Broken Kode

Always start with a name. A good name.

We have planes, trains, automobiles and boats. What if there was a fifth mode. I have a name for it, called the Hyperloop.
- Elon Musk

Hyperloop.

Imagine a world where travelling from San Francisco to Los Angeles takes less than 30 minutes. A method of transportation which is meant to be 4 times as fast as a train, and 2 times as fast as a plane. Now imagine this method of transport is available to you as soon as you arrive - no waiting for everyone else to get there. That’s the future that Elon Musk is proposing with his hypothetical high-speed transportation system. Details for this system are extremely thin on the ground. In fact, apart from the name and a few choice quotes (by Musk himself) nothing substantial has been published or released about the concept ¹.

The first time Hyperloop was discussed was in this interview on Pandodaily, with Sarah Lacy. Based on the little that has been shared, one might think that Musk’s idea will be akin to something like the ‘tube’ transportation system in Futurama or The Jetsons. Many of the ideas (commercial space travel, commercial electric cars) that Musk discusses could have been taken straight out of science fiction novels. The reason you should take these ideas seriously, is because he makes those ideas a reality.

Musk’s idea doesn’t appear to be completely unique (as opposed to the science fictious world). Joelle Renstrom, (who teachs at Boston University) has a good breakdown of the realities of this technology. One such reality is the Aeromovel. The other is the Evacuated Tube Transport a system that has been proposed by the ET3 consortium. The main question is therefore how does his proposed system differ.

As if the potential of this idea wasn’t intriguing enough; the way that Musk’s idea could become a reality is equally as intriguing.

I’m considering just open-sourcing. Describing the idea, saying this is what would be done, if someone wants to do it then they could do it. Maybe I should patent it and open-source the patent to anyone who can make a credible case that they can do it.
- Elon Musk

I think it’s safe to acknowledge that Elon Musk sees the world in a different way to most people. Probably one of the best articles I’ve read about him, is unsurprisingly on Bloomberg. Between commercial space travel, electric cars and pneumatic transportation, he is building the future that we were expecting. The future we dreamed we would be living in, when we got older.

Sometimes the answer is staring you in the face and you’re not even aware of it.

One of the biggest problems I’ve faced when trying to maintain a steady stream of writing that is engaging and relevant, was an obvious lack of focal point. My website was a personal playground. This lack of focus affected those reading my site and my own enthusiasm for writing

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking.
The right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks.
- Kendra Cherry

By profession I am a Chartered Engineer. I solve problems for a living, using numbers and logic. At night, I moonlight as an artist (of comics and illustration) and designer (of websites and applications).

I spend my life trying to strike a balance between the left side of my brain and the right side of my brain. The writing on this site will therefore reflect this balance as I will be writing about all forms of Art and Engineering.

I started Broken Kode (back in 2004), it was a way to record my journey to getting published as a comic book artist. What I hadn’t anticipated is that the website itself opened up many other doors and the initial reason for the website slowly faded. Instead I discovered the worlds of graphic design, web design, typography and technology. I met people from around the world. I worked on projects with people from around the world.

The only constant is change
- Heraclitus

The internet landscape is vastly different than when I established a presence here in 2004. The site’s focus has meandered these last few years. This can be attributed to the rise of social internet (Facebook and Twitter), major changes in my life (moving to the Middle East and then subsequently getting married) and finally my lack of embracing new technologies and how to use them.

My shift to Tumblr is obviously a calculated one. To my mind the Tumblr iOS team has been killing it recently and have created an impeccable app (you can currently see it showcased on the Apple website) - so I hope that the rest of the Tumblr team see this as a challenge and continue to develop the core site features just as strongly. The main reason for my shift however is for me to stop thinking about the software that runs the site and concentrate on the writing itself, something I’ve not done in many years.