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Comment Google Cardboard (Score 5, Interesting) 198

Google Cardboard, like the Oculus Rift, zooms in on the screen making some pixels very large. Perhaps this QHD resolution will look nicer than average when used as a Rift replacement? (note: I'm well aware that it will not actually be a good rift replacement, just that it's abnormally high pixel density could make a difference in extremely specific circumstances.)

Submission + - California opens driverless car competition with testing regulations (networkworld.com)

smaxp writes: Professor John Leonard tipped the audience that California just released rules for testing autonomous vehicles on California’s roads and highways. Californians will soon be seeing more autonomous vehicles than just those built by the Google X labs.

These vehicles offer great promise, such as freeing the driver’s attention for productivity or leisure, better safety and less congestion. It will be a while, though, before we see these vehicles on the road. Autonomous vehicles will move the Zip Car car-as-a-service concept forward when deployed, because a subscribers would simply summon cars using an app.

Comment Re:stable magnetic field (Score 4, Informative) 298

This is not a compass. This measures the atoms passing through lines of magnetic flux. The magnetic flux lines are remarkably uniform when you are not within range of a competing magnet; I suspect that is just as true underwater. It's like measuring your distance from the center of a record by counting the track grooves you have scratched over. It does mean it's more accurate at east-west than it is at north-south.

Comment Small vs Big (Score 1) 409

Cloud hosting removes the need to hire employees to cover certain duties. Backups Virtualization Database Admin etc Cloud makes sense for small companies who cannot afford enough expertise to adequately handle these issues. A cloud service (in theory) will have more (and more competent) people handling these areas than a small business can muster. But large companies? If you have over 1000 employees, you probably should not be cloud hosting your trade secrets, customer data, and core business value.

Comment Re:Many members of Congress own car dealerships (Score 1) 342

To be fair, cars are also held to higher and higher standards of safety every year. If they could legally build a 1960's car today, it could be sold for under $5000 new... but they can't. The car would fail hundreds of safety and emissions regulations.

Not saying that protected monopoly status doesn't contribute, but it's not the largest factor.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 390

This is ancient, but at least you will read it: A lot of rich people in the world don't have half a billion dollars in fungible cash lying around. They have it in tracable, lockable, secured accounts with reversible transactions.

If someone gets access to Satoshi's bitcoin wallet, there will be no recourse to prevent them taking that entire amount. It's a lot harder to steal Warren's money because it's tied up in assets and traceable accounts.

Comment A Plague on Writing (Score 1) 100

Over 22 years of experience writing columns, he ends on a 'best of' list. This stupid meme (using the more traditional definition of the word) is so frustrating to witness. I understand why writers do it (because it's easy), but it's depressing to see a good columnist in a respected publication end his career with one.

Comment Security Nightmare (Score 1) 192

I can see the utility, but this seems like a security issue. Isn't one of the purposes of the SIM to provide a physical identity chip? Why does it need to be programmable? Shouldn't you just say 'this SIM now has access to this network'?

I probably just don't understand the function of a SIM card well enough to get the significance of this. Can someone clarify? I am not 5, FYI, and I can understand multi-syllabic words.

Comment Delivery Trucks (Score 2) 134

How many people are killed, and how much property destroyed, every year by delivery trucks? I will happily trade a few dozen dead Fifi's to take several thousand delivery trucks off the road. Luddites never learn.

There are completely valid reasons to fear and distrust the mass use of drones by governments, and their power to suppress speech and curtail freedom. But this particular use of technology is exactly the kind of progress that saves time, money, lives, and the environment. Last-mile delivery by drone faces many hurdles, both legislative and technical, but it's a very smart goal to work towards that benefits everyone.

I tried to find some statistics, and the best I could come up with were these two links on an 'Truck Accident Attorney' website; I don't know how accurate they are. But delivery vehicles for FedEx and UPS killed 50 people in about two years, with another ~2000 non-fatal accidents. I will guarantee that the drones will have better statistics than that.

Comment Re:wait (Score 1) 192

Considering it analyzes the responses you get, then yes... if you are advertising your bank balance in your profile (likely by proxy, with your profile picture including a demonstration of wealth) then the responses you get will reflect that, and the algorithm will take that input.

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