Scammer impersonating Elon Musk

 Beware!

Dall-E3 created image

I recently received a private message from Elon Musk in my twitter (X) account. I confess, I felt good. However, I was skeptical because why would a multi-billionaire send a message. Has he no one else to correspond with?

Here are some screenshots on that day (about 2 days ago).

I humored him along to see where that would take me. Then he spoke about the enormous amount of money that he has made and going to make with a new Mining company of his. "Have you looked into investing in Bitcoin", etc. It did not smell good. I terminated the conversation.

It even got better. Then he sent a 0.06Sec voice mail. I ignored.

Today, another Musk (I don't know how many of them are walking around) became my follower and sent another message. This is getting comical and silly.

Well, I may not be the only person on the Internet who is subjected to this nonsense. Take care! I don't believe, he will be sending any message, especially now that he has to think about another $56 billion.

Toyota's hydrogen powered car is no 'fool's' technology

Not long ago some one from the all electrical vehicle technology quipped playing on the word 'fuel cell' that Toyota is pursuing a foolish path in its development of hydrogen powered car.

Older posts here:

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/battery-powered-car-is-history.html
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/07/toyota-fchv-concept-vehicle.html

Now it even has a name. Well here is the car and Toyota is trippling its investment.

More details here:
http://hodentekplus.blogspot.com/2014/12/toyotas-hydrogen-powered-car-coming-to.html

 

Hyperloop is doable, but...

PayPal (EBAY)
Tesla (TSLA)
SpaceX (Private)
SolarCity (SCTY)

and now Hyperloop.

http://www.spacex.com/Hyperloop
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf

Could it be the next disruptive technology",  is it doable?
Well the possibility of a system was demonstrated even as far back as 1867.
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beach/chapter2.html

Since that time we have come a long way in technology, power, electrical machines; superconductivity; solar energy etc. It stands to reason that it is doable but would require enormous investment. Elon has tons of cash and should be able to pull off. His resume is par excellence. The fact that he has in-house capability in many of the required technologies (aerodynamics, electrical propulsion; storage batteries) makes it lot more doable.

There are technical challenges which start off from basic physical limitations and range across several material science related issues. Several of these have been discussed in the pdf document above.

I will be looking forward to see some more details after this initial proposal and perhaps a working model of modest track length. Of course, the economic aspects of it will be lot more interesting.  What provisions would be there for a breakdown event in the 'middle' of the tube?  

The group I worked with at Northrop Grumman's Advanced Research Center at Princeton in NJ and Bethpage, NY did work on a MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) based design and came up with a proof of principles proposal which unfortunately did not get funded. That was back in late 70's.

I would like to thank my friend and colleague, Dr. Michael Foster Reusch for sharing some of the thoughts and the links.

Interested, contact hyperloop@spacex.com