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Submission + - Face it, Tesla's going to win in every state 1

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Unless you've been in a coma for a while you're aware that many dealer associations have been causing headaches for Tesla in multiple states. The reason? They are scared. Tesla's new, different, and shaking up the ridiculously old way of doing things. But the thing is, Tesla keeps winning. Now Ward's commenter Jim Ziegler, president of Ziegler Supersystems in Atlanta, wrote an opinion piece that basically says Tesla's going to prevail in every state against dealer lawsuits. He says Tesla's basically busy defending what are nuisance suits. This leads to the question of whether there will be some sort of sweeping federal action in Tesla's favor.

Submission + - eBay redirect attack puts buyers' credentials at risk

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: EBay has been compromised so that people who clicked on some of its links were automatically diverted to a site designed to steal their credentials. The spoof site had been set up to look like the online marketplace's welcome page. The firm was alerted to the hack on Wednesday night but removed the listings only after a follow-up call from the BBC more than 12 hours later. One security expert said he was surprised by the length of time taken. "EBay is a large company and it should have a 24/7 response team to deal with this — and this case is unambiguously bad," said Dr Steven Murdoch from University College London's Information Security Research Group. The security researcher was able to analyse the listing involved before eBay removed it. He said that the technique used was known as a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack.

Submission + - Is The Tesla Model 3 Actually Going To Cost $50,000? 2

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: How low can battery cost go, and how fast? That's the question automakers are dealing with when it comes to the future of electric cars. Tesla is betting big on electric and has already proven many skeptics wrong with its Model S sedan. The company is making even bolder claims with its upcoming Model 3 stating it'll have about 200 miles of range and a base price of $35,000. That's a nice goal, but is it possible. Battery skeptic Menahem Anderman wrote a new report suggesting that the pace of cost reduction for electric car batteries won't be as swift as Tesla's CEO Elon Musk suggests. This leads Anderman to predict the actual price of the upcoming Model 3 will be in the range of $50,000-$80,000. That's quite a jump from the goal of $35,000. Can Tesla actually pull off the Model 3 with the goal price of $35,000?

Submission + - Tesla Wins Dealer Battle In Massachusetts

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Tesla's been battling car-dealer associations in many states as of late. Just recently we heard about it taking on the fight in Georgia. While we haven't seen the outcome of the fight in Georgia, Tesla did just score a win in Massachusetts. The highest court ruled this week that the state dealer association does not have standing to sue Tesla for operating one of its company-owned stores there. Further, the ruling by the state Supreme Judicial Court upholds a lower court's decision to dismiss a suit brought by the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association. The issue is the law dealers were using to justify their suit was actually intended to protect franchised dealers from abuse by car manufacturers or distributors. Tesla can now add Massachusetts to its win column, but it still cannot presently operate its stores in Arizona, Texas, or Virginia. How long until Tesla can just sell its cars how it wants in all states?

Submission + - Toyota And Tesla Getting Together Again?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Tesla and Toyota have already worked together a few times. That factory that Tesla builds the electric Model S in? Yeah, it bought that from Toyota. The Toyota RAV4 EV? Yeah, the battery and software tuning was done by Tesla. Now it sounds like Tesla and Toyota might have another significant project in the pipeline in the next two or three years. Tesla CEO Musk said such a project could be "on a much higher volume level" than the firms last project with Toyota, the RAV4 EV. Toyota currently has a 2.4 percent stake in Tesla Motors and has sold 2,130 RAV4 EVs through August. For its part, Toyota has no comment regarding Musk's comment about the future project. Given Toyota's stance on electric cars, Musk's comment is a bit confusing. So what exactly will this joint project be?

Submission + - Paypal Jumps into Bitcoin with Both Feet (wired.com)

Submitted by retroworks
retroworks writes: BBC, WSJ, Bloomberg, Forbes and several other business sites are buzzing with Paypal's incorporation of Bitcoin transactions. According to Wired, Paypal will be "the best thing ever to happen to bitcoin" http://www.wired.com/2014/09/p... Paypal-owned Braintree not only brings 150 million active users in close contact with Bitcoin, it signals "mainstreaming" similar to cell phone app banking, perceived as experimental just a few years ago.

Meanwhile Wired News reports on "someone's efforts" to expose or unmask Bitcoin guru Satoshi Nakamoto... http://www.wired.com/2014/09/s...

Submission + - Tesla's Fighting Back In Georgia

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Elon Musk isn't just changing the way our cars work, no, he's changing the way we buy our cars too. At least, he's trying to. Musk and Tesla's biggest hurdle in the U.S. has been bypassing conventional dealerships and selling directly to customers. This concept is something that's illegal in many states thanks to a nationwide patchwork of decades-old franchise laws. Tesla's latest battle is taking place in Georgia where dealers allege that the start-up company is in violation of the state's franchise laws. Not surprsingly, Tesla's fighting back. To sell cars in the state Tesla had to agree to sell fewer than 150 vehicles directly to consumers in the state. Last week Georgia Automobile Dealers Association complained that Tesla sold 173 vehicles. Tesla hasn't publicly commented on how many vehicles it has sold in Georgia. We've seen time and time again how this story ends, and the writing is clearly on the wall for this case.

Submission + - About the teacher busted for self-published novels (baltimoresun.com)

Submitted by whitroth
whitroth writes: I was waiting for an actual news story, not just tweets. Here's the real story:
Excerpt:
In fact, McLaw has not been arrested. No warrant for his arrest has been issued.

Concerns about McLaw were raised after he sent a four-page letter to officials in Dorchester County. Those concerns brought together authorities from multiple jurisdictions, including health authorities.

McLaw's attorney, David Moore, tells The Times that his client was taken in for a mental health evaluation. "He is receiving treatment," Moore said.

Because of federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations mandating privacy around healthcare issues, he was unable to say whether McLaw has been released.

McLaw's letter was of primary concern to healthcare officials, Maciarello says. It, combined with complaints of alleged harassment and an alleged possible crime from various jurisdictions led to his suspension. Maciarello cautions that these allegations are still being investigated; authorities, he says, "proceeded with great restraint."
— end excerpt —

In other words, the guy has real issues, and they're not related to the books, which one assumes he gave those themes to, so as to gain popularity due to current shootings — a PR decision.

And a side note: the president of a local sf club has read at least one of the books, and reports that it's material that wouldn't get past a slushpile reader....
mark

Submission + - California DMV Told Google Cars Still Need Steering Wheels

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Google showed us what it feels is the car of the future. It drives itself, it doesn't have a gas or brake pedal, and there's no steering wheel. But that last one might be an issue. Back in May California's Department of Motor Vehicles published safety guidelines aimed at manufacturers of self-driving vehicles. After seeing Google's self-driving car vision, the California DMV has told the company it needs to add all those things back to their traditional locations so that occupants can take "immediate physical control" of the vehicle if necessary. Don't for a second think this is a major setback for Google, as the prototypes unveiled weren't even close to production ready. While the DMV may loosen some of these restrictions in the future as well all become more comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles, there's no question when it comes down to the safety of those on the road.

Submission + - IBM Gearing up Mega Power 8 Servers for October Launch (serverwatch.com)

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Now that IBM has sold off its x86 server business to Lenovo, it's full steam ahead for IBM's Power business. While Intel is ramping up its next generation of server silicon for a September launch, IBM has its next lineup of Power 8 servers set to be announced in October.

There is a larger than 4U, 2 socket system coming out," Doug Balong ,General Manager of Power Systems within IBM's System and Technology Group said.

Can IBM Power 8 actually take on x86? Or has that ship already sailed?

Submission + - How Does Tesla Build A Supercharger Charging Site?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: Tesla's Superchargers are the talk of the electric car community. These charging stations can take a Model S battery pack from nearly empty to about 150 miles or range in around 30 minutes. That's crazy fast, and it's nothing short of impressive. But what does it take to actually build a Tesla Supercharger site? Apparently a lot of digging. A massive trench is created to run high-capacity electric cables before the charging stations themselves are even installed. A diagram and photos of the Electric Conduit Construction build out have surfaced on the Internet. The conduits connect the charging stations to a power distribution center, which in turn is connected to a transformer that provides the power for charging cars. It took 11 days to install the six charging stalls in Goodland, Kansas. If you thought it was a quick process to build a Supercharger station, you were clearly wrong. Now, what ever happened to those battery swapping stations?

Submission + - Reversible USB cable design finalized

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: The design for the new reversible USB interface — the standardized connection for data transfers between electronic devices — has been finished. It means users will no longer have to worry which way round the part is facing when plugging it into a device. The new USB Type-C is small enough for mobiles but "robust enough for laptops and tablets", its designers said. But the new USB cables will not connect into the current ports that are found on millions of devices.

Submission + - Is California Going To Waive Environmental Rules For Tesla?

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: We all know Tesla is working on its Gigafactory, and it has yet to announce officially where it will be. But the automaker did announce a shortlist of possible locations, and California wasn't on it. The state has quickly been trying to lure Tesla to get back into contention. Now the state may waive environmental rules which would normally make construction of such a large manufacturing facility more difficult. Apparently, Governor Jerry Brown's office is currently negotiating an incentive package for Tesla that would waive certain parts of the nearly half-century-old California Environmental Quality Act. Not only that, but state officials are reportedly considering letting Tesla begin construction and perform damage mitigation later, along with limiting lawsuits that could slow down the project. Let's not forget some massive tax breaks to the tune of $500 million. Is California stepping out of bounds here? Is it about to be in hot water, or does this all sit just fine with everybody?

Submission + - Twitter Reports 23 Million Users Are Actually Bots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In its most recent quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Twitter disclosed that approximately 8.5% of its users are actually bots. Some of these 23 million bots were created to make revenue-generating URLs, others were created to collect followers that would later be sold to whoever needs a ready audience, and a few were created to mimic stereotypes just for fun. Now that Twitter is a public company, some wonder if these bots help or hinder Twitter's stock value.

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