stevep98

There’s something missing from this article.

When you sign a receipt, you’re not just providing a sample of your signature for comparison against the one on the card. You are signing a document, usually saying that ‘I agree to comply with the terms of the cardholder agreement’

If this is no longer necessary, the card issuers must have determined that they have other legal agreements which cover purchases, and that the signature on each transaction is not necessary.

Also missing is a discussion of why PINs are not seen by the banks as an obvious next step.

Really they should have some kind of flag when they get a high number of autopilot disconnects ( or steering overrides) happening in the same place. I had to disconnect every day because it ignored temporary lane stripe markings, and it never improves, despite Tesla’s claim of fleet learning.

Seems an obvious way to improve: look at where your drivers are overriding your system.

I was thinking about the transparent screens from Avatar

See: http://itsbeau.com/work/avatar/ (scroll down)

I don't see what his real name has to do with this

Shaders are a good use case for live reloading because their output is discarded 60 times per second, and nothing depends on that output except our eyes and brains.

Dividends, especially qualified dividends are taxed way below regular income though, to reflect this.

> Why do people assume HSR will not have TSA lines?

Because in places where HSR does currently exist, there are no significant security lines.

Trains have fundamental safety advantages compared to planes, so the payoff of an attack is less.

I wonder whether scrutiny of those tax avoidance schemes revealed in the paradise papers or Panama papers will lead to those investors moving their funds to bitcoin.

I’m not sure if the model 3 has any voice-control, but a decent voice system might be a good way to augment the touch screen for some tasks like ‘wipers faster’, for example.

The voice control in the model is ok - it’s good at recognition, but limited in function.

They can at least enable this type of function later with software updates. This is a key differentiator with other auto makers, who rarely issue software updates after the car has shipped, and if they do, never include new features, and often charge you for things like map updates.

One of the stated goals for model 3 is true autonomy... the car will need to charge itself. It will drop you off, go find somewhere to charge.

It’s really impossible to look up the fees even if you want to. They are in a spreadsheet posted online with cryptic codes associated with each charge. You literally need a degree in medical coding to understand it.

I didn’t understand my $1200 bill for stitches on my finger, even after I asked the hospital to explain it.

I’m really surprised there isn’t some legal mechanism to a) refuse to pay if the charges are not clearly billed or explained and b) the hospital has not sought some kind of consent for a procedure which would cost more than the patient would expect.

After all, why stop at $1200 for a cut finger? Why not $12000? Or $12000?

Definitely those SCSI connectors with the two little screws holding them in aren't going anywhere. But the original ones had ribbon cables. Those would be impractical on today's devices.

Those thick cables also had a significant impact on the mechanical strain - they required a substantial connector to avoid disconnection due to cable movement. But they were mostly used for desktops anyway, and weren't really intended to support the idea of moving the device around.

So, I'm sure most people appreciate the progress in the electronics side, the amazing data rates, the engineering of the wiring, the flexible, lightweight cables.

But where we've gone wrong is usability side of things. Why did it take so long to come up with a connector which can be inserted upside down? USB C is still not as good in this respect as a 1/4" jack - which supported insertion in ANY orientation since it's use in telephone exchanges since 1878!

1/4" jacks were also bidirectional - the same connector on either end of the cable. Another issue we have to deal with with USB.

I would prefer that any cable you can plug into a USB C jack is interchangeable. Conceptually, it's a pipe between two devices. If they connect together, it should work. I don't think people generally understand that the cable itself has electronics in it that negotiates power and data rates. And I don't think we should go down the route of marking cables either. They should just be universal.

I hope Apple takes the lead on cleaning up this mess. They've committed to USB C, and this is a major problem right now.

An initial pipeline could be built with a lower target speed. This would postpone some of the potential challenges with regard to heat dissipation, and also route selection.

For example, you wouldn't have to worry so much about tunneling under a mountain to ameliorate the G-forces if you are traveling more slowly. Once you prove out the route (which could still be competitive with any existing train service), you incrementally build tunnels and modify the route to improve your target speed.

(As for heat discharge, Im pretty sure that was addressed in EM's original paper - dumping the excess heat into an on-board water tank which is exchanged at the end of the ride, or are you referring to something else?)

When I got my iMac the biggest change for me was the lack of clutter in my office. It was amazing. Part of that was the small Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but the rest was the box with all the cables trailing from it. It was a true breath of fresh air.

Ataris had plenty of security holes. And were vulnerable to viruses spread on floppy disks.

It costs the government to provide infrastructure to service people in these areas. It costs them to repair when they get flooded. It costs the government to rescue people and provide emergency services.

In a gas pipeline, the high pressures help to stiffen the structure. In a hyperloop, you have very low pressure inside the pipe which changes the pipe design completely.

https://youtu.be/T9bpUfWy8Wg?t=161

I think this is another reason why musk is getting into tunneling. Reducing the cost of tunnels lets you place the hyperloop track in a more optimal location.

> My understanding is that closer to the equator is better, with some caveats.

For this project, I don't think it matters. They even said they will orient the launcher vertically.

The reason you normally want to be closer to the equator is that you get some sideways velocity from the rotating earth, and that is faster nearer the equator. This is important for low earth orbits because the sideways velocity is very high.

However, in this case they don't really care much about sideways velocity. They want to reach escape velocity. As you go higher, the sideways velocity needed to stay in orbit gets smaller, until finally it's practically zero. So, any gain they would get from being near the equator wouldn't be needed.

I think.

The traffic aware cruise control in the Tesla is very good in traffic. Especially stop-and go traffic. My passengers always tell me to switch it on because it gives a smoother ride than me. It's also much more relaxing.

What about if I sent a proposal with my website to a bunch of investors that I know, and I want to see which ones clicked on it.

You could say the same about dogs and cats. Wouldn't everyone love it if their puppy or kitten would stay cute forever.

But then again, if you've somehow invented a way for animals to stay looking young forever, 7 billion humans might want a word with you...

SpaceX plans to deploy >4000 of their own satellites over the next few years. I wonder how Iridium reconcile SpaceX's plan with their own.

I find this depends a lot on where you are. In my house in California, I can leave the clothes in the washer a lot longer. In florida, the washer is already stinking most of the time. Even if I disinfect the washer occasionally with bleach, it still ends up stinking again. I put this down to the general humid environment.

It would be nice to be able to see the whole transcript instead of just that tiny scrollable section.

The US lost a significant part of their launch capability and ULA was the only provider left. They were free to charge whatever they wanted, and it was in the national interest for them to stay in business, hence the subsidy.

Now spacex is starting to compete, costs will come down. Is something not going as expected?

From the fire perspective, I suppose the positive aspects of musks proposal would be:

Cars are transported on skates, so the engines aren't running during the fire, reducing noxious fumes in the tunnel.

Cars are controlled automatically, reducing the chance of collision.

Since the skates for he cars are controlled automatically, they can be stopped/rerouted much earlier, avoiding bunching cars near the fire.

I hate my bookshelves. They are really ugly... a collection of mismatched colors, styles fonts.

I would pay for a service that would print out new spine stickers for all my books that cover the existing spines and create a consistent look for all of them.

Bonus points for an app that I just use to take a picture of my existing shelf and it figures out the rest.

And the advances in robotics necessary to handle processing the waste are probably just a few decades away.

And if we don't develop these machines, our AI augmented successors will.

Ironically, it's just really short-sighted to plan for something that far in the future.

When I tried cornmeal in a pizza oven, I ended up with what looked like black styrofoam. I think the corn 'popped' then burned. What did I do wrong?