I thought you could even reflash the transmission shift algorithm, reprogram the PCM for a "tune" to name a few. Yep, once you are connected to the OBDII, you are in. That is what is was designed for, so call me surprised when I find out people are doing that with it.
If the following premise is true, and I think it is, fully autonomous will not happen. My premise is that everything is hackable. If true, then I am not planning on riding in a vehicle which I am not controlling and would not support them in the wild. The one thing that helps prevent accidents is "skin in the game". IE, if I crash into you then I get hurt too. A hacker has no such worry. He/she can cause you to crash into another car and the hacker is not at risk. As all autonomous cars are going to be on the interwebs if for nothing else maps, they will be vulnerable. See Jeep. Just putting the infotainment system caused a vulnerability in the primary systems. If anything, maybe we need to rethink how car electronics are engineered with a complete firewall between any electronics internet connected and any that control the car. I know this is going to be a very unpopular position on slashdot...
Yes I am curious too. My panels will generate somewhere between 250 and 330VDC if I remember right. The inverter refers to this as MPP maximum power something to extract the most power from the panels. I am wondering if the sharp unit allows for a range of voltages. If it does not, then it still may be more efficient to convert to AC then back to DC so the panel efficiency is maximized. If not that, then a DC to DC converter may be needed in front of the sharp unit if it does not like variable DC voltages. I assume the DC/AC inverter to convert leftover power from the panels will still be responsible for MPP, but what happens if a cloud comes and the panel power drops, I've seen swings as much as 70% from thick clouds. Does the sharp unit shut off, or does it pull from the grid thru an AC/DC converter. Article is very light on details of real world conditions, such as what happens at night?
Verify the headers to make sure the mail came from the cable company. If you can verify the sending IP address. I get all sorts of email directed at me from supposedly cable, credit, banks etc. The sending IP is some dynamic att or time warner address. Your wife's email is no secret really. Every person that your wife has sent email to or is in their contact address book is a possible leak of her email to spammers. I see it all the time.
In a word, yes. I have lived in both, and in austin I have seen people going the wrong way in the single lane under an overpass to change directions. I have no idea how they even got there. I have seen people in a 3 lane wide one way street make a left turn (in front of me) from the rightmost lane of the road. I was in the middle lane. I routinely watch people run red complete red lights, not pink, but steady red's. Staying within the lane of multi-lane roads also seems to challenge drivers in austin. I have seen numerous news stories of headon collisions because someone was going the wrong way on a freeway. It seems like drunk driving is a much bigger problem here, but can't confirm.
On the two cars I have had with HUD's, the focus is set to infinity. Personally I like HUD, as I can glance briefly to the bottom of the windshield and without needing to refocus my eyes, check speed or tach. Why anybody would complain about HUD is a mystery to me. You can always turn it off if you do not like it. Again in my case, the HUD was configurable to show as little as just speed or as much as tach/speed/one gauge setting/nav info.
Spot on. A friend teaches in a tough area. The only time the parents interact is when little johnny or susie get anything less than a B. He has a notebook he carries at all times. When the parent calls/shows up, he rattles off the child did not submit a single piece of homework, or could not be bothered to show up, etc. I remember one story where the parent is there with child, and the parent says to the child, "I am trying to be angry with your teacher, but your making it difficult". He can't fail them, because if he did, he'd get fired. The system is so broken at this point it infuriates me. We spend on average 9 thousand dollars per student. 9 THOUSAND dollars. For a class of 30 that is over a quarter of a million bucks. For kids that cannot tie their shoes. The school he teaches at has a squadron of guards who really cannot do much because if they do, they get fired. Case in point, a pair of girls are having a knife fight. Two guards restrain the girls and one gets cut in the process. Net result, the girls are suspended for 2 days. For aggravated assault, a two day suspension. Really, I know I am old but in my day, they'd be gone to juve for the rest of the year. Other fun facts are he is not allowed to give homework for weekends or especially holidays, would not want to spoil the child's weekend/holiday. He cannot send problem students to the vice principle, he gets reprimanded. The school has day care for all the single mothers.
My house panels are wired to put out 250 to over 300 volts. Poorly researched is an understatement. Not even considered is that modern inverters vary the voltage taken from the panels to optimize for peak power from the panels.
Actually it is not a good idea to have a heat pump in texas, because heat pumps do not provide as high a SEER for A/C in summer. When I bought my last system here almost 10 years ago, I got a 19SEER A/C/nat gas furnace whereas a heat pump had an AC SEER rating around 16.
I dunno in texas peak winter is around 57,000MW while summer is more and peaks at 67,000MW. So I would not be surprised if more northern states have a higher winter peak demand than summer.
I agree, the problem is how to fairly tax. No matter how the law is written, smart accountants will figure a way around the spirit of the law. Real innovation in the US is rewarded less in the US than innovative ways to game tax law. Maybe change it so patent protection in the US is only provided if the patent is owned by a US corp or US subsidiary, paying US tax on that patent's income? That way diverting fake IP expense to another country denies you the legal protection you expect from the US.
All I can say is I have some fairly rich friends by my definition (MM's) and it is offensive some of the deductions they get. I would begin by removing ALL deductions and starting from scratch. I'd probably only put back in the classic schedule A deductions(mortgage, charity, health). For individuals, that is it. I would also eliminate trusts, which are probably the most valuable tax vehicle for the super wealthy.
And no this is not about the NTSB being taxpayer funded, of course it should be. This is about why is the NTSB doing the R&D for VG. After the thing has flown a few successful simulated full on test flights, IE not development flights, I'd be ok with it. This thing is not even to alpha yet.
Only someone making 1M++ is going to pop for a 250K fun ride. I certainly agree that 100-750k/yr pays alot of tax, I don't consider that group rich however. They are upper middle class and I agree bear the brunt of taxes. Its the.1or even.01% that branson is attracting, and they should be bearing the cost here. But these people have very good accountants who know how to avoid tax and have very good connections to get the most out of the system. Nope, I stand by my original argument, the US taxpayer is getting the shaft on this one and once again the tax system is shifting wealth to the super rich. As a friend of mine likes to say, soon mexico will be as corrupt as the US.
While I am all for commercial space programs, I am a bit confused why NTSB is involved at this point. This was a test flight for what will never really be commercial travel for the masses. It seems to me, VG is getting alot of free help from me the taxpayer to figure out what went wrong. I will never have a 1/4 of mil for a fun 5 minute ride, so why am I paying to help it along. Or is this another case of the middle class screw? We pay for rich people's hobbies again.
You are restricting your viewpoint to limited countries. Certain asian countries still eat dogs and even transport it like we would livestock. If I remember right Thailand exports live dogs to Vietnam for consumption. In the US, most smart animal shelters carefully review who is adopting to make sure the adopter is not using the shelter as a meat supplier. I happen to be a dog lover and find it offensive, but I understand it is cultural. Much like I find Japan's slaughtering of dolphin to be cruel, but I don't care if people kill sharks. What we eat is based on local cultural norms. Think about how India feels about us eating cows for example.
Nope, in austin it is fairly easy to end up paying for energy you produce. When monthly usage exceeds 1000kwh, you pay 12.9c/kwh but you only received 10.7c/kwh for the energy produced by your panels. You stilll pay such wonderful extra tariffs like community benefit charges on total kwh used as well making the 12.9c go even higher. At the 500-1000 usage level it is more equal with the utility charging 11.7c/kwh. So the computation is not total usage - solar generation = charged usage. It is total usage x normal tariff - solar generation x solar rate = your bill. I was rather pissed when they changed to the new model. Previously it was net metered. And to add to the insult, they reserve the right to change the solar rate paid to you at whim. Previously they paid 12.7c/kwh which worked out to about even after you factor in all the other taxes etc they charge. I have to say, when I moved here, I put austin energy at the top of the heap for utilities and thought city run power was a good idea. After the baffoons wasted 60 mil on the new billing system that does not work, restructured the solar rates, and hoover cash from the utility to pay city shortfalls, I'd rank them as the absolute worst utility in history.
They effectively already do this in austin. The latest solar rate structure pays 10.5c/kwh but they charge 12.5c/kwh for users using over 1000kwh/mo. So even when I don't use the network I pay 2.5c/kwh for solar power I generate. Unfortunately they do not meter
push/pull to/from network, they charge based on total solar generation and total usage. And of course they reserve the right to adjust
how much they pay me at will. Last year solar power pay'ed 12.5c so it was a wash.
I think it is more like Elon saying to texas, change the law and I will come to texas. Elon is just being Elon. Whichever state offers Elon the biggest basket of goodies is going to get the factory. It is bribery and corruption at its best here in capitalist usa.
Or a reason to use a modified version of the old NED editor from rand. My homebrew version is 176K, and is more efficient at large files than vi. I built it after needing it for linux and giving up trying to update the original code about 5 years ago. Up until then I used the Rand code. The other handy thing about having your own editor is you can make it work exactly like you want. And since I've used it since college, it is like the back of my hand. I use it for everything from scripts to million line C projects.
Hydro may start getting some adds. The "other" problem of our overpopulated planet is water. TX just announced plans to build a new dam and I suspect may add more than one before it is over. Those dam's usually come with generators alost free.
Not at all. I am assuming as the lower priced shale approach runs out, the next lowest cost alternative will be used. It will not go to zero supply overnight. As nat gas supply starts running out, prices increase, and the next lowest cost alternatives will replace the not so cheap anymore nat gas. If nothing new is available at that time, it will be coal, renewables, nukes, hydro, and whatever else is currently used to make juice.
I took a snippet from the log below. Note, it needed a tow truck, they replaced the battery & drive unit which requires the rear subframe removal. Now either the battery is not easily replaced contrary to reports of battery quick change from tesla, or the "drive unit" is more than a simple motor controller. In any case, even if it is just the dealer cannot fix a water leak, lemon laws apply. Here it has left them stranded, which certainly qualifies for lemon law. While I agree the tesla is a hoot to drive (a friend did test drive one) I don't know if I would run to buy a tesla because my mercedes is unreliable. It appears the tesla could be more unreliable. The drive unit is only one of many problems they are having.
From Edmund's...
When we last left our 2013 Tesla Model S, it was on the back of a flat-bed tow truck, having died on my colleague, Matt Jones. It spent the night in a tow yard and was delivered to the Tesla service department in West Los Angeles the following morning....
He called back about an hour later and said they would be replacing the drive unit and the high-voltage battery assembly. I asked Vince what caused the problems, but he said they don't open up the batteries at the service center. Like most warranty issues on new cars, the parts are replaced at the dealer and the old ones are sent to corporate headquarters for the engineers to study and see what went wrong. The service invoice didn't give me much more to go on, "During vehicle logs review, found fault related to internal drive unit failure. Replaced complete drive unit assembly per TDS case #9571."
If you're keeping score, our Model S is now on its third drive unit: the one that came with the car, the one that was replaced in November, and this latest one. And that wasn't the only thing that was replaced on this service visit.
After the power unit was replaced, the Model S needed a four-wheel alignment. That's because the rear subframe must be removed to extract the power unit.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought you could even reflash the transmission shift algorithm, reprogram the PCM for a "tune" to name a few. Yep, once you are connected to the OBDII, you are in. That is what is was designed for, so call me surprised when I find out people are doing that with it.
If the following premise is true, and I think it is, fully autonomous will not happen. My premise is that everything is hackable. If true, then I am not planning on riding in a vehicle which I am not controlling and would not support them in the wild. The one thing that helps prevent accidents is "skin in the game". IE, if I crash into you then I get hurt too. A hacker has no such worry. He/she can cause you to crash into another car and the hacker is not at risk. As all autonomous cars are going to be on the interwebs if for nothing else maps, they will be vulnerable. See Jeep. Just putting the infotainment system caused a vulnerability in the primary systems. If anything, maybe we need to rethink how car electronics are engineered with a complete firewall between any electronics internet connected and any that control the car.
I know this is going to be a very unpopular position on slashdot...
Yes I am curious too. My panels will generate somewhere between 250 and 330VDC if I remember right. The inverter refers to this as MPP maximum power something to extract the most power from the panels. I am wondering if the sharp unit allows for a range of voltages. If it does not, then it still may be more efficient to convert to AC then back to DC so the panel efficiency is maximized. If not that, then a DC to DC converter may be needed in front of the sharp unit if it does not like variable DC voltages. I assume the DC/AC inverter to convert leftover power from the panels will still be responsible for MPP, but what happens if a cloud comes and the panel power drops, I've seen swings as much as 70% from thick clouds. Does the sharp unit shut off, or does it pull from the grid thru an AC/DC converter. Article is very light on details of real world conditions, such as what happens at night?
Verify the headers to make sure the mail came from the cable company. If you can verify the sending IP address. I get all sorts of email directed at me from supposedly cable, credit, banks etc. The sending IP is some dynamic att or time warner address. Your wife's email is no secret really. Every person that your wife has sent email to or is in their contact address book is a possible leak of her email to spammers. I see it all the time.
In a word, yes. I have lived in both, and in austin I have seen people going the wrong way in the single lane under an overpass to change directions. I have no idea how they even got there. I have seen people in a 3 lane wide one way street make a left turn (in front of me) from the rightmost lane of the road. I was in the middle lane. I routinely watch people run red complete red lights, not pink, but steady red's. Staying within the lane of multi-lane roads also seems to challenge drivers in austin. I have seen numerous news stories of headon collisions because someone was going the wrong way on a freeway. It seems like drunk driving is a much bigger problem here, but can't confirm.
On the two cars I have had with HUD's, the focus is set to infinity. Personally I like HUD, as I can glance briefly to the bottom of the windshield and without needing to refocus my eyes, check speed or tach. Why anybody would complain about HUD is a mystery to me. You can always turn it off if you do not like it. Again in my case, the HUD was configurable to show as little as just speed or as much as tach/speed/one gauge setting/nav info.
In a just world, they'd be dead. They have already proven they will do it again.
Spot on. A friend teaches in a tough area. The only time the parents interact is when little johnny or susie get anything less than a B. He has a notebook he carries at all times. When the parent calls/shows up, he rattles off the child did not submit a single piece of homework, or could not be bothered to show up, etc. I remember one story where the parent is there with child, and the parent says to the child, "I am trying to be angry with your teacher, but your making it difficult". He can't fail them, because if he did, he'd get fired. The system is so broken at this point it infuriates me. We spend on average 9 thousand dollars per student. 9 THOUSAND dollars. For a class of 30 that is over a quarter of a million bucks. For kids that cannot tie their shoes. The school he teaches at has a squadron of guards who really cannot do much because if they do, they get fired. Case in point, a pair of girls are having a knife fight. Two guards restrain the girls and one gets cut in the process. Net result, the girls are suspended for 2 days. For aggravated assault, a two day suspension. Really, I know I am old but in my day, they'd be gone to juve for the rest of the year. Other fun facts are he is not allowed to give homework for weekends or especially holidays, would not want to spoil the child's weekend/holiday. He cannot send problem students to the vice principle, he gets reprimanded. The school has day care for all the single mothers.
My house panels are wired to put out 250 to over 300 volts. Poorly researched is an understatement. Not even considered is that modern inverters vary the voltage taken from the panels to optimize for peak power from the panels.
Actually it is not a good idea to have a heat pump in texas, because heat pumps do not provide as high a SEER for A/C in summer. When I bought my last system here almost 10 years ago, I got a 19SEER A/C/nat gas furnace whereas a heat pump had an AC SEER rating around 16.
I dunno in texas peak winter is around 57,000MW while summer is more and peaks at 67,000MW. So I would not be surprised if more northern states have a higher winter peak demand than summer.
I agree, the problem is how to fairly tax. No matter how the law is written, smart accountants will figure a way around the spirit of the law. Real innovation in the US is rewarded less in the US than innovative ways to game tax law. Maybe change it so patent protection in the US is only provided if the patent is owned by a US corp or US subsidiary, paying US tax on that patent's income? That way diverting fake IP expense to another country denies you the legal protection you expect from the US.
All I can say is I have some fairly rich friends by my definition (MM's) and it is offensive some of the deductions they get. I would begin by removing ALL deductions and starting from scratch. I'd probably only put back in the classic schedule A deductions(mortgage, charity, health). For individuals, that is it. I would also eliminate trusts, which are probably the most valuable tax vehicle for the super wealthy. And no this is not about the NTSB being taxpayer funded, of course it should be. This is about why is the NTSB doing the R&D for VG. After the thing has flown a few successful simulated full on test flights, IE not development flights, I'd be ok with it. This thing is not even to alpha yet.
Only someone making 1M++ is going to pop for a 250K fun ride. I certainly agree that 100-750k/yr pays alot of tax, I don't consider that group rich however. They are upper middle class and I agree bear the brunt of taxes. Its the .1or even .01% that branson is attracting, and they should be bearing the cost here. But these people have very good accountants who know how to avoid tax and have very good connections to get the most out of the system. Nope, I stand by my original argument, the US taxpayer is getting the shaft on this one and once again the tax system is shifting wealth to the super rich. As a friend of mine likes to say, soon mexico will be as corrupt as the US.
While I am all for commercial space programs, I am a bit confused why NTSB is involved at this point. This was a test flight for what will never really be commercial travel for the masses. It seems to me, VG is getting alot of free help from me the taxpayer to figure out what went wrong. I will never have a 1/4 of mil for a fun 5 minute ride, so why am I paying to help it along. Or is this another case of the middle class screw? We pay for rich people's hobbies again.
You are restricting your viewpoint to limited countries. Certain asian countries still eat dogs and even transport it like we would livestock. If I remember right Thailand exports live dogs to Vietnam for consumption. In the US, most smart animal shelters carefully review who is adopting to make sure the adopter is not using the shelter as a meat supplier. I happen to be a dog lover and find it offensive, but I understand it is cultural. Much like I find Japan's slaughtering of dolphin to be cruel, but I don't care if people kill sharks. What we eat is based on local cultural norms. Think about how India feels about us eating cows for example.
Nope, in austin it is fairly easy to end up paying for energy you produce. When monthly usage exceeds 1000kwh, you pay 12.9c/kwh but you only received 10.7c/kwh for the energy produced by your panels. You stilll pay such wonderful extra tariffs like community benefit charges on total kwh used as well making the 12.9c go even higher. At the 500-1000 usage level it is more equal with the utility charging 11.7c/kwh. So the computation is not total usage - solar generation = charged usage. It is total usage x normal tariff - solar generation x solar rate = your bill. I was rather pissed when they changed to the new model. Previously it was net metered. And to add to the insult, they reserve the right to change the solar rate paid to you at whim. Previously they paid 12.7c/kwh which worked out to about even after you factor in all the other taxes etc they charge. I have to say, when I moved here, I put austin energy at the top of the heap for utilities and thought city run power was a good idea. After the baffoons wasted 60 mil on the new billing system that does not work, restructured the solar rates, and hoover cash from the utility to pay city shortfalls, I'd rank them as the absolute worst utility in history.
They effectively already do this in austin. The latest solar rate structure pays 10.5c/kwh but they charge 12.5c/kwh for users using over 1000kwh/mo. So even when I don't use the network I pay 2.5c/kwh for solar power I generate. Unfortunately they do not meter push/pull to/from network, they charge based on total solar generation and total usage. And of course they reserve the right to adjust how much they pay me at will. Last year solar power pay'ed 12.5c so it was a wash.
I think it is more like Elon saying to texas, change the law and I will come to texas. Elon is just being Elon. Whichever state offers Elon the biggest basket of goodies is going to get the factory. It is bribery and corruption at its best here in capitalist usa.
Or a reason to use a modified version of the old NED editor from rand. My homebrew version is 176K, and is more efficient at large files than vi. I built it after needing it for linux and giving up trying to update the original code about 5 years ago. Up until then I used the Rand code. The other handy thing about having your own editor is you can make it work exactly like you want. And since I've used it since college, it is like the back of my hand. I use it for everything from scripts to million line C projects.
He keeps his bitcoins and is charged 150K as any other customer would be. He is also fired.
Hydro may start getting some adds. The "other" problem of our overpopulated planet is water. TX just announced plans to build a new dam and I suspect may add more than one before it is over. Those dam's usually come with generators alost free.
Not at all. I am assuming as the lower priced shale approach runs out, the next lowest cost alternative will be used. It will not go to zero supply overnight. As nat gas supply starts running out, prices increase, and the next lowest cost alternatives will replace the not so cheap anymore nat gas. If nothing new is available at that time, it will be coal, renewables, nukes, hydro, and whatever else is currently used to make juice.
But you are assuming that no replacement other than nuke will be available when shale runs out. Who would have predicted cheap shale 10 years ago?
I took a snippet from the log below. Note, it needed a tow truck, they replaced the battery & drive unit which requires the rear subframe removal. Now either the battery is not easily replaced contrary to reports of battery quick change from tesla, or the "drive unit" is more than a simple motor controller. In any case, even if it is just the dealer cannot fix a water leak, lemon laws apply. Here it has left them stranded, which certainly qualifies for lemon law. While I agree the tesla is a hoot to drive (a friend did test drive one) I don't know if I would run to buy a tesla because my mercedes is unreliable. It appears the tesla could be more unreliable. The drive unit is only one of many problems they are having. From Edmund's... When we last left our 2013 Tesla Model S, it was on the back of a flat-bed tow truck, having died on my colleague, Matt Jones. It spent the night in a tow yard and was delivered to the Tesla service department in West Los Angeles the following morning. ...
He called back about an hour later and said they would be replacing the drive unit and the high-voltage battery assembly. I asked Vince what caused the problems, but he said they don't open up the batteries at the service center. Like most warranty issues on new cars, the parts are replaced at the dealer and the old ones are sent to corporate headquarters for the engineers to study and see what went wrong. The service invoice didn't give me much more to go on, "During vehicle logs review, found fault related to internal drive unit failure. Replaced complete drive unit assembly per TDS case #9571."
If you're keeping score, our Model S is now on its third drive unit: the one that came with the car, the one that was replaced in November, and this latest one. And that wasn't the only thing that was replaced on this service visit.
After the power unit was replaced, the Model S needed a four-wheel alignment. That's because the rear subframe must be removed to extract the power unit.