but they'll spend $18 bucks on a kid's DVD to get the little bastards to shut up for 90 minutes.
Don't forget that you can play those 90 minute videos at least a dozen times. Your bang for your $18 bucks is MUCH higher than just 90 minutes of peace and quiet...:)
If these legislators are going to become truly, crazy taxers, they should go after REAL targets, like the companies who are putting High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) into everything they make, as well... If the food industry cut the HFCS out of half of what they produce, people would start losing some weight naturally. (Of course, the cardboard crap that they pass off as food these days wouldn't exactly tempt the palette anymore without the HFCS sweetening it up, and the corn lobby would go nuts, so the odds of this happening are about as likely as a fat man dunking on a 10 foot rim, but one can dream...)
...the bills (primarily HB2106) have been meeting stiff resistance from lobbyists and a strong PR campaign from the Department of Public Service (i.e. Highway Patrol), Redflex (the company that put up our beloved freeway speed cameras) and ATS (American Traffic Solutions), which is based in Scottsdale and is growing. Certain members of the AZ state legislature recently tried to slip in an amendment that would have legalized the unexpected and unauthorized video feeds from the cameras (the 24/7 video feeds that are archived for 90 days) and it would have allowed police to use them in all criminal investigations (that amendment has since been removed).
It doesn't help that our biggest publication is also in the pro-camera lobby's pocket either, which continually publishes pro-camera fluff pieces, and it constantly trumps up a flawed poll that says that Arizonans are in favor of the cameras. (The creator of the poll: ATS. The publication has also replaced the actual questions to the poll - which were totally leading, and now only publishes an obnoxious, Powerpoint-exported, Clipart filled, document full of splashy, bright red, ominous-looking percentages).
I'm holding out hope that the bill can make it through with a GOP-controlled legislature and GOP governor (the cameras were Janet Napolitano's idea - yes, our beloved HD Secretary - you were all duped if you think she was a good choice for that role. We couldn't get her out of this state fast enough.).
No offense, Mississippi, but the fact that they can be that far ahead of my home state on such a simple-minded issue is embarrassing. Come on, Arizona - do the right thing! Don't make camerafraud.com do the heavy lifting for you!
Instead, if IE developers really wants my attention, they'll surpass Mozilla and Safari in proper CSS rendering. How fast browsers render pages is secondary to that standards support, especially when no one browser clearly and consistently blows away the competition in speed (as shown in this 25 browser test).
Wife - "Wow - the commercials have changed for the worse, honey... Why do we keep getting ads for pay-per-view porn? I hope the neighbors are seeing this 'cause I'm going to complain to the TV stations and I hope they do too."
Husband - "Ummm, yeah. I don't know why... these ads are coming. Don't call anyone, though. I'll take care of it..."
It is a mathemtician's view as to why the Electoral College has helped this country. It's kind of a long read, but definitely worth it. It even references the Pirates over the Yankees in the '60 World Series - that can't be a bad thing...
One great quote from the article about why equal voting isn't enough:
"Under a tyranny, everyoneâ(TM)s power is equal to zero. Clearly, equality alone is not enough."
The common shortcuts are too valuable to give up. Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-X, Alt-F, etc. are all in the wrong place on the keyboard when you switch to Dvorak. I tried to learn it for a little while, but I quickly gave up after running into this real-world problem.
Yeah, I suppose I could've gone through and re-mapped those shortcuts, but that would've been a pain in the butt doing at every computer I ever sit down at, for every application.
I found out about quite a few artists that I would've NEVER otherwise known about because of Youtube.
I found Kanye West's "Stronger" there, and that introduced me to Daft Punk, of which I'm a huge fan now. I have since purchased 2 Daft Punk CDs and a DVD.
If Daft Punk's videos had been removed before I saw them, I would've never put any money in their pockets.
I also found a lot of old and obscure Rush videos I'd never seen or heard of before. Now all of those videos are gone. I may not have bought them, but it kept Rush in my mind, and motivates me to buy more Rush albums, etc.
The record companies are shooting themselves in the foot, and they are too closed-minded and/or greedy to see it.
Good luck getting coverage for that kind of treatment. Probable responses: "The vat of pills you take every day is much cheaper. Claim denied." Or, "Experimental - denied."
If this truly works on a large scale, this particular treatment will unfortunately be for the upper class only.
I'm not saying that many people do it (it would require a lot of trust), but it shouldn't be eliminated completely as an option. Is that what the "payment upon pickup" is supposed to cover?
One thing that shall be understood is that driving a car on a public highway is **NOT** a private act, and thus expectations of household privacy cannot apply. - Can't argue with that, as long as my rights aren't violated (which speed cameras do violate, BTW).
Furthermore, driving is a **PRIVILEGE** granted by the governments who own the roads, and they are free to implement whatever management methods to manage the use of the roads, up to and including the tracking of every single vehicle. - Have you forgotten that the government works for us, not vice versa? WE own the government, which owns the roads. If we don't want this system, we should be able to stop it. BTW - this isn't the government coming up with this. These are private companies, creating surveillance technology and selling it to cash-stipped governments with the ticket revenue as a carrot to lock them in forever.
Locating stolen vehicles is only one benefit of the whole system; - There are VOLUNTARY systems for that, such as Lo-Jack, that you can choose to participate in. What if I don't want to participate?
effective road capacity surveys could be conducted instantaneously, to help planning road expansion and/or maintenance. - This can be done in other ways, such as the systems used today. Privacy doesn't have to be sacrificed for just this efficiency improvement.
Road congestion could also be monitored automagically, and drivers could also be suggested alternative routes to avoid tie-ups. - If this system was anonymous, it wouldn't be bad, but this isn't an anonymous system. This is tracking individuals in their cars, and knowing where they are at all times.
Congestion pricing could also be effected easily with that system, and it could even be adjusted according to different uses; for example, someone who takes his car to go half a mile away three times a day could be charged a nuisance fee whereas the tourist who comes from several hundreds of kilometers for the first time in his life would not be. - And what bureaucrat decides who's a nuisance? What if your definition of a nuisance doesn't match my definition? Who gets to choose? What if you're on the wrong end of that stick? You have no recourse - just conform and OBEY THE LAW.
Car renters could also charge according to the location the cars are used. The possibilities are endless and go beyond what has been suggested so far. - Yes - people could be monitored and fined for every little thing they do wrong. It's a great way to maximize profits while sticking it to everyone else, but does it really help the common man?
Bottom line to me - This isn't a tool to improve traffic and safety first. This is a revenue-generating electronic system equivalent of, "Papers, please." NO THANK YOU...
...is obviously not aware that the base of this tech is already being installed in AZ. They could probably have this system installed nationwide and running in a decade or two, especially if it means more money in their pockets.
Is anybody seriously going to stand up to this? Or will we be like that couple in "Minority Report", where the spider robots came in their house, scanned their irises, and left, and the people didn't think a thing of it?
About 60-70% of AZ residents are welcoming the highway speed cameras with open arms - thanks to Governor Napolitano whoring the state out to Redflex to balance her budget. (The tickets taken by the cameras will not count against insurance points - it's only a fine. Once you pay your "tax", it's forgotten.
If you speak out against the system, you're branded a speeder, GTA wannabe, and told to, "Just slow DOWN!", or, "Stop breaking the law!" They don't get that it's all about money (and now outright spying).
Hell, even if the people rose up against the system and stopped this tracking, what's to stop the NSA from doing it under the table with the same system, all in the name of safety?
I single-handedly hold Scottsdale, Arizona and its town council for bringing this system to the entire nation. If they'd had their heads pulled out and not put the system up on the Loop 101, it wouldn't have gained any traction to go state-wide, and now nationwide. Thanks, guys... I hope you enjoyed that paltry revenue stream while introducing Big Brother to us. Damn, I hate Scottsdale more than ever now...
It looks like the tin foil crowd got this system 100% right, and the sad thing is that nobody will be educated enough about what's going on to care.
I haven't skimmed all of the comments, so someone may have already pointed this out, but what about privacy? Google has over the years increasingly shown that it doesn't really care about privacy (see its willingness to turn over search results to the police, its upper management's statements about how privacy doesn't exist like it used to, etc.), especially when it is taken away by one of its profitable services. Therefore, WHY would I use a browser that could potentially track every page I visit, every setting I change and when I do it, etc., in some master database somewhere? This says nothing about having to develop for yet ANOTHER browser, etc.
Thanks, but NO thanks...
I don't see why TI would have Mastercard and Visa involved here. They don't have an RFID payment scheme. The only RFID payment scheme I know of is that speedpass thing some of the gas companies use.
... was too low in resolution to see anything. A higher resolution video would've been more helpful.
More importantly, as other posters have said, this still requires humans doing the original. This is an apples and oranges argument when comparing this to animation from scratch.
As long as web developers can continue to design our sites to work with standardized code (XHTML, CSS, etc.) and not have to create a 2nd web site for mobile devices, we will all be happy.
"What really bugged me was if we could build starships that could run themselves for 700 years why didn't they keep building new robots to clean up the earth? Eva was a marvel why where there not millions of Eva style robots restoring the planet?
Frankly it should have been an Eden by now with that tech."
****************
Two reasons:
They didn't know they needed to send more help because of the cover-up. The company sent everyone away, saying, "Don't worry. We'll take care of it and call you when it's done." Then the ship's AI kept the last transmission - about the dire situation on Earth after they left and that the cleanup was failing - a secret, away from the people on the Axiom. Therefore, they didn't know that the clean-up needed help. Over time, the people grew lazier and more comfortable, eventually forgetting about their old home altogether.
Even if they did know, they were on a ship that didn't have the resources to build more robots back to clean up the planet.
IMO, the movie was great. I can't wait for this to come out on DVD. This was definitely one of Pixar's best. (Can they keep this up?)
The fact that you didn't see the 2nd seat says a lot about how practical that 2nd seat is in reality. Unless you're Frodo Baggins, you're not going to want to ride shotgun in this thing... For all intents and purposes this car is a one man vehicle.
BTW - since when was $32K-$48K priced like a "folk's wagon"? When did big business get so out of touch with the salary reality out there? When are technology improvements going to start SAVING me money, instead of those costs being transferred from one company (gas/oil) to another (VW price tag)?
Being able to discern the motives behind the skepticism is just as important as being skeptical in the first place.
What I've found is that while skepticism is a valuable tool to keep bad ideas from being implemented, people sometimes use "extreme" skepticism to shoot down ideas they don't understand or fear. In my instance, we started to use a new CMS for our web sites (Drupal). The initial reaction to it was very strong in the negative - people were talking about "the usual" - security issues, support, etc. However, when they started to use it, they grew to like it, and their skepticism went away.
We all know that metal doors in cars stop bullets, right? What am I supposed to do when I'm in a Hollywood-style road rage shootout with the bad guys, and I'm kneeling down behind my door to use it as a shield? What good is fabric going to do for me then?
Slashdot Mirror
but they'll spend $18 bucks on a kid's DVD to get the little bastards to shut up for 90 minutes.
Don't forget that you can play those 90 minute videos at least a dozen times. Your bang for your $18 bucks is MUCH higher than just 90 minutes of peace and quiet... :)
If these legislators are going to become truly, crazy taxers, they should go after REAL targets, like the companies who are putting High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) into everything they make, as well... If the food industry cut the HFCS out of half of what they produce, people would start losing some weight naturally. (Of course, the cardboard crap that they pass off as food these days wouldn't exactly tempt the palette anymore without the HFCS sweetening it up, and the corn lobby would go nuts, so the odds of this happening are about as likely as a fat man dunking on a 10 foot rim, but one can dream...)
Screenshot from article
The idea is interesting, but wouldn't this be better served as an add-on? That would keep Firefox true to it's add-on roots, IMO.
...the bills (primarily HB2106) have been meeting stiff resistance from lobbyists and a strong PR campaign from the Department of Public Service (i.e. Highway Patrol), Redflex (the company that put up our beloved freeway speed cameras) and ATS (American Traffic Solutions), which is based in Scottsdale and is growing. Certain members of the AZ state legislature recently tried to slip in an amendment that would have legalized the unexpected and unauthorized video feeds from the cameras (the 24/7 video feeds that are archived for 90 days) and it would have allowed police to use them in all criminal investigations (that amendment has since been removed).
It doesn't help that our biggest publication is also in the pro-camera lobby's pocket either, which continually publishes pro-camera fluff pieces, and it constantly trumps up a flawed poll that says that Arizonans are in favor of the cameras. (The creator of the poll: ATS. The publication has also replaced the actual questions to the poll - which were totally leading, and now only publishes an obnoxious, Powerpoint-exported, Clipart filled, document full of splashy, bright red, ominous-looking percentages).
I'm holding out hope that the bill can make it through with a GOP-controlled legislature and GOP governor (the cameras were Janet Napolitano's idea - yes, our beloved HD Secretary - you were all duped if you think she was a good choice for that role. We couldn't get her out of this state fast enough.).
No offense, Mississippi, but the fact that they can be that far ahead of my home state on such a simple-minded issue is embarrassing. Come on, Arizona - do the right thing! Don't make camerafraud.com do the heavy lifting for you!
Instead, if IE developers really wants my attention, they'll surpass Mozilla and Safari in proper CSS rendering. How fast browsers render pages is secondary to that standards support, especially when no one browser clearly and consistently blows away the competition in speed (as shown in this 25 browser test).
The content of the ads could be a little TOO revealing about people. Imagine this conversation after the Super Bowl party:
"Did you notice that the Smiths had a lot of ads for bankruptcy lawyers? I wonder what's going on with them..."
It's not an invasion of privacy, but it is a subversion of privacy.
Wife - "Wow - the commercials have changed for the worse, honey... Why do we keep getting ads for pay-per-view porn? I hope the neighbors are seeing this 'cause I'm going to complain to the TV stations and I hope they do too."
Husband - "Ummm, yeah. I don't know why... these ads are coming. Don't call anyone, though. I'll take care of it..."
I found a link to this article here a while back, and it is relevant to this thread:
Math Against Tyranny
It is a mathemtician's view as to why the Electoral College has helped this country. It's kind of a long read, but definitely worth it. It even references the Pirates over the Yankees in the '60 World Series - that can't be a bad thing...
One great quote from the article about why equal voting isn't enough:
"Under a tyranny, everyoneâ(TM)s power is equal to zero. Clearly, equality alone is not enough."
"Sure, Web development is fast, versatile, and relatively inexpensive,"
Did Internet Explorer suddenly disappear? I must've missed that today...
The common shortcuts are too valuable to give up. Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-X, Alt-F, etc. are all in the wrong place on the keyboard when you switch to Dvorak. I tried to learn it for a little while, but I quickly gave up after running into this real-world problem.
Yeah, I suppose I could've gone through and re-mapped those shortcuts, but that would've been a pain in the butt doing at every computer I ever sit down at, for every application.
I found out about quite a few artists that I would've NEVER otherwise known about because of Youtube.
I found Kanye West's "Stronger" there, and that introduced me to Daft Punk, of which I'm a huge fan now. I have since purchased 2 Daft Punk CDs and a DVD.
If Daft Punk's videos had been removed before I saw them, I would've never put any money in their pockets.
I also found a lot of old and obscure Rush videos I'd never seen or heard of before. Now all of those videos are gone. I may not have bought them, but it kept Rush in my mind, and motivates me to buy more Rush albums, etc.
The record companies are shooting themselves in the foot, and they are too closed-minded and/or greedy to see it.
Good luck getting coverage for that kind of treatment. Probable responses: "The vat of pills you take every day is much cheaper. Claim denied." Or, "Experimental - denied."
If this truly works on a large scale, this particular treatment will unfortunately be for the upper class only.
I'm not saying that many people do it (it would require a lot of trust), but it shouldn't be eliminated completely as an option. Is that what the "payment upon pickup" is supposed to cover?
One thing that shall be understood is that driving a car on a public highway is **NOT** a private act, and thus expectations of household privacy cannot apply. - Can't argue with that, as long as my rights aren't violated (which speed cameras do violate, BTW).
Furthermore, driving is a **PRIVILEGE** granted by the governments who own the roads, and they are free to implement whatever management methods to manage the use of the roads, up to and including the tracking of every single vehicle. - Have you forgotten that the government works for us, not vice versa? WE own the government, which owns the roads. If we don't want this system, we should be able to stop it. BTW - this isn't the government coming up with this. These are private companies, creating surveillance technology and selling it to cash-stipped governments with the ticket revenue as a carrot to lock them in forever.
Locating stolen vehicles is only one benefit of the whole system; - There are VOLUNTARY systems for that, such as Lo-Jack, that you can choose to participate in. What if I don't want to participate?
effective road capacity surveys could be conducted instantaneously, to help planning road expansion and/or maintenance. - This can be done in other ways, such as the systems used today. Privacy doesn't have to be sacrificed for just this efficiency improvement.
Road congestion could also be monitored automagically, and drivers could also be suggested alternative routes to avoid tie-ups. - If this system was anonymous, it wouldn't be bad, but this isn't an anonymous system. This is tracking individuals in their cars, and knowing where they are at all times.
Congestion pricing could also be effected easily with that system, and it could even be adjusted according to different uses; for example, someone who takes his car to go half a mile away three times a day could be charged a nuisance fee whereas the tourist who comes from several hundreds of kilometers for the first time in his life would not be. - And what bureaucrat decides who's a nuisance? What if your definition of a nuisance doesn't match my definition? Who gets to choose? What if you're on the wrong end of that stick? You have no recourse - just conform and OBEY THE LAW.
Car renters could also charge according to the location the cars are used. The possibilities are endless and go beyond what has been suggested so far. - Yes - people could be monitored and fined for every little thing they do wrong. It's a great way to maximize profits while sticking it to everyone else, but does it really help the common man?
Bottom line to me - This isn't a tool to improve traffic and safety first. This is a revenue-generating electronic system equivalent of, "Papers, please." NO THANK YOU...
...is obviously not aware that the base of this tech is already being installed in AZ. They could probably have this system installed nationwide and running in a decade or two, especially if it means more money in their pockets.
Is anybody seriously going to stand up to this? Or will we be like that couple in "Minority Report", where the spider robots came in their house, scanned their irises, and left, and the people didn't think a thing of it?
About 60-70% of AZ residents are welcoming the highway speed cameras with open arms - thanks to Governor Napolitano whoring the state out to Redflex to balance her budget. (The tickets taken by the cameras will not count against insurance points - it's only a fine. Once you pay your "tax", it's forgotten.
If you speak out against the system, you're branded a speeder, GTA wannabe, and told to, "Just slow DOWN!", or, "Stop breaking the law!" They don't get that it's all about money (and now outright spying).
Hell, even if the people rose up against the system and stopped this tracking, what's to stop the NSA from doing it under the table with the same system, all in the name of safety?
I single-handedly hold Scottsdale, Arizona and its town council for bringing this system to the entire nation. If they'd had their heads pulled out and not put the system up on the Loop 101, it wouldn't have gained any traction to go state-wide, and now nationwide. Thanks, guys... I hope you enjoyed that paltry revenue stream while introducing Big Brother to us. Damn, I hate Scottsdale more than ever now...
It looks like the tin foil crowd got this system 100% right, and the sad thing is that nobody will be educated enough about what's going on to care.
I haven't skimmed all of the comments, so someone may have already pointed this out, but what about privacy? Google has over the years increasingly shown that it doesn't really care about privacy (see its willingness to turn over search results to the police, its upper management's statements about how privacy doesn't exist like it used to, etc.), especially when it is taken away by one of its profitable services. Therefore, WHY would I use a browser that could potentially track every page I visit, every setting I change and when I do it, etc., in some master database somewhere? This says nothing about having to develop for yet ANOTHER browser, etc. Thanks, but NO thanks...
I don't see why TI would have Mastercard and Visa involved here. They don't have an RFID payment scheme. The only RFID payment scheme I know of is that speedpass thing some of the gas companies use.
Not yet, maybe?
I think I get the gist of the phrase, but I want to be sure... What exactly does the phrase, "Survey is Pants" (or " is pants") mean?
... was too low in resolution to see anything. A higher resolution video would've been more helpful.
More importantly, as other posters have said, this still requires humans doing the original. This is an apples and oranges argument when comparing this to animation from scratch.
As long as web developers can continue to design our sites to work with standardized code (XHTML, CSS, etc.) and not have to create a 2nd web site for mobile devices, we will all be happy.
Two reasons:
IMO, the movie was great. I can't wait for this to come out on DVD. This was definitely one of Pixar's best. (Can they keep this up?)
The fact that you didn't see the 2nd seat says a lot about how practical that 2nd seat is in reality. Unless you're Frodo Baggins, you're not going to want to ride shotgun in this thing... For all intents and purposes this car is a one man vehicle.
BTW - since when was $32K-$48K priced like a "folk's wagon"? When did big business get so out of touch with the salary reality out there? When are technology improvements going to start SAVING me money, instead of those costs being transferred from one company (gas/oil) to another (VW price tag)?
Being able to discern the motives behind the skepticism is just as important as being skeptical in the first place.
What I've found is that while skepticism is a valuable tool to keep bad ideas from being implemented, people sometimes use "extreme" skepticism to shoot down ideas they don't understand or fear. In my instance, we started to use a new CMS for our web sites (Drupal). The initial reaction to it was very strong in the negative - people were talking about "the usual" - security issues, support, etc. However, when they started to use it, they grew to like it, and their skepticism went away.
We all know that metal doors in cars stop bullets, right? What am I supposed to do when I'm in a Hollywood-style road rage shootout with the bad guys, and I'm kneeling down behind my door to use it as a shield? What good is fabric going to do for me then?