* Posts by TRT

9611 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Sep 2009

Tesla driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after deadly Autopilot crash

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Though humans aren't bullet-proof...

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Re: <auto> from Greek autos, reflexive pronoun, "self, same" ...

Auto Erotic Asphyxiation is, I suppose, accidentally leaving the engine running whilst parked up in the garage to have quick wank?

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Re: <auto> from Greek autos, reflexive pronoun, "self, same" ...

I suppose "Aggravated Taking of a vehicle Without Consent" or even "TWOC" doesn't have quite the same ring to it for the name of a UK market driving game. I'm not sure that if it had been released under such a name in the US it would have done so well.

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Re: <auto> from Greek autos, reflexive pronoun, "self, same" ...

Yet no-one would say that automata are in any way thinking machines.

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Re: Assisted cruise control

Braking is bad in terms of fuel efficiency. Far better to ease off the gas and slow naturally.

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Re: Traffic lights?

So's this!

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I saw that documentary too. There were some with bad motivators, and even one that seemed intent on torturing a prisoner.

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Re: Assisted cruise control

I was annoyed by a hire Skoda I took last year. The cruise control was actually just a speed limiter. Utterly pointless. I was used to the Prius one that was actually very good and let you rest your leg on a long drive - speed control at your finger tips.

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Re: Assisted cruise control

Like Boeing did?

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Well if you were treating lane crossing as lane three to lane one in a single manoeuvre then you would probably have been better off treating it as two distinct manoeuvres - three to two, two to one. Thus you would have had to have move into a suitable and safe space in the middle lane before moving across to a suitable and safe space in lane one and the AEB wouldn't have cut in because it wouldn't have needed to.

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Yes, but will it also contact ATC and get clearance? Change to tower frequency? Perform engineering duties like the pre-landing check-list? Secures the approach and glide slope for exclusive use? Ensures that the runway is ready to accept a landing?

I mean I'm interested to know how sophisticated this system actually is... how does the expectation meet reality? Because I suspect that fully qualified pilots and those in the business know exactly what the limits, constraints and requirements of "Cat 3 auto piloting" actually are and would say that it's somewhat of a glib oversimplification to say that it will take off, fly a route and land the plane for you.

Much in the same way that "get rid of the overpaid, redundant button pushers. Driverless trains now!" is the cry from a large sector of society about any news involving Tube strikes - there's a lack of appreciation about the precise details of what needs doing, who does it, how much human involvement there really is and where it takes place.

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Having been driven around by other people, I still get twitchy when they don't start noticeably slowing down at a point on the road by which I would have been definitely doing so.

Foxstuck: Firefox browser bug boots legions of users offline

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Re: "Waterfox users were totally unaffected. ®"

"Telly meet tree" as an actor in one episode of UFO (Close Up) pronounced it.

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Re: Firefox has it's advantages over Waterfox when using older Core2Duo processors.

Code optimisation and code bloat.

UK government backs away from proposals to remove individuals' rights to challenge AI decision making

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The same taxonomic tree as "Service Improvement".

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Well thank goodness that this decision was made by humans and not AI.

Or was it? Hmm....

Planning for power cuts? That's strictly for the birds

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Of course. Cockneys are well known for the high level of irony in their vocabulary. As well as their sense of humour, given the multiple meanings of the word 'prick'.

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Re: Who HR's HR

Make yourself redundant by firing everyone! No Human Resources, no need for a head of HR!

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I think I know the building... and it was a gents WITH a disabled stall. Mind you, not all disabilities are wheelable.

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All that rat-shit was part of the one-way mechanism on the starter...

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And yet the word "dip-stick" is used to describe someone not very useful!

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Re: Who HR's HR

HR not PR. Auto correct!

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Re: Who HR's HR

After having been told by the head of PR that my lack of experience in SQL meant I wasn't suited for new role A and my application for a HoD post was aspirational and that the only role I would be considered for carried a drop of over £17kpa I sadly waved goodbye to the organisation pocketing a £12k severance and having used the prolonged restructuring period to go job hunting. I was one of the last out of the door which did unfortunately mean the leaving party and whip round amounted to no party and a £5 book token.

Around 8 weeks later I bumped into former head of PR in a tube station. She asked how I was and if I had found a new post. I told her I had - I was now HoD with special responsibility for repairing and optimising a SQL solution that the external developers had made a total mess of. Plus I had taken a £14kpa uplift in pay and had a 5 year guarantee on my contract. Being polite I asked how she was. They'd got rid of her post two weeks after I had left, was unsuccessful in applying for the new post but didn't mind as that was a drop of £23kpa and she was just heading for an interview for another post as a deputy head of HR at the same pay. I didn't see her again and don't know what became of her. And frankly I don't care!

Tesla Full Self-Driving videos prompt California's DMV to rethink policy on accidents

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Re: LIDAR vs. computer vision

"the problem then becomes fusing the sensor outputs and dealing with disagreements. "

Which brains do quite well. I've spent over a decade engaged in research on the human visual system and it's a source of wonder and marvel.

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Re: A self-driving car could save lives.

So could getting a taxi.

Just saying...

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Re: Smarter data = Smarter driver assists

"remember were they have had trouble in the past"

Stop treating them like they've actually got any intelligence at all. What do you mean by 'had trouble'? Those Waymo cars recognise when they're in trouble... it's when they haven't made any progress for 5 minutes when they have an active fare. Meanwhile 4 minutes 30 seconds ago the active fare has been on the blower to Waymo Central complaining that their car has got stuck. Having said all that, I am impressed with what Waymo have managed to achieve.

Also, street markings are fine on brightly sun lit Californian highways more or less devoid of trees, rainfall, leaves, accumulations of litter, snow etc. For 50% of the year road markings in the UK are invisible or barely visible.

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Re: "FSD is now available to all Tesla owners, who are willing to fork over $12,000 for it. ."

I did recently take a ride with a friend who had just bought a new Audi... you know that "new car smell" that's so sought after? A slightly heady mix of leather, carpet, light machine oil and lightly spiced rich fruit (I've no idea what that actually comes from)? Well this one reminded me of the olfactory component of the OOBE you get when taking the lid off a new Airfix kit.

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Re: Or look at this as an opportunity

How does the car KNOW that the signage is rogue, though? Does it calculate an error score based on deviations within its programmed sources of authority?

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Re: And they always pretend to be surprised

Time flies like an arrow.

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Re: Clippy

Because it's useful in the other scenario and a faff to turn on and off through preferences. You start a conditional block and get typing and lo! Your code is nicely bracketed.

Now if the IDE recognised, say /} as end of block which matched with a { typed afterwards or it recognised a selected block of text and didn't replace with { when you typed { but did a {...} instead then we would be laughing. There are IDEs that will enclose a highlighted block in different sorts of inverted commas but not {} or ().

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Re: Clippy

Modifying existing code... yes. Many IDEs do this, and if you are say moving a block of code into a conditional branch, then this feature can be a royal pain in the butt. You know which block of code you want to enclose, and you would rather put the } in yourself, but even if you put one of those FIRST, before the conditional or the {, then it still puts in a { }, meaning you have to remove the extra }.

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Re: Two Teslas

Just seen the Tollington Road one is still wrong as they use an all vehicles must turn left sign on the traffic lights.

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Re: As ever, fully autonomous cars

Meatbags driving has an incredibly LOW casualty rate comparatively. It's just not zero, and that's a laudable target. I reckon if they'd put all the resources that they have done into self-driving into taking aggressive, idiotic and inconsiderate drivers off the road permanently then they'd have had a lot more impact on those casualty figures.

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Re: And they always pretend to be surprised

But I dun'ever seen a 787-Max fly!

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Re: FSD vehicles

By Flashing Safety Devices, I take it you mean those little blinking lights that decorate the corners of some cars? I've rarely seen them used on Audis... e.g the Audi TFSI (This Fucker Seldom Indicates).

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Re: Two Teslas

Oh! Is that still the draft version of the new Highway Code?

You see I did feedback on that when it was up for consultation... and the main issue I found was that they made no distinction between a signalled and an un-signalled junction or junctions with or without signals for pedestrians, or how a driver is supposed to know if a pedestrian has signals or not now that they've taken to tucking the signals away on little boxes only visible to the pedestrian.

The way that they've written it, if I'm in a vehicle, turning left, and I have a green light and there's a pedestrian on the pavement on my left or even on the opposite side of the side road, then I have to stop and give way to them even if they might have a red man on that little box on the pole, and even if it means that I'll then run the risk of the lights changing and me being in conflict with other vehicles who were previously being held on red.

Seems ridiculously loosely written to me. If they're going to rely on the application of common sense then they might as well have cut around 2,500 words out of it and just out in a reminder about being courteous and HGV > car > bike > pedestrian as far as ability to inflict damage and injury goes.

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Re: Two Teslas

And that's WITHOUT the legitimate highways departments who simply can't get signage correct.

For example (after I complained about it at least six times they've now fixed this I see on street view when I went to check just now) the "keep left" downwards diagonal white arrow on blue background that directed vehicles to drive onto the pavement at the junction of Tollington Road and Holloway Road.

And at the junction of Roman Road and Watford Road in Elstree where there on the traffic lights there's a no right turn sign, a bus lane sign and no right turning green arrow on the traffic lights for the bus to turn right through its bus gate. This is another I complained about and this is what they came up with AFTER I nagged them about it. You can use the timeline view to see the dog's breakfast that it was before then.

And at the end of Watford High Street where the bus routes go straight ahead, but they must also turn right and are banned by the signage on the traffic lights. Thankfully the bus drivers have wetware which allowed them to ignore the traffic signs and continue driving the bus route they had been doing for some years previous.

And as for the much abused pass either side TO REACH SAME DESTINATION sign that has countless times been used as if it means just pass either side of a rather obvious obstruction in the road...

So basically if the DESIGNERS of road schemes can't even communicate the rules they want to employ for certain situations using a nationwide and standard set of icons, how can they even contemplate an AI to be able to understand the rules? And they still think that self-piloting vehicles are a viable thing of the future??!!

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Re: ROAD SIGNS

Not all of them are. STOP being one example. GIVE way and most roadworks signs are other examples.

But I do find that the work done in the 60s which informed signage and communications for the next 50 years has produced the best signs in the world. Unfortunately the gains we made in this are slowly being eroded as the complexity has increased and the "KISS" minimalist principle has been sidelined in favour of nannying and the increasingly litigious society here.

Billionaires see wealth double during pandemic as tech bros lead the charge

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Which brings to mind this...

It is the month of August and a resort town next to the shores of a lake looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. It is raining, everyone is depressed.

A rich tourist comes to town. He goes into the only hotel, and gives the owner a 100 dollar bill as a security deposit. He then asks the hotel owner if he can go and have a look around the hotel to see which room has the best view and to choose which he wants to stay in. He goes upstairs to inspect the rooms.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the butcher who had supplied bacon to cook the breakfasts all the last few months. The butcher takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollar bill and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that, in these hard times, had given her “services” on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and gives the hotel owner the 100 dollars to pay off her debt for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and says that he has changed his mind and won't be staying after all. The hotel proprietor hands back the 100 dollars and the tourist leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

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Re: ... would each get $100 or so.

Indeed on this very day there is a high profile case in the news.

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I always understood capitalism to be an economic system whereby goods and services come into being through investment and transfer of private capital primarily with a view to the realisation of an eventual increase in or return on that capital for the benefit of those who provided the capital, as opposed to investment and transfer of state owned or acquired funds for the benefit of the state and/or individuals within that state without any necessity for a monetary return. The basic upshot of which is that capitalism tends to reduce the size and influence of the state whereas socialism tends to increase it. The reality is that private capital holders see the state as a means of realising their returns just as much as the individual is, if not more so, and thus the size and reach of the state achieves a dynamic equilibrium; a state of unholy symbiosis.

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Tut!

I can't believe people haven't heard of Richard Branston.

Or is it that brown pickle is a cardinal sin on a cheese ploughman's? I know the reg's commentard community holds very strong views on certain comestible conundrums, such as the brown vs red sauce on a bacon butty debate.

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Although that there Virgin guy does make a jolly nice pickle to go on your ploughman's.

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Re: ... would each get $100 or so.

I wonder what % of what ranking gave money to those richest people?

I mean, I can't imagine that the 50% of the poorest on the planet have even HEARD of Amazon, let alone have a mobile phone and a credit card (except Visa) in order to buy something from there... Not that the "problem" lies with anyone, it's just how the money flows about that's fascinating; whilst most of us just sit there like a cat watching the fish in one of those wave machine aquariums.

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Six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion... is that 3.1 billion put together or averaged each? Because the 99.9999% thing seems to suggest collectively. Which is... shocking really. Mind you, you can't measure everything of value in $... can you?

Buy 'em by the punnet: Raspberry Pi offers RP2040 chips in bulk

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Re: Speed doesn't kill

Sudden changes of speed kill?

Microsoft rolls out Files On-Demand with tighter macOS integration – but it defaults to 'on' and can't be disabled

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Those are not the only Microsoft / O365 Apps that are actually just a portal into some other MS offering... kind of reminds me of those Stain Devils... One for each of 100 different kind of stain, but in essence there are only 4 different chemicals in them - an acid one, an alkaline one, an ester based one and an abrasive one.

Games Workshop has chucked another £500k at entrenched ERP project with no end to epic battle in sight

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Re: Profit margin!?

They weathered the recession anyway... with a good coat of Stirland Battlemire.

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Re: "more agile methodology"

Do they get to use Bard spells, such as "Mesmeric Singing of the Praises"?

Software guy smashes through the Somebody Else's Problem field to save the day

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Re: Dodgy connection

From Mouser?