Can't stand "reality TV" in any of its various guises. This just give me one more reason not to watch it.
How is Top Gear a "reality show?" They test drive cars most people will never be able to afford, engage in 'challenges' that have little to nothing to do with reality, and spend most of the rest of the episode making bad jokes and puns.
To top it off, (most) every episode features a millionaire celebrity taking a lap in a cheap dogeater that not a one of them would ever, ever buy.
Nothing about that show would qualify it as "reality TV," IMHO... except maybe to people with a warped sense of what's real.
The oil companies are subsidized by US taxpayers to the total of 20 BILLion dollars a year.
Give that twenty billion to electric battery producers to subsidize their costs, and you'll see $19,0000 cars that get 500 miles per charge. It's all a matter of what we think is a "subsidy".
Yea I can't imagine anything going wrong with that...
Oil powered cars are subsidized by direct payouts to oil companies for drilling. We don't charge oil companies for the direct damage they do to the planet; that's "external" cost, not slapped on the price of your car. The cost of global warming will be hundreds of trillions. Your car company will not have to pay that. We have gone to war in Kuwait, Iraq, and soon Iran and Africa to secure oil fields, at the cost of trillions; that cost, for decades to come, is carried by taxpayers, and never charged on the pump or in the cost of your car.
Being that you actually have to turn this feature on yourself, I'd say that amounts to prior consent...
Yea, ok, I can buy that. Point conceded.
The Top Gear scam, as admitted by Top Gear's producers, was that they had already decided on the result AND written the script before receiving the vehicles. Yes, it's entertainment, yes I love the show too, and yes, Tesla's response wasn't the greatest (lawsuit subsequently thrown out for legal technicalities despite judge confirming intentional lies by Top Gear), but come on they were presenting a review as if it was a result of testing, not of scripting...
I still maintain that anyone who watches Top Gear regularly already knew it was a rigged game.
The blog entry explains that the logging is not done on consumer vehicles without prior consent,
And, as we've all learned from EULA's and ToS', that prior consent is always willfully and knowingly given, right? FWIW, the Tesla Corp. is not the group I'm concerned about having access to my driving data.
but that this is always turned on for the press, after Tesla was scammed by Top Gear.
Anyone who thinks the electric car maker was "scammed" by Top Gear has obviously never watched Top Gear - Jeremy hates those things, and he's not afraid to let the world know.
Makes perfect sense -- the round-ish hotspot in the room where the servers all sit is the hot isle, and the space surrounding the AC vents on the ceiling is the cold isle.
Is there any future legislation that you know of / heard about during your time as a staffer that we, the People, should get a heads-up on? Specifically, anything nefarious regarding things like copyright, patents, digital property and/or privacy, et. al?
So, your story is, essentially, that you stood up for the American People, did the right thing, and got yourself fired as a result.
Exactly how bad is the situation in D.C., really? Is there any useful purpose to our attempts at participating in democracy, or do lobbyists and special interests completely run the show at this point?
Hardware manufacturers have been trying to kill off the repair business for the same reason video game makers are trying to kill off the used game market - every dollar you spend fixing something you already own, is a dollar they don't get.
What blows my mind are the hypocrites here on/. who will wail endlessly about EA and Sony locking a game disk to a particular console (i.e., something that really doesn't matter in the 'big scheme of things'), then subsequently accuse people who complain about hardware makers doing the exact same thing of being "buggy whip makers," even though the trend of planned obsolescence in hardware is far more dangerous to society than anything having to do with a stupid fucking video game.
I disagree. I think this will hurt sales more than anything.
I don't own an ipad for this very reason and I won't be the owner of a surface pro either, apparently.
Yea, this.
Given the option, I refuse to buy products that are designed to fail within a specific period of time, namely because I'm not an idiot with more money than sense.
I can't see myself actively doing anything with a device that small, but I wouldn't mind a watch that acts as a passive display for info from my phone (caller, text messages, meeting name/time/location, etc.) so that I don't have to get it out of my pocket every time it buzzes to find out why it is buzzing.
Yea, I'll grant that would be pretty handy.
Maybe a flexible OLED touchscreen, so you can bang out a quick text response to important stuff, too... But that might be taking it too far.
Slashdot Mirror
So, that means I should be able to go down to the tobacco shop, get a can of compressed lighter fluid, and refill the charger on the cheap, right?
No? You're telling me I have to go buy proprietary cartridges that will, without doubt, cost far more than a can of commercial butane?
Yea, you can shove that over-priced, over-hyped bullshit right where the sun don't shine, Bucko.
I don't think PBS' Motor Week decides results prior to receiving cars.
PBS doesn't count, they're actual journalists, not entertainers.
In case you were wondering, yes, that's a dig on pretty much every other "news" agency in the nation.
I suppose we'll just have to chalk this one up to the old adage, 'one man's trash is another man's entertainment.'
What nobody here seems to be talking about are refurbished items.
A bit further down the thread, but for the record, I do not disagree with you in any way.
Wrote the script before receiving the cars. All I need to know.
Yup - just like every other TV show about cars.
You want accurate information? Go read Consumer Reports. You want car-related entertainment? Watch Top Gear.
Simple as that.
Can't stand "reality TV" in any of its various guises. This just give me one more reason not to watch it.
How is Top Gear a "reality show?" They test drive cars most people will never be able to afford, engage in 'challenges' that have little to nothing to do with reality, and spend most of the rest of the episode making bad jokes and puns.
To top it off, (most) every episode features a millionaire celebrity taking a lap in a cheap dogeater that not a one of them would ever, ever buy.
Nothing about that show would qualify it as "reality TV," IMHO... except maybe to people with a warped sense of what's real.
I'm surprised they didn't post GPS data of the actual route, especially the parking lot incident.
Heh, yea, it would be poetic justice for Musk to post the video of Capt. Jackass circling the lot, and out him for the charlatan he is, wouldn't it?
The only thing I have against EV's is the charging time and battery issues.
Meh, that I can live with - it's not a new phenomena that early adopters of technology pay a premium for often sub-par results.
The oil companies are subsidized by US taxpayers to the total of 20 BILLion dollars a year.
Give that twenty billion to electric battery producers to subsidize their costs, and you'll see $19,0000 cars that get 500 miles per charge. It's all a matter of what we think is a "subsidy".
Yea I can't imagine anything going wrong with that...
Oh, wait, yes I can, because it's happened.
Oil powered cars are subsidized by direct payouts to oil companies for drilling. We don't charge oil companies for the direct damage they do to the planet; that's "external" cost, not slapped on the price of your car. The cost of global warming will be hundreds of trillions. Your car company will not have to pay that. We have gone to war in Kuwait, Iraq, and soon Iran and Africa to secure oil fields, at the cost of trillions; that cost, for decades to come, is carried by taxpayers, and never charged on the pump or in the cost of your car.
I take it, then, that you don't know where the lithium for those batteries comes from, or the environmental damage done in order to make them?
Perspective - it matters.
print? there's no printer onboard.
instead, they use TELNET
For you, Sir
Being that you actually have to turn this feature on yourself, I'd say that amounts to prior consent...
Yea, ok, I can buy that. Point conceded.
The Top Gear scam, as admitted by Top Gear's producers, was that they had already decided on the result AND written the script before receiving the vehicles. Yes, it's entertainment, yes I love the show too, and yes, Tesla's response wasn't the greatest (lawsuit subsequently thrown out for legal technicalities despite judge confirming intentional lies by Top Gear), but come on they were presenting a review as if it was a result of testing, not of scripting...
I still maintain that anyone who watches Top Gear regularly already knew it was a rigged game.
Some people just harbor plain old pointless hatred of electric cars. Maybe it's one of those "people who fear new technology" sort of things.
The only thing I have against EV's is the charging time and battery issues.
The blog entry explains that the logging is not done on consumer vehicles without prior consent,
And, as we've all learned from EULA's and ToS', that prior consent is always willfully and knowingly given, right? FWIW, the Tesla Corp. is not the group I'm concerned about having access to my driving data.
but that this is always turned on for the press, after Tesla was scammed by Top Gear.
Anyone who thinks the electric car maker was "scammed" by Top Gear has obviously never watched Top Gear - Jeremy hates those things, and he's not afraid to let the world know.
It means they take a unit someone else has returned as broken. Wipe it with a rag to get rid of the finger prints and send it to you.
While it's still broken?
C'mon, man, you know what I'm getting at, don't play dumb.
The good news is, you can't fake results with a Tesla.
The bad news is, your car can and will tattle on you.
The slope - it is a slippery one.
Makes perfect sense -- the round-ish hotspot in the room where the servers all sit is the hot isle, and the space surrounding the AC vents on the ceiling is the cold isle.
Oh.
My.
Lord.
You are an idiot.
Is there any future legislation that you know of / heard about during your time as a staffer that we, the People, should get a heads-up on? Specifically, anything nefarious regarding things like copyright, patents, digital property and/or privacy, et. al?
So, your story is, essentially, that you stood up for the American People, did the right thing, and got yourself fired as a result.
Exactly how bad is the situation in D.C., really? Is there any useful purpose to our attempts at participating in democracy, or do lobbyists and special interests completely run the show at this point?
I'm not an idiot with more money than sense.
And you and the GP are irrelevant minorities.
That explains a lot about the direction our society is headed in; given the alternative, I'd have to say I'm happy to be in the minority in this case.
High volume consumer devices have been not-repairable for years. If it fails during warranty, you get a new or "refurbished" unit for free.
...
Do you know not what the word "refurbished" means?
Hardware manufacturers have been trying to kill off the repair business for the same reason video game makers are trying to kill off the used game market - every dollar you spend fixing something you already own, is a dollar they don't get.
What blows my mind are the hypocrites here on /. who will wail endlessly about EA and Sony locking a game disk to a particular console (i.e., something that really doesn't matter in the 'big scheme of things'), then subsequently accuse people who complain about hardware makers doing the exact same thing of being "buggy whip makers," even though the trend of planned obsolescence in hardware is far more dangerous to society than anything having to do with a stupid fucking video game.
I disagree. I think this will hurt sales more than anything.
I don't own an ipad for this very reason and I won't be the owner of a surface pro either, apparently.
Yea, this.
Given the option, I refuse to buy products that are designed to fail within a specific period of time, namely because I'm not an idiot with more money than sense.
FTR, this concept was demonstrated by Darren Kitchen on a 2009 episode of Hak5.
I can't see myself actively doing anything with a device that small, but I wouldn't mind a watch that acts as a passive display for info from my phone (caller, text messages, meeting name/time/location, etc.) so that I don't have to get it out of my pocket every time it buzzes to find out why it is buzzing.
Yea, I'll grant that would be pretty handy.
Maybe a flexible OLED touchscreen, so you can bang out a quick text response to important stuff, too... But that might be taking it too far.
CmdrTaco knew his audience; /.'s new masters at Dice.com don't seem to have figured it out quite yet.
Slashvertisements were certainly common at certain points during CmdrTaco's reign of terror.
Well, sure, but at least he knew to be shady about it.