SSD's from certain companies were crap. Unfortunately you couldn't tell straight away (and I guess, they couldn't tell either, otherwise they wouldn't have shipped them).

I don't believe in any particular God, but I'm starting to like this new pope. Not because he's tied to a particular religion, but because he's visibly out there trying to do some good instead of smiling and waving from a balcony.

I know it takes a while to move up the ranks to Popehood, but maybe they should try and get some younger popes on the scene. Give them a bit more time to grow into the job and get some stuff done themselves before becoming a bedridden old man in charge of a world religion.

That's my view from the outside looking in anyway.

1. Pick any android tablet.
2. Select "Font Size: Huge"

The interface is dumbed-down pretty well already because it's touch based.

(Yes, you could go an iPad I suppose. *rolls eyes* :-P)

Tenure is there so that you can go 'against the grain' of university higher-ups without fear of reprisals. It's to allow dissenting views to be held and debated.

It's similar to parliamentary privilege, where they can say whatever they want basically whilst talking in parliament.

and plugging in their power-hungry cars at roughly the same time every day

Into a circuit that should be running on an off-peak tariff.The power company can control them remotely.... which makes this not really that much of a hassle.

I wouldn't be suprised if they invent an 'electric vehicle' tariff that gives you enough charging time and them enough flexibility to switch it as needed. Cheaper for you, easier for them - everyone wins!

I'm sensing a lot of .... er, opposition here. :-)

Depends where you are I guess. Something to note is that - generally - the less-polluting they are, the more efficient they get..... there gets a point where you end up saving on the time and effort of getting wood for it.

We've got a guy that goes around and basically checks out the smoke coming from your chimney. If he comes back your way in 15 minutes or so and there's still smoke, it's fine time.

But we live in a valley that's very prone to temperature inversions and thus smog of the highest order.... and local gov't do a scheme where they'll pay for a heat pump to replace your old heater..... so I dunno.

You have no means to tax or stop it short of knocking on doors and you won't.

I think you're missing one of the key concepts of wood stoves, namely that the smoke generally goes outside the building.

Read Manna if you want a likely idea of how this will end up. But probably without the upside of The Australia Project.

the fuel tank is protected by the entire length of the car , while the Tesla's battery is only minimally protected despite it's more exposed position to such hazards.

When you run over something, it's pretty much up to chance as to what it hits under your car, how it tumbles, when it gets flicked up, and what gets punctured as a result.

Also considering that the lithium battery is self contained , and not particularly explosive as such, and tends to (from what we've seen) burn in-situ and not spread fuel all over the place if punctured.... the two methods of energy storage probably come out equal.

Sure, things might be better if the batteries were more centrally located. And things might be better if all liquid-fueled cars used the F1-style fuel bladders to keep fires to a minimum during accidents, but here we are.

Moderately serious answer:

- Most bridge railings are pretty tough. Tough enough to withstand a vehicle that's trying to go slow enough to fit into what it thinks is a narrow driveway at a 90 degree angle.

- I presume this kind of problem only shows up when you're crossing major routes, so with 'normal' river crossings, there's no desire from the nav system to turn at that point.

- Not sure if the GoogleCar can sense the ground... if their LADARs are angled down a bit, they'd be able to see the void in front of them. I thought at some stage I saw a scan set that showed they could see the ground.

- It'd only take one car falling off a bridge to get the map updated pronto. Just think, you could be providing a valuable service to your fellow motorists! Report bridge accidents and get valuable GooglePoints(tm) :-P

The old, "Associate your target with helping pedophiles" approach.

It's not just blindly following maps with GPS, you know.

*Nav system*: Ok, now turn left here to get onto the highway.

*Vehicle Guidance*: Um, when I look to the left, there's an obstuction in the way. It goes on for at least 4 or 5 car lengths. Could be a railing or a wall or something. I can't see an intersection anywhere?

*Nav system*: Shit. Keep going and I'll re-route. I'll beep and let the passenger know that something's up.

*Vehicle Guidance*: Fuck me, Nav system, you had ONE JOB. Now we have to deal with the passenger who's probably on Slashdot as we speak posting about his crappy self-driving car wanting to drive him off a bridge.

Certain electric motors have max torque at zero rpm. DC motors with series wound fields do (eg. Starter motors) . The AC motor in the Tesla will have a lot of torque at zero rpm, but I'll wager that there is a higher value somewhere above zero.

I'm thinking that seeing as PAs have never been used, when it does appear on your phone your impingement will be minor compared to the impingement from whatever the alert was impinging you for.

Impinge. That word gets weirder and weirder every time I type it. IMPINGE.

to automatically compute the approximate weight of each container loaded as they load it.

They're called load cells, and they're in every modern crane.