First of all, fuck the beta site. Who the fuck thought a site for nerds would benefit from a cosmetic redesign? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, assholes!
However, the classic site now seems broken for me. I log in, and it brings me to my profile page. That's fine, but I didn't really want to edit my profile. So then I click over to the main page and, voila! I'm no longer logged in! It seems that if I want to complain about the beta site while logged in, I'll have to do it while actually using the beta site.
One of their requirements has been that none of the data can be used to identify any vehicle in any way, which has certainly been a challenge to implement from the development side.
On the one hand, I know what you're saying, and that's a relief. On the other hand, I can't help but think that in the pedantic sense, this requirement contradicts the requirement that location data be shared with other vehicles. That is, if it is possible to receive and decode the location data being broadcast by these devices, even if the data is anonymized, there is nothing to stop me from leveraging additional out-of-band data sources (like, for example, my eyeballs) to correlate this location data with individual identification data (i.e. a license plate). If your car is broadcasting "Look at me, anonymous car at 40.432314,-73.985931!", it's not that hard to point a camera in that direction and run its output to some license plate reading software linked to a DMV database.
So when someone who is obeying the rules of the road gets killed by some idiot who isn't, are you suggesting your right to be a moron extends to the point where you could cause harm to someone else?
I thought causing harm to someone else was already prohibited under existing law.
Your 'right' to drive how you see fit ends where the potential for you to damage me begins.
So, basically, nobody should have the right to get out of bed in the morning? At the very least, nobody should have the right to put their cars in gear, since that inarguably creates the potential for you to be damaged. Or are you suggesting that the law ought to be overly draconian and its selective enforcement and application be left to law enforcement and the courts?
Adagio for Strings shouldn't be in the public domain either, by your reasoning. After all, it's not fair to say "only video games deserve such protection", no?
If you're interested in video games that stand the test of time, I highly recommend Star Control 2 (re-released as the open-source The Ur-Quan Masters).
I get free shipping from Bean's and pay nothing up front for it.
Who is this Bean? That sounds like a great deal, and your informative post couldn't have come at a better time. I'm looking to buy a new TV, some cat litter, and mesophilic cheese culture. I was about to purchase a Prime subscription, but perhaps I'll be able to get all this stuff shipped from Bean's and save myself some money.
You obviously are a terrible troll. Black ice has nothing to do with this. The ice in Georgia was clearly visible, as it formed from slush, not meltwater, so anyone with eyesight anticipated it. Your off-topic anecdote is not applicable to a situation where the road was covered in an uninterrupted sheet of ice as opposed to mere patches of black ice.
When you're driving slowly, how do you prevent your vehicle from sliding laterally into the gutter on a banker road?
Also, I'd like to point out that black ice is very much different than the solid sheet of ice I described. Black ice is [necessarily] formed from frozen meltwater pools that exist on paved road surfaces. This limits its extent to that which is supported by the topography of the road surface. For black ice to extent curb-to-curb, the road must be designed very poorly and must lack any and all forms of drainage and must be inundated with a truly unrealistic amount of meltwater. Basically, it's not possible for black ice to exist in the quantities I describe. Black ice is something you hit, perhaps slide on, and then depart from as you regain traction. With a solid sheet of ice covering the road surface, the only way you depart from the ice is by leaving the road surface. There is no regaining traction. The issue in Georgia was that it was quite warm, and the snowfall accumulations on the road turned to slush immediately. Slush doesn't drain from a road surface very well (if at all), nor is it quite as limited by road surface topography, nor is it as compact as liquid water. This generous layer of slush was then subject to a deep freeze, turning it into a sturdy layer of easily visible ice. The upside was that nobody was surprised to hit unexpected patches of ice. The downside was that there was ice everywhere.
Minnesota doesn't often receive 2" of snow @ 35F followed by an immediate deep freeze to 18F. When you get snow, you get snow. When you get ice, it's either frozen snowpack or black ice from meltwater pools, not a road-engulfing layer of slush-turned-ice.
You have to understand that the south gets hit with trivial amounts of snow occasionally, and while it's usually funny to watch the resulting mayhem, any objective observer should be able to immediately notice that this weather system was different. School buses don't normally stay on the roads until well past midnight. 185 doesn't usually stay backed up in both directions for a day at a time. i understand that it's always a good time laughing at the southerners for their lack of winter driving ability, but that doesn't exactly provide a sufficient explanation for why this time was so much worse than the previous times.
I know it's hard to believe, but trust me, the road conditions in Georgia last week really were that bad.
"Hello, Florida? Can we borrow 3000 salt trucks, please? What's that? Florida doesn't have any salt trucks to help out with? Oh, then maybe we'll try Alabama."
Or were you suggesting that Minnesota just shoot some trucks through the wormhole?
For the geographically challenged ACs responding to me en masse:
Maine is pretty far north. Probably farther north than where you live, unless you're in Alaska or outside the United States. You're not acclimated to your balmy ass winter because there's nothing to acclimate to. You've just never driven on a sheet of untreated ice before, but you're plenty arrogant because you don't realize that you've got sand and gravel when it's too cold for salt.
The sheer arrogance in these comments makes my point better than I ever could myself.
I was playing devil's advocate, in case that wasn't obvious. It's more or less axiomatic that in this context, death for one's enemies is preferable to death for oneself.
That's funny of you, calling a New Jerseyan a southerner. Well, I did mention that I spent some time living in Maine, so I guess I can call you Minnesotans southerners as well?
But alas, you're right. If only those southerners could learn to violate the laws of physics just like us yankees, or at least be able to turn up the coefficient of friction on the icy roads without using any snow management gear... Perhaps Georgians should have all bought up a bunch of kitty litter and fixed the roads themselves.
You come across as an unreasonable person with either poor reading comprehension skills or an amusing ignorance of other states. To suggest that NJ and ME are devoid of black ice (which had nothing to do with the story we're commenting on) is absurd.
It's true. The discussion has grown stale. Instead of outrage over the NSA's activities, all we hear is debate over whether Snowden was a hero or a traitor.
The best we can hope for is that Snowden himself will step up (once again) and offer to return to the US to be tried before a jury of his peers (or even just to be extraordinarily rendered to some black site) as soon as people are held accountable for their violations of the US Constitution. That's the only way I can see the focus shifting from Snowden to the criminals that are running this show.
Please, slashdot, stop talking about Snowden, and start talking about what the fuck we're going to do to impose some measure of accountability upon our government.
Tell me again how the Federal government was able to deploy nuclear weaponry against Japan's civilian population without losing every last shred of legitimacy?
Oh, it's not like the argument that "we had to kill lots of people to save lots of people" could ever be used in a domestic context.
Not true at all because lots of roads simply don't receive immediate attention, particularly in rural areas. I live in the outskirts of a major city and after a recent snowfall we had people at my office that didn't get their road plowed for 2-3 days in an area that by and large has adequate snow removal equipment. I drive regularly on roads that might not see a plow for 3-5 days after a snow fall and certainly do not get prepped in advance.
Sure, and when I lived in Maine, in a town of about 1500 people, we had to plow the roads ourselves. Seriously. And I still haven't seen conditions as bad as what happened down in Georgia this week. Driving on snow isn't nearly as bad as driving on a sheet of ice.
Also, I like your website. I too am fond of woodworking (really, more carving and whittling), software development, and general geekery. Keep up the good work!
This wasn't black ice. It was a solid sheet of ice, curb to curb, sitting on every paved surface in the area. Without a single grain of salt, sand, or gravel sitting on top. Without a single gap of cleared road surface peeking through. If you've seen conditions like that in Michigan, you guys have the shittiest snow management system in the country, because unlike Georgia, you should be prepared.
While my comment had a comedic slant to it, I was trying to convey a serious point.
Our society seems to be paralyzed by fear of the consequences of our actions. We're coddling ourselves into irrelevance. "Oh, we better not do X, because who knows what might happen!"
Rarely do we stop to think the opposite. Is it not equally possible that our inaction, the perceived "safe" course of action, could be what leads to some catastrophic end? I suppose it might be an aversion to being blamed for any negative outcomes. After all, it's much easier to blame someone that did propose some novel activity, rather than someone that merely wanted to stay the course. After all, we didn't know what the result of some novel action would be, but of course we did "know" that if we didn't change anything, nothing would change. Obviously, past performance is no indication of future results, but that seems to be rather counterintuitive to many people. This type of false reasoning has always stood in the way of progress.
I say bring on Jurassic Park. Sure, a handful of people might get killed, but that's a price I'm willing to pay to see us at least try to take another step towards being masters of the universe.
I'm a northerner down here on work travel. Your advice is a serious fail. Good luck making it up even the slightest hill if you "drive slowly". Good luck not sliding into the gutter on any banked road if you "drive slowly".
You've never driven on unconditioned roadways after a snowfall. You're used to grippy snow, or slushy ice. You have a large fleet of snow management vehicles that make sure your roads are safe to drive on when it snows. There was none of that down here. The roads were a sheet of ice. A sheet of unconditioned ice. No salt, no gravel, no sand. Just solid ice. Not patches of ice, but a good solid sheet of ice, curb to curb.
I myself was laughing about how the whole state of Georgia entirely shut down for what I consider to be a mild flurry. Then I drove to work. While the indigenous drivers didn't come across as well-prepared or skilled ice drivers, I can honestly say that to blame them is wrong. The roads really were unbelievably shitty, possibly worse than anything I have ever driven in. And I've lived in Maine and have driven through blizzard-like conditions in Canada on many occasions.
I'm currently down in Georgia on work-related travel. I'm in Columbus, but (hopefully) will by flying out of Atlanta later today. I've been here all week. I live in New Jersey.
Yesterday morning, I experienced perhaps the most dangerous driving conditions I've ever seen, and I've lived in Maine. What most people don't understand is that places that handle this type of weather regularly are prepared for it. I've been told that there are eight salt-spreading trucks in Georgia. Eight, for the entire state. How the fuck were they supposed to prepare? Purchase more snow management equipment on short notice? Maintain a large fleet of trucks for the rare occasions that stuff like this happens?
When I was driving in to work yesterday, the roads were nearly deserted. The few cars that were on the road were flying all over the place. While it's possible to drive [relatively] safely in such conditions, it's a skill that I don't expect Georgians to have. This just doesn't happen that often down here.
The roads were entirely covered in a solid sheet of ice. Ice, with no road salt, no gravel, no sand. If you live in an area that regularly receives some snowfall, you've never driven on anything quite like this, because you've got snow crews prepping roads before the snowfall, plowing for the duration of the snowfall, and then conditioning the road surfaces after the snowfall. Georgia has none of that. After having experienced this shit for myself, as a "yankee", all I can say is that I will never again make light of how the south "shuts down" for what I would consider to be mild flurries. Without any of the snow management gear, mild flurries (followed by a deep freeze) make for some truly horrendous driving conditions.
No, you'd expect them to start on the 'smaller tasty mammals'
When's the last time you tried throwing a spear at a small animal?
Not only do smaller animals present smaller targets, but they also tend to be capable of much faster movement (or acceleration, more specifically). The limited accuracy and relatively slow velocity of a projectile like a spear or dart (even with an atlatl) makes such a tool nearly useless in the hunting of small animals. There is ample time for a little critter to move out of the way of such a slow-moving projectile.
I know it's best not to go tampering around where my good intentions could lead to very unexpected (and perhaps very unpleasant) results.
Indeed, but what if by not tampering around, you fail to stop some very unexpected (and perhaps very unpleasant) scenario? How do you know the Carolina Parakeet isn't our only weapon against an impending alien invasion / zombie apocalypse / Bieber album? See, that argument cuts both ways.
Slashdot Mirror
If Dice doesn't reconsider this redesign by the 17th, I guess there won't be anything left to do on here other than earn membership in GNAA.
First of all, fuck the beta site. Who the fuck thought a site for nerds would benefit from a cosmetic redesign? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, assholes!
However, the classic site now seems broken for me. I log in, and it brings me to my profile page. That's fine, but I didn't really want to edit my profile. So then I click over to the main page and, voila! I'm no longer logged in! It seems that if I want to complain about the beta site while logged in, I'll have to do it while actually using the beta site.
Fuck my life.
One of their requirements has been that none of the data can be used to identify any vehicle in any way, which has certainly been a challenge to implement from the development side.
On the one hand, I know what you're saying, and that's a relief. On the other hand, I can't help but think that in the pedantic sense, this requirement contradicts the requirement that location data be shared with other vehicles. That is, if it is possible to receive and decode the location data being broadcast by these devices, even if the data is anonymized, there is nothing to stop me from leveraging additional out-of-band data sources (like, for example, my eyeballs) to correlate this location data with individual identification data (i.e. a license plate). If your car is broadcasting "Look at me, anonymous car at 40.432314,-73.985931!", it's not that hard to point a camera in that direction and run its output to some license plate reading software linked to a DMV database.
Because having the workers own the means of production wouldn't really diminish individual liberty, let alone meaningfully impact driving safety.
So when someone who is obeying the rules of the road gets killed by some idiot who isn't, are you suggesting your right to be a moron extends to the point where you could cause harm to someone else?
I thought causing harm to someone else was already prohibited under existing law.
Your 'right' to drive how you see fit ends where the potential for you to damage me begins.
So, basically, nobody should have the right to get out of bed in the morning? At the very least, nobody should have the right to put their cars in gear, since that inarguably creates the potential for you to be damaged. Or are you suggesting that the law ought to be overly draconian and its selective enforcement and application be left to law enforcement and the courts?
Adagio for Strings shouldn't be in the public domain either, by your reasoning. After all, it's not fair to say "only video games deserve such protection", no?
If you're interested in video games that stand the test of time, I highly recommend Star Control 2 (re-released as the open-source The Ur-Quan Masters).
I get free shipping from Bean's and pay nothing up front for it.
Who is this Bean? That sounds like a great deal, and your informative post couldn't have come at a better time. I'm looking to buy a new TV, some cat litter, and mesophilic cheese culture. I was about to purchase a Prime subscription, but perhaps I'll be able to get all this stuff shipped from Bean's and save myself some money.
You obviously are a terrible troll. Black ice has nothing to do with this. The ice in Georgia was clearly visible, as it formed from slush, not meltwater, so anyone with eyesight anticipated it. Your off-topic anecdote is not applicable to a situation where the road was covered in an uninterrupted sheet of ice as opposed to mere patches of black ice.
When you're driving slowly, how do you prevent your vehicle from sliding laterally into the gutter on a banker road?
Also, I'd like to point out that black ice is very much different than the solid sheet of ice I described. Black ice is [necessarily] formed from frozen meltwater pools that exist on paved road surfaces. This limits its extent to that which is supported by the topography of the road surface. For black ice to extent curb-to-curb, the road must be designed very poorly and must lack any and all forms of drainage and must be inundated with a truly unrealistic amount of meltwater. Basically, it's not possible for black ice to exist in the quantities I describe. Black ice is something you hit, perhaps slide on, and then depart from as you regain traction. With a solid sheet of ice covering the road surface, the only way you depart from the ice is by leaving the road surface. There is no regaining traction. The issue in Georgia was that it was quite warm, and the snowfall accumulations on the road turned to slush immediately. Slush doesn't drain from a road surface very well (if at all), nor is it quite as limited by road surface topography, nor is it as compact as liquid water. This generous layer of slush was then subject to a deep freeze, turning it into a sturdy layer of easily visible ice. The upside was that nobody was surprised to hit unexpected patches of ice. The downside was that there was ice everywhere.
Minnesota doesn't often receive 2" of snow @ 35F followed by an immediate deep freeze to 18F. When you get snow, you get snow. When you get ice, it's either frozen snowpack or black ice from meltwater pools, not a road-engulfing layer of slush-turned-ice.
You have to understand that the south gets hit with trivial amounts of snow occasionally, and while it's usually funny to watch the resulting mayhem, any objective observer should be able to immediately notice that this weather system was different. School buses don't normally stay on the roads until well past midnight. 185 doesn't usually stay backed up in both directions for a day at a time. i understand that it's always a good time laughing at the southerners for their lack of winter driving ability, but that doesn't exactly provide a sufficient explanation for why this time was so much worse than the previous times.
I know it's hard to believe, but trust me, the road conditions in Georgia last week really were that bad.
"Hello, Florida? Can we borrow 3000 salt trucks, please? What's that? Florida doesn't have any salt trucks to help out with? Oh, then maybe we'll try Alabama."
Or were you suggesting that Minnesota just shoot some trucks through the wormhole?
For the geographically challenged ACs responding to me en masse:
Maine is pretty far north. Probably farther north than where you live, unless you're in Alaska or outside the United States. You're not acclimated to your balmy ass winter because there's nothing to acclimate to. You've just never driven on a sheet of untreated ice before, but you're plenty arrogant because you don't realize that you've got sand and gravel when it's too cold for salt.
The sheer arrogance in these comments makes my point better than I ever could myself.
I have no words
If only.
I was playing devil's advocate, in case that wasn't obvious. It's more or less axiomatic that in this context, death for one's enemies is preferable to death for oneself.
That's funny of you, calling a New Jerseyan a southerner. Well, I did mention that I spent some time living in Maine, so I guess I can call you Minnesotans southerners as well?
But alas, you're right. If only those southerners could learn to violate the laws of physics just like us yankees, or at least be able to turn up the coefficient of friction on the icy roads without using any snow management gear... Perhaps Georgians should have all bought up a bunch of kitty litter and fixed the roads themselves.
You come across as an unreasonable person with either poor reading comprehension skills or an amusing ignorance of other states. To suggest that NJ and ME are devoid of black ice (which had nothing to do with the story we're commenting on) is absurd.
Mod AC up.
It's true. The discussion has grown stale. Instead of outrage over the NSA's activities, all we hear is debate over whether Snowden was a hero or a traitor.
The best we can hope for is that Snowden himself will step up (once again) and offer to return to the US to be tried before a jury of his peers (or even just to be extraordinarily rendered to some black site) as soon as people are held accountable for their violations of the US Constitution. That's the only way I can see the focus shifting from Snowden to the criminals that are running this show.
Please, slashdot, stop talking about Snowden, and start talking about what the fuck we're going to do to impose some measure of accountability upon our government.
Tell me again how the Federal government was able to deploy nuclear weaponry against Japan's civilian population without losing every last shred of legitimacy?
Oh, it's not like the argument that "we had to kill lots of people to save lots of people" could ever be used in a domestic context.
Not true at all because lots of roads simply don't receive immediate attention, particularly in rural areas. I live in the outskirts of a major city and after a recent snowfall we had people at my office that didn't get their road plowed for 2-3 days in an area that by and large has adequate snow removal equipment. I drive regularly on roads that might not see a plow for 3-5 days after a snow fall and certainly do not get prepped in advance.
Sure, and when I lived in Maine, in a town of about 1500 people, we had to plow the roads ourselves. Seriously. And I still haven't seen conditions as bad as what happened down in Georgia this week. Driving on snow isn't nearly as bad as driving on a sheet of ice.
Also, I like your website. I too am fond of woodworking (really, more carving and whittling), software development, and general geekery. Keep up the good work!
This wasn't black ice. It was a solid sheet of ice, curb to curb, sitting on every paved surface in the area. Without a single grain of salt, sand, or gravel sitting on top. Without a single gap of cleared road surface peeking through. If you've seen conditions like that in Michigan, you guys have the shittiest snow management system in the country, because unlike Georgia, you should be prepared.
Thanks for the heads up! :)
While my comment had a comedic slant to it, I was trying to convey a serious point.
Our society seems to be paralyzed by fear of the consequences of our actions. We're coddling ourselves into irrelevance. "Oh, we better not do X, because who knows what might happen!"
Rarely do we stop to think the opposite. Is it not equally possible that our inaction, the perceived "safe" course of action, could be what leads to some catastrophic end? I suppose it might be an aversion to being blamed for any negative outcomes. After all, it's much easier to blame someone that did propose some novel activity, rather than someone that merely wanted to stay the course. After all, we didn't know what the result of some novel action would be, but of course we did "know" that if we didn't change anything, nothing would change. Obviously, past performance is no indication of future results, but that seems to be rather counterintuitive to many people. This type of false reasoning has always stood in the way of progress.
I say bring on Jurassic Park. Sure, a handful of people might get killed, but that's a price I'm willing to pay to see us at least try to take another step towards being masters of the universe.
Bull. Shit.
I'm a northerner down here on work travel. Your advice is a serious fail. Good luck making it up even the slightest hill if you "drive slowly". Good luck not sliding into the gutter on any banked road if you "drive slowly".
You've never driven on unconditioned roadways after a snowfall. You're used to grippy snow, or slushy ice. You have a large fleet of snow management vehicles that make sure your roads are safe to drive on when it snows. There was none of that down here. The roads were a sheet of ice. A sheet of unconditioned ice. No salt, no gravel, no sand. Just solid ice. Not patches of ice, but a good solid sheet of ice, curb to curb.
I myself was laughing about how the whole state of Georgia entirely shut down for what I consider to be a mild flurry. Then I drove to work. While the indigenous drivers didn't come across as well-prepared or skilled ice drivers, I can honestly say that to blame them is wrong. The roads really were unbelievably shitty, possibly worse than anything I have ever driven in. And I've lived in Maine and have driven through blizzard-like conditions in Canada on many occasions.
I'm currently down in Georgia on work-related travel. I'm in Columbus, but (hopefully) will by flying out of Atlanta later today. I've been here all week. I live in New Jersey.
Yesterday morning, I experienced perhaps the most dangerous driving conditions I've ever seen, and I've lived in Maine. What most people don't understand is that places that handle this type of weather regularly are prepared for it. I've been told that there are eight salt-spreading trucks in Georgia. Eight, for the entire state. How the fuck were they supposed to prepare? Purchase more snow management equipment on short notice? Maintain a large fleet of trucks for the rare occasions that stuff like this happens?
When I was driving in to work yesterday, the roads were nearly deserted. The few cars that were on the road were flying all over the place. While it's possible to drive [relatively] safely in such conditions, it's a skill that I don't expect Georgians to have. This just doesn't happen that often down here.
The roads were entirely covered in a solid sheet of ice. Ice, with no road salt, no gravel, no sand. If you live in an area that regularly receives some snowfall, you've never driven on anything quite like this, because you've got snow crews prepping roads before the snowfall, plowing for the duration of the snowfall, and then conditioning the road surfaces after the snowfall. Georgia has none of that. After having experienced this shit for myself, as a "yankee", all I can say is that I will never again make light of how the south "shuts down" for what I would consider to be mild flurries. Without any of the snow management gear, mild flurries (followed by a deep freeze) make for some truly horrendous driving conditions.
No, you'd expect them to start on the 'smaller tasty mammals'
When's the last time you tried throwing a spear at a small animal?
Not only do smaller animals present smaller targets, but they also tend to be capable of much faster movement (or acceleration, more specifically). The limited accuracy and relatively slow velocity of a projectile like a spear or dart (even with an atlatl) makes such a tool nearly useless in the hunting of small animals. There is ample time for a little critter to move out of the way of such a slow-moving projectile.
I know it's best not to go tampering around where my good intentions could lead to very unexpected (and perhaps very unpleasant) results.
Indeed, but what if by not tampering around, you fail to stop some very unexpected (and perhaps very unpleasant) scenario? How do you know the Carolina Parakeet isn't our only weapon against an impending alien invasion / zombie apocalypse / Bieber album? See, that argument cuts both ways.