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User: pr0fessor

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  1. Re:What an Embarrassingly Vapid Article on Focusing On Tech Alone, You Miss How Autonomous Driving Will Change Society · · Score: 1

    https://www.deere.com/en_INT/p...

    autonomous lawn mower has been around for a while...

  2. Re:What an Embarrassingly Vapid Article on Focusing On Tech Alone, You Miss How Autonomous Driving Will Change Society · · Score: 1

    Here is the problem win, loose, or draw a fully autonomous car with a mechanical failure that causes injury or death could be a problem for manufactures. In order to reduce liability and bad press they are going to require a warm body capable and responsible for overriding the autopilot in the event of a failure. Insurance companies will see this as an opportunity to continue business as usual. Will this change in the future? Maybe, but I don't expect to see fully autonomous vehicles this decade, they will wait at least until they have proven the tech with a person in the seat to override it.

  3. Re:Although unused, not useful on Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration · · Score: 1

    Sure they could receive an exemption but would they? Snow removal is seasonal and dependent on snowfall not to mention it only effects home close to a business district probably has little effect on the homes value. Having your house suddenly in a drone flight path could depreciate the value of your home depending on the number and how loud or silent they are.

  4. Re:Why? on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With User Resignation From an IT Perspective? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We had a person like that, everyone thought she just walked around the office batting her eyelashes to get out of doing work. Then she got let go and all hell broke loose because nobody had any idea she was monitoring logs and jobs for all kind of things through out the enterprise everyday fixing stalled jobs etc... not on her workstation but still. She liked to ask me questions and had me check some of them when she would go on leave so I had an idea we were screwed.

  5. Re:Although unused, not useful on Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration · · Score: 1

    No but they do have existing noise ordinances that would not exempt a business' drones.

  6. Re:What the "doomsday" critics all have in common: on Robots4Us: DARPA's Response To Mounting Robophobia · · Score: 1

    Imagination and new ideas don't make possibilities we actually go through life making a lot of mistakes not all of them are apparent until much later and this is how we learn and advance. I will stake my life on it that we will not create an AI capable of turning against humanity and attacking us within my lifetime.

  7. Re:Broken thinking... on Why America's Obsession With STEM Education Is Dangerous · · Score: 1

    Music integrates math and advanced pattern recognition, skills that come in handy for a software developer.

    Music as an art we know is open to interpretation but study music theory which incorporates strict mathematical structure and patterns.

  8. Re:What the "doomsday" critics all have in common: on Robots4Us: DARPA's Response To Mounting Robophobia · · Score: 1

    It's not they are with out imagination it's more likely they dismiss it because it is far to unlikely but you said feeble minded.

    I live in Kansas I could go for a ride today and accidentally drive over a cliff but it is something I would dismiss since Kansas is flat and I'm probably not going to be driving to Colorado.

  9. Re: A Corollary for Code on Why You Should Choose Boring Technology · · Score: 1

    I used to spend a lot of time answering questions that people simply had not taken the time to think through and usually didn't have all the information they needed to make a conclusion. The ability to approach varied problems in a logical manner probably is a special kind of genius.

  10. Re:What the "doomsday" critics all have in common: on Robots4Us: DARPA's Response To Mounting Robophobia · · Score: 1

    Not really, sure maybe someday it will go from fiction to reality, but not today. There are so many predicted technologies from the 60s and 70s that are still just fiction although they were predicting them for the year 2000 and other things that might have been considered wondrous but were not dreamed of at the time that we do have today. I'm guessing a capable AI will not come along in my lifetime.

  11. Re:Brilliant idea on If You Want To Buy an Apple Watch In-Store, You'll Need a Reservation · · Score: 1

    The majority of people I know don't wear watches to begin with, a smart watch is a fancy version of something they wouldn't buy in the first place. I haven't worn a watch since I got a cell phone and everything started having a clock in it.

  12. Re:modular hospitals on Facebook Sued For Alleged Theft of Data Center Design · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Most of the claims aren't listed so it's hard to draw a conclusion. There is a difference between "we pitched them a modular building and they had a contractor build a modular building" and "we pitched them a design for a modular building under contract, they stole the design, and had a competitor build it"

  13. Re:Death of media ... on NY Times: "All the News That Mark Zuckerberg Sees Fit To Print"? · · Score: 1

    Facebook generates a lot of traffic but your right I wouldn't think it would be news that they would attract. I would expect it would be more like trendy over priced brand name of the day.

    I have teenagers that are convinced that cheaply made, over advertised, over priced, crap are quality brands. Seriously, if you blow out a pair of shoes in 3-4 months and buy the same brand again only to do the same thing? Fool me once... They like to point out that I have expensive work boots that cost more but I also get to point out that they have lasted years not months.

    Shortly after buying their overpriced crap shoes they take pictures and post them on facebook.

  14. Re:Yummy, tasty liquid lubricant on Scientists Create Permanently Slick Surface So Ketchup Won't Stay In Bottle · · Score: 1

    I don't know about carcinogenic but I would imagine it might have laxative like properties.

  15. Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too on Researchers: Smartphone Use Changing Our Brain and Thumb Interaction · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was learning to play piano I had a lot of difficulty training my fingers at first. I had to concentrate on what my fingers were doing but the more I practiced the more natural it became. Occasionally I would come across a part that had an unusual timing or chord change and I would have to practice it multiple times to get it down.

    I imagine that doing any complex repetitive task would eventually change the way it looks on an EEG as the person becomes more practiced.

  16. Re:Common sense on Hacking Weight Loss: What I Learned Losing 30 Pounds · · Score: 1

    I'm glad you posted that because vigorous activity makes me hungry and I have never heard that exercise suppresses appetite.

    Now that I'm older stress does not have as dramatic an effect on my weight but when I was younger it would cause me to loose weight. It annoys my wife but I am the guy that can eat way more than you think he should and still not gain weight.

  17. This has been a decade away for as long as I can remember and there have been working prototypes for decades. We will not have self driving cars we will probably instead use the technology to make a very advanced driver assist system and cruise control. Sorry but remote start isn't going to locate the fob with gps and come pick you up at the curb, valets will still do that for a long time.

  18. Right up to the point that any liability claim for a life [especially a child] win or loose will cost them millions. Manufactures recall product for all kinds of hazards all the time to avoid liability, let a few kids in a school zone run out in front of a self driving car and get killed. Manufactures fault or not the publicity is damaging. This is basically a pipe dream that requires a radical shift in our culture that is not likely to happen and this idea has been a decade away for as long as I can remember.

  19. Re:Auto-drive on treacherous sections? on Musk Says Drivers May Become Obsolete, Announces Juice-Saving Upgrades · · Score: 1

    The self driving and flying car have been a decade away for the last four decades so I wouldn't worry about it. Although I imagine more assisted driving features will become available notification of objects in blind spots, backing camera, proximity alerts, and maybe even a cruise control that can maintain a lane and match trafic speed.

  20. Re:HUH on Musk Says Drivers May Become Obsolete, Announces Juice-Saving Upgrades · · Score: 3, Interesting

    or a mechanical failure on the part of a self driving car but anyway....

    The reason we will not have a self driving car is because we do not have the technology to do it to the extent that the manufacture will be willing to except the liability in the event of an accident. Instead we will eventually over time with many upgrades along the way get a very advanced version of cruise control that can be turned off and on shifting the liability back to the driver.

    Just like we don't have flying cars because it's not practical from production cost or for the manufacture or owner to take on that liability as a mechanical failure at altitude is immediately a costly accident. This is not the case with the cars we have now mechanical failures although they can don't usually result in an accident.

     

  21. Re:Novelty Effect on New Site Mocks Bad Artwork On Ebook Covers · · Score: 1

    was an artist, so I hired her to do the cover art

    My brother plays in a band and some of the members have cover designs that should just never be on an album. I have tried to convince them that for the next album they should find an actual artist or at least a really good hobbyist to do the cover for them. There are entire websites dedicated to this kind of stuff why are they not using them?

     

  22. Re:45% turnover rate IS the problem on Analysis: People Who Use Firefox Or Chrome Make Better Employees · · Score: 2

    Installing Chrome or Firefox, is usually one way, as it is one of those things that are normally "officially" against the rules, but you do it anyways, because you know your browsing experience will be a little bit safer.

    Really? Most of the time when I catch someone using an unauthorized software it's to get around security features like a white listed proxy.

  23. Re:So if I'm operating at a loss on $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based On Income · · Score: 1

    I was thinking the same thing you couldn't implement this in the US everyone living on credit would be speeding in the hope that they would get paid...

  24. Re:Terribly regressive penalty on $56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland's System of Fines Based On Income · · Score: 1

    "It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day"

    It's estimated spending cash... not a days income... but what happens when that number is a negative as we know many people live on credit do they have to pay you?

  25. Re:It's kind of just math, right? on $7.4 Million Blurred Lines Verdict Likely To Alter Music Business · · Score: 1

    It was in "a" minor with a deceptive cadence they were trying to make it more difficult than it was by claiming it was modal turns out they were both wrong and the vocalist was correct. Guitarist often play from the finger position of a modal scale just to get to a part of the neck that's comfortable but it's the phrasing that decides the key.

    I don't know if Melodic/Progressive metal goes in and out of key... It's more incidentals when you get to the solos that are difficult to classify but mostly just passing tones.