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Comment Not more "safety features" please (Score 2, Insightful) 157

by inigopete (#34061464) Attached to: Vans Drive Themselves Across the World

Rather than replacing drivers it is hoped that the technology will be used to study ways to complement drivers' abilities

That's become the problem with ABS, traction control, airbags and many other safety features: make drivers feel like they're safer, they will drive more like idiots. I'd far rather this system was developed to replace drivers; granted it will take more work to make it completely reliable, but it would mean fewer people thinking that because they've got the latest safety systems in their car they don't have to pay as much attention to their driving.
XBox (Games)

Submission + - Kinect games will not work just yet (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: The Xbox Kinect sensor bars will be released on November 3rd at midnight. However some people have already received their Xbox Kinect games but are unable to play them because Microsoft has not yet released the dashboard update that supports them. When they insert the game into the Xbox it displays an update error because as of right now you need to be in the beta program to get the appropriate update.

Submission + - CRTC to Allow Usage Based Billing (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Idiomatick
Idiomatick writes: The CRTC ruled in favour today for usage based billing. Bell Canada was given a monopoly on lines in Canada, in exchange they were made to resell to competitors at cost in order to have a functional market. The new CRTC ruling will allow Bell to charge their competitors more money based on individual customer usage. They are now able to implement a 60GB cap on a competitor's highest speed lines (charging $1.12/GB for overages). Bell however; it was ruled that they are permitted to continue with it's unlimited usage plan. The effect on the market seems clear.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Induction cooktop fun

Submitted by fishfrys
fishfrys writes: Besides generating heat quickly and efficiently in ferromagnetic pans, what sorts of fun things can you do with an induction cooktop? This seems like a pretty serious piece of electromagnetic equipment — boiling water can't be the only thing it's good for. I went to youtube expecting to find all sorts of crazy videos of unsafe induction cooktop shenanigans, but only found cooking. What sort of exciting, if not stupid, physics experiments can be performed with one? Hard drive scrubber... DIY Tesla coil? There's got to be something. Thanks.
Movies

Submission + - Boxee v1.0, D-Link Boxee Box Coming Nov. 10 (deviceguru.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Following nearly three years of alpha- and beta-level releases, Boxee's A/V-streaming software platform will finally go gold at a November 10 launch event in New York City. However, v1.0 initially will be limited to D-Link's Boxee Box, which will start shipping by mid-November, whereas the v1.0 Boxee update for users of PCs running OS X, Windows, and Linux will roll out later. Boxee hasn't indicated whether v1.0 represents a major restructuring, minor enhancement, or bug-fix update, but some significant Boxee beta updates have already occurred this year, as have additions of numerous new content sources via plug-ins developed both by Boxee and third-parties. Meanwhile, Logitech's Google TV box and Sony's Google TV-enabled LCD HDTVs are both in pre-order and should ship within a month.
Power

Submission + - TFETs as an alternative to MOSFTs in CMOS chips (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "A number of chip manufacturers and European research institutions have banded together to figure out how redesign microprocessors so that they consume less energy when in use and leak less energy when in stand-by mode. Called Steeper, the three-year research project will explore an alternative design to the standard CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) designs used to build virtually all commercially available computer chips today. The new approach will use nanowire-based TFETs (tunnel field effect transistors), as an alternative to the MOSFTs (metal--oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors) used in CMOS chips."
Music

Submission + - Licensing Music Source?

Submitted by David Greene
David Greene writes: Over the years I have used Lilypond to produce some interesting musical works, mostly fake-book-like sheets and a few original compositions. I would like to share these with a larger community in the same way the GPL encourages software sharing. That is, I want to encourage modification and improvement of the "source code" while ensuring such modifications are available under the same licensing terms. In addition, I would like to have a requirement that performances, recordings, etc. of the music include full access to the "source" used for such productions. My primary motivation here is to encourage learning from such recordings, for example making lead sheets available for improvised performances so students can see the chord progressions and structure of the music. Performances of arranged music should include the "source" to the full arrangement, and so on. Is there any license in existence that would fulfill these requirements? The various Creative Commons licenses don't say anything about this kind of music "source code."
Security

Submission + - China Reverse Engineered Classified NSA OS 2

Submitted by
Pickens
Pickens writes: "Seymour M. Hersh writes in the New Yorker that China has managed to reverse-engineered a Classified NSA operating system, estimated at between thirty and fifty million lines of computer code, giving China a road map for decrypting the US Navy’s classified intelligence and operational data. The story begins after an American EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane on an eavesdropping mission collided with a Chinese interceptor jet over the South China Sea in 2001 and landed at a Chinese F-8 fighter base on Hainan Island, the 24 member crew were unable to completely disable the plane’s equipment and software. Hersh writes that crew of the EP-3E managed to erase the hard drive—“zeroed it out”—but did not destroy the hardware, which left data retrievable: “No one took a hammer.” The Navy’s experts didn’t believe that China was capable of reverse-engineering the plane’s NSA-supplied operating system, but over the next few years the US intelligence community began to “read the tells” that China had gotten access to sensitive traffic and in early 2009, Admiral Timothy J. Keating, then the head of the Pacific Command, brought the issue to the new Obama Administration. "If China had reverse-engineered the EP-3E’s operating system, all such systems in the Navy would have to be replaced, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars," writes Hersch. "After much discussion, several current and former officials said, this was done.""
Science

Submission + - Stopping Malaria By Immunizing Bugs (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by RedEaredSlider
RedEaredSlider writes: Millions of people in the tropics suffer from malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that has been difficult to treat and which costs many developing countries millions of dollars per year in lost productivity. Up to now, efforts at controlling it have focused on attacking the parasites that cause it, keeping mosquitoes from biting, or killing the insects.

But at Johns Hopkins University, Rhoel Dinglasan, an entomologist and biologist, decided to try another tack: immunizing mosquitoes. ...

When a mosquito bites an infected human, it takes up some of the gametocytes.They aren't dangerous to people at that stage. Since plasmodium is vulnerable there, and that is the point that Dinglasan chose to attack.

A mosquito's gut has certain receptor molecules in it that the plasmodium can bind to. Dinglasan asked what would happen if the parasite couldn't "see" them, which would happen if another molecule, some antigen, were binding to those receptors.
Television

Submission + - Cablevision Sued For Depriving People Of Fox (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apparently some people believe they have a legal right to make sure their cable companies offers them Fox channels. The latest move in the ongoing fight over how much Cablevision will have to pay to show Fox to its subscribers, some Cablevision subscribers and their lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit against Cablevision for depriving them of Fox's "distinctive viewpoint in the political speech arena... just days before a critical mid-term election."

Submission + - Sony’s 360 View 3D Display - No Glasses Need (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Sony’s been showing off a really cool looking 3D display that’s very reminiscent of the holoprojectors in Star Wars. Called the RayModeler, the cylinder like device projects a 360 view of the virtual objects ‘inside’. Walk all the way around it and you can see a 3D video from every conceivable angle. Not only that, but you can pick up a video game controller and interact with it, or just wave your hand to play with it, because it has gesture controls and renders images in real time! Did I mention you don’t need glasses to watch it?
Apple

Submission + - Apple works to bypass carriers

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Apple and SIM card maker Gemalto are joining hands to weave the SIM card into the iPhone hardware, dealing a blow to carrier exclusivity. Apple and Gemalto have crafted a SIM that is integrated with the iPhone. This allows customers to choose the carrier offering the best deals and also avails Apple the opportunity to sell the phone directly from its retail outlet or from the online store. Customers can activate the phones through the App Store thus bypassing carriers in the process.
Facebook

Submission + - U.S. woman kills baby for interrupting Farmville (torontosun.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A woman in Jacksonville, Fla., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Wednesday after shaking her infant to death for interrupting her game of Farmville.

Submission + - How often do you google yourself?

Submitted by Gates82
Gates82 writes: How often do you google yourself?
Never!
Hourly
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Yearly
When looking for a job
I thought googling yourself was the other thing

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