The first time I met Dean Kamen in 2003 (Credit: Lance Ulanoff)
About the Segway and the quirky genius behind it
I remember the Segway hype. I was working at PC Magazine when we heard about “It,” (A.K.A. “Ginger”). Was it a hovercraft? Some new energy source? All rumors pointed to a major breakthrough and product that would change millions of lives. As someone who’s worked in the tech media industry for decades, this was catnip.
I was reminded of this time in 2000 and 2001 by a fascinating Slate deep dive by Dan Kois, a current journalist and former book literary agent who shepherded a book about the invention from idea to, well, he didn’t stay for publication. Kois kind of blames himself for the leak that launched thousands of stories on what we would eventually learn was the world’s first self-balancing human transporter, the Segway.
Like others, I was underwhelmed by the reveal but still find the technology rather transporting. I remember when Segway first bought a few of them to our New York City offices. Riding one was initially scary, and then thrilling when you realized that it was better to use your mind, instead of overt motions, to move.
Today, I even own a modern Segway, made by Ninebot. It looks remarkably like a very tiny version of the original transporter.
The story also brought me back to my various conversations with Segway inventor and jean-shirt-wearer Dean Kamen.
In 2003, he was still smarting over the leak that created insane expectations. That was never Kamen’s intention, though, I don’t think he did much to dampen the hoopla. His devotion to the Segway was strong and Kamen would arrive everywhere on one of his platforms, including when he was feted by former Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. At the time, Kamen insisted that Gorbachev would try the Segway, but I don’t think he ever did.
As the Slate story points out, the Segway didn’t change the world and Kamen moved on long ago. It’s been years since I talked to him, but my more recent discussions with Kamen were about the water purification system he’s been working on forever, and his more successful efforts to encourage robotics study through his FIRST Robotics competitions. Even so, I think Kamen will always be remembered for the Segway
The next big space telescope and launch hiccups
I’ve been covering the James Webb telescope since 2013 when I stood under a 60-ft scale replica that NASA brought to SXSW. At the time, they expected to launch the world’s biggest space telescope in 2018. Now, after numerous delays, NASA thinks they can do it later this year. However, NASA admitted that getting it a million miles into space might be the easy part. There are 50 deployments that have to happen after launch.
Reading this, I could only think about the numerous delays and how NASA has just one shot at this, or they could lose at least a decade of work.
They say space is hard for a reason. It’s complex, dangerous, and has witnessed numerous, disastrous, and tragic failures. While we wait for Webb to launch, Boeing’s Starliner, which is supposed to pitch in on cargo flights to the ISS (yes, the space station recently spun around by a malfunctioning Russian module), is stuck on the launchpad. The rocket was set to launch on its inaugural flight last week but it was scrubbed and now it’s on hold indefinitely.
At least the James Webb telescope was not scheduled to use a Starline. Instead, it will fly into space on a proven Ariane V. I look forward to NASA finally completing this mission (or starting Webb’s long life in space), and finally giving the aging Hubble a break.
The stories
Just as Twitter was sunsetting Fleets, TikTok started testing out stories. There’s apparently always an appetite for these ephemeral, vertical content pieces. The ability to daisy-chain the pieces is an attractive way to bring people back to the social media site multiple times throughout the day. However, as Twitter learned, not every platform’s audience is interested in supporting this style of video content. Granted, TikTok’s platform is all about vertical video. The only change would be that the content disappears after 24 hours. Considering the quality of some of my TikToks, this might not be such a bad idea.
Bye, Olympics
After a year delay and ever-present COVID concerns, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics finished its historic run, one that saw lots of excitement, drama, medals, and dozens of empty arenas. Last night I watched the very unusual closing ceremony. Like the opening one, it was held in the cavernous arena with not a single spectator in sight. It made for an entertaining, but also somber affair.
As usual, I focused on the technology, noting how few light effects they used as compared to other arena-sized events. Still, like the opening ceremony, there was one show-stopping, digital moment.
At roughly the halfway point, a million points of light appeared to spill over from the edges of the arena, pool in the middle, and then rise up in the center to create the five Olympic rings. There’s no way that any of the athletes assembled on the field saw this. It had to be an augmented reality effect, done by combining the live video with a very effective CGI overlay. Later, The New York Times confirmed my suspicions. It was a TV-viewer-only effect. Even so, I loved it and will now miss the Olympic Games (at least for six months until the Winter Games kick-off).
Missed on Medium
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