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User: jayveekay

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  1. I'd rather have OnStar for planes than cameras on Why the Final Moments Inside a Cockpit Are Heard But Not Seen · · Score: 1

    OnStar: "Hello Captain Rittamer, this is OnStar, how may I help you?"
    Captain: "I seemed to have been locked out of the cockpit by my suicidal/homicidal copilot, could you open the door for me please?"
    OnStar: "I see that your copilot has directed the plane to crash in the Alps. I'll open the door for you right away so you can correct that."
    Captain: "Thank you very much!"
    OnStar: "Is there anything else I can do for you today?"

  2. Re:Senate approves international treaties on Prospects Rise For a 2015 UN Climate Deal, But Likely To Be Weak · · Score: 1

    It requires a 2/3rds majority of the Senate to approve a treaty. The Republicans have had enough seats to block any treaty for a long time, and have done so in the last few years. Putting the Republicans in the majority doesn't change their ability to block treaties.

  3. Re:"Civil Forfeitures" are even worse on Law Lets IRS Seize Accounts On Suspicion, No Crime Required · · Score: 2

    Police stop you, and take all of your money, because they think you were going to use the money for drugs.

    IMO in many cases they probably don't think the money is going to be used for drugs, but they want the money for a new margarita machine and so they have to claim that they believe the money is drug money to create the legal basis to take the money from you. That is, the cops will say it's drug money even when they don't really think that, but they just really, really want the money.

  4. Re:Not a Fifth AMendment issue on Law Lets IRS Seize Accounts On Suspicion, No Crime Required · · Score: 1

    "Due process of law" sounds pretty vague. Can the government pass a "civil forfeiture" law that allows them to seize your property because they claim the property may have been involved in a crime, then require you to prove that your property did not commit a crime in order to have it returned to you?

    If they can pass such a law, then they can claim they are following the process of the law when they accuse your property of criminal activity and seize it.

  5. Re:Time for a revolution on Law Lets IRS Seize Accounts On Suspicion, No Crime Required · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let me guess, in 1970 when they passed this law they did not index the amount to inflation?

    Inflation since 1970 means that in 2014 the amount triggering the law is about 84% lower than it was in 1970, and that in another 100 years your kids' weekly allowance will trigger the law. Given the inability of Congress to pass anything, I do assume that the law will be unchanged for the next 100 years.

    If the $10,000 dollar amount were indexed to inflation then it would be about $61,000 in 2014 dollars.

  6. Re:Is this at least user-selectable? on Google's Driverless Cars Capable of Exceeding Speed Limit · · Score: 1

    So if the car is already stopped (on I-90, due to traffic, for example) and a semi is coming up from behind with a sleeping driver at the wheel, then what should the car do?

  7. Re:A limit is a limit on Google's Driverless Cars Capable of Exceeding Speed Limit · · Score: 1

    Well, if we apply Asimov's rules http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    Then we start with rule #1:
    1.A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

    So, the car is not allowed to drive into the pedestrian. Nor is the car not allowed to drive into the pedestrian (as that would be inaction that would get the occupant of the car killed by the semi.)

    Therefore, based upon a classic Star Trek episode "Nomad! Execute your prime directive!" (or perphaps the M5 episode is a closer match?) I believe that the car when faced with this dilemma would self-destruct or shutdown.

  8. Re:A limit is a limit on Google's Driverless Cars Capable of Exceeding Speed Limit · · Score: 1

    If the choice is to run over a pedestrian or be run over by a semi, I wonder what the car driving software chooses to do... Would the user manual clearly spell out the answer? Is there a configuration menu somewhere where I can tell the car whether I would prefer to have the car take another life if it would save my life?

  9. Re:Real Solution on Sniffing Out Billions In US Currency Smuggled Across the Border To Mexico · · Score: 1

    But oh, we can't do that, because it would put so many DEA agents and overpaid government contractors out of work!

    Not to mention a large number of private companies that own and operate prisons for the government. For those companies, mo' "criminals" = mo' money.

  10. Re:Why the Australians? on Australia Rebooting Search For MH370 · · Score: 1

    The right hand seated pilot kept his stick hard back, which is against all of his training - he shouldn't have been trying to raise the nose that much at all, and yet he kept the stick hard back for minutes at a time. It wasn't until the senior pilot, being summoned from the cabin where he was resting, queried the action being taken that the pilot flying stopped his action, but by then they were seconds away from hitting the water.

    There is no issue with the Airbus flight controls

    The issue is that neither of the other 2 pilots in the cockpit visually observed what the junior pilot was doing with his stick. If it had been visually obvious to the other pilots that the junior pilot was pulling his stick hard back then they would have corrected his mistake and the plane would not have crashed.. They couldn't see what the junior pilot was doing with the stick. Lack of control input visibility would seem to be an issue.

    That's what I read on the internet, anyway.

  11. Re:USB 4.x to offer signed USB device signatures?? on "BadUSB" Exploit Makes Devices Turn "Evil" · · Score: 1

    Well perhaps the OS should ask the user "I see you've just plugged in a USB device that claims to be both a keyboard and a network adapter. Do you want to give this device both keyboard I/O and network access to your PC?"...

    Basically, the same way that when you install an app on a mobile phone, the system prompts you for what capabilities you want to grant the app, your PC OS could do something similar for USB devices.

  12. Re: Clever editors. on Greenpeace: Amazon Fire Burns More Coal and Gas Than It Should · · Score: 1

    "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite." - John Kenneth Galbraith

  13. Re:Communism on San Francisco Bans Parking Spot Auctioning App · · Score: 1

    The free market would charge market rates for the parking spot. The only way this App can make money is if a person has a financial incentive to hold onto a spot longer than they need it.

    Put another way: If the city charged the market rate for every minute that someone was using a parking spot, then that user would have the proper incentive to vacate the spot as soon as they were done using it.

  14. Re:prices on Amazon Announces 'Fire Phone' · · Score: 1

    None of the top-100 off-contract smartphones on Amazon.com are more than $250. I'm sure there are off-contract phones that cost $650+, but not a lot of people are buying them on Amazon.

    http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sel...

  15. Re:Inefficient emission regulation on Fiat Chrysler CEO: Please Don't Buy Our Electric Car · · Score: 1

    Agree completely, wish I had mod points.

  16. Game of Thrones quote on US Navy Wants Smart Robots With Morals, Ethics · · Score: 2

    ”So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Obey your father. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. What if your father despises the king? What if the king massacres the innocent?” - Jaime Lannister

  17. Good games give players interesting choices on Game Industry Fights Rising Development Costs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Games are about interactive gameplay, not hi-def graphics.
    Good games challenge the player with interesting choices, and do not attempt to cover up a void of interesting choices with reams of meaningless dialog in very pretty non-interactive cutscenes and the like.

  18. Re:Aaaaaaannd..... on Let Spouses of H-1B Visa Holders Work In US, Says White House · · Score: 1

    I don't think that same sex marriage requires that one or both spouses be homosexual. Two heterosexual people of the same gender can choose to get married.

    The government does not force married couples to have sex with each other, nor does it require that they have offspring.

  19. Re:Incomplete on How the USPS Killed Digital Mail · · Score: 1

    If you tax at 100% interest rate, you'll get no tax revenue, because people will have no incentive to work and/or people will move out of the country to avoid taxes.

    I don't want to appear to be arguing in favor of 100% taxes, but I think your statement is not correct. Suppose you had a communal society in which the government confiscated (aka taxed) 100% of your income, but then spent all the money it took in providing you (and your fellow citizens) food, clothing, shelter, etc. In that case you would have an incentive to work even at 100% taxation, because if nobody did anything then everyone would starve and/or freeze to death. Of course something like this was tried by the USSR, it required walls to keep people in, and it eventually failed against better economic systems in place elsewhere in the world.

    Anyway, with 100% taxation I think you would still get revenue if all the tax revenue was perceived to be being spent wisely on the taxed.
     

  20. Re:Texas needs water, not oil on Obama Delays Decision On Keystone Pipeline Yet Again · · Score: 1

    Any Canadian politician who wants to lose an election just has to propose piping precious Canadian water down to those Yanks.

  21. Re:Tax Gift for Oil - ND Needs the Pipeline on Obama Delays Decision On Keystone Pipeline Yet Again · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Keystone Excel will have no effect on US fuel prices because it's not designed to sell fuel on the US market.

    Oil is a global commodity. Increasing the supply or decreasing the demand anywhere will affect prices worldwide.

  22. Re:Obama = Coward on Obama Delays Decision On Keystone Pipeline Yet Again · · Score: 1, Funny

    Worst president of my lifetime. Not even close.

    Let me be the first to commend you on your excellent writing skills for someone who is under the age of 6!

    One day in your elementary school history class you will learn about the presidents from before you were born, including "The Decider".

  23. Re:Bullshit on Russians Take Ukraine's Last Land Base In Crimea · · Score: 1

    During the War of 1812, more than 50 years before the country of Canada was created, British forces raided Washington DC.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

    Britain at the time was the naval superpower and had just helped defeat Napoleon so had some free troops to play with which made this attack possible. To say that "Canada" burnt down the White House is silly.

  24. Spend it on buy^H^H^Hlobbying politicians instead on Environmentalists Propose $50 Billion Buyout of Coal Industry - To Shut It Down · · Score: 1

    50 billion dollars spent buy^H^H^Hlobbying politicians would allow you to get many laws passed imposing big carbon taxes on coal, making it uneconomical compared to alternative energy sources like natural gas.

  25. I call BS on Farley on Volkswagen Chairman: Cars Must Not Become 'Data Monsters' · · Score: 1

    "'We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing."

    What a grandiose statement. Aside from the fact that their data is limited to the car, so they can't possibly know who is mugging someone in a dark alley (which is a law-breaking act), they can't possibly even know who is doing what illegal act within the car. For example:
    1. How do they know who is driving the car?
    2. How do they know what the state of a traffic signal is at the point in time the car enters an intersection?
    3. How do they know that the car failed to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk or an intersection?

    Oh, Farley is the VP of *marketing*? I understand now. An engineer wouldn't say anything so dumb.