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Comment Re:Still ignoring that elephant (Score 1) 51

Agent mode is also where the AI decides that committing a felony is an acceptable risk (even if it isn't). Ask an AI based robot (I know, not yet available) to go buy an ice cream at the truck and it decides the kids surrounding it are an impediment to it's mission and shoves them into traffic.

It might change people's minds if they are made strictly responsible for any crimes committed by the AI.

More real life, an AI decides the production database needs to be deleted even though told not to touch production. AI later matter of factly states it ignored that instruction and the database can't be recovered.

Comment Is it an open protocol yet? (Score 1) 46

If it's still not an open protocol, then it's really hard to be at all interested in either the client or the server. Can this new app talk to non-Sonos speakers? Can I use Sonos speakers with my own app? It's ok if either side (or even both!) is currently unimplemented, as long as there are no trade secrets or DMCA shit deliberately preventing legal implementations.

If it can't interoperate on purpose, then it makes Sonos look like just another proprietary lock-in scam, and I don't fall for that trick anymore. Save that bullshit for the 1990s.

Comment Re:Yay (Score 1) 96

The biggest problem is people who don't understand how Lithium batteries work. A typical lithium battery has a cycle life of around 300-500 deep cycles these days. The average $50 toothbrush lasts about 2 weeks on a single charge. That is ... 12-19 years life for your battery.

The problem is people who leave their toothbrushes permanently on charge, it's a quick way to destroy lithium batteries. My father and I got the same toothbrush at roughly the same time. His lasted only about 2 years before he complained he couldn't get past more than a couple of days on a single charge. Mine is now going strong after 10 years, still with ~2 weeks battery life despite multiple daily uses. It goes on charge when the red light comes on, and only when the red light comes on. There's plenty of devices to complain about when it comes to soldered in batteries, but toothbrushes are not one of them.

I can't think of anything more wasteful than using AA batteries. Just use your devices properly, though being forced to pull rechargeable batteries out and manually charge them is a nice low tech way of forcing you to use devices correctly if you can't otherwise bring yourself to not destroy things by keeping them permanently on charge.

Comment Re:Most importantly (Score 1) 43

MapQuest is picking up tons of users by "caring" about peoples ethics

Actually there's no evidence of that. The only thing we've seen is MapQuest briefly going to the top rating for an app in a single measurement period. The only thing we can conclude is a bunch of people have tried it recently. Time will tell if this actually translates into any meaningful long term user gain.

This isn't bad mind you, it's clever to use a media shitstorm to get people to try your app thanks to the news cycle amplifying it, and I hope it works out for them. But I'll reserve judgement for another couple of months before I would safely declare that MapQuest picked up any new users.

Comment Re:Backfeeding kills and injures line repair crew. (Score 1) 205

Evidently this was not thought through.

Indeed something wasn't thought through, namely your post. None of these systems provide power to grid if they don't have a grid to sync from. They all disable themselves during power loss.

Even if they didn't have a bit of a thought about what it means to be a 1200W generator at a time the grid is down. You will effectively be attempting to provide 1200W of power to a load of an entire neighbourhood. As a powersupply if you don't fault out on your own protection system you'll be generating a couple of volt at the most, and be lucky enough to light up and LED much less excite a linesman.

These systems have been used in many countries for many years, and no linesmen are not dying.

Please, trust that someone has thought about this rather than blindly taking sniping shots from the top of Mt Ignorance.

Comment Re:Split phase power (Score 1) 205

The companies selling these products like to imply that you will be able to power your whole house with their systems.

Precisely zero companies selling these products are implying anything like that. There's so much to be angry about in the world already, you don't need to make up outrage.

Comment Re:Why did they have to? (Score 1) 205

Since when are your borders in my home?

Oh are you one of them "sovereign citizen" nut-bags? Sorry kiddo but laws very much do apply in your home as well.

Here's the place for the State legislature as I see it: Telling the utilities that they need to ensure their connections can handle power coming from a customer. Something that should have been done when it first became possible and may be a matter for the PUC anyhow.

I'm guessing the only reason you're alive is because of a world of laws that keep you safe. These include among other things how your house is wired and how devices that you plug in to that wiring work. There's a reason the laws require your wiring to be certified and for devices that aren't explicitly permitted to, to not put power back into your socket. The design and wiring of your house can very quickly lead to you burning your house down if you feed power back into the wiring improperly, protection systems are designed to protect you when power travels to you from the grid, not the other way around.

Instead of being all grumpy say "thank you man" and realise the government isn't always there to keep the working man down.

Comment Re:The sequence of events is fascinating (Score 1) 61

There are zero "technical barriers" that prevent someone performing insider trades on the stock market.

Precisely zero people here claimed the stock market was designed to not allow insider trading. So what point were you making?

I mean other than you highlighted different words than the ones under discussion.

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