Uber has already posted a press release that they won't give a shit and that they will ignore the restraining order.
(German article about Uber's response)
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtscha...
"It's not the app. Yes, you can drive people around the city in your car, but once you start charging them to take them somewhere, you are operating a taxi service."
Not at all. There have been things called 'Mitfahrzentralen' (Travel with somebody) for decades in Germany (complete with apps etc) where you can post your desired road trip and people who drive that way can take them as passengers to share the costs.
The only difference here is the definition what the real 'costs' are.
"But there would be less traffic if there were fewer delivery vehicles on the road. Especially those noisy diesel vans."
I was in Amsterdam last week and the ugly brown UPS trucks were electric, I was almost run over by one because I couldn't hear it coming.
It's just a regulation thingie, if they get forced to make no noise inside city limits, they don't.
"The passenger pigeons WERE locust-like in the era before their extinction. It was a real problem for people wanting to farm."
Why? The shit was delivered automatically onto the fields instead of the farmer hauling it there.
We just don't give a shit.
"how do they handle bicyclists? google cars should never be allowed on the road."
Human driven cars killed 726 bicyclists in 2012, Google cars none.
"The better question would be, are there any apps that you would like to have, but that don't exist (yet)?"
A non-beta slashdot app that shows me actual news for nerds, stuff that matters?
The Google car has to be shown how to get to the garage, on your property, behind your house.
But seriously, if they'd known the way already, some people would have a heart attack.
GoogleCar: Please select the destination:
A. Before the garage where you cook your meth?
B. Before the garage where you distill your moonshine?
C. Before the garage where you grow your weed?
"You're talking about a group with a medieval worldview, and you can't get much more medieval than the Black Plague."
Indeed, using a bacteria that's propagated by fleas is not very modern in the Streptomycin age.
"The same nonsense can be said about chiropractic. It has been proven over and over again that verterbral subluxations are the root cause of many ailments..."
Doctor Bob, is that you? We thought you had died of a subluxation.
"Strong magnetic fields have also been linked to brain tumors."
No.
"These things are far from idiot proof and you should expect drunk or stoned college students on spring break to be using them."
Think of it as evolution in action.
Just don't talk to the police, ever!
"I just checked my vacuum cleaner. It is 2300W. Jesus, no wonder I never turn it up to max."
Yes, you can hurt yourself that way.
"And they do have uses. There are places where the energy output is the _point_, such as putting a shoplight under the hood of your car, to keep the engine from freezing solid, in very cold winters. "
Or you could do it like the people in cold countries and use a proper oil heater for 15 bucks or so. They heat the oil inside the block and need only 90 Watt.
They also have battery heaters etc.
"Only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core." -- Hannah Arendt.
