Because they figured that at some point unlocking it would make them a profit. That's really the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.
It cost them money to write the code to lock it, and it certainly cost them performance as well. The only reason I can think of to do this is that they eventually expected to sell the rights to unlock it for some amount of money.
With the type of delivery they're talking about (i.e. within 15 miles) why not use a bicycle courier? You could have your package within an hour or two
Because hiring people and paying them costs money. Employees get sick, they want to take time off, they want benefits, they quit, they can be unreliable, etc etc etc. A drone service wouldn't have any of those problems and would pay for itself after some number of deliveries.
Also, bicycling 15 miles from a warehouse to a drop off point would be a lot of trouble, not many couriers want to bike 100 miles a day in bad weather (hot or cold, rain, snow, fog, etc). They'd also have to contend with traffic. I don't know if it would be feasible to deliver by bicycle to a point 10 or 15 miles away.
"VW Officials Knew Since Last Year of Misleading Fuel Economy Claims"
Of course they did- in all likelihood they were the ones that came up with the idea and instituted the program. This wasn't the work of some rogue engineer screwing around in his cube late one night. This was planned and endorsed at the highest levels in the company.
What is simplistic is your view that education is "too expensive" or that "it should be free, period."
I know, it's crazy, huh? Just like providing K-through-12 education was dismissed as nutty and "too expensive" when the idea was proposed. But the fact is that K-through-12 education has been one of America's most potent and effective tools for improving life and the overall economy in this country for the last 50 years or so.
People in other countries literally dream of providing a basic education for their kids whereas we take it for granted.
(I know this because my wife comes from one of those countries and she was blown away to learn that every child here gets 12 full years of schooling. She kept asking, "Who pays? Who pays for it?" and I kept telling her, "We all do. We all pay for it through taxes." She thinks it's awesome that we as a country do this for our children. And she's right, it is.)
But maybe, just maybe if we stopped waging a never-ending series of pointless wars at 5 trillion dollars a pop then who knows, you could probably put 4 or 5 students through college for that much money.
The fact is that other countries do it, and we should be able to as well. We're the richest fucking country on the planet but we can't afford to send our future doctors and engineers to college even though the economic and social benefits are blatantly obvious.
Yes, and not everyone can get them, which is why they're highly prized.
So you're poor (or just low-income) and unable to get one of these magical *scholarships*. What does one do then? For now the only real option is to go into debt.
Make education free or low cost and it would obviate many of the issues that surround higher education. Other countries do it, we can probably find a way. I know, how about we stop waging wars at 5 trillion bucks a pop? I bet you could put at least 3 or 4 deserving students through school for that much money.
Or they could just drop them in the mail, like everything else.
You're completely missing the point...this is about speed of delivery, not cost. Mail is slow. Even overnight is...well, overnight. 10 to 20 hours depending on when its ordered. Some people want it faster.
A lot of people would pay some reasonable premium to have some widget they ordered be in their hands in an hour versus overnight or 3 to 5 days from the time of ordering. And overnight shipping is very expensive regardless of how small the item may be.
Would a drone-delivered item be cheaper? Maybe, but it would almost certainly be faster, and that's what people want. That's what this is all about- getting something into a customer's hands as quickly as possible.
Would I pay the premium for a drone-delivered item? Maybe. It depends on how bad I want/need it and how much it would cost. But I'm guessing it'll be cheaper than an overnight delivery from FedEx or DHL.
It would be fairly inexpensive to place a unique delivery ID beacon on every home that wanted drone delivery, and a designated drop-off spot would be easy to program in. For smaller items (say, under a couple of pounds) I can see where this delivery method would be enormously attractive to a hell of a lot of people.
I just ordered a couple of CO detectors from Amazon. They're light enough that a drone could drop them off within a given range (and that range will only increase with time). And I'd sure be happy getting them 30 minutes after ordering rather than the current 3 to 5 days it takes now.
So yeah, I think this will become a thing. Some details need to be worked out, but I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years if there's sufficient interest (read: profitability). Possibly much sooner.
If you choose to go into debt under these conditions by choosing to take out loans to get an overpriced degree that doesn't lead to a good career, it's your own fault; it's clearly not necessary for succeeding in life.
That's kind of a simplistic take on a complex subject.
Not everyone has the means to pay for a degree in the field they want or need. Not everyone is suited for a given field. Not everyone is blessed with enough income to afford any degree, let alone a more expensive one. Does that mean they should be able to try to get one?
If no one could afford to go to school to become a heart surgeon or a pediatric specialist, should we just throw up our hands and go "Gee whiz, too bad there's no doctor available for you or your kid/parent/spouse"?
Some people want to achieve more than being a code monkey working for Amazon, and people are needed, yes needed in all sorts of careers, not just the ones you think are worthy or affordable.
You better fucking hope that some enterprising young college guy or gal has the guts to take on the debt required to be your doctor 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, because you're going to need him or her.
Personally I think education should be free, period, and available to those who can make the grades required to obtain whatever degree they can. Yes, education is expensive, but ignorance costs even more.
This is just Amazon pandering for free publicity. There are many many reasons drone delivery will probably never happen, certainly not within many years.
I don't know...properly done this could save a lot of gas and driving, and possibly speed up some delivery times. I don't think it'll ever be fully automated until homes have some sort of pre-arranged "target" or zone for automated drones to home in on, but for small items I think this could (will) eventually become a fairly common thing.
Load up the truck, drive to a central spot within range of X number of deliveries, and let the drones go. You might need human operators to guide them the last few feet to a proper drop off spot, then click a button for the drone to auto-return to the truck while the operator guides the next one in to its delivery.
With a pre-arranged "target" or drop zone for automated drones to use you wouldn't even need human operators for that. A small radio beacon or bar code or other target marker combined with GPS would allow for fully automated delivery.
What will really make or break this (in my opinion) is the financial metrics, i.e. is it profitable to use a drone delivery system? And my guess would be that yes, eventually it will be. Hell, it could be financially feasible right now I suppose. The max size/weight of the item will be a factor too, no doubt, but I can see it happening.
I have to admit, it would be kinda cool to order something and have it 20 or 30 minutes later.
The best reason to sit farther away from my boss is that she's farther away.
And yes, it's "farther", not "further". In general "farther" is used for distance or physical separation, while "further" is used for time and position in a process or event.
For the sake of correctness, use “farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. The easy way to remember the difference is that “farther” has the word “far” in it, and “far” obviously relates to physical distance.
Yes, some people use them interchangeably, but then some people fart in the bathtub. Just because they do it doesn't make it right.
OMG, mom and dad....I'LL simply DIE if my new phone isn't thinner than 3.5 millimeters, and what will my friends say? Janice and Marsha and Taylor and Sarah and Jen will all laugh and point at me and taunt me about how my fucking phone is almost 4 millimeters thick!!! I'll be the butt of every joke and my life will be ruined, RUINED I TELL YOU. I'll be a social OUTCAST!!! Please mom and dad, don't let me be the "uncool kid", buy me the new iPhone that's slim and stylish, just like all my friends will have!!
Wasn't it all but admitted to that they are stopping the data collection because now they expect the phone companies to do the data collection for them and give them unlimited access to it?
I don't know, but that could certainly be a plausible explanation.
If this is the case then, as you said, now they can look into the camera and swear up and down that "We ain't doin' nuthin'!" and technically be telling the truth*.
Maybe I'm just becoming increasingly cynical in my old age, but this article reads like a slashvertisement.
Sing it, brother. That's exactly the impression I got too. But then I *am* old and cynical.
With that said, I can honestly say that my cynicism has served me well and rarely led me astray. As Lily Tomlin said, "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." And damn if she wasn't right.
So yes, I bet this thing will sell for more than the price claimed, assuming it ever sees the light of day.
I have to admit, I get a certain amount of amusement when someone writes a long, serious, and well thought-out response to a joke comment of mine. It's enough to make me think that some of the people on slashdot might just be humor-impaired.
Make all telcos/ISPs route out to an international networks where it gets 're-encapsulated' to appear that it's coming from outside the US.
They'd just subvert or tap the route into the network. All this would do is provide a "one stop shopping" monitoring point where they could be assured of easier access to the data.
Personally, I think things have gone well past the point where much of anything could be done about the spying. The spy agencies have billions of dollars and unlimited manpower to throw at this "problem" of privacy, and stopping it would be like bailing out the oceans with a thimble.
In my opinion the networks we all use are thoroughly subverted, penetrated, and owned, and they're probably going to stay that way. No law and no amount of public outrage is going to make them stop doing what they're doing, Congress can pass all the laws it likes and the various spy agencies will simply shit-can the memo and keep on collecting data.
Yep. I'd bet that they're still doing it one way or another.
They may have found some loophole so they can deny it with a straight face or they may just be lying through their teeth, but I'd bet anything they're still at it. They've invested hundreds of millions of dollars and years (if not decades) into building their surveillance network and ground assets...to think they'd just stop because of a court ruling is simply naive in the extreme.
Slashdot Mirror
"A method for using a 3-pronged handheld tool to utilize a starch resource", i.e, "eating a potato with a fork".
Seriously, why was it ever locked?
Because they figured that at some point unlocking it would make them a profit. That's really the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.
It cost them money to write the code to lock it, and it certainly cost them performance as well. The only reason I can think of to do this is that they eventually expected to sell the rights to unlock it for some amount of money.
$53.7 million. Let me just think about that for a moment.
Okay, I'm officially speechless.
I think that's a fair representation of your understanding of the subject.
It's certainly a fair representation of the value I place on your comments.
With the type of delivery they're talking about (i.e. within 15 miles) why not use a bicycle courier? You could have your package within an hour or two
Because hiring people and paying them costs money. Employees get sick, they want to take time off, they want benefits, they quit, they can be unreliable, etc etc etc. A drone service wouldn't have any of those problems and would pay for itself after some number of deliveries.
Also, bicycling 15 miles from a warehouse to a drop off point would be a lot of trouble, not many couriers want to bike 100 miles a day in bad weather (hot or cold, rain, snow, fog, etc). They'd also have to contend with traffic. I don't know if it would be feasible to deliver by bicycle to a point 10 or 15 miles away.
"VW Officials Knew Since Last Year of Misleading Fuel Economy Claims"
Of course they did- in all likelihood they were the ones that came up with the idea and instituted the program. This wasn't the work of some rogue engineer screwing around in his cube late one night. This was planned and endorsed at the highest levels in the company.
What is simplistic is your view that education is "too expensive" or that "it should be free, period."
I know, it's crazy, huh? Just like providing K-through-12 education was dismissed as nutty and "too expensive" when the idea was proposed. But the fact is that K-through-12 education has been one of America's most potent and effective tools for improving life and the overall economy in this country for the last 50 years or so.
People in other countries literally dream of providing a basic education for their kids whereas we take it for granted.
(I know this because my wife comes from one of those countries and she was blown away to learn that every child here gets 12 full years of schooling. She kept asking, "Who pays? Who pays for it?" and I kept telling her, "We all do. We all pay for it through taxes." She thinks it's awesome that we as a country do this for our children. And she's right, it is.)
But maybe, just maybe if we stopped waging a never-ending series of pointless wars at 5 trillion dollars a pop then who knows, you could probably put 4 or 5 students through college for that much money.
The fact is that other countries do it, and we should be able to as well. We're the richest fucking country on the planet but we can't afford to send our future doctors and engineers to college even though the economic and social benefits are blatantly obvious.
Yes, and not everyone can get them, which is why they're highly prized.
So you're poor (or just low-income) and unable to get one of these magical *scholarships*. What does one do then? For now the only real option is to go into debt.
Make education free or low cost and it would obviate many of the issues that surround higher education. Other countries do it, we can probably find a way. I know, how about we stop waging wars at 5 trillion bucks a pop? I bet you could put at least 3 or 4 deserving students through school for that much money.
Didn't watch the video, hey?
Of course not, isn't it part of the slashdot code not to read the article or watch the video?
Or they could just drop them in the mail, like everything else.
You're completely missing the point...this is about speed of delivery, not cost. Mail is slow. Even overnight is...well, overnight. 10 to 20 hours depending on when its ordered. Some people want it faster.
A lot of people would pay some reasonable premium to have some widget they ordered be in their hands in an hour versus overnight or 3 to 5 days from the time of ordering. And overnight shipping is very expensive regardless of how small the item may be.
Would a drone-delivered item be cheaper? Maybe, but it would almost certainly be faster, and that's what people want. That's what this is all about- getting something into a customer's hands as quickly as possible.
Would I pay the premium for a drone-delivered item? Maybe. It depends on how bad I want/need it and how much it would cost. But I'm guessing it'll be cheaper than an overnight delivery from FedEx or DHL.
Yep.
It would be fairly inexpensive to place a unique delivery ID beacon on every home that wanted drone delivery, and a designated drop-off spot would be easy to program in. For smaller items (say, under a couple of pounds) I can see where this delivery method would be enormously attractive to a hell of a lot of people.
I just ordered a couple of CO detectors from Amazon. They're light enough that a drone could drop them off within a given range (and that range will only increase with time). And I'd sure be happy getting them 30 minutes after ordering rather than the current 3 to 5 days it takes now.
So yeah, I think this will become a thing. Some details need to be worked out, but I see it happening within the next 5 to 10 years if there's sufficient interest (read: profitability). Possibly much sooner.
If you choose to go into debt under these conditions by choosing to take out loans to get an overpriced degree that doesn't lead to a good career, it's your own fault; it's clearly not necessary for succeeding in life.
That's kind of a simplistic take on a complex subject.
Not everyone has the means to pay for a degree in the field they want or need. Not everyone is suited for a given field. Not everyone is blessed with enough income to afford any degree, let alone a more expensive one. Does that mean they should be able to try to get one?
If no one could afford to go to school to become a heart surgeon or a pediatric specialist, should we just throw up our hands and go "Gee whiz, too bad there's no doctor available for you or your kid/parent/spouse"?
Some people want to achieve more than being a code monkey working for Amazon, and people are needed, yes needed in all sorts of careers, not just the ones you think are worthy or affordable.
You better fucking hope that some enterprising young college guy or gal has the guts to take on the debt required to be your doctor 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, because you're going to need him or her.
Personally I think education should be free, period, and available to those who can make the grades required to obtain whatever degree they can. Yes, education is expensive, but ignorance costs even more.
This is just Amazon pandering for free publicity. There are many many reasons drone delivery will probably never happen, certainly not within many years.
I don't know...properly done this could save a lot of gas and driving, and possibly speed up some delivery times. I don't think it'll ever be fully automated until homes have some sort of pre-arranged "target" or zone for automated drones to home in on, but for small items I think this could (will) eventually become a fairly common thing.
Load up the truck, drive to a central spot within range of X number of deliveries, and let the drones go. You might need human operators to guide them the last few feet to a proper drop off spot, then click a button for the drone to auto-return to the truck while the operator guides the next one in to its delivery.
With a pre-arranged "target" or drop zone for automated drones to use you wouldn't even need human operators for that. A small radio beacon or bar code or other target marker combined with GPS would allow for fully automated delivery.
What will really make or break this (in my opinion) is the financial metrics, i.e. is it profitable to use a drone delivery system? And my guess would be that yes, eventually it will be. Hell, it could be financially feasible right now I suppose. The max size/weight of the item will be a factor too, no doubt, but I can see it happening.
I have to admit, it would be kinda cool to order something and have it 20 or 30 minutes later.
The best reason to sit farther away from my boss is that she's farther away.
And yes, it's "farther", not "further". In general "farther" is used for distance or physical separation, while "further" is used for time and position in a process or event.
For the sake of correctness, use “farther” for physical distance and “further” for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. The easy way to remember the difference is that “farther” has the word “far” in it, and “far” obviously relates to physical distance.
Yes, some people use them interchangeably, but then some people fart in the bathtub. Just because they do it doesn't make it right.
The first step to a nation of indentured slaves.
OMG, mom and dad....I'LL simply DIE if my new phone isn't thinner than 3.5 millimeters, and what will my friends say? Janice and Marsha and Taylor and Sarah and Jen will all laugh and point at me and taunt me about how my fucking phone is almost 4 millimeters thick!!! I'll be the butt of every joke and my life will be ruined, RUINED I TELL YOU. I'll be a social OUTCAST!!! Please mom and dad, don't let me be the "uncool kid", buy me the new iPhone that's slim and stylish, just like all my friends will have!!
Wasn't it all but admitted to that they are stopping the data collection because now they expect the phone companies to do the data collection for them and give them unlimited access to it?
I don't know, but that could certainly be a plausible explanation.
If this is the case then, as you said, now they can look into the camera and swear up and down that "We ain't doin' nuthin'!" and technically be telling the truth*.
-
*for very small values of "truth"
There really isn't any part of your blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
I'm sorry, did you say something?
"Forced to follow..."
So it's like the behavior of Millennials when a new iPhone comes out?
"WE can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a program."
TRANSLATION: "Yes, we're doing it."
-
"We're from the government and we're here to help."
TRANSLATION: "We're gonna screw everything up and then charge you for it."
"Air Force Hires Civilian Drone Pilots For Combat Patrols"
Sounds perfect, I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Maybe I'm just becoming increasingly cynical in my old age, but this article reads like a slashvertisement.
Sing it, brother. That's exactly the impression I got too. But then I *am* old and cynical.
With that said, I can honestly say that my cynicism has served me well and rarely led me astray. As Lily Tomlin said, "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." And damn if she wasn't right.
So yes, I bet this thing will sell for more than the price claimed, assuming it ever sees the light of day.
I have to admit, I get a certain amount of amusement when someone writes a long, serious, and well thought-out response to a joke comment of mine. It's enough to make me think that some of the people on slashdot might just be humor-impaired.
Make all telcos/ISPs route out to an international networks where it gets 're-encapsulated' to appear that it's coming from outside the US.
They'd just subvert or tap the route into the network. All this would do is provide a "one stop shopping" monitoring point where they could be assured of easier access to the data.
Personally, I think things have gone well past the point where much of anything could be done about the spying. The spy agencies have billions of dollars and unlimited manpower to throw at this "problem" of privacy, and stopping it would be like bailing out the oceans with a thimble.
In my opinion the networks we all use are thoroughly subverted, penetrated, and owned, and they're probably going to stay that way. No law and no amount of public outrage is going to make them stop doing what they're doing, Congress can pass all the laws it likes and the various spy agencies will simply shit-can the memo and keep on collecting data.
Sure, they are still collecting the information.
Yep. I'd bet that they're still doing it one way or another.
They may have found some loophole so they can deny it with a straight face or they may just be lying through their teeth, but I'd bet anything they're still at it. They've invested hundreds of millions of dollars and years (if not decades) into building their surveillance network and ground assets...to think they'd just stop because of a court ruling is simply naive in the extreme.