In the spirit of Nintendo’s NES mini and Super NES mini, Sony is releasing a tiny version of the Playstation. It’s a hundred bucks in December and it comes with Final Fantasy VII, what more do you want? While that’s marginally cool, check out the forums and comments of gaming blogs for some real entertainment — those damn kids won’t get off my lawn and are complaining the included controllers don’t have analog sticks.
This man has solved the range problem for electric cars. He hacked a Prius to run off the overhead wires for San Francisco’s Muni system. Yes, if you want something amazing, here it is. The pantograph/pole/whatever it’s called was acquired ‘somehow’, with the implication that it was stolen. The overhead lines are 600 V, and a Prius’ battery pack is usually 273 V; apparently he “uses up the excess power on a whole lot of resistors, full-time headlights, and a kick-ass stereo system.”. Dear lord, we need a real technical write-up for this one.
![](https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/twitch.png?w=400)
Humanity’s most impressive accomplishment to date is Twitch Plays Pokemon. This was a cooperative game of Pokemon, with thousands of people mashing buttons. Everyone (eventually) beat the Final Four, but the most impressive part was the Power Plant. We made it through the Power Plant, and we got Zapdos. I was there. It was incredible. Twitch Plays Pokemon has been reborn and rebranded several times, but this one might be good: Twitch Programs a Commodore 64. It’s a (virtual) C64 hooked up to Twitch. If there’s one person watching the channel, you can slowly type out a BASIC program one… character… at… a… time. If there’s more than one person watching, the entire ordeal devolves into the horrors of a democracy, but you might be able to get something done. Have fun.
Maybe Twitch can focus on a husband and wife working the TV remote? Co-op TV.
I thought it was interesting that the trolleybus wire guy can hack up a prius to use that as a power supply, but can’t figure out how to use a high-current buck converter to step down the voltage.
600V capable inverters are usually outside of what you can easily source…
The description says there’s a demoscene prod on the disk, but I can’t remember how to load programs any more!
WE DID IT!
https://i.imgur.com/IFkm33c.png
That story about the Prius is dated “Apr 1, 2014″…
Much to the disappointment of everyone who’s thought of the same thing.
I still think it’s possible, it would just take equipment more sophisticated than whatever that author dreamed up..
Yeah. I don’t know where the author got the numbers for Prius power consumption, but 273V/6.5A (e.g. 2.5HP) isn’t pushing a 3000 lb Prius anywhere. The electric motor puts out over 100HP, requiring more than 300A. If you really wanted to just use “a whole lot of resistors”, they’d have to be capable of dissipating ((600-273)*300=) 98,000 watts. Good thing he’s got that kick-ass stereo to help out.
The whole story reeks of sarcasm and bs. The guy siphoned off the extra voltage with “a bunch of resistors, constant headlights, and a bitching stereo system.” Yeah and the car couldn’t be around during the interview, the batteries die a few miles after he leaves the rails. Nothing suspicious here.
I just can’t tell if its lazy writing or benchoff trolling for trolls. Probably the latter.
As the comment you’re replying to says, the story is dated April 1st. Get the hint already.
It is perfectly ordinary for an April Fools story to include some totally implausible claims. You’re supposed to eventually realize “Wait, there’s no way that’s possible… Oh, April Fools”
I think Benchoff got owned by a 4 year old April fools joke.
I do think there needs to be a new power bus standard called “the Trolleybus”, but some English dude will just call it out as a Tram.
I bet that Prius owner is going to be in trouble as soon as the city council can pass new laws making it illegal for anything other than city vehicles to hook up to the wires.
No good in Toronto, we only have Streetcars and not Trolley Busses, not enough wires.