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On Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 07:30:29PM -0500, Michael Leone wrote:
> On Mon, 2001-12-03 at 18:19, Adam Turoff wrote:
> > Ergo, the potential for ginger is much larger than improved wheelchairs.
> > Especially in sub-saharan africa, where a 12mph gadget that uses $0.05 of
> > power each day is much more important than a $100 ankle-breaking razor scooter.
>
> And how many sub-Saharan Africans can afford the estimate $3K US price?
And how long do you expect it to stay at US$3K?
And how quickly are car prices dropping? Used car prices?
> Mind you, the web article talked about utilizing it in cities in the NE
> USA. And do what - run over the people on the sidewalk, or get run over
> on the roads with the cars? Get soaked in the rain or freeze in the cold
> - the thing looks like a scooter, after all
Um, the Post Office seems pretty psyched. Many letter carriers have routes
that are less than a 15 mile circuit. And the roads/sidewalks on those
routes aren't exactly congested with people in most of the NE US. Imagine
the cost savings if you have to pay for a few pennies of electricity
per day instead of a few tankfuls of gas per week...
A really fit athlete can do a 4 minute mile for extended periods
of time, while the average rentacop can't. Give that rentacop a
device that can move him at 15mph to 17mph, and things get interesting
-- especially where bikes are impractical and rentacops are plentiful,
like airports and perhaps even universities.
> I agree - the technology is pretty cool; the application - as a
> scooter-look-alike aimed at urban areas - is a bit not-too-well
> thought-out.
When I first saw Mosaic, my initial response was "so what?"
The killer app here is making this the latest plaything for the digital
lifestyle in the congested Northeast US. But that's the easiest hook
to explain. Would you have believed in 1993 that Mosaic would have
been strong enough for you to buy books and airfare on the web?
Having said that, I must say that I'm not seeing very much relation
to Linux here.....
Z.
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