Live data from Hacker News

MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

dezeen.com

101–110 of 149 posts

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#101
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do "they" affect you, poor soul?

Hours of blood-curdling screaming in the middle of the night, waking up people who are trying to get sleep before going to work. But I can tell from your tone that you've already decided you don't care about anything the homeless might do to other people.

[deleted]

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a student project, so the primary intent is to do the work necessary to graduate.

It’s from CSM, a fairly well regarded art college, so you are right on the money. You see a lot of interesting projects like this come from art colleges - technically quite neat, with a “social message” or theme, but usually not going to translate well to the real world. That being said. I could see myself actually using something like this in a pinch.

Which I think is 100% ok for art or tech school or project. They are not supposed to be experts in social help, sociology or whatever. They kinda lack training for that. The are supposed to show practical skills and come up with an idea of a project that would demonstrate them.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure of the demographics in your region but are you sure your perception of homelessness is correct? Or is it just a bias where you only see the ones who aren’t busy trying to dig out?

Most of the homeless in my city migrated here from outside of the city (and often State) to come here for our weather, services, and lax attitude towards drug use as far as demographics go. We're a navy town so there's also a tragic sub-group of veterans with mental health issues but the bulk of our homeless (we actually use the term "transient" as side context) don't fall into this category and mainly came here for…

Every aspect of your statement is false and you can't have gained this understanding from speaking to actual homeless people in California. California homeless are from their local area and they just ran out of money. This has been demonstrated over and over again. For example, of Alameda County's 10k homeless individuals, 82% were living in Alameda County before they became homeless and 96% were living in California at that time. They don't come to our county for the services, because there aren't any. The idea that homeless people migrate around to find good weather and free stuff is just propaganda. No significant subpopulation of homeless people does that.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure of the demographics in your region but are you sure your perception of homelessness is correct? Or is it just a bias where you only see the ones who aren’t busy trying to dig out?

Most of the homeless in my city migrated here from outside of the city (and often State) to come here for our weather, services, and lax attitude towards drug use as far as demographics go. We're a navy town so there's also a tragic sub-group of veterans with mental health issues but the bulk of our homeless (we actually use the term "transient" as side context) don't fall into this category and mainly came here for…

The statistics I've seen (on California[1]) suggest that homeless folks are generally locals, not migrants? But I agree that just providing some usb ports on public transit (likely also in stations or at stops) would be a low-cost/high-benefit approach. For human-powered approaches, I will say that old OLPC hand crank was a good design, since it clamped to a table or railing, which allowed for clever 'hacks' like hoisting a bucket or water bottle and letting the weight coming down turn the shaft [2]. Still less practical than just plugging in, to be fair.

1: https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/california-hom...

2: http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/power_supply/two_awesome_ex...

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#105

What’s the advantage of using those bicycles, as opposed to just having a crank on it? Pedaling a bicycle backwards isn’t really ergonomic.

Regular humans can put out ~100 watts on a dual foot crank (like a bicycle) for hours. Since a phone battery is ~12 Watt-hours, you can collect energy for a full phone charge in ~10 mins (but you'll need a special buffer battery, since few lithium cells can charge that fast). Yet on a single hand crank, even 20 watts and you'll get tired pretty quick. Part of that is that leg muscles are bigger. Part of it is that yo…

I don't doubt you can generate ~100 watts cycling forward for hours. But the approach this system uses is that you need to cycle backwards. As far as I know, that's pretty annoying way to move your legs.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#106
post #63

Or you can do what NYC did and (sell the right to) put USB charging ports on every other block or so. In that case, you just have to source USB condoms instead of a whole rigamarole involving pedaling and stuff.

For those who don't have context on this:

https://www.link.nyc/home.html

It's not just USB charging, it's also pretty fast wifi.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the homeless in my city migrated here from outside of the city (and often State) to come here for our weather, services, and lax attitude towards drug use as far as demographics go. We're a navy town so there's also a tragic sub-group of veterans with mental health issues but the bulk of our homeless (we actually use the term "transient" as side context) don't fall into this category and mainly came here for…

Every aspect of your statement is false and you can't have gained this understanding from speaking to actual homeless people in California. California homeless are from their local area and they just ran out of money. This has been demonstrated over and over again. For example, of Alameda County's 10k homeless individuals, 82% were living in Alameda County before they became homeless and 96% were living in California…

None of the homeless people in my town seem to be from here. They don't speak with the local accent; they speak with the generic London "druggie" accent. (The local accent is quite easy to recognize)

This is a nicer town than London, generally; at least, it is in the centre, where the homeless people concentrate. The police seem very tolerant of homeless tent-dwellers. There was a small encampment around the corner from where I live, camped directly outside the courthouse and opposite the police station (!), for about two months. I found them rather intimidating - they were very shouty.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#108

I have an emergency radio with crank for power outages. I know it probably takes a lot of cranking to charge a phone, but I think that would reduce complexity and make it more universal than having to occupy a specific kind of bike sharing bike

you'd be cranking for two days straight to charge up your phone.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That cost would be at a volume no one would ever produce this at.

Well, the volume could possibly exist if it weren't limited to one city, or one model of bike.

No, it couldn’t. This is all very dumb, it’s a fantasy product with no effective use targeting a population that didn’t ask or want it, done so that everyone can say it’s great which makes them feel like they are good people.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the homeless in my city migrated here from outside of the city (and often State) to come here for our weather, services, and lax attitude towards drug use as far as demographics go. We're a navy town so there's also a tragic sub-group of veterans with mental health issues but the bulk of our homeless (we actually use the term "transient" as side context) don't fall into this category and mainly came here for…

The statistics I've seen (on California[1]) suggest that homeless folks are generally locals, not migrants? But I agree that just providing some usb ports on public transit (likely also in stations or at stops) would be a low-cost/high-benefit approach. For human-powered approaches, I will say that old OLPC hand crank was a good design, since it clamped to a table or railing, which allowed for clever 'hacks' like hoi…

I would love to see a USB port that can withstand public transit use. Just as a design exercise that would be fascinating.
Post reply on HN