# Is It Bigger Than A Bread Box? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 10, 2001, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266 "2001-01-10T02:33:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JDM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@JDM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDM)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2001, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/21 "2001-01-11T21:13:24Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Freedom2 \* \*\* > [@](#): > > Some other ideas I have seen out there: > > Sex aide:) > > \*\* Well, the article on CNN (I think) today said this: quote According to Dean Kamen, the inventor of “Ginger,” his device will be an alternative to products that “are dirty, expensive, sometimes dangerous and often frustrating, especially for people in the cities.” JDM ---
**Author:** ![suziek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@suziek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suziek)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/22 "2001-01-12T02:35:21Z")
I wonder if it has something to do with waste? If we could eliminate waste, esp in big cities, we would eliminate a huge source of income for the NY mafia and pollution, all in one fell swoop. No more worrying about making bio-degradable products, or recycling. No more loud, ugly, noisy, garbage trucks! No more punks going through your garbage trying to get your credit card numbers, or Inquirer reporters diving through your coffee grounds for a scoop(depending on who you are). I was hoping for cold fusion first through. Too bad. Except, in Back to the Future they used garbage for fuel. Oh my god!!! ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/23 "2001-01-12T02:53:49Z")
I think tracer’s got it. It fits all the criteria, including the need to retrofit cities. I’d almost place a bet, but how would I collect from you guys? ---
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/24 "2001-01-12T03:10:20Z")
[slightly off-topic, but referring to the subject of the thread anyway] Just how big IS a bread box anyway?[/slightly off-topic, but referring to the subject of the thread anyway] ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/25 "2001-01-12T04:20:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Darqangelle \* > \*\*[slightly off-topic, but referring to the subject of the thread anyway] Just how big IS a bread box anyway?[/slightly off-topic, but referring to the subject of the thread anyway] > \*\* Slightly larger than a loaf of bread, of course. I realise that this assumes a bread-loaf size-standard, but maybe this will all come out with **IT**. My guess is that **IT** has to be something like an electric car-motor that’s cheaper both to run and buy than a petrol-powered motor. Somehow I cannot see all these captains of industry wetting their pants over a _scooter_. ---
**Author:** ![Freedom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Freedom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freedom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/26 "2001-01-12T15:44:06Z")
Another article about **IT** : [Ginger: The Wheel Thing? Gadget Is Rumored to Be A High-Tech Unicycle](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49849-2001Jan11.html) > [@](#): > > Those smart miniaturized gyroscopes would presumably be at the heart of a Ginger machine that could whisk people magically through cities at high speed while never being a parking problem. (Maybe when you step off Ginger, it will fold itself up into something the size of a briefcase? Maybe you can then instruct the briefcase to follow you like a puppy?) > [@](#): > > And replacing the automobile will not be easy. Where would you put your CD player on Ginger? Where would you put your beer? What about the teenage market – people who see transportation devices as a means to make out? These are all difficulties that need to be ironed out. (Two teenagers getting to know each other standing up at high speed could actually be pretty awesome.) I won’t be impressed if it is a high speed scooter. I guess it would be cool for teen-agers, until we require licenses and then raise the age so only adults can have them anyway. I’m all set for a letdown on this one. (I really want to fly:)) ---
**Author:** ![Sxyzzx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sxyzzx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sxyzzx)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/27 "2001-01-12T22:50:10Z")
The Smoking Gun has posted the WIPO patent with diagrams at [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/doc\_o\_day/kamen1.shtml](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/doc_o_day/kamen1.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Freedom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Freedom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freedom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/28 "2001-01-12T23:17:50Z")
I kinda got the impression that it wasn’t patented. Otherwise he wouldn’t be worried about other corporations leap-frogging him. Could be wrong though. (sure hope it isn’t that damned scooter) ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/29 "2001-01-13T00:13:18Z")
So when exactly do we find out what IT is? I don’t know how reliable my sources are, but I heard May 33 :D. ---
**Author:** ![Freedom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Freedom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freedom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/30 "2001-01-13T15:56:53Z")
From the first link:) > [@](#): > > IT/Ginger won’t be revealed until 2002, the proposal says. When I went looking for that, I re-read the original article. No way this can be that stupid friggin scooter. > [@](#): > > Doerr also says, a touch ominously, that he had been sure that he wouldn’t see the development of anything in his lifetime as important as the World Wide Web – until he saw IT. No way a scooter beats the web. If this is a scooter, I hope they take these guys out to the wood shed and beat them for a week:) ---
**Author:** ![Freedom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Freedom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freedom)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/31 "2001-01-15T17:23:13Z")
[http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010114/tc/ginger\_dc\_9.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010114/tc/ginger_dc_9.html) > [@](#): > > NEW YORK (Reuters) - The inventor who has been the subject of a frenzy of speculation over a new gadget said to be more important than the Internet has stepped forward to deny that he has any such ``Earth-shattering’’ project in the works. > > ``We have a promising project, but nothing of the Earth-shattering nature that people are conjuring up,’’ Dean Kamen, president of Manchester, New Hampshire-based DEKA Research, said in a statement referring to one of his forthcoming inventions. Sorry to dig this one back up, but I thought I should throw one last bucket of cold water on it before this thread finally died. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2001, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266/32 "2001-01-15T23:31:12Z")
Ah. So it isn’t Dean Kamen himself who’s saying it’ll be “bigger than the Internet,” it’s people like Steve Jobs who are saying that. Which isn’t surprising. Steve Jobs basically said the same thing about the NeXT workstation – and now, here we are, a decade-and-a-half later, and there’s a NeXT workstation on every desktop. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bigger-than-a-bread-box/49266.md?page=1)