"Some prosecutors and defense lawyers say that the data from black boxes, which are on about 40 million cars in the USA, provide an unbiased account of accidents."
In the airplane industry, the hundreds of little black boxes that belong to a typical jetliner can only be read and interpreted by the specific airplane manufacturer that made them. The resulting simulation may appear to be an unbiased account of what truly happened, but we really don't know that -- the system used to decode them is a closely guarded trade secret.
In the automobile industry, those same black boxes will serve the interest of whoever develops them and puts them in your car. If your car manufacturer puts them in, they will be biased in favor of your car manufacturer. If your rental company puts them in, they will be biased in favor of your rental company. And if your car insurance company makes you put them in, they will biased in favor of your insurance company.
May be I'm just paranoid, but I would really like to see somekind of black box kit we could develop ourselves and install ourselves.
"A further complication was mentioned in the report is that we have a lot of contractors (~40%?) and the IP ownership is determined by the particular contract. *sigh* "
Why the "sigh"? When we use Microsoft Excel or the Java VM -- we don't necessarily own all the Intellectual Property related to it. Why should it be any different for NASA? It sure would be nice if NASA could reinvent or repurchase all the commercial software in the world, but it sure wouldn't be practical.
The Minitel was the anti-internet. It was an expensive, centralized, bureaucratic, closed system that only ended up delaying and preventing the real adoption of the internet.
The minitel was given out for "free" at the post office, but wheter you had one or didn't have one; you were still forced to pay outrageous telephone connection charges for making simple local telephone calls.
Five years ago in the US, we also had free ISPs with unlimited free service. Our plain vanilla ISPs were charging around $20 per month for unlimited service. And I don't know what AOL-for-dummys was charging at the time, but I am not sure that's even relevant for comparaison.
At the time, a local unlimited telephone service in California for people above a certain income would have been around $14 per month. For people with less income, the service would have been much cheaper.
Bottom line, the combined service of unlimited internet/local phone calls would have been around $34 per month. Now, if you don't mind shopping around and reading reviews -- ISPs can be cheaper still.
Was Holland ever that cheap? Well, if they were, they were sure ahead of their European neighbors.
All of this adds up to make france a VERY well connected country. Almost Anything you could possibly need will be found on the internet in France.
Are they still charging local calls by the minute? All the internet infrastructure in the World won't do anything if it costs an arm and a leg to use it.
The French government is known for dumping vast amounts of cash into ambitious projects that go nowhere. Look at where the Minitel got us. Fifteen years ago, they gave us "free" network computers, they succeeded in putting network computers in *every* home, and yet when it comes to the internet, France is now one of the most backward countries among the West. Can you tell me what happened there.
Mark my words, this little project will stifle competition, it will be mismanaged, and it will have no accountibility since the people receiving the services won't be the ones directly paying for it.
Are you sure your articles are gone? My embarassing personal web page and my less than stellar resume have been gone for at least seven years, but the Wayback machine just won't let them die.
"Why don't they interview one of the thousands of un-employed Americans in Silicon Valley. Why these endless articles about lucky CEOs? We've had enough of their stories."
To sell magazines and to sell advertisements. When one of the officers at my company was featured in Fast Companies, my company was bombarded with Fast Companies subscription offers, Fast Companies free samples bookmarked to the article in question, and Fast Companies advertisement requests.
Fortune Magazine is probably more subtle than Fast Companies, but the same agenda remains -- whoever pays the bill gets to decide on the content.
I like the idea, but menial work is shameful in the United States. Most people are used to cleaning their own toilet bowl, but most would rather die than to clean the bowl of others. Considering the fact that we treat most menial workers like worthless social beings, I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to become one.
"But what explains the amazing spectrum of sources? "
The barrier to entry is lowering for spammers. Nowadays, anyone can download a free utility or copy a little script that will do the job. For that matter, the barrier to entry for the person being spammed is also lowering. For instance, my mother seems to understand that she should stop giving out my contact information on web sites, but for some reason, she still utilizes the "forward to" link to forward me "interesting" articles and I know for a fact those news sites are selling my email address to other non-related databases.
With an email from Spamgourmet.com, you can do a similar thing by embedding the name of the company directly into a relaying email address.
The two following email addresses are valid spamgourmet email addresses:
realplayer.10.stephanruby@spamgourmet.com
or
yahoo.a.stephanruby@xoxy.net
In addition to knowing where the emails are coming from, you can fine-tune the exact number of emails you're willing to accept from that particular sender, and you can change your filter settings easily enough to block or accept all the emails coming from a particular user.
Nowadays, Corporations are incorporating in Nevada for tax and privacy reasons. Soon, this may change again because Nevada has a new tax law on the ballot.
Most car-motorcycle crashes are legally the fault of the driver of the car - if you must find fault.
I guess this claim makes sense, but it would be nice to see some statistics backing this up.
It would be better still to have a detailed breakdown of each cause of the accidents. Was the driver drunk? Did the driver look over his shoulder? Was the impaired view of the car-driver related to his specific model of automobile? etc.
...from now on, I'm forgetting all my dreams of turning Ghana into the Software Capital of the World.
I'll be staying in California. Thank you very much.
Yes, my sentence is difficult to parse. English is not my first language.
What kind of shows... Well, they're just local cable television shows about community events, local clubs, and local charities. It's nothing fancy, but it's a nice hobby for someone who's programming computers all day.
And to the other anonymous poster, yes television sucks, and yes the shows I direct are pretty sucky. But in any case, my shows are not meant for mass distribution yet, so chances are, you won't even see them.
"If there wasn't any chance then there wouldn't be that many lawyers involved."
The article didn't mention that there were going to be "that many lawyers involved". The article was only paraphrasing Charlie and Charlie said something to the effect that "The LLC may involve big-time business types and, of course, lawyers - maybe three firms worth of them eventually." (emphasis mine) For all we know, Charlie paid a lawyer $1000 to set up an LLC, which is not hard to do these days, then he asked him to do some preliminary work about possible infringements, and now he could be simply just shooting his mouth off. I was going to check if his lawyer was licensed, but interestingly enough his lawyer doesn't even have a name yet (or did I miss it?).
By the way, as a hobby I direct two small cable television shows a month and I haven't had a television for 2+ years. Unfortunatly, I do waste an awful lot of time on the internet -- so I do hope you're managing your time a little better than I am. I wouldn't expect anything less from someone who's "one the smartest people" he knows.
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In the airplane industry, the hundreds of little black boxes that belong to a typical jetliner can only be read and interpreted by the specific airplane manufacturer that made them. The resulting simulation may appear to be an unbiased account of what truly happened, but we really don't know that -- the system used to decode them is a closely guarded trade secret.
In the automobile industry, those same black boxes will serve the interest of whoever develops them and puts them in your car. If your car manufacturer puts them in, they will be biased in favor of your car manufacturer. If your rental company puts them in, they will be biased in favor of your rental company. And if your car insurance company makes you put them in, they will biased in favor of your insurance company.
May be I'm just paranoid, but I would really like to see somekind of black box kit we could develop ourselves and install ourselves.
Why the "sigh"? When we use Microsoft Excel or the Java VM -- we don't necessarily own all the Intellectual Property related to it. Why should it be any different for NASA? It sure would be nice if NASA could reinvent or repurchase all the commercial software in the world, but it sure wouldn't be practical.
The Minitel was the anti-internet. It was an expensive, centralized, bureaucratic, closed system that only ended up delaying and preventing the real adoption of the internet. The minitel was given out for "free" at the post office, but wheter you had one or didn't have one; you were still forced to pay outrageous telephone connection charges for making simple local telephone calls.
So is the display quality as good as LCDs?
At the time, a local unlimited telephone service in California for people above a certain income would have been around $14 per month. For people with less income, the service would have been much cheaper.
Bottom line, the combined service of unlimited internet/local phone calls would have been around $34 per month. Now, if you don't mind shopping around and reading reviews -- ISPs can be cheaper still.
Was Holland ever that cheap? Well, if they were, they were sure ahead of their European neighbors.
When the word sex is used in the very first email they send you. It usually means they're men posing as women.
Are they still charging local calls by the minute? All the internet infrastructure in the World won't do anything if it costs an arm and a leg to use it.
Mark my words, this little project will stifle competition, it will be mismanaged, and it will have no accountibility since the people receiving the services won't be the ones directly paying for it.
I hate to break to you, but plants contain just as harmful natural pesticides.
Wrong spending is justified because we would have spent the money wrongly anyway.
If this is what you're saying, then your argument is circular.
To sell magazines and to sell advertisements. When one of the officers at my company was featured in Fast Companies, my company was bombarded with Fast Companies subscription offers, Fast Companies free samples bookmarked to the article in question, and Fast Companies advertisement requests.
Fortune Magazine is probably more subtle than Fast Companies, but the same agenda remains -- whoever pays the bill gets to decide on the content.
You're right, we were ignoring you. Can someone please update the FAQ please.
I like the idea, but menial work is shameful in the United States. Most people are used to cleaning their own toilet bowl, but most would rather die than to clean the bowl of others. Considering the fact that we treat most menial workers like worthless social beings, I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to become one.
The barrier to entry is lowering for spammers. Nowadays, anyone can download a free utility or copy a little script that will do the job. For that matter, the barrier to entry for the person being spammed is also lowering. For instance, my mother seems to understand that she should stop giving out my contact information on web sites, but for some reason, she still utilizes the "forward to" link to forward me "interesting" articles and I know for a fact those news sites are selling my email address to other non-related databases.
The two following email addresses are valid spamgourmet email addresses:
realplayer.10.stephanruby@spamgourmet.com
or
yahoo.a.stephanruby@xoxy.net
In addition to knowing where the emails are coming from, you can fine-tune the exact number of emails you're willing to accept from that particular sender, and you can change your filter settings easily enough to block or accept all the emails coming from a particular user.
...Ford Company is now using Hydrogen explosives technology to power up its new line of hybrid cars.
Don't forget neighbors as well. If a neighbor has any kind of beef with you, he could create some problems.
Nowadays, Corporations are incorporating in Nevada for tax and privacy reasons. Soon, this may change again because Nevada has a new tax law on the ballot.
I guess this claim makes sense, but it would be nice to see some statistics backing this up. It would be better still to have a detailed breakdown of each cause of the accidents. Was the driver drunk? Did the driver look over his shoulder? Was the impaired view of the car-driver related to his specific model of automobile? etc.
They should legalize corruption -- then may be they'll have enough people with vested interest to do something about this.
...from now on, I'm forgetting all my dreams of turning Ghana into the Software Capital of the World.
I'll be staying in California. Thank you very much.
What kind of shows... Well, they're just local cable television shows about community events, local clubs, and local charities. It's nothing fancy, but it's a nice hobby for someone who's programming computers all day.
And to the other anonymous poster, yes television sucks, and yes the shows I direct are pretty sucky. But in any case, my shows are not meant for mass distribution yet, so chances are, you won't even see them.
The article didn't mention that there were going to be "that many lawyers involved". The article was only paraphrasing Charlie and Charlie said something to the effect that "The LLC may involve big-time business types and, of course, lawyers - maybe three firms worth of them eventually." (emphasis mine) For all we know, Charlie paid a lawyer $1000 to set up an LLC, which is not hard to do these days, then he asked him to do some preliminary work about possible infringements, and now he could be simply just shooting his mouth off. I was going to check if his lawyer was licensed, but interestingly enough his lawyer doesn't even have a name yet (or did I miss it?).
By the way, as a hobby I direct two small cable television shows a month and I haven't had a television for 2+ years. Unfortunatly, I do waste an awful lot of time on the internet -- so I do hope you're managing your time a little better than I am. I wouldn't expect anything less from someone who's "one the smartest people" he knows.