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Comment Nice answer but the problem is: (Score 1) 425

by IdeaMan (#25476953) Attached to: Magnetic Levitating Trains Get Go-Ahead In Japan

Liability. It is the problem that will kill any idea that moves liability from the driver to anything else. A fully automated machine? It's the company that makes the machine. In the train scenario, it's the lead driver.

I'd prefer that the vehicles automatically follow, and closely, however I want better roads. We need to add track-like features to our roads for two reasons:
1: Gives automated vehicles a chance and being able to stay in the lane.
2: Gives better stopping performance.
A regular asphalt/concrete road greatly limits how fast a car can stop. We need some kind of a track that will allow us to lower our stopping distance. So many accidents would be avoidable with a decent way to stop quickly (3g-4g deceleration. Previously I'd thought that sucker cars might be the way to go, however those tend to throw rocks around and would have difficulties with our pothole filled roads.
Microsoft

Submission + - Office Open XML out of Microsoft's hands--official (adjb.net)

Submitted by
bibekpaudel
bibekpaudel writes: "A couple of weeks ago, ISO members voted, not without its share of controversy, to make Microsoft's Office Open XML format an official standard. While the EU investigation [0] into Open XML vote is still ongoing, ISO has now taken official control [1] of the format and has put it under the aegis of the same Joint Technical Committee responsible for the OpenDocument Format. Over the next six months, an ad hoc working group will draw up a plan on how to best maintain the OOXML format. A second working group will continue to stay on top of the OpenDocument Format used by OpenOffice.org and a number of other applications, while a third will begin work on OOXML-ODF interoperability.

One of the first tasks of the working group will be to catalog OOXML's current shortcomings. Microsoft is no longer the sole arbiter of how OOXML develops, and the company may well find itself in the position of making ISO-mandated changes to Microsoft Office as a result of the ISO's deliberations. ISO governance of the OOXML format may also serve as something of a litmus test for Microsoft's newfound explicit commitment to interoperability and open standards.

[0] http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9909499-7.html?tag=newsmap
[1] http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080414-office-open-xml-out-of-microsofts-handsofficially.html"
Earth

Submission + - Listening to hurricanes with underwater mics (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes: Rather than fly an aircraft into the eye of a storm to learn about the destructive power of an oncoming hurricane, Science is reporting that simply throwing a few microphones into the water does the same trick. Sensitive hydrophones left over from the Cold War record the tempest and can provide accurate info about its wind speeds, etc. There's a link to a cool sound file of an underwater recording of Hurricane Gert.
Space

Submission + - 13 year old corrects NASA's asteroid figures. (physorg.com)

Submitted by Doug52392
Doug52392 writes: A physics website is running this story that reports that a 13 year old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimate on when an asteroid could hit Earth.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organization, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

The 13-year old made his discovery as part of a regional science competition for which he submitted a project entitled: "Apophis — The Killer Astroid."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Psystar back selling Leopard computers (news.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Psystar is back online selling "white box" Macs with a few subtle changes, and one employee has already played the monopoly card.

As you might recall, Psystar's Web site was overwhelmed Monday after it was found to be selling cheap computers with Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled. This caused quite the commotion, as Apple does not license its operating system to other hardware makers, and specifically prohibits (PDF) end users from installing Mac OS X on anything other than an "Apple labeled" computer.

The company is also now offering the "OpenPro Computer" in addition to the Open Computer, which might remind you of a certain desktop computer sold by a certain California company that uses a piece of fruit as a logo. That machine costs $999, can be upgraded to quad-core processors, and is available with Leopard preinstalled.

None of those changes will allow Psystar to escape the basic question about its business model: Apple doesn't permit the installation of its operating system on anything but its hardware. One Psystar employee told Information Week that this requirement means Apple is behaving like a monopoly. "What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell computers?" the employee told IW."
Security

Submission + - EvE Online responds to source leak.

Submitted by Nobo
Nobo writes: As seen in the CCP Announcements RDF feed, CCP has formally responded to the (alleged) source leak. In summary: The code is not a leak, but rather is decompiled python client code. The server is designed to distrust clients and sanity-check data to and from the client with the intent of ensuring no exploitability, even in light of known client source. The official client is digitally signed. And finally, despite widespread rumors, no mass banning has occurred as punishment for possession or downloading of the 'leaked' source.
Classic Games (Games)

Submission + - Meet our new robotic server underlings. (electronicdesign.com)

Submitted by IdeaMan
IdeaMan writes: What has Nolan Bushnell, creator of Pong, been doing recently? Well, he's still in games, but he deplores the direction they have taken and has created a new type of restaurant. At Uwink, ordering food is accomplished at your table by touchscreen. Each table is capable of seating 6, and provides multi-player games such as Foosball, Pong (of course), and various card games.
Social Networks

Submission + - MySpace Friend Request Violates Protection Order (wcbstv.com) 3

Submitted by
longacre
longacre writes: "In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the U.S., a 16-year old girl faces a year behind bars after submitting a MySpace friend request to a woman and her two daughters who had an order of protection against the girl. Staten Island (NY) Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. ruled that even though MySpace users can ignore, deny or block friend requests, "that request was still a contact, and no contact was allowed" by the temporary order of protection."
Censorship

Submission + - Finnish police censors blacklist critisism

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The recently deployed domain blacklists in Finland meant for censoring child porn are already being abused by the police. a Finnish website spreading information and heavily criticising the blacklist was recently added to the list of blacklisted websites. While no official reason has been given, this has been most likely due to the website releasing list of known blacklisted websites. The police has warned that distributing a list of blocked domains may lead to juridical action.
Security

Submission + - SPAM: FBI warns of Valentines Day Storm Worm virus

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center today said that with the Valentine's Day holiday approaching, users should be on the lookout for spam e-mails spreading Storm Worm malware. The Storm Worm virus has capitalized on various holidays in the last year by sending millions of e-mails advertising an e-card link within the text of the spam e-mail. Valentine's Day has been identified as the next target. Others note another nefarious malware attack known as the Mega-D botnet, which offers discounted sexual enhancement pills to users, delivers a unreal 30% more spam than Storm, is also out the waiting to be set free in malicious Valentines cards. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
Space

Submission + - Extragalactic meteor observed over Russia (arxivblog.com) 3

Submitted by
KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: "On 28 July 2006, Russian astronomers recorded the spectrum of a faint meteor as it burned up in the Earth's atmosphere (abstract on the physics arXiv). It soon became clear that this was no ordinary meteor. It hit the atmosphere at 300 kilometres per second, an order of magnitude faster than other meteors and faster than the Earth's velocity relative to anything else in the Milky Way. For this and other reasons, the astronomers conclude that the meteor must have come from beyond our galaxy."
Networking

Submission + - UK homes to get fibre (bbc.co.uk) 3

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC is reporting that the startup H2O Networks is preparing to roll out fibre-to-the-home in either Bournemouth, Northampton or Dundee, offering 100Mbps connections. H2O are using the sewers to lay fibre to avoid having to dig up the roads.
Software

Journal Journal: Wiwex, the new browser plug-in

Journal by wiwex
Wiwex (Where I Was EXplorer) - is a browser plug-in, which provides an opportunity to search information only on the web pages that you have visited online.

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