OT: G-20

Hughes' work resulted in a patent, but was dismissed by his employers, not by any established scientific community.

Nearly everything we do today is proof that it was not ignored and forgotten, idiot.

Absurd. Of course Americans invented the nuclear reactor and the atom bomb. Nobody else designed or built them first.

But the imagined German bomb never worked and, as far as I know, was never even designed. The US one was designed and worked. The uranium bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima had never even been tested. The very first one worked at about the predicted yield.

The guy who first conceiver the nuclear chain reaction was apparently Leó Szilárd, who came to the USA, became a citizen, and made it happen.

Americans aren't a genetic or ethnic heritage, we're a collection of people who get things done. The guys who developed The Bomb, and the integrated circuit, and the 3-phase induction motor, were Americans who may have been born somewhere else.

What was their relative success in the marketplace?

There are certainly bright people everywhere, and most technology builds on prior technology. What the US tends to do is actually develop and deploy things. You may debate who invented the light bulb, but Edison lit up New York. Lots of people "invented" radar, but MIT and US industry made microwave radar a serious world-changer... and invented modern electronics in the process.

Philips is out of the semi business, as are most of the european and UK companies. We use the NXP uPs in our newer products, and they are developed about an hour away in San Jose. (I wish they would get off their butts and do gigabit Ethernet one of these days. Looks like we'll have to go Freescale and PPC.)

There is of course a positive feedback in technology. The best and brightest engineers, scientists, and programmers want to go where the action is, and then they cause more action. It helps the feedback if the environment is friendly to forming, financing, and expanding companies. Intel, Microsoft, Google, ebay, Apple, Cisco, many others started with a few guys and a few dollars and grew exponentially. You see that sort of thing much less often in europe, or Canada, or Japan.

I recently designed a ZigBee 6-outlet power-strip electric meter for a startup here, a few very smart guys who want to conserve energy and save the world. I charged them $1.

John

Please let us know when this product hits the market.

I have been wanting to do this myself, but have not had the time.

thanks

hamilton

a few very smart guys who want to conserve energy and

Far more experience in power monitoring and reporting. The software is likely far more advanced as well.

Worth the bottom dollar unit price of $370 for the horizontal unit.

Very nice.

But I think a six outlet device will fit behind my stereo/TV much better. ;-)

hamilton

The horizontal configured unit I pointed at is no wider (longer) than a standard rack opening width. So it doesn't take up much more than the plastic housed thing being introduced or mentioned. There are standards for outlet separation that have to have been followed, so the 5 outlet job likely takes up less space than their six. and this comes with thick wire retaining bales for standard IEC plugs. Another important feature. There are probably at least 100 conductors behind my PC/Home Theater/'Stereo' set. Fully shielded with a metal case too.

Nobody calls them "stereos" any more. If you are still on a mere two channel sound system, you don't need to be worrying about getting a metered powered strip. You should be worrying about catching up with the rest of the world from a sound field perspective. A great proof is the Beatles' "Love" DVD release.

You can monitor the damned whole house meter and get those numbers quite easily.

Invest in catching up with the gear, then worry about protecting it. The current gear isn't worth protecting. Jeez, I got a 100W/Channel x 7 channels with DTS master audio and Dolby HD audio capability for less than $400, that switches HDMI ports too!

Throw that two channel crap away and get a real "stereo"! Even the cheap $200 jobs will do 7.1 and Dolby Digital modes.

Do not be a Luddite.

When you can not hear it, it does not matter.

If you have never heard a 7.1 channel sound field, nothing you say regarding sound matters.

Scarcely. The development tree is well known, and Hughes isn't on it. Anybody who thinks otherwise is simply deluding themselves - a weakness to which you seem particularly susceptible.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

I couldn't tell if they meter each outlet, or just the total load... the specs are pitiful. The one I designed metered and switched each outlet.

The target selling price for a production version, with wireless networking and some other stuff, is around $60, BOM cost around $20.

The software guys on our project are world-class. They got rich writing stuff you've heard of.

John

I post corrected. You designed it? For a dollar? That wasn't too bright. Though I am sure if they succeed, you would not be forgotten.

It was fun. What else matters?

These guys are good guys to know, and be owed a favor from. I only asked for a dollar, and got it, but they sent me some stock options just to be polite.

Doing favors for decent people is always worth it.

John

I suppose one could ask for 1E5-1E7 shares as well, but the dollar will at least pay for 1/3 of a coffee.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Given the odds of an energy-saving green save-the-world startup, I'll take the dollar.

John

Not calling decent people indecent is a good practice as well.

Especially in the current economic 'atmosphere'.

If you pay $3.00 a cup for coffee, you are an even bigger idiot than my original estimation.

There are lots of places where a cuppa costs $3, like a major hotel or a good cafe in a big city. If it's a business expense, you don't even think about it. I pay about $3 for a bowl of latte in a patesserie near here, another $3.25 for a sticky bun, and it's well worth it.

There are parts of the country where drinking coffee with meals is common, and restaurants just refill you all you can drink. That "coffee" is often thin, bitter swill. The major coastal cities - New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle - nab the best beans and ship the rest inland.

Life is too short to drink crap coffee. Speaking of which, the water's boiling and it's time to drip our Peets.

John

Don't even bother telling it. It just encourages more nym shifting.