OK, Apple probably blew it with respect to coddling their fan base and get good PR. No argument there...
But the fact of the matter is that their response is quite typical for all technology oriented companies. Don't any of you work in engineering or product development?
Apple undoubtedly gets HUNDREDS of letters every day from all kinds of random folk with piles of ideas on how to improve Apple products. Most of these will be complete garbage from crackpots, but once in a while somebody has a good one in there (even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while). Well, it's not a certainty, but there's a good chance that Apple is ALREADY working on that innovation of invention in their own labs. When the new product comes out with "Feature X" on it and the crackpot doesn't get credit (meaning a fat check from Apple) they get pissed and sue. This used to happen all the time and still happens in most consumer technology companies. Almost all do just like Apple did and attempt to protect themselves by returning all unsolicited product ideas right to the sender IMMEDIATELY. They do not hold onto them; they do not pass them through the research department; they do not post them on bulletin boards in break rooms. They get turned around right at the mail department. It's the only way. Sorry kid. I used to work for a large autommaker and we'd have backyard inventors sending in 200 mpg carburetor ideas all the time. They all got sent back, with similar legalese attached.
Wow, this thing would be awesome to take out those pesky Passenger Pigeons as well! The damn things are everywhere -- blacken the skies with their presence. :-P
Wow, it seems "ivan" and "robertbasler" think alike. VERY much alike. And both are clueless socialists. All the better if private firms compete for resources with government agencies! Said competition attracts BETTER people into the firefighting profession.
When ivan / robert has it his way, doctors will only be legally employed by the government as well, right? We can't have people paying them more to work in private practice, can we? We don't want them competing against the "public sector", whatever that is, do we? ;-P
What's the big deal? AIG (the insurance company) decided it's a whole lot smarter for them to hire teams to defend their clients' houses against burning down than paying out $20M or $30M or whatever on every one that goes up in smoke. This is all about the insurance company managing risk -- hiring that team to defend a $30 million house costs a WHOLE LOT less than $30 million. It sounds like AIG has some very smart folks working there. Kudos to them!
@c-dub- I've got no arguments from the guy doing whatever he wants ... until he starts looking making outrageous technical claims, looking for investors, and suggesting Preston Tuckeresque style "big auto company" conspiracies against him. That's when I denounce him as being full of crap.
And, I know where you are going with your Hummer comments. I'm not advocating being a game-changer by cajoling people into all driving microcars. But so-called "light duty trucks" (which includes the H2) in the US are way way overweight. There has never really been much attention paid to getting their weight down. If you want to have sweet fuel economy and performance, neglecting the chassis mass is a major oversight. The guy is dreaming up a magic powertrain. As a powertrain engineer, I wish it was that easy. Gotta work on the whole system. Take a look at a Honda Insight. Yeah, it's a hybrid with a funky powertrain, but they also worked like hell to get the mass down AND reduce the rolling resistance AND reduce aerodynamic drag. The guy should work on a truck that's a real full sized truck, but acknowledges these as well. Lot's of (relatively) low hanging fruit in terms of mass. He's still thinking Monster Garage engine swaps. Ain't gonna happen.
@c-dub- Hah hah... I had to laugh at your last comment. I actually was a GM R&D engineer (Powertrain too, not windshield wipers) for 12 years, and I have little cause to doubt the quality of their engineers, especially GM R&D and the Powertrain guys.
If you read the article, GM isn't doing ANYTHING based on this guy's work. The closest it comes is 2 guys (and who knows what kind of GM engineers they were-- doorhandle release engineers?) at a hotel saying "nice job on the engine swap". Whoopee. I'm pretty sure very few people in GM Powertrain or GM R&D have ever heard he stuffed a Duramax into a Hummer H2. And getting it to work on biodiesel is frankly no big deal. The U.S. auto industry has been already moving (too slowly in my opinion) towards diesels (especially for trucks) because it's an instant sizable improvement in thermal efficiency and thus fuel economy. Additionally, the diesel combustion cycle is a whole lot less fussy than the Otto cycle regarding fuel specifications. As diesel carries an unfair public perception of high emissions (not true), touting up the "biofuel capability" is smart marketing. It's the same with the whole "Live Green Go Yellow" GM ethanol campaign -- everyone knows that very very few of those vehicles will ever see a drop of E85, but it's good PR (and it gives the manufacturers huge CAFE fuel economy credits).
Don't get me wrong - the guy can probably do very nice one-off engine transplants... quality Monster Garage type work. But his alternate engine statements are frankly goofy and anyone with knowledge in the industry will see that right away. As a lot of other folks have stated, if you want to "change the world" with good fuel economy and performance, starting with a way way too heavy Hummer is a dumb way to do it. That doesn't mean you need to use a SMART or Honda Insight, but how about a pickup engineered to be large and utilitarian, but (relatively) *light weight*? Mass is the killer of fuel economy, emissions, and perfromance. Anybody who tries to solve these three without tackling mass is windmill jousting.
@Mathieu- The fact that most of the WWII era Japanese war criminals are now dead is irrelevant. Such worship of blade mastery is a part of Japanese culture. Ikizukuri is NOT something that was just dreamed up recently by these guys' descendants; rather, it's been around for decades, if not many generations. The cited Wiki article mentions the practice was featured in Ian Fleming's 1964 novel "You Only Live Twice". By no means were most of the sword & bayonet "practice on people" guys dead at that point -- rather they were leading Japan's rebirth as an economic superpower (and eating out a lot). While the Japanese may have civilized themselves in a lot of ways since M-cArthur forced a Western-style constitution upon them, retaining this bit of heritage is a nod to their brutal Bushid? past.
Does it really surprise people that the Japanese cooked (yuk yuk) this up? Come on folks, these are the same people who brought us similar tales of their skilled blademanship (except on people) in Nanking and Bataan.
But the fact of the matter is that their response is quite typical for all technology oriented companies. Don't any of you work in engineering or product development?
Apple undoubtedly gets HUNDREDS of letters every day from all kinds of random folk with piles of ideas on how to improve Apple products. Most of these will be complete garbage from crackpots, but once in a while somebody has a good one in there (even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while). Well, it's not a certainty, but there's a good chance that Apple is ALREADY working on that innovation of invention in their own labs. When the new product comes out with "Feature X" on it and the crackpot doesn't get credit (meaning a fat check from Apple) they get pissed and sue. This used to happen all the time and still happens in most consumer technology companies. Almost all do just like Apple did and attempt to protect themselves by returning all unsolicited product ideas right to the sender IMMEDIATELY. They do not hold onto them; they do not pass them through the research department; they do not post them on bulletin boards in break rooms. They get turned around right at the mail department. It's the only way. Sorry kid. I used to work for a large autommaker and we'd have backyard inventors sending in 200 mpg carburetor ideas all the time. They all got sent back, with similar legalese attached.
:-P
When ivan / robert has it his way, doctors will only be legally employed by the government as well, right? We can't have people paying them more to work in private practice, can we? We don't want them competing against the "public sector", whatever that is, do we? ;-P
Competition is good for everyone. Always.
I've got no arguments from the guy doing whatever he wants ... until he starts looking making outrageous technical claims, looking for investors, and suggesting Preston Tuckeresque style "big auto company" conspiracies against him. That's when I denounce him as being full of crap.
And, I know where you are going with your Hummer comments. I'm not advocating being a game-changer by cajoling people into all driving microcars. But so-called "light duty trucks" (which includes the H2) in the US are way way overweight. There has never really been much attention paid to getting their weight down. If you want to have sweet fuel economy and performance, neglecting the chassis mass is a major oversight. The guy is dreaming up a magic powertrain. As a powertrain engineer, I wish it was that easy. Gotta work on the whole system. Take a look at a Honda Insight. Yeah, it's a hybrid with a funky powertrain, but they also worked like hell to get the mass down AND reduce the rolling resistance AND reduce aerodynamic drag. The guy should work on a truck that's a real full sized truck, but acknowledges these as well. Lot's of (relatively) low hanging fruit in terms of mass. He's still thinking Monster Garage engine swaps. Ain't gonna happen.
Hah hah... I had to laugh at your last comment. I actually was a GM R&D engineer (Powertrain too, not windshield wipers) for 12 years, and I have little cause to doubt the quality of their engineers, especially GM R&D and the Powertrain guys.
If you read the article, GM isn't doing ANYTHING based on this guy's work. The closest it comes is 2 guys (and who knows what kind of GM engineers they were-- doorhandle release engineers?) at a hotel saying "nice job on the engine swap". Whoopee. I'm pretty sure very few people in GM Powertrain or GM R&D have ever heard he stuffed a Duramax into a Hummer H2. And getting it to work on biodiesel is frankly no big deal. The U.S. auto industry has been already moving (too slowly in my opinion) towards diesels (especially for trucks) because it's an instant sizable improvement in thermal efficiency and thus fuel economy. Additionally, the diesel combustion cycle is a whole lot less fussy than the Otto cycle regarding fuel specifications. As diesel carries an unfair public perception of high emissions (not true), touting up the "biofuel capability" is smart marketing. It's the same with the whole "Live Green Go Yellow" GM ethanol campaign -- everyone knows that very very few of those vehicles will ever see a drop of E85, but it's good PR (and it gives the manufacturers huge CAFE fuel economy credits).
Don't get me wrong - the guy can probably do very nice one-off engine transplants... quality Monster Garage type work. But his alternate engine statements are frankly goofy and anyone with knowledge in the industry will see that right away. As a lot of other folks have stated, if you want to "change the world" with good fuel economy and performance, starting with a way way too heavy Hummer is a dumb way to do it. That doesn't mean you need to use a SMART or Honda Insight, but how about a pickup engineered to be large and utilitarian, but (relatively) *light weight*? Mass is the killer of fuel economy, emissions, and perfromance. Anybody who tries to solve these three without tackling mass is windmill jousting.
Straight talk from Sid.
The fact that most of the WWII era Japanese war criminals are now dead is irrelevant. Such worship of blade mastery is a part of Japanese culture. Ikizukuri is NOT something that was just dreamed up recently by these guys' descendants; rather, it's been around for decades, if not many generations. The cited Wiki article mentions the practice was featured in Ian Fleming's 1964 novel "You Only Live Twice". By no means were most of the sword & bayonet "practice on people" guys dead at that point -- rather they were leading Japan's rebirth as an economic superpower (and eating out a lot). While the Japanese may have civilized themselves in a lot of ways since M-cArthur forced a Western-style constitution upon them, retaining this bit of heritage is a nod to their brutal Bushid? past.
1933 movie: Fay Wray
1976 movie: Jessica Lange
2005 movie: Naomi Watts
Dunaway was born in 1941, too late for the first and too early to play the heroine in the remakes.