Slashdot Mirror

The first completely robotic fast food restaurant opened in 2031

It won't be anything like that long:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030801/1345236_ F.shtml
http://www.businesspundit.com/archives/000463.html
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,211 026-1-454,00.html

• 'The system will use radar to determine the distance to the next car ahead on the road and how fast it is going. A computer chip in the so-called smart car will monitor the speed of the motorist's car.
  
  If a motorist uses the system's new type of cruise control and does not see vehicles ahead slowing or stopped, the smart system would sound an alarm and an indicator button would flash, telling the driver the car must slow down, Colgin said. The cruise control system also would automatically apply the car's brakes, he said.
  
  In instances in which very hard braking was required, the driver also would have to step on the brake pedal to stop the car in time, he said. If the cruise control system was off, the car would only warn the driver but not brake, Colgin said.'
  
  The system would also use a camera to ``see'' the road ahead and ``understand'' when vehicles were turning along a curved road. That way, the smart car would be able to figure out which car is ahead of it in a lane, even when the lane is not straight ahead, Colgin said.
  
  ``This is a fully automatic system which sorts out which is the most threatening vehicle ahead,'' he said. ``It is meant to solve the problem of the inattentive driver.''

• VDIM, an evolution of Toyota's vehicle stability control system, integrates anti-lock braking, electronic-power steering and traction control. The automaker says the system is the first of its kind. Analysts expect the technology to be adopted next on the Toyota's Lexus lineup.
  
  Senior research executive Tetsuo Hattori explains that previous braking, steering, vehicle stability and traction control systems functioned independently. "With VDIM, each system is integrated and seamlessly managed. Moreover," he says, "control is actuated before the vehicle exceeds its movement threshold. This assures a high degree of preventive safety and significantly improves upon ordinary driving performance in terms of traveling, tuning and stopping."
  
  Hattori adds that VDIM "begins integrated control of the brakes, engine and steering before the vehicle reaches its limits, thereby achieving higher preventive safety performance and ideal vehicle kinetics." [In a test drive on simulated ice, the system did not allow the driver to veer off-course and spin the car.]'

Uh, the glaciers on Antarctica are continuously moving, and rebuilding. Snow falls year after year, after year, and the glaciers keep moving, and rebuilding.

They are continuously moving, but the sea ice shelf is holding back the glaciers from moving a lot faster, which has allowed so much ice to form on Antarctica. If the sea ice melts, all the glaciers would be able to "dump" their ice (which is currently over land) into the oceans, which would raise the water levels. It is not necesarrily the melting of the ice over Antarctica itself that will cause the sea levels to rise.

And, yes, the glaciers are moving faster. And, yes, this could - eventually - effect water levels. And, no, there is no possible way that this would happen within 10 years time. There is a mere outside chance that it may happen over the next 200 (two hundred) years.

Its not that it will occur in 10 years, but if we don't change the way that we currently use fossil fuels etc... it will be very hard to stop Antarctica melting within that 200 year timeframe, due to positive feedback in out atmosphere. (look to Venus for how positive feedback can occur, and how its atmosphere ended up as a 400 deg C maelstrom, as opposed to Earth, an essentially similar planet)

What we don't know is how much we can effect this change - in either direction.

What we do know is that CO2 levels are the highes they have been since known atmospheric history (420,000 years) and that CO2 levels have had a close correlation to temperature over that period. (Although we dont know that they are causally linked.)

Whilst we don't know how much we can affect this change, we do know that if we carry on as we are, things will certainly not get better, and warmer weather is not necessarily better, ~14,000 excess deaths occurred from heat related problems in France during Summer 2003, which is a lot more than the ~3,000 who died in 9/11. (Although 9/11 showed how bad the USA's homeland security was at the time - all the flights took off from US airports on internal flights.)

That's certainly the case here (New Zealand). A consumer affairs show (Fair Go) that hosts an "ad awards" episode every year has to get permission for the ads to be repeated on the show; once, when they were unsuccessful for a particular ad, it was shown as "CENSORED" instead. Not that it won anything :-)

It seems others have done a good job at refuting you already, I'll just add two quick things:

Rather than directing people to other posts or to Google, here are some direct quotes:

From http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20030924.gtnintendosep24/BNStory/AtPlay/

"Sony's PlayStation 2 still leads the market, with nearly 54 million consoles shipped as of early August. Nintendo had sold about 9.6 million GameCubes by the end of the summer.

Sales have been so slow this year that Nintendo temporarily stopped production of its GameCube in August and said it wouldn't make any more until Fall in order to eat up excess inventory. iSuppli said the company shipped just 80,000 units during its most recent quarter, which ended June 30.

Kyoto-based Nintendo did not disclose the amount of excess inventory on hand in August, or how many consoles are normally produced at that time of year. The company has also maintained that its target is to sell six million machines this fiscal year (ending in March 2004), saying sales generally pick up during the holiday shopping season.

With this in mind, Nintendo is also increasing the pressure on the software front to appeal to gift-giving shoppers. It has vowed to boost the number of GameCube titles to 320 by the end of the year, and has hinted that there will be special promotional deals through the lucrative holiday shopping season.

The promise of a slew of new GameCube titles comes despite reports from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show in Los Angeles earlier this year that several top game development companies and publishers were reconsidering the number of GameCube titles they plan to produce in the wake of declining sales for the console."

From http://technology.nzoom.com/cda/printable/1,1856,2 23621,00.html:

"A number of game publishers have curtailed or ended production of GameCube games, citing the platform's disappointing sales. Analysts were quick to caution that Nintendo was likely to benefit most from the news.

"Although this is a positive announcement with respect to Nintendo, we do not expect this price drop to have a dramatic effect on our expectations for the third-party publishers in our universe," Harris Nesbitt Gerard analyst Edward Williams said in a note.

Of the 10 best-selling games for the GameCube in August, according to research service NPDFunworld, six were published by Nintendo - a far higher proportion of first-party games than on any other console.

While the console has been stronger in Japan and Europe, in the United States it has settled into a firm third place, with an installed base about 29 percent smaller than that of the Xbox.

The last major game console to retail for US$99 in the United States was Sega's Dreamcast - though that price was an inventory-clearing move after Sega discontinued the console and decided to become exclusively a game publisher."

From http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/04/07/nintend o.reut/:

"TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Videogame company Nintendo Co Ltd on Monday slashed its group net profit forecast for the business year that ended on March 31 by 18 percent due to sluggish sales of its GameCube machine.

The Kyoto-based company, known for its hit "Pokemon'' games, now expects a group net profit for 2002/03 of 66 billion yen ($548.5 million) against its November forecast of 80 billion yen.

Citing poor demand for its mainstay GameCube console at home and abroad, the company trimmed its group sales estimates to 500 billion yen from 600 billion yen.

"Demand for the GameCube console was significantly lower than our expectation,'' a company s

Oh, please!

1) Nintendo has sold more Gamecubes than Microsoft has sold Xboxes. Official numbers are available from Nintendo and Microsoft.

The Gamecube has at least a 29% less install base than the X-Box.

2) The top selling games for the GC are outselling the top selling games for Xbox. There's nothing to do about PS2 and GBA.

But there are more games for the X-Box, and most of the Gamecube's top-selling games are first-party development efforts.

3) Several multiplatform games sold better on the Gamecube than other consoles, and for a hard core gamer there are several exclusive non-Nintendo titles not found on Xbox or PS2.

The only "hard core" game I could think of is Metroid Prime. What else is there? Mario Sunshine? Mario Party 5?

4) In Europe, the average buyer of a Gamecube at launch was 23 years old. Mature games like Resident Evil sold above Capcom's expectations.

That doesn't even matter and is just an irrelevant fact thrown out to weakly defend your stance.

I can back up everything above, it's easier if you just admit to being clueless and posted what you _thought_ was true.

No, YOU are completely clueless and have clearly ignored hard numbers.

Nintendo had to slash the price of the Gamecube last September 24th due to less-than-stellar sales. In fact, the only thing to show any profit was the Gameboy Advance, and that's just because for all intents and purposes it's the only one out there in the handheld market.

The Gamecube is now the same cost as the SP!

Quotes from just one page I randomly Googled for:

"A number of game publishers have curtailed or ended production of GameCube games, citing the platform's disappointing sales. Analysts were quick to caution that Nintendo was likely to benefit most from the news.

Although this is a positive announcement with respect to Nintendo, we do not expect this price drop to have a dramatic effect on our expectations for the third-party publishers in our universe," Harris Nesbitt Gerard analyst Edward Williams said in a note.

Of the 10 best-selling games for the GameCube in August, according to research service NPDFunworld, six were published by Nintendo - a far higher proportion of first-party games than on any other console.

While the console has been stronger in Japan and Europe, in the United States it has settled into a firm third place, with an installed base about 29 percent smaller than that of the Xbox."

I like Nintendo too, but don't be so blind. Even execs have stated they waited too long to get the Gamecube released, which affected its success, and they won't be making the same mistake with their next system. Nintendo had better start pulling rabbits out of their hat, because they're not seen as the cool, edgy console company anymore, and they're risking being solely a handheld gaming company.

Planet Hollywood was a complete joke though - the props in the one PH I would pass by in Sydney were shite... LOTR props though would be cool to check out close up... but hey - maybe that's just me, but I'm sure there's others that would agree with me on this.

The movies have helped with tourism (there's more stories on this, but im not gonna look for them for you) so I'd say that a museum would help to complete the LOTR experience that the people who are going on the tours have. I know I'd go back to check out the props, as well as checking out parts of NZ I haven't seen yet...

Longer video available here [nzoom.com]

Bad link, sorry.

Share Info

To clarify for you:

PS2 worldwide figures: Asahi Shimbun (also contains Nintendo figures)
Xbox worldwide figures: MSFT 4th Quarter Earnings Report
Gamecube worldwide figures: Forbes from Reuters (at the bottom of the page). There are a few other pages quoting this figure as well.

PS2 US figures: NPDFunWorld
Xbox US figures: Unknown. Possibly the same as above?
Gamecube US figures: Guessed from estimate listed on AMO.NET Please note that this article does seem to be biased towards the Xbox, with multiple opinions to that effect. Nevertheless there is one good quote:

The real truth about these sales figures and future sales opportunities is that no single gaming system fan can be trusted with anything he or she has read regarding one system selling better, or performing better than the other.

To clarify for you:

PS2 worldwide figures: Asahi Shimbun (also contains Nintendo figures)
Xbox worldwide figures: MSFT 4th Quarter Earnings Report
Gamecube worldwide figures: Forbes from Reuters (at the bottom of the page). There are a few other pages quoting this figure as well.

PS2 US figures: NPDFunWorld
Xbox US figures: Unknown. Possibly the same as above?
Gamecube US figures: Guessed from estimate listed on AMO.NET Please note that this article does seem to be biased towards the Xbox, with multiple opinions to that effect. Nevertheless there is one good quote:

The real truth about these sales figures and future sales opportunities is that no single gaming system fan can be trusted with anything he or she has read regarding one system selling better, or performing better than the other.

This pic of the thing doesn't show it all, but it definitely looks big and like it would smell bad.

Civet coffee

From small hobbits to King Kong
Canada.com - 8 hours ago
Oscar best-director nominee Peter Jackson poses outside his Wingnut Films office in Wellington, New Zealand earlier this year. ...
RotK Delayed Until May 2004 Slashdot
Peter Jackson resurrecting King Kong in NZ Stuff.co.nz
Northland Age - BBC - Nzoom.com - The Scotsman - and 72 related

Saw a news item on TV one news here a couple weeks ago about a guy here in New Zealand that had modified a late model Nissan Skyline to run on a mix on hydrogen and petrol. Claimed to get almost double the mileage. He had built a device to simply split the hydrogen from water stored in a container in the boot (trunk) of the car and a system to induct it into the engine intake. Spent quite a bit of time searching for the story online but never found anything. Nothing about it made it into newspapers that I saw either. I suspect the oil companies probably paid this guy to shut-up about it.

Simulated on by the challenge from Japan, the US gov is investing money into the technology race. IBM, flush with a $563 million government contract to build two new supercomputers, [2004 with a 100-teraflop machine that would be nearly three times faster than Earth simulator] Click here

Hey, maybe they're sending your mail to other people.

> So let me get this straight - you think I have been brainwashed by watching TV but you know the truth.
> May I ask where you learned this truth? Was it from TV? Was it from a newspaper? Do you honestly think
> the press in your country is fair and impartial but the press in mine isn't? It sounds like you have been brainwashed.


> May I ask where you learned this truth?

Sure! I read around. I went to a library, I read some history books. I spoke to people living in countries
like Israel over the net. I had the fortune to speak to a holidaying Isralie in person on New Year's.
He didn't have a good thing to say about the US. He was happy the towers fell like a cheap tent.
For the record he didn't like Palestinians, or the war between the two Races.
And yes, he'd served time in the military.

> It sounds like you have been brainwashed.

Yet I'm the one who's got something to say apart from "Kill terrorists, the US rocks, if you disagree you're obviously
wrong!"


> Where exactly are you talking about? Saudi Arabia?
> Do you think we erected any bases without permission?

I'll concede here. I couldn' find out much about US military bases in the 20 mins I spent looking.
My personal opinion, however, is that your military presence in many countries is unwelcome and resented by the common
populace.



>No, I don't we are innocent. But I do think that we try to be good.
> What separates me from you is that I actually vote for people who I think
> will make the right decisions in my name regarding our relations with other countries.

LOL. I'm 20 and I've voted in about 6 elections all up, 1 of them a federal election another 1 a by-election.
I feel I voted for the most responsible candidate, that's what elections are (technically) about.
Contrary to popular belief, the US isn't the only country on the planet to have democratic elections.
Hell, isn't it true that 25% of your citizens vote in elections ? Over here, (Australia) it's compulsary.

What seperates you and I is blind Nationalism.


> I know it doesn't always work but what else can I do?
> The point is I try to do the right thing.

Agreed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you, yourself do a thing, apart from vote every now and then.
You could give blood, you could give money, or join the Red Cross or some other charity organisation.
Odds are you've got a job and a life though, which rules these out. In that case you could educate yourself
and your friends on *why this all happened in the first place*.

> The terrorists on 911 did the opposite - the tried to kill innocent people.
> Doesn't that make any sense to you?

Does it make sense to me ? Yes it does. Those people were not innocent of electing governments.
Governments who,by their actions brought this upon themselves and their citizens. Why was the US attacked
and not (not so great) Britan, Iraq, Canada or some other country. Consider that.

They may be extremists and Terrorists, but the world works on cause and effect.
That they use brutal, 'underhand' tactics is part of terror warfare, they don't have large organised armies to
mount an assault with.

> What would you suggest we do in response???

Hold an international summit on US foreign policy ? Oh that's right, you're above peer review.
Rooting out and destroying the Taliban was logical. Now there are wars in the Israel area which you support.
Making an effort to solve these problems beyond 'killing all threats to US citizens' might help too.
Stop screwing over so many countries, weather this be through trade sanctions, supplying arms or whatever else.


>I definitely think you are the one who is brainwashed.
Keep telling yourself that mate :o) In the meantime, get an education.

General Links
Why is America Hated in the Middle East?
ATTACK ON AMERICA: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE (Professor Ali Khan,Washburn University School of Law)
The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers


-- Human Rights Links --
U.S Foreign Policy and Human Rights
Organization of American States human rights panel opposes Bush policy on POWs
Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights and the Drug war.
Afghan prisoners arrive in Cuba
Amnesty International USA

"Better than heroin they reckon"

The state owned TV company in NZ (TVNZ) up until very recently (Q4, 2001) used an Apple ][+ or Apple //e to power their Teletext system (a simplex news & info terminal built into most TV's sold in NZ). They've recently upgraded to a Sun Solaris host to provide the same functionality. The reason: they were no longer able to get spare parts and the system did start to become somewhat unreliable.

So while the system may not have been critical, it did provide a public service, produced revenue and worked moderately well - hardware faults excepted.

It wouldn't surprise me that much to hear that other organisations still use older technology to deliver a solution. After all, why fix it unless it's broken?

Well, sorry to this NZOOM article, of the 136 tons of the space station, an estimated 20 to 25 tons are expected to hit earth, the rest will burn into the atmosphere.
Now I don't know about the heads of chihuaha in your place, but in mine they hardly weigh 25 tons! ;)

It doesn't really matter - according to the nice census lady on New Zealand's TV1 news it doesn't matter how many sign "Jedi" as a religion - they won't take it seriously.

Ditto here in NZ. Vodafone had been offering SMS for free for months, I think they've just stopped now, and all of a sudden they are advertising cool prizes for using the service.

Check out http://technolog y.nzoom.com/communications/2000/07/03/00028537.htm -- some interesting figures. It sure looks worth it for the carriers...