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Comment Re:so it begins (Score 1) 194

by tomhudson (#39338529) Attached to: California To Join Nevada With Rules For Autonomous Cars
Guess what - sliding sideways increases your chance of stopping, rather than just rolling through the intersection and getting t-boned. And no, ABS does not stop vehicles faster - and drivers with abs are more likely to be killed in crashes.

. When braking on dry or wet roads your stopping distance will be about the same as with conventional brakes.
You should allow for a longer stopping distance with ABS than for conventional brakes when driving on gravel, slush, and snow. This is because the rotating tire will stay on top of this low traction road surface covering, and effectively "float" on this boundary layer.
A non ABS braked vehicle can lock its tires and create a snow plow effect in front of the tires which helps slow the vehicle. These locked tires can often find more traction below this boundary layer.

Snow under pressure sticks to ice better than frozen rubber does. You want the tire to stop rotating so it can build up a 1/2 layer of snow.
Science

Submission + - Senate kills Keystone, averts 'Venus syndrome' (computerworld.com)

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: The U.S. Senate Thursday killed a plan to build the Keystone pipeline and bring oil from tar sands and shale into the U.S. This exploitation worried NASA climate scientist James Hansen so much that he warned, in his book Storms of My Grandchildren, of a "Venus syndrome,” — runaway climate change so extreme that it leaves the planet overheated and dead. He argued that if the world burns tar sands and tar shale, “I believe the Venus syndrome is a dead certainty.” But the fossil fuel industry will likely win on Keystone eventually, unless the tech industry can offer an alternative narrative to job creation and alternative energy.
Canada

Submission + - Last Chance to Stop SOPA From Coming to Canada (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This weekend may be the last chance for Canadians to fight back against SOPA-style laws being added to Canadian copyright law with the final hearing scheduled for Monday. In recent days, the copyright lobby has demanded website blocking, warrantless access to subscriber information, and unlimited damage awards. Michael Geist has the details on who to contact and Open Media has launched a campaign to encourage Canadians to speak out before Monday's Bill C-11 meeting. The group makes it easy to speak out against SOPA style reforms, harms to fair dealing, and unduly restrictive digital lock rules.

Submission + - No Souls Were Sold: An Insider Perspective on EA's BioWare (videogamer.com)

Submitted by
jtorry
jtorry writes: "In 1995 Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka had two passions: medicine and role-playing games. If the two young doctors weren't tending to Alberta's sick they were playing table-top adventures or talking about translating them into video games. When they co-founded BioWare with fellow doctor Augustine Yip, medicine still represented Muzyka and Zeschuk's day jobs as they tried to balance their passions.

Today BioWare has roughly 800 employees across six studios. Each studio ultimately reports to Muzyka, while Zeschuk is in charge of BioWare Austin and responsible for The Old Republic. As for medicine, that balancing act is over. There hasn't been time for it in roughly a decade.

Did BioWare change when the studio was bought by publishing giant Electronic Arts?"
Cloud

Submission + - Cisco, Google, others push IETF to tackle cloud security (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Proponents of a common scheme for managing user identity in cloud-based applications will pitch their idea to the IETF at its meeting in Paris later this month. A specification already exists for Simple Cloud Identity Management (SCIM) that is supported by security software vendors including Cisco, Courion and Ping Identity, and cloud vendors such as Google and Salesforce.com. At issue is whether SCIM will become an IETF-approved working group and eventually an industry standard. Proponents say the protocol will make it easier for companies to control access to data stored in popular cloud-based applications like Salesforce, Workday, Taleo and Box.
Your Rights Online

Submission + - SFPD Breathalyzer Error Puts Hundreds Of DUI Convictions In Doubt (cbslocal.com) 1

Submitted by Mr. Shotgun
Mr. Shotgun writes:

Hundreds, or even thousands, of drunk driving convictions could be overturned because the San Francisco Police Department has not tested its breathalyzers, officials said Monday. For at least six years, the police officers in charge of testing the 20 breathalyzers used by the Police Department did not carry out any tests on the equipment. Officers instead filled the test forms with numbers that matched the control sample, said Public Defender Jeff Adachi, throwing countless DUI convictions into doubt.

Apparently this has happened before.
Science

Submission + - Nanotechnology Uses Sun to Separate Hydrogen from Water (bestsyndication.com)

Submitted by happylucky
happylucky writes: Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, have developed a more efficient way to separate hydrogen from water using nanotechnology.

Engineers have created tiny forests of nanowires that use solar energy to create clean hydrogen fuel. Deli Wang, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering says that current technology uses fossil fuels to convert/separate hydrogen. The new method will not produce any greenhouse gases.
Google

Submission + - 7-inch Google Tablet Coming From ASUS (slashgear.com)

Submitted by Sez Zero
Sez Zero writes: Google and ASUS have been collaborating on a co-branded 7-inch Android tablet, with a launch as early as May, according to sources, challenging low-cost rivals and the iPad with a $199-249 price tag. The fruits of the partnership, whispered to the runes readers at DigiTimes by industry sources, will take on the NOOK Tablet and the Kindle Fire, with ASUS selected for its willingness to flex to Google’s requirements.
Math

Submission + - Classic Nintendo Games Are NP Hard (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: You may have have though that games like Mario, Donkey Kind and so on were hard at the time you were playing them, but you probably didn't guess that they were NP-hard.
Now we have some results from computer scientists at Universite Libre de Bruxelles and MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) that many classic games contain within them an NP-hard problem. It is a bit like the discovery of a black hole at the center of every galaxy. Should either fact be surprising?
It has been proved that the following games are NP-hard: Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Pokemon.
At least you now have an excuse for your low scores.

Submission + - Daylights Saving Time-Shift Causes Employees to Loaf on Monday (bestsyndication.com)

Submitted by happylucky
happylucky writes: Virginia Tech University researchers say that the annual shift to daylight savings time makes employees tired, resulting in more time spent surfing the web during their workday... Rather than work, employees will spend more time “cyberloafing” while on the clock. Although they extrapolated some of their data from Google, the researchers also conducted a lab experiment that required sleep-deprived subjects to watch a boring lecture online...

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