I blew both front tires out in a Mustang Mach at >120mph in 1991, does that count? (hit a load of smallish scrap iron some idiot hadn't secured in the back of his truck on a 2L country road. I maintained control enough to get over to the shoulder and stop. )
In a modern vehicle, with everything powered and no backup, I'd much rather lose a couple tires than have the entire fscking vehicle go completely dead on me at high speed. That may be a matter of opinion, but I know which option I'd take, given a choice.
Some of these modern SUVs would likely be impossible to control even at low speed if the entire engine/electronics package went out. Shudder. No thanks. The fewer components between me and the tires, the better. Sometimes simple is the best way to design vehicles. No amount of mechanical/electronic engineering is going to eliminate human stupidity or human ingenuity at the controls of anything that humans build.
Yeah, no shit. Even in modern cars the various metal pieces in the car body would attenuate and diffract the signal so much it's likely little of the energy from it would get past the voltage fault circuits in the electronics wiring to actually disable the ignition circuits or computer. I'd give it an outside chance of working on some cars, some of them are pretty badly engineered. But not on the majority of them.
This is more pie in the sky wishful thinking shit, brought to us courtesy of companies selling snake oil to LE organizations. The commentary stemming from this article is rather entertaining, tho.
If disabling automobiles via EMP pulse was practical the military would have been doing it years ago in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I believe that falls under criminal law, one of the assault provisions.
Assuming you survive the experience of kneeing me in the groin, however - which you would not unless you finished me off completely. As to saving me money, you wouldn't - my kid is long out of the house and I neutered myself ten years ago in order to avoid future expenditures of that kind;)
Yeah. Then they start frying cars while in a high speed chase, the car goes completely out of control (no power steering or control of any kind at 100 mph); more dead bystanders.
How, exactly, is this a better solution? At least with caltrops the driver still has *some* control over the car, and presumably doesn't want to die.
Testing it on pacemakers would be easy. Testing it on pacemakers installed into living humans would involve a high degree of liability.
I can definitely see, in the not so far future, police being required to inspect vehicles for "illegal shielding modifications". Most officers I know would consider it gilding the lily, however, on top of all the other stuff they are asked to do but not even remotely trained for.
:-D Indeed. I met an old mechanic once about twenty years ago who used to use an AM radio to diagnose the ignition systems in the Ranger series pickups. He claimed he could tell whether it was firing correctly just by tuning to a certain band and listening. He was damned good at it, too.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe a Faraday cage has to be grounded to be effective; also, wouldn't a electromagnetic field actually make a faraday cage more effective by inducing stronger currents in the cage materials as the field changes?
If car engines can be taken offline with a pulse that simply glitches, rather than destroying, the electronics, that raises the unpleasant possibility that a software or hardware bug could do the same thing,
Happens all the time...
To add to this thread, I suspect that modern car electronic/computer systems would have built-in protection against electrical surges coming from their outlying wiring or systems. Don't know for sure, have never owned a vehicle newer than 1980.
Expanded metal mesh (such as is still used under some ceramic floor tile installation and for some plaster applications, etc) is lightweight and inexpensive;)
I'm not sure how conductive the cheaper stuff is, but if you need conductive mesh, any ductile metal will serve, expanded copper mesh is available and is highly electrically conductive.
I'd love to see the government or any LE try to outlaw older cars like the GP owns. The public outcry (lots of it from rich people) and ensuing legal chaos would be memorable and quite fun to watch;-D
"We" don't say that. Some people do, generally the ones who either 1) have an agenda or 2) are ignorant. People who know what the fuck they are talking about use the correct term.
I'm waiting for the day the RIAA sues some innocent gun-toting redneck (pardon, red-blooded patriotic american) who doesn't know a keyboard from a kickstand, and said person decides the country would be better off without some of these execs...
It's inevitable. I'll weep big crocodile tears, I will.
Yup, statutory damages have worked so well as a "deterrent" to file sharing. Why, the whole file sharing phenomenon has almost been wiped out completely...
If they can't actually prove that the damages were that high, then they shouldn't receive that amount in damages. They should receive whatever damage amount they can prove.
If the damage amounts are "potentially unprovable" then the whole case should be dismissed. How the fsck can you sue someone for damages when you can't even prove what the damages were, or that there even were any damages at all? That goes beyond ridiculous.
Some day whole classes of law history students will be laughing hysterically at our current tort system. I don't expect that reform will come from our legislative or judicial systems, however. I expect it to come from the vast majority of people who are sick to death of living with the bogus laws and restrictions and the fear of being sued by some ignorant, greedy, lazy fool who looks up a greedy lawyer in the yellow pages.
I won't speak for anyone else, but as a citizen of the US I feel ashamed to be even indirectly involved in a system this badly corrupted.
It still seems quite high. I wonder if another case could appeal to get it lowered even further to something like, say, $5.00 per song. I mean, when you think about it, $54,000 could buy someone a 4 year education, a really nice car, could be used for a downpayment on a decent home, or, for the philanthropic, would be a very sizeable charity donation. That money that Jamie Thomas has to pay, now, could be used for some very important things that could help progress society (as in, employing a home builder or auto manufacturer, helping Jamie grow educationally to become a more productive member of society, etc.) Instead, it is going to line the pockets of some already very rich folk who are probably going to spend it on blow and hookers, or maybe, at best, a very overpriced car that contributes to little more than an ego.
One of the very basic problems in our society right now is that vast amounts of money go to small amounts of people of whom very, very few have done anything to actually earn it.
Is there any such thing as a "non moving" specification?
Especially in the constantly evolving tech world?
Specs *should* continue to evolve as the technology and theory changes and improves. Especially the open ones. If they don't, they will die of obsolescence.
That's where open specs are better than closed ones. Everyone can see what is changing, and everyone can contribute. (Cue comments about "closed minded devs don't like my idea XX here; if you don't like what they are doing, fork it. )
True, but with current tech one could build a mail server that would do all that, be shielded, rugged, and redundant, and put it in something the size of a hardcover book.
Someone send NASA some Sheeva dev kits...
( I know, I know, gov procurement, etc. But still...)
Slashdot Mirror
hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts
Trillions of dollars in taxpayer FUNDED bailouts.
Sorry, had to fix that for you, no offense.
SB
'is to build an optimal scientist, then retire.'
Build a what?
I suspect it's already retirement time. No offense.
SB
I don't know who told you that you could do 145 in that car, but they lied to you.
Probably. Jocks vs. chocks. Thanks.
SB
I blew both front tires out in a Mustang Mach at >120mph in 1991, does that count? (hit a load of smallish scrap iron some idiot hadn't secured in the back of his truck on a 2L country road. I maintained control enough to get over to the shoulder and stop. )
In a modern vehicle, with everything powered and no backup, I'd much rather lose a couple tires than have the entire fscking vehicle go completely dead on me at high speed. That may be a matter of opinion, but I know which option I'd take, given a choice.
Some of these modern SUVs would likely be impossible to control even at low speed if the entire engine/electronics package went out. Shudder. No thanks. The fewer components between me and the tires, the better. Sometimes simple is the best way to design vehicles. No amount of mechanical/electronic engineering is going to eliminate human stupidity or human ingenuity at the controls of anything that humans build.
SB
Like I said, it's been a while. But the turbocharged models peaked around 180hp. For lux cars of that class back then it wasn't bad.
SB
Yeah, no shit. Even in modern cars the various metal pieces in the car body would attenuate and diffract the signal so much it's likely little of the energy from it would get past the voltage fault circuits in the electronics wiring to actually disable the ignition circuits or computer. I'd give it an outside chance of working on some cars, some of them are pretty badly engineered. But not on the majority of them.
This is more pie in the sky wishful thinking shit, brought to us courtesy of companies selling snake oil to LE organizations. The commentary stemming from this article is rather entertaining, tho.
If disabling automobiles via EMP pulse was practical the military would have been doing it years ago in Iraq and Afghanistan.
SB
I believe that falls under criminal law, one of the assault provisions.
Assuming you survive the experience of kneeing me in the groin, however - which you would not unless you finished me off completely. As to saving me money, you wouldn't - my kid is long out of the house and I neutered myself ten years ago in order to avoid future expenditures of that kind ;)
Nice try, tho. :)
SB
Yeah. Then they start frying cars while in a high speed chase, the car goes completely out of control (no power steering or control of any kind at 100 mph); more dead bystanders.
How, exactly, is this a better solution? At least with caltrops the driver still has *some* control over the car, and presumably doesn't want to die.
SB
Testing it on pacemakers would be easy. Testing it on pacemakers installed into living humans would involve a high degree of liability.
I can definitely see, in the not so far future, police being required to inspect vehicles for "illegal shielding modifications". Most officers I know would consider it gilding the lily, however, on top of all the other stuff they are asked to do but not even remotely trained for.
SB
SB
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe a Faraday cage has to be grounded to be effective; also, wouldn't a electromagnetic field actually make a faraday cage more effective by inducing stronger currents in the cage materials as the field changes?
SB
If car engines can be taken offline with a pulse that simply glitches, rather than destroying, the electronics, that raises the unpleasant possibility that a software or hardware bug could do the same thing,
Happens all the time...
To add to this thread, I suspect that modern car electronic/computer systems would have built-in protection against electrical surges coming from their outlying wiring or systems. Don't know for sure, have never owned a vehicle newer than 1980.
SB
Expanded metal mesh (such as is still used under some ceramic floor tile installation and for some plaster applications, etc) is lightweight and inexpensive ;)
I'm not sure how conductive the cheaper stuff is, but if you need conductive mesh, any ductile metal will serve, expanded copper mesh is available and is highly electrically conductive.
SB
It's been a while, but IIRC the top speed of that particular model is around 145mph ;-)
Mercedes are not known for being wimpy vehicles in the power department.
SB
I'd love to see the government or any LE try to outlaw older cars like the GP owns. The public outcry (lots of it from rich people) and ensuing legal chaos would be memorable and quite fun to watch ;-D
SB
"We" don't say that. Some people do, generally the ones who either 1) have an agenda or 2) are ignorant. People who know what the fuck they are talking about use the correct term.
The irony is indeed thick. ;)
SB
I'm waiting for the day the RIAA sues some innocent gun-toting redneck (pardon, red-blooded patriotic american) who doesn't know a keyboard from a kickstand, and said person decides the country would be better off without some of these execs...
It's inevitable. I'll weep big crocodile tears, I will.
SB
Yup, statutory damages have worked so well as a "deterrent" to file sharing. Why, the whole file sharing phenomenon has almost been wiped out completely...
The law as written *IS* meaningless.
SB
The real irony there is that there's at least a fair amount of evidence that giving music away is the best sort of advertisement there is...
SB
If they can't actually prove that the damages were that high, then they shouldn't receive that amount in damages. They should receive whatever damage amount they can prove.
If the damage amounts are "potentially unprovable" then the whole case should be dismissed. How the fsck can you sue someone for damages when you can't even prove what the damages were, or that there even were any damages at all? That goes beyond ridiculous.
Some day whole classes of law history students will be laughing hysterically at our current tort system. I don't expect that reform will come from our legislative or judicial systems, however. I expect it to come from the vast majority of people who are sick to death of living with the bogus laws and restrictions and the fear of being sued by some ignorant, greedy, lazy fool who looks up a greedy lawyer in the yellow pages.
I won't speak for anyone else, but as a citizen of the US I feel ashamed to be even indirectly involved in a system this badly corrupted.
SB
Parent deserves +5 Insightful just for this:
It still seems quite high. I wonder if another case could appeal to get it lowered even further to something like, say, $5.00 per song. I mean, when you think about it, $54,000 could buy someone a 4 year education, a really nice car, could be used for a downpayment on a decent home, or, for the philanthropic, would be a very sizeable charity donation. That money that Jamie Thomas has to pay, now, could be used for some very important things that could help progress society (as in, employing a home builder or auto manufacturer, helping Jamie grow educationally to become a more productive member of society, etc.) Instead, it is going to line the pockets of some already very rich folk who are probably going to spend it on blow and hookers, or maybe, at best, a very overpriced car that contributes to little more than an ego.
One of the very basic problems in our society right now is that vast amounts of money go to small amounts of people of whom very, very few have done anything to actually earn it.
SB
It's hard to implement a moving spec.
Is there any such thing as a "non moving" specification?
Especially in the constantly evolving tech world?
Specs *should* continue to evolve as the technology and theory changes and improves. Especially the open ones. If they don't, they will die of obsolescence.
That's where open specs are better than closed ones. Everyone can see what is changing, and everyone can contribute. (Cue comments about "closed minded devs don't like my idea XX here; if you don't like what they are doing, fork it. )
SB
Kessler Syndrome
SB
India and Russia both have this habit of announcing these awesome things, and then never actually doing them.
So does the US.
SB
True, but with current tech one could build a mail server that would do all that, be shielded, rugged, and redundant, and put it in something the size of a hardcover book.
Someone send NASA some Sheeva dev kits...
( I know, I know, gov procurement, etc. But still...)
SB