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User: omnichad

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  1. Re:rarely is an accident an accident. on Autonomous Car Ethics: If a Crash Is Unavoidable, What Does It Hit? · · Score: 1

    It's illegal in most states in the US but California has an explicit provision to allow it. They call it lane splitting.

    And it's still dangerous because stationary traffic doesn't stay stationary, and it's usually stationary for a reason. Visibility would be very poor in cases of cross-traffic.

  2. Re:A bunch of nuns? on Autonomous Car Ethics: If a Crash Is Unavoidable, What Does It Hit? · · Score: 1

    The first rule of robotics would just as equally apply to the innocents at risk. The three laws have no owner loyalty. Also - the zeroth law might come into play if risking one live saved many.

  3. Re:A bunch of nuns? on Autonomous Car Ethics: If a Crash Is Unavoidable, What Does It Hit? · · Score: 1

    Why?

    Because it's competing on the market with human-driven cars and that's a fairly important feature. Its predictions won't be 100% accurate anyway, so a suicide move just isn't the best option.

  4. Comma, Comma, Comma on First Arrest In Japan For 3D-Printed Guns · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He was apparently in possession of five, 3D-printed handguns, two of which were reportedly capable of firing normal rounds (although no actual bullets were found)

    The commas...I just don't understand...

  5. Re:Not technically a leak on Dropbox and Box Leaked Shared Private Files Through Google · · Score: 1

    Neither Dropbox nor Box are going to accidentally publish their HTTP server's logs publicly.

    It is up to them whether to put up a Robots.txt file to determine this. Both even have one- but it doesn't include shared private files:

  6. Re:Google on Dropbox and Box Leaked Shared Private Files Through Google · · Score: 1

    That's up to the web site creator. Robots.txt is what determines whether a URL is truly private.

  7. Re:E=MC^2 on Is There a Limit To a Laser's Energy? · · Score: 1

    That's a theoretical conversion if turning energy into mass. Not a superstate of being both mass and energy.

  8. Re:You keep using that word on Is There a Limit To a Laser's Energy? · · Score: 1

    It's probably a hypercorrection because the original term is mathematics, and therefore its short form should be plural. No, if I want to make it short - I'll leave off as many letters as I want to. From this point on, a capital M refers to the field of mathematics.

  9. Re:Punishment fits the crime on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    A death-row inmate costs, what, $50-75-100K/yr to house and feed?

    The real criminals are the prison industry. Let's say prison is not a standard household and there are guards and such. But they are also living on a very small piece of real estate per person. Going to college is cheaper than going to prison. Money that could be going to provide financial aid to students is being used to house criminals at outrageous rates.

  10. Re:Hmm on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    A bit expensive building a tall building next to every grave site. Makes for an interesting business district.

  11. Re:Time to move into the Century of the fruit bat. on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    Their entire post was about the wrongly accused. You addressed exactly none of it.

  12. Re:Time to move into the Century of the fruit bat. on Oklahoma Botched an Execution With Untested Lethal Injection Drugs · · Score: 1

    Because apparently death is only cruel if it hurts. Or at least that's how our constitution has been interpreted.

  13. Re:Not how credit ratings work on Ask Slashdot: How To Back Up Physical Data? · · Score: 1

    Having no balances anywhere is also a hit against your credit score.

  14. Re:Overly Paranoid on Ask Slashdot: How To Back Up Physical Data? · · Score: 2

    That would certainly be a large steal, but it would be a difficult steal.

  15. Re:Not the first go at this on Designer Creates a Water Bottle That You Can Eat · · Score: 1

    I highly doubt they'd base a patent on any broad claim, when they clearly have a working prototype that isn't made of wax.

  16. Re:Good reasons on Designer Creates a Water Bottle That You Can Eat · · Score: 1

    Ozarka is very good. I can't buy it around here. I actually buy my water from Aldi and pay just over 10 cents per half liter bottle. I just can't stand tap water. I can't even stand the taste of water out of a re-usable bottle (plastic or stainless steel), because it picks up bad flavors.

  17. Re:WMV fail on New Shape Born From Rubber Bands · · Score: 1

    A new meaning to platform agnostic. Just leave off the file extension.

  18. Re:Doesn't occur in nature? on New Shape Born From Rubber Bands · · Score: 2

    If your calamari turns into rubber bands, you're probably overcooking it.

  19. Re:The real discovery here: on New Shape Born From Rubber Bands · · Score: 1

    You can't trademark Direct Sound. Microsoft already has DirectSound.

  20. Re:Does it also apply to homes? on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    No, I'm assuming that your only need to be at a border is international travel. And that's a very specific exception that's been interpreted from the fourth amendment. A warrant is only one way to establish reasonableness. At the border, it's been reasoned to be not unreasonable.

  21. Re:Does it also apply to homes? on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    border...domestic... I sense a disconnect here.

  22. Re:Anybody know the plate# for each scotus? on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    GPS doesn't enter into it for most phones, particularly those that don't have it.

    The FCC mandated in 1996 that location capabilities be within 125 meters. This can be done with triangulation alone, but most phones started getting GPS chips around this time. If a cell phone is only on one tower, fine. But it probably won't stay there.

    Again, the registered owner does not matter if they are tracking by location.

    But they can also use their data to call that phone - even without the phone number - and simply ask the person. If they're a legitimate eye-witness, they'll respond.

  23. Re:Anybody know the plate# for each scotus? on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    You're right - E911 works on any network and even on unactivated phones. But unless the caller threw away the phone, it can be traced with the cell company's help. Either pinging the phone to respond with GPS or just triangulating by tower.

  24. Re:A boon for Parallel Construction on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    The fact is, it was ruled legitimate because it's not truly anonymous:

    Relying on 911 tipsters is reasonable, he said, because "a 911 call has some features that allow for identifying and tracking callers," and the calls can be recorded.

    If they need to they can almost certainly track down the caller. Even most prepaid phones in the US require a verified billing address.

  25. Re:A boon for Parallel Construction on Supreme Court OKs Stop and Search Based On Anonymous 911 Tips · · Score: 1

    I for one don't think that the accuser should ever be anonymous when it comes to court cases, since we would have a right to face them in a court of law.

    Hint: an E911 call is not anonymous (in most cases). But even if they are, we're only talking about establishing reasonable suspicion. That's all it takes to make a traffic stop. Everything that happened beyond that is fully legal and by the book. The search was based on an odor which is also an established probable cause (although parallel construction could be an issue if they didn't actually smell anything).