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| Authored by: artp on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 12:44 PM EDT |
Just what I thought -- it runs on hot air.
But if it gets too hot, it shuts down, in traditional
Microsoft fashion. ;-)
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Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 12:52 PM EDT |
I am having trouble understanding what this is supposed to do.
All I can picture in my mind is a bunch of pistons going back
and forth without cause or reason. Perhaps this whole project
runs on hot air?
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 12:52 PM EDT |
| A Sterling engine. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: betajet on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 02:54 PM EDT |
| From Wikipedia:
"The use of a free-piston engine with a linear generator is being investigated
by a number of research groups, driven by the increasing interest in the hybrid
electric vehicle concept in the automotive industry. The first free piston
generator was patented in 1959, and since then, a number of variations have been
proposed. Examples include the Stelzer engine and the Free Piston Power Pack
manufactured by Pempek Systems based on a [1974] German patent."
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| Authored by: hAckz0r on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 03:47 PM EDT |
PDF link to www.dtic.mil FREE-PISTON ENGINE
LINEAR GENERATOR FOR HYBRID
See page 5
When is Bill ever going to
do something original?
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DRM - As a "solution", it solves the
wrong problem; As a "technology" its only 'logically' infeasible. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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| Authored by: dio gratia on Wednesday, May 16 2012 @ 05:33 PM EDT |
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0091138.html
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 17 2012 @ 12:02 PM EDT |
Y'know, to be fair, Intellectual Ventures is actually not a
pure patent troll. (They really do hire engineers...) And
could, for someone extremely optimistic, be taken as a
company aiming to reduce the negative fallout from the
current mess at the patent office.
(A known flat tax from a patent aggregator is actually
better than a variable tax, with possibility of injunctions,
from a few hundred patent holders. And, on the other side, a
small payout for an inventor without the resources/desire to
spend the next 12 years of their life starting a probably
unsuccessful company will tend to motivate innovation. The
lack of predictable incentives for people to patent stuff is
actually a real problem.)
And, regarding that particular patent, at least it doesn't
seem to break the laws of physics, just requires materials
with unrealistically high ferromagnetic transition
temperatures. Sigh. I'd class it as an above-average
patent. Seriously, software patents suck a lot, but so do
normal patents.
--Erwin
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 17 2012 @ 06:25 PM EDT |
Bill Gate's involvement in this is just a PR exercise. IV will gather a group
of "important" businessmen together and ask them to brainstorm ideas on a
subject. These ideas then get written up into patents applications. The patents
themselves are generally worthless, but that isn't the point. The whole point of
the exercise is as an excuse to get the people together so IV can issue a press
release listing the names of well know businessmen which other businessmen can
read about. That makes IV look somewhat more "respectable" in their
eyes.
What Gets et al get out of it is a weekend surrounded by a group
of sycophants telling them how clever they are and how their "invention" is
going to revolutionize some popular field of endeavour.
Seriously
though, what does Gates know about engines or electric power? This is a well
trodden area which IV is now polluting with dubious patents. If someone else
does manage to develop a practical electromagnetic free piston engine, he will
either have to pay off IV to make them go away, or spend an equivalent amount of
money fighting them in court.
Personally, I have spent a good many
years in the automotive electrical power industry, and I don't see this as a
practical idea. The properties of materials and the basic differences in the
requirements of the combustion and electrical parts of the system just don't
make that sort of integration beneficial.
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