IMHO these are all signs that the human population is reaching a breaking point . . . it wouldn't surprise me at all if within the next 200 years or so there's some major population-thinning event like a pandemic, massive starvation, etc.
How about obesity? It's increasing at an alarming rate, and it seems to me to be something that fullfills both of the above conditions, as the cause of one could become the indirect cause of the other.
I speak from experience, being 365 pounds (yes, yes, a girl should not talk about her weight, but I digress).
To further this arguement, there should be an in-flight 'idiot' override for vehicles like these. If the computer detects a problem (less than 30 minutes of fuel or battery charge, etc), go into "limp-in" mode and give the driver just enough maneuverability to get around or over over buildings while trying to find a place to stop.
When in limp-in mode, I could see a maximum forward speed of 10mph, a maximum ascent rate of 2-3 feet per second, and a descent rate of up to 2% of your current altitude, with at least 3-4 feet per second available at all times (all within the limits of the vehicle of course). If you're 1000 feet up, and you descend as fast as the vehicle will allow, you could be safely on the ground in about 3 minutes (crude calculation). I don't know much about accelleration relative to the pull of gravity, so please correct me if my figures seem too dangerous (20 feet/second descent at 1000 feet).
Once the vehicle is stopped, the computer could allow more-or-less normal ground travel (with a maximum speed of 45 mph or so) and flat-out refuse to allow the vehicle to go airborn again until the problem is fixed and the computer has been re-authorized for flight by the police department.
Such a vehicle would of course have something similar to the On-Star feature some cars have today, so that if there's an emergency, you could hit the button or just dial 9-1-1 and have an officer pick you up or give you a powered escort (tow, fuel/electrical connection, whatever) if it's practical. Perhaps the limp-in mode could be overridden at their command for a few minutes, to allow the car to get from a rooftop down to terra firma.
It seems fair to me that the driver knows ahead of time that they will be forced back to the ground if there's a problem, and that the repair station will transmit a record of the repairs to the local police. That record will probably just sit in your "accident file," ignored until such time as someone notices you've had far too many incidents. Then it's time to expect a ticket/fine, impounding, license suspension, revocation, jail time, or any of the above.
I should think that the threat of a major, and possibly expensive inconvenience would be enough of a deterrent. We all run out of gas once in a while, but for a 'car' that can fly, people need get real and expect strict rules. It works for regular pilots, why can't it work for the rest of us given this capability?
As for auxillary safety devices, why not also add an emergency balloon (to keep the vehicle afloat in water) along with an emergency parachute? Surely someone will ignore the warnings and eventually need one or both of these. If one or both have been deployed, allow slow foward and backward movement and steering, to try to guide the vehicle onto safe, dry land. Given my feelings about driving under the influence, I'd suggest a breathalizer as well, but someone will find a way to fool it (have someone else blow into it while the driver sits ready to start the vehicle).
If the limp-in mode was triggered because the driver appears to have passed out or fallen asleep (say, they took their hands off the wheel for too long, or they're no longer providing feedback by holding the wheel steady), then the vehicle could immediately place an automated call to the police or the On-Star equivalent, deploy the emergency parachute if necessary, and go into some kind of emergency landing mode, perhaps being assisted either by radar to watch for nearby buildings/people/trees, or by remote control. As with any failure, the computer should refuse to allow flight until the police have reset it.
Hardly the wording I would choose, but there *is* a reason I put the truth about my past on my website.
(Hint: so that there's no surprises for the trolls to scream about)
To the great-grandparent: Thanks for the compliments on the Commodore tower. I can't say whether or not neon tubes would look particularly good in that thing, but it's something to consider for when I decide to work on it again (lack of interest, lack of money, too lazy, etc.)
Thanks to everyone who wrote with their suggestions. After a little more digging and some insight from you all here, it turns out this is part of an Excalibur "Gold" ATV1600 car alarm. One site out of about 47 bazillion I waded through had a picture to confirm it's identity. Now the fun part is finding out where the rest of the system is (doesn't make sense that the previous owner would only take part of the system with him).
Oh, in answer to why I posted here... I could think of no better way to get an answer about a device that looks geeky to me, than to ask a bunch of geeks.:)
/me watches her Karma go up in flames along with Yahoo.
Since I don't use Yahoo for anything other than email and an occasional IM session, I figure it's better to let them go down in flames, rather than piss off the admin at starbase:-)
Also, asking the previous owner might be difficult, as we bought this car from a local used-car lot. Prior to that it was in use as a rental car, with whom I have no clue.
And as is plainly evident given 9-11, ID checking does absolutely NO good whatsoever. Facial recognition, on the other hand, or some other biometric way of postively identifying someone (maybe a DNA scanner in the not too distant future?) could perhaps be a vaild deterrant, but the system we have now punishes nobody but the innocent.
I have to point out a potential flaw in this idea. What if the person in question has had facial reconstructive surgery? What about if the person's DNA doesn't match up with their appearance (I know a number of individuals who fall into this category)?
Why not just continue to work on perfecting fingerprint readers? I had a set of electronic prints taken at one of the state police buildings in Pennsylvania.. The resultant images were as good as or better than any I've seen done with ink and paper. I worked at a place once which used your entire hand print as a form of ID (I think this device actually reads the size/shape of the hand rather than its texture), along with an ID badge, and that was just an assembly line job.
There are easy technical means to stop people from linking to you. You check the referer header, and if it's from a site you don't like... you block it! Yes, a few people will have blank/fake referers, but they are in the minority.
Example... Mozilla's Bugzilla doesn't want Mozilla to link to their bugs, so they block them! Easy.
It's really too bad they wasted their time doing something like this. Aside from all of the arguements about fair use and deep linking that I've seen here and in the past, I don't see how this saves the Mozilla/Bugzilla team any trouble or bandwidth, or for that matter any of the other websites out there which attempt to do the same.
It's a small matter of right-clicking on the link, "Copy Link Address" (or similar, I use Opera), and then middle clicking somewhere on the page to go to the URL you just copied. Three clicks, no keyboard activity, no faked web browser settings, and no Referrer ID for the webserver to chew on. Seems like it's pretty easy to circumvent such a "protection" scheme.
On, wait.. This is Slashdot. We're all too lazy to click more than once to view a site.:)
This is exactly the reason for these stats. There's not a single person I know who's used broadband for more than a month that would be willing to switch back to dial-up.
You most likely don't know me, however my fiancé and I are two of those people who are indeed switching back to dial-up soon (possibly as soon as tomorrow, in fact). We currently pay about $45 per month for Cablemodem service (and that's without cable TV).
We're switching back because of cost - basic dial-up service can be had here for $7 to $10 a month, depending on how many months ahead you pay. Between that switch, a number of measures we're taking, and paying off one of our bills for good, we'll be saving around $75 a month.
Were we living beyond our means? Maybe a little. Whatever the case, we can't justify the cost anymore, and $75 a month will certainly add up. My fiancé and I live in Florida, and we'd both rather spend more of our time outside than in front of our computers. That extra money could be put to better (more fun) uses I think.
Give all those people 1 or 2 months of free trial broadband, and then force them back to dial-up and I garauntee that those percentage's will change pretty fast.
We've been using broadband for about 6 months, and by myself I have used it for a number of years. We are both finding that we really just don't need broadband anymore. That said, I don't disagree with you; I am sure a significant number of people will stay with broadband, if given a chance to really get used to it. However, I somehow get the feeling that they will, in time, do just as my fiancé and I are doing.
I can't help but agree with one of my old friends (now deceased due to COPD from smoking), who used to say "I hate computers!" any time there was an avoidable problem or when a subject like this would come up.
(Oh, and before anyone brings it up, the only reason I am here right now replying to this post is insomnia)
These seem to be showing up in my area (St. Petersburg/Largo/Clearwater, Florida) as well, one of which belongs to an auto dealer. I find it rather neat, actually, to sit there and watch the billboard's full-color animations while I wait at a nearby traffic signal for a few moments.
On the other hand, the sign I am referring to is somewhat distracting as well, and in a bad area if you consider the sheer amount of traffic that flows through from hour to hour. I wouldn't be surprised if that sign has caused more than a few traffic accidents, given the nature of motorists in this area.
This kinda gives a new meaning to the common phrase "found on road dead"... The company maintaining this sign is a Ford dealership.:-)
Disclaimer: I am a Ford owner, so I can say whatever I want about my car.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
How about obesity? It's increasing at an alarming rate, and it seems to me to be something that fullfills both of the above conditions, as the cause of one could become the indirect cause of the other.
I speak from experience, being 365 pounds (yes, yes, a girl should not talk about her weight, but I digress).
"We have emergency meeting with Redmond trade delegation. They sent us twenty carloads of Windows... Totally unacceptible. Full of holes!"
(Apologies to Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond)
When in limp-in mode, I could see a maximum forward speed of 10mph, a maximum ascent rate of 2-3 feet per second, and a descent rate of up to 2% of your current altitude, with at least 3-4 feet per second available at all times (all within the limits of the vehicle of course). If you're 1000 feet up, and you descend as fast as the vehicle will allow, you could be safely on the ground in about 3 minutes (crude calculation). I don't know much about accelleration relative to the pull of gravity, so please correct me if my figures seem too dangerous (20 feet/second descent at 1000 feet).
Once the vehicle is stopped, the computer could allow more-or-less normal ground travel (with a maximum speed of 45 mph or so) and flat-out refuse to allow the vehicle to go airborn again until the problem is fixed and the computer has been re-authorized for flight by the police department.
Such a vehicle would of course have something similar to the On-Star feature some cars have today, so that if there's an emergency, you could hit the button or just dial 9-1-1 and have an officer pick you up or give you a powered escort (tow, fuel/electrical connection, whatever) if it's practical. Perhaps the limp-in mode could be overridden at their command for a few minutes, to allow the car to get from a rooftop down to terra firma.
It seems fair to me that the driver knows ahead of time that they will be forced back to the ground if there's a problem, and that the repair station will transmit a record of the repairs to the local police. That record will probably just sit in your "accident file," ignored until such time as someone notices you've had far too many incidents. Then it's time to expect a ticket/fine, impounding, license suspension, revocation, jail time, or any of the above.
I should think that the threat of a major, and possibly expensive inconvenience would be enough of a deterrent. We all run out of gas once in a while, but for a 'car' that can fly, people need get real and expect strict rules. It works for regular pilots, why can't it work for the rest of us given this capability?
As for auxillary safety devices, why not also add an emergency balloon (to keep the vehicle afloat in water) along with an emergency parachute? Surely someone will ignore the warnings and eventually need one or both of these. If one or both have been deployed, allow slow foward and backward movement and steering, to try to guide the vehicle onto safe, dry land. Given my feelings about driving under the influence, I'd suggest a breathalizer as well, but someone will find a way to fool it (have someone else blow into it while the driver sits ready to start the vehicle).
If the limp-in mode was triggered because the driver appears to have passed out or fallen asleep (say, they took their hands off the wheel for too long, or they're no longer providing feedback by holding the wheel steady), then the vehicle could immediately place an automated call to the police or the On-Star equivalent, deploy the emergency parachute if necessary, and go into some kind of emergency landing mode, perhaps being assisted either by radar to watch for nearby buildings/people/trees, or by remote control. As with any failure, the computer should refuse to allow flight until the police have reset it.
(Hint: so that there's no surprises for the trolls to scream about)
To the great-grandparent: Thanks for the compliments on the Commodore tower. I can't say whether or not neon tubes would look particularly good in that thing, but it's something to consider for when I decide to work on it again (lack of interest, lack of money, too lazy, etc.)
Oh, in answer to why I posted here... I could think of no better way to get an answer about a device that looks geeky to me, than to ask a bunch of geeks. :)
/me watches her Karma go up in flames along with Yahoo.
Only for the few minutes it would take for someone to create a mirror of it ;)
Also, asking the previous owner might be difficult, as we bought this car from a local used-car lot. Prior to that it was in use as a rental car, with whom I have no clue.
I have to point out a potential flaw in this idea. What if the person in question has had facial reconstructive surgery? What about if the person's DNA doesn't match up with their appearance (I know a number of individuals who fall into this category)?
Why not just continue to work on perfecting fingerprint readers? I had a set of electronic prints taken at one of the state police buildings in Pennsylvania.. The resultant images were as good as or better than any I've seen done with ink and paper. I worked at a place once which used your entire hand print as a form of ID (I think this device actually reads the size/shape of the hand rather than its texture), along with an ID badge, and that was just an assembly line job.
Example... Mozilla's Bugzilla doesn't want Mozilla to link to their bugs, so they block them! Easy.
It's really too bad they wasted their time doing something like this. Aside from all of the arguements about fair use and deep linking that I've seen here and in the past, I don't see how this saves the Mozilla/Bugzilla team any trouble or bandwidth, or for that matter any of the other websites out there which attempt to do the same.
It's a small matter of right-clicking on the link, "Copy Link Address" (or similar, I use Opera), and then middle clicking somewhere on the page to go to the URL you just copied. Three clicks, no keyboard activity, no faked web browser settings, and no Referrer ID for the webserver to chew on. Seems like it's pretty easy to circumvent such a "protection" scheme.
On, wait.. This is Slashdot. We're all too lazy to click more than once to view a site. :)
You most likely don't know me, however my fiancé and I are two of those people who are indeed switching back to dial-up soon (possibly as soon as tomorrow, in fact). We currently pay about $45 per month for Cablemodem service (and that's without cable TV).
We're switching back because of cost - basic dial-up service can be had here for $7 to $10 a month, depending on how many months ahead you pay. Between that switch, a number of measures we're taking, and paying off one of our bills for good, we'll be saving around $75 a month.
Were we living beyond our means? Maybe a little. Whatever the case, we can't justify the cost anymore, and $75 a month will certainly add up. My fiancé and I live in Florida, and we'd both rather spend more of our time outside than in front of our computers. That extra money could be put to better (more fun) uses I think.
Give all those people 1 or 2 months of free trial broadband, and then force them back to dial-up and I garauntee that those percentage's will change pretty fast.
We've been using broadband for about 6 months, and by myself I have used it for a number of years. We are both finding that we really just don't need broadband anymore. That said, I don't disagree with you; I am sure a significant number of people will stay with broadband, if given a chance to really get used to it. However, I somehow get the feeling that they will, in time, do just as my fiancé and I are doing.
I can't help but agree with one of my old friends (now deceased due to COPD from smoking), who used to say "I hate computers!" any time there was an avoidable problem or when a subject like this would come up.
(Oh, and before anyone brings it up, the only reason I am here right now replying to this post is insomnia)
On the other hand, the sign I am referring to is somewhat distracting as well, and in a bad area if you consider the sheer amount of traffic that flows through from hour to hour. I wouldn't be surprised if that sign has caused more than a few traffic accidents, given the nature of motorists in this area.
This kinda gives a new meaning to the common phrase "found on road dead" ... The company maintaining this sign is a Ford dealership. :-)
Disclaimer: I am a Ford owner, so I can say whatever I want about my car. :-)