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  1. Re:Will Tesla buy them? on Electric Car Startup 'Better Place' Liquidating After $850 Million Investment · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Agree that you wouldn't buy the company, but it would make a lot of sense for them to take or buy the idea.
    I really think Better Place failed because they were unable to reach critical mass - not because they had a flawed product.

    The issue for all battery powered cars is 1/2 an hour charge is an eternity. I sometimes travel 800kms a day in my gas powered car, there is no way I could use an expensive Tesla S to replace that yet. Despite what Elon says, I don't have 1/2 hour to waste every 400kms to sit at a high-powered charge station and drink coffee, and I can't see all my customers having high-powered charge stations out the front of their buildings for me to be able to charge the car while meeting with them. Furthermore, unless there are major advancements made in room-temperature superconducting, the losses involved in fast-charging are always greater than a trickle charge. If all you need to do is swap the batteries, the charge-time becomes far less important. (Still important when you do a volume of cars, because you need more batteries in reserve)

    Look at the video of a Better Place battery swap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0T5NUHyxs - It's just as fast and even easier than filling your car with petrol. Having these scattered around the country would eliminate the "range anxiety" that is plaguing Tesla. The key issue is that you need to have enough cars using the change-station to pay for the batteries that need to lie there in wait. The other exciting thing that better place had working was that by the fully automated nature of this station, autonomous taxies could drive themselves in, swap over, and drive away all without a driver.

    Making the cost model work is actually dead easy. I'm not sure if you have Swap & Go BBQ gas bottles in America & Europe, but here in Australia it's entirely replaced the 'take your 9kg gas bottle to the service station and have it filled' model that used to be common. Basically you pay a fixed fee for each change over. If that doesn't work (financially) you charge an annual rental + a swapover fee.

    Communal Batteries make sense. You essentially move from a 1+1 model for battery swap, to an n+1 model. It also amortizes the cost of replacing a battery over it's entire life, reducing 'bill shock' for electric car owners.

    What Telsa, Nissan, and Ford & Holden could learn from Better Place is even if they keep their proprietary battery packs for each model car, if they can agree on a standard that allows the battery to be removed and replaced vertically from the bottom of the car by a machine accessible scissor lift, the electric car will have a better future.

  2. Re:Fuck those companies on Data Center Managers Weary of Whittling Cooling Costs · · Score: 0

    As reliable a source as wikipedia is, (or to cite the original source: a program report prepared by the US public service for the US Government) - the rest of the world doesn't see the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq as "military aid".

  3. Would you like your beer shaken or stirred? on Beer Drone Delivery Service For South African Music Festival · · Score: 2

    While I am a fan of the concept, it does look like that can will be undrinkable for some time on account of it being seriously shaken up.

    Also, dropping a beer from that distance onto someone's head because the `shoot didn't deploy has got to be concern.

    I think they would've been better to have the in a promotional beer cooler (stubby holder) on a string which they lowered to ground level (or reaching level for the recipient) then detached.

  4. Re: What Information? on Chinese Hackers Infiltrate US Army Database, Compromise Safety of Dams · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Meaning the three most effective ways to gain access are:
    1. Take high res photos of people's desks as you walk past and read use the passwords that will be written on yellow sticky notes around the place.
    2. Steal someone's phone or diary and look for the passwords they've noted in their contacts or notes.
    3. When you find the password, which will be something like "skldjfsldfjsklfjsf!@*(#3-Feb13" and it's now 30 days later, try "skldjfsldfjsklfjsf!@*(#3-Mar13" or "skldjfsldfjsklfjsf!@*(#3-Mar14"

    Because at the end of the day a human needs to remember these ridiculous passwords, and they will revert to either writing it down or using a pattern.

  5. Re:Harsh mistress on NASA's Bolden: No American-Led Return To the Moon 'In My Lifetime' · · Score: 1

    Yeah, what obama said in so many words.

    It's much more important for us to put missiles on geostationary satellites than on the moon.

    Why would you travel 300,000km further than you have to.

  6. Re:Harsh mistress on NASA's Bolden: No American-Led Return To the Moon 'In My Lifetime' · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Couldn't agree more.

    Defense is generally when you respond to protect yourself from an attacker.

    Defense is not what the USA has done for many years.

    More accurate words that describe what the USA taxpayer's 'defense' funding is used for are words like: Invade, attack, assail, assault, occupy, enforcement, pressure, coerce, compel, spy, dominate, afflict, oppress, encumber, harass, plague, torment, torture, trample ... etc.

    I'm all for the USA having the biggest, most sophisticated and competent army in the world, it comes in handy when the leaders of TPLAC's (or northern peninsula communist regimes) go off the rails - but if it were for "Defense", you would expect to see a lot more of it inside the states, and not so much of it in places that never posed a real threat to the states.

    Places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia & Vietnam.

  7. What about the retards who were buying them? on Man Accused of Selling Golf Ball Finders As Bomb Detectors · · Score: 1

    Sooo,

    Surely some boffin should've spent 5 minutes with one of these devices in a munitions locker to test if the damn thing worked?

    Here we have stories of the Chinese setting up buildings full of hackers to thwart the western forces, when all they have to do is put 'this is rock repels rockets' stickers on rocks and get this guy to sell them to the UK and US military for $40,000 a pop.

    Like lemmings off a freakin cliff.

  8. Measurable outcomes vs Perceived outcomes on Most UK GPs Have Prescribed Placebos · · Score: 1, Troll

    "They are not very effective at reducing measurable symptoms, and not effective at improving outcomes. "

    While we're on the topic why don't we just get it all out:

    Mental illness is not a real illness.

    People who suffer mental illness should just get the f*ck over it.

    Real illness can be seen, touched, measured.

    Placebos don't work, subjects just overwhelmingly report that they do.

  9. Re:Antibiotic Placebo? on Most UK GPs Have Prescribed Placebos · · Score: 1

    Absolutely! This is bloody disgraceful!

    There are side effects that can be caused by unnecessarily prescribing antibiotics. Furthermore, they're a bloody expensive form of placebo.

    Doctors that prescribe placebos should be prescribing actual placebos - pills or injections that are inert (and cheap to by wholesale). This to do otherwise is in violation of the Hippocratic oath.

    There's nothing wrong with a doctor prescribing inert placebos though. A doctor is employed to use science to help sick people and there is huge body of evidence that says that prescribing a placebo is more effective in the treatment of almost anything than prescribing nothing at all.

    However, we the public shouldn't be paying for it. In fact the worst thing we could do is make placebos NHS/Medicade/Medicare funded. The effectiveness of a placebo has a correlation with the patient's perception of price. It is in the interests of patient care that private clinics charge exorbitant amounts for their placebos, and they force patients to pay the full fee. (evidence here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/99532.php ).

    It's called science people.

    You don't have a problem telling a dying relative in ICU that "they'll be fine", why do you have a problem if your doctor lies to you to get a better medical outcome? I employ my doctor to fix me, not make me feel good.

  10. Re:This just in: Still clueless on Cyber War Manual Proposes Online Geneva Convention · · Score: 1

    "Second, attacks that are meant to go after one thing can inadvertently hit something else (collateral damage)."

    So, war was originally fought between kingdoms where the peasants didn't vote their king in. It was generally regarded as poor form to attack peasants because the kingdom relies on them regardless of who the king is. The king had a military, who fought other kings and other kings military.

    In western society we evolved some strange rules of war, which evolved to 'civilized' war - when people would stand in lines at opposite ends of a clear paddock and shoot at each other. Snipers, assassins etc. were regarded as poor form.

    We have uniforms for skirmishes, it's nice to have a uniform so you can easily tell if someone is on your side or not.

    But then we had a couple of world wars and found that these Asians didn't play by 'civilized' rules. They somehow had this strange notion that war was about winning - sniping, torture, kamikaze, assassins, spies - were all valid means to an end. In a rather wicked turn of events, that 'end' was a western attack that resulted in the death of 100,000 to 200,000 Japanese civilians.

    " In conventional warfare, attributation is easy: They're wearing distinctive uniforms. "
    Veitnam was a further wake-up-call to the west, (that's the war we lost) - It started out with the south Vietnamese fighting the north, then we came in to help, but couldn't tell the difference between an north and south Vietnam combatant, and couldn't tell the difference between a combatant and non-combatant (what?! The CHILDREN are COMBATANTS?!) .

    "This document underscores just how little our military and political leaders understand about this new theatre of war."

    I couldn't agree more. Now we are fighting via remote control, in a world of mutual assured destruction, where the peasants vote for their kings(presidents) who wage war - so you could say that the civilian population is now at least in part responsible for their warlords.

    So you tell me - just what is a "proportional response" to a 'drone' - a flying assassin that is controlled from the other side of the planet, given orders by a warlord who was elected by his peasants; that you can't kill, but it can kill you. It might target an individual, but could take your wife and children in doing so, depending on the orders that it's being given by your enemy, and the value they put on "collateral damage".

    The rules of war have changed. The rules of mutually assured destruction and proportionate response are being re-defined.

    Geneva never really had a chance of developing a document that would still be relevant in 10 years time.

  11. Somebody set us up the bomb. on Blog Reveals a Chinese Military Hacker's Life Is One of Boredom and Bitterness · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Mod me up! Mod me up!

  12. Re:Attitudinal similarities: screwed by managers on Blog Reveals a Chinese Military Hacker's Life Is One of Boredom and Bitterness · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, how much longer until China realizes that all they need to do to fully replicate western society is to give their citizens a right to vote every 4 years between 'thing 1' and 'thing 2'.

    It's no real surprise how similar it is to live in an economic society under communist rule as it is to live in an economic society under democratic rule when modern democracy has done everything it can to resist any push to reform into a method of governance that gives people actual choice, rather than the illusion of choice.

    Bradley Manning's case is a great example of the difference between pissing off a communist party, and pissing off a military that reports to a democratic government.

    In China, you get torture then execution.

    In America, you get torture (or is that "subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques"), prison, a theatrical presentation for the benefit of the public called "fair trial", prison, then death.

    You say tomato, I say tomato.

  13. Re:As anal as France is.... on France Demands Skype Register As a Telco · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, we have those regulations in Australia too, and the sky didn't fall.

    IP Telephony providers have had very little problem complying with this archaic regulation.

    The clincher is that it's just as difficult to tell where a call originates when it's on a mobile network. You can, at best, tell what tower it is on. Not much use on a block with a high-rise apartment building.

    With IP, the theory goes:
    1. If the call originates from an IP Address that is fixed (eg. DSL) in location, give that location.
    2. If it's not, but you know the address of the IP, give that location
    3. Otherwise, give the billing address of the customer's service.

    The problem in Australia is that the database isn't at all dynamic. You put the address in and in a few days it's available to emergency services - so, when someone calls from a mobile phone (that's not on the telstra network) or an IP Phone, emergency services get the billing address.

    IMHO - If Skypeout is achieved by making international calls into France, then France can go jump. But if they've got a carrier interface (SS7 gateways and the like) inside the country's borders then they can put up with the same laws that the other Telco's in France (ie. their local competition) do.

  14. Nah, teach the little hacker about malice. on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With an Advanced Wi-Fi Leech? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Do a quick search online to get hold of some identity theft / credit card harvesting malware and modify it so it sends the capture to you.

    Then, setup a transparent linux proxy server that replaces any executable file downloaded with your malware, and put it between your internet connection and an open wireless network.

    Let the little turd use your free wifi internet to his heart's content, and wait for him to install the malware when he's trying to install something legitimate. Then, wait for your malware to send you the details of who he is, what his credit card numbers are etc.

    Finally, go to the local coffee shop that gives out free wifi with every coffee purchased, and drop all those details you collected on pastebin.

    Problem solved.

  15. Hell Yeah! on Eric Schmidt To Sell Up To 42% of Stake In Google · · Score: 1

    We should get rid of the whole huge military complex and replace it with drones.

    We need flying drones, walking drones, floating drones and rolling drones.

    Then we need to replace the current people who are flying this generation of drones with drones.

    We can get piloting drones, strategy drones, driving drones, refueling drones and engineering drones.

    Once we have that in place, Obama and Panetta can run the entire conflict without the need for any 'military complex'.

    FREEDOM!!!!

    Which only leaves the question - what does America do to employ it's 3.2 million servicemen and servicewomen who would then be unemployed and unskilled at anything useful?

  16. Re:Taxes aren't the problem either on Eric Schmidt To Sell Up To 42% of Stake In Google · · Score: 0

    I live in one of the colonies.

    And I'll tell ya - I'd rather be poor in Australia than rich in England.

    Actually, Truth be told, I'd rather be rich in England, but like, Robbie Williams rich, not just 'I own a BMW and my house in London' rich.

    Because you can be poor in Australia and have a BMW and your own house. But Australia's got two other awesome things that London doesn't got - Sunshine, lots of it, and beaches lots of that too. (oh, and a whole lot of land that we're making a killing digging up and selling to the Chinese)
    (and when I say beaches, I mean white or yellow sand and surf. I don't care what you call that place where water meets land in Brighton, but it's not a beach.)

    So yeah, I don't mind paying my taxes back to the old country, I just see it as an annuity we're paying back to the people who stole this land from it's traditional owners and gave it to us - the poor sun-tanned over-taxed beach-bums of the colonies.

  17. I'm one of the 10,000! on Flying a Cessna On Other Worlds: xkcd Gets Noticed By a Physics Professor · · Score: 1

    I did not know that, very interesting. Thank you.

    http://xkcd.com/1053/

  18. F*ck Patriotism! on Does US Owe the World an Education At Its Expense? · · Score: 0

    It was a round world last I checked.

    France isn't being killed by immigrants sapping it's free education.

    France is getting killed by french welfare recipients who are more interested in protecting their national language than they are in accepting the fact that the rest of the world speaks English (or Mandarin) and using some of that free education that the government is handing out to learn to do something f*cking useful with their lives.

    Do you ever notice that it isn't the global companies that push the barrow about patriotism, 'buying local' etc? Patriotism is actually all about TAX REVENUE.

    WTF does it matter if someone uses what they learnt at Harvard to to sell you stuff from India, or to sell you stuff from the USA? Harvard still gets paid the same, you still get the same goods. Oh wait, the US government doesn't get paid the same amount, because people who live outside the country don't pay USA taxes.

    If it weren't for local governments trying to retain their power, people would be able to move around the world as freely as all our products do.

    And despite what our governments tell us (that they'll all come here, drive the government broke, and try to blow us all up) the only thing that would happen is that high-taxing countries would need to be competitive with low-taxing countries.

    I'd still choose to live and work in a high-taxing country, because I've been to India. My free travel advice: leave India to the Indians.

  19. Re:think of the possible implications! on Researchers Study Mystery of the Toddler Who Won't Grow · · Score: 1

    Not possible; Atomic Theory would have triggered the Modern Age, and besides Riflemen are enough to kick Spearmen ass.

    Ohh I miss the days when Sid Meier made good games.

  20. Re:What do I do with one? on A Least Half a Million Raspberry Pis Sold · · Score: 1

    You do know that yellow connector on the side of the raspberry pi is a composite video out don't you? ... Still, it amazes me people have displays without Hdmi, it's been a standard item for more than 5 years.... Are you still all sporting CRT's or something?

  21. Re:What do they do? on A Least Half a Million Raspberry Pis Sold · · Score: 1

    Wdtv costs more, and doesn't run XBMC.

    It's interface is better than that of your standard 3d tv, but it's no XBMC.

    Also, while it ships with a remote, it's got no CEC support, so you can't use your TV remote the way you can with a raspberry pi.

  22. Re:Its called AppleTV on A Least Half a Million Raspberry Pis Sold · · Score: 1

    Yeah, so, you couldnt be more wrong.

    Yes, they were limited in power output in earlier board releases, but all problems were solved by plugging in a powered USB hub.

    Spread your misinformation elsewhere.

  23. Not as silly as it sounds on How Do You Give a Ticket To a Driverless Car? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I really don't know why this is a difficult question, I see a simple law that solves the problem:

    1. If there is an occupant in the car who holds a local drivers license, they are required by law to sit in the drivers seat, and they are responsible if the car is on autopilot or not.

    2. If there is an occupant in the car who is unlicensed or incapable of driving they must not sit in the drivers seat and rule 3 applies.
    (ie. this is what you do when you are drunk)

    3. If there is no occupant in the car (eg. the car is driving its self to pick you up), the owner of the car is responsible as if they were driving.
    (ie. If your car kills someone because Sergey programmed it wrong, you go to jail. You knew this was the law when you purchased the car and sent it off on it's own so don't bitch about it.)

    4. For civil claims (that is, if someone is seeking money from you in damages), and it is proven that the software was at fault, then the liability is joint and several. (ie. the person who is suing can take you for what you are worth, and take google for what they are worth).

    This is easy for lawmakers because there is always someone in their jurisdiction who is liable for the car, and as the owner, you need to trust that the software works. If you don't trust it, don't buy one.

  24. Re:Did we really need a study for this? on Brain Disease Found In NFL Players · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, this study was repeated using NFL supporters as a control group.

    In that study, no statistically significant differences were found between the level of brain damage found in the control group compared with that of the group studied.

  25. Yeah, and you can drive your car with your FEET on Ask Slashdot: Best 32-Bit Windows System In 2012? · · Score: 1

    The original question was "Best 32-Bit Windows System In 2012?..

    And I'm afraid, despite it's awesome capabilities... Wine is only the best windows system if you compare it with Windows NT 3.51 and OS2.

    If you've somehow convinced yourself that the best platform for running 32bit windows apps isn't Windows, then parallels on MAC OS is streets ahead of wine.

    Why can't Linux just accept that it is good for running Linux apps, and leave the windows apps for windows.