Comment Re:Modems were not invented in 1992. (Score 1) 27
There were definitely modems in the '80s.
Comment Self-driving and public transport (Score 1) 44
I keep seeing this connection being made between self-driving vehicles and public transport as though you need one to have the other. "High-density Singapore has been encouraging the development of driverless technology in hopes that its residents will use more shared vehicles and public transport." Do they really think that their residents won't use public transport unless it's driverless? Or can Singapore not afford bus drivers?
Comment Dockless bikes are worse (Score 1) 278
Dockless bikes cause the same problem, but they're even worse because they're heavier and harder to move than the scooters. And if people don't leave them in the middle of the sidewalk then instead they leave them on the grass between the sidewalk and the street so that the homeowner has to move them when they want to mow the grass. Yes, you can text/call the company to have them removed, but it takes a while for them to get around to doing ti and sometimes they text back moronic questions like "Do you want us to come get it?" as though I'm complaining about it but want them to leave it there.
Comment Re:News flash! (Score 1) 191
Not tech workers. Millennials. Just like they think they invented roommates, renting out you house, hitchhiking,
And "side hustle". What is this, prison?
Comment To my door, not to the street. (Score 1) 41
If I'm getting grocery delivery, I want someone to bring it right up to my door, or preferably into my kitchen. I don't want to have to go out to the street and take the bags out of a car. If I'm going to be lazy, I'm going all-out!
Comment Pay over internet (Score 1) 192
I can already pay my registration over the internet with my plain old metal plate.
Comment They're forgetting something... (Score 1) 97
This doesn't count all of the times that the human had to take over because the car *would* have caused an accident.
Feed Surprise, Surprise: WiFi Scaremongering Marred By Shoddy Reporting, Bad Science (techdirt.com)
There's been a lot of noise being made in the UK about the supposed dangers WiFi presents. It's been clear for some time that these stories are little more than scaremongering, but Glenn Fleishman points out just how bad the reporting was on this latest BBC show about the dangers of WiFi. As he notes, the work by the show's producers and reporters was pretty shoddy: the show was largely based on the claims of the head of a group that extols the harm of electromagnetic radiation, though it never pointed out the guy's clear profit motive, as a seller of protective headgear, anti-radiation paint, and other tinfoil beanie-esque products. A columnist for The Guardian goes into further detail about the bad science the program used, noting that even the elementary schoolers the show wanted to film could see problems with it. What makes the whole thing slightly more amusing is that other people from the BBC have been trashing the show's report, and it's pretty clear that somebody there realized that it was going to cause some problems, since the form letter sent as a response to claims about it was written before the show even aired. As Ben Goldacre, The Guardian's Bad Science columnist points out, the show's shoddy reporting has ensured that the debate is focused on the show itself and its correspondents' poor work, rather than the actual issues at hand. But does the BBC, or any other media outlet running these scare stories really care, as long as people are talking?
Games Are No Cause For Murder 112
An anonymous reader writes "At Gamers With Jobs, Shawn Andrich speaks out against pointing the finger at videogames as a causative factor in a murder cases. He makes the excellent point that, though we may enjoy the metaphor, life is not a game. There is no simple connection between event A and event B. Our actions are dictated by experiences from a lifetime, and they should be addressed that way for good or ill. 'Life can't be framed up like a game of billiards. There is no easy eight ball, corner pocket shot to be made when trying to draw a line between cause and action ... Lasting, positive change will only come when we stop reaching for causes and start creating conditions that will support kids and teenagers who need it. We can't make anyone put the pin back in the grenade, but by supporting active, caring people who want to help, we might be able to influence some of those fateful decisions before it gets that far.'" GamePolitics on Joystiq has an editorial up looking at a similar question.
Submission + - Best Presidential Candidate for Geeks
blast writes: I was wondering who the community thinks best candidate for geeks. I.e, regarding the war on privacy, "total information awareness" or whatever they're calling it these days, Internet regulation and taxation, copyright/patent reform, the right to read, the right to secure communications, the right to tinker, etc.
Bookmark TG Daily-Massive outage hits XM Radio (tgdaily.com)
Submission + - Michael Dell using Ubuntu Linux at home
whoever57 writes: At the moment, Michael Dell is using a Precision M90 laptop loaded with Ubuntu Linux (7.04 — Feisty Fawn). It also has Openoffice.org and Evolution.
Submission + - Mozilla releases Thunderbird 2.0.0.0
An anonymous reader writes: The Mozilla Corporation has released Thunderbird 2.0.0. Among the improvements are Message Tagging, updated UI, Advanced Folder Views, Better New Mail Notification and Full Support for Windows Vista and 64-bit versions of Windows.
Feed Racing Neurons Control Whether We Stop Or Go; Research Offers Insight Into Cause (sciencedaily.com)
In the children's game "red light green light," winners are able to stop, and take off running again, more quickly than their comrades. New research reveals that a similar race goes on in our brains, with impulse control being the big winner.
Submission + - The Math of Text Readability
An anonymous reader writes: Wired magazine has an article that explains The Law of Optical Volumes, a formula for spacing the letters on a printed page that results in maximum readability. Wired's new logo (did anyone notice?) obeys the law. Unfortunately, Web fonts don't allow custom kerning pairs, so you can't work the same magic online as in print. Could this be why some people still prefer newspapers and magazines to the Web?
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