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Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

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Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#51

Every startup entrepreneur should learn image making and PR from Musk. For someone who is not very eloquent and a bit tongue-tied he has done an amazing job to become known as the premier visionaries of our time. This also includes making changes to his physical appearance by looking at his old images [1], [2] as well his name brand. [1] http://www.stepbrother.co.za/images/musk2.jpg [2] http://img.gawkerassets.com/im…

wow, how did he change his appearance so much?

More hair, more tan, more money, more sex, more training. That's the formula I guess.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#52

Classy! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356779314043305985 "I really hate patents unless critical to company survival. Will publish Hyperloop as open source."

> "I really hate patents unless critical to company survival" Isn't "critical to company survival" the same defensive argument that every patent holder uses?

It's a tweet. Expect it to be an abbreviated incomplete answer.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#53
post #13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX don't patent anything because they thought the Chinese would steal their technologies using the patents itself. It's a different story for Tesla Motors, though.

I think there is more "secret sauce" in Tesla than in SpaceX. SpaceX is doing great implementations of pretty conservative designs. In any case, both are "product" companies and benefit from patents less than "design" companies. Contrast SpaceX with Mojave Aerospace Ventures (the investment vehicle that owns the Spaceship One IP developed by Scaled Composites).

Everyone has criticized you based on how great SpaceX is. I'll go the other way.

Tesla at its heart is "put a ton of batteries which were developed by other companies into an electric motor that drives a car." People have been trying this formula for over a century. Tesla happened to do it when battery technology was just good enough to work, with really good styling.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#54

Every startup entrepreneur should learn image making and PR from Musk. For someone who is not very eloquent and a bit tongue-tied he has done an amazing job to become known as the premier visionaries of our time. This also includes making changes to his physical appearance by looking at his old images [1], [2] as well his name brand. [1] http://www.stepbrother.co.za/images/musk2.jpg [2] http://img.gawkerassets.com/im…

wow, how did he change his appearance so much?

I had no idea he had a hair transplant. It looks very nice.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow, how did he change his appearance so much?

Rogain

Slightly O/T. A buddy of mine was saying last night that his lady suggested looking at a hair regrowth product, on inspecting the packaging and marketing material he found the wonderful claim:

"Up-to 4 times more effective than a placebo in clinical testing"

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#58
post #42

This is my guess: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6040206 Rather than maintain a vacuum hundreds of miles wide, why not just ride along the vacuum that occurs along a very low frequency soundwave (low frequency enough that the wavelength is larger than the vehicle). To visualize: http://profmattstrassler.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/wavegas... Since this wave would be going the speed of sound, that could be what…

That's a great idea! Wouldn't an underground tunnel be really expensive?

Let's bet whose idea comes closest, oh guess that's illegal in the USA and I don't bet anyway :) But betting for fun is legal right (seriously)?

my idea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046134

@cma's idea: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6046081

...

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#59
post #42

This is my guess: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6040206 Rather than maintain a vacuum hundreds of miles wide, why not just ride along the vacuum that occurs along a very low frequency soundwave (low frequency enough that the wavelength is larger than the vehicle). To visualize: http://profmattstrassler.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/wavegas... Since this wave would be going the speed of sound, that could be what…

The air-hockey element is most likely implemented as a cushion of air around all sides of a vehicle inside a tube - this would explain the "crash-proof" assertion. It would provide near-frictionless travel as well as preventing vehicle-tube collisions.

Re: Elon Musk to publish hyperloop design by August

#60
post #2

I'm always surprised that more billionaires don't try interesting off the wall projects when they have so much money. What's the fun of having it, if you can't have the occasional mad scientist moment.

I'm more surprised that more billionaires don't build crazy monuments of themselves or just some crazy ones with their name on it.
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