As a long-time road cyclist I can say this is a completely useless product. Obviously if one is riding on the road one is going to be passed by cars. And so long as one is not an idiot listening to music while riding, one can *hear* vehicles approaching from the rear. This device can't discern how closely a vehicle is going to pass you, which would be the only useful information - warning you if the vehicle is going to pass, say, less than three feet away horizontally.
The poster said he has to support an app that is written to "real" Java, and on Windows systems the poster has to walk users through downloading and installing a "real" JVM (from Sun)because MS's is garbage.
Actually, in previous stages of this case Sun got an order forbidding MS from including Java because MS was bastardizing it (with "Java Foundation Classes" wrappers for MFC). Then they "settled" and agreed to let MS include Java, but only version 1.1.3. This was when the current version was 1.3 at least. So the most recent MS JVM is at least four years behind the times.
I'm not sure what percentage of credit card fraud happens this way, but "skimming" is fairly common. When a customer makes a valid purchase, a crooked clerk or waiter swipes the customer's credit card through a handheld device that just collects credit card numbers. The thief then either uses the numbers him/herself or sells them to others who can use them for a few purchases before the fraud is detected. Here's an example.
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As a long-time road cyclist I can say this is a completely useless product. Obviously if one is riding on the road one is going to be passed by cars. And so long as one is not an idiot listening to music while riding, one can *hear* vehicles approaching from the rear. This device can't discern how closely a vehicle is going to pass you, which would be the only useful information - warning you if the vehicle is going to pass, say, less than three feet away horizontally.
Joel on Software loves to remind us of this article whenever some company claims to have vaporware that will allow "anybody" to program computers:
s /NoSilverBullet.html
"No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering"
by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. (author of "The Mythical Man Month")
http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~maratb/reading
"Computer", Vol. 20, No. 4 (April 1987) pp. 10-19.
Previously mentioned on /. I built one very similar to the original design (plus camera inverter for floor-level shots) and I love it. Here.
Hmmm. A company called Microvision developed this technology at least four years ago and has been making it smaller and smaller since.
The poster said he has to support an app that is written to "real" Java, and on Windows systems the poster has to walk users through downloading and installing a "real" JVM (from Sun)because MS's is garbage.
Actually, in previous stages of this case Sun got an order forbidding MS from including Java because MS was bastardizing it (with "Java Foundation Classes" wrappers for MFC). Then they "settled" and agreed to let MS include Java, but only version 1.1.3. This was when the current version was 1.3 at least. So the most recent MS JVM is at least four years behind the times.
I'm not sure what percentage of credit card fraud happens this way, but "skimming" is fairly common. When a customer makes a valid purchase, a crooked clerk or waiter swipes the customer's credit card through a handheld device that just collects credit card numbers. The thief then either uses the numbers him/herself or sells them to others who can use them for a few purchases before the fraud is detected. Here's an example.