Thanks for that. It certainly was a pretty cool thing to see. I tried to convince my father to get a BUD but he would never pay for TV, not even cable.

As much as people might abhor his actions it really is an amazing interview.

Thanks John.

The gas stations would have to have their own substations and high voltage service to do 30 second electric car charges. And a typical gas station has about 8 pumps. So 80MW to charge 8 cars in 30 seconds is going to be a killer unless you run a 120kV ~400A service to the gas station. Overhead lines would be a no go in many areas and underground lines are super expensive to lay. All that for a gas station.

A single 10.2 MW "pump" would require 430A @ 13.8kV. Or run 69kV to the pump and have an 86A circuit.

A bit more practical would be to aim for 5 minute charges. People can just chill in their cars and wait for them to charge in a few minutes, offer them free wifi while they wait. That would require 1.02MW per pump so a station of 8 pumps at full load would draw about 69A at 69kV which is a bit more practical. Of course they would still need a sizeable substation to step the voltage down to 480V or 600V 3 phase for the chargers. And then each pump would need a 1000-1200A breaker and multiple large cables. Imagine the cooling necessary for the switching bank in each of those pumps, they would be enormous. A better idea would be to build service stations on top of a pit filled with the substation and chargers. Liquid cool everything and a simple pump looking terminal up top with the charge cable would be the only thing visible. The footprint would also stay the same and cooling towers be located on the roof of the service stations shelter canopy. Or large ducts could be built to circulate air through the stations electric pit. The only concern would be flooding but that would be solved in the planning stages.

And then think about how large a 1.02MW charger cable would have to be. From a quick google the tesla batteries are 375 volts. So to pump 1.02MW @ 375V you have a charge current of 2720 Amps. The thickest cables for building service are 2000 MCM which is about the thickness of a baseball bat and needs to be bent with a hydraulic bender. Using special high temp jackets and such they are only rated to 1800A. They would have to make thinner flexible liquid cooled charger cables or invest in superconductors to make them practical. That or instead of a cable an arm that can be easily positioned via a spring or motor assist with heavy copper bus bars inside or liquid cooled conductors. It would look like an industrial robot arm and even grandma could maneuver it.

If a 2000 ma/hr (2 amp/hr) battery supplies 2 amps for a full hour then we need to put the same amount of current in reverse to fully charge it. So a 2 amp charger can charge a (dead) 2A/hr battery in 1 hour. To do it in 30 seconds we need a heck of a lot more current. So a little math reveals that to charge it in a minute we would need 2A*60min = 120A/min charge current. And for 30 seconds we would need 240 Amps. Though I bet most people won't be charging stone dead batteries.

30 amps could charge a dead battery in 4 minutes. And the power supply wouldn't be that large, though it would have to be table top and have some heavy gauge cables coming out of it. Another issue is a new charge connector would be needed to handle the current. We might have to go back to charge cradles with large contacts.

The majority of consumers don't read Slashdot.

Depends on where the developer thinks the money is. Ask anyone on the street if they have heard of Ouya. My bet is almost no one will know who or what Ouya is. Then ask them if they have heard of Amazon. I'm guessing a very large percentage, probably over 90%.

Amazon has tons of money they can devote towards marketing for such a device. Far more than Ouya could dream of. So one could surmise that FireTV will have far more exposure and therefore has the potential to become a lucrative platform. It's certainly worth the risk.

I don't think the virtual boy is a good example. Plus it was released around 1995. There were multiple problems with its design. The biggest problem with it was you had to stand it on a table and lean forward to stick your head into it which was very uncomfortable. You wanted to put your hands on the table but you couldn't as you were holding the controller. The scan rate was very low so it was not only physically uncomfortable to use but it also was almost painful to look at. Then add a bunch of crappy games and you had a total failure.

Real VR is yet to mature but we are getting there. The main hurdle appears to be refreshrate and high resolution screens. But we are getting close.

I wouldn't write it off yet. But I am not jumping on any bandwagon until the tech is mature and not tied to a social behemoth.

Sounds like someone missed their morning coffee. That or you need mental help.

I had a friend whose family had a house in the mountains. They had TVRO and a BUD, I think there were two boxes one was some kind of amplifier or power injector and the other was the actual tuner.

Every so often they had to have the dish realigned to the satellites or something like that. They would pay a satellite technician something like one hundred dollars to come in and perform the alignment. He would actually chase everyone out of the room to perform his magical feat of calibration. My friend hid a video camera to see what the guy was doing (back then it was a tough ordeal as they used VHS tapes and were enormous). Turns out they guy simply went into a menu and punched in some numbers that were available in the monthly guide. My friends father ripped the guy a new asshole after he found out he was taken for a ride.

The fun part about BUD TV was you could receive uplinks from reporters/camera crews in the field. So you see a reporter standing there playing with his tie, conversing, picking his nose etc. Then suddenly he would stiffen up and a few seconds later make his report, go silent, ask if he was finished and then walk off camera. The feed would either continue for some time or go blank.

When reversing I use my mirrors almost exclusively. Turning your head only gives you a nice view of the roof pillars. For some idiotic reason they teach you that in drivers ed. When I first took drivers ed in high school they make you stick your right arm behind the passenger seat headrest and turn your head to the right. That may work in some vehicles but with increased rollover protection in the form of thick roof pillars and the current trend of chopped roof look you have an obstructed rear view. Nevermind you can't see to your left and in front of you.

When I first learned to drive I started out in large vans and trucks (also pulling trailers) where rear view mirrors were non existent; all you had were your side mirrors. It also helped that my teacher was a retired truck driver with 25+ years behind the wheel of just about any kind of large on-road vehicle you can imagine. First rule: USE YOUR MIRRORS! Don't stop looking and always assume something or someone is in your way. Second rule: take it slow, there is no reason to rush. Third rule: always know your surroundings. Are there kids around? Are there any poles or obstacles along side you that you might forget? Anything behind you that you might forget? Is there a lot of foot traffic where you are parking? All of those things must be taken into account when driving anything, be it a smart car or a semi pulling a 20 meter long 100 ton lowboy.

I have no trouble backing up and I take my time. The number one issue when reversing are people who aren't paying attention and blindly walk or drive behind you. But you have to expect that when reversing. Simply go slow and use your mirrors. Another thing I like are convex "fish eye" mirrors. On trucks they are a must but I find they are a good addition to cars as well to help eliminate blind spots.

Even after taking everything into account there you can't avoid everything. I was hit when reversing out of a parking spot and the guy tried to blame me. Turns out he was fighting with his girlfriend when driving and didn't see me. He tried to blame it on me and intimidate me to pay cash on the spot. I told him either the cops are called or we part ways, no cash. He jumped in his car and sped off like a maniac. Assholes like those are always out there and you cant avoid them all.

Do you really believe the only way Facebook can make money from this is to turn it into a Facebook device?

Late reply but, Yes. Its pretty much a no-duh answer. They spent TWO BILLION. They must see and awfully big opportunity to make much more money to drop that spend that much. They may not tie it in at first. But sooner or later they will start throwing money at developers to make facebook enabled VR games. And it all goes downhill from there.

The headline should read: How Facebook and Oculus are Astroturfing to Make You Think it Could Be a Great Combination

Precisely. My bet is 3D printing will wind up becoming another photo booth at your local mega mart. Go online, upload or pick your design and then place the order. Then either have it delivered or take a trip to the mega mart to pick it up. That or online companies will offer design and printing services without brick and mortar.

Only a hand full of people will actually have 3D printers in their homes or shops.

So, even though people bag FB, it is one of the smartest-run businesses on the face of the planet.

Jee, how much is FB paying you per hour to post this crap. What, they didn't have any spare /. accounts kicking around so they had to post anon?
Are you one of the same shills that is astroturfing on reddit?

http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/21d2bi/proof_with_absolute_evidence_that_facebook_shills/

http://www.infowars.com/facebook-accused-of-astroturfing-reddit-to-silence-criticism/

Facebook is essentially trying to squash the negative backlash from the community by praising how they will bring Oculus to the next level or some such nonsense. They also claim to not force people onto facebook to game or develop. They say that now while holding a knife behind their back with their fingers crossed. We aren't that stupid.

Oculus was a promising piece of tech for the gaming and VR community. Then FB comes along and dumps 2 billion on them. You think FB is going to spend 2 billion on a VR headset for the gaming community and NOT try to tie it into their social media platform to turn every user into a cash cow?

I wait for yet another shill to come along and tell me how I am overreacting, being childish, selfish, jealous or some other nonsense (or mod me troll). And then they will prattle on about how FB is branching out into other markets and how they "promised" not to tie it to social.

Maybe I am overreacting but I was hoping for a real sincere effort funded by the community and actual gaming companies who give a damn (like Valve) to bring us real VR.

On a lighter note:
The only good thing is they are throwing money at is BtrFS which is a good thing. That is once piece of tech they cant monetize and turn into a cash cow. Though I could imagine having to sign into FB to access my files and you can "like" 2014-03-28_accounting_daily-backup.tar.gz

We have a spare glove box here at work that handles overflow from our main glovebox. It used to be our main glovebox until we bought a much larger, more modern box. It has two Pentium 3 computers running Windows 98 but they boot straight to DOS and run the control software. One PC runs the glove box environmental controls and vacuum airlocks/ovens. The second PC runs an ancient DOS based motion control system.

Here is the problem: Replacing the glovebox is at least 100,000 USD. And that does not include upgrading the motion system which I estimated between 20 and 60 thousand depending on how much of the motion system we want to replace.

So now we look at how much work the glove box does per year: about twenty thousand dollars. So the boss has to justify dropping over 120-160 thousand dollars and waiting over 5-8 years to recoup the cost. Does that make sense? Of course not. We need the box but at the same time its not worth the cost to upgrade. So you live with it. I have a small stock of old computer parts to keep it going along with block level disk backups. I could upgrade the environmental controls but the engineering cost would still wind up costing tens of thousands of dollars, months of design and a lot of downtime. Not worth it.

And if it breaks? Oh well. It wont kill us, we just might have to pay someone overtime to get the extra work out.