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Transportation

Land Rover Demos "Transparent Hood" 172

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the oh-look-a-possum dept.
cartechboy (2660665) writes "When we were kids, we were promised flying cars in the future, like The Jetsons. Well, now it's the future, and we don't have any flying cars. But Land Rover just unveiled some crazy new technology called the Transparent Hood system. It's brilliant in its simplicity, and yet quite complex in its implementation. Using a web of camera images and projectors, the Transparent Hood system projects the area just in front of and underneath the nose of the vehicle onto a head-up display along the lower portion of the windshield. Not only is this obviously breathtaking, but when it comes to off-roading—or parking in tight urban spaces—this could change the game. It will allow drivers to see precisely what's below them and immediately in front of them allowing precise placement of the vehicle's front wheels. The system also displays key vehicle data including speed, incline, roll angle, steering position, and drive mode. People, this is the future, and the future is now."
The Media

60 Minutes Dubbed Engines Noise Over Tesla Model S 544

Posted by timothy from the at-least-they-didn't-detonate-it dept.
cartechboy (2660665) writes "Did you watch the Tesla 60 Minutes segment the other night? If you did, you might have ended up on the floor rolling around laughing like I did. Since when does the Tesla Model S electric car make audible engine noises? Or downshift? Turns out, 60 Minutes dubbed engine noises and a downshift over the Model S running footage. The show claims it was an editing error. Call it what you want, it was absolutely hilarious. A little note to TV producers assigned to cover Tesla Motors in the future: Electric cars don't upshift or downshift." At least they didn't fraudulently blow it up!

Comment Re:Gimmicks gonna gimmick. (Score 3, Interesting) 180

by sh00z (#46638077) Attached to: A Third of Consumers Who Bought Wearable Devices Have Ditched Them
Maybe they learned what they wanted to learn, and didn't "need" (in the first-world sense) the device any longer. I put a power meter on my bicycle. After about a year of riding and reading it, I could estimate from my perceived exertion just about what my power output was, so I removed the device.

Comment Re:13 deaths? (Score 1) 518

by sh00z (#46630733) Attached to: Department of Transportation Makes Rear View Cameras Mandatory

Cars would probably be a lot safer if they were made more simply, and they didn't change the design ever 2 or 3 years. Stick with time tested designs and get all the bugs out and you'd end up with a car that was reliable and safe.

That is a strong assertion. Can you back that up? Over the years, cars have become safer both for the people inside and other road users (well, the latter probably doesn't really hold for SUV monsters), and also got much better fuel economy. A lot of that you can't achieve by debugging an existing design. Think of aerodynamics and crumple zones, which are integrated into the entire car design. Over here (Netherlands), the minimum age and frequency for mandatory technical inspections of old cars have been relaxed over the years, apparently because of the increase in durability.

The problem is the additional requirements/hardware, and the weight impacts. The 1989 Honda CRX HF had an EPA highway rating of 50 mpg. Today's CRZ is essentially that same form factor with "bugs worked out," but once you've added crumple zones, front and side impact airbags, ABS, traction control, the energy removed from the gasoline by substituting 10% ethanol, and whatever other requirements that have evolved, even a hybrid can only get 39. It would be interesting to see what a gas-only version of this car could do.
Transportation

If Ridesharing Is Banned, What About Ride-Trading? 353

Posted by samzenpus from the hop-on dept.
Bennett Haselton writes "The city of Seattle just imposed new limits on commercial app-based ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, effectively protecting taxi companies from low-cost competition in the form of smartphone apps. If other cities follow suit, could a company help ridesharers circumvent the restrictions by creating a ride-trading app, allowing drivers to earn 'miles' by driving passengers, and redeem those miles later to get rides for themselves?" Continue reading below to see what Bennett has to say.

Comment Re: "Vulnerable"? (Score 1) 93

by sh00z (#46620663) Attached to: Security Evaluation of the Tesla Model S

As an aside: We worked with CAA (Canadian version of AAA) and once every month or so we'd get a fax to unlock a vehicle (usually a Ford for some reason) who's keyless entry fob's battery had died. We would arrive and they are holding their key in their hand, pressing the button to unlock it and they are getting frustrated the vehicle isn't unlocking. I would calmly ask to see their key, walk up to the door and stick it in the door's keyway and turn it. The look on their face was always priceless. I even had one lady confess she didn't know that was even possible.

But if the car has an alarm system and it's active, this doesn't help much. If I unlock my car with a physical key, there's a three-step process I need to do in order to disable the alarm and engine kill. If your owners didn't realize their keys would work, what's the likelihood they'd then remember everything else required before driving away?
Windows

Ask Slashdot: Preparing For Windows XP EOL? 423

Posted by timothy from the stock-up-like-y2k dept.
An anonymous reader writes "As most of us working in IT may know, Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP on April 8th, 2014. Although this fact has been known for quite some time, XP is still relatively popular in companies and also enjoys noticeable marketshare for home users. Even ATMs are running XP and will continue to do so for some time. A lot of companies/users don't want to change because they see no additional benefit to do a costly upgrade, no reason to change a running system, and they may in some cases be right with their assumptions. So what is the best way to secure this remaining Windows XP systems? Installing the latest security patches, checking firewall status and user permissions etc. should be fairly obvious, as Microsoft Security Essentials may also not receive updates anymore, changing antivirus programs seems a sensible thing to do."
Math

Mathematician Gives Tips On How To Win $1 Billion On NCAA Basketball 76

Posted by samzenpus from the winning-the-pool dept.
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Jake Simpson reports at The Atlantic that Mathematician Tim Chartier, a Davidson College professor who specializes in ranking methods, teaches a math-heavy form of bracketology — the science of predicting the annual NCAA college basketball tournament at Davidson College in North Carolina. Chartier's academic research is in ranking methods where he looks at things like the page-ranking algorithms of Google. 'In 2009, my collaborator Amy Langville said: "You know what? ESPN has this huge online bracket tournament. Let's create brackets with our ranking methods, just to see if it's creating meaningful information."' Chartier's formula, an evolving code-based matrix that ranks each of the 68 tournament teams, has helped several Davidson students score in the 96th percentile (or higher) in ESPN's bracket challenge and this year, Chartier's goal is to help someone win the $1 billion prize offered by Warren Buffett to anyone who correctly predicts all 63 games of the men's tournament.

Chartier uses two methods. One is the Colley Method, named after astrophysicist Wesley Colley who developed a method used by the BCS for college football (PDF). His basketball method only counts wins and losses, not margin of victory. The other method is the Massey method created by sports statistician Kenneth Massey (PDF), which does integrate scores. Chartier has not been banned from any office pools — at least none that he knows of. But as a result of coming pretty darn close to filling out a perfect bracket just by crunching the numbers, brackets have become a labor of love. 'Now that the brackets are actually out, I've had students in and out of my office all week, sharing new ideas,' says Chartier. 'For me, that's more fun than filling out a bracket. They will all be filling out brackets, so it's like I'm doing parallel processing. I know what might work, but watching them figure out the odds, is a thrill.'"

Comment Re:First blacks, (Score 1) 917

by sh00z (#46370923) Attached to: Apple Urges Arizona Governor To Veto Anti-Gay Legislation

Churches could limit events to traditional weddings and reject things like dom/sub 'bondings', civil union receptions (even when they aren't legally weddings), plural marriage additions, and the rest. But now in some states they are compelled to take them all. Their banners, logos, signs, and name are being associated with something contrary to their religious standards. This is not right.

The way around this is to set a generic, non-discrimatory policy that they will perform marriages only for members of their own congregation. Everything else is just a money-grab. If a minister is out there in the world at large, offering to sell his or her services as a marriage officiant, then that minister has forfeited all right to pick and choose who they will marry. Similarly, if I were of a persuasion that is discriminated against, do you think I would WANT a photographer or caterer or florist who disapproved of me or my lifestyle? No way! I wouldn't try to hire that person in the first place, because they're not going to put their best effort into the product, whatever it is.
NASA

The Rescue Plan That Could Have Saved Space Shuttle Columbia 247

Posted by Soulskill from the if-only dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In February, 2003, space shuttle Columbia was lost upon atmospheric re-entry. Afterward, NASA commissioned an exhaustive investigation to figure out what happened, and how it could be prevented in the future. However, they also figured out exactly what would have been required for a repair and rescue mission using Atlantis. Lee Hutchinson at Ars Technica went through the report and wrote a lengthy article explaining what such a mission would look like. In short: risky and terribly complex — but possible. 'In order to push Atlantis through processing in time, a number of standard checks would have to be abandoned. The expedited OPF processing would get Atlantis into the Vehicle Assembly Building in just six days, and the 24/7 prep work would then shave an additional day off the amount of time it takes to get Atlantis mated to its external tank and boosters. After only four days in the Vehicle Assembly Building, one of the two Crawler-Transporters would haul Atlantis out to Launch Complex 39, where it would stage on either Pad A or Pad B on Flight Day 15—January 30. ... Once on the pad, the final push to launch would begin. There would be no practice countdown for the astronauts chosen to fly the mission, nor would there be extra fuel leak tests. Prior to this launch, the shortest time a shuttle had spent on the launch pad was 14 days; the pad crews closing out Atlantis would have only 11 days to get it ready to fly.'"
Movies

Harold Ramis Dies At 69 136

Posted by samzenpus from the print-is-dead dept.
samzenpus writes "Writer and comedian Harold Ramis has passed away at 69. Ramis had a hand in many classic comedies but is especially loved for playing the ghost-hunting Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters. 'His creativity, compassion, intelligence, humor and spirit will be missed by all who knew and loved him,' said his family in a statement."

Comment Re:they exist but do not have titles? (Score 1) 312

by sh00z (#46250077) Attached to: Good Engineering Managers Just "Don't Exist"

Matches my experience. Good managers in particular know when the hell to shut up and get out of the way of the engineers.

True, when the engineers are doing what they're supposed to do. Better managers are listening to the customer and re-directing the team when they either veer off course or the goal changes. And to be the buffer between the engineers who have to deal with the customer's moving target and the customer who doesn't understand the havoc he or she is wreaking.

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