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Comment how did things go before communication over wires? (Score 1) 431

people met on the street and in taverns and in private rooms, completely beyond the ability of anyone to eavesdrop

but enforcement against illegal activity proceeded by infiltrating groups and other methods

it seems the feds are complaining they might have to actually engage in hard work

do your damn job

Comment Re:First they came for... (Score 2) 228

if the positive influence outweighs the negative

the absence of facebook won't make those problems go away. how do you make those problems go away? with influence. like facebook. a bastardized influence, in order to exist, is still an influence, and better than no influence at all

this is called realism

it trumps ineffectual dogmatic idealism, which is just as authoritarian and extreme as what you are complaining about

compromise always wins

if you want to lose, hold fast to extreme adherence to difficult demands and never budge. there's no better way to make yourself marginalized, ineffectual, and ignored

Comment Re:Simple (Score 1) 228

they'll start blocking proxies

not possible?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...

yes, theoretically impossible to be watertight, but the whack-a-mole effort makes for a degraded dangerous existence for those seeking to use proxies

so you effectively banned facebook by forcing users to exert so much effort it's not worth it

culturally and politically, you've also antagonized turkey to go more silo

look at the constant "west is destroying us" ultranationalist bullshit in russia nowadays as an example of how turkey could go

so you let turkey have its way on the lightning rod topic of muhammad's face

then allow the more subtle influence to continue

time plus slow force can erode mountains

geologists should be in charge of topics like this

Comment Re:Simple (Score 4, Insightful) 228

it's not that simple

if he doesn't follow the laws turkey bans facebook. a facebook clone in turkey pops up instead. now all those connections to the outside world are greatly diminished. turkey becomes a social silo that stagnates

and so all the valuable positive subtle free speech influences that aren't live wire topics like muhammad's face are lost

by following turkey's authoritarian freedom crushing instructions that would otherwise get facebook banned, facebook remains influential in turkey in a positive way, in more subtle ways

you can't think of these nuanced complex issues in such blockheaded black-or-white "my way or the highway" rigid ways. that makes you something like turkey's authoritarianism actually

Comment Re:Not just slashdot. (Score 1) 128

The problem is, it looks like they're trying to sell it as a car, when it's really just another glorified golfcarts.

It's funny that you mentioned Florida, since that's where I am at the moment. I'm only quoting parts of the laws, so this doesn't become a huge message. You can follow the links to read the rest of the statute and other relevant statutes if you want.

Golf carts can only drive on roads in certain communities and only in certain circumstances.
See Florida Statute 316.212

316.212 Operation of golf carts on certain roadways.â"The operation of a golf cart upon the public roads or streets of this state is prohibited except as provided herein:

The "Local Motors" vehicles would appear to be classified in Florida as LSV (Low Speed Vehicles). They're covered by Florida Statute 316.2122

316.2122 Operation of a low-speed vehicle or mini truck on certain roadways.â"The operation of a low-speed vehicle as defined in s. 320.01 or a mini truck as defined in s. 320.01 on any road is authorized with the following restrictions:
(1)âfA low-speed vehicle or mini truck may be operated only on streets where the posted speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less. This does not prohibit a low-speed vehicle or mini truck from crossing a road or street at an intersection where the road or street has a posted speed limit of more than 35 miles per hour.
[snip]

The UTV is classified here as an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle), and covered by Florida Statute 316.2074.

316.2074(5) Except as provided in this section, an all-terrain vehicle may not be operated upon the public roads, streets, or highways of this state, except as otherwise permitted by the managing state or federal agency.

That's not to say people don't drive them on the road. I've seen them do it. They're breaking the law, and if the police are so inclined, they will be more than happy to give you a stack of tickets.

I've seen both golfcarts and various designs of ATVs used in a lot of places. A agree, they are popular for both industry and off-road applications. But with them implying it's a car it's a problem.

Honestly, it wouldn't be safe to drive any real distance in most metro areas in Florida, if it is accepted for road use as a LSV.

For example, I can't think of any routes that you could safely use to get from downtown Tampa to downtown St. Petersburg. You can't cross any of the bridges in that car, because they don't go fast enough. It would be virtually impossible to even find a route where you wouldn't be under the speed limit and significantly under the average speed.

Even downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Clearwater would be risky at best.

Comment Eisenhower said it (Score 3, Interesting) 214

I tell this story to illustrate the truth of the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of "emergency" is that it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.

there's nothing like a real life emergency in programming but business culture is "get this done yesterday." no one can do that. but some programmers are very fragile and can only function according to one set of requirements/ work environment/ speed, and if you mess with that they get angry/ stressed/ tune out/ burnt out. while the "rock stars" can react to sudden and dramatic changes of requirement and need and crank out the changes relatively adroitly (not necessarily quickly). a sort of suppleness of mind and eerie lack of stress that's more about personality than training. and i say personality, and not training, because their code is a reflection of their personality: you can throw a curve ball at it from any direction and it can adapt without falling to pieces when "little" things (it's never little) change

your code is a reflection of how your mind works. which is your personality. and certain chilly stress proof people can generate flexible durable code that is almost like the redundancy and flexibility of logistics in war

Comment Re:Crash safety testing not applicable. (Score 1) 128

Ya, but golf carts aren't so hot driving across town. I'd think it would be a rather limited market that would want to pay over $8,000 for a golf cart that you can't carry golf clubs in. Generally, I'd assume Slashdot readers don't fall into that niche. $8K on a gaming machine, maybe. $8K to leave your house? No way. :)

Comment Re:What's the problem? (Score 5, Funny) 146

explosives?

chemicals my friend

wouldn't take much of the right kind. nice aerosolizer already provided by the craft

biologic if you're exotic

nuclear just plain stupider

but for maximum shits and giggles and no loss of life, i'd load a degaussing coil on a drone and fly it through a target office. do a little tap over all the workstations to get the hard drives

oh shit, am i on some list now?

Comment Re:I Don't Buy It (Score 1) 413

the topic is

Anonymous Asks Activists To Fight Pedophiles In 'Operation Deatheaters'

do you have anything useful to say on the topic?

that's what i tried to do, and i got many even tempered, thoughtful replies, on topic (except for yours)

http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

but for me to speak on topic, eliciting on topic responses... that's "trolling" according to you

meanwhile, all you seem to do is talk about *me*. why? how is that useful? how is that helpful to the topic? i'm not the topic douchebag

if you desire some sort of interpersonal friction, you might want to try a dating site. otherwise, shut the fuck up, and stay on topic, or you're a useless troll

Comment Re:Crash safety testing not applicable. (Score 1) 128

From their site, they intend to make all the essential parts for crash safety out of printed plastic.

Everything on the car that could be integrated into a single material piece has been printed. This includes the chassis/frame, exterior body, and some interior features. The mechanical components of the vehicle, like battery, motors, wiring, and suspension, are sourced from Renaultâ(TM)s Twizy, an electric powered city car.

Also on their site has the specs.

Motor - 5 bhp or 17 bhp, 42 lb-ft torque*

Top Speed - approx. 50mph*

The "*" indicating there should be a footnote explaining it, is missing.

Actually, their donor car (Renault Twizy) isn't even classified as a car. It's a quadcycle, and is not currently legal for road operation in the United States. From what I found elsewhere, Renault isn't even planning to make it available in the US, since it doesn't meet the road requirements here.

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