Serious question: Am I alone in the thought that modern "infotainment" systems built into new cars are generally not useful items to have?

My own horror story involved borrowing a friend's Ford Flex to make a delivery of communications gear that wouldn't fit in my old BMW 325i: I tried, eyes-off-road, to get my then-current Droid 4 to sync with the Ford Sync, only to find that I had to stop the car first. I tried for a total of about 40 minutes. It should've just said "Hey, asshole: Stop the car and try again." Instead, we (it and I) just went through a long series of byzantine loops that had no indicators that seemed to lead toward success before I happened to fiddle with it while actually stops.

So, the stuff barely works. And I wouldn't even have cared, if Ford's POI database had the location of a Wal-Mart built in...a Wal-Mart that had been standing for over a half-decade before the vehicle was built.

And, the price: I myself can do a very elaborate custom install, or pay someone else to do a somewhat basic custom install for that sort of cash.

These days, what merit is there to automotive electronics that is not superceded by a cheap 6" tablet stuck on the dash, tethered to a cheap data plan on a wireless hotspot? Or made to automatically arise from the dash, as a theft deterrent? $3-4k buys a -lot- of 3D printed parts...and maybe the 3D printer to print them.

Plug in a big flash drive and a good DAC with USB OTG, add amplifiers and speakers (there is already room for them, if the factory stuff doesn't exist), and call it a day.

What am I missing? (other than: The rest, as they say, is only software.)

Perhaps better than you think, if it's natively-compiled code instead of some Java-esque thing.

Cars are, today, often reflashed with new firmware as part of dealer servicing, usually without the owner being aware (or caring, for that matter).

Nobody dies. Brakes keep working.

Runaway Toyotas didn't have a software problem. They had a mechanical problem wherein the pedal would get physically get stuck, and they fixed that in a mechanical way by adding a plastic widget to the bottom of the accelerator pedal.

Mind you, a software update was also applied, presumably to make such keyless cars easier to shut down in such situations, but that's an improvement...not a cure for a mechanical issue.

Automotive software for key components (safety, drivetrain) is very simple software. And it will be tested just like it is today before it is installed on a customer's vehicle: With real cars, on a closed test track.

I was a combat engineer in Iraq, many devices were set off using cellphones. Calling the number on the bomb, while you are next to the bomb would get you blown up.

There was no over reaction here the damn thing looks like a bomb, take it out.

The problem with that is that here in the US of A, we value our bridges and other infrastructure. So "take it out" is not always a viable option to pursue.

Destroying bridges with a blind "take it out" mentality on our own ground is foolhardy, at best: We're not under attack here, as far as anyone sensible can tell.

Good luck with the PTSD!

For as much faith as you have in humanity, you should feel fortunate that you are still alive.

Pro-Tip: Next time you see a phone number on a suspiciously-placed object, please call it and rid yourself from the rest of us sensible folk. Thanks.

As you say, what you describe is standard practice.

What was amusing to me about this particular NDA is that therein I agreed to not even discuss the mere existence of the NDA.

"Here, sign this agreement that says you can't ever tell anyone that you signed this agreement."

"WTF? If it makes you happy..."

[time passes, another interview arrives]

"Are you restricted by any NDAs?"

"Nope, not me!"

etc.

You must provide any existent information requested by a legitimate subpoena that was issued by a legitimate court of law. You must also show up to any criminal hearing you've been ordered to appear at by any legitimate court.

And that, I think, is the extent of what the government can legitimately do to normal law-abiding folks.

NSLs, AFAICT, aren't any of that: If there are laws surrounding and supporting them, those laws themselves are secret. They're therefore illegitimate.

---

A few years ago, I was presented with a covenant-not-to-compete which included an NDA that stipulated that I mustn't ever tell anyone about the covenant -or- the NDA.

I signed it without reservation, because an agreement that I can't talk about is one that is obviously impossible to follow. (I write of it here on the pseudonymous internernet, but I still haven't told anyone about it IRL...and likewise, it hasn't restrained my business practices at all -- I can't talk about it, and so therefore it doesn't exist when negotiating a new contract. It was the most meaningless "contract" I've ever signed.)

Google Wallet is simple from my end-user perspective, and just works with a myriad of different manufacturer's devices, unlike Apple Pay or (presumably) Samsung Pay.

I've been using it quite a lot lately (perhaps ironically, given TFS) on my Samsung S5. I've had zero issues, except for political clusterfucks like CVS dropping support for Google Wallet soon after Apple Pay was released, and badly-trained Subway clerks who insist on pushing exactly the wrong button on the register when they see me reach for my phone to pay for a meal.

(And in case anyone was wondering, Google Wallet's NFC functionality is literally just an implementation of Mastercard Paypass, which also uses tokens instead of my actual credit card number.)

But when do you drink the beer?

Drinking beer is implicit.

The question is not when to drink the beer, but when/if to stop drinking beer.

Perhaps I should have been clear, and wrote "Open another beer."

To my untrained and naive eye that looks more like the type of pipe bomb that portrayed in every movie involving pipe bombs, than anything resembling a pinhole camera (which has no pre-defined shape).

My opinion sways even more toward "some crazy person put a dangerous thing on that bridge" because of the hasty duct-tape mounting job, which (similar to the device itself) resembles every crazy taped-together implement that has ever been portrayed in every movie that involves a crazy person and a roll of tape.

Also, TIL: When placing an object in public, whether nefarious or harmless, it is important to always make sure there is a note explaining that it is an art project....because notes on crazy-looking things are always believable.

Google already has my credit card information (Play Store, AdWords, et al).

Why would I want give it to yet another party like Samsung?

And indeed, why would I want my in-person payment method to be tied to a specific manufacturer? Google Wallet works with anything that can speak NFC, as far as I can tell, while a Samsung solution will certainly only operate on Samsung devices.

Every smartphone I've ever had (except, perhaps, the OG Droid) has been full of crapware, irrespective of who manufactured it...at least initially.

The process of deshitification goes something like this:

1. Only buy phones that are rootable (which can vary by carrier).
2. Order pizza.
3. Root the phone.
4. Install (and pay for) Titanium Backup.
5. Use Ti Backup to freeze the apps you don't like.
6. Open a beer.
7. Pay delivery driver.
8. Eat pizza.

Vinyl master?

Were they cut individually with a lathe?

Perhaps he is colour-blind, or suffering from the Faraday effects of his aluminium hat.

I recently moved from a house on a one-way street that adjoined a very busy intersection, to a different house a couple of blocks away on the same one-way street.

Before, it was maddening: There was a constant roar of revving engines, worse in the summer with barely-mobile Harley riders gunning the engine just to keep it running, but also year-round coverage from loud ricers, heavy trucks, and straight-piped diesel pickups.

Now that I'm a couple of blocks away from that intersection, and not particularly near a stop sign or a traffic light, it's much, much quieter...not so much because there is less traffic (there is plenty), but because that traffic is not actively accelerating.

So, you're right. But you're also wrong.

The noise I hear, now, is almost always just tire noise. The speed limit is 25MPH (which people tend to think of as 30MPH in this locality) and folks tend to be actively decelerating for the railroad crossing just past my house, and yet I can plainly hear the cars approaching from hundreds of feet away.

Even a Tesla, of which there is one in the neighborhood that I see out and about semi-regularly.

So yes, drivetrain noise can be significant, but even in residential areas where people aren't accelerating, tire noise alone can be very substantial...and certainly substantial enough for a middle-aged person of average or below-average hearing to hear what's coming.

Parking lots? I've been damn near run down by a distracted, low-speed Prius driver before. I might be OK with some form of artificial noise -outside- the vehicle, as I understand (but have not witnessed) is done with the Nissan Leaf.

(I've also lived next to a busy Interstate, which was also very noisy place dominated by rubber tires on asphalt, and also on a goes-nowhere country road whereupon most drivers had a destination on that road and that was also largely tire noise. I realize these extra data points add nothing to this particular discussion of residential speeds, but perhaps lends some credence to my perceptive experience.)