OverUnity prize money 15825 US$ total until now

[steve_whiss]

Hi,

..good sentiment, but as mentioned elsewhere Linux users sit atop a technology tree running for 60 years with min $10 billion poured into it. Hah! - and the rest.

Different for FE people. They got to build their very own kit. You ever tried to build a washing machine - which will go for say 10,000 hours with no maintenance? Sometimes I do not feel people here realise the massive effort it takes to get a product - of any kind - out, up to standard and distributed for sale.

I'm not dissing or putting down; I'm saying that software is all ideas (cheap, light, free!) whereas chunky hardware has laws to meet, practicality to achieve, reliability to show.


GPL software has millions of collaborative hours put into it.

A typical person writing OS code has: college (3 years) +  some relevant industrial experience (say another 3 years min) + 10 years to hit ?guru? status. And stamped out, watered, nurtured and fed by the needs of: IBM, MS, Novel, RH, Google - and 1001 others you never expected. Oracle? Your TV station? The rail company? All those businesses demanding and receiving skills. Now - all ready and trained up


Anyhow.

Who does all this for FE? Where is the skill-base being built? Where are the 101 knocks, triumphs, losses of real life in real jobs coming from?


As a start we need colleges to teach Alternative Energy 101. Then 1000 employers to recruit, train, get some practical experience going.


Sorry if I am being depressed. The electronics industry has it sown up for now - and they are NOT feeding us with troops. Well - perhaps the alternative energy guys with their windmills will.

We get occasional has-been like me (...seen the tube threads, been wondering if I should leap in and explain how they work etc - like I learnt 40 years ago) who has a chunk of sort of 40% relevant stuff and no-where to go, nothing to loose. But I do what I can, and feel wretched. I expected GW to do for humanity this century, but it looks like it might even be in a few decades.


I really feel like I'm on Easter Island watching the King order the chopping down of the last 20 trees.

To cheering crowds, the smiles of the merchants who got the deal. A holiday, music and good drink for today!


Feeling already that cold wind from the sea, now coming from all sides. Who will make next-years boats / houses / tools / clothes, what will happen to us when they realise its all gone and there isn't any more?

Hollow eyes soon, next year and each year to come. A cold and empty world arrives at Easter Island.


Perhaps I should not be so fast to write an epitaph, yet someone - somewhere - has to record that we sent ourselves extinct by clinging to technology from the 1800s.

Over 100 years out of date. Perhaps there should be a law against that.

[hartiberlin]

Hi All,
I am adding another 200 US$ into the pot Prize from the advertisement of July.

So it is now up to 3500 US$.

Many thanks to all the supporters.

Regards, Stefan.

[dingo]

Hello brave souls!

Here's someone who's just stumbled upon, or is first taking seriously, this free energy movement (is that the right term?).  I hope you are all thinking back to when your brains first broke this promising virgin soil... feeling like those who first harnessed electricity in any way, maybe?  Not like it was that long ago, in the grand scheme of things.  A couple hundred years is but a remainder when you consider how long we've inhabited the Earth.  For the record, this is my reminder to myself as to why I can learn from the well-documented embarrassment of historical nay-sayers while today's will be further evidence that humanity cannot learn from its mistakes.  I believe long after it's fashionable to stop.

Having said all that, I have a quick question and I bet someone here has a quick answer.  I just found those freely available plans for earth batteries on the very last page of the internet.  Does this seriously work?  I feel like it can't or this thread wouldn't exist.  Can someone save me from this experiment with an explanation as to why it doesn't work?  Come to think of it I just might do the experiment anyway... what self-respecting *inventor* puts the burden of proof on someone else?  We would not have electricity or this forum if that were the norm.  Still... thoughts or advice anyone?

[ResinRat2]

*Deleted*

[dingo]

Let me save someone the diplomacy... I found out that it works.  I had no idea.  I should have, being that I had a clock that ran on an orange as a kid.  Sheesh.  That's great and all but it doesn't look like anywhere near the balls you guys are looking for.  Either way, I'm on the hunt now, too.