Eric Raymond and his wife Irena fly their Sunseeker Duo from the Aeroporto Voghera Rivanazzano near their home in Voghera, Italy. The Provincia di Pavia provides wonderful architectural and scenic backdrops for their flights, something captured briefly in a video they filmed last year for Skype and Microsoft. To Eric’s surprise, the commercial was finally released this month. The Raymonds and their collaborators are part of a larger advertising campaign for Skype and Microsoft, with their high-tech offerings complementing the wireless communications tools and the ad’s graphics. Eric and Irena, John Lynch, and Jason Rohr perform well for the cameras, but Eric had an extra challenge in the aerial filming. “I was flying in formation with a Phantom drone!” Microsoft also featured the team in a tutorial showing how to set up Skype meetings. Eric explained that, “John Lynch is one of my CAD designers, and master machinist. He made my nose gear, and is a specialist for propeller molds. …
Gogoro Batteries, Hydrogen Scooter Canisters – Energy Distribution in the Future?
One of the hits of the Consumer Electronics Show at Reno, Nevada this year was the Gogoro scooter, an electrical and electronics showcase for its designers and makers. The stylish two-wheeler, a svelte and quiet people mover, reminds one of the Vespa craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but does not belch a blue cloud or emit putta-putta (or papapapa as shown in the vintage commercial here) noises in its wake. Its clean white lines reflect the kind of look we’ve come to expect from modern devices such as laptops, game consoles or other electronic toys. That might be expected because of Horace Luke’s background as a product designer for HTC, Nike and Microsoft. To some extent, the Gogoro includes a full menu of thoroughly modern touches, from its wrap-around lights to its information displays. Luke and co-founder Matt Taylor started Gogoro initially to build electric scooters, but both have more products in mind and a fascinating scheme …