Inventor Dean Kamen takes his Segway for a spin. (NY Times photo)Now we know what IT is: Dean Kamen’s “Ginger” has been unveiled as the Segway Human Transporter, a two-wheeled scooter that looks a lot like those patent images that were floating around the web when speculation first started running wild. People generally seem to be underwhelmed even though it’s essentially what we thought it would be—a two-wheeled scooter that runs on battery power and not rocket fuel, that moves at a reasonable speed of about 17mph and not the speed of sound. Initial reactions to the iPod were similar (if on a smaller scale), because the much-hyped device suffered from being too accessible. Everyone’s seen scooters before—even self-powered models—but nothing like the Segway and its finely-tuned gyroscope navigation system which senses where the rider wants to go. Read the detailed article in Time to decide for yourself.
And while you’re visiting the AOL/Time Warner magazine empire, take one last look at the results of the Entertainment Weekly Entertainer of the Year poll. I guess they had a point when they disqualified Wil Wheaton (it really was a stretch), but while the voting was taking place it seemed like he was a lock to make the final Top 10. That’s why I started voting for Jack Black with a few days left, using what the magazine calls a “hacker’s trick”—nothing more than several browser windows running an onLoad/onUnLoad script. Votes for SomethingAwful.com’s Rich “Lowtax” Kyanka were thrown out because his fans did the same thing (on steroids, apparently), but since 2001 was legitimately JB’s year, EW.com let his eighth-place finish stand. It was all for nothing, though, since final voting will be left exclusively to AOL users. Congratulations, Britney.
