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Lenseless cameras are the future. :lol:

I didn't say it's a good model but it's what we have. Also, how come the right to keep and bear arms seems to only be a right in certain places? Maybe in theory these rights are absolute. In practice they can be selectively violated at certain times and places. If I had even a bullet, I'd...

Of course any decision as to what constitutes "dangerous" is subjective. And that's exactly why we have courts. If someone is a bit overzealous denying free speech, that person can be taken to court. I tend to think the courts will in general only consider "dangerous" as highly likely to cause...

Read the article I linked to about Musk. He's aiming to make AVs hack proof. In principal it's not all that difficult. You could have a physical switch which has to be on before the microcontroller will allow new firmware to be written. Remember software is controlling things like nuclear power...

You're totally misunderstanding me. I'm not looking for risk-free society. That's the province of some liberals who will just as soon wrap kids in bubble wrap to keep them from getting hurt. Mandatory bike helmet laws for children are a perfect example of the type of nanny-statism that I hate. I...

I still think bitcoin is a good investment, but not at ~$3,000. I won't go in unless it drops to around $1,000. There seems to be good support for that price level, making my downside risk pretty low if I go in at $1K. Anything higher is a bubble if you ask me, at least for the time being.

Show me the specific clauses. If it worked as you claim, then we couldn't even have laws against rape or murder because those laws would interfere with someone else's "right" to kill or rape someone. Now I suppose anarchy (which is really what you propose here) is as valid a form of government...

I guess I'll just see if TWC offers anything. In truth, at this point 99% of the emails going to these addresses are relatively unimportant stuff like product update notifications and stuff from the trade magazines I subscribe to. I just need to unlink my eBay and Paypal accounts from the old...

That's pretty much my thoughts on it. And it's why as a cyclist I look forward to autonomous vehicles. I think they'll be much better behaved around both bicycles and motorbikes. I don't see any possibility of automated driving for motorcycles, either. However, as a small part of traffic...

Someone else's personal liberty ends when it interferes with others in a negative way. For example, I'll defend the right of people to smoke in places where they're the only ones breathing in the smoke. The minute I have to breathe in that smoke, their rights end. That's not a nanny state. It's...

Unfortunately, it would be really hard for me to make the adjustment. I spent my first three semesters in Princeton on campus. It was all I could take of living in that type of environment. It literally drained my soul and energy. I commuted the next 5 semesters. And this was a small town. A...

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out with motorbikes. Some legislators already want to ban the things even now on account of their rather high fatality rate.

What on Earth would I do there except tip cows? When I visit my sister in Long Island I run out of things to do in 30 minutes. Even she hates it but it was the only place she could afford a house. If it doesn't have streetlights and sidewalks, I'm generally not interested.

Yes, but those by definition aren't public roads. As I've said, we'll all be way safer if human driving on public roads is banned as soon as practical. What happens on private roads, off-road, etc. is another story. If someone wants to manually drive in those places it generally doesn't impact...

Really? That sucks. I was hoping there was a way of intercepting emails to the old addresses enroute and redirecting them elsewhere.

Even Elon Musk thinks the same way. A good analogy I've heard is to compare this to horses and buggies. At one time, you could ride a horse and/or carriage on any public street. As motor vehicles became more common eventually the places where this was allowed went down dramatically. However...

It might be because large numbers of motor vehicles in cities, driven by mostly incompetent assholes, make my present reality a f*cked up dystopia. When I cross one of the local arterials with my mom, a number of times I had to wave my arms like an idiot to stop people from running her over. And...

The problem here is there is a delay of as long as 10 seconds from the time a driver might feel the need to take over until the time they actually do. This is why the current idea endorsed by many automakers, namely to have the driver "monitor" the automated system and take over if necessary, is...

Which would give heavy incentives to either convert those cars, or ban them from public roads if conversion is unfeasible. There is also the issue of insurance. I suspect even if we don't ban human driving, the cost of insurance if you choose to drive yourself will make it cost prohibitive for...

Here's the problem. I recently switched from TWC/Spectrum to Verizon FIOS. TWC had given me an email account in which I set up several email addresses. When I shut down my TWC account these accounts were deleted. I had already downloaded and saved all of the current messages so no issues there...

The problem here is pilots have seconds, sometimes tens of seconds, to safely take over in situations the autopilot can't handle. Drivers often have mere tenths of a second. Even if they've been paying attention, the chances of taking over and making the right decision are slim. I'm all for...

Exactly the point I made earlier. Level 5 is really all we should be aiming for. Same reason anti-lock brakes, collision detection, electronic stability control, and so forth haven't increased safety. Drivers compensate by cutting margins closer than they would without these things. End result...

Looks cozy, actually.

I've heard they even sleep on longer flights. They'll have either the pilot or copilot monitoring the in-flight systems while the other one sleeps. My understanding is autopilots help reduce pilot fatigue by letting them avoid doing monotonous tasks like keeping the plane at a given heading...

While on the subject of autonomous vehicles (which the Tesla isn't), one thing being discussed which frankly frightens me is the idea of having the driver "monitor" the system and take control if needed. Horrible idea. For starters, humans are awful at monitoring tasks in case they have to...

Exactly what I did during Sandy, although it turned out we never lost water. Most of NYC's water system is gravity fed. Unless you're in a high-rise, chances are you won't lose water in a storm. We did have four days without power, however. With the temps sometimes dropping into the 30s, that...

No sure they're politicizing it so much as commercializing it. I'm tired of hearing and seeing all the plugs for bottled water, for instance. Seriously, when Sandy came I filled up a bunch of empty soda bottles and other plastic jars with tap water. Just as good, nearly free, and I didn't have...

E-bikes can actually fill quite a few trips which are too long for a bike but rather inefficient to do by car. A susbidy makes sense. In 5 years time you'll certainly have an even greater selection of electric cars than now. It seems they're finally starting to catch on. The real turning point...

Actually, I already know all about the great Dutch cycling network. I particularly love their growing system of bicycle superhighways: http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/superhighways They realized if you want to get people riding bikes you have to make it safe, stress-free, and...

Someone in the second link of my original post has some direct experience with automotive data recording systems. Here is what he wrote in italics: I've read the datasheets and I have practical experience hacking these devices. Event data recorders in cars have exactly one record. The control...

Yep, saving money has always been one of my motivations for not having a car. I see family members who always seem to be hit with big repair bills just as they're starting to get ahead on their finances. I've found for many trips in the city, the bike is as fast or faster than a car. One...

Indeed, sounds like a stuck register or something. Glad my suggestion fixed it. I had a similar problem a month ago. One of my A/Cs was clogged, the water wasn't draining outside. Pulled it out and cleaned it. When I put it back in the control panel gave a F0 error code. Supposedly there was a...

Thanks, SD. Very informative. Sort of how I thought it was. Basically, if you live in small towns you're pretty much limited locally to how far you can walk or bike. More train options than the US, which is great, but the trains aren't necessarily always faster than driving. In larger cities you...

No argument from me about that. I especially think highway speed enforcement is BS. In part because speed limits are almost always set way too low, and in part because the police might ignore speeders 95% of the time, then suddenly have a crackdown when they need to meet quotas. And then you...

We have to get him into the jail cell first.

I have but strictly speaking you're not incriminating yourself here unless you volunteer the information. This is more like the police are gathering forensic evidence (and would presumably need a court order to look at the "black box"). Remember the police already have lots of other tools to...

The whole cloud cover thing could be an issue. Probably why I'd want to go west even though Buffalo will have a good view. Just my luck Buffalo will be overcast that day. Go out west, particularly in those small desert towns, and clear skies are way more likely. Definitely want to do this with...

If I manage to get to this one I think I'll take Amtrak out west as close as it gets me to the centerline, then bike the rest and pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere. I'll probably want to go with a few people. Just don't know anyone that adventurous.

I'm thinking along the lines of integrating panels into the roof and hood. That might give you about 1 square meter even being very conservative. At 25% efficiency the numbers actually come out pretty close to yours. Weight penalty should be less since the structure of the car is supporting the...

Just a shot in the dark but try letting the cable router and modem sit overnight unplugged. Sometimes that works on electronic equipment when all else fails.

Why not make EVs with solar panels integrated into the body? No sure how much they'll increase range while in motion but you'll basically be charging the battery anytime the sun is out. They'll also keep you from getting stranded in the outback for lack of recharging stations. [/COLOR]Over...

SD, since you were in both China and Europe what were your general impressions of the ease of travel if one doesn't own a car? I'm really curious. Europe seems to have a much more mature cycling and public transit network but China is building up really fast (and perhaps overbuilding). Not...

I've been living with a 240GB SSD for a boot drive for over 4 years. It's finally getting close to full but I can put in one of 960GB Enterprise SSDs I have as a replacement. That should be good virtually forever at the rate I use storage.

As a member of a site devoted to reducing the carnage caused by motor vehicles, one thing which has come up repeatedly is why don't motor vehicles keep an ongoing record of vital telemetry data like speed, pedal/steering wheel positions, turn signal state, and so forth. With the size of today's...

This all started with my evaluation of an article on EVs. I'd really love to know exactly where I'm "wrong" here because maybe I like to breathe clean air. Yeah, people love to buy cars. People love to do lots of other things too which are incompatible with the long-term health of the planet. We...

BTW, rather than continuing to discuss around the margins, the root of the problem is the impending health crisis: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-facing-a-time-bomb-of-health-crises-2014-8...

Looking at Google Earth, the built-up part of Shanghai looks to be roughly the size of NYC, perhaps a little bigger. Yes, it's big, but it's of a size where most transportation needs can be handled by something other than private autos. They're having massive build-outs of public transit which...

I haven't but my understanding is they're extremely polluted due to both industry and motor vehicles. Just Google "Chinese cities pollution" and you get images which remind me of NYC in the 1960s.

The article is missing a few things by focusing only on greenhouse gas emissions. Even if we assume a dirty coal plant (which largely doesn't exist in the US any more) is the sole source of electricity, EVs move the emissions from population centers to remote areas where far fewer people are...

I second that! :b-day: David!