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Comment Re:Open Source Windows (Score 0) 290

Windows might have a couple of years left but unless they release source code under an open/free license there's no way it will continue to be an option.

So wait, what percentage of the desktop market does Windows have? And what percentage of the source code does its closest competitor provide? You're off your anonymous, cowardly nut.

Comment Re:I'll pay for subsidies here any day. (Score 1) 356

In the end, we shift the primary source of automotive pollution from the end-car to power generation, aka, power plants. Sure, there are still fossil-fuel power plants that pollute, but it's a lot easier to regulate hundreds or even thousands of power plants than it is to regulate hundreds of millions of cars,

It isn't, though, and here's why. The burden of maintaining the vehicle falls on the owner. Most people can't or won't weasel their way out of a smog check, but most power plant operators can and will weasel their way out of meeting emissions requirements. That's why we can find operators with excessive emissions as fast as we can pay people to sample them. Smog testing has been a massive success in California. I take exception with the equipment restrictions, tailpipe sampling ought to do the job.

I'd like to live in a world in which we force power plant operators not to have excessive emissions, but instead we fine them less than what they save by not having proper emissions controls and they go on doing it.

Comment Re:Until Google closes it... (Score 1) 175

Wow, I only had to wait a single day for an example. You have 28 days to change anything that depends on this.

So just to be clear, I asked when has Google shut down a service and you responded with Google shutting down a feature (SMS notifications) of a service (Calendar) and then crowed victory? What a stupid dick you are.

Comment Re:Tesla Scam (Score 1) 356

Tesla has opened their patents up. So, no, these are not Tesla-specific and not of fleeting usefulness.

It has been argued by many that the reason Tesla has opened their patents up is that they realize they can never dominate the car market, and if you use Tesla's patented technology without substantial reworking you're going to be strongly motivated to buy your batteries from Musk's gigafactory. It's also been suggested that he didn't open up any patents that were truly ground-breaking; every major player has competing technologies. What he did was add incentive to standardize on the technologies he did release, which would be good for everyone — but mostly for him. I'm not shaking my fist, or anything, but let's not imagine that he did this out of the goodness of his heart. He's trying to run profitable corporations here.

Comment Re:Tesla Scam (Score 1) 356

Yes, and the moon landing was actually filmed in a Hollywood studio and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The flag was waving!

The difference is, Musk did not show you a battery swap. He didn't show you anything that could be faked, because he didn't show you anything.

If you had a salient objection to my argument, you would have made it, instead of posting that bullshit anonymously.

It's actually not even my argument, I got it off John McElroy at Autoline, and who knows where he first heard it. Maybe it's bullshit. But if there really are adhesives holding in the battery pack in at least some of the cars out there, that would explain why customers are going to have to make an appointment to make a battery swap for the foreseeable future. They've got to check your serial number and figure out if your battery swap is going to take thirty seconds, or three hours.

Comment Re:Online training for newbie thieves (Score 1) 80

That depends on which shard you're playing on. If you're playing on the North American shard, you've got very high annual fees to pay, and they go to figures in government. If you're playing on e.g. the South American shard, for the most part yes, they still have somewhat traditional thieves' guilds, and they are highly regional.

Comment Re: Tesla Is Good For All (Score 1) 356

Actually you can, it's called economies of scale, and it's how basically everything cheap became cheap. Whether or not Tesla can achieve those kinds of economies of scale is a different question, but keep in mind that I can buy a $35 computer that is orders of magnitude more powerful than what once was the fastest computer in the world.

Comment Tesla Scam (Score -1, Troll) 356

Nobody has ever used the battery swap station, but Tesla has been collecting credits they've been selling to other automakers. That's how they've been staying afloat: getting credits for something they've never demonstrated to the public. Driving a car behind a curtain and claiming that a battery has been swapped is not the same as a demonstration. That's the kind of dog and bullshit show that you pull out when your demonstration isn't ready.

They only actually have to manage the swap in five minutes to qualify for the credits, not 90 seconds. But there are a crapload of connectors and there's rumored to be adhesives involved, at least on early cars. But we haven't seen swap one yet.

Comment Re:Get out while you can (Score 1) 54

For a settop box is there any reason not to use a low-end PC in a quiet case and run OpenELEC, XMBC or even Windows Media Center?

Not that I know of. It's a good option for cars, too. Kodi makes a dandy car interface. The last piece for home theater kind of fell into place recently when all the pieces became available to watch Netflix on Linux, that's a deal-breaker for many otherwise.

It seems more flexible and less likely to suddenly have the vendor refuse to support it (given NVIDIA's history with prior Android products

I won't buy Android anything [anymore] until there's a bootloader and at least one AOSP build. Obviously, I suggest the same policy to anyone.

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