mrivorey - Slashdot User

Comment Not at fault, but was it avoidable? (Score 2) 408

by mrivorey on Monday May 11, 2015 @08:33AM (#49663549) Attached to: Self-Driving Cars In California: 4 Out of 48 Have Accidents, None Their Fault

While I get that the autonomous system wasn't at fault, the real question is, "Were the accidents something a human driver could have avoided?" I'm a professional delivery driver and one of the things that's constantly drilled into us is to essentially watch out for the stupid people. Sometimes you have to yield right-of-way because it's clear the other driver isn't going to. Do autonomous cars know that?

Comment Rule of three (Score 2) 446

by mrivorey on Sunday April 12, 2015 @06:57PM (#49459823) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Best Medium For Storing Data To Survive a Fire (or Other Disaster)

Rule of three: Original copy, on site backup, off site backup. Otherwise you're not truly protected. I'd say SD cards, in a Pelican SD card case, in the safe for the local backup. Then look into an encrypted off site backup. The key is to make sure it is encrypted *before* it leaves your computer, and that the provider does not hold the key. Many providers offer this, even if it's not turned on by default.

Comment Not to mention... (Score 1) 166

by mrivorey on Friday October 14, 2011 @08:02PM (#37720734) Attached to: 100,000 iPhones Overwhelm Activation Server

...thousands of UPS and FedEx drivers today.

Rainforest Fungus Synthesizes Diesel 244

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 04, 2008 @01:46PM from the gliocladium-roseum dept.

Fluffeh alerts us to a report of a fungus that naturally produces diesel fuel, or something very close to it. "A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth. ... [T]the paper's authors admit that the technique is far from any sort of industrial production. 'This report presents no information on the cost-effectiveness or other details to make G. roseum an alternative fuel source,' they write." NPR has an interview with the fungus's discoverer.

Comment Re:Commodore 64, baby! (Score 1) 1485

by mrivorey on Monday February 13, 2006 @11:46AM (#14707316) Attached to: What Was Your First Computer?

Another hand goes up for the amazing C-64! I remember writing a program and convincing my older sister that I'd changed her grades at school. She told the principal and to this day hasn't forgiven me for embarrassing her. I also got SAM, a speech synthesizer that gave a few extra commands in BASIC. Eventually I had a program that picked up the phone, dialed a number, and then spoke whatever you typed onto the phone line. My friend and I carried on a 5 minute conversation with a girl using that program and she never knew who it was (my god, i was a nerd)!

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