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Comment Re:Vehicle next door. (Score 1) 233

by AmiMoJo (#45089789) Attached to: Ford Showcases Self-Parking Car Technology

You don't have that much control. It works the same as the automatic parallel parking systems we have had for a few years now. The space has to be considerably larger than necessary for a human driver to squeeze in, and the computer will always leave a fairly large space in front and behind. Otherwise the person in front might not be able to get their shopping into their boot (er... trunk I think you call it in the US), and neither would you if it was too close to the car behind.

I imagine the minimum allowable space between cars is the distance the door swings open. The one positive thing is that it might encourage car park designers to have reasonable size spaces.

Comment Re:Why? (Score 1) 219

by AmiMoJo (#45089179) Attached to: Samsung Creates Phone With Curved Display

Actually my number one complaint about Samsung phones is the slippery back that makes them hard to grip. HTC have some kind of rubber-like plastic that gives up plenty of grip. I always fit a minimal "shell" case for this reason.

Submission + - 10 Yrs In Prison & 2,000 Lashes For Internet Video Of Naken Dancing On Car (huffingtonpost.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Huffington Post reports, "A Saudi man was sentenced to 2,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for dancing naked on the roof of a car and posting the video online, according to multiple reports. Three other men were also sentenced to three to seven years in jail and hundreds of lashes each for the incident, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Arabic-language paper Al-Sharq. The four men were hit with a number of charges, including "encouraging vice" and violating public morality, according to the report. The prosecutor in the case, which was heard by a judge in Saudi Arabia's conservative Al-Qassem province, reportedly objected to the sentences for being "too lenient," Gulf News notes. The video was reportedly circulated widely on the Internet, but could not be found by The Huffington Post.

Submission + - If Java Is Dying, It Sure Looks Awfully Healthy

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Andrew Binstock writes at Dr. Dobb's that a recurring prejudice in the forums where the cool kids hang out is against Java, often described as verbose and fading in popularity but Binstock sees little supporting evidence of Java being in some kind of long-term decline. While it is true that Java certainly can be verbose, several scripting languages have sprung up which are purpose-designed to spare developers from long syntactical passages to communicate a simple action including NetRexx, Groovy, and Scala. As far as Java's popularity goes, normally, when technologies start their ultimate decline, tradeshows are the first to reflect the disintegrating community. But the recent JavaOne show was clearly larger and better attended than it has been in either of the last two years and vendors on the exhibiting floor were unanimous in saying that traffic, leads, and inquiries were up significantly over last year. Technically, the language continues to advance says Binstock. Java 8, expected in March, will add closures (that is, lambda expressions) that will reduce code, diminish the need for anonymous inner classes, and facilitate functional-like coding. Greater modularity which will be complete in Java 9 (due in 2016) will help efficient management of artifacts, as will several enhancements that simplify syntax in that release. "When you add in the Android ecosystem, whose native development language is Java, it becomes very difficult to see how a language so widely used in so many areas — server, Web, desktop, mobile devices — is in some kind of decline," concludes Binstock. "What I'm seeing is a language that is under constant refinement and development, with a large and very active community, which enjoys a platform that is widely used for new languages. None of this looks to me like a language in decline."

Submission + - SF Commuters Stared at Phones, Oblivious to Murderer 3

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: A security camera shows a man raised a .45-caliber pistol several times and pointed it across the aisle on a crowded San Francisco Muni train, but not one of the dozens of passengers looked up from their phones and tablets until the man fired a bullet into the back of a SF State student getting off the train. "These weren't concealed movements," said District Attorney George Gascón, "the gun is very clear. These people are in very close proximity with him, and nobody sees this. They're just so engrossed, texting and reading and whatnot. They're completely oblivious of their surroundings."

Comment Why link the right to consume with work anymore? (Score 1) 754

A parable by me about robotics and a basic income: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p14bAe6AzhA

Key line from there to echo your point: "The politicians and their supporters said the solution was to lower taxes and cut social benefits to promote business investment. They tried that, but the robots still got all the jobs."

Comment Re:Didn't know it launched. (Score 1) 76

by narcc (#45086715) Attached to: Firefox OS 1.1 Released, Mozilla Prepares For 2nd Round of Device Launches

For example, 1.1 just got MMS capabilities. Based on just this alone, 1.0 would have just been laughed out of the market.

Funny, the first iPhone didn't support MMS and it manged to survive.

I expect you'll see them ramp up their marketing efforts as the software becomes more feature-complete. Until then, it's just not ready for end users.

They made how many for the first go round again? Something like 1000 that they only sold through eBay? I'm going to guess that they don't think it's ready for end users either.

Submission + - You Are Still Legally Dead, Judge Tells Plaintiff 5

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: The Courier of Findlay Ohio reports that Judge Allan Davis ruled that 61-year-old Donald Eugene Miller Jr. is still legally dead, eight years having passed since Miller disappeared from his Arcadia rental home in 1986 and three years after the legal limit for changing a death ruling passed in 1994. Miller told the court he was an alcoholic who was unsure what to do after losing his job and left Hancock County sometime before 1990. "My paycheck was being taken away from me and I had nothing left," Miller said. "It kind of went further than I ever expected it to. I just kind of took off, ended up in different places." Now Miller says he would like to start his life again, or "whatever's left of it" and asked the court to reverse its 1994 death ruling so he can reinstate his canceled Social Security number and driver's license. "My client's here on a wing and a prayer today," said his attorney, Francis Marley. The court said no. Miller's ex-wife, Robin Miller, had asked for the death ruling so Social Security death benefits could be paid to their two children and she opposed his request for a change in the death ruling, because she does not want to repay the Social Security benefits. Judge Davis referred to Donald Miller's case as a "strange, strange situation." "We've got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health," said the Judge. "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned." Miller has 30 days to appeal the court’s ruling, according Judge Davis.

Submission + - Azerbaijan election results released before voting had even started (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Jah-Wren Ryel
Jah-Wren Ryel writes: Florida's hanging chads ain't going nothing on Azerbaijan. Fully a day before the polls were to open, election results were accidentally released via an official smartphone app, confirming what everybody already knew — the election was rigged from the beginning. The official story is that the app's developer had mistakenly sent out the 2008 election results as part of a test. But that's a bit flimsy, given that the released totals show the candidates from this week, not from 2008.

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