In a lot of cases, even with the stock brake systems, its not very difficult to lock up the tires. Increasing the braking torque would naturally need increased traction capabilities. Both upgrading the brakes and the tires are a lot more costly than implementing some kind of sensor and/or logic to evaluate if there is an error condition.

Almost all cars generate braking forces far in excess of whatever the engine is capable of putting out. Adequate brake torque isn't the problem here. If the brakes have to resist the the torque input, then their effectiveness will obviously be diminished.

The proposal of having engine power being cut off when the brakes are applied seems to be sensible, however there are certain situations where you will need both the engine power and brakes on at the same time. Such as starting from a stop on a hill. So the solution isn't that simple. The easiest thing would be to either install an switch that trips past an certain amount of brake travel, or to sense the line pressure. They can use that data and determine how hard the operator is trying to brake, along with the vehicle's current state, is it stationary, or moving, and if so, how fast? They can use that to generate parameters to decide when and if to cut out engine power. At high brake pressures, and moving at high speeds, one would not be expect to continue to accelerate. At low to moderate pressures and being stationary or barely moving, engine power should not be cut off.

Another thing they could do is install a sensor and determine if a foot is present on the accelerator or not, specifically in non-cruise conditions.

Some people apparently had trouble shifting into neutral, but that should not happen at all. I don't know if it's an issue with the transmission trying to block that action, or if it was not able to mechanically disengage due to the engine accelerating. In either case, they should change the shifter from an mechanically controlled operation to an electronic one. Being controlled electronically also makes it easier to move the shifter. If the car is shifted into neutral, that's a fairly clear indicator that the ECM should override the pedal and drop to idle, and shift into neutral.

I think it would help if there was a verbal and textual feedback system to aid the driver along with a command system.

It's not dangerous as long as it's purple. When was the last time you saw an dangerous carnivore in purple? See, now just relax and sing along with Barney!

welcome our new wet computing overlords.

Yeah, especially if you consider the following quote from the summary, "and use rudimentary knowledge of body anatomy to estimate where hands or other body parts are even when they can't be seen by Natal"

It just might come true after all...

Trecares

The physics for this does not work out. They can't hit 54 MPH in the space of 35 feet when being dropped with earth's gravity. They'd need to drop it from almost 100 feet to attain that, ignoring wind friction of course. I hesitate to wonder what a networking journal is doing reporting on NASA's activities, especially given the apparent lack of background expertise.

Trecares

So is there any other option that works well for e-commerce websites? I don't know what else is good?

I bought a Mac Mini when they first came out to use as an server. That turned out to be a bad idea. It was significantly slower than the older PowerPC based system that it was going to replace. It took forever to do anything, and we maxed out the configurable equipment. So we had to return the Mini. I think the hard drive was the primary bottleneck.

I see that this comes with 5400 RPM hard drives which are not exactly quick, not quick enough IMO. The latency sucks, and throughput will not be as good as a bigger unit. It may be okay for the personal server market, but I do not have high expectations for it.

It IDLES at 16w. Full power will naturally be higher than that, a more meaningful metric. Oh you mean you just let it sit on your desk as a shiny ornament? Might as well actually do something for the environment, unplug it and save the 16 watts.

While I understand your point, I also have to point out the sorry condition that a number of our roads and bridges are in, and it's not getting any better. Who's to say that the an publicly owned system will be as diligent in not only maintaining itself, but upgrading itself as better technology becomes available? Who determines what and when it's time to upgrade? What's the reasonable price and number of years for the next investment?

The problem is that there is no express mandate to upgrade equipment; and a monopoly delays progress while the company attempts to extract the most value from their investment. Opening up the lines to competition and abolishing multi-year contracts will help quite a bit. The insidious thing is that some of those existing contracts are set up to auto-renew when they expire so if you don't cancel it, you're locked into another term. I think a private, and separate company or a non-profit organization could set up standard access fees for ISP's and manage the last mile connections. They could work out deployment plans for new technology, estimate upgrade costs and so on. Their fees would be dictated by the upgrade time line and maintenance costs.

No, the tractor is not the only reason. Increased output from the other methods like you said, reduces the amount of land required to farm. Which in turn reduces manpower needed even if it's just using the tractor to work the land. It's a cumulative effect from other factors, not just the tractor itself.

I would expect that it can get hot enough to become self cleaning, just like spark plugs. Use a spark plug in the wrong heat range, and you WILL have driveability issues if not complete failure in short order. It sounds like they are putting out more energy per pulse. So even though it may not at the right focal point, it should still be able to burn things off.

In order to convict someone of perjury, you need evidence that they actually lied. What they are lacking for that conviction is that evidence which he conveniently didn't turn over. So while they could have charged him, they don't have the evidence to convict him for lying.

Well just compare the typical road to a runaway. The runaway isn't as bumpy to reduce stresses on the landing gear. Also, the landing gear needs periodic service and replacement. Cars last much longer than that.