovercraft (on the same roads as automobiles) is acceleration. The wheels do a lot more for the car than simply supporting the weight - contact with the road surface is absolutely essential for accelerating forward, braking, turning, and keeping the front of the car pointed in the direction of travel. In a hovercraft, you need some alternate mechanism for that - usually pushing with or against the air (i.e., propellers and fans). How does the performance of those alternate means for acceleration compare to rubber on the road? Without a prototype to examine or independent road tests, one cannot say for sure.

This was my first reaction. This new material may not be suitable all on its own, but rather become an element in a composite structure - like carbon fiber and fiberglass. In that case, it probably won't be biodegradable at all, because it will be encased in epoxy, which is pretty much permanent.

Electricity isn't a networking standard; it's part of the laws of physics.

Actually, battery chargers are kinda like networking standards. Yes, you have voltage and heavy gauge wire, but you also have two-way communication between the pack and the charger. Most of that is contained within the car itself, but it extends to external charge sources, too. Have a look at the SAE charging standard for EVs. Tesla does not adhere to this standard, either for its connector or communications, which I will guess is the bulk of what they will be releasing. Still, standards like these make explicit or implicit assumptions about the underlying hardware and software, which is what makes this more interesting.

I know that proper spelling and grammar don't mean shit to most people these days, but would it really have been so difficult for the submitter or editors to include an apostrophe here and there.

Kids With Operators Manual Alert Bank Officials: "We Hacked Your ATM"

I had to read this a few times to figure out what was going on. Why do I care about "kids with operators"? How does one "manual alert" someone? Then I realized that we were talking about an Operator's (or Operators') Manual, and that the submitter and editors were just illiterate.

This should be interesting, and should spur some development,

but...

I doubt that you could use a Tesla-like Supercharger to charge a battery other than one made by Tesla. I'm not talking about DRM, I'm talking about the architecture of the battery pack itself - its charging characteristics, its safety features, its cooling system, and so on down to the level of the individual 18650 cells. Those aspects are still heavily protected - licensing and manufacturing the packs and powertrain is a side business for Tesla. So what looks like a move to open up the world could, like other standards, become a way to lock in a particular proprietary design.

I still think it's pretty cool, though. If it sheds more light on how Tesla has designed and constructed their pack, which is a fine technology, as well as directly showing ways to charge Li-Ion packs quickly, then I think this is a benefit to anyone interested in how electricity is used and stored (i.e., everyone). But I also like to keep in mind that Musk, for all his altruism, is still a capitalist and wants his vision of the future to be the one to succeed.