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Comment To Lobby FOR Encryption (Score 1) 65

I'm confused, why does the title state Apple is lobbying AGAINST encryption? It's contradicted by both the summary and article itself.

"Apple has argued in the meetings that as a starting point it does not want the updated laws to block tech companies from using encryption on their devices"

It says right there - Australia wants to limit encryption, and Apple is not in favor of that.

Comment Re:You can't defer maintenance forever (Score 4, Informative) 250

It's not just that - BART was simply never meant to be operating on the scale it does today. When BART was built, the creators envisioned a system that would serve about 100,000 people per week and choke points such as the Transbay Tube were built accordingly. Naturally, as the population increased, upgrades had to made. This worked for a while, but eventually lack of funding for serious overhauls caught up with the
constantly increasing ridership. Maximum capacity is heavily influenced by the fact that sections like the tube are single line, with no easy way to expand to double or triple. BART could theoretically be a 24/7 system, but as things stand now their engineers need every minute of the nightly downtime they have to service a rapidly aging rail system.

The rails already in place are almost at capacity, with a train crossing over them every 2 minutes. With the tech booms of the last decades, there's been an even bigger spike in these numbers. Over the last decade alone, passenger alightings at some stations have more than doubled. On busy days, the BART system now serves 25 times more riders than originally envisioned. There's some money for additional trains, but that can only do so much. Eventually, we are going to need to spend money on either more parallel tracks, cars, and bigger platforms or just a new system altogether.

Their administrators are simply being realistic about the situation we're in

Comment Re:New York Taxi Workers' Alliance (Score 4, Interesting) 180

Complain to your municipal government.

This is really going to depend on where you live - around here, lobbying groups for taxi companies and their drivers forestalled any attempts at legislated change for over a decade before Uber stepped in, quickly picking up market share due to its reliability. It used to be that even if you called to schedule a pickup (in an hour!) there was only a 30-40% chance a taxi would actually show up. I remember the days of being unable to get home via taxi at night without offering a 100% tip in advance all too vividly and have no desire whatsoever to return to that.

I'm not saying Uber is the best answer here - clearly, the new model comes with its own share of problems - but the previous monopoly (taxis) really screwed themselves out of a future with their own behavior. There was a hotline to call to report problems, but absolutely zero accountability for the drivers at the end of the day. The situation has since improved, but generally falls along the lines of 'too little, too late'.

Comment Re:SpaceX and Boeing (Score 2) 69

TFA:

This is the second in a series of four guaranteed orders NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts. The Boeing Company of Houston received its first crew mission order in May.

Boeing's contract is not mentioned because it happened 6 months ago. This is SpaceX's first contract with NASA for a crewed mission.

Comment Re:Not the best summary... (Score 2) 195

The problem you miss is that of immunocompromised or otherwise medically exempted individuals - namely, people who don't have a choice whether they get vaccinated or not. It's not just a personal choice - if you choose not to get yourself or your kids vaccinated, you are potentially putting my kids at risk by doing so.

Comment Re:$70000 is poorest? (Score 5, Informative) 272

It warms my heart, however, to see the money I must pay for the tax on air putting panels on the homes of other people.

Did you RTFA? I'm going to assume not, so here's the link again

The program is paid for by cap-and-trade - namely, companies creating environmental waste, not you, are the ones paying for his solar panels. There are plenty of reasons to complain about the CA government misappropriating the tax money you personally give them, but this is not one of them.

Image

Indian Police Using Facebook to Catch Scofflaw Drivers 130

New Delhi police have a new weapon in the battle against bad drivers, Facebook. Two months ago the police created a Facebook page that allowed people to inform on others breaking traffic laws, and upload pictures of the violations. The page has more than 17,000 fans, and 3,000 pictures currently. From the article: "The online rap sheet was impressive. There are photos of people on motorcycles without helmets, cars stopped in crosswalks, drivers on cellphones, drivers in the middle of illegal turns and improperly parked vehicles. Using the pictures, the Delhi Traffic Police have issued 665 tickets, using the license plate numbers shown in the photos to track vehicle owners, said the city’s joint commissioner of traffic, Satyendra Garg."

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