There's a problem with outcome 5. All the intelligent people who would be capable of something like that have grown up and gotten jobs and such and no longer associate with this Anonymous thing of their childhood.
It depends. The ETF is composed of two parts - the first is the phone subsidy, the second is the breaking of contract penalties.
Maybe you're in a different country? Maybe you're simply talking out of your ass? I don't know.
I can tell you with absolute 100% certainty that the Verizon Wireless Customer Agreement states nothing about returning your phone due to cancellation before the contract period. They do have a cooling-off period where you have the ability to cancel your contract sans ETF as well as get a full refund (minus the cost of the service for the number of days between initialization and cancellation) as long as you return any subsidized equipment. After that 14 days, you will be stuck with an ETF and you are under absolutely no legal or contractual obligation to ever return your equipment to Verizon Wireless for any reason... because, again, you have purchased the equipment from them. It was a direct sale to you. Not a loan. Not a lease. You purchased it at a subsidized price while agreeing to enter into another contract that was completely separate from the sale transaction itself.
We have software in wide use that can identify an individual from a photograph of their face when given a database of millions. What makes you think it would be unfeasible for a program to use real-time 360-degree three-dimensional scanning data to discern whether a motorcycle has a person on it?
So, you're saying that all union members are liberals which makes them lazy and unreliable mercenaries and all workers at open shops are conservatives, which makes them generous, hard-working souls who will work for free?
I didn't say all union members were liberals and I didn't say all workers at open shops were conservatives. I made an observation that the left-leaning union members tend to be less willing to do work and the right-leaning non-union-members tend to be willing to sacrifice a little for the sake of taking pride in their work. It's strictly observational.
In saying so, I'm absolutely guilty of malicious over-generalization. And so are you.
You're a clown. Leave me alone, please.
This is a discussion forum. I'm simply discussing. Why participate in a discussion forum if you can't handle the fact that somebody will have an opinion that directly contradicts yours? u mad.
Also, did you know that the size of the deficit is almost exactly the size of TARP 1 and TARP 2 combined? That was when we bailed out the banks, at 100 cents on the dollar, for bad decisions they made all on their own. We didn't just give them a hand back to solvency, we made sure that they didn't lose a single nickel. They took that money and bought their competition, paid themselves huge bonuses and then turned that money into part of the $65 TRILLION that makes up their assets.
Most of your post makes sense and is probably true, but you've been eating the media's anti-Bush propaganda about TARP. TARP was bail-out loans paid to banks and preferred stock investments purchased from banks and other large institutions to help maintain solvency during a deep recession. Most of that money has been paid back plus interest, and none of it was ever intended to be money that we were just throwing at the banks for free.
Not to troll but if it goes on like this the safest option to travel across the US will be by car or train.
As long as ATC is up and running, air travel will forever be the safest option. Hell, even if it weren't up and running, planes have more than enough equipment in them that pilots could safely fly into even the busiest airports without controllers... it would be horribly inefficient because of the clearances they'd have to keep, but it would be possible. Driving is several magnitudes more dangerous than flying, and even trains have a few times as many casualties as flying every year. The aviation safety record is phenomenal and, while the ATC has a huge part in the efficiency of safe air travel, safe air travel would be possible without them.
Plus, driving is far more expensive and time consuming, and we don't have anything close to a train infrastructure that could take over aviation (beside the fact that it's also extremely expensive and time consuming compared to flying).
I wonder how many members of the Tea Party (at least the few who are not on Social Security or disability) would ever put in a day's work for free.
Speaking strictly about the construction industry here, as I have little experience anywhere else. I find that it's typically the Liberal union members who wouldn't ever dare touch a tool without being paid to do so (even the guy who runs the fucking elevator refuses to touch the little handle that he has to pull to make the thing go up and down on his break... even though he's sitting right there doing nothing) while the more Conservative individuals who work for open shops tend to have no problem with doing a little work off the clock. I'm one of those more Conservative-leaning non-union individuals and I've stayed a half hour late taking a delivery. I've missed lunch for the same reason. I've sometimes started working early simply out of boredom. And it's a give and take... there's some wiggle room for sitting around a few minutes extra after lunch. It's alright if you're busting your ass and you need to sit down for a little while to take a breather. Sometimes we leave a half hour early before a long holiday weekend and still get paid the full hour. While the union guys kind of just meander around the jobsite without any dedication to their job or pride in their work... all they're doing is watching the clock so they can start cleaning up 30 minutes before the end of their shift and be back at their cars at the end of their shift.
How many teams of for-profit hackers will be targeting your personal server?
Thousands. Have you ever run a server and looked at access logs? There are thousands of bots running automated attempts to exploit any vulnerability they can find. There are no automated vuln bots that will ever make it into Google's servers. And skilled for-profit hackers don't even bother trying... there are better, smaller, more vulnerable fish that can be fried in much less time.
You make some interesting points, although I disagree and would like to point out the flaws with each one using the quote-and-respond method that I absolutely despise:
(And to you over-zealous folk with mod points that like to stifle opinions that oppose yours: Please at least read what I have to say after you reflex-mod me Troll.)
1) Is a strong currency even desirable? China has a very weak currency compared to the dollar, for instance.
Currency is traded on an open market, and the value of a currency can only be described in relation to another currency. A strong currency means a strong economy, and vice versa. If you don't think a strong economy is desirable, then that's fine. But if we are to be the successful, powerful nation at the top of the food chain that we have historically been over the last couple centuries, then a strong economy is absolutely necessary.
China has a very weak currency because they have a very weak economy. They're a communist nation and nearly every large project carried out in or by their country is funded by money that does not exist. China carries out large construction projects to artificially increase their GDP by printing more money to acquire materials and pay workers. Most of the real money China has is in the hands of the people who manufacture goods for the United States. That's why China has a huge GDP but a weak currency. Their bubble will soon burst.
3) What is government for? What would you like it to do? I see a growing number of people who want to completely dismantle government and put as much money as they can into their pocket. Well, do you like paved roads? Do you like "free" education? These are things that you either pay for in taxes or you pay directly from your wallet.
Government is for providing public infrastructure to facilitate my ability to lead a successful life of my own. That means transportation, law enforcement, education, defense, and science, among a few other things. Social programs are necessary to an extent, but not the handouts that are so prevalent today. What the Neo-Conservatives and Tea Partiers say they want and what the super Liberals say they want are two completely opposite things and neither will result in a successful economy. A good government is one that involves itself where government is necessary and stays out of things where it isn't.
4) Why is gun ownership such a desirable thing? If you honestly believe you require a weapon on you for personal protection, it means that we are risking societal collapse as two strangers have to worry about the other one attacking them. Not only that, but that no one will come to help them. This is an admission that there is a failure at the local government level (police), that these people exist at all (failure of education and prison system).
Why is it such an undesirable thing? What if I just want to have a gun? Why is that such a problem for you? Why can't you just leave me alone and stop poking your nose into my business?
But that's not the point. There is a failure at the local government level. There is a failure of the education system. There is a failure of the prison system. But that's not the point either. None of those things, no matter how successful, will protect you in the event that a madman enters your house and the only option you have is to kill him yourself... no matter how fast and skilled your police department is, they will never be able to teleport into your house and stop a raving lunatic on a moment's notice. Nor will they stop a mugger. Nor will they stop anybody who wishes harm upon you in any fashion.
But that's not the point either. Gun ownership is important to protect yourself against the government. Guns are feared for a very good reason: They're deadly. They are a tool designed for killing. When guns are in the hands of citizens, the citizens are feared by the government. Call me paranoid, but that is
Some places actually charge you a large early termination fee AND make you return your phone. And charge you if the phone isn't in perfect condition.
Citation needed. That would be illegal. Even though they lock you into a 2-year contract when buying a phone at a subsidized price, you ARE making a legitimate purchase and the phone does become your property and yours alone (interpretation of "your property and yours alone" may differ).
In my office, Susie Secretary can't control the thermostat (only Facilities can), and since there's limited cooling zones, they have a hard time making everyone comfortable. When Joe Boss with the corner office starts getting afternoon sun through the windows, Susie Secretary outside of his office suffers because the air handlers are sending so much cooling to that zone that it's 67 degrees in her office and 73 degrees in his.
Sure, it's possible to fix it with a system redesign and maybe some more walls to zone out the cooling better, but when finance looks at $80K to redesign the cooling system for the entire office and compares with telling Susie to wear a sweater in August, guess who wins?
Newer automated HVAC systems have variable air valves to each outlet (or at least to each room). Every room has a thermostat with a slider that simply says "COLDER ------------ WARMER" and allows for adjusting the temperature a couple degrees in each direction from the Facilities-set center point. You can also usually control everything over the internet these days too to make sure your workspace is the perfect temperature before you get to work... unless of course we're talking about the room I've had class in for the past 2 weeks. When class first started, the air handler supplying our quarter of the building was broken so the heat wave sweeping through the Sacramento valley made the room about 80 degrees. They managed to get the thing fixed after a couple days but our VAV was stuck open... so the room became about 60 degrees.
Well for one you're acting like you think the meters are able to sense exactly what kind of appliances you're running which is ridiculous. All they can do is presume that you're running an illegal grow operation due to a sudden spike in power use as you turn on huge lights and fans. And that's not enough for a warrant. The utility will tell the police that it's possible you're running a grow operation because a constant draw of that much power (most of it being inductive due to big dirty lamp ballasts, which imparts interference and frequency fluctuations upon the grid) is detrimental to the rest of the neighborhood. The police would then have to perform some actual investigation before they'd be able to get a search warrant.
Example: You're driving in a construction zone with a car to your left and a construction barrier to your right. A deer jumps over the barrier and lands two feet in front of your car. You only get to choose whether you hit the deer, the barrier or the car to your left. There is no choice that avoids a collision. If a self-driving car is put in that situation, it has the same alternatives, and we shouldn't be at all surprised when some similar situation ultimately occurs.
Or when the two drivers' roles are reversed and the other one swerves into you to avoid the deer. Neither situation would be your fault, but in your original scenario you would be considered at fault because you're the one that caused the collision.
The huge difference is that an automated car would be able to see that deer coming and initiate a correction before it's even visible to the driver. It would take a human driver close to a second after the deer is visible before he even computes that there's a deer jumping in front of him... and then your puny human brain has to calculate the safest action to take and then perform that action. An automated car could perform that entire process in a matter of milliseconds and then perform a highly-skilled maneuver that takes advantage of its 360-degree field of view... another thing that we humans aren't so blessed with.
Good points. I hope that Google made the system such that data logging is enabled whenever the car is running regardless of whether the automated system was in control or not.
Most cars these days, Prius included, have event data recorders on board that log information like Engine speed, Whether the brake pedal was applied or not, Vehicle speed, To what extent the accelerator pedal was depressed, Position of the transmission selector lever, Whether the driver and front passenger wore seat belts or not, Driver’s seat position, SRS airbag deployment data, SRS airbag system diagnostic data, etc. If subpoena'd by police, Toyota would hand that information over.
I won't have a self-driving car until it's capable of doing evaluations like "that teen with the skate board there might swerve left" or "that old lady seems about to cross the street, she might not have seen me" or "that ball rolling across the street was thrown by a kid, he will come running after it".
An automated car with its several-millisecond reflex time doesn't NEED that kind of thinking ahead. Of course any advancements in the AI that would allow better scenario prediction would be welcome, but the car would be seeing the teen with the skate board swerve left and it would be able to react almost instantly and in such a way that it would also be able to perform a highly-skilled and well-thought-out maneuver that takes into account everything it sees in its 360-degree field of view and near perfect knowledge of vehicular physics. It takes a human over a second to even process that such an event is even occurring, and once we do we're quite likely to just slam on the brakes and swerve away potentially into traffic, other hazards, or in the worst case total loss of control as you go careening into the people in the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
Any public crash that could be blamed on the software would put the project in serious jeopardy.
Which is quite unfortunate. I've seen the way people drive and people drive like shit. It's too bad that one wreck by an automated vehicle would cause a media explosion even if the rate of wrecks involving automated vehicles was one hundredth that of conventional vehicles. Google's automated cars have clocked hundreds of thousands of miles over the last couple years. One wreck after driving that far in a computer-controlled car that's still under testing is fucking amazing. Kudos to Google.
Using Scrolls in the generic doesn't dilute and I'll bet you a donut this won't stand up to judicial scrutiny.
Of course it wouldn't. ZeniMax wouldn't in their right mind sue over this. All they did was send a C&D to cover their ass. This will become newsworthy when this becomes a lawsuit. Until then, it's just stupid sensationalism and blaming the company and making them out to be heartless bullies when all they want is to not be fucked by the stupid judicial system.
You're absolutely correct about the first part, but your analogy doesn't apply. There's a difference between suing for the use of "Scrolls" and suing for the use of "Racing". "Racing" would be a general term that simply describes the game and nearly every racing game has "Racing" in the title so it couldn't be recognized to be trademarked by anybody. "Scrolls" is an important part of the game's title and in order for ZeniMax to ensure that they'll be able to defend their trademarks in the future against those who actually are infringing upon them in some drastic way, they have to actively defend their trademarks at all times. Call it a flawed legal system, but that's just the way it is.
Why would you say that? ZeniMax have to defend their trademarks. Obviously, they would never take actual legal action against Notch for this, but they have to send a cease and desist in order to protect themselves during potential future litigation against companies that DO infringe upon their trademarks in a way that COULD harm ZeniMax. Why this is newsworthy beats me.
There, fixed that for you.
If you're gonna be an egotistical jackass posting simply to correct my grammar, perhaps you should actually correct it. Way to fail.
What's with the 'This.' meme on Slashdot recently? It's totally pointless filler and a redundant word, sentence and paragraph all in one. Well done there.
Slashdot Mirror
Problem with outcome 6*. Fuck.
Well I guess it's a problem with all outcomes that don't result in massive failure.
There's a problem with outcome 5. All the intelligent people who would be capable of something like that have grown up and gotten jobs and such and no longer associate with this Anonymous thing of their childhood.
You only post about twice a month. The system doesn't condone that kind of erratic behavior, and absolutely would not reward it with points.
It depends. The ETF is composed of two parts - the first is the phone subsidy, the second is the breaking of contract penalties.
Maybe you're in a different country? Maybe you're simply talking out of your ass? I don't know.
I can tell you with absolute 100% certainty that the Verizon Wireless Customer Agreement states nothing about returning your phone due to cancellation before the contract period. They do have a cooling-off period where you have the ability to cancel your contract sans ETF as well as get a full refund (minus the cost of the service for the number of days between initialization and cancellation) as long as you return any subsidized equipment. After that 14 days, you will be stuck with an ETF and you are under absolutely no legal or contractual obligation to ever return your equipment to Verizon Wireless for any reason... because, again, you have purchased the equipment from them. It was a direct sale to you. Not a loan. Not a lease. You purchased it at a subsidized price while agreeing to enter into another contract that was completely separate from the sale transaction itself.
We have software in wide use that can identify an individual from a photograph of their face when given a database of millions. What makes you think it would be unfeasible for a program to use real-time 360-degree three-dimensional scanning data to discern whether a motorcycle has a person on it?
So, you're saying that all union members are liberals which makes them lazy and unreliable mercenaries and all workers at open shops are conservatives, which makes them generous, hard-working souls who will work for free?
I didn't say all union members were liberals and I didn't say all workers at open shops were conservatives. I made an observation that the left-leaning union members tend to be less willing to do work and the right-leaning non-union-members tend to be willing to sacrifice a little for the sake of taking pride in their work. It's strictly observational.
In saying so, I'm absolutely guilty of malicious over-generalization. And so are you.
You're a clown. Leave me alone, please.
This is a discussion forum. I'm simply discussing. Why participate in a discussion forum if you can't handle the fact that somebody will have an opinion that directly contradicts yours? u mad.
Also, did you know that the size of the deficit is almost exactly the size of TARP 1 and TARP 2 combined? That was when we bailed out the banks, at 100 cents on the dollar, for bad decisions they made all on their own. We didn't just give them a hand back to solvency, we made sure that they didn't lose a single nickel. They took that money and bought their competition, paid themselves huge bonuses and then turned that money into part of the $65 TRILLION that makes up their assets.
Most of your post makes sense and is probably true, but you've been eating the media's anti-Bush propaganda about TARP. TARP was bail-out loans paid to banks and preferred stock investments purchased from banks and other large institutions to help maintain solvency during a deep recession. Most of that money has been paid back plus interest, and none of it was ever intended to be money that we were just throwing at the banks for free.
Not to troll but if it goes on like this the safest option to travel across the US will be by car or train.
As long as ATC is up and running, air travel will forever be the safest option. Hell, even if it weren't up and running, planes have more than enough equipment in them that pilots could safely fly into even the busiest airports without controllers... it would be horribly inefficient because of the clearances they'd have to keep, but it would be possible. Driving is several magnitudes more dangerous than flying, and even trains have a few times as many casualties as flying every year. The aviation safety record is phenomenal and, while the ATC has a huge part in the efficiency of safe air travel, safe air travel would be possible without them.
Plus, driving is far more expensive and time consuming, and we don't have anything close to a train infrastructure that could take over aviation (beside the fact that it's also extremely expensive and time consuming compared to flying).
I wonder how many members of the Tea Party (at least the few who are not on Social Security or disability) would ever put in a day's work for free.
Speaking strictly about the construction industry here, as I have little experience anywhere else. I find that it's typically the Liberal union members who wouldn't ever dare touch a tool without being paid to do so (even the guy who runs the fucking elevator refuses to touch the little handle that he has to pull to make the thing go up and down on his break... even though he's sitting right there doing nothing) while the more Conservative individuals who work for open shops tend to have no problem with doing a little work off the clock. I'm one of those more Conservative-leaning non-union individuals and I've stayed a half hour late taking a delivery. I've missed lunch for the same reason. I've sometimes started working early simply out of boredom. And it's a give and take... there's some wiggle room for sitting around a few minutes extra after lunch. It's alright if you're busting your ass and you need to sit down for a little while to take a breather. Sometimes we leave a half hour early before a long holiday weekend and still get paid the full hour. While the union guys kind of just meander around the jobsite without any dedication to their job or pride in their work... all they're doing is watching the clock so they can start cleaning up 30 minutes before the end of their shift and be back at their cars at the end of their shift.
How many teams of for-profit hackers will be targeting your personal server?
Thousands. Have you ever run a server and looked at access logs? There are thousands of bots running automated attempts to exploit any vulnerability they can find. There are no automated vuln bots that will ever make it into Google's servers. And skilled for-profit hackers don't even bother trying... there are better, smaller, more vulnerable fish that can be fried in much less time.
(I'd put using Outlook just over fellating a goat on the list of things I want to avoid)
Fellating a goat isn't that bad.
You make some interesting points, although I disagree and would like to point out the flaws with each one using the quote-and-respond method that I absolutely despise:
(And to you over-zealous folk with mod points that like to stifle opinions that oppose yours: Please at least read what I have to say after you reflex-mod me Troll.)
1) Is a strong currency even desirable? China has a very weak currency compared to the dollar, for instance.
Currency is traded on an open market, and the value of a currency can only be described in relation to another currency. A strong currency means a strong economy, and vice versa. If you don't think a strong economy is desirable, then that's fine. But if we are to be the successful, powerful nation at the top of the food chain that we have historically been over the last couple centuries, then a strong economy is absolutely necessary.
China has a very weak currency because they have a very weak economy. They're a communist nation and nearly every large project carried out in or by their country is funded by money that does not exist. China carries out large construction projects to artificially increase their GDP by printing more money to acquire materials and pay workers. Most of the real money China has is in the hands of the people who manufacture goods for the United States. That's why China has a huge GDP but a weak currency. Their bubble will soon burst.
3) What is government for? What would you like it to do? I see a growing number of people who want to completely dismantle government and put as much money as they can into their pocket. Well, do you like paved roads? Do you like "free" education? These are things that you either pay for in taxes or you pay directly from your wallet.
Government is for providing public infrastructure to facilitate my ability to lead a successful life of my own. That means transportation, law enforcement, education, defense, and science, among a few other things. Social programs are necessary to an extent, but not the handouts that are so prevalent today. What the Neo-Conservatives and Tea Partiers say they want and what the super Liberals say they want are two completely opposite things and neither will result in a successful economy. A good government is one that involves itself where government is necessary and stays out of things where it isn't.
4) Why is gun ownership such a desirable thing? If you honestly believe you require a weapon on you for personal protection, it means that we are risking societal collapse as two strangers have to worry about the other one attacking them. Not only that, but that no one will come to help them. This is an admission that there is a failure at the local government level (police), that these people exist at all (failure of education and prison system).
Why is it such an undesirable thing? What if I just want to have a gun? Why is that such a problem for you? Why can't you just leave me alone and stop poking your nose into my business?
But that's not the point. There is a failure at the local government level. There is a failure of the education system. There is a failure of the prison system. But that's not the point either. None of those things, no matter how successful, will protect you in the event that a madman enters your house and the only option you have is to kill him yourself... no matter how fast and skilled your police department is, they will never be able to teleport into your house and stop a raving lunatic on a moment's notice. Nor will they stop a mugger. Nor will they stop anybody who wishes harm upon you in any fashion.
But that's not the point either. Gun ownership is important to protect yourself against the government. Guns are feared for a very good reason: They're deadly. They are a tool designed for killing. When guns are in the hands of citizens, the citizens are feared by the government. Call me paranoid, but that is
Some places actually charge you a large early termination fee AND make you return your phone. And charge you if the phone isn't in perfect condition.
Citation needed. That would be illegal. Even though they lock you into a 2-year contract when buying a phone at a subsidized price, you ARE making a legitimate purchase and the phone does become your property and yours alone (interpretation of "your property and yours alone" may differ).
Next time you run into Big William, please ask him what he meant by "to be or not to be" for me !
What the fuck do you mean by that, Bill? For that is the real question.
In my office, Susie Secretary can't control the thermostat (only Facilities can), and since there's limited cooling zones, they have a hard time making everyone comfortable. When Joe Boss with the corner office starts getting afternoon sun through the windows, Susie Secretary outside of his office suffers because the air handlers are sending so much cooling to that zone that it's 67 degrees in her office and 73 degrees in his.
Sure, it's possible to fix it with a system redesign and maybe some more walls to zone out the cooling better, but when finance looks at $80K to redesign the cooling system for the entire office and compares with telling Susie to wear a sweater in August, guess who wins?
Newer automated HVAC systems have variable air valves to each outlet (or at least to each room). Every room has a thermostat with a slider that simply says "COLDER ------------ WARMER" and allows for adjusting the temperature a couple degrees in each direction from the Facilities-set center point. You can also usually control everything over the internet these days too to make sure your workspace is the perfect temperature before you get to work... unless of course we're talking about the room I've had class in for the past 2 weeks. When class first started, the air handler supplying our quarter of the building was broken so the heat wave sweeping through the Sacramento valley made the room about 80 degrees. They managed to get the thing fixed after a couple days but our VAV was stuck open... so the room became about 60 degrees.
Well for one you're acting like you think the meters are able to sense exactly what kind of appliances you're running which is ridiculous. All they can do is presume that you're running an illegal grow operation due to a sudden spike in power use as you turn on huge lights and fans. And that's not enough for a warrant. The utility will tell the police that it's possible you're running a grow operation because a constant draw of that much power (most of it being inductive due to big dirty lamp ballasts, which imparts interference and frequency fluctuations upon the grid) is detrimental to the rest of the neighborhood. The police would then have to perform some actual investigation before they'd be able to get a search warrant.
Example: You're driving in a construction zone with a car to your left and a construction barrier to your right. A deer jumps over the barrier and lands two feet in front of your car. You only get to choose whether you hit the deer, the barrier or the car to your left. There is no choice that avoids a collision. If a self-driving car is put in that situation, it has the same alternatives, and we shouldn't be at all surprised when some similar situation ultimately occurs.
Or when the two drivers' roles are reversed and the other one swerves into you to avoid the deer. Neither situation would be your fault, but in your original scenario you would be considered at fault because you're the one that caused the collision.
The huge difference is that an automated car would be able to see that deer coming and initiate a correction before it's even visible to the driver. It would take a human driver close to a second after the deer is visible before he even computes that there's a deer jumping in front of him... and then your puny human brain has to calculate the safest action to take and then perform that action. An automated car could perform that entire process in a matter of milliseconds and then perform a highly-skilled maneuver that takes advantage of its 360-degree field of view... another thing that we humans aren't so blessed with.
Good points. I hope that Google made the system such that data logging is enabled whenever the car is running regardless of whether the automated system was in control or not.
Most cars these days, Prius included, have event data recorders on board that log information like Engine speed, Whether the brake pedal was applied or not, Vehicle speed, To what extent the accelerator pedal was depressed, Position of the transmission selector lever, Whether the driver and front passenger wore seat belts or not, Driver’s seat position, SRS airbag deployment data, SRS airbag system diagnostic data, etc. If subpoena'd by police, Toyota would hand that information over.
I won't have a self-driving car until it's capable of doing evaluations like "that teen with the skate board there might swerve left" or "that old lady seems about to cross the street, she might not have seen me" or "that ball rolling across the street was thrown by a kid, he will come running after it".
An automated car with its several-millisecond reflex time doesn't NEED that kind of thinking ahead. Of course any advancements in the AI that would allow better scenario prediction would be welcome, but the car would be seeing the teen with the skate board swerve left and it would be able to react almost instantly and in such a way that it would also be able to perform a highly-skilled and well-thought-out maneuver that takes into account everything it sees in its 360-degree field of view and near perfect knowledge of vehicular physics. It takes a human over a second to even process that such an event is even occurring, and once we do we're quite likely to just slam on the brakes and swerve away potentially into traffic, other hazards, or in the worst case total loss of control as you go careening into the people in the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
But you can see dust coming out of the building as it's collapsing to the ground so it must have been blown up by George Bush!!!!!!!
Any public crash that could be blamed on the software would put the project in serious jeopardy.
Which is quite unfortunate. I've seen the way people drive and people drive like shit. It's too bad that one wreck by an automated vehicle would cause a media explosion even if the rate of wrecks involving automated vehicles was one hundredth that of conventional vehicles. Google's automated cars have clocked hundreds of thousands of miles over the last couple years. One wreck after driving that far in a computer-controlled car that's still under testing is fucking amazing. Kudos to Google.
Using Scrolls in the generic doesn't dilute and I'll bet you a donut this won't stand up to judicial scrutiny.
Of course it wouldn't. ZeniMax wouldn't in their right mind sue over this. All they did was send a C&D to cover their ass. This will become newsworthy when this becomes a lawsuit. Until then, it's just stupid sensationalism and blaming the company and making them out to be heartless bullies when all they want is to not be fucked by the stupid judicial system.
You're absolutely correct about the first part, but your analogy doesn't apply. There's a difference between suing for the use of "Scrolls" and suing for the use of "Racing". "Racing" would be a general term that simply describes the game and nearly every racing game has "Racing" in the title so it couldn't be recognized to be trademarked by anybody. "Scrolls" is an important part of the game's title and in order for ZeniMax to ensure that they'll be able to defend their trademarks in the future against those who actually are infringing upon them in some drastic way, they have to actively defend their trademarks at all times. Call it a flawed legal system, but that's just the way it is.
Why would you say that? ZeniMax have to defend their trademarks. Obviously, they would never take actual legal action against Notch for this, but they have to send a cease and desist in order to protect themselves during potential future litigation against companies that DO infringe upon their trademarks in a way that COULD harm ZeniMax. Why this is newsworthy beats me.
There, fixed that for you.
If you're gonna be an egotistical jackass posting simply to correct my grammar, perhaps you should actually correct it. Way to fail.
What's with the 'This.' meme on Slashdot recently? It's totally pointless filler and a redundant word, sentence and paragraph all in one. Well done there.
This.