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Comment Re:communications system? (Score 1) 149

by toughguy (#44801583) Attached to: Cadillac SRX Converted Into Self-Driving Car

I'd love to see these systems handle someone in the right turn lane with their signal on swooping over 3 lanes and turning left...

Sorry, but this is such a stupid argument. It is unfortunate that human drivers do stupid stuff like this. It is unfortunate that those around such stupidity have to get into accidents because of it. My thoughts on self driving cars is the following:
1) Human driven car A does a stupid manouver
2) Human driven car B tries but maybe fails to avoid, accident ensues.
Result: No one is at fault because everyone blames each other. Stupidity on the roads continues. Accidents continue to kill and harm people. Insurance rates continue to rise, etc. Status quo.

In the alternative world with some self driving cars:
1) Human driven car A does a stupid manouver
2) Computer driven car B tries to avoid, but fails, accident ensues.
Result: Recordings from onboard computers prove who was at fault (car A). Blame is delivered, just their insurance rates rise, and only their record is ruined. Hopefully they learn they're lesson and either (a) drive better or (b) get a car that'll drive for them. End result is that overall driving safety is improved.

The (safe) assumption with all of this is that a computer driven car would be recording data equivalent to an aircraft's black box (probably in much much more detail really). Use the data on that recording to figure out what happened, if a human driven car (car A) caused an accident that wasn't avoidable by the other car assuming a reasonable human driver then, car B deserves no blame (whether it was driven by human or computer). The recorded information allows you to recreate the accident and make a reasonable judgement as to the circumstances. The system (police, courts, insurance, society) can dish out blame and punishment on a much more reasonable basis then.

The dashboard cam craze is the same thing, it provides a recording so that you can prove you are driving reasonably and whatever happened was the result of someone else making a mistake. All of this is big-brother-ish, but if we all really are such good drivers (everyone thinks they are better than average), then feel free to be recorded so that your own recorded evidence can set you free.
Patents

Patent Claim Could Block Import of Toyota's Hybrid Cars 451

Posted by timothy from the advancing-the-useful-arts-and-sciences dept.
JynxMe writes "Paice is a tiny Florida company that has patented a way to apply force to a car's wheels from an electric motor or internal combustion engine. Paice thinks that Toyota is infringing on its technology, and is going after the automaker in court. The legal spat became much more serious for Toyota this week, when the US International Trade Commission decided to investigate the matter. In the worst-case scenario for Toyota, the commission could ban the hybrid Camry, third-generation Prius, Lexus HS250h sedan and Lexus RX450h SUV."
Music

Brian Eno Releases Second iPhone App 196

Posted by CmdrTaco from the oblique-strategies-ftw dept.
Brian Eno, or as he is known to many in my office, "God," has released his second iPhone App. A followup to Bloom, this one is called Trope and supposedly creates darker music. You create music by drawing shapes on the iPhone's screen.
PlayStation (Games)

Are Game Consoles Ruining DLC? 399

Posted by Soulskill from the download-the-rest-of-this-summary-for-five-bucks dept.
A round-table discussion at Gametopius looks into the state of downloadable content for games as it has evolved over the past several years, going from an occasional, welcome supplement to being a common marketing strategy for most of the industry, frequently causing irritation over pricing and availability. "All of the map packs so far released for the Call of Duty games have been $10 each to download on consoles through closed networks, while PC gamers could download those same packs for free off of FileShack or somewhere else. Valve's own Team Fortress 2 has received a significant amount of DLC that's been completely free on the PC. Xbox owners of the same game, however, have only received perhaps half of that content, and they have had to pay for it in $5 packs. Why is this? The idea of this kind of content delivery was scarcely heard of on consoles, so console gamers see no reason not to pay for it. But on the PC, these amounts of content are usually just considered parts of patches. Furthermore, why pay for a few extra maps and costumes when modders are making and offering new ones for free all the time?"
Power

Switching To Solar Power — Six Months Later 591

Posted by CmdrTaco from the it-burns-my-eyes dept.
ThinSkin writes "Slashdot readers may remember an article regarding ExtremeTech's Loyd Case's experiences with solar power for the home after one month of usage. During that time six months ago, it sure seemed like a great deal, but the tables have turned significantly once winter approached. While it's no surprise solar power generation is expected to dwindle during the winter, Loyd compares solar power data of the last six months to determine if solar power is still worth the time and money."
Robotics

Honda Assists With "Next Steps" For Mankind 57

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hurry-up-with-my-power-armor-already dept.
hedonisticaltruism writes "The CBC reports that Honda has just unveiled a new walking-assist device that enhances the walking motion rather than just providing transportation. The device braces and strengthens natural leg movements primarily in walking and crouching. They're looking to market this to rehabilitation cases, the handicapped and industries requiring repetitive crouching and walking movements such as factory work and delivery services."
Google

Running Google Android On iPhone Clones 191

Posted by timothy from the market-penetration dept.
wooby writes "With the release of Android's source code, we may see iPhone and Nokia clone phones of Chinese origin capable of running Google Android. These phones, often available for less than $200 without a contract, are available on DealExtreme and elsewhere. But the software running on them is universally awful. Is the clone phone market a vast, nascent install-base for Android, and part of Google's end game? According to Google's Dave Bort, 'One of our goals would be, just to get Android all over the place' [YouTube link]."
Sci-Fi

Paul Krugman Awarded Nobel Prize For Economics 425

Posted by kdawson from the too-smart-fr-government dept.
zogger writes in his journal, "The guy who put together the concept of geographical location combined with cheap transportation leading to 'like trades with like' and the rise of superindustrial trading blocs has won the Nobel economics science prize. He's a bigtime critic of a lot of this administration's policies, and is unabashedly an FDR-economy styled fella. Here is his blog at the NYTimes." Reader yoyoq adds that Krugman's career choice was inspired by reading Asimov's Foundation series at a young age.
Science

CO2 To Fuel, Closing the "Carbon Loop" 316

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the squeeze-as-much-as-you-can dept.
leprasmurf writes "Inhabitat has posted an article detailing a recent announcement of a process to turn CO2 into fuel. The process, which used to be considered too energy inefficient, uses a multi-step, low pressure, and low temperature biocatalyst to break the CO2 into 'basic hydrocarbon building blocks.'"
Image

Man Sues to Get His Leg Back 4

Posted by samzenpus from the not-without-my-leg dept.
58-year-old Val McCabe, had to sue the Box Butte County, Nebraska's Attorney's office in order to get his leg back from prosecutors after he had been shot. McCabe's prosthetic leg had been held because officials wanted to run tests on it and a bullet lodged inside. A judge ordered it returned on Wednesday after determining the prosecutor's office didn't have a leg to stand on.
The Military

The Military Plans To Regrow Body Parts 257

Posted by kdawson from the anything-salamanders-can-do dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Department of Defense has announced the creation of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to 'harness stem cell research and technology... to reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.' The government is budgeting $250 million in public and private money for the project's first five years, and the NIH and three universities will be on the team. The military has been working on regrowing lost body parts using extracellular matrices and scientists in labs have grown blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat and are already growing a new ear for a badly burned Marine using stem cells from his own body. Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker explained that our bodies systematically generate liver cells and bone marrow and that this ability can be redirected through 'the right kind of stimulation.' The general cited animals like salamanders that can regrow lost tails or limbs. 'Why can't a mammal do the same thing?' he asked."
Linux Business

Submission + - Torvalds on where Linux is headed in 2008

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: In this new interview, Linus Torvalds is excited about solid-state drives, expects progress in graphics and wireless networking, and says the operating system is strong in virtualisation despite his personal lack of interest in the area.

From the article: "To get some perspective on what lies ahead in 2008, we caught up with Linus Torvalds via email. His responses touched on the Linux development process, upcoming features, and whether he's concerned about potential patent litigation."

Torvalds on Linux biggest strength: "When you buy an OS from Microsoft, not only you can't fix it, but it has had years of being skewed by one single entity's sense of the market. It doesn't matter how competent Microsoft — or any individual company — is, it's going to reflect that fact. In contrast, look at where Linux is used. Everything from cellphones and other small embedded computers that people wouldn't even think of as computers, to the bulk of the biggest machines on the supercomputer Top-500 list. That is flexibility. And it stems directly from the fact that anybody who is interested can participate in the development, and no single entity ends up being in control of where it all goes.
Mozilla

Submission + - Google's Shadow Over Firefox (iht.com)

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Mozilla's chief executive now earns roughly half a million in pay and benefits. But where did the $70 million in assets that they had in 2006 come from? Well, 85 percent of their $66 million in revenue for 2006 came from Google. While it's clear that the community's code is what makes Firefox successful, people are worried that Mozilla is becoming dependent on this cash and — even worse — that Firefox is just a pawn in Google's cold war with Microsoft."
Java

Submission + - Netbeans 6b2 Now Dual Licensed under GPLv2, CDDL (eweek.com)

Submitted by Lally Singh
Lally Singh writes: Interested in the new Netbeans 6, but didn't trust Sun's (already OSI-approved) CDDL? Sun just Dual-Licensed it under the GPL (v2) with Classpath Exception. Keep your karmic license purity and mix in all the (now compatible) GPL code you want! If you've been using Eclipse, Netbeans 6 is really worth a look. Lean, well-featured, and fast.
Intel

Submission + - Intel's 45nm patch machinery exposed (tweakers.net)

Submitted by
Roboticles
Roboticles writes: "Tweakers.net has paid a visit to Intel's laboratories in the Californian town of Folsom, the birthplace of the 45nm CPU. We spoke to lead architect Stephen Fisher about the development of the Penryn chip and the day the first A0 version arrived. We were shown the machinery used to test and patch the 45nm processor, which is currently being manufactured in Arizona for release next month."

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