Yeah, and the regulation mess will shift to the DOT/NHSTA/B, which is already knee deep in the drones world (think: FAA appeal) and causing havoc to drone users. Oh also an autonomous car is essentially... a ground drone.

We're not going to get rid of this regulation interest: basically, gov't has a regulation itch to the current mobility and drone/autonomous robot scratch that the public has. And unless they show some flexibility to let these technologies grow--it will be DOA. Gov't is obviously playing catchup.

Some say that good, experienced analog designers will always be needed and currently are in short supply due to what others say technology advancements are obsoleting the need for analog engineers.

It's about who gets the business and who holds the insurance.

In the drone world, you got established companies: DoD/Aerospace/Big Defense selling UAVs at 100K+ figures where a 15K unit can do better. And you get all these commercial startups and hobbyists are 9 out of 10 times flying with out insurance.... and if they do have insurance--how is an insurance company really going to pay out when your 2K DJI flies away and causes a car accident with million dollar lawsuits, e.g. a fatality in the middle of San Francisco's mission district? There's a reason the rocketry guys aren't flying their aerial cameras via launching the estes model unit in the local walmart parking lot.

These car sharing services, mind that all the resource sharing services (airbnb and aereo come to mind) have the same 2 problems: uneven competition (maybe fair OR unfair--courts will decide) to established businesses and regs, and when something goes wrong, who pays? You think uber has a walk in the park with safety and insurance? These are not mutually exclusive problems, but more tightly coupled than one would think.

Hence as a devil's advocate, Airports are controlled areas, congested x10, and have all sorts of complexities: emergency evac, pedestrians, basic security, basic logistics, lots of people not familiar with the area and a controlled taxi system. All that plays into the 2 above needs... and as like the drone world, safety is used as easy justification to put a kibosh on the whole deal.

They have a new product for under 150.
http://www.bitscope.com/produc...

But I've been very happy with my Bitscope 10 + assortment of probes (if you can spring for that). Does everything, s/w is a bit 00's (features), but rock solid and has an API for writing your own software. If you can spring the extra 150, you can just get a real scope+analyzer vs high latency toy. Have used them on both Windows and Linux, no issues.

Hopefully they will have learned from Motorola/Iridium--considering they bought most of it.

What got you started?

I guess I started at a place called No Such Agency in the early 00's and didn't realize it until the Snowden stuff came out... go figure.

I hack for entertainment (that is the entertainment industry) nowadays...

Funny thing is I sat in the TechLA conference and the main attitude/topic of the organizers was "hacking big data". WTF? Is the term hacking a buzzword now, i.e. the next 'social' or the new 'bubble'?

a. that's a 35K copter with NO GPS (the older models didn;t have it, though this could be retro fitted) and if upgraded, has hold position and that's it.
b. that 35K copter can be trumped by a @2K DJI phantom setup--if LAPD paid over 10K for that, I say it's a complete RIP OFF.
c. LA is a urban canyon in most places, GPS and RF will likely be a question--so the use will likely be limited.
d. does LAPD have a COA?

9 out of 10 times, ctrl-z usually results in a kill -9.

The pill bottle is an example of the coming Internet or things.

Much like drones and big data, there's lots of policy to abuse, and much ethics to be discussed... Much like the last boom with wireless and content (rights management).

I chuckle at the title, Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds

Just ask all those Mathematicians and Physicists considering lectures are the only form of classroom instruction as it involves breakdown of problems/past experiences from previous works. And considering a lot of the innovations use today originated from these guys says a lot.

Lectures are just a tool in the arsenal, it could be a poor performing teacher as well (one more interested in his research or tenure), putting finals at the same date, or have a critical paper due the day after thanksgiving. I recall a lot of the lectures I've been in fell in 2 camps, ones that were engaging and ones that just plain showed the teacher reading a text book. A lot of hands on stuff I don't recall anymore, the tech as changed as well, but at least lectures I can still refer to the notes and written examples. Both are good techniques of instruction, but should be used in the right context.

Heck,

SpaceX is a private company. They can do what they please as long as their owner/investors are happy.

NASA/ESA are just saying from their experience... and then as a future customer. SpaceX either needs to prove it or provide details, aka IP to their customers to explain why their solution will work.

Otherwise, this is just NASA/ESA playing CYA since their respective gov'ts see SpaceX as the only commercial player in town (aka a monopoly) and don;t want any blame for potential failures.

Basically the author is saying should vehicles go from a reactive state to a proactive state. All autonomous cars current are reactive in nature. The latter being a non-linear problem. We can solve it though a uber logic table, but I'm sure with all the filtering and choices, would be too slow that in the end is no different from an RNG,

Interesting this applies to all autonomous vehicles, whether land, sea or air based.

As a person who spent some time studying Astrophysics, namely space physics, and chaos theory. You can do a lot with it outside of just "studying the planets":

Rocket guidance systems
Satellite health monitor and positioning
GPS systems
EMI/RF analysis
Physical Chemistry (and spectroscopy of course)
Anything Math related (!)
Literature
Robotics
Music
Puppetry

Just to name a few things... and yes... I've done all of them in some aspect of my career....

Perhaps SpaceX will prove to be very reliable, but they aren't there yet.

There's 50% of the problem. SpaceX can test all they want to proven launch worthiness, but it how they handle problems with their systems that the customer is looking at--which they have minimal experience in compared to the ULA. It's the [stupid] man-years advertisement.

Now the other 50% is that DoD likely loves their current political and economic arrangement they have with ULA, so changing that will ripple to all suppliers... and has nothing to do with saving cash but some manager's year end bonus.

FCC: can't make a decision on net neutrality. Lobbyists (big telcos) make it for them.

FAA: can't make a decision on small done policy. Lobbyists (defense contractors) make it for them.

SEC/FDIC: no regs for HFT. Lobbyists (banks) make it for them.

DOT: stalling on self driving cards and electric infrastructure. Lobbyists (auto, oil&gas) make it for them.

FDA: pot regs.... Nuff said...

See the pattern here?