Slashdot Mirror
Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else)
malachiorion writes "I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of Lockheed Martin's autonomous truck convoy demonstration — they sent a group of robotified vehicles through urban and rural environments at Fort Hood, without teleoperation or human intervention. It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's fascinating, though, is that Lockheed is hoping to get into Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdraws, to help ferry gear. Plus, they have their sights set on what would be the defense contractor's first real commercial product—kits that turn tractor trailers into autonomous vehicles. Here's my post for Popular Science."
It doesn't work.
So what do people think of the new beta then?
I’ve been lurking Slashdot for over 10 years and never posted before. It’s a bit sad that my first post is going to sound like a eulogy
I don’t like the beta-look, I think it is going to break the community and I’ll join in on the boycott next week.
Just in the case nobody comes back, I wanted to thank you, Slashdot.
Thanks for showing me there’s more people “like me” and thanks for making me proud to call myself a nerd.
I remember the Good Times. When we could still Slashdot a site, when Rob proposed, when we called the ipod lame, when ‘we’ fought scientology (before it was cool to fight ‘m) and when we heard Firefly was made into a movie :)
And the tough times, when the community really showed it’s good side, 9/11 comes to mind as well as the deaths of several pioneers in tech.
Although Slashdot always has news 3 days after every other blog, it’s still months before my friends know any of it. If only I had set up a beowulf cluster of bitcoin miners when Slashdot first started posting about it :)
But the best part remains the commenting. I was and am still amazed by the depth some people go to post their comments. The relatable stories of the new guy, or the insights of the old guy (shout out to all you get-off-my-lawn-ers / low-id). And I remember being touched on a deep level by some very personal comments; a comment of struggling just with being who you are — and then getting a reply by multiple people who had the same experience.
Thanks also for always showing the other side of things. I never RTFA’d (something to be proud of, I guess), I new better what was going on than anybody else through the comments.
By posting, you show part of your thoughts, and seeing many people’s thoughts also makes opinions more moderate. I have a better understanding now of things I would otherwise strongly oppose. It sounds cheesy, but I know I’m a better person because of it.
Slashdot has been my home for a long time, eventhough it changed through the years. I hope it’ll stay, but I’ve grown pessimistic.
So, so long and thanks for all the fish!
I’ll see y’all lurking somewhere else :) (XKCD-forum, most likely)
...the slashdot beta.
To get away from Slashdot beta?
FuckBeta!
I don't really see what good these autonomous vehicles will do. They won't do anything to help get rid of Slashdot Beta, so what's the point?
Breakfast served all day!
they have no problem being clear about replacing us with custom made monkeys http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stallman%20chomsky&sm=3
Slashdot is obviously being run by a bunch of autonomous jackasses who prefer to follow "trends" in the "latest" website designs than using what works.
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here so links don't get mangled!)
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----
Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org (thanks Okian Warrior (537106))
http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot
Check out ##AltSlashdot on Freenode IRC network for more discussion.
My UID is prime... is yours?
Slashdot Beta was getting shipped to Afghanistan!!! Fuk the Beta -- send it away!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Could robotic, self driving trucks make more of a mess than the beta? Seems unlikely.
The whole point of feedback is, well, feedback. It's not to make you feel good that you pretended to take users' input into account before just forcing a Beta down their throats that they have been providing feedback on for months. Seriously, is asking for comments that don't get squished in a canyon of whitespace too hard of a suggestion to implement?
What are people's thoughts on the Slashdot Beta?
I can't think (radio signal interference) what could go wrong (rock slide) with this approach (mine).
Great (massive failure) idea!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet.
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design.
Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this [slashdot.org] in a new tab. After seeing that, click here [slashdot.org] to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott [slashdot.org]
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss the Beta - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
Discussion of Beta [slashdot.org]
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live [slashdot.org]
Alternative Slashdot [altslashdot.org]
It's their fault. The PHB overlords! Fuckbeta!
http://www.investor.diceholdin...
Complain to investor relations. If this is how Dice manages holdings, the company will be worthless soon. Investor relations should warn everyone to get out now.
Yes Jennifer, you have a responsibility to warn the investors.
Jennifer Bewley
VP, Investor Relations
Phone: 212-448-4181
or 515-313-2086
E-Mail: IR@dice.com
fuckbeta!
#Slashdot on Slashnet
I am declining to read or discuss this article, in protest.
I will not visit this site at all Feb 10 through Feb 17, as part of the slashcott. http://slashcott.com/
If only we could put the beta on robot trucks and send it to Afghanistan!
I'd like Slashdot Beta to disapear into a black hole.
Autononymous semi truck convoys would have a better grasp on slashdots layout than DICE.
"What do you think of the new Slashdot Beta?"
I for one would love to see the results of such a poll. Is there a silent majority or isn't there? This would be an easy way to find out.
Unfortunately I get the feeling that there's a strong back room agenda behind this beta thing. But they are forgetting that slashdotters are not an audience; they are the content creators. Piss them off and your site is doomed.
Are those the same autonomous crapvertisement drones that run slashdot now?
NO BETA!
Inflicting this Bumptious Emiction of Turgent Agnosy on this site indicates a state of being massively uninformed.
One wonders if the small throwable objects with multiple resting positions are at all aware of the annoyance expressed by their disgruntled visitors.
This will all end in tears.
# ~: no sigs today
If beta isn't stopped, it will be time to leave. Until that time, it's probably best to protest about it in shifts. Pick a time of the day to make your complaint known, then leave off visiting Slashdot for the day. Otherwise, today's protests will be just a flash in the pan. Constantly protesting is rather demoralizing, but it should continue until the beta is obligatory. Think of it, therefore, as a hike rather than a sprint.
i've been telling people for a while that the first we'll see of autonomous vehicles in any big way isn't in personal Google-style vehicles, but in the long-haul trucking industry.
Now I know that's true, because it's the only physically possible way to safely haul away the toxic mess that's the fucking Beta shit being sprayed everywhere like something out of a low-budget slashbeta horror flick.
Fuck the Beta,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
I wish there was an easy way to read the comments. Fuck Beta.
Hi Slashdot,
This is the first time I've ever commented on slashdot, even though I have been reading for over 10 years. Grade A lurker - though I have submitted some stories and was delighted when they made the front page.
To keep it really short - the reason I love slashdot it mainly the comments and the consistency of the site over the years. Your new beta is terrible - I can't follow the comments at all and each story seems to take up half my screen. I don't come here for fancy graphics or web 2.0 crap, I come here to find news for nerds!
If you force the beta on me and disable classic slashdot you will lose me as a user.
Regards,
Anon coward #1
The demo will roll coolly towards camera #1 in slo-mo as the village explodes behind it; assuming Bay is directing this program.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
My understanding is that the phrase "MOVIN' ON UP" comes from the theme song of a 1970s and 1980s American TV show called The Jeffersons. It is also my understanding that the show revolves around an African-American couple and the trials and tribulations they must deal with in their daily lives.
Given its ties to the African-American culture and experience, I find it a very odd phrase to be used here. While there are African-Americans here, no doubt, it is my understanding that the Slashdot demographic is generally that of the middle-aged white male.
The contrast between the phrase's origin and how it's being used here gives me the impression, perhaps wrongly, that we're being mocked by it.
It's inherently contradictory, at its most elemental level. The Slashdot beta is obviously inferior to the existing site. Some may even go so far as to say that the beta site is a steaming pile of horse shit. So being forced to use it clearly is not comparable to "moving on up" in society.
At a deeper level, the use of that phrase gives me the impression, again perhaps wrongly, that we users of Slashdot are considered an "underclass" here, much as African-Americans have been historically treated as such in the United States. It's as if we're being told that we are individuals with no free will; we are forced into doing the bidding of others. In this case, we are forced against our will to use the rancid Slashdot beta site.
I think it's a very poor choice of words, personally. While I don't care much for political correctness, I also do not care much for the unnecessary use of phrases that may be misinterpreted so easily. I care even less for wording that may very well be mocking me and my fellow Slashdot users, especially when there's the possibility that there's a racial element to it.
Is it just me, but are those waterboarding tables to the left of the truck?
I purposely turned off Javascript on my browser completely, just to defeat Beta. It turns out that it improves the entire internet massively - I am no longer pulling 50+ scripts from Science knows where on every site.
Fuck Beta and fuck Javascript.
People are suggesting that we should go to another web site, or form one, to get out of the Slashdot Beta trap, but I will put forth a suggestion - this could be an opportunity to rejuvenate Usenet, to post in the manifold moribund groups, and to create a renaissance of uncensored Internet joy such as was common in the old days. No longer should we merely enrich some soulless company just to have a handy discussion forum.
Usenet presents many advantages. It is not controlled by any one entity, it works well for low-bandwidth users, one can completely shit-can abusive posters, popular topics are promoted by replies and not by peevish moderators, and it allows discussions that can last many months or years.
I know that many ISPs no longer provide Usenet feeds, but if you search for Eternal September you will find a very nice, free (donations accepted) Usenet provider, the only caveat being that binaries are not allowed. I use it and I suggest you all do to.
The new look really sucks. FUCK BETA!
May be of interest, as this site has now become a 24/7 harangue against the editors/owners. How'd this guy do it? HOW?
...slashdot beta.
I am sure that their trucks will be more well received. And unlike Slashdot beta, the troops will want to use them.
In other news, TheLadders.com > dice.com
The internet is not like a series of trucks. However if robot trucks can take the people who designed Beta to Afghanistan,that would be nice.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
I have been reading Slashdot since 2001, although mostly anonymously. Over the years, this site has exposed me to enormous wealth of knowledge outside my area of expertise. This was only possible thanks to the great community of people whose comments have expanded each post much beyond the scope of original submission. It is this community that makes this site and makes me come back here daily.
Now this community has clearly stated that proposed BETA changes are not wanted and even worse will drive many of the old users away from this site. Others have clearly outlined the faults of the new BETA and the effect it will have on commenting and moderation. This feedback should not be ignored.
Hence, please reconsider BETA or at least listen to the community feedback on how to improve it!
FUTILITY!!!! I've tried to upvote countless topics related to the suckiness of Slashdot's new UI. Or even topics that were just trying to discuss the issue (no bias in the title). NONE of these gets picked. Not one.
Fuck Slashdot Beta even more, because the admins are gaming the system to protect the beta UI from criticism.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
If Rob Malda were alive he would be outraged at what Dice is doing to Slashdot.
This will go over well when one of these trucks mows down a kid.
so the beta is obviously just a ploy to cram more ads into our already way-over-exposed-to-ads eyeballs, but the ads you do show SUCK...I keep getting ads for a hotel that I looked at several hours ago for a business trip that is already booked now...and at home I get ads for stuff that I already bought on amazon...give me a break! how stupid is this targeting? and why do we need more of it again?
I don't know what DICE was thinking (perhaps they weren't) but it doesn't take a genius to figure out they need to stop the beta site and stop it now. Unlike every other news aggregator, the majority of the people are here FOR the discussion forums. We also submit the news, vote on what should be published, comment on the news, moderate the comments, and moderate the moderators. DICE you don't do a damn thing compared to what the community gives to you in exchange for access to the site.
Pull your collective heads out of your various orifices and fix this while you have time. Without the community you have NOTHING to sell. Want proof? Look at comments on stories from a week ago versus comments today... with the community protesting you have nothing of value to sell other than a niche already covered by CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and God knows how many other sites that now aggregate the news. Slashdot will NEVER be a mainstream site... Fix this NOW or the community will fix it for you.
DICE: Pass me a cuban timmy. /.ers 'till bitcoins start popping out their asses.
TIMOTHY: A Habanos or a Cubatabaco sir?
DICE: Timmy my boy. You don't get to sit in the big chair without getting a fidel.
TIMOTHY: A fidel sir?
DICE: Yes, finest cuban a man could ever have. Rolled by Fidel Castro himself; In fact I'm suprised the man didn't hand deliver it.
TIMOTHY: You sound kind of... powerful sir.
DICE: Timy you have no idea of my power. I'm going squash all those
TIMOTHY: How sir?
DICE: Beta. Haven't you seen it Timy. It's brilliant. I've had the finest MBA's from Harvard & Princeton working day and night on this. I pulled a lot a favours to get this level of talent and I'll be **ucked if some geratric old world BBS has beens are stopping me. Timmy, it's the future. Web 2.0 is yesterdays news. Its a new paradigm. Young people can't think more than a 160 characters so why should beta. Big fonts Timmy.. and pictures. People don't like reading Timmy. The chineese had it right all along. Picture words. Its the future timmy. Ride my coat tails Son. Well be Rich.. Rich I say...
46137
if you have positive karma make sure to disable advertisements as part of your protest, for years i had the option but left them enabled to support /.
Every headline asking the question "why" can be answered by "Well, you know, sir, because I really like to fuck beta".
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
FUCK BETA
1. Einleitung Dieses HOWTO enthÃlt viele Informationen aus dem Serial HOWTO von Greg Hankins und behandelt externe und interne Modems. Bei den internen Modems liegt der Schwerpunkt auf der Behandlung von ISA-Bus-Modems, obwohl das meiste auch für PCI-Bus-Modems gelten sollte. Für PCMCIA- Modems siehe das (englische) PCMCIA HOWTO: ÂPCMCIA serial and modem devicesÂ. Dieses HOWTO behandelt weder PPP (Point-To-Point Protocol, es wird verwendet, um mit Hilfe eines Modems eine Verbindung zum Internet herzustellen) noch Kommunikationsprogramme. Es erklÃrt aber, wie Kommunikationsprogramme verwendet werden, um zu testen, ob Ihr Modem korrekt funktioniert und eine Verbindung aufgebaut werden kann. Wenn Sie ein Modem verwenden mÃchten, um einen Zugang zum Internet zu bekommen, dann ist es notwendig, PPP einzurichten. Es gibt eine Menge Dokumentation über PPP (siehe z.B. im Verzeichnis /usr/doc/ppp; es
gibt auch ein PPP HOWTO).
PS Fuck Beta
I've Disabled Ads
Not Posting relevant comments
Boycotting.
***puts on sombrero, readies Cheech Marin voice from Dusk Till Dawn**** *AHEM*
FUUUCK EEET!
Hello, everyone.
Now is the time: if you have some comment/thread you really like, accesible through search or bookmark, then you should
SAVE THE POST OR THREAD!
With the direction things are going, they may very well disable linking to posts. We may lose the Slashdot archive!
There's no way to back it all up, but we *can* preserve the gems. So, save the good stuff so it won't disappear!
Things like "about half an hour ago" are useless. Fucking insulting too. Give me a TIMESTAMP! It is made of numbers. It is absolute.
This has been item 527 in a 10,000 element series on WHY THE BETA SUCKS.
There are a lot of snarky comments in the “fuck beta” threads right now, and reading what little has been posted by soulskill, the admins actually think that they are being unfairly targeted by a mob mentality. This is a problem because the issues here will likely get managerial attention at Dice soon and if the executives see what looks like a bunch of juvenile shite in the comments, they are likely to buy into that false world view. If that happens, then Beta will be pushed through and Dice will think of themselves as victims of Anonymous or whatever.
For this reason, I wish to lead a call for all users to spend the time from now until the boycott on the 10th to repost this as soon as a new story is posted.
----------------------
Dice: Frankly, many of us want a new design, Classic is broken in so many ways. But beta is terrible, and this is what is wrong:
* The value that Slashdot brings to its users is not in its articles. Frankly, the articles are terrible. The value that Slashdot provides is a discussion forum for self-selected nerds.
* As such, it is vital that you remember that the community is not just an audience, it is also your primary content creator.
* Your new redesign does not allow the community to create (or even consume) content because:
- It makes it impossible to follow discussions in the comments sections. This is largely because of the max-width on window and the fact that of the space left over is taken up by a useless sidebar. The vertical spacing is also overdone.
- Slashdot has a fragile but effective moderation system. Your changes make it impossible for readers to leverage that system to read a high quality discussion and ignore the trolls.
- It disregards conventions of the community. UIDs matter. We’re nerds. We understand that you need to attract a younger audience, but for a lot of us (including the younguns) it is thrilling to see a post from somebody who has been there from the beginning.
* In the last 24 hours Soulskill has bitterly commented that the community has been involved since October and that they also get emails supporting the new design; only the comments are an echo chamber. This comment demonstrates a deep incompetence in your development team. Soulskill should have been citing A-B testing numbers. A-B testing is cheap, easy and effective but instead you are taking stabs in the dark.
* Your ability to attain user acceptance is dismal. A number of years ago, when Taco needed to modernize the site, he solicited the community for designs, and awarded the best designer and used that design. That is how you leverage a community and gain their acceptance: incorporate them in the design process. As a bonus, you won’t have utterly useless redesigns that will either ruin your website or have to be scrapped.
or they can be like uber and let the victim be the one holding the bag.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t...
wait for the auto truck to the drive tail of dragon and fail
http://tailofthedragon.com/dra...
The USA wants to establish the principle that slaughtering all those in the vicinity of a robotic war machine, in order to protect said war machine, is acceptable in a 'war zone'. Essentially, the good functioning of a US war machine trumps the right to life of any number of 'sub Humans' in a target nation.
-So, you start with robot 'trucks' that have COMPLETE LEGAL IMMUNITY to murder any other road user via vehicular 'accident'.
-Now, with the principle established that the robot vehicles are potentially fatal for ordinary road users, you establish the IMPLIED principle that any person in the vicinity of the robot vehicle is a viable target. An 'innocent civilian' obviously wouldn't risk their life by being close to such a vehicle that can legally murder them in an 'accident'.
-Now you have the excuse for declaring the need for the robotic vehicle to 'deal' with any other vehicles or people that choose to place themselves close to the robot. This means arming the vehicle, and placing armed drones in the air above the vehicle.
Thus we arrive at the desired goal of Google- the US robotic tank- a tank with complete 'authority' all Humans within range, by describing such Humans as perceived threats. Google is the force behind these initiatives, not LM or the other dinosaur military suppliers.
Google looks at Iran, and the current US unwillingness to attack and invade, as the most important problem they wish to solve. Nations threatened by Google's robotic projects will, of course, seek to give their populace the ability to disable/destroy such unmanned equipment, which is why Google DEMANDS an automatic death sentence for any Human involved in an attack against one of their future war machines. And this means ensuring that US robots are ALWAYS valued more highly than any number of Human lives in the nations Google wants the USA to attack.
Dice: Frankly, many of us want a new design, Classic is broken in so many ways. But beta is terrible, and this is what is wrong:
* The value that Slashdot brings to its users is not in its articles. Frankly, the articles are terrible. The value that Slashdot provides is a discussion forum for self-selected nerds.
* As such, it is vital that you remember that the community is not just an audience, it is also your primary content creator.
* Your new redesign does not allow the community to create (or even consume) content because:
- It makes it impossible to follow discussions in the comments sections. This is largely because of the max-width on window and the fact that of the space left over is taken up by a useless sidebar. The vertical spacing is also overdone.
- Slashdot has a fragile but effective moderation system. Your changes make it impossible for readers to leverage that system to read a high quality discussion and ignore the trolls.
- It disregards conventions of the community. UIDs matter. We’re nerds. We understand that you need to attract a younger audience, but for a lot of us (including the younguns) it is thrilling to see a post from somebody who has been there from the beginning.
* In the last 24 hours Soulskill has bitterly commented that the community has been involved since October and that they also get emails supporting the new design; only the comments are an echo chamber. This comment demonstrates a deep incompetence in your development team. Soulskill should have been citing A-B testing numbers. A-B testing is cheap, easy and effective but instead you are taking stabs in the dark.
* Your ability to attain user acceptance is dismal. A number of years ago, when Taco needed to modernize the site, he solicited the community for designs, and awarded the best designer and used that design. That is how you leverage a community and gain their acceptance: incorporate them in the design process. As a bonus, you won’t have utterly useless redesigns that will either ruin your website or have to be scrapped.
And This Too Shall Pass
.... die a death of ZERO clicks
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
I haven't really seen much coverage over the Slashdot beta spat elsewhere on the net. There was a small post on the geek section of reddit but a lot of commenters there just considered Slashdotters to be incapable of change and whiners and if they didn't like the change, they could get their news elsewhere.
People outside of Slashdot don't seem to realise that we don't go to Slashdot for news - not primarily anyway, since topics are often brought out late and with poor editorializing. We come here because out of the cesspool of other tech sites with absolutely idiotic postings and continual flamewars from kids who don't know any better, Slashdot at least seems to have a lot of actually intelligent people who can craft a post with some meat on it. These posts then get elevated to Score 4/5's fairly quickly and by careful use of filters allows some manner of decent commenting. THAT's the feature of Slashdot that people come back to, not the news. Of course reddit has smart people too, but dumb posts that pander to mainstream humor tend to get high karma over there which tends to push quality discussion to small subs.
Account abandoned. I can't fucking spell for shit and Slashdot doesn't even allow time-limited edits of posts. Plus you'
If you think Dice's story is funny, well my mother-in-law's Aunt's Nephew's ex-life partner made $4896.27 last week working at the home only 3.75 hours!!! Enough to buy a new site with no BETA! And a Saab 900 Turbo.
J/K. But at least we don't have much of that crap here. Oh, and--
FUCK BETA!
Shazbot! We ran into some trouble getting the hint that Beta sucks.
Try again... na-nu, na-nu!
For oil. That would have been a less costly solution than the automation of destruction.
http://www.reuters.com/article...
Calling the number Dice lists for Slashdot results in a recording which in turn tells you to call 415-625-0856.
The receptionist type who answered was polite, said they'd already had several calls today, jotted down my complaints to relay once more to a guy who's involved with the beta, and said "we're withholding his snacks until this is fixed." They said it was nice to realize there were people out there who were passionate about the site.
Make your voice heard. Let them know that wasting screen space, butchering comment sections, etc are going to result in their visitors leaving en masse. If the phone is ringing all day, day in and day out, with users who don't want to see this place ruined, perhaps things will turn around.
Someone create a new Slashdot, please. With blackjack and hookers and less stories about Obamacare.
I can't seem to comment about this article because the new beta sucks and want the old one back permanently.
So in other words, fuck you slashdice!
Combat Scenarios have a lot more variables then civilian street driving. With civilian driving, the assumption is that if something happens, it was an accident. It would be completely impossible, currently, to make robots that can adapt to such situations, (even if they could make one, it would be ungodly expensive). Civilian driving also has you using roads, following explicit traffic signals, with the assumption that everything will be well lit.
When in the infantry, our drivers would sometimes drop a wheel into the ditch just so they could follow the road in the pitch black.
... They took mah JOB!!!
They took his job!
Durp-a-dduurr!
Joking aside there's no real way for such a technology to be rolled out on a national scale anyway. There's been people trying to get rid of the OTR/Long Haul trucking for a long time. Generally in favor of trains haulage. But the national transportation infrastructure is so dependent on trucks that that such a task would be a generational effort. That's assuming that they can actually get it to reliably work. Now moving in and out of urban centers... that might be doable. But I'm skeptical.
Isn't the entire idea of robotic trucks is that the troops don't have to use them!!
FUCK BETA
You mean you don't use the "noscript" plugin. Once you start using it, it is painful to use a browser without it. Seriously, go google noscript. First two links both work.
With noscript I actually had to go visit the beta site manually and still decided it was terrible.
FUCK BETA
If you look on the top of this vehicle, you will find a velodyne lidar, that sweeps the field of view at 15Hz with 64 beams. Here is there website: http://velodynelidar.com/lidar... .. From my understanding, there are 64 laser diodes mounted as a stripe, and 64 corresponding avalanche photodiodes , each group of 8 detectors is being fed to an 8-bit 3 gigasample per second ADC.
These units sell for $80K, and is one of the factors effecting wider adoption. I understand that there is a lot of demand among the auto and trucking industries if these can be made cheaper. This technology will become much cheaper as the cost of the ADC's drop. Right now, a 3GSPS adc costs about $600. A few years ago, this is what a 1GSPS part cost... process node shrinkage will make this kind of technology affordable, and open up a lot of other interesting ideas.
I could cobble together a better looking / functioning beta in my sleep. Can we kill it? NOW!
in this case change is utter shite, why would you change something that is great into poo?
It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Don't worry. There will be another war. And one after that. And one after that. I don't know when, or where... but I seriously doubt that we'll get global peace anytime soon.
Lets bitch and moan over /. and make shit up like "without us they wouldn't make money from there ads" and leave out how many don't bother to 1, click on the ads, or 2, have Adblock on there browsers.
Lets not bother to actually comment on the story itself, lets act like the idiots on Facebook, and Twitter and leave senseless comments over some dumb repetitive "beta sucks" bullshit.
Goodbye to all of you a-holes, apparently we know how not to read /. articles on getting to "old Slashdot", when the "old Slashdot" is running.
The US backed stabbed the Taliban during the Afghy - Russian war. And lets believe 9/11 was ignored for 5 years, 5YEARS, US intelligence knew about this supposed attack, and did nothing to stop it, and I have to hear the right wingers [during a Republican controlled Clinton Administration] saying Clinton didn't authorize anything to be done, BS. No agency shared information, and they all knew about it, hmmmm go figure..
This is pretty much what the US does anymore for war propaganda, lets makes friends with countries then fuck them over and wonder why we are disliked. Oh yeah, by the way lets ignore how the US was stolen from its native people.
How could this possibly be offtopic? This is currently the only topic on /.
The Dutch will inherit the earth. If not, we'll settle for a bit of ocean. Beta delenda est!
Good eye! Lockheed told me that some of the gear used in this demo was relatively high-end, but they think they can downgrade with commercial applications (they might also be hoping for more a priori LIDAR data by the time that's feasible).
Wow, I finally went over and actually tried to read posts in the beta format...
I will never come back to the site. How can I? I can't believe I'm saying it... it's a HORRIBLE design. It effectively kills the discussions by not showing information in an easy-to-read format. It's an abomination of design. Fron tpage looks nice, discussions are a disaster. What numbskull greenlighted this thing?
I've been coming here for maybe 10-ish years (?), and there is no place like it, but that's because of the discussion format.
Don't do the Beta!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...