Teens Arrested For Motorized Office Chair 338
German police have confiscated the world's fastest office chair and arrested its 17-year-old inventors. The duo added a lawnmower engine, brakes and a metal frame to the office chair and were reported to be driving it all over the streets of Gross-Zimmern. Police did not comment on the chair's handling or acceleration but I look forward to it being profiled on Top Gear.
So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
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What did the cops get them for, speeding?
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
"I for one welcome our rocket chair creating overlords. "
In fairness, the picture is wholly unrelated to the story - unless they have started making Barcalounger shaped office chairs and 8 hp piston engines that shoot gigantic flames out the back. Both of which would be AWESOME!!
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
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There' s a picture on this web site [express.de], ie. this one [express.de].
It's somewhat disappointing since it's more realistic to say they built a motorised platform, and stuck an office chair on it.
There is also a side-note [express.de] describing the first German championship in office chair running, which took place in April. The paper also provide a set of increasingly disturbing images of hulking male participants dressed in various pink fluffy bunny type outfits draped in a variety of poses across office chairs... Apparently t
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Oh, please. Making the chair is cool. Driving it on public roads is not so cool. I admit, I chuckled when I saw the picture, but they should have tested it out in an empty parking lot.
On the other hand, this invention is uber cool!!!
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>> they should have tested it out in an empty parking lot.
It's an office chair isn't it? I'd like to roll up to a departmental meeting in one of those.
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
It's an office chair isn't it? I'd like to roll up to a departmental meeting in one of those.
Depends on which company we're talking about. If Microsoft, I shudder to think what Balmer could do with one of these. It'd be as if millions of programmers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:4, Funny)
ICBC = Inter-continental ballistic chair
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>> Oh, please. Making the chair is cool. Driving it on public roads is not so cool.
If they were potentially causing a danger on those streets, then OK. But if they weren't being reckless and disrupting safe traffic, then this deserved a "hey kids, cut that out", not a pair of handcuffs.
If I made that chair, you bet I'd go find a nice non-busy stretch of road to haul ass on.
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Motorized wheelchairs are allowed on the roads, at least the residential streets around here, I don't see much difference.
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Informative)
> I don't see much difference.
In Germany every motorized vehicle driven on public roads needs to pass a regular safety test*1 , has to have vehicle insurance and you'll need the right driving license.
Everything else is /very/ illegal.
The definition of "public roads" includes publicly assessible parking lots.
That's a set of laws that really makes me feel safer.
*1) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Technischer_Ueberwachungsverein&oldid=230576541 [wikipedia.org]
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How does meeting safety standards have anything to do with your method of propulsion?
In much the same way that riding a bicycle doesn't require insurance or a driving licence. I'm sorry, what is your question again?
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Insightful)
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not much chance of that but it's still cool :D
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the problem isn't that they invented something, it's that they were very irresponsible with it (driving a motor vehicle on the streets without proper training or safety measures).
And I wouldn't call a lawnmower-engine powered office chair "useful". Interesting, and amusing, but not useful.
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine how much less congestion there would be on our highways if we all drove office chairs to work.
Yes, I do understand that semi trucks would be an issue.
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Where do you suggest they go to get "proper training" for a motorized office chair? ;-)
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Since they were using it on the streets, they could start by getting a driving license like everyone else that operates a motorized method of transport in public.
Now I am not sure about this, but I think in Germany you can't get a drivers license until you are 18 (and they were 17). Ironically, it probably would be safer for these guys to be driving a car on the streets than that contraption they built.
I am all for inven
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What's wrong with this? It's perfectly legal to ride a home-built electrical bicycle on the road, without training or safety measures. What's the difference between a bicycle and an office chair?
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When you put an engine in it, the difference is that it has an engine in it. Engine-driven vehicles require licenses to be driven on public roads.
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Actually, there is a /slashdot/ use for them.
Sell them to Microsoft.
Enclosed building. Gas powered engines. Do the math.
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Yeah, but Ballmer might throw it through a window, letting fresh air in....
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Man, those anti-MS jokes never get old...sigh.
So a string walks into a bar right..FUCK THE WORLD!
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Of course, anarchy in the roads would be so much safer than regulations that, for the most part, simply encode sensible use. It would not be conducive to road rage at all, no sir. Road rage is obviously caused by the regulations, and not by the idiot going 10 mph in a motorway without yielding.
Seeing your example below, you advocate big spending (or do roundabouts and periodic exits grow on trees?) to accommodate the few bastards who can't drive properly.
In engineering, you'd also propose protocols, languag
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People go 40 the entire way. Starting in the 25. I don't understand it. They go 15 over, 15 under, 10 under, and 5 over. Which wouldn't be so bad, if the place where they want to speed weren't both speed TRAPS with townie cops who have nothing better t
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Stupid regulations are a different beast, and I'm not condoning them. I just happen to think that there are some of them that are useful.
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That is an interesting assertion but having lived in a culture and society where the vast majority of the population behave and think in the exact same way, I can attest to the efficacy of operating under unified regulations for traffic among other things.
I speak of Japan, of course. In the US and likely in other nations of european decent, we have a rather strong sense of individuality and our own way of doing things... and of course we also individually think we are right. I'm not here to say who is rig
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You realize what regulations do? They enforce not only speed limits (wouldn't want some idiot to go 160km/h in a residential area), they also enforce basic vehicle safety standards. Easy example: Parts that fall off or increase the danger for other people in a crash. If your car is so crappy that your trunk cover falls off that's a definite safety hazard and can very well end up killing people. Adorning your car with spikes is a terrible idea, especially if it's done on the front (that you get arrested afte
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I don't tailgate. Tailgaters are idiots who let their impatience sabotage their capacity to speed. Good speeders never tailgate, because they know it reduces their reaction time and maneuverability, increasing the likelihood that they will be forced to come to a stop.
Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents, dipshit. One of the things that gets created when you have a glut of rules is this sense of entitlement that you have
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Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents
[citation required]
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Aside from which, studies have shown that cultures without traffic laws have more efficient mobility and reduced accidents
[citation required]
"
On Slashdot? When since? ;-)
Though I would like to see those studies too...
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There were some really good ones I've read, but they were on government run sites and have been taken down. Here are some articles that indirectly support what I'm saying.
http://www.motorists.org/speedlimits/ [motorists.org]
http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5-studies-that-prove-it/ [motorists.org]
http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html [ibiblio.org]
Enjoy.
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And when leaving the roundabout, who has got priority? The car leaving it, or the one coming in? And anyway, right or left lane?
There will always be traffic rules, and they are damned necessary. If you allow people to drive around on the highway (or even on the German Autobahn), it will not only result in the loss of their lifes, but also in the threatening and propably loss of others'.
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The vehicle IN the roundabout has the right of way. In this case, the one leaving it, but if he's leaving it, there's no reason for the one entering it to wait. Unless, of course, you are appropriately paranoid and don't trust people who either use or don't use their turn signals.
And anyway, right or left lane?
Right or left lane what?
For the OP, roundabouts are not always the answer to four way stops. They
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Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
Uh.. I have driven in roundabouts and I'll take a stop sign any day of the week.
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I'll take only having to stop when there's traffic crossing your path to having to stop every freaking time any day of the week.
Yeah, a couple of hundred yards of stop-go traffic during busy periods when there's no cross-traffic at all... Excellent idea.
Get rid of most of the stop signs in the US and gas prices would drop appreciably.
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Can you think of an engineering alternative to the regulation that says everyone has to drive in the same direction on the same side of the road (the driver's right side in most countries)?
If not, then you lose the philosophical point.
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Never seen a one way street?
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Good engineering accommodates the errors and omissions of users. Bad engineering relies on laws and conventions to overcome inherent systemic flaws. Laws and conventions are, therefore, indicative of bad engineering."
Good engineering accommodates errors and omissions INSOFAR as it is practical/cost effective. Your solutions all require significantly more capital investment than the ones in existence now.
There is also a similar hazard in that relying on engineering to make something idiot proof allows the idiots to have a false sense of security, inevitably leading them to strive to newer, previously unimaginable heights of stupidity that the engineers hadn't even thought possible.
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
You do realise that if there are no traffic regulations, then people are free to drive straight over the roundabout, go the wrong way around it, or use it as a meeting place for a pimped-out-bouncy-suspension car convention?
Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:4, Insightful)
Two people arrive at a 4-way stop at right angles to each other. Who has the right of way? Regulation: The person to your right. Solution: Use a roundabout instead of a 4-way stop.
Yes because replacing every single 4 way intersection in a residential neighborhood would be so simple, or in a city. EVERY intersection within 6 blocks of me is a 4 way stop, in at congested, 200+ year old city with small houses and tiny streets. PREDATING automobiles. I find your solution laughable and your assertation regarding engineering proposterous given that the road was developed before the automobile.
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These rules you describe, they all revolve around you assuming that I'm going to behave in a particular fashion, and you being encouraged to believe that you have the right to expect and demand that I do.
Tell me, what assumptions are you making regarding using a round-a-bout and what behavior should you expect others to use when in them? You are proposing the same need for rules and regulations with a different form of intersection.
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Problem with solution: now instead of a relatively cheap and easy-to-navigate 4 way stop, you have two weeks of construction to put in a roundabout that will cost much more (even assuming none of the 4 property owners object to replacing significant portions of their property with roads).
So as to make the regulation uneeded, you'll have to replace all 4 way stops with a roundabout. I have no idea how many 4 way stops there are in whatever city you live in,
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Re:So much for the seeds of .... (Score:5, Funny)
Much like the shamwow, it's from Germany and you know those guys make good stuff.
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I second your last sentence.
Daring is a dying art. Someone - I forget who - said "Youth is wasted on the young."
Today I am thinking it is more of "youthfulness is suppressed in the young."
I want my kids to do things like this one day, and guide them rather than stop them completely.
Segway Competitor (Score:4, Funny)
Sure, you don't sit as highly as you stand but that's probably a good thing overall. Probably gets 200 MPG, too.
Re:Segway Competitor (Score:5, Interesting)
Finally.... (Score:2)
A use for all those leftover Aeron chairs from the Internet bubble.
I guess the race is off with this guy. (Score:2)
This guy's [megasaurus.com] got two jet engines on his. Wonder how they'd like a drag?
Rocket chair? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is the picture misleading (i.e. not the chair referred to in the article) or did they do something significantly more than put a lawnmower engine on it?
disconnect (Score:2, Insightful)
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German police have confiscated the world's fastest office chair and arrested its 17-year-old inventors.
Re:disconnect (Score:5, Informative)
FAIL!
The AP story does not contain the word "arrested" anywhere, it only says that the device was confiscated and the individuals were being investigated.
Re:disconnect (Score:5, Funny)
"The AP story does not contain the word "arrested" anywhere, it only says that the device was confiscated and the individuals were being investigated."
Well, you apparently read the story - there's your first problem...
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Outrageous!!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Does that picture match the story? (Score:2)
Not an "office chair" with a lawnmower engine.
I think people are just making stuff up.
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Well, you know, it's nice to have idle.slashdot.org as an outlet where all the editors can, in fact, editorialize and otherwise have fun with the articles, even if posting unrelated or misleading photos. The editors can get it out of their systems and keep the other articles they post factual, unbiased and objective. *grins*
Cue flamebait mods in 3..2..1..
Cause for pause (Score:2, Funny)
I hope this doesn't affect the funding from IKEA for my rocket propelled plastic lawn chair.
I'm calling it the Blstöv.
Maybe good in the straight (Score:2)
but I wouldn't trust it going into the Hammerhead or Chicago. ;)
*for those of us who Love Top Gear*
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yeah but I wonder what kind of time the Stig could set around the track?
Office chair? (Score:2)
How does one get a job where a recliner is considered an "office chair"?
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That is in case your job title starts with a (capital) C and ends with a (capital) O. This makes it more unlikely to get bedsores from sitting there until the next stock report.
Picture is wrong? (Score:2)
If the picture is accurate... talk about being in the hot seat?
Ridiculous photo accompanies article (Score:2)
...no lawnmower engine, no bicycle brakes, no revolving chair. What is going on, editors?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How I yearn for the days (Score:5, Insightful)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How I yearn for the days (Score:5, Insightful)
>And yet, somehow they got by.
Sure did, except your mom had 9 kids of which 5 survived into adulthood.
Good old days!
looks more like a... (Score:2)
http://images.google.com/images?&q=lazy%20boy%20recliner [google.com]
It Needs To Happen (Score:2)
"I look forward to it being profiled on Top Gear."
I look forward to the new specialty magazine, "Chair & Driver". There can be a professional circuit section, with souped up motorized wheel chairs, and a 'dirt track' stock chair section for vehicles like this. And just wait until Ky "Rocketman" Michaelson http://www.the-rocketman.com/ [the-rocketman.com] gets into it.
Oh wait, he has: http://www.the-rocketman.com/full-throttle.html [the-rocketman.com]
Seriously, this thing should fall under an unregulatable category, much like ultralight aircra
Why an office chair? (Score:2)
Why not a La-Z-Boy or other recliner?
Too much chance of falling asleep at the wheel?
Picture (Score:5, Informative)
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Why couldn't the editors use the actual vehicle? It actually looks pretty cool, the sensational jet engine photo just lowers the overall nerd factor. It also makes the story far more debatable, any chair with flames out the back will obviously be stopped by police in short order, but the engineered one you linked, much less likely.
Oh, right. This is idle.
Re:Ahh, the nanny state. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. They kept shooting potatoes at all the motorized office chairs.
now this is a great idea (Score:3, Funny)
Yes. They kept shooting potatoes at all the motorized office chairs.
And a new Olympic sport is born.
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I, for one, welcome our new potato gun banning overlo... oh wait... someone already did this one.
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So compressed air (or CO2) potato guns are fine?
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It'd probably BSOD before he could throw it.
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He probably will [hoveround.com], at some point.
Re:Images on front page (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe you should just get over it. It's just a little picture, what's the problem? Did an image kill your dog or something?
Re:Images on front page (Score:5, Funny)
Give him a break. It takes a very long time to download an image over a 300 baud modem.
And I suggest you stay off his lawn.
Re:Images on front page (Score:4, Funny)
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I found a workable solution. I went to my user preferences -> Index -> sections and set the Idle section to display only headlines.
Re:ACHTUNG! (Score:5, Funny)
Well you gotta nip that sort of youthful "creativity" in the butt.
Remember that German kid who wanted to become an architect? They let it slide, and the next thing you know, he was annexing Poland.
Re:ACHTUNG! (Score:4, Insightful)
He was austrian. You know, we are very precise and stuff over here.
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I guess we "Zeig"ed when it should have Zagged?