I believe a far more interesting story about Waze has eluded Slashdot:
Two Technion students reverse-engineered Waze's method for detecting a traffic jam, then created a network of fake clients that reported traffic patterns that caused Waze to mark as jammed what was in reality a perfectly empty road.
Cool of you for finding the original link! I actually remember this being exhibited at the HUJI Open Day fair in 1999, and (as a prospective student) had a chat with Yael who explained a bit about how it worked. I'm happy to see that this little project has progressed.
Your criticism however seems out of place; if Yael is a Disney Research employee then this is a Disney Research invention, it is not "somebody else's". I'm quite sure that the team has not been sitting idly these past 14 years, and that the breakthrough in question is not what was shown back then but the fact that the technology is closer to being an actual product.
Most people have seen spoon bending on TV or in stage acts - I've seen it done right before my eyes, in a completely improvised setting, with an ordinary spoon taken from the kitchen. There was no sleight of hand involved - the spoon was bending while in this man's hand, being visible all of the time. The handle remained rigid in his hand while the spoon's bowl actually rotated with no apparent force being exerted on it, so that the spoon basically twisted by about 120 degrees. (I've kept the spoon as a souvenir. It remains twisted, not cracked, and will not bend in any direction with any amount of force I can apply with my hands.)
My question to you is: if this is no more than a magic trick, how was it done? The various trick methods described here could not have been employed.
That shouldn't be an obstacle, as current refrigeration technology doesn't directly cool the air in your fridge/home/office either. It would be possible to cool some object using the laser then use the low temperature of the now cold object to cool the surrounding air. However as long as the efficiency is indeed 1.2-2% as mentioned in an adjacent comment this is no replacement for current A/C tech.
Under the 1947 partition plan, the proposed Israeli side would have contained more Jews than Arabs. As for the "ethnic cleansing" you speak of, it wasn't very thorough as there are about 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel today.
Israel has offered the Golan in return for peace several times, only to be turned down. Perhaps some day an agreement with Syria can be reached, but until that day Israelis can and do live on that land.
I don't know what a "computer assisted sniper" is, and even if such a thing existed, how exactly do you spread military equipment in enemy territory without the enemy destroying it once it's left there unattended?
And back to reality, what do you do when the enemy is shooting rockets from within schools and city rooftops? How do you "take them out" while guaranteeing the safety of the civilians they are hiding behind?
Once British forces left the region and the Arabs attacked Israel, the partition plan became irrelevant and the division of the country was to be decided according to the outcome of the war. And yes, losing a war means losing the territory from which you attacked. The Arabs have no one to complain to but themselves. Perhaps in your view Israel should have surrendered instead of defending itself?
It's interesting that Egypt is also blockading Gaza but no one is complaining about them or shooting rockets at Cairo?
Yes, but under various different regimes, none of which were Arab. Living somewhere doesn't automatically grant political power over that territory, and the political powers decided to divide the territory among the two peoples inhabiting the area; a plan that was, as mentioned, rejected by the Arabs who wanted everything.
It's not a revision of history, it's a factually correct statistic as of 1948. If you want we can go back as far as the Bronze age and argue about who was right at every point, but I actually have better things to do with my time.
What forceful removal of people from their homes are you talking about?
And by the way, I think there is only one side here who is using an ancient fictional book as a pretext for murdering innocent people all over the world, and it's not the Jews.
What do you mean "their land"? The land wasn't theirs, not then and not ever! The Arabs were choosing between accepting the partition plan and "driving the Jews into the sea" and they chose the latter and failed. Everything we know today is a consequence of that choice and subsequent failure to execute it.
By your arguments, nobody has any rights to any land whatsoever because someone else lived there once. I think that an Arab, from Arabia, has no right to tell a Jew, from Judea, that he is an intruder in his own land.
The people of Gaza are living under their own rule, and they have an army, which is presently shooting rockets at Israel.
Islam teaches peace with all other people, as long as they too are Muslim. And even that doesn't prevent Muslims from killing each other all over the Middle East.
Where have you read this thing you call the Israeli account of history? Israel accepted the Arab minority as citizens from its declaration; any Arabs who escaped or were expelled were a direct result of the war that was declared by the Arabs.
Slashdot Mirror
It's for your car, not your cat, dude.
Two Technion students reverse-engineered Waze's method for detecting a traffic jam, then created a network of fake clients that reported traffic patterns that caused Waze to mark as jammed what was in reality a perfectly empty road.
Sources: Jerusalem Post, Wired.
Obligatory Calvin and Hobbes: http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1995/05/25
Cool of you for finding the original link! I actually remember this being exhibited at the HUJI Open Day fair in 1999, and (as a prospective student) had a chat with Yael who explained a bit about how it worked. I'm happy to see that this little project has progressed.
Your criticism however seems out of place; if Yael is a Disney Research employee then this is a Disney Research invention, it is not "somebody else's". I'm quite sure that the team has not been sitting idly these past 14 years, and that the breakthrough in question is not what was shown back then but the fact that the technology is closer to being an actual product.
Flowers By Irene, man. Have you learned nothing?
Most people have seen spoon bending on TV or in stage acts - I've seen it done right before my eyes, in a completely improvised setting, with an ordinary spoon taken from the kitchen. There was no sleight of hand involved - the spoon was bending while in this man's hand, being visible all of the time. The handle remained rigid in his hand while the spoon's bowl actually rotated with no apparent force being exerted on it, so that the spoon basically twisted by about 120 degrees. (I've kept the spoon as a souvenir. It remains twisted, not cracked, and will not bend in any direction with any amount of force I can apply with my hands.)
My question to you is: if this is no more than a magic trick, how was it done? The various trick methods described here could not have been employed.
That shouldn't be an obstacle, as current refrigeration technology doesn't directly cool the air in your fridge/home/office either. It would be possible to cool some object using the laser then use the low temperature of the now cold object to cool the surrounding air. However as long as the efficiency is indeed 1.2-2% as mentioned in an adjacent comment this is no replacement for current A/C tech.
Under the 1947 partition plan, the proposed Israeli side would have contained more Jews than Arabs. As for the "ethnic cleansing" you speak of, it wasn't very thorough as there are about 1.5 million Arabs living in Israel today.
Israel has offered the Golan in return for peace several times, only to be turned down. Perhaps some day an agreement with Syria can be reached, but until that day Israelis can and do live on that land.
I don't know what a "computer assisted sniper" is, and even if such a thing existed, how exactly do you spread military equipment in enemy territory without the enemy destroying it once it's left there unattended?
And back to reality, what do you do when the enemy is shooting rockets from within schools and city rooftops? How do you "take them out" while guaranteeing the safety of the civilians they are hiding behind?
Once British forces left the region and the Arabs attacked Israel, the partition plan became irrelevant and the division of the country was to be decided according to the outcome of the war. And yes, losing a war means losing the territory from which you attacked. The Arabs have no one to complain to but themselves. Perhaps in your view Israel should have surrendered instead of defending itself?
It's interesting that Egypt is also blockading Gaza but no one is complaining about them or shooting rockets at Cairo?
Yes, but under various different regimes, none of which were Arab. Living somewhere doesn't automatically grant political power over that territory, and the political powers decided to divide the territory among the two peoples inhabiting the area; a plan that was, as mentioned, rejected by the Arabs who wanted everything.
And moved the settlers into the West Bank... another area that had formerly been Palestinian land.
First of all, settlers were moved to the Negev and the Galilee, not to the West Bank. Secondly, the West Bank has never, ever been "Palestinian land".
It's not a revision of history, it's a factually correct statistic as of 1948. If you want we can go back as far as the Bronze age and argue about who was right at every point, but I actually have better things to do with my time.
What forceful removal of people from their homes are you talking about?
And by the way, I think there is only one side here who is using an ancient fictional book as a pretext for murdering innocent people all over the world, and it's not the Jews.
What do you mean "their land"? The land wasn't theirs, not then and not ever! The Arabs were choosing between accepting the partition plan and "driving the Jews into the sea" and they chose the latter and failed. Everything we know today is a consequence of that choice and subsequent failure to execute it.
What Israel? This was November 1947.
By your arguments, nobody has any rights to any land whatsoever because someone else lived there once. I think that an Arab, from Arabia, has no right to tell a Jew, from Judea, that he is an intruder in his own land.
The UN partition plan was rejected by the Arabs. Why should Israel respect it?
The people of Gaza are living under their own rule, and they have an army, which is presently shooting rockets at Israel.
Islam teaches peace with all other people, as long as they too are Muslim. And even that doesn't prevent Muslims from killing each other all over the Middle East.
Answer the question.
You can't just go to the settlers and say 'Okay. Time to come back home'
Umm, isn't that exactly what happened in Gaza?
Where have you read this thing you call the Israeli account of history? Israel accepted the Arab minority as citizens from its declaration; any Arabs who escaped or were expelled were a direct result of the war that was declared by the Arabs.
It didn't exist. What's your point?
Sounds like an excellent investment to me. You do realize that the US will benefit from this technology, yes?