Joe Dominguez’ and Vicki Robin’s Your Money or Your Life is
a good read; their basic premise is that life is too valuable to spend it
earning money. I haven’t had a paycheck since the ‘70s, so maybe that qualifies me
as retired.
>I suggest running with the "open source" thing
and just doing whatever it is you want to do
Yep, that’s what I do, all right. Right now what I want to
do is support Open Source Ecology. I may not be a True Fan, but I am a True
Believer.
>Hell, maybe somebody will design a car and document the
process, and the knowledge gleaned from that experience can be used by whoever
marcin wants to use to engineer GVCS.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=1500&tag=MAX
I hope that experience can be used by whoever Marcin chooses next to manage the OS
Car project. I never heard from the Project Manager who's listed in the wiki, but he seems to have been
inactive since April 2011 so maybe there's someone else waiting in the wings.
>Just get out and do it, people! There's no reason to
wait for anybody's permission.
Depends on what “it” is. I’ve offered to design and build
Marcin an OS Car prototype to GVCS specs, but the car specs on the wiki are all
over the place. On one page it gets 100+ mpg, on another page it’s a leaning trike, on another page it’s driven by a
modern steam Power Cube, but the steam
engine specs are all over the place too and one target is a 3' x 3' x
4' Steam Power Cube…and where do you put that in a tandem trike and retain “The two
main benefits of the reverse trike design are lower cost and weight due to one
less wheel, and lower wind drag due to the rain drop shape of the body.”? Since
“it” is the car that Marcin wants, Marcin needs to define it before I “Just
get out and do it, people!”. I don’t need permission, but I’m not going to
spend 500 hours and fifteen grand building what I hope will satisfy Marcin
enough that he’ll pay me back for the parts.
I’ve more to say, but I await a response from Marcin re my
latest pitch, and it wouldn’t take much to Better Harness My Enthusiasm and get me off the grumpwagon. I'd rather talk about what's working, management-wise, than grouse about what's not.
How about we work together to refine the OS car requirements. It's been reinforced from several sources, at least one of which was Marcin, that while OSE is building a traditional hierarchical organization a key goal is still to not "own" the GVCS. They want it to be shaped by anyone interested in contributing.
The current shape of the GVCS is a scientific wild-ass guess, and that's being charitable. It covers far too large a group of disciplines for a couple people to clearly and coherently define all the requirements ahead of time.
I've never built my own car. Marcin's never built his own car. Practical high-mileage cars barely even exist as a thing. You are a high-mileage DIY car expert...at least as much of an expert as seems to be actively interested in the project. From my perspective, that makes your opinion on the OS car's specs more valid than anyone else's.
The wiki was specifically chosen because it's a group knowledge platform. Anyone who has something to contribute can contribute it. We don't even have to change what's already there. Just edit the main OS car page to direct people to Jack McCornack's definition of what the OS car should be and then work on that page. I guarantee your design will make far more sense than what's up on the wiki now, but the group can't agree on that, and use your definition, until it exists.
I'd like to work with you on it because I'm working on defining the modular building blocks for the whole spectrum of vehicles, from a 1-person car to a telehandler. Wikispeed is a great example of the benefits of designing a mehicle with modular components. I suggest we just start with a discussion and see if we can reach any kind of consensus.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!