Since the satire story is not directly linked.. just go to the "On Facebook" link above and down to May 3rd... It's the only post that day... Lets see if we can get it over 100,000.... It's only 67 right now....

Are you really that ignorant? This requirement will not add cost or weight to the car. From the car and driver article (Dec '09) linked above:

"Since the advent of electronic throttle control, many automakers have added software to program the throttle to close—and therefore cut power—when the brakes are applied. Cars from BMW, Chrysler, Nissan/Infiniti, Porsche, and Volkswagen/Audi have this feature, and that’s precisely why the G37 aced this test."

So, aready being done by a wide range of companies, it is only a small change to the software they already have, and it allows a very logical override: if you press the brakes then the throttle will close.

The whole excuse of "when I was little we didn't have all these regulations" is total BS. I especially love the "we didn't were seat belts or have car seats, and look I survived." No shit, if you were in a high speed accident, you would have dead or had serious injuries and likely would not be here to say that crap. Does everyone get into that type of accident? - No, but enough, and the injuries are so severe that prevention is the best option.

Previously, AT&T slowed speeds for subscribers who reached the top 5% of data users for that billing cycle and geographic location. Customers were outraged, arguing that the percentage method meant they had no way to know what the limit was — until AT&T informed them via text message that they were in danger of exceeding it.' AT&T still maintains the position that less than 5% of its users exceed the 3GB threshold each month.

So if they limit the top 5% of data users for that billing cycle/location, but less than 5% exceed 3GB, then the point where they limit users has to be less than 3GB in most locations.

And how is it done for "that billing cycle". After the first day (hour, etc.) of the billing cycle, did they throttle the top 5%? Once you were throttle, did you stay throttled until the end, even if you were no longer in the top 5%?

I can't imagine anyone thought top 5% would be a good idea. I'm wondering if they did that to get everyone really upset about it, then fall back to this more "reasonable" solution, to look good. Instead of starting with the 5GB limit, and having a lot of people complain about it.

You must have missed the other story a few years ago, which made it all the way to the Supreme Court, that basically said the cops can arrest you for anything. It was about some lady and her kids who did not have their seat-belts on. SCOTUS ruled it was fine. See the full story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atwater_v._City_of_Lago_Vista

So your argument about 'just' getting a ticket does not hold.

And why are people really mad at him/her.... ;-)

The problem is the never ending copyrights. Had copyrights not been extended, retroactively, the original term of 14 years, plus one extension of 14 years. Which would mean if this was done in 1977, when he started selling them in 2002, it would have been fine. If you can't make you money back in 28 years, you are doing something wrong, and too bad.

0.12 was about the time I became aware of it. But at the time I had a 286 and was in college. It took a while, but luckily I had enough saved up from my Co-Op job that I put together a 486DX/33 system with 4M, and 120M HD for about $1000. Don't remember the first version I used, but I definitely remember the SLS Linux (SLS stood for Soft Landing Software, if I remember correctly). I partition the harddrive 60M for DOS/Windows and 50M for Linux and 10M for /home. I would bring packs of floppies into the computer lab and use the Sun workstations to download the each new version of SLS Linux. I remember waiting for a LONG time before support for X was added to Linux.