The Thing About Perpetual Motion Claims...

...is that they never seem to fail to reel in the suckers.

For almost a thousand years, we have recorded records of individuals striving to create endless energy for free. Fossil fuels overshadowed the need for free energy for a time, and the scientific acceptance of the first and second laws of thermodynamics as fact put a damper on perpetual motion claims.

Around this same time (the mid-1800s into the 1900s) we begin to see a trend where charlatans see perpetual motion claims as a quick and easy scam to separate potential investors with their money. In the early days, water was often the mystical source of free energy. Nowadays, it is almost exclusively magnetism. These "inventors" (charlatans) often try to convince investors that the laws of thermodynamics do not apply to magnetism, or even boldly claim that the laws are wrong or incomplete. Whatever the case, the plan is often the same:

1. Make a perpetual motion claim
2. Put together a convincing proposal (sometimes including a clever "prototype" that hides an external power source, or battery)
3. Start raking in the dough.
4. Go into "development" for several years, producing nothing but vapor and hopeful press releases.
5. Raise more funds, repeat.
6. They run off with the money, get convicted of fraud, or fail to successfully demonstrate the technology publicly, and fade away from public view.

In many cases, the inventor making the claim is depressed or mentally unstable. In the case I've been following lately, a small Irish company is propping up the scam.

Steorn is an Irish company that used to design and create websites. The dot-com bubble burst, and they decided to create perpetual motion technology, while still creating the occasional bed-and-breakfast home page. This company has pulled out all the stops in an attempt to continue stringing along potential investors over the last 10 years. They have secured millions in loans over the last decade, and are now, supposedly almost ready to commercialize a technology that can create, inexpensive free energy for everyone without using natural resources (solar, wind, waves, rivers, geothermal, etc...).

For myself, the interest is in how long they can prolong the charade. As someone who has worked in the information security industry for many years, I am used to seeing impossible claims come and go. I have seen vendors and individuals claim to have uncrackable encryption, unbreakable operating systems, unhackable systems, and other "perfect solutions" to the ever changing and increasing challenges we face in the security industry.

Steorn Ltd. (Wikipedia page) attempted to publicly display their technology in London in July 2007. As with many other perpetual motion scams, the public demonstration experienced "technical difficulties" and was canceled (a greenhouse effect supposedly destroyed bearings). Shortly thereafter, Steorn announced open availability of several demo units for scientists to independently test and validate the technology. The response was huge, and a handful of respondents were selected and required to sign non-disclosure agreements (not surprisingly). This "jury" of respondents concluded in June 2009 (also not surprisingly) that the technology did not work. Steorn responded that the issue was just a little bug in the design, that it was now fixed, and that they are going commercial with their technology in the coming year.

How thick can you get?

Steorn currently (as of December 2009) has a public demonstration underway in Dublin, in which a small device is connected to a rechargeable battery, and is supposedly creating more energy than it is consuming. They have gone to great lengths with multimedia this time, with videos on their site showing the demonstration, a diagram showing a basic electric motor powered by a D-cell battery, and even a viral media campaign including a blog, and some YouTube videos of average joes who have duplicated and validated Steorn's multimillion dollar project using zip ties, skateboard wheels and particle board.

Without further ado, this is the face of someone who has discovered the magic of free, endless energy. Witness his excitement. Witness him reading prompts from his monitor. Witness his inability to turn off his webcam. Count how many times he says "legit" and "doubt".



Here are three videos of people spinning random circular objects with an electric motor, claiming to be Steorn's "Orbo" technology.

Here is the company's CEO, Sean McCarthy in 2006, describing the jury process for the technology that completely failed because of a bug they've now fixed. He is an expert salesman/conman, getting all of the potential investor's fears out in the open so that he can address each one individually. Even after the entire process he claims will prove they are creating energy from "nowhere", they continue on selling vapor. They now offer a $400 USB magnetometer, and access to "free energy for everyone" to developers for a fee.

Lorenzo starts school!

Lorenzo started school today - an exciting time for us all, but we were nervous too. How will he do? Will he throw a monster fit the first day? Will he freak out? No, he didn't do any of those things. He did fine. The worst was that he was too nervous to eat, ended up throwing away most of his lunch, and went all Hungry Mungry when he got home.

He remembered bits and pieces of his day, but had a hard time remembering any names or anything in too much depth due to the overwhelming amount of information he was fed today. I'd like to write more, but too much going on.

Perhaps I'll update with a photo of him ready for his first day of school later.

My son has a mild Transformer Obsession

It is okay, though. I had a severe Transformer Obsession, and I turned out OK, see? We had a little Transformer "photo shoot" the other day.

Getting them ready

Vehicle Mode

And Robot Mode

We used the opportunity to round up all the myriad weapons and easily removable parts that had gone missing over the past few months. I'd estimate we probably rounded up 20-30 parts, and are only missing 3 or 4, which amazes me. In some cases, it took some research to get everything transformed...

Aaaaand this is what it looked like approximately 30 seconds later

Transform and blow out!

Living Room Torn Apart

Boy, it is going to look great! That's what I have to keep telling myself...


More pics here, and floors should be in by next weekend!

iPod Will Soon Be Obsolete? I agree.

Music Business Pioneer Says IPod Will Soon Be Obsolete

My first reaction was skeptical, but after reading the article, I practically smacked my forehead with the realization of Ruben was getting at. I wouldn't think this should be any great surprise for anyone who spends time really thinking about the future of music purchases, but it sure was to me.

The iPod really is an amazing piece of technology, and it is fantastically easy to use. This does not, however, guarantee that the iPod, or even any MP3 player will be a hot item for much longer. The changeover, like VHS to DVD, won't be overnight ("soon be obsolete" = years, not months) due to initial high prices and reduced availability, but I'm convinced now, like Ruben, that it will happen if the big music companies take advantage of the changing trends.

So, what do we know that supports this theory?

• The trend is increasingly that everything is being connected to the Internet
• In the entertainment world, the path chosen for new services and products is consistently and reliably the most convenient for the consumer.

So, in summary, something we want, whether it be music or video, is delivered to us via something we have. Six years ago, I carried a mobile phone, PDA, and MP3 player. Now it is common to find all three combined. A large number of phones now come with the ability to sync or download music to them, which are accommodated by miniaturized removable storage media, or large amounts of onboard memory.

My point here, without going into too much technical detail, is that iTunes is just a crutch. iTunes is there because the MP3 player and the phone aren't quite able to manage their own music libraries yet. The big point is that the only reason why the music is still stored on the phone and MP3 player is because the wireless signal speed and quality aren't quite good enough and cheap enough for your entire library to be stored online.

Here's what seems likely to me in the near future, if and when the music giants jump on the subscription idea:

• 3G and faster wireless networks will be able to log in with their subscription and have the ability to access a theoretically limitless (only by your pocketbook) music library.
• You never have to worry about losing your music
• You never have to worry about syncing your music
• You never have to worry about running out of space
• You will be able to connect to the same library from your PC or Car - they may even be able to sustain a dynamic session (see below)
• If someone could work out the kinks, a product like this could have some neat features, like a dynamic session that could move from device to device. In an example:
• You wake up to your alarm - music playing via your computer.
• When you leave your house from work, you put on headphones (wireless by now) that connect to your mobile phone via bluetooth. Your mobile phone, connected to your music library with the same account, doesn't miss a beat, and picks up exactly where the music in your house left off (ok, maybe not exactly - mobile phones would probably have greater latency than a PC with landline broadband).
• You walk to your car and get in. If it is a newer car, you turn off your mobile phone, as your car also has an Internet connection, and the music again picks up more or less where you left off.
• You drive to work and park your car. If you can't be separated from your music, the mobile phone and headphones again come out.
• You walk into work, sit down at your desk, and log into your PC. If your company allows it, you have the option to continue listening to the same music library via your work computer. If it is forbidden, most places will allow you to continue using your mobile phone as a music player. Note that at this point in the future, unlimited mobile data packages are much more common, as they are necessary to use such a streaming music service.
• The point is that a session is kept active across multiple devices, so that you never have to stop, start over, or lose your place in music or other audio (like audio books). This could even be done without keeping a session active, by just recording the "last item played" and "time elapsed" for that item.
  
• This type of music service would probably be added to mobile phone service packages as an incentive to buy, or sign on for a multiyear service agreement.
  
• As an added bonus, I see much less potential for piracy, when it becomes commonplace for people to stream their music directly from the source
• The car piece of the scenario above is significant. Many people want to listen to their music libraries in their cars. For that reason, cars in the future will have this feature built in. This means that the whole FM transmitter, tape adapter, aux in port, iPod-connector-in-the-glovebox industry will disappear pretty quickly. However, you'd probably still be able to play the music from your phone through the car stereo via Bluetooth, if the car couldn't connect to the Internet to play the music directly, that is.
  

And of course, I have to cover the downsides:

• When your link to the Internet is gone, so is your music (keep that "old" iPod around for camping trips!)
• Less mainstream music and audio will be slower to migrate to these services, if ever. Local and independent music may never be available on such a service, unless the technology used is opened up and made available separately from the services, making DIY independent streaming music catalogs possible.
  
• You don't have a feeling of ownership, as you can't manipulate or back up your music. Furthermore, labels under legal or other pressure could change a song on you after you've purchased it, potentially changing your purchase into something else entirely. This would be something to look for in the sure-to-be-coming license agreements.
  

So, I've probably missed a few things, but those are my ideas based on Rubin's prediction.

Funking it up

I'm picking back up on a life-long love affair with bass guitar. Recently I've been doing some studio work in the excellent Shed 55 Studios for a few projects. Perhaps some shows won't be too far off...

--Adrian

2007 Beach Vacation

Good fun.

From SanabriaBeach...

Back to blogging

Just updated my Alphagrip blog for the first time in forever. My recent resurgence in interest stems from my idea that a standard Bluetooth keyboard and mouse could be chewed up and regurgitated into an Alphagrip to form a new wireless AG-5 beast. As I state in my post, I might be getting in over my head, but I'm going to give it a try.

Rest assured, there will be plenty of pictures and documentation for the Hack-a-day and Engaget pr0n lovers out there.

--Adrian

My New Blog

It appears I must post something to see if my blog is up and working correctly...

More to come later.