Just a random offer, I don't mean to hijack the thread - I do electronics and robotics design for a living. I will happily help anyone who has a need like this for cost of materials or less, the result will be open source hardware. If you or someone you know could use help with a similar project, contact me at kliment at 0xfb.com or on IRC (I'm Kliment on the freenode network).
Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
11–20 of 34 posts
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have any real value." Serious question: Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?
People would make their own entertainment if sports and Hollywood were not available: games, stories, conversation, crafts, and so on. Our lives might even be a bit richer for it. And in that sense, the entertainment industry captures value that we would be making anyhow. Yes their entertainment is better somehow, better in the sense that people will pay for it, so this is the bottom-line "better", inclusive of deman…
That is, in the sense in which cocaine is "better" than caffeine.
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#13Just imagine what a Gene Hacker Dad can do...
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely agree; it's the same thing as with entertainment/sports industry. Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have much real value. Thanks for sharing the link.
as far as society is concerned, professional athletes do have value - that value is realized in the form of ticket prices, memorabilia, endorsements, etc. And you can measure that in dollars, obviously. Keep in mind, these are professionals. There's only like 700-800 of them per professional league, and their athletic careers span 0-20 years. You could similarly do that calculation for hollywood too. That's the suppl…
I do understand that and I agree. My point is that it's simply not fair that someone who is chasing the ball around the field/court gets 8-digit annual paycheck, while someone who helps solve real problems doesn't see a percent of that.
This touches a much deeper topic and won't most likely be related directly to the original post, so I'll stop here :)
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#15This is where the value of Stem educations come in. 50 years ago you could pick up enough mechanics to fix your car, enough electronics as a hobbyist. today you need to start at 14 building / making at school like we did in woodcraft and metalwork lessons - otherwise when you are a dad and need those making skills, they just aren't there
but like everyone else on the thread - massive kudos - that's what dads are for.
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#16In case you don't know what "MAX" is:
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/71544521BDE34FFB86256...
Its something I'd like really like to see an open source version of make it into the Arduino universe.
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely agree; it's the same thing as with entertainment/sports industry. Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have much real value. Thanks for sharing the link.
"Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have any real value." Serious question: Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?
"Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?"
I thought we were talking about sports? Sports does not even have any entertainment value, it is a complete waste of time and resources
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#18Amazing write up. It does make me a bit grumpy to see things like SnapChat being offered $3bn, but nothing like this ever getting that kind of funding. That's a lot of engineering and manufacturing that isn't being done. Even the boy with the formula one arm had to raise funds himself. (With help, but no funding, from Mercedes. But the engineering they gave is very cool.) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/f…
I completely agree; it's the same thing as with entertainment/sports industry. Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have much real value. Thanks for sharing the link.
"Why do professional athletes make so much money when...?" is the wrong question to ask.
"Why do people pay so much money for a small bit of entertainment for themselves when there is so much need in the world?" is a better one. This brings us right back to some uncomfortable facts about human nature.
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have any real value." Serious question: Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?
People would make their own entertainment if sports and Hollywood were not available: games, stories, conversation, crafts, and so on. Our lives might even be a bit richer for it. And in that sense, the entertainment industry captures value that we would be making anyhow. Yes their entertainment is better somehow, better in the sense that people will pay for it, so this is the bottom-line "better", inclusive of deman…
> People would make their own entertainment if sports and Hollywood were not available
I'm afraid I disagree with you. I notice even when getting together with a group of friends to play games, there always tends to be someone who is happy to just sit back and watch the games take place. Some will make the entertainment and others will want to watch. It seems to be basic human nature; professional sports and Hollywood have just figured out how to make money from that.
Re: Powerchair: A dad hacks a wheelchair for his disabled 2-year-old son
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely agree; it's the same thing as with entertainment/sports industry. Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have much real value. Thanks for sharing the link.
"Football/basketball players are paid obscene amounts of money, while what they do does not have any real value." Serious question: Do you consider entertainment to have a real value for society?
Clearly. The deeper question is why does our society value entertainment more than creation of other types of value?
Society has allowed copyright to extend virtually forever, while patents tend to last just 20 years. If you have money to invest in either industry with similar risk, which are you going to take a chance on? The one that will support you for life, and your family until the end of time, naturally. This indicates that we favour entertainment more than other types of intellectual property.
I realize people on here tend to be against property rights completely, but if we assume, for argument's sake, they are valuable for promoting creation as is the prevailing reason for having the system, shouldn't copyright be a far shorter period than patents?