You know, you're absolutely right. From a liability standpoint, I don't think that trucks will go fully automated without a man in the cockpit. But certainly this technology would make a lot of sense for long haul truckers. These guys have very well-plotted routes, so they can chose major thoroughfares that have been carefully mapped by Google. For most of the "routine driving" the trucks can drive themselves. The driver can take control in bad weather or other emergencies. I'm sure the computers can detect when they cannot see the lanes or have some other issue pop up and then they can tell the driver to take over. So the driver can relax a bit while the truck is taking care of things on easy driving, and the driver can be more alert when things are dodgier.

Bite the bullet and run CAT 6 Ethernet all over the place. You will get 1 GBs without any drops, and it's also future-proof. You may not max out your Internet anytime soon but having this in place will let you naturally upgrade your use as technology advances without requiring any changes.

If you have a NAS or a server, put it next to your fiber in jack along with a suitably powerful UPS. All your major network devices should run from that UPS so you'll be able to have Internet access or a while even when there's a power outage. Run wires from the jack, to your living room, office, and all the other places you will require Internet access. While you're at it, you probably should consider running two strands of wire all over the place. You can either run it in the walls if you feel like it, or use cable covers. Get the wire from Monoprice along with the necessary equipment to install them.

For Internet that goes up to 1GBs, you should get a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite. It supports wire-speed forwarding and costs only $100. However, the setup might be a pain in the ass. However, once it is set up, it will never go down. And it's really goddamned fast. You might also want to invest in a commercial-grade switch such as the Ubiquiti ToughRouter or a Netgear GS116. You don't want to rely on consumer grade stuff that will blow up (like my RT-N16, which suddenly died one day and left my small office without any Internet for an entire day). The price differential really isn't that big. I can transfer files between my NAS and my desktop at 50-60 MB/s without stalling out other people's transfers.

As far as access points, you might want to get one or two that are POE from Ubiquiti. You can get their POE switch for the access points so you can run only one wire and be done with it. If you're going to be in the house for a long time, and your usage will only increase as you have kids, etc., then you should spend the time to set up a very robust network early on.

You're absolutely right. The problem with the Shuttle had nothing to do with the wings. The Shuttle used solid rocket boosters that could not be throttled down in case of emergency, and relied on O-rings to seal the segments that comprise the casing. (Challenger.) The leading surfaces of the Shuttle were made from fragile reinforced carbon-carbon that would shatter when impacted. (Columbia.) As you noted, the Shuttle also sat next to the cryogenic fuel tank, which caused ice to hit the Shuttle. (Not only did this cause Columbia to burn up, it also caused problems on other missions.) There was also no realistic intact abort option for the Shuttle. If shit went bad, the astronauts had to shimmy down a pole, and then JUMP out of the Shuttle.

The Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser has a hybrid fuel system that could be turned off. It also sits on top of the stack to prevent ice being a problem. It also has an abort system to give the astronauts a chance to survive during ascent. The wings also generate more lift than the Shuttle's, which gives the spacecraft a better glide ratio. The only thing is the RCC, which apparently is tougher on the Dream Chaser than the Shuttle.

You're forgetting that the Constellation program was based around a very flawed man-rated booster, the Ares I. For instance, an mission abort 30-60 seconds after launch would kill the entire crew because the exploding solid-fueled rocket fragments was ignite the parachutes that would allow the crew to land safely. The rocket also had oscillation issues, and also caused severe damage to the launchpad. It was also on a spiraling cost pattern when it was canceled; the predicted budget went from $28 billion in 2006 to $40 billion in 2009. And the anticipated cost per launch was north of a billion dollars.

That's pretty edgy and cool but it's also completely wrong. Read the decision. Let's start with the simple notion that the Fifth Amendment protects you against self-incriminating testimony, but it is not an absolute bar against all kinds of self-incrimination. The court can still compel you to provide non-testimonial aid in their prosecution of you. For instance, the court can get a blood test to show that you were drunk while driving, or swab your cheek to test for DNA, get an example of your voice to play to witnesses, to have you participate in a line up, provide a sample of your handwriting, a sample of your hair, putting on a costume that the suspect was wearing, etc. If this were not the case you'd never be able to convict anyone of any crime.

The defendant in this case was read his Miranda rights. He said that the computers were encrypted, and that he could decrypt the files but would not do so. That doomed him. The court said that decrypting the hard drive was not testimonial in nature. If he had shut the fuck up and said nothing, then the court would probably would have denied the prosecutor's motion because decrypting the drive would be an admission that he knew and owned the contents of the drive. But this fuckhead had already bragged to cops that he could decrypt the data but wasn't going to do so. Thus, there was no self-incrimination.

That's what the NSA wants you to think: that the rest of the world is not within its grasps. Note that CryptoAG was a Swiss company that was allegedly compromised by the NSA back in the 1950s. God knows what other foreign companies have been hacked by the NSA. Samsung (South Korean) and Huawei (Chinese) hardware have been reportedly compromised by the NSA. If hard drives made by the goddamned Communist Chinese are being shipped with NSA-compromised firmware, then how the hell is stuff coming from Taiwan (nominally a US ally) and Europe going to be any better?

The wild card with the F-35 is whether or not its avionics will be outstanding enough to make up for a relatively crappy jet. The self-defense detection packages are integrated into the body of the aircraft, and is more advanced than even its F-22 counterpart. The stealth and flight performance may be lacking, but earlier detection and evasion of enemy threats along with earlier lock-on/launch may prove a decisive encounter in air-to-air or air-to-ground fights. If the data-link works as promised, then shooting at a flight of F-35s might prove to be a stupid idea because the wingman can lock on without emitting any radiation using data provided by another aircraft.

So it depends. On the other hand, we'll probably be fighting countries without air forces or only rudimentary air defense systems. The star of the show in a denied area will probably be drones carrying jamming systems or even anti-radiation missiles. Sure, you can turn on your radar to try to detect stealth aircraft, but this undetectable stealth drone is floating around ready to pop you if you do so.

The administrative law judges that hear parking tickets are hired by the Traffic Violations Bureau, aka, the people who wrote the tickets. You may be surprised to know that ALJs have strong incentives to keep their jobs, I mean, uphold tickets. It's not even to save time. It's to save their jobs.

To look even deeper at the facts, the "parking lanes" next to other hydrants are marked as not parkable. These two hydrants have parking lanes without those designations, so people just assume they can park there.

Ford also has running upgrades and new features for cars in the same production year. For the 2013 model year Ford Fusion Hybrid, for instance, they added a special air intake with noise-attenuating baffles to all Job 2 and latter vehicles. It apparently makes a pretty big difference to the perceived noise in the cabin when the gas engine runs. There are also special options such as specific paint colors, seat belt airbags, and leather colors that are only available in the latter runs of the same model years. The Ford ETIS system keeps track of all the specific features on each specific car based on the VIN. I think that Tesla is probably doing something similar.

I drive a Ford Fusion Hybrid. I think that in cold weather, most hybrids have to run the internal combustion engine to heat the coolant to operating temperatures. This is inefficient because the ICE could otherwise be turned off. I think that the Prius has a special insulated place for warm battery coolant to be stored so it will not need to be reheated as much. The Tesla feature appears to use battery power to heat the fluid so that ICE can be turned off sooner when starting in cold weather.

While I agree that most minimum earners are not experienced, you might be surprised that about 50% of minimum wage earners are older than 24 years old. The economy has been a living hell for many grown-ups, who find themselves unable to support themselves and their families.

I'll go further and say that if the NSA has forced Google to compromise the extension, you shouldn't be using Google or Gmail at all. If the NSA has already coerced Google, obviously, then there's no reason to compromise the extension or PGP; the NSA will just get the mail straight from Google.

It's not even that she wants vaccines that are proven to be 100% safe with no side-effects. She wants vaccines that she thinks is 100% safe with no side-effects. There is already significant medical evidence that vaccines are worth the cost-benefit analysis but she just thinks that doctors and big pharma are horrible folk who just want to rip her off.

The problem is that she's the face of the issue. She is not going on TV saying, "I'm Jenny the Playboy Playmate." She's saying, "I'm Jenny the mother who just knows that vaccines aren't what doctors say they are all cracked up to be." That makes her more pernicious than a crackpot who publishes a report saying that thimerosol causes autism. Basically, she's the Bill Nye the Science Guy of the anti-vaccination crowd.