Are You Falling for the G-Force Indicator Marketing Hype?

  • Thread starter Ivan Seeking
  • Start date
In summary, the conversation is about a product called the G-Force indicator, advertised to prevent "G-Face." The product is a joke, featuring a smiley with a "g-face" and is essentially a bubble level that measures lateral g-forces in a car. Some people may find it useful, but others think it is a pointless purchase. There is also discussion about the security of the website selling the product and the effectiveness of HTTPS in protecting against attacks. Overall, the conversation is mostly humorous and light-hearted.
  • #1
Ivan Seeking
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G-Force indicator to prevent "G-Face" :rofl:
http://www.motormate.com/gwhiz/index.php [Broken]

They are really selling these!
 
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  • #2
:rofl: I'm trying to figure out what it is from that picture. Does it look to you like just a bubble level? :rofl: Oh, wait, look, I think this smiley has g-face! ---> :rolleyes:
 
  • #3
I don't get it... what is it supposed to be?

*sigh* I'm just too "Smart" to get these things arn't I? :frown:
 
  • #4
On the first order page, there was no lock sign in the bottom right. Which means your information isn't secure, no encryption in any form. When will they ever learn. And no I wasn't going to order one.
 
  • #5
The_Professional said:
On the first order page, there was no lock sign in the bottom right. Which means your information isn't secure, no encryption in any form. When will they ever learn. And no I wasn't going to order one.

The only thing the "lock sign" (HTTPS) protects you from is attacks utilizing your own local network. If someone has access to your network (or computer, via a trojan) they can sniff out the information you send, but if you're using a reliable ISP, once it reaches them, you don't have anything to worry about. Unless, of course, there's a problem at the other end, on the server's network, which HTTPS won't hardly do any good protecting you from anyway.
 
  • #6
Is it supposed to be some kind of accelerometer? I can't figure out how it would work - from the picture it looks like it has some kind of fluid in a curved tube (?). Any ideas?
 
  • #7
εllipse said:
The only thing the "lock sign" (HTTPS) protects you from is attacks utilizing your own local network. If someone has access to your network (or computer, via a trojan) they can sniff out the information you send, but if you're using a reliable ISP, once it reaches them, you don't have anything to worry about. Unless, of course, there's a problem at the other end, on the server's network, which HTTPS won't hardly do any good protecting you from anyway.
Minor quibble: this is incorrect. HTTPS is a secure cryptographic protocol between two computers -- yours and the server. Your local network and ISP have absolutely nothing to do with it, nor does the local network of the server. Unless your computer is compromised, or the server is compromised, your data is secure.

- Warren
 
  • #8
chroot said:
Minor quibble: this is incorrect. HTTPS is a secure cryptographic protocol between two computers -- yours and the server. Your local network and ISP have absolutely nothing to do with it, nor does the local network of the server. Unless your computer is compromised, or the server is compromised, your data is secure.

- Warren

You didn't understand what I was saying. I didn't say your local network or ISP have anything to do with HTTPS; what I said was that all HTTPS protects against is attacks aimed at sniffing packets through your local network.
 
  • #9
What about you avatar, Ivan!It's not one of them! :wink:
 
  • #10
Smurf said:
I don't get it... what is it supposed to be?
Its an accelerometer and I'm sure it really works, but the ad is a joke (gee, that's never happened before, has it?). I think its a neat idea.

Yes, its a fluid in a curved tube just like a level. Hang it upright and the force of gravity will move the bubble in either direction.
 
  • #11
It started for a ad for the Mini Cooper car, which was in my book a pretty lame ad, showing grimice like faces after turning a corner fast.
 
  • #12
hypatia said:
It started for a ad for the Mini Cooper car, which was in my book a pretty lame ad, showing grimice like faces after turning a corner fast.
Yeah, I'm not saying its a good ad (like those "help prevent taste loss" beer commercials :rolleyes: ), but I could see Fast 'n Furious car freaks buying something like this. Lateral g-forces are, after all, tested by car magazines.
 
  • #13
russ_watters said:
Yes, its a fluid in a curved tube just like a level. Hang it upright and the force of gravity will move the bubble in either direction.
It's not gravity that moves the bubble, it's centrifugal force* in a tight turn. The device is meant to measure G's in a turn.



(*yeah, yeah, I know CF doesn't really exist, it's actually inertia, but in this case, for all intents and purposes, it does exist.)
 
  • #14
I see, so it is just a bubble level, you just mount it differently than it's shown in the picture. :rofl:
 
  • #15
russ_watters said:
but I could see Fast 'n Furious car freaks buying something like this. Lateral g-forces are, after all, tested by car magazines.

Yes, there are a few people who might actually use it while breaking the law and possibly endangering other people. :rolleyes: I mean, I would have used it! But you know most people will buy this, stick it on, and forget all about it before the credit card bill is even paid. But for serious car freaks who enjoy a good 0.8g now and again, instead of watching the road, it would be fun to watch the Gwhiz while negotiating a 25mph turn at 50 mph. :biggrin:
 
  • #16
εllipse said:
You didn't understand what I was saying. I didn't say your local network or ISP have anything to do with HTTPS; what I said was that all HTTPS protects against is attacks aimed at sniffing packets through your local network.
This is not true. HTTPS protects against any kind of sniffing attacks, regardless of where they occur. Why on Earth would it matter -where- an attacker gets access to the packets anyway?

- Warren
 
  • #17
It's a matter of being practical. Your packets don't just float around the internet. They take definite routes (and before you try to correct me here, let me be clear that of course different packets often take different routes) from your computer to the server. You'd have to be pretty paranoid to worry about HTTP packets being intercepted once once they reach your ISP.

My point was HTTPS isn't really that big of a deal, and I'd worry much more about whether sites that you give information to have the ability to keep that information secure with or without HTTPS. If Apple didn't use HTTPS, I'd still feel safe because I know my computer and local network are safe and I know Apple is safe, so I wouldn't just not give them my information on the basis of them not having HTTPS. If, however, some 3rd rate site did use HTTPS, I'd steel feel insecure about giving them my information.
 
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  • #18
You are correct that the most common kind of information theft occurs at the server itself, not as the information is transmitted over the internet. You should indeed worry more about the people at the other end of the network cable than the network cable itself. That said, your description of how https works, and the protection it affords, was woefully inaccurate.

- Warren
 
  • #19
DaveC426913 said:
It's not gravity that moves the bubble, it's centrifugal force* in a tight turn. The device is meant to measure G's in a turn.
Sorry, I got to thinking about a ship's clinometer... Same device, different purpose.
 
  • #20
Ivan Seeking said:
G-Force indicator to prevent "G-Face" :rofl:
http://www.motormate.com/gwhiz/index.php [Broken]

They are really selling these!

Reminds me of the ball and tube from a turn-and-slip indicator. (An instrument used to coordinate turns with an Aircraft.)
 
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  • #21
laundry balls

Check this one out.

http://www.lifenatural.com/laundry-detergents-alternatives-how-do.htm
 
  • #22
I saw a commercial for this stupid thing the other day!
 
  • #23
there's one that is a grip for the handle above the car door. because when you turn & hold that handle, your hand supposedly get's damaged. (burns, crap like that) so they sell a grip to make it feel better. I know they have a site, I just don't know the link.
 
  • #24
"G-Whiz warns you when its time to turn the other way"

Funny, I thought the time to turn the other way was when you came to a bend that went the other way, lest your face end up distorted by other means.
 
  • #25
Ivan Seeking said:
Yes, there are a few people who might actually use it while breaking the law and possibly endangering other people. :rolleyes: I mean, I would have used it! But you know most people will buy this, stick it on, and forget all about it before the credit card bill is even paid. But for serious car freaks who enjoy a good 0.8g now and again, instead of watching the road, it would be fun to watch the Gwhiz while negotiating a 25mph turn at 50 mph. :biggrin:

How far will my Peugot 106 oil burner move the bubble, i all ways wondered
how much G i am pulling.
 
  • #26
Wouldn't you need 2 of them? One for lateral and one for forward acceleration?
I am not sure that I care to be riding in a car where the driver is watching his Gwhiz instead of the road during the times of extreme readings. :bugeye:
 
  • #27
Integral said:
Wouldn't you need 2 of them? One for lateral and one for forward acceleration?
I am not sure that I care to be riding in a car where the driver is watching his Gwhiz instead of the road during the times of extreme readings. :bugeye:

That's how it got it's name. After you crash the car you get out and say, "ahhhh, G-Whiz". :biggrin:
 
  • #28
My god, are you all idiots? No wonder geeks don't get laid - you guys wouldn't recognize cheekiness if your head was stuck between the ones you sit on! This is a *marketing campaign* that's *making fun* of campy aftermarket auto parts. Yes, you can buy these products and they might work, but that's not the point! I'll leave it as an exercise for you to figure out what that point is.

// Hoping that JPL knows not to hire you guys if you apply there...

--ant
 
  • #29
hmm maybe ants can't read, or understand that most of us know that its marketing..just not good marketing. "back to your hole, critter!"
 
  • #30
Ant2 said:
My god, are you all idiots? No wonder geeks don't get laid - you guys wouldn't recognize cheekiness if your head was stuck between the ones you sit on! This is a *marketing campaign* that's *making fun* of campy aftermarket auto parts. Yes, you can buy these products and they might work, but that's not the point! I'll leave it as an exercise for you to figure out what that point is.

You DO realize that it costs a looooooooooot of money to do marketing campaigns especially when no funder is readily identifiable. This is absolute stupidity. This is millions of dollars simply to make people scratch their heads and its not a network-funded campaign because its been on multiple tv stations that are, as far as i can tell, unrelated.
 
  • #31
Integral said:
Wouldn't you need 2 of them? One for lateral and one for forward acceleration?
The fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror do exactly the same thing, but multi-axially. :biggrin:
 
  • #32
Danger said:
The fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror do exactly the same thing, but multi-axially. :biggrin:


AND they come in pink! :approve:
 
  • #33
Ant2 said:
This is a *marketing campaign* that's *making fun* of campy aftermarket auto parts.

Do you think? :rolleyes:

G-Whiz, you're fast.
 
  • #34
Ant2 said:
My god, are you all idiots? No wonder geeks don't get laid - you guys wouldn't recognize cheekiness if your head was stuck between the ones you sit on! This is a *marketing campaign* that's *making fun* of campy aftermarket auto parts. Yes, you can buy these products and they might work, but that's not the point! I'll leave it as an exercise for you to figure out what that point is.

// Hoping that JPL knows not to hire you guys if you apply there...

--ant
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
You're killing me.
BTW, this thread is funnier than the commercials.
 

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