Apple is already laughing all the way to the bank, selling phones that cost $200 to produce for triple that price.
And just how many do they have to sell before turning a profit? R&D costs for the device were probably in the millions, the only time when you get a company selling something at cost is when other companies pay licensing and royalties for working with the device, like game consoles.
We're supposed to be outraged, because we can't see the documents about an accident that *almost* happened?
The chain reaction *almost* happened, a spill of highly enriched uranium in solution *DID* happen. The fact that this involves the safety records of a major DoD supplier being hidden from congress is troubling. This prevented congress from taking actions like mandating increased at the facility. You better believe that a solution of highly enriched uranium is a carcinogen, if that stuff were to be spilled more often or even to pollute the water table *AND* the company knew it had happened, then still nobody else would know. This is not about the next Chernobyl, think Simpsons Movie.
One of the standing rules at DefCon is no pictures of anyone without their consent.
One a side note, why has no one mentioned that outing undercover federal agents degrades our national security? She should have her assets seized and should be shipped off to gitmo for pulling a stunt like that.
Seriously. Persecution of the hackers only makes them stronger.
Hackers: Strike us down and we will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Feds: Okay *Cops arrest hackers*
Hackers: Guys? Guys?
*crickets*
I don't think you thought that one through. Given that no one I know can *prove* that every media file they have was legally obtained, I don't think anyone is going to stand up and fight for the fallen. And unless those mod chips were sold for running linux, I doubt even the EFF would step in. Making and playing backed up game discs is a right we already lost, the EFF is concentrating on not losing even more rights, not fighting battles which were already lost.
You obviously have never heard of the XLink Kai network. You can run a daemon on your router which will redirect all XBOX Live requests to a free online gaming network. This can be used with both modded or unmodded XBOXs.
That's right, the first bubble was caused by giving inordinate sums of money to people with no business plan by people who had no conception of the technology business. This time around tech businesses are not being run by college dropouts holding lunch break keggers with their investors' money, not that there's anything wrong with that.
The only bubble bursting at the moment is the subprime and alt-a real estate bubble. This will effect all aspects of the economy, including the tech sector. However, that is not the same as the web 2.0 bubble bursting.
Nothing to see here, move along. And for the record, I didn't RTFA, clicking on Dvorak links only encourages him to write more useless drivel.
The component manufacturers responded by selling complete systems, which could be tested together and kludged for performance and all sorts of other stuff.
I thought that was why they had standards like J1939 for CAN bus communications.
The article mentions an OS, but it doesn't clarify how it will be used. It may just be an RTOS with standardized protocol stacks. Or it could be some sort of object engine considering how all those communications standards are object oriented. But if it's a centralized OS capable of hosting 3rd party apps, that would be a solution to an entirely different problem. It would also allow Toyota to have their own Toyota proprietary applications which can be run that utilize these smart components, but not have that IP in the suppliers hands to sell to their competiters. Same with the other car manufacturers. This would ease the stranglehold that their suppliers have on them since any component will be easily swapped for another XYZ certified component, in theory.
Yes, you're right. But that wasn't the question, the original post I was replying to asked if the API would be open. The short answer is no, if you are not an industry player. Usually with these "Standards" you have to subscribe to a certification body to be "XYZ" certified, and pay extortionary fees for the priviledge. That of course includes access to any ratifications made to the standard and draft proposals well in advance.
This should make the individual components cheaper allowing them to use cheaper micro-controllers. Cars are increasingly comprised of smart components which communicate electronically, as opposed to analog or mechanical signals.
This means that the newer ECUs have a throttle command which is part of a message packet transmitted over a bus rather than a mechanical push/pull cable controlling the throttle lever on an engine. Even the engines that still have throttle levers aren't mechanical anymore, the lever is connected to a potentiometer which then converts the lever position into an analog signal which feeds into the ECU.
Its the natural progression that distributed systems again become more consolidated. Remember that this network inside your car is going to be electrically isolated from other systems. The likelihood of anyone hacking your car without physical access to the microcontrollers is slim to none. Unless they do something stupid like try to network this OS with outside systems which aren't wired to it.
You already can hack your Engine Control Unit, someone is even talking about that at DefCon this weekend. One of my friends has a hacked ECU with a richer fuel to air ratio that lies to the diagnostic tools about its emissions.
More likely they'll sell a developer station for companies to test with. This would include the full API and headers. The sale of such of device would also likely include various NDAs concerning the technology. While they want to become the industry standard, they aren't giving it away and will mostly be selling a no frills development platform for upwards of 10 grand, though you can probably get a production unit for much less.
I'm not sure how familiar you are with proprietary software in the industrial arena but its not cheap and also not open. You could probably get one if you told Toyota that you wanted to make next-gen development tools for 3rd party manufacturers. Likely they would then run a background and credit check on your company and ask for your lawyer's contact info to work out the details of the NDA.
Sounds like the Auto Industry is finally catching up to the avionics industry in this regard. The way avionics handled this issue was instead of releasing software, they released a set of requirements for a partitioned operating system. Then the specific vendor has to implement that template.
Some of the features are a pre-emptable time slicing OS. It defines a number of application slots or partitions which are completely isloated from one another. Each partition then is assigned a quota or multiple quotas of CPU time. For instance 7 ms out of every 200 ms. Each partition is given control of its own resources, a set amount of RAM and Memory, mostly flash based.
This development model allows multiple vendors to easily work together to provide industrial grade saftey critical systems. The OS and applications are independently certified for their class of application, and the OS would have a max level of certification allowed for it.
While the automotive industry does not have the same certification issues the avionics industry has, I think this is a long over step towards consolidating all the distributed systems within a car. This makes higher level applications possible which link to the microprocessors controlling the brakes, suspension, all-wheel drive, etc...
I don't think its out of the question to start seeing 3rd party software add-ons which can be installed on any car running this OS to provide enhanced capabilities like automatic parking like described in the article. It may even become possible to retrofit a car without one of these systems with the necessary sensors and equipment to add these new capabilities after market.
This is where the boating industry is going at the moment since boats have a much longer life expectancy than cars, but they use a lot of the same microprocessors and communications buses.
Needless to say, its going to be interesting to see what the hacking community can do with this.
If I encrypt my financial data, and am unable to unlock it for the FBI because I lost the smart card I used to encrypt it, does that make me guilty of . When asked why I didn't delete it, I could say I hoped to one day find the smart card. Does that mean they can ship me off to gitmo?
Of course the difference between this scenario and one where someone merely claims to be unable to decrypt the data is irrelevant.
I thought that we were innocent until proven guilty in this country, not vice versa.
As the parent poster pointed out, Azureus has had a remote web interface plugin for a long time.
Making it able to be controlled remotely from anything with a browser and net access. How is this news?
Wake me when the hacked iPhone has P2P song sharing via WiFi with autodiscovery of peers via ad hoc network magic.
If the first player puts their mark in a corner, the only correct moves for the second player is to mark one of the 2 adjacent squares. There is no way to garauntee victory in tic-tac-toe, regardless of who goes first. There are plenty of ways to lose though.
That was an intro to AI project I did in school. Try a different class of language like prolog or lisp to solve it. If both players make no mistakes a cats eye (draw) can be reached. The only way to win is if the other player makes a mistake. The code to have the computer play flawlessly is only a few lines (in the right language).
The frustose is from Corn Syrup, not sugar cane. Your rant against sugar farmers should be directed at the corn lobby. Why do you think soft drinks here use corn syrup instead of cane sugar?
"I've seen plently of good programmers declare code 'ugly' because it had a few warts but in reality they just couldn't understand it."
If you can't understand the code it's the author's fault. That is if you have mastered the syntax of the language of course.
I'm currently working with an embedded code base that was written for job security. Everything is somewhat elegantly organized, but nothing is commented and functions are usually 200 - 500 ELOC. There aren't any notes explaining module interactions with module descriptions or example usages. Considering the project size is around 25,000 lines that makes the code very dense. Sure in 6 months I can document it and have it usable for a team again, but if I don't have time for fixing bugs or adding a feature, contractors will need to be able to come in and work on it with a minimum of rampup time. 6 months is not acceptable.
Not everyone needs to understand the derivation of every algorithm used, but they shouldn't have to perform the work a second time to verify its accuracy. Unsustainable code is ugly. If the average programmer can not read the source with documentation and understand its purpose, then the original programmer is at fault for not expressing themselves in a way that others can understand. This is why senior programmers make coding standards and do design work.
It seemed the only negative points brought up in the Metroid review were the awkward positions of the '+', '-', '1', and '2' buttons. I have a hunch that those gripes will be addressed with the new light gun controller for the Wii introduced at E3. Anyone see a button layout for it yet? I haven't even seen a picture.
Does it really matter? They know that the specimen has all the genetic traits it needs to be a successful drug sniffing dog. Why take the chance of breeding that out?
You still have to train the dogs.
I know the dog still needs to be trained, but some dogs, like bloodhounds, have a better sense of smell, there's a genetic aspect which cannot be trained, its either there or its not.
Once the production line gets ramped up, I'm sure that this place will be making discoveries left and right which improve the science behind cloning and improve humanity's knowledge about biology in general.
If these were robots then the term "production line" would make sense. Even without genetic variation you make not end up with identical dogs, especially when it comes to factors such as wiring of the brain...
Maybe production line was the wrong term, but my point was the difference between R&D and manufacturing is huge. Small advances and innovations to increase yields will be commonplace and funded by the free market. Commercial applications of the science only further the knowledge of that science. If you have an ethical issue with cloning in quantity vs. cloning one or two animals, perhaps you need to re-evaluate whether you support any cloning at all.
Does it really matter? They know that the specimen has all the genetic traits it needs to be a successful drug sniffing dog. Why take the chance of breeding that out? Once the production line gets ramped up, I'm sure that this place will be making discoveries left and right which improve the science behind cloning and improve humanity's knowledge about biology in general. Hopefully, they won't stay as trade secrets for too long. How strong is the patent system in Korea?
Note: I'm not suggesting they patent the genes, but any unique and novel processes they develop.
Its a familiarity with the process involved in software development. For safety critical software development, there's a high level of rigor in the process. There are several phases of the project, req, design, code, low level test, high level test, etc... which all have to be documented and have tracability from the requirements through design thru lines of code, through test cases such that every piece of the design corresponds to requirements, all the code corresponds to requirements, all the tests correspond to high level requirements or detailed requirements and so on. In addition to that there are several type of additional testing which must be completed, line coverage, boolean coverage, and for some cases MCDC testing. Experience with knowing what the auditors will look for, how to prepare the artifacts for each phase of the project, etc, etc is very valuable to corporations. When working as a contractor they will pay higher rates for those who already have the experience since its fairly rare, and they won't look twice at someone without the experience. Considering the last software I wrote was for a super jumbo with 500-800 passengers per plane and potentially hundreds of planes in the air at any given time, the utmost care must be taken to remove all defects from the code before delivery. The process which is needed to be followed to ensure the low rate of defects is known as DO 178B. That keyword on your resume will automatically command rates of at least 50-80/hr depending on your experience. It has nothing to do with cost of living, merely supply and demand.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the standing rules at DefCon is no pictures of anyone without their consent.
One a side note, why has no one mentioned that outing undercover federal agents degrades our national security? She should have her assets seized and should be shipped off to gitmo for pulling a stunt like that.
Feds: Okay *Cops arrest hackers*
Hackers: Guys? Guys?
*crickets*
I don't think you thought that one through. Given that no one I know can *prove* that every media file they have was legally obtained, I don't think anyone is going to stand up and fight for the fallen. And unless those mod chips were sold for running linux, I doubt even the EFF would step in. Making and playing backed up game discs is a right we already lost, the EFF is concentrating on not losing even more rights, not fighting battles which were already lost.
You obviously have never heard of the XLink Kai network. You can run a daemon on your router which will redirect all XBOX Live requests to a free online gaming network. This can be used with both modded or unmodded XBOXs.
That's right, the first bubble was caused by giving inordinate sums of money to people with no business plan by people who had no conception of the technology business. This time around tech businesses are not being run by college dropouts holding lunch break keggers with their investors' money, not that there's anything wrong with that.
The only bubble bursting at the moment is the subprime and alt-a real estate bubble. This will effect all aspects of the economy, including the tech sector. However, that is not the same as the web 2.0 bubble bursting.
Nothing to see here, move along. And for the record, I didn't RTFA, clicking on Dvorak links only encourages him to write more useless drivel.
The article mentions an OS, but it doesn't clarify how it will be used. It may just be an RTOS with standardized protocol stacks. Or it could be some sort of object engine considering how all those communications standards are object oriented. But if it's a centralized OS capable of hosting 3rd party apps, that would be a solution to an entirely different problem. It would also allow Toyota to have their own Toyota proprietary applications which can be run that utilize these smart components, but not have that IP in the suppliers hands to sell to their competiters. Same with the other car manufacturers. This would ease the stranglehold that their suppliers have on them since any component will be easily swapped for another XYZ certified component, in theory.
Yes, you're right. But that wasn't the question, the original post I was replying to asked if the API would be open. The short answer is no, if you are not an industry player. Usually with these "Standards" you have to subscribe to a certification body to be "XYZ" certified, and pay extortionary fees for the priviledge. That of course includes access to any ratifications made to the standard and draft proposals well in advance.
This should make the individual components cheaper allowing them to use cheaper micro-controllers. Cars are increasingly comprised of smart components which communicate electronically, as opposed to analog or mechanical signals.
This means that the newer ECUs have a throttle command which is part of a message packet transmitted over a bus rather than a mechanical push/pull cable controlling the throttle lever on an engine. Even the engines that still have throttle levers aren't mechanical anymore, the lever is connected to a potentiometer which then converts the lever position into an analog signal which feeds into the ECU.
Its the natural progression that distributed systems again become more consolidated. Remember that this network inside your car is going to be electrically isolated from other systems. The likelihood of anyone hacking your car without physical access to the microcontrollers is slim to none. Unless they do something stupid like try to network this OS with outside systems which aren't wired to it.
You already can hack your Engine Control Unit, someone is even talking about that at DefCon this weekend. One of my friends has a hacked ECU with a richer fuel to air ratio that lies to the diagnostic tools about its emissions.
More likely they'll sell a developer station for companies to test with. This would include the full API and headers. The sale of such of device would also likely include various NDAs concerning the technology. While they want to become the industry standard, they aren't giving it away and will mostly be selling a no frills development platform for upwards of 10 grand, though you can probably get a production unit for much less.
I'm not sure how familiar you are with proprietary software in the industrial arena but its not cheap and also not open. You could probably get one if you told Toyota that you wanted to make next-gen development tools for 3rd party manufacturers. Likely they would then run a background and credit check on your company and ask for your lawyer's contact info to work out the details of the NDA.
Sounds like the Auto Industry is finally catching up to the avionics industry in this regard. The way avionics handled this issue was instead of releasing software, they released a set of requirements for a partitioned operating system. Then the specific vendor has to implement that template.
Some of the features are a pre-emptable time slicing OS. It defines a number of application slots or partitions which are completely isloated from one another. Each partition then is assigned a quota or multiple quotas of CPU time. For instance 7 ms out of every 200 ms. Each partition is given control of its own resources, a set amount of RAM and Memory, mostly flash based.
This development model allows multiple vendors to easily work together to provide industrial grade saftey critical systems. The OS and applications are independently certified for their class of application, and the OS would have a max level of certification allowed for it.
While the automotive industry does not have the same certification issues the avionics industry has, I think this is a long over step towards consolidating all the distributed systems within a car. This makes higher level applications possible which link to the microprocessors controlling the brakes, suspension, all-wheel drive, etc...
I don't think its out of the question to start seeing 3rd party software add-ons which can be installed on any car running this OS to provide enhanced capabilities like automatic parking like described in the article. It may even become possible to retrofit a car without one of these systems with the necessary sensors and equipment to add these new capabilities after market.
This is where the boating industry is going at the moment since boats have a much longer life expectancy than cars, but they use a lot of the same microprocessors and communications buses.
Needless to say, its going to be interesting to see what the hacking community can do with this.
Sorry, didn't realize plain text filtered out triangle brackets, that should have read "insert crime here."
(Yes, I know I should have previewed it, but I only preview when using html)
If I encrypt my financial data, and am unable to unlock it for the FBI because I lost the smart card I used to encrypt it, does that make me guilty of . When asked why I didn't delete it, I could say I hoped to one day find the smart card. Does that mean they can ship me off to gitmo?
Of course the difference between this scenario and one where someone merely claims to be unable to decrypt the data is irrelevant.
I thought that we were innocent until proven guilty in this country, not vice versa.
As the parent poster pointed out, Azureus has had a remote web interface plugin for a long time. Making it able to be controlled remotely from anything with a browser and net access. How is this news? Wake me when the hacked iPhone has P2P song sharing via WiFi with autodiscovery of peers via ad hoc network magic.
I stand corrected. However, it is still possible to get a win or a cats eye from any opening move.
If the first player puts their mark in a corner, the only correct moves for the second player is to mark one of the 2 adjacent squares. There is no way to garauntee victory in tic-tac-toe, regardless of who goes first. There are plenty of ways to lose though.
That was an intro to AI project I did in school. Try a different class of language like prolog or lisp to solve it. If both players make no mistakes a cats eye (draw) can be reached. The only way to win is if the other player makes a mistake. The code to have the computer play flawlessly is only a few lines (in the right language).
Way to take a quote out of context. Did you miss the part where I qualified that statement?
The frustose is from Corn Syrup, not sugar cane. Your rant against sugar farmers should be directed at the corn lobby. Why do you think soft drinks here use corn syrup instead of cane sugar?
"I've seen plently of good programmers declare code 'ugly' because it had a few warts but in reality they just couldn't understand it."
If you can't understand the code it's the author's fault. That is if you have mastered the syntax of the language of course.
I'm currently working with an embedded code base that was written for job security. Everything is somewhat elegantly organized, but nothing is commented and functions are usually 200 - 500 ELOC. There aren't any notes explaining module interactions with module descriptions or example usages. Considering the project size is around 25,000 lines that makes the code very dense. Sure in 6 months I can document it and have it usable for a team again, but if I don't have time for fixing bugs or adding a feature, contractors will need to be able to come in and work on it with a minimum of rampup time. 6 months is not acceptable.
Not everyone needs to understand the derivation of every algorithm used, but they shouldn't have to perform the work a second time to verify its accuracy. Unsustainable code is ugly. If the average programmer can not read the source with documentation and understand its purpose, then the original programmer is at fault for not expressing themselves in a way that others can understand. This is why senior programmers make coding standards and do design work.
It seemed the only negative points brought up in the Metroid review were the awkward positions of the '+', '-', '1', and '2' buttons. I have a hunch that those gripes will be addressed with the new light gun controller for the Wii introduced at E3. Anyone see a button layout for it yet? I haven't even seen a picture.
Note: I'm not suggesting they patent the genes, but any unique and novel processes they develop.
Its a familiarity with the process involved in software development. For safety critical software development, there's a high level of rigor in the process. There are several phases of the project, req, design, code, low level test, high level test, etc... which all have to be documented and have tracability from the requirements through design thru lines of code, through test cases such that every piece of the design corresponds to requirements, all the code corresponds to requirements, all the tests correspond to high level requirements or detailed requirements and so on. In addition to that there are several type of additional testing which must be completed, line coverage, boolean coverage, and for some cases MCDC testing. Experience with knowing what the auditors will look for, how to prepare the artifacts for each phase of the project, etc, etc is very valuable to corporations. When working as a contractor they will pay higher rates for those who already have the experience since its fairly rare, and they won't look twice at someone without the experience. Considering the last software I wrote was for a super jumbo with 500-800 passengers per plane and potentially hundreds of planes in the air at any given time, the utmost care must be taken to remove all defects from the code before delivery. The process which is needed to be followed to ensure the low rate of defects is known as DO 178B. That keyword on your resume will automatically command rates of at least 50-80/hr depending on your experience. It has nothing to do with cost of living, merely supply and demand.