I don't think you have to ruin the vehicle to accomplish the goal. In the article I linked above the Google car suffered little damage but it stayed at the location. Why? It's a hit and run otherwise.

I think it'll be pretty easy. The vehicle will have to stop if it detects a collision[1]. So the question is: after bumping the car from any side, how fast can determined thieves get to the GPS (or the communications device), disable it, hook up a tow truck and get away?

I'm betting faster than typical metro police can get to the last reported coordinates.

[1] Google's autonomous car rear-ended a car last year and stayed around for the accident. Apparently the accident was a result of "human error" but still, it stayed put.

They're going to mandate driver-less cars have unique, identifiable license plates? Sounds like a "Steal Me!" badge.

Remember the problem Florida had about 10 years ago where rental cars with clearly-identifiable stickers (Enterprise "E")? The cards were driven mostly by out-of-country tourists. They were being jacked because the bad guys knew they couldn't defend themselves.

Driver-less cars are chock-a-block with experimental technology, all wrapped-up inside of a $15k - $40k vehicle...with no one to defend them.

What could go wrong?

At least until they get lasers.

No one has tweeted to me that there was a speed trap around the bend.

True. But a lot of people coordinated #SOPA and #PIPA protests via Twitter. @jimmy_wales raised a lot of awareness about the issue with his tweets supporting the protest.

I'll take a speeding ticket any day of the week over SOPA, PIPA and the current outrage, ACTA.

When I studied for my driver's license in the UK I thought it humorous that several study courses recommended putting the handbrake on at stops to in part prevent the brake lights from dazzling the driver behind:

Using the footbrake is also antisocial and can be dangerous because brake lights can dazzle the driver behind, especially at night and in poor weather conditions. Smart Driving[1]

Apparently laser to the eye isn't as anti-social as leaving one's brake lights on at a stop at night.

[1] And that's not the only example.

I bought the Nook Color for the same reason. The Nook Color PDF reader is a very capable viewer. I didn't want the Nook version of Android so I bought one that was already rooted with CyanogenMod.

I'm mostly happy with it for reading PDFs. Like any tablet-sized reader you will have to pan. You can view the pages in portrait mode fully zoomed out but it's hard to read that way. I read in landscape and just pan the document a bit. I'm finding more authors are publishing to PDF using one column. In those cases it just work. Pinch-zooming works but the text rarely (if ever) re-flows the way web pages do in Chrome.

I don't like the Adobe file browser on Android, though. It adds every PDF on the SD card to the master list. It's a giant scrollable list with each folder path as a section separator. I would like the option to toggle between hierarchical folder view and list.

I tried using Calibre to convert some PDFs to ePub. Two-column PDFs have been a disaster. I rarely get anything that's usable. YMMV. I decided to stick with PDFs (or .ps files I convert to PDF).

Using Chrome to read web pages is mostly workable. Strangely, clicking an HTML file in the file manager doesn't launch the regular Chrome browser. Rather you get the "HTML Viewer". It's mostly Chrome but has no open dialog or access to bookmarks (AFAICT).

As an Android device it's quite functional. Most market applications install without a problem. The one I have problems with are those for which the Download button doesn't appear. I haven't chased the issue down yet. Not sure whether it's a Cyanogen issue.

Google Books works great but you have to have internet access to read the books. Just goes to prove Android is really designed to be an always-connected OS. FBReader, on the other hand, just works.

As you can tell, it's no iPad in terms of "It Just Works". In sum, as a PDF reader I'm mostly happy with it. All the other features are bonuses. The issues are mostly irrelevant.

Lastly, if you check E-Bay or B&N's website they sell refurbed Nook Color's for $199. For an extra $50 you can get the extended warranty (if you're into those). For the same $249 for a new one with 1-year warranty you get a unit with a 2-year warranty.

No doubt. Geeks have known this for years. During it's heyday one slashdotter referred to the Pentium 4 as a space heater that emits computational products as a side effect.

Quite possibly. Sony's responsibilities to their customers might not rise to the level of Fiduciary Responsbility but customers do have a reasonable expectation of due care, at least with their credit card information and likely with their account information.

Further, to receive full indemnification from the payment-card industry against claims of fraud, you must be PCI compliant. Were Sony PCI compliant having un-patched software on public-facing servers? Doesn't seem like it. This could potentially open Sony up to all kinds of claims.

Even if Sony somehow manage to escape civil and criminal justice ramifications, carelessness is no way to run a business. Sony's reputation is already tarnished in the tech world. They may finally get the public scrutiny and drop in reputation and market-share they've earned and so well deserve.

I called the police and waited in the bank parking lot for an hour. They never showed. It was 4:15 in the afternoon on Saturday. In a large city like Houston card skimmers probably rank as "Monday - Friday" crime. If I don't hear anything from Houston PD on Monday I'll follow up. Perhaps even with the FBI. I'm not sure what the protocol is.

I called my bank while I was waiting for the police and canceled my card.