Partially true. It IS harder to do nasty things to linux and macs -- but not impossible. No OS is hackproof unless you simply pull the plug.
So, it is actually a combination of Windows being both easer AND larger that makes it such a tempting target.
If (and I hope this day comes) Linux gets 50% market share, you can bet that things like this will happen. And there might be less of it because it will be more difficult -- but it will happen. All it takes is somebody clever enough and with enough motivation. Right now, 5% or so of all desktops is not motivation. 50% will be.
And back in MY day, we had to talk to our friends on TELEPHONES. You know, those things that are TETHERED TO THE WALL. We could not even walk around the house while taking on the phone!
And if we wanted information, we WALKED TO THE LIBRARY!
Ummmm... Ray tracing does NOT depend on the video card. If all you are doing is ray tracing, get an old Voodoo 2 or something for $10 from eBay.
Ray Tracing uses the CPU to do all of the work. Video chips are optimized to do a lot of "shortcuts" and "tricks" to render a scene, and the math is completely different. Trying to make them do something else is like trying to strap fins on a donkey and turn it into a fish.
A dual-core CPU, on the other hand, would work wonders on a ray tracing.
You misunderstood me. If they paid their money, they are not ripping off anybody! They are caught by #4, above. Honest people taking collateral damage from a move made to stop real pirates.
I wonder what happens if all of those people who lost their $50 (assuming that they really did buy the game) decide to file suit in all of their local small-claims courts. The article mentioned that ALL valve products are disabled. This means HL1, plus the various other packages which followed (if you purchased them all).
$100/per law suit (cost of HL1 + HL2) * 1000 suits (assuming 1000 legitimate users who have a leg to stand on in court) = $100,000 (plus court costs).
And they would loose each and every case unless they sent a lawyer to each one (even more expensive). All you need to do is to show a receipt for HL1 and HL2, and have fun in court!
The ideal solution would be one in which the purchaser controls where and how they use the product for which they've paid money, while preventing unauthorized users from doing the same. Valve seems to have nailed a lot of actual piracy with the method they've chosen to use, but they've also impacted some legitimate users as well.
Actually, the ideal solution would be for everybody to be honest and buy the games that they play! But instead, people have the attitude that they have the RIGHT to have something that they have not paid for. This leads to a few possible outcomes.
1) The company does nothing. They loose sales. Bad for them.
2) The company builds in DRM. This causes consumers to complain. Bad for us.
3) In addition to the DRM, the company lobbies for laws cracking down on "copy technology." Of course, these are a "BFG-900" which, in addition to having some affect on the pirates, has the side-effect of causing a lot of collateral damage do the honest consumer. Bad for us.
4) The company does what Valve did and disables cracks. The is another "BFG-9000" which hurts the pirates, but also causes some collateral damage to a few honest users. Users complain, bad for us. They also get a black eye in their reputation. Bad for them.
In short, if they do nothing, they are screwed. If they do something, everybody complains and they may be screwed (depends on how much people complain).
To those who pirate games: If you don't like DRM and the DMCA, look in the mirror for the reason that we are stuck with those. If you want to change the world, start with the only person that you CAN control: yourself.
Sorry for "double-posting," but the parent is an AC (score of zero), so many might not see it. This link is for the X-plane software, which IS good for flight training (according to the FAA). Of course, you are also required to own a full-motion simulation cockpit. But even so, it is still impressive to get the software portion for under $100.
I have not looked at your site, but you have to consider demographics. I would bet that the statistics for www.userfriendly.org or www.redhat.com would look a LOT different from www.yahoo.com or www.wwe.com (World Wrestling Entertainment).
This isn't a standard issue MS bashing troll but you do have to question whether given the ease at which programs (which is what spyware is) can install themselves on someone elses computer with little or no user intervention , Windows is fit to be allowed on the internet.
I am not sure if your assessment is entirely accurate. To me (and I admit that I could be wrong), there are three entirely separate classes of "spyware."
1) Slimy. Includes such things as "drive-by installation." The fault for this lies squarely on the shoulders of Microsoft. They need to tighten up security. They still have a long way to go, but they ARE getting better.
2) Sneaky. This category includes program that the user had to download and install, but the spyware is hidden in the EULA. This is NOT the fault of Microsoft, unless they play "daddy" and tell you which software you can install. There is talk of this happening in Longhorn, and the general concensus is that it is a bad thing. The only thing that will help this is possibly some legislation requiring an up-front admission of any "spyware-like" activities. When was the last time you read an entire EULA?
3) Up-front. It is possible for a program to be up-front about its activities (but does anybody actually know of any). This is the user's decision on whether or not to install it. Nobody should have a problem with this.
So, Microsoft IS responsible for some portion of spyware, but it is not fair to lay the entire burden at their feet. I am no huge fan of M$, but I do try to be fair.
Ahhh. But you post on/., therefore, by definition, you are obviously smarter than the average person.
Your average joe six-pack would totally freak out at the though of doing ANTHING to his hard drive ("what is a 'partition?'"). But I must admit that a boxed distro would be a nice gift for the up-and-coming geek in the family. But if you have one in your family, you already know who they are.
PS: There is also a HUGE cost difference between a boxed vs. a download version. A boxed distro is good for a "main" present for a close relative.
Now to chage gears...
If anybody knows of a distro which fully supports the nForce 3 250Gb (including built-in NIC) AND cand handle a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, I would LOVE to know about it. I am not very skilled at Linux, and woudl have trouble re-compiling a a kernel.
I would chalk this up to an urban legend. Any signal loud enough to be detected from a mile away would NOT pass FCC testing, and hence cannot be sold. Besides, it would suck to have an jumbo jet landing on your house because your printer squeaked at the wrong frequency.
It is also possible to put all of your eqipment in a faraday cage. This is actually pretty standard procedure for HEMP/Tempest shielding. I bet that even the Iraquis know this trick. It is hard to get it right, but not too difficult to do a halfway job which would at least help a bit.
The quality of inkjet printers is actually better than that of lasers. And if you want to commit some dastardly deed, go to your local office outlet or electronics superstore. Pay cash (well under $100), and dispose of the printer in a dumpster in a different part of town when done. Easy!
The parent is right about the servos. You can get gearhead motors for under $20 each and fifteen minutes of work.
Here is my complete recomendation:
***Brains*** Anything that you are familiar with. Can be a palm, PocketPC, microcontroller, or PC104 board. Just be sure that whatever you choose has a good compiler and debugger. You will also need some digital inputs and outputs. And an analog-to-digital converter is VERY nice to have (almost manditory).
One approach to use if you have an old Palm/PocketPC device is to interface it to a microcontroller through an RS-232 interface. The microcontroller can drive the digital I/O (sensors, motors, etc.), and just pass data back and forth to the real brains. This means that your microcontroller code is as small and simple as possible, and all of the real work takes place in a platform with a screen and good development tools. This is the best "gheto" approach for those on a shoestring budget.
If you have more money, a PC104 or a good microcontroller board would be a good choice. It is possible to get these with abundant digital and analog I/O. This means that you only have one processor to code for. The down side is that you will likely have to spend some money for one of these boards, which may put you over your budget.
***Brawn*** Modified hobby servos. These are readily available, and come in all sizes from extra-small to extra-large. Just glue or screw some wheels to the round horn. You can remove the board and control them with an external H-bridge. Your other option is to leave the board in, remove the potentiomenter feedback linkage, and control them with a PWM signal. This has the advantage of only taking one digital output in order to control the servo two ways. However, it requires writing PWM code.
Get these from any on-line hobby store (or buy local if you are in a hurry).
***Body*** Model aircraft plywood. This is the BEST stuff to use. It is very strong, and very light. You can get two square feet for around $10 to $20 (depending on thickness). You can cut it with simple hand tools, and put it together with "Zap-A-Gap" ($3) or equivalent (extra-thick superglue). Throw in a coping saw for $12 and $3 for sandpaper. This stuff is VERY easy to work with, and you can do anything with it. You can even paint it when you are done. My opinion is that Legos suck because they fall apart too easily, and they are too heavy. Once again, this is available at any good hobby store.
***Sensors*** You have a ton of options here.
If you can find/afford them, a PSD-type sensor such as a Sharp GP2D02 is very nice to have (google "GP2D02" for some cool info). But it has been close to a decade since I have played with this stuff, so that model is no doubt discontinued and replaced with something better.
You can also create circuitry to drive IR LEDs at 40KHz, and then use sensors to detect the reflected light. These sensors are made to go in things like VCRs and DVD players to detect 40KHz-modulated signals from a remote control. So they are digital devices, but some (such as some Sharp metal cans) can be hacked to give out an analog signal. E-mail me for details if you are interested.
Hamamatsu also makes some nice digital sensors which have an LED driver built in. These also detect only their own LED, which is VERY nice. The only down side is that they only output digital signals.
You would also be surprised what you can do with something simple like a CDS photo sensor.
***Power*** Rechargable batteries. Standard AA NiMH cells from your local department store work well. If you are building a BIG robot, you can also try using a gell-cell. But these are very heavy.
Remember - the name of the game is to have fun!
Re:It is probably to protect the company.
on
Hacking Vodka
·
· Score: 1
Yup. The only downside is that it is MAJORLY expensive to de-salinate sea water.
And it IS possible to get one for your life raft. Just be prepared to dig very deep in your wallet. Well, there goes that new vid card for Half Life 2. But that's OK. By the time that Steam begins working, you will have saved up enough for another one!
Sorry to break it to you, but VHDL is my most often used "language" (well, I actually use VisualElite to code VHDL, though). Note the moderation on my message: funny. I was making a joke.
I probably should not respond to a guy who does not even bother to use google, but here goes:
Look at this page. This is not complex stuff. I remember this from high school chemistry. The diagram on the bottom shows water. Plug in your temperature and pressure, and look to see where you are at (solid, liquid, gas). Below approximately 0.01 atmospheres, water can go directly from liquid to a gas. In fact, at such low pressures, you cannot have liquid water at all!
Not quite. What you say is true if and only if the things that you are comparing are ALREADY POINTERS.
If you do A!=B, and A and B are both integers, then A!=B would pass if they happened to be the same value in two different memory locations. In order for != to do what you want, you would have to specifically get the pointer to compare.
In other words, implementing this in C would possibly make the code slightly easier to read, but definately not add any new functionality.
But I wonder what happens if you use the new "IsNot" on a pointer to a pointer? Or perhaps a pointer to a pointer to a pointer? Or what about comparing a pointer to a pointer-to-a-pointer? Or what about comparing a pointer-to-a-pointer to a pointer-to-a-pointer-to-a-pointer? My head hurts. That's why I design hardware for a living.
I think that I am going to patent squishing ELSE and IF into one command which I shall call [sound of drums playing in the background} ELSIF. No applause necessary.
Duh! of course I know all of this. I did not sleep through history class. Revolutionary war - check. Statue of Liberty - check
The problem is, both of these events occured over a century ago. That is the PAST. HISTORY. I was not alive for any of that stuff. Attitudes can change in as little as a generation or two.
I should also like to point out that during the revolutionary war, we were at war with England. Sooo, should I still hold a grudge against them? During WW2, we were allies with Russia, and enemies of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Should we as Russia to help up start bombing Germany now?
Some cultures have a strong sense of history -- just look at the Muslem/Jewish conflicts. But in America, and I would suspect that this holds in most western cultures, you learn about history, but you form you attitudes about people based on the recent past.
I would also like to point out that both of the things that you mentioned were done by politicians. Ofen, what politicians do does not reflect the true feelings of the general populace.
When flying, if you veer around by 100 feet or so, you are still OK. An airplane has GPS, which can pinpoint the position to within 10 feet, and there are not obstacles. In short, a GPS and a computer will do you just fine (as long as air traffic control does their job properly).
ON the roads, even 5 feet can mean the distance between life and death. So a GPS would not be accurate enough, even if the GPS maps were perfect (which they are not, trust me). And throw in other cars only feet away, and the situation gets to be VERY tricky. Oh yeah, don't forget the cooler in the middle of the road which blew out of the back of some guy's truck.
To me, this industry is close to doomed already. If anybody gets hurt, they will unleash a legion of demons^h^h^h^h^h^h lawyers. So, the first company which makes a self-driving vehicle gets sued into oblivion, which serves as a warning to the others. Adding safety features to warn people and apply braking would be a great idea -- as long as a human being had their hands on the wheel so the defendant's lawyers can say "No, it's your fault because you were driving, no the machine."
Just my opinion, and worth every penny that you paid for it.
If I were a fusion scientist going to work on ITER, I'd much prefer to live in beautiful France than in the sparsely populated bit of North Japan where ITER would be built.
Well, if you were an American scientist, you might rather go to Japan, where the natives are friendly, as opposed to France, who has an attitude toward Americans.
And that has nothing to do with Iraq. France has always disliked Americans. At least that is the impression that I get. I admit that I have not been there, never having had enough money. But I HAVE seen European Vacaion. What a great movie!
Slashdot Mirror
Not even mirrordot got it before it went up in flames.
Partially true. It IS harder to do nasty things to linux and macs -- but not impossible. No OS is hackproof unless you simply pull the plug.
So, it is actually a combination of Windows being both easer AND larger that makes it such a tempting target.
If (and I hope this day comes) Linux gets 50% market share, you can bet that things like this will happen. And there might be less of it because it will be more difficult -- but it will happen. All it takes is somebody clever enough and with enough motivation. Right now, 5% or so of all desktops is not motivation. 50% will be.
And back in MY day, we had to talk to our friends on TELEPHONES. You know, those things that are TETHERED TO THE WALL. We could not even walk around the house while taking on the phone!
And if we wanted information, we WALKED TO THE LIBRARY!
Sheesh. Youngsters these days.
AND GET OUT OF MY YARD! {shakes cane at children}
Ummmm... Ray tracing does NOT depend on the video card. If all you are doing is ray tracing, get an old Voodoo 2 or something for $10 from eBay.
Ray Tracing uses the CPU to do all of the work. Video chips are optimized to do a lot of "shortcuts" and "tricks" to render a scene, and the math is completely different. Trying to make them do something else is like trying to strap fins on a donkey and turn it into a fish.
A dual-core CPU, on the other hand, would work wonders on a ray tracing.
You misunderstood me. If they paid their money, they are not ripping off anybody! They are caught by #4, above. Honest people taking collateral damage from a move made to stop real pirates.
I wonder what happens if all of those people who lost their $50 (assuming that they really did buy the game) decide to file suit in all of their local small-claims courts. The article mentioned that ALL valve products are disabled. This means HL1, plus the various other packages which followed (if you purchased them all).
$100/per law suit (cost of HL1 + HL2) * 1000 suits (assuming 1000 legitimate users who have a leg to stand on in court) = $100,000 (plus court costs).
And they would loose each and every case unless they sent a lawyer to each one (even more expensive). All you need to do is to show a receipt for HL1 and HL2, and have fun in court!
Actually, the ideal solution would be for everybody to be honest and buy the games that they play! But instead, people have the attitude that they have the RIGHT to have something that they have not paid for. This leads to a few possible outcomes.
1) The company does nothing. They loose sales. Bad for them.
2) The company builds in DRM. This causes consumers to complain. Bad for us.
3) In addition to the DRM, the company lobbies for laws cracking down on "copy technology." Of course, these are a "BFG-900" which, in addition to having some affect on the pirates, has the side-effect of causing a lot of collateral damage do the honest consumer. Bad for us.
4) The company does what Valve did and disables cracks. The is another "BFG-9000" which hurts the pirates, but also causes some collateral damage to a few honest users. Users complain, bad for us. They also get a black eye in their reputation. Bad for them.
In short, if they do nothing, they are screwed. If they do something, everybody complains and they may be screwed (depends on how much people complain).
To those who pirate games: If you don't like DRM and the DMCA, look in the mirror for the reason that we are stuck with those. If you want to change the world, start with the only person that you CAN control: yourself.
This is the most obvious troll that I have seen in a loooong time.
OK. I am kidding. Laugh. It's funny!
Sorry for "double-posting," but the parent is an AC (score of zero), so many might not see it. This link is for the X-plane software, which IS good for flight training (according to the FAA). Of course, you are also required to own a full-motion simulation cockpit. But even so, it is still impressive to get the software portion for under $100.
I have not looked at your site, but you have to consider demographics. I would bet that the statistics for www.userfriendly.org or www.redhat.com would look a LOT different from www.yahoo.com or www.wwe.com (World Wrestling Entertainment).
This is not the browser you are looking for.
I am not sure if your assessment is entirely accurate. To me (and I admit that I could be wrong), there are three entirely separate classes of "spyware."
1) Slimy. Includes such things as "drive-by installation." The fault for this lies squarely on the shoulders of Microsoft. They need to tighten up security. They still have a long way to go, but they ARE getting better.
2) Sneaky. This category includes program that the user had to download and install, but the spyware is hidden in the EULA. This is NOT the fault of Microsoft, unless they play "daddy" and tell you which software you can install. There is talk of this happening in Longhorn, and the general concensus is that it is a bad thing. The only thing that will help this is possibly some legislation requiring an up-front admission of any "spyware-like" activities. When was the last time you read an entire EULA?
3) Up-front. It is possible for a program to be up-front about its activities (but does anybody actually know of any). This is the user's decision on whether or not to install it. Nobody should have a problem with this.
So, Microsoft IS responsible for some portion of spyware, but it is not fair to lay the entire burden at their feet. I am no huge fan of M$, but I do try to be fair.
Ahhh. But you post on /., therefore, by definition, you are obviously smarter than the average person.
Your average joe six-pack would totally freak out at the though of doing ANTHING to his hard drive ("what is a 'partition?'"). But I must admit that a boxed distro would be a nice gift for the up-and-coming geek in the family. But if you have one in your family, you already know who they are.
PS: There is also a HUGE cost difference between a boxed vs. a download version. A boxed distro is good for a "main" present for a close relative.
Now to chage gears...
If anybody knows of a distro which fully supports the nForce 3 250Gb (including built-in NIC) AND cand handle a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS, I would LOVE to know about it. I am not very skilled at Linux, and woudl have trouble re-compiling a a kernel.
I would chalk this up to an urban legend. Any signal loud enough to be detected from a mile away would NOT pass FCC testing, and hence cannot be sold. Besides, it would suck to have an jumbo jet landing on your house because your printer squeaked at the wrong frequency.
It is also possible to put all of your eqipment in a faraday cage. This is actually pretty standard procedure for HEMP/Tempest shielding. I bet that even the Iraquis know this trick. It is hard to get it right, but not too difficult to do a halfway job which would at least help a bit.
Links, please.
I have heard of retrictions in scanners, but I have not heard of this before.
The next thing will be to put serial numbers in manure to make tracking a fertilizer bomb easier... Oh. Never mind...
The quality of inkjet printers is actually better than that of lasers. And if you want to commit some dastardly deed, go to your local office outlet or electronics superstore. Pay cash (well under $100), and dispose of the printer in a dumpster in a different part of town when done. Easy!
The parent is right about the servos. You can get gearhead motors for under $20 each and fifteen minutes of work.
Here is my complete recomendation:
***Brains***
Anything that you are familiar with. Can be a palm, PocketPC, microcontroller, or PC104 board. Just be sure that whatever you choose has a good compiler and debugger. You will also need some digital inputs and outputs. And an analog-to-digital converter is VERY nice to have (almost manditory).
One approach to use if you have an old Palm/PocketPC device is to interface it to a microcontroller through an RS-232 interface. The microcontroller can drive the digital I/O (sensors, motors, etc.), and just pass data back and forth to the real brains. This means that your microcontroller code is as small and simple as possible, and all of the real work takes place in a platform with a screen and good development tools. This is the best "gheto" approach for those on a shoestring budget.
If you have more money, a PC104 or a good microcontroller board would be a good choice. It is possible to get these with abundant digital and analog I/O. This means that you only have one processor to code for. The down side is that you will likely have to spend some money for one of these boards, which may put you over your budget.
***Brawn***
Modified hobby servos. These are readily available, and come in all sizes from extra-small to extra-large. Just glue or screw some wheels to the round horn. You can remove the board and control them with an external H-bridge. Your other option is to leave the board in, remove the potentiomenter feedback linkage, and control them with a PWM signal. This has the advantage of only taking one digital output in order to control the servo two ways. However, it requires writing PWM code.
Get these from any on-line hobby store (or buy local if you are in a hurry).
***Body***
Model aircraft plywood. This is the BEST stuff to use. It is very strong, and very light. You can get two square feet for around $10 to $20 (depending on thickness). You can cut it with simple hand tools, and put it together with "Zap-A-Gap" ($3) or equivalent (extra-thick superglue). Throw in a coping saw for $12 and $3 for sandpaper. This stuff is VERY easy to work with, and you can do anything with it. You can even paint it when you are done. My opinion is that Legos suck because they fall apart too easily, and they are too heavy. Once again, this is available at any good hobby store.
***Sensors***
You have a ton of options here.
If you can find/afford them, a PSD-type sensor such as a Sharp GP2D02 is very nice to have (google "GP2D02" for some cool info). But it has been close to a decade since I have played with this stuff, so that model is no doubt discontinued and replaced with something better.
You can also create circuitry to drive IR LEDs at 40KHz, and then use sensors to detect the reflected light. These sensors are made to go in things like VCRs and DVD players to detect 40KHz-modulated signals from a remote control. So they are digital devices, but some (such as some Sharp metal cans) can be hacked to give out an analog signal. E-mail me for details if you are interested.
Hamamatsu also makes some nice digital sensors which have an LED driver built in. These also detect only their own LED, which is VERY nice. The only down side is that they only output digital signals.
You would also be surprised what you can do with something simple like a CDS photo sensor.
***Power***
Rechargable batteries. Standard AA NiMH cells from your local department store work well. If you are building a BIG robot, you can also try using a gell-cell. But these are very heavy.
Remember - the name of the game is to have fun!
Yup. The only downside is that it is MAJORLY expensive to de-salinate sea water.
And it IS possible to get one for your life raft. Just be prepared to dig very deep in your wallet. Well, there goes that new vid card for Half Life 2. But that's OK. By the time that Steam begins working, you will have saved up enough for another one!
Sorry to break it to you, but VHDL is my most often used "language" (well, I actually use VisualElite to code VHDL, though). Note the moderation on my message: funny. I was making a joke.
I probably should not respond to a guy who does not even bother to use google, but here goes:
Look at this page. This is not complex stuff. I remember this from high school chemistry. The diagram on the bottom shows water. Plug in your temperature and pressure, and look to see where you are at (solid, liquid, gas). Below approximately 0.01 atmospheres, water can go directly from liquid to a gas. In fact, at such low pressures, you cannot have liquid water at all!
Not quite. What you say is true if and only if the things that you are comparing are ALREADY POINTERS.
If you do A!=B, and A and B are both integers, then A!=B would pass if they happened to be the same value in two different memory locations. In order for != to do what you want, you would have to specifically get the pointer to compare.
In other words, implementing this in C would possibly make the code slightly easier to read, but definately not add any new functionality.
But I wonder what happens if you use the new "IsNot" on a pointer to a pointer? Or perhaps a pointer to a pointer to a pointer? Or what about comparing a pointer to a pointer-to-a-pointer? Or what about comparing a pointer-to-a-pointer to a pointer-to-a-pointer-to-a-pointer? My head hurts. That's why I design hardware for a living.
I think that I am going to patent squishing ELSE and IF into one command which I shall call [sound of drums playing in the background} ELSIF. No applause necessary.
Another "duh" moment in the patent office.
Duh! of course I know all of this. I did not sleep through history class. Revolutionary war - check. Statue of Liberty - check
The problem is, both of these events occured over a century ago. That is the PAST. HISTORY. I was not alive for any of that stuff. Attitudes can change in as little as a generation or two.
I should also like to point out that during the revolutionary war, we were at war with England. Sooo, should I still hold a grudge against them? During WW2, we were allies with Russia, and enemies of Germany, Japan, and Italy. Should we as Russia to help up start bombing Germany now?
Some cultures have a strong sense of history -- just look at the Muslem/Jewish conflicts. But in America, and I would suspect that this holds in most western cultures, you learn about history, but you form you attitudes about people based on the recent past.
I would also like to point out that both of the things that you mentioned were done by politicians. Ofen, what politicians do does not reflect the true feelings of the general populace.
I hate to say it, but those things are easier.
When flying, if you veer around by 100 feet or so, you are still OK. An airplane has GPS, which can pinpoint the position to within 10 feet, and there are not obstacles. In short, a GPS and a computer will do you just fine (as long as air traffic control does their job properly).
ON the roads, even 5 feet can mean the distance between life and death. So a GPS would not be accurate enough, even if the GPS maps were perfect (which they are not, trust me). And throw in other cars only feet away, and the situation gets to be VERY tricky. Oh yeah, don't forget the cooler in the middle of the road which blew out of the back of some guy's truck.
To me, this industry is close to doomed already. If anybody gets hurt, they will unleash a legion of demons^h^h^h^h^h^h lawyers. So, the first company which makes a self-driving vehicle gets sued into oblivion, which serves as a warning to the others. Adding safety features to warn people and apply braking would be a great idea -- as long as a human being had their hands on the wheel so the defendant's lawyers can say "No, it's your fault because you were driving, no the machine."
Just my opinion, and worth every penny that you paid for it.
Well, if you were an American scientist, you might rather go to Japan, where the natives are friendly, as opposed to France, who has an attitude toward Americans.
And that has nothing to do with Iraq. France has always disliked Americans. At least that is the impression that I get. I admit that I have not been there, never having had enough money. But I HAVE seen European Vacaion. What a great movie!