I'm sure this has been fixed - or I hope it has, but when I was imaging a lab at a university they had a license server. The admin had just been clicking next on all the automated activtions the available license count went into negative numbers without any sort of alert or warning. I guess maybe it's not a bug, but perhaps a way for MS to come in a few months later and charge a bunch of money because the admin forgot to de-activate the licenses before re-imaging.

Wow, that's pretty amazing!

So these remote starters you had were very analog devices. Today the engine initialization sequence requires a variety of digital magic and proper remote starting requires encrypted signals and identification. NOW your original comment makes perfect sense to me.

Thanks for the interesting sub-thread!

Whoa whoa whoa, you forgot the context there! In the 60's absolutely none of what I said was valid or at least I'm sure it wasn't common place. My point was that *today* if you said you wanted a remote starter I'd ask you why and try to recommend a device that solves your specific problem in a secure and efficient manner.

Wait... you had remote starters in the 60's?

As for garage doors, we have a shutter at our office that constantly gets messed up and requires a complex, very analog reset process. On top of that we're right in front of a busy street. It's not uncommon I have to pull into a side street, open up the side door, manually lift the shutter, run back to the car, make three left turns and pull into the garage. So believe me when I tell you that my opinion on garage doors is that they are absolutely wonderful (when they work).

No, but I also don't live in a place that gets extremely cold either. The thing is if you want to heat the engine then you should get a block heater. If you want to heat the cabin there are separate and add-on heater units and modular heaters specifically designed to do this without having to turn on the engine. Of course in general you should probably be winterizing your car so you don't need a block heater; EG: insulated heavy-duty battery and a bottle of fuel line condensation remover at least.

If I'm not mistaken most hybrids actually have an electric pump and heater on the coolant or water line that functions as sort of an active block heater.

Also if you have a manual it's common practice to leave the vehicle in gear, so besides the fact you usually need to de-clutch just to start if you did disable the cutch sensor you'd also have to worry about accidentally leaving the car in gear - and if you aren't leaving the car in gear you have to worry about fogetting the e-brake or an unreliable e-brake on an older vehicle.

So I maintain my position that remote starters are a bad idea.

I'm assuming you mean my idea is stupid; which in all likelyhood it is but I never claimed to be an expert in the field of probes and space exploration. Was there something particularly stupid about my post that actually warranted a response?

Reguardless of how "patentable" things like round buttons and beveled edges should be you obviously don't understand how patents work. If Apple tried to sue the people they derived from for patent infringement they would loose and also run the risk of having their patent nullifed. If the people they copied from wanted to nullify the Apple patent or come to Samsungs aide in the case Apple put against them they could have. None of these things happened.

And while we're on the subject, Samsung has a long history of non-trivial patent infringement. For instantance they blatantly stole Sharp LCD TV technology when it was the hot thing at the time and basically destroyed the market for Sharp after sharp had put immense effort and research into the technology. Even today Sharp has not recovered from this.
http://online.wsj.com/articles...

There are many many many other cases too. Samsung is unforgivable. They just copy everything and they think this is a valid business strategy. Seriously, why do more people not boycott them?

Total. Fucking. Bullshit.

Unless you're trying to use some remote starter kit from the caveman era there are plenty of ways to implement a competent remote starter system. If you already have a keyless starter you can actually do it with an ODB-II plug-in - no line splicing and no engine bay work.

Of course I'd really question why people want remote starters in the first place. And while we're on the subject cruse control and throttle control are two things I continue to think are awful ideas.

First off there are aftermarket ECUs but to be perfectly honest all the current and last generation Toyota and Subaru I've dealt with have easily tunable and easy to flash ECUs. You do of course need hardware to do a flash on an original ECU but they aren't limited to dealers.

First off I'm a GT86 [FR-S/BRZ] owner and let me say if you're ready to put down the money it is an absolutely fantastically hackable car. If you're only talking about electronics the entire dash is super easy to take apart and it's super clean and organized in back with very nice access to core system lines and power. There are plenty of aftermarket ECUs and ECU extension units and of course it's a new generation Toyota so if you wanted to you could hook up to one of the data lines and play with all sorts of things. ODB-II in the vehicle also seems to have some extensions and I've seen people getting oil temp/pressure from add-on sensors through it. As for performance the ammout of engine, drivetrain, footwork and body mods available for them is insane. Here in Japan they actually have huge monthly catalogues of new parts just for the 86/BRZ. Of course stock is pretty nice as-is if you have a model with the torsen diff (but if you get an R grade a helical would be a superior addition).

As for the EVO vs WRX I'd argue for the WRX Impreza just from the ammount of fantacism that continues around them continuing to drive aftermarket parts production. Case in point: find a bolt on turbo for an Impreza GC or GD - you can get one brand new / an older EVO? good luck. For a used WRX I'd actually recommend looking for something between a later GC and a GG because they were built in an era when constant adjustments and part swaps for different rally types was the thing and also because a lot of the fantics tend to center on those "glory days" models. Of course owning an 86 it's not like I'm baised toward Subaru or anything *cough* *cough*. I'm super curious about the new WRX STI but I've only seen one once and never handled one.

One addition: the Mazda Roadster [Miata]. It's pretty much the "hackable" car of the century for anyone who cares about road handling over numbers (sorry Civic). They're super easy to mod, there are plenty of parts, and there is enough cross-modle compatibility in parts you can pick up scrap spares fairly easily. Just the fact it's a well built, small sized, convertable FR makes me want one for the weekends. Only demerit is apparently in the US they are considered "hairdresser cars"; but a nice beefy rollbar, a spoiler and some badass footwork should get rid of that image.

This is exactly what I thought.

Then I realized there are situations where that could be beneficial. Maybe expelling some heat from a lander on Mars could reveal something? Maybe focusing heat output could work as a thermal drill on icy environments?

I'm certainly no pro, but I am of the opinion space exploration is fucking awesome.

*Tinfoil Hat: ON
Astronauts are as bad as catholic preists - there's just a huge media coverup so the public won't know about it.

Solid plans, reasonable milestones and action items that are recoreded anywhere but in the back of your mind are totally unneccesary. All you need is a flashy kickstarter project and enough internet media dipshits to give you the PR to drive it.

^ Who voted this down? This AC is dead right.

While I somewhat agree with your statement let me just add the fact that "The Enterprise" is a joke. The word "Enterprise" in the software world automatically means "expensive and poorly built, unmaintanable garbage with vendor lockin". Maybe "Java" too but the "enterprise" tag already stinks like shit so adding more shit to it doesn't make it any shittier really.

I think you mis-read that.

Intensive agriculture means you can grow more crops with higher yield in a more confined and limited environment. This could be as simple as yield per acre but in this case it's going beyond that and actually giving greater yields with fewer resources.

GMO seeds get weaker by the generation because the produced seeds are produced in very specific controlled conditions wheras wild seeds will get cross contaminated with native crops or will degrade amongst themselves due to relative environmental conditions.

As for the pesticide point I absolutely 100% agree with you and I think GMO is a short term solution to the problem with long lasting negative effects.