The Sky Is Falling, and we must... we must... we must... Honestly, We don't have the slightest idea what to do about this even at the conceptual level. Much less the practical level.
If we are lucky, the threat will be ignored. If not, we'll do something stupid, absurd, and counterproductive that provides no actual security. Anti-viral theater.
I've never been in a modern auto factory, but I've spent a lot of time in places where complex weapons systems were assembled. Temperature and humidity control wasn't an issue. In California, there wasn't any of either although the sheer mass of the facility tended to moderate temperature swings. In colder areas elsewhere there was some heating.
We're not talking a semiconductor fab facility here.
FWIW, back in the 1980s one of the PC makers -- can't recall the name -- had an assembly line in a circus tent next to Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, CA. Apparently, it worked out OK as the tent was there, and apparently in use, for several years.
Hey, if the dude can hit a Helium tank from, as I recall, 2km away without ranging in, shooting up a paint shop should be something he(or she) could do blindfolded.
ehrrr.... what paint shop? I thought the guy messed with the production code. And apparently his "fixes" worked on the first try.
Solar might have some problems at Tromso (69N) in Winter as the sun doesn't rise above the horizon around the Winter Solstice. In fact it probably won't work all that well anywhere in Norway in December. Maybe they can ask the passengers to pedal.
The good news, however, is that being stupid, we will probably bungle the robot's hardware and software so badly that they will rank between mutant athlete's foot fungi and rabid pandas.as dangers to humanity's future..
Indeed. It seems to me that virtually EVERY government official is going to have a personal email account. After all you are not supposed to use your government account to transact personal business like scheduling a dental appointment or arranging for flowers to be sent to your spouses' mother on her birthday.
If you have a personal account, sooner or later, someone who knows your personal address, is going to send you an email about something governmental. Bingo, you have government business in your personal account. My understanding is that's not only unavoidable, but also OK. You just have to make sure that all the messages are archived in an appropriate fashion in a timely manner.
On top of which, doing government business using a personal account was, and AFAIK remains, perfectly legal. The only problem is a Government Records Act requirement that the messages be archived for public review. At the time that Clinton was Secretary of State, there was no time limit on how long she had to archive the messages. In fact Colin Powell has never quite gotten around to archiving his emails from the early 2000s.
My understanding is that since 2016 there has been a hard time limit for archiving. Something on the order of four weeks. One wonders how well the Trump administration is doing at complying.
Good point. One thing: The older and cheaper the used PHEV is, the more likely it is to require a new battery pack. But PHEV battery packs are much smaller and presumably much cheaper than the battery pack you'd need for a full EV in the same condition.
Nobody seems to be mentioning the fact that boring a tunnel in Chicago may not be entirely straightforward. Anyone who has driven through Chicago on Interstate 80/90 may have noticed that it runs through a huge quarry (the Thornton Quarry) in Silurian Limestones/dolomites. That rock is a lot harder than the Tertiary dirt formations Musk has been experimenting with in Los Angeles. I'm sure that they allowed for the geology in putting together their bid, but it's not like the Boring Company has a vast body of experience to build on. There's also the problem of having to not damage existing infrastructure (water lines, electric cables, etc).
It'll be interesting to see if they get things right on their first real try.
The concept of a transportation service that runs on a schedule is unknown in the US today. There are legends that it was once different, but that may just be an old wives tale.
"The Chinese value hard work and education more than the USA."
Moreover, there are a hell of a lot of them. That means, all other things being equal, more scientists, more engineers, more everything than the US and EU combined.
My conclusion: This is probably the Chinese Century (or maybe -- God help us -- the Indian Century), not the American Century. That's going to come as a BIG shock to many Americans -- especially those who support President Dingbat and his merry crew of whackjobs and sociopaths. Not a big deal really. I don't see that the Chinese are likely to do a worse job of running the planet than we Americans have done.
Let's restate your specifications. You want a VERY inexpensive vehicle capable of driving on normal surface roads and meeting first world safety standards. You want to use electric power for trips up to 50 miles (80km). And you want to be able to extend the range to 400 miles using a plug in contrivance.of some sort.
First of all, that's not a complete set of specs. Do you need a heater (you live in Winnipeg) or air-conditioner (You live in Miami) or both (You live in St Louis)? Is it OK if they reduce the range a bit? How much?
Any constraint on charging time? Is "overnight" (say eight hours) OK?
Do you want to be able to travel at expressway speeds 80mph-(130kph)? or is 45-50mph (73-80kph) acceptable?
How much payload do you want to carry? Yourself presumably, one passenger, five passengers? groceries? suitcases? large dog? How big are you and your passengers - Samoan? American? European? Japanese? Pygmy?
========
I think you're probably pushing some physical limits:
50 miles on an 8 hour charge from a US 20amp/110volt circui (about the biggest you're likely to have access to at home without rewiring) might be doable. Assuming very few losses, you might get 15kWhr into the battery in 8 hours. 3 miles/kWhr seems to be in the range of current EVs. So 45-50 miles seems doable if it isn't a zillion degrees below zero outside. But a attachment to give you 350 miles additional range?... If you assume a battery with an energy density around 200 Whr/kg, it looks like that "battery" might weigh in around 1000kg (2200 lbs). Hopefully I've miscomputed something, because if I haven't, that "battery" is NOT going to be fun to deal with.
All in all you might be better off with a Plug-in hybrid with a 50 mile electric range and a 7 gallon or so fuel tank. But currently, that'll run you closer to $30,000 than $5000.
150,000 vehicles a year is 500 vehicles a day, right? That's serious production, but not all that dramatic. Elon Musk is shooting for 600+ per day. BMW produces 1000 per day.
'My point is that electric cars will be made for the masses"
Surely that's correct. At least that's the way it worked in the past.
"... and profitably so by the big auto manufacturers. Not by little chinese companies"
By that logic, the Volkswagen Beetle (21,000,000 produced) and the Toyota Corolla (40,000,000 produced) could not have succeeded. In the past the "big manufacturers" have either shied away from low end vehicles or produced lousy ones. But maybe things are different this time.
"... and not by musk"
Who the hell knows? I'm skeptical that Elon Musk can ever produce a world dominating basic transport vehicle in the US. But for all we know, he's cobbling together a production plan for a plant complex in China, Vietnam, or someplace even cheaper -- Somalia or Burkina Faso.
"Beggar-your-neighbor economic policies never benefit trade in the long run."
You're kidding, right? Those strategies work fine. Always have, always will. There's only a problem when countries cut off supplies of essential goods to their neighbors as an element of their economic war. That's not what would be the issue here.
The question is whether the Chinese (or anyone else) can build cheap, ubiquitous, personal electric transport. I don't think a "premium electric SUV vehicle" is likely to be the Model T, Toyota Corolla, or Volkswagen Beetle of the glorious electric transport age envisioned by Slashdot editors. China may well come up with a electric or hybrid vehicle that is cheap, durable, not too unsafe, and is eventually parked in every third parking place worldwide. But I don't think we've seen it yet.
"I don't feel it's unresonable to ask people to update the OS on their home entertainment PC once a decade. Do you really feel that it is?"
Of course it's unreasonable. If "They" sent a guy around every few years to install improvements in your home appliances that frequently rendered them unusable or replaced the UI with some incomprehensible digital shambles, you'd -- quite properly -- be outraged. Same with computers. They are appliances, not a playground for geeks. Treat them as such.
I'm guessing that Windows XP PCs are much less of a threat to the Internet than the zillions of hazily secured IOT devices being pushed out to unsophisticated users. (I think the IOT monstrosities are mostly or all Unix based, no?)
Not that I care personally. I went from Win95 to Win 98 back to Win95 (with about 25 service packs, it was faster and more stable than Win98) to Linux
They don't have to SUPPORT an old OS. They just have to not break what works now.
I wish you and the Red Queen a fun race. But do keep in mind that for all the effort you and she expend, you aren't actually going anywhere unless you run twice as fast.
"Doesn't the same go for all money since we went off the gold standard?"
A gold standard MIGHT have some provide some stabilization. Sometimes. Maybe.
But unless all borrowing and lending is prohibited or at least the exchange of IOUs is prohibited, the money supply can expand or contract and inflation/deflation/speculation etc can still occur. Further, any new supply of Gold will be inflationary and any failure to find more Gold will be deflationary. Gold based currency is only perfectly stable if just enough Gold is added to the system to exactly match increases (or worse perhaps, decreases) in the size of the economy.
That is to say that if you put Paul Volker or a clone thereof in charge of your economy, you have a shot at monetary stability -- with or without Gold. Put Alan Greenspan or the like at the helm and a Gold Standard won't help you much.
Slashdot Mirror
The Sky Is Falling, and we must ... we must ... we must ... Honestly, We don't have the slightest idea what to do about this even at the conceptual level. Much less the practical level.
If we are lucky, the threat will be ignored. If not, we'll do something stupid, absurd, and counterproductive that provides no actual security. Anti-viral theater.
I've never been in a modern auto factory, but I've spent a lot of time in places where complex weapons systems were assembled. Temperature and humidity control wasn't an issue. In California, there wasn't any of either although the sheer mass of the facility tended to moderate temperature swings. In colder areas elsewhere there was some heating.
We're not talking a semiconductor fab facility here.
FWIW, back in the 1980s one of the PC makers -- can't recall the name -- had an assembly line in a circus tent next to Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, CA. Apparently, it worked out OK as the tent was there, and apparently in use, for several years.
You're sayin that the Model 3 is 90% complete?
Hey, if the dude can hit a Helium tank from, as I recall, 2km away without ranging in, shooting up a paint shop should be something he(or she) could do blindfolded.
ehrrr .... what paint shop? I thought the guy messed with the production code. And apparently his "fixes" worked on the first try.
"Norway is not part of the EU"
True, but Norway as it turns out currently uses the EU aircraft safety certification agency (EASA) to certify aircraft.
Solar might have some problems at Tromso (69N) in Winter as the sun doesn't rise above the horizon around the Winter Solstice. In fact it probably won't work all that well anywhere in Norway in December. Maybe they can ask the passengers to pedal.
"I think these people just realized the actual value of what they were doing."
My thought also. But you've expressed it better than I would have.
Trump's charitable foundation will handle his legal expenses and the prison cantina fund.
After all, Charity begins at home.
"We clearly are stupid enough."
Too bloody right!!!
The good news, however, is that being stupid, we will probably bungle the robot's hardware and software so badly that they will rank between mutant athlete's foot fungi and rabid pandas.as dangers to humanity's future..
Indeed. It seems to me that virtually EVERY government official is going to have a personal email account. After all you are not supposed to use your government account to transact personal business like scheduling a dental appointment or arranging for flowers to be sent to your spouses' mother on her birthday.
If you have a personal account, sooner or later, someone who knows your personal address, is going to send you an email about something governmental. Bingo, you have government business in your personal account. My understanding is that's not only unavoidable, but also OK. You just have to make sure that all the messages are archived in an appropriate fashion in a timely manner.
On top of which, doing government business using a personal account was, and AFAIK remains, perfectly legal. The only problem is a Government Records Act requirement that the messages be archived for public review. At the time that Clinton was Secretary of State, there was no time limit on how long she had to archive the messages. In fact Colin Powell has never quite gotten around to archiving his emails from the early 2000s.
My understanding is that since 2016 there has been a hard time limit for archiving. Something on the order of four weeks. One wonders how well the Trump administration is doing at complying.
Am I the only one to whom This whole thread seems somewhat like reading a transcript of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party?
Good point. One thing: The older and cheaper the used PHEV is, the more likely it is to require a new battery pack. But PHEV battery packs are much smaller and presumably much cheaper than the battery pack you'd need for a full EV in the same condition.
Nobody seems to be mentioning the fact that boring a tunnel in Chicago may not be entirely straightforward. Anyone who has driven through Chicago on Interstate 80/90 may have noticed that it runs through a huge quarry (the Thornton Quarry) in Silurian Limestones/dolomites. That rock is a lot harder than the Tertiary dirt formations Musk has been experimenting with in Los Angeles. I'm sure that they allowed for the geology in putting together their bid, but it's not like the Boring Company has a vast body of experience to build on. There's also the problem of having to not damage existing infrastructure (water lines, electric cables, etc).
It'll be interesting to see if they get things right on their first real try.
The concept of a transportation service that runs on a schedule is unknown in the US today. There are legends that it was once different, but that may just be an old wives tale.
"The Chinese value hard work and education more than the USA."
Moreover, there are a hell of a lot of them. That means, all other things being equal, more scientists, more engineers, more everything than the US and EU combined.
My conclusion: This is probably the Chinese Century (or maybe -- God help us -- the Indian Century), not the American Century. That's going to come as a BIG shock to many Americans -- especially those who support President Dingbat and his merry crew of whackjobs and sociopaths. Not a big deal really. I don't see that the Chinese are likely to do a worse job of running the planet than we Americans have done.
Let's restate your specifications. You want a VERY inexpensive vehicle capable of driving on normal surface roads and meeting first world safety standards. You want to use electric power for trips up to 50 miles (80km). And you want to be able to extend the range to 400 miles using a plug in contrivance.of some sort.
First of all, that's not a complete set of specs. Do you need a heater (you live in Winnipeg) or air-conditioner (You live in Miami) or both (You live in St Louis)? Is it OK if they reduce the range a bit? How much?
Any constraint on charging time? Is "overnight" (say eight hours) OK?
Do you want to be able to travel at expressway speeds 80mph-(130kph)? or is 45-50mph (73-80kph) acceptable?
How much payload do you want to carry? Yourself presumably, one passenger, five passengers? groceries? suitcases? large dog? How big are you and your passengers - Samoan? American? European? Japanese? Pygmy?
========
I think you're probably pushing some physical limits:
50 miles on an 8 hour charge from a US 20amp/110volt circui (about the biggest you're likely to have access to at home without rewiring) might be doable. Assuming very few losses, you might get 15kWhr into the battery in 8 hours. 3 miles/kWhr seems to be in the range of current EVs. So 45-50 miles seems doable if it isn't a zillion degrees below zero outside. But a attachment to give you 350 miles additional range?... If you assume a battery with an energy density around 200 Whr/kg, it looks like that "battery" might weigh in around 1000kg (2200 lbs). Hopefully I've miscomputed something, because if I haven't, that "battery" is NOT going to be fun to deal with.
All in all you might be better off with a Plug-in hybrid with a 50 mile electric range and a 7 gallon or so fuel tank. But currently, that'll run you closer to $30,000 than $5000.
150,000 vehicles a year is 500 vehicles a day, right? That's serious production, but not all that dramatic. Elon Musk is shooting for 600+ per day. BMW produces 1000 per day.
'My point is that electric cars will be made for the masses"
Surely that's correct. At least that's the way it worked in the past.
"... and profitably so by the big auto manufacturers. Not by little chinese companies"
By that logic, the Volkswagen Beetle (21,000,000 produced) and the Toyota Corolla (40,000,000 produced) could not have succeeded. In the past the "big manufacturers" have either shied away from low end vehicles or produced lousy ones. But maybe things are different this time.
"... and not by musk"
Who the hell knows? I'm skeptical that Elon Musk can ever produce a world dominating basic transport vehicle in the US. But for all we know, he's cobbling together a production plan for a plant complex in China, Vietnam, or someplace even cheaper -- Somalia or Burkina Faso.
"Beggar-your-neighbor economic policies never benefit trade in the long run."
You're kidding, right? Those strategies work fine. Always have, always will. There's only a problem when countries cut off supplies of essential goods to their neighbors as an element of their economic war. That's not what would be the issue here.
The question is whether the Chinese (or anyone else) can build cheap, ubiquitous, personal electric transport. I don't think a "premium electric SUV vehicle" is likely to be the Model T, Toyota Corolla, or Volkswagen Beetle of the glorious electric transport age envisioned by Slashdot editors. China may well come up with a electric or hybrid vehicle that is cheap, durable, not too unsafe, and is eventually parked in every third parking place worldwide. But I don't think we've seen it yet.
"I don't feel it's unresonable to ask people to update the OS on their home entertainment PC once a decade. Do you really feel that it is?"
Of course it's unreasonable. If "They" sent a guy around every few years to install improvements in your home appliances that frequently rendered them unusable or replaced the UI with some incomprehensible digital shambles, you'd -- quite properly -- be outraged. Same with computers. They are appliances, not a playground for geeks. Treat them as such.
I'm guessing that Windows XP PCs are much less of a threat to the Internet than the zillions of hazily secured IOT devices being pushed out to unsophisticated users. (I think the IOT monstrosities are mostly or all Unix based, no?)
Not that I care personally. I went from Win95 to Win 98 back to Win95 (with about 25 service packs, it was faster and more stable than Win98) to Linux
They don't have to SUPPORT an old OS. They just have to not break what works now.
I wish you and the Red Queen a fun race. But do keep in mind that for all the effort you and she expend, you aren't actually going anywhere unless you run twice as fast.
"Doesn't the same go for all money since we went off the gold standard?"
A gold standard MIGHT have some provide some stabilization. Sometimes. Maybe.
But unless all borrowing and lending is prohibited or at least the exchange of IOUs is prohibited, the money supply can expand or contract and inflation/deflation/speculation etc can still occur. Further, any new supply of Gold will be inflationary and any failure to find more Gold will be deflationary. Gold based currency is only perfectly stable if just enough Gold is added to the system to exactly match increases (or worse perhaps, decreases) in the size of the economy.
That is to say that if you put Paul Volker or a clone thereof in charge of your economy, you have a shot at monetary stability -- with or without Gold. Put Alan Greenspan or the like at the helm and a Gold Standard won't help you much.