Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:...arrival of a "fairground ride" (Score 1) 20

Actually, this is also why I stopped using Waze. Coming back from Heathrow once, I could have just taken the M4 and South Circular, but Waze claimed it would save me more than seven minutes on 25-35 minute journey, so I thought I'd give it a go. It took me through Hounslow and the back streets of Isleworth before crossing the A316 bridge in to Richmond. It ended up taking at least 15 minutes longer than the easy route and a vast amount more effort, in the dark. Much of that extra time was either reversing in to a gap between parked cars to let somebody by, or waiting for an oncoming car to do the same for me.

This has been one of my biggest frustrations with Waze for years - it has no understanding of how difficult a road is to drive. It'll happily send you off an easy, fast, well-lit motorway onto a difficult, narrow, unlit B road if it thinks it can save two minutes on a two-hour trip.

The stupid thing is that in the UK, road types already hint at how easy or hard they are to drive. Motorways (M roads) are the easiest, then A roads, then B roads. You could even go further by looking at the number of digits - single-digit routes tend to be simpler than three-digit ones. Sure, there would be exceptions (like the M25 compared to the M6), but overall it would make routing far more sensible than what Waze does now.

Comment Re:Question is (Score 1) 162

Well, back when I was a kid, 'autistic' meant, 'screaming and flapping your arms when somebody turned on the light wrong.'

"Rain Man" was a movie about what was, at the time, considered a high-functioning autistic.

Most of what we would nowadays call 'ASD' was just 'quirky' or 'weird' or 'shy.'

Go find a copy of the 1980s nuclear war film Testament. Watch the scenes with the sons. One son, the youngest, has several scenes with things like 'running the TV, a radio, and a record player at the same time,' 'being told that he can't only eat bananas,' 'wearing ear muffs at the dinner table' and so on.

Nowadays, that's clearly stimming, sensory restrictions and ARFID, and probably ADHD, and he's be labelled 'AuDHD'.

Back then? He was just being a kid.

But nowadays, 'doesn't look people in the eye "enough"' means you're ASD, and 'looks people in the eye *too much"' means you're ASD.

Given that we don't even know what 'Autism' is, we ascribe way too much to it.

Comment Re: Stupid comparison, apples and bowling balls (Score 1) 278

The difference between a 'personal' charger and a 'commercial' charger is 'is this being used by a person, or by the public.'

It's not different hardware. It might not even be a different firmware, depending on the manufacturer; I know that for my charger, all it takes to make it 'commercial' is to point it's configuration at a payment portal.

Comment Re:Stupid comparison, apples and bowling balls (Score 1) 278

Nope. You're conflating 'the car' with 'the driver.'

You, and your car, spend about ten minutes a week at a gas pump to pump 500 miles of range into your box on wheels.

Your neighbour spends about twenty seconds per week to put 500 miles of range into his box on wheels, which takes his car 12 hours.

Comment Re:Here come the edge cases! (Score 1) 278

Don't bother arguing with Fluffernutter; he's tried to argue in the past that 'clicking climate start in the car's app' is somehow too complicated for the average person to do, and too much hassle, where as climbing into an ice cold ICE car and waiting for the cabin to warm up while you sit there in the driveway is faster, easier, more efficient, and better.

Comment Re: Keep it plugged in (Score 1) 173

If they want it preconditioned? Yes, welcome to 2025, they can install the app on their phone. Or they use the 'remote climate start' option on the keyfob. Or they shoot you a quick text asking you to hit the button in your app.

You keep trying to paint these advancements in convenience and comfort as terrible burdens, and it's weird.

Slashdot Top Deals

It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river. -- Abraham Lincoln

Working...