Steve Wozniak Shares a Video About His New Space Startup (twitter.com) 80
Tonight 71-year-old Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak tweeted ten words: "A Private space company is starting up, unlike the others."
The tweet also included the URL for a new video just uploaded tonight to YouTube about a company called Privateer.
"Together we'll go far," says the narrator, later offering these thoughts on the people of our planet. "We are explorers. We are dreamers, risk-takers, engineers, and star gazers. We are human. And it's up to us to work together to do what is right and what is good."
The video's tagline? "The sky is no longer the limit.
The same tagline appears at Privateer.com, followed by two short sentences. "We are in stealth mode. We'll see you at AMOS in September 2021 in Maui, Hawaii." (With AMOS apparently, being the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference running from this Tuesday through Friday.)
There's very little information about the company — although last month a 3D printing site reported Wozniak's company appeared to be using a printer for high-strength titanium — and suggested the company might have something to do with cleaning up space junk.
The tweet also included the URL for a new video just uploaded tonight to YouTube about a company called Privateer.
"Together we'll go far," says the narrator, later offering these thoughts on the people of our planet. "We are explorers. We are dreamers, risk-takers, engineers, and star gazers. We are human. And it's up to us to work together to do what is right and what is good."
The video's tagline? "The sky is no longer the limit.
The same tagline appears at Privateer.com, followed by two short sentences. "We are in stealth mode. We'll see you at AMOS in September 2021 in Maui, Hawaii." (With AMOS apparently, being the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference running from this Tuesday through Friday.)
There's very little information about the company — although last month a 3D printing site reported Wozniak's company appeared to be using a printer for high-strength titanium — and suggested the company might have something to do with cleaning up space junk.
Deja Vu (Score:5, Funny)
Tonight 71-year-old Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak tweeted ten words: "A Private space company is starting up, unlike the others."
The tweet also included the URL for a new video just uploaded tonight to YouTube about a company called Privateer.
Now all it needs is a runner throwing a hammer at a video screen of big brother.
Re:Deja Vu (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing was never Woz's forte. He's an engineer. If the message comes directly from him, expect it to be honest, dry, and complete. If you see flashy videos and suspenseful withholding of information, that's more than likely cruft from the marketing department.
Re:Deja Vu (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep. I've tended to detest most of the players in the private spacerace as people (I dig spaceX, not so much Elon). But Woz is a genuine good guy. He tapped out of day-to-day Apple, despite Job's offer to have him side by side steering apple simply because he just didnt like Job's corporate shark thing. Woz I think genuinely wants tech to make the world better. We'd be in much safer hands if Woz was guiding the space race than we are in Musk or Bezos' hands
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He tapped out of day-to-day Apple, despite Job's offer to have him side by side steering apple simply because he just didnt like Job's corporate shark thing. Woz I think genuinely wants tech to make the world better. We'd be in much safer hands if Woz was guiding the space race than we are in Musk or Bezos' hands
Woz abdicated responsibility to Jobs who made Apple the corporate shark it is today, why should we think he'll stay the course and guide this corporation in the right direction?
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We'd be in much safer hands if Woz was guiding the space race than we are in Musk or Bezos' hands
Based on what? That he invented some user-friendly consumer electronics decades ago?
Is there something in that resume that says "plasma physics" or "mass-scale industrial engineering" to you?
Also, not sure why you're bringing up Bezos. Nobody but his own lawyers takes him seriously on space.
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Shit, his company is doomed then.
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Tim Cook?
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I misread your comment.
Why would anyone want to throw a hamster at his big brother?
However, I think it makes as much sense as "private" space companies. NASA used private companies in the old days, but the objectives were less selfish and sometimes even a bit farsighted. Or is the Woz actually planning to send out a probe like the the Voyagers?
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Why would anyone want to throw a hamster at his big brother?
Perhaps he smelled of elderberries.
The sad part is (Score:2, Insightful)
probably every VC in the Valley is licking their chops to write him a check, just on the strength of this announcement, which actually hasn't announced anything.
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Probably true, indeed. What will be more interesting is if they elect to deny major upfront VC investment and opt to prefer small-scale independent investors instead. Maybe even jump onto an SPAC to get fast-track listed on the stock market and open themselves up to all manner of investors.
Clearly I'm speculating, but one can hope to thinkBig
Re: (Score:2)
how is that sad? Steve has accomplished things in life, not like giving money to a con man and some pimple faced kids with a bright idea. Nonzero chance whatever his idea is it will be worth something.
Re:The sad part is (Score:4, Interesting)
probably every VC in the Valley is licking their chops to write him a check
I don't think so. VCs have mostly avoided investing in space companies.
SpaceX got some late-stage funding this year after they had a track record of successful launches. But others rely on rich owners to pay the bills. Woz has a net worth of about $100M, which is way too little to fund a space company.
SpaceX is the only one with a viable path to profitability.
Re: (Score:2)
SpaceX got some late-stage funding this year after they had a track record of successful launches.
SpaceX has had a series of successful funding raises over the years. They have several silent partners, most of which have not been publicly disclosed. Rumor has it the original two Google guys are significant investors.
I'll track it... (Score:4, Informative)
Not sure what I get out of "staying informed", but I signed up to be on the mailing list, we'll see what they come out with...
Small bug in the sign-up form if anyone from Privateer is reading; the form submission on Safari is broken as even after you fill in a first name it thinks the field is empty and will not let you submit. I had to use Firefox to register if you doubt the depths of my interest.
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Actually, I just signed up via Brave/Chrome by removing the value from the First name field. I received a "success":true," response from their server by doing so. Seems they have a bug within the form validation.
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Small bug in the sign-up form if anyone from Privateer is reading...even after you fill in a first name it thinks the field is empty and will not let you submit.
I found the same problem. I'll take that as a sign of the quality and seriousness of the organization. If you basically have a static website, with one little interactive form, you might expect it to actually work. One might expect better from Woz, but maybe someone is just paying for the use of his name...
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I'll take that as a sign of the quality and seriousness of the organization.
I have to admit such a glaring error did kind of make me wonder about the robustness of what they were building... or maybe the old saying will have to be revised from "Well it ain't Rocket Science" to "Well it aint' HTML Form Development".
I like it (Score:5, Informative)
We need 100% re-usable rockets for point-to-point travel on earth and into space. The more companies, the better. Interesting that the AMOS conference is in Maui, considering Hawaii allowed a small minority of anti-science people block the Thirty-Meter Telescope. Not sure how Hawaii got tricked into believing that a majority of native Hawaiians .. who descend from people who navigated by stars wouldn't want to see what's out there deep in the heavens.
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Well, maybe you don't need it? I and certainly others do. You can stay in whatever town you were born at, some of us want to explore different places and not to mention, most importantly, separate from the likes of you.
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No, you do not. You need to accept that some things aren't going to happen as fast as you want them to because there are negative repercussions to doing so. But then again, it's obvious that you're trolling. Your recent posting history is full of same.
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Which is what Starship is going to be. Assuming, of course, that it works as designed.
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We need 100% re-usable rockets for point-to-point travel on earth and into space. The more companies, the better. Interesting that the AMOS conference is in Maui, considering Hawaii allowed a small minority of anti-science people block the Thirty-Meter Telescope. Not sure how Hawaii got tricked into believing that a majority of native Hawaiians .. who descend from people who navigated by stars wouldn't want to see what's out there deep in the heavens.
Correction:
They were native Hawaiians that were protesting the building of telescopes on their sacred lands.
Unfortunately Haleakala is one of the best spots on Earth for large telescopes.
They were not anti-space.
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The 30 Meter Telescopes protests center around Maura Loa on the Big Island and not Haleakala on Maui.
Maura Loa is both higher and more isolated than Haleakala making it the preferred telescope location.
Re: I like it (Score:1)
Not sure how Hawaii got tricked into believing that a majority of native Hawaiians...
The Mokes got tired of the Haolies gentrifying everything; it has nothing to do with stars.
point-to-point and ICBMs (Re:I like it) (Score:1)
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You can make the same argument for a 747 jet, which can easily carry a nuke too. In fact, jets are harder to track.
That's why you publish a flight plan and take off from a known spaceport.
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Why can't they send one using a published flight plan? Every major city has an airport next to it.
Ugh (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be nice if things like "stealth mode" where you loudly proclaim you're doing something awesome but won't tell anyone the details would go away.
Remember Segway?
Re:Ugh (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, the Segway was revolutionary. In fact, I'm planning to move to one of those cities where they decided cars were obsolete and thus redesigned the entire city around the Segway. Those cities must be really popular, though, because no matter how hard I look I can never find any real estate listings there.
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Segway got replaced by Lime and Bird scooters.
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It would be nice if things like "stealth mode" where you loudly proclaim you're doing something awesome but won't tell anyone the details would go away.
Remember Segway?
Ginger. Who was some sort of "It."
It would have been great, if they had wanted to make models for the middle class instead of just for the rich, and they hadn't used patents to prevent the form factor from becoming popular.
It's kindof like, why don't you see the same inventor's disabled mobility inventions more often? Oh, because they're expensive and were over-patented and under-licensed.
Code? (Score:5, Interesting)
The video has a code at the bottom of the info section:
MB018YM6JVA8FPP
What is this? It looks like a VIN (it's not). It's obviously not Hex. Discount code for AMOS registration? No context is given.
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen codes like this on other videos in the past. IIRC it's something to do with the music licensing, so that the video doesn't get flagged by Content ID. But I'm having trouble finding other examples of this or any documentation on it, so take this with a grain of salt.
Prior art (Score:5, Interesting)
"There's very little information about the company — although last month a 3D printing site reported Wozniak's company appeared to be using a printer for high-strength titanium — and suggested the company might have something to do with cleaning up space junk."
Another famous old guy was working on this 40 years ago [imdb.com].
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You may be onto something there -- I guess we'll find out between Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully Woz would comment, though he hasn't been on slashdot for a long time.
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though he hasn't been on slashdot for a long time.
So, you mean he just recently discovered Slashdot? Wow! :)
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The space junk issue is getting worse, with very large constellations like Starlink being launched.
When it was only a few hundred of thousand satellites total they could just be de-orbited without much thought, burning up in the atmosphere. Now we also need to worry about emissions when they burn up, because there are so many and they have 5 year lifespans so need regular replacement.
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Now we also need to worry about emissions when they burn up,
I think cows produce much more emissions to worry about! xd
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Cows are much tastier than satellites, though. However they're not as crunchy.
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Gosh, as a kid I loved that show, thanks for the trip down memory lane :-)
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you Poor Asian Shemales
Psshaw. I'm a russian bot with delusions of Drúedainism.
net worth? (Score:1)
A quick Google search says the Woz is worth $100M... so I assume someone else is bankrolling this
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A quick Google search says the Woz is worth $100M... so I assume someone else is bankrolling this
A guy like him? All he has to do is put the idea out there and people will throw money at him. I've worked for guys like that. Even after they fail. Another guy will throw money at them. The Woz isn't just another guy. He has a lot of accomplishments.
Wheels of Zeus (Score:3)
How does the old saying go? (Score:2)
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*laughs in sun's gravitational well*
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I suppose it depends on your definition of gravity well. From my limited physics knowledge, I would expect that the whole solar system is in the sun's gravity well.
It appears based on the definition provided on this site that I am correct:
https://www.qrg.northwestern.e... [northwestern.edu]
Everything orbiting the sun falls into its gravity well, as that is literally why things orbit instead of fly off into space.
Re: How does the old saying go? (Score:1)
Everything orbiting the sun falls into its gravity well, as that is literally why things orbit instead of fly off into space.
Objects in [stable] orbits are most certainly not falling into their parent bodies' gravity wells.
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*laughs in sun's gravitational well*
Please point to me where BAReFO0t said fall? Even you didn't say fall. Everything in a stable orbit, is by definition in the gravity well of the orbited body, or else they would not be in orbit.
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If you would prefer, I meant fall as in exists, or fits, not as in falling.
Oprah: (Score:1)
You get a space startup! And *you* get a space startup?
Every. body. gets. a. space. startup!!
Seems like a gimmick (Score:2)
Is there really money in cleaning up space junk? Or is the idea to suck up a bunch of investment by scaring people into being worried about space junk, and then if it happens, you're the first mover?
The future (Score:2)
I am talking the 2030s .. the 2030s will be all about VR and Space. That is assuming we don't fight each other.
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If these are the only choices... what would the fight look like?
Codename: Elysium (Score:3)
Not a great name (Score:3)
a company called Privateer.
Privateers were state-sponsored pirates. Or "brave explorers" depending on which nation was doing the describing - and of whom.
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Came here to say this... perhaps the plan is to mine LEO for copper, gold, and other valuable resources?
Let me say it first (Score:2)
"The tweet also included the URL for a new video just uploaded tonight to YouTube about a company called Privateer."
Aaaargh!
Odd name, or is it? (Score:2)
Dear Woz (Score:1)