Just save yourself some disappointment and assume they've already been cancelled. You'd have to be a blinding idiot to start using any new Google app, especially a chat app. Like always, they'll get about 75% completed, then, like a small toddler, will get bored and wander off in search of the next shiny, while the app bitrots until someone finally notices and kills it.

"Driver does something stupid and breaks expensive car, is in denial like all car owners, blames high-profile company and gets press coverage."

As I'm not a cryptographer, I have to trust what experts tell me (source code doesn't really help with this). Given that the people at Open Whisper Systems, who are fanatical privacy and security researchers and advocates, and who built the protocol that's being used and helped WhatsApp implement it, are giving this their stamp of approval, I'm just going to have to trust them. At some point, you have to pick that trust point, and Open Whisper Systems seems like a good point.

Why do all of their voice-activated prompts require me to repeat the name of the corporation, over and over? I already know I'm using a Google phone, it says so right at the top of every screen, and I have to say their name every time I want to use voice search anyway. It's kind of creepy.

It was tested while *mounted on* a German warship, not not tested *upon* a German ship. One of those readings is significantly less ominous!

It might be safer in some situations, but you won't be able to buy an autonomous car that's programmed to break the law. The DoT will just never allow it, and I can't blame them.

Oh god, no! Those poors were able to buy healthcare! This is truly the end of American democracy! :flail:

Wait, what were we talking about?

Yeah, but how are you going to replace that funding? Increase funding from the state? Not in Wisconsin, zomg taxes. The state government is already doing its damnedest to gut higher education and running a large deficit, again thanks to tax cuts. I agree about patent licensing not really fitting into the vision of a public university system, but it's a reality that needs to be fixed as a unit, and that's really unlikely in many states.

Yep. Etherkillers have been around since forever. The oldest link I could find in 30 seconds is one one from 1999, but I'm sure I had one before than, and I certainly didn't come up with the concept. It's nice that he re-invented the etherkiller, but man, Google is your friend.

Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about this years ago ("True Love"), abeit in a much more entertaining fashion.

"I will say to her, 'I am Joe, and you are my true love.'"

If there's anything that'll push forward legal restrictions on 3D printers/home CNC, it'll be assholes like this making a media push over how easy it is to make weapons and OMG THE CHILDREN. This is why we can't have nice things.

Guys, you're clearly missing the massive societal benefit of this news. Say you go to see a movie, only to find out that it's terrible. What do you do to help your fellow man from wasting their time and money? Write a review? Tell your friends? That's just not good enough! Now, all you have to do is send Sony an email and they'll cheerfully pull it from US distribution!

Their lifting capacity, even with the extra fuel (really, reduced fuel available for ascent) is sufficient, and the small amount of payload reduction is vastly offset by the cost savings of re-using 9 engines plus structure. Assuming everything works, of course, but their program is looking pretty good.

The driver hit something in the road; the vehicle detected the damage, realized it was going to catch on fire, and politely asked the driver to pull over and exit the vehicle. Once the driver had exited, the battery compartment started merrily burning, but the design kept the fire contained within the front compartment. At no point did the fire enter the passenger compartment, which would have been perfectly safe for the driver. Frankly, I can only dream of owning such a safe vehicle.

Once is happenstance.
Twice is coincidence.
Now, three times...