Ironically, it was a Prius that blew past me at about 80mph this morning. And here I thought the whole point of buying a hybrid car was to safe fuel. Go figure!
These systems will be abused more often than they will be useful. I know what you did last night!
A famous person committed suicide some years ago here. Police stats showed that her 'police record' was accessed a couple of thousand times by cops that had nothing to do with the case.
They abuse the system to check upon there new neighbor, the daughters bf and the likes.
A centralized system detecting licence plates will now be used to check upon the wife and kids more often than the original intent.
It's just one big google for them.
There can also be benefits. Suppose a crime is committed and they have a partial plate. A computer can scan the images to help locate the fugitives. Or suppose a non-custodial parent kidnaps their child from the custodial parent, again this could be useful. Or suppose that there is a warrant out for John Doe for whatever crimes he committed. Scanning the data may show a pattern that between 8:00 and 8:30, he drives through this area with 90% certainty and law enforcement then just has to go there and wait for him to drive by.
Those are all legitimate things that such a system can be used for. If the data collected is abused, as in the case you describe, that is not a fault of the technology but of the actions of specific individuals. If the police force in question punished the officers that abused the system, then the abuse would be minimized. However, when there aren't consequences for one's actions, abuse can be rampant.
While I, like many others, am concerned with the erosion of privacy, I fail to see how law enforcement taking a picture of your license plate that is publicly displayed while you are on a public street can be construed as an invasion of privacy. Since anybody can see/view your license plate in these situations, having a computer scan it instead of an individual writing it down as you pass by is no different. If you use a pay-card to pay your tolls, they also know every time you drive on the toll road. Again, that is not an invasion of privacy as you are in a public space.
The concerns with this, from my perspective, are what are the potential misuses of this data, and why does it need to be stored for such a long period (indefinitely in some places)?
300,000 miles without an accident is a meaningless number. I've driven over 300,000 miles in my life time and haven't had an accident either. My teenagers have accumulated around 100,000 miles accident free. Particularly if Google is only counting accidents caused by the car, versus all accidents involving the car (such as the rear-ended accident mentioned), must people drive their whole life without an accident (otherwise, insurance premiums would be much, much higher).
I think the google technology is great, but the miles without an accident is meaningless without corresponding statistically valid data to compare it against.
CP/M is a very simple beast. It's laughable to think that anybody would go to the effort of disassembling it to find out how it worked then rewriting it function-for-function in 8086 assembly code. changing the file system as you go.
It would be much less work to just read the CP/M docs then write your own little OS using the ideas gleaned. I doubt he even did that. There was no magic in CP/M even way back then and MS-DOS isn't all that similar to it.
Luckily there weren't the crazy software patents of today back then.
The article states that dozens of children have swallowed the magnets and 12 required surgery. There are over 60M children age 14 and younger in the US. Isn't this a bit of an over-reaction? I'm curious as to how many children have had problems after swalling coins and other items that people may have on their desk (ie paper clips, thumb tacks, etc.)?
Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets.
How is natural gas less carbon-intensive than coal? IIRC, it takes 1 cal of energy to heat 1g of H2O 1 degree. Since the energy comes from oxidizing the molecular bonds in the fuel, it would seem that both are going to consume approximately the same about of carbon to generate the same BTUs. Wouldn't it still require the same amount of energy to run a steam turbine? NG may burn cleaner than coal, but it has lower BTUs and requires more of it than coal. Besides, the by-product of burning natural gas is still CO CO2 and H2O.
When I'm traveling, all of my items of any real value come with me (laptop, phone, wallet, money, prescriptions) and if they want to steal my shitty clothing and toiletries, so be it.
And when you are at Disney World, the pool, the fitness center or the bar, how does lugging that laptop around go?
Why were they using 30 when they only needed 19? Is some functionality going to be lost in the new connector? Are they serializing some functions that used to be parallel over the cable? Did the originally plan for some functionality they never got around to adding? Maybe just giving themselves the opportunity to remove them later and and create a market for adapters?
Remember, the early ipods were planned to be usb or firewire connected through the same 30 pin connector. Also, the other pins were useable by third party manufactures to control features in the iPod. Later, Apple dropped many of those functions from the pins, but kept the same connector for backwards compatibility.
Connectors are obsolete on a device that has at least three radios in it. Charging should be inductive, video should be WiFi, and audio should be Bluetooth. Then the thing would be hole-free and could be made waterproof.
Now this is what Apple should be shooting for in ruggedization.
Those capacitive touch screens don't work too well when under water or even just wet.
If my house "only" flooded with two to three feet of water, the least of my concern would be having to replace my router etc, because the power brick got bricked. I'd be much more worried with the damage to the house wiring, insulation, drywall, flooring, etc.
Yes, standard power supplies would be nice, but I don't think I would use flood recovery as a reason for them.
The real purpose of the change is not to make it so the ear phone can be smaller. The real purpose is that with the change, all of your add-ons that used the old connector will need to be replaced instead of moved to your next device and if there is a new add-on you really want, you'll need to buy a new idevice because the connector changed. Effectively when the new dock is made standard all existing devices will become obsolete.
It's not about better design, etc. It is about generating increases in revenues.
Pleeeeeasssseee, drafting table style PCs. This would be insanely cool. A 42" table with a touch screen interface and pressure sensitive stylus support would be awesome. It would have to keep a physical keyboard option so that I can still use my Das Keyboard. I expect a prototype on my desk by Monday.
And in an office setting, you would put your documents you are working from where? The problem with the top of the desk being the touch screen is that unless you need no other supporting materials, you will be covering up some of your desktop and when you set down your coffee cup or worse yet spill it, what does that do to your touch screen interface. As for keeping your physical keyboard, again, if you are putting it anywhere on your desk, you are again covering up your screen.
The problem isn't just fatigue but the touch interface placed on top of a desktop use scenario is inefficient. I know the article is not about linux, but look at all the frustration people are espousing regarding the Gnome 3 interface when using a large monitor. Microsoft's Win8 interface has the same design problems when used with a desktop.
Give the guy the benefit of the doubt, he might have been trying to type "Awesome" and just typoed (before the check cleared.)
What's interesting is that he said it was taken out of context, so instead of rewording the statement to keep it in context, he deleted the whole line. And then cashed the check.
Slashdot Mirror
Ironically, it was a Prius that blew past me at about 80mph this morning. And here I thought the whole point of buying a hybrid car was to safe fuel. Go figure!
These systems will be abused more often than they will be useful. I know what you did last night!
A famous person committed suicide some years ago here. Police stats showed that her 'police record' was accessed a couple of thousand times by cops that had nothing to do with the case.
They abuse the system to check upon there new neighbor, the daughters bf and the likes.
A centralized system detecting licence plates will now be used to check upon the wife and kids more often than the original intent.
It's just one big google for them.
There can also be benefits. Suppose a crime is committed and they have a partial plate. A computer can scan the images to help locate the fugitives. Or suppose a non-custodial parent kidnaps their child from the custodial parent, again this could be useful. Or suppose that there is a warrant out for John Doe for whatever crimes he committed. Scanning the data may show a pattern that between 8:00 and 8:30, he drives through this area with 90% certainty and law enforcement then just has to go there and wait for him to drive by.
Those are all legitimate things that such a system can be used for. If the data collected is abused, as in the case you describe, that is not a fault of the technology but of the actions of specific individuals. If the police force in question punished the officers that abused the system, then the abuse would be minimized. However, when there aren't consequences for one's actions, abuse can be rampant.
While I, like many others, am concerned with the erosion of privacy, I fail to see how law enforcement taking a picture of your license plate that is publicly displayed while you are on a public street can be construed as an invasion of privacy. Since anybody can see/view your license plate in these situations, having a computer scan it instead of an individual writing it down as you pass by is no different. If you use a pay-card to pay your tolls, they also know every time you drive on the toll road. Again, that is not an invasion of privacy as you are in a public space.
The concerns with this, from my perspective, are what are the potential misuses of this data, and why does it need to be stored for such a long period (indefinitely in some places)?
DOJ Says iPhone Is So Secure They Can't Crack It
I dropped mine off the balcony to the pavement below. It seems that it is very easy to crack an iPhone.
300,000 miles without an accident is a meaningless number. I've driven over 300,000 miles in my life time and haven't had an accident either. My teenagers have accumulated around 100,000 miles accident free. Particularly if Google is only counting accidents caused by the car, versus all accidents involving the car (such as the rear-ended accident mentioned), must people drive their whole life without an accident (otherwise, insurance premiums would be much, much higher).
I think the google technology is great, but the miles without an accident is meaningless without corresponding statistically valid data to compare it against.
This.
CP/M is a very simple beast. It's laughable to think that anybody would go to the effort of disassembling it to find out how it worked then rewriting it function-for-function in 8086 assembly code. changing the file system as you go.
It would be much less work to just read the CP/M docs then write your own little OS using the ideas gleaned. I doubt he even did that. There was no magic in CP/M even way back then and MS-DOS isn't all that similar to it.
Luckily there weren't the crazy software patents of today back then.
The article states that dozens of children have swallowed the magnets and 12 required surgery. There are over 60M children age 14 and younger in the US. Isn't this a bit of an over-reaction? I'm curious as to how many children have had problems after swalling coins and other items that people may have on their desk (ie paper clips, thumb tacks, etc.)?
Seems the shootings in Colorado hurt a lot more people, but for some reason, they haven't banned the sale of bullets.
How is natural gas less carbon-intensive than coal? IIRC, it takes 1 cal of energy to heat 1g of H2O 1 degree. Since the energy comes from oxidizing the molecular bonds in the fuel, it would seem that both are going to consume approximately the same about of carbon to generate the same BTUs. Wouldn't it still require the same amount of energy to run a steam turbine? NG may burn cleaner than coal, but it has lower BTUs and requires more of it than coal. Besides, the by-product of burning natural gas is still CO CO2 and H2O.
I agree. People seem to have no problem swapping propane tanks for the BBQ.
You are well behind the times. Losses from wireless charging can now be very low. Unless, of course, there's a cat in the way.
While that is true, wireless is still less efficient than wired, so the OP's question still holds.
Wonder what that strong magnetic field would do to something like a cell phone?
Actually, they taste like chicken.
Electric cars thought to cause brain tumors, news at 10.
The Palm Pre had this as part of Web OS before apple did.
Chances are that retrofitting the existing lock will cost more than replacing it.
iOS by itself is not 100% secure but combine it with the app store and the apple ecosystem and there has never been a big malware incident
You mean other than iOS itself, right? :)
When I'm traveling, all of my items of any real value come with me (laptop, phone, wallet, money, prescriptions) and if they want to steal my shitty clothing and toiletries, so be it.
And when you are at Disney World, the pool, the fitness center or the bar, how does lugging that laptop around go?
Why were they using 30 when they only needed 19? Is some functionality going to be lost in the new connector? Are they serializing some functions that used to be parallel over the cable? Did the originally plan for some functionality they never got around to adding? Maybe just giving themselves the opportunity to remove them later and and create a market for adapters?
Remember, the early ipods were planned to be usb or firewire connected through the same 30 pin connector. Also, the other pins were useable by third party manufactures to control features in the iPod. Later, Apple dropped many of those functions from the pins, but kept the same connector for backwards compatibility.
Connectors are obsolete on a device that has at least three radios in it. Charging should be inductive, video should be WiFi, and audio should be Bluetooth. Then the thing would be hole-free and could be made waterproof.
Now
this is what Apple should be shooting for in ruggedization.
Those capacitive touch screens don't work too well when under water or even just wet.
If my house "only" flooded with two to three feet of water, the least of my concern would be having to replace my router etc, because the power brick got bricked. I'd be much more worried with the damage to the house wiring, insulation, drywall, flooring, etc.
Yes, standard power supplies would be nice, but I don't think I would use flood recovery as a reason for them.
The real purpose of the change is not to make it so the ear phone can be smaller. The real purpose is that with the change, all of your add-ons that used the old connector will need to be replaced instead of moved to your next device and if there is a new add-on you really want, you'll need to buy a new idevice because the connector changed. Effectively when the new dock is made standard all existing devices will become obsolete.
It's not about better design, etc. It is about generating increases in revenues.
Pleeeeeasssseee, drafting table style PCs. This would be insanely cool. A 42" table with a touch screen interface and pressure sensitive stylus support would be awesome. It would have to keep a physical keyboard option so that I can still use my Das Keyboard. I expect a prototype on my desk by Monday.
And in an office setting, you would put your documents you are working from where? The problem with the top of the desk being the touch screen is that unless you need no other supporting materials, you will be covering up some of your desktop and when you set down your coffee cup or worse yet spill it, what does that do to your touch screen interface. As for keeping your physical keyboard, again, if you are putting it anywhere on your desk, you are again covering up your screen.
The problem isn't just fatigue but the touch interface placed on top of a desktop use scenario is inefficient. I know the article is not about linux, but look at all the frustration people are espousing regarding the Gnome 3 interface when using a large monitor. Microsoft's Win8 interface has the same design problems when used with a desktop.
Hold your arm out in front of you for 20 minutes and tell me how great that touchscreen interface is.
Windows 8 is full of fail, just like the Nintendo power-glove, and for the same reason.
Anybody with a two year old and an lcd tv will know that touching the screen with ones hands is not ideal.
I guess the Microsoft check finally cleared.
Give the guy the benefit of the doubt, he might have been trying to type "Awesome" and just typoed (before the check cleared.)
What's interesting is that he said it was taken out of context, so instead of rewording the statement to keep it in context, he deleted the whole line. And then cashed the check.