* Posts by TopOnePercent

234 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jul 2011

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Piketty thinks the 1% should cough up 80%. Discuss

TopOnePercent

Re: If I had his and he had more, we'd both be tickled.

There's very little serious debate on the question of whether there should be an income tax at all

Income tax in England was implemented to fund war with France. So it seems only right that we either:

A) Declare war on France

B) Abolish it, or at the very least prune it back to a morally acceptable level - say 20%.

Due to the widepsread misuse of income taxes, I currently spend 20 hours a week working just to pay tax to fund others. How much of their time do they spend each week making my life better?

TopOnePercent
FAIL

Re: dietary habits of the 1900's 1%-ers

I take it that the people shown in this photo buying fresh fruit and vegetables were the very richest New York City had to offer at the time.

You've managed to go wrong three times in the same post.

Firstly you erroneously assume that the people buying the fresh fruit and veg do so every day rather than as an occasional treat.

Secondly, you've posted a photo of New York, when we're clearly duiscussing the UK. Got one for London? No, neither do I.

Thridly, the people in your photo are self evidently not "the poor".

TopOnePercent

The idea that without the threat of starvation and deprivation they would lie on the couch and eat bon-bons or get drunk is more of a bugaboo than a fact.

You've obviously no friends or relations dossing on welfare then. Before Labour opened the doors to all of Europe, we have millions of long term unemployed brits. After they opened the doors we still had the same amount of unemployed brits, but we also had several million eastern europeans that came here and miraculously found work. Work that wasn't supposed to exist.

How can that be if the long term unemployed brits were not choosing to make themselves so? Perhaps they were lying "on the couch and eat bon-bons" or getting drunk?

TopOnePercent

This article is typical of those who try to draw attention away from the facts; the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer both on an income and wealth basis.

Well, you're half right. The rich are getting richer, but so are the poor.

Even those on minimum wage have daily access to fresh fruit and vegetables. Only the very richest had access to that 100 years ago.

Even those on minimum wage have a centrally heated home with indoor plumbing. Only the very richest had access to that 60 years ago.

Even those on minimum wage have access to home computers. Only the very richest had access to that 30 years ago.

Even those on minimum wage have access to low cost foreign holiday flights. Nobody had access to that 20 years ago.

The poor have benefitted from advances in transportation, healthcare, diet, the internet.... the list is all but endless. The uber rich of 200 years ago would outright envy the lifestyles of the poor in Britain today.

TopOnePercent

Divide the wealth equally today...

.... and by this time next year, you'll once again have the rich and the poor. It may not be all the same people that are rich, but a good number of them will be. Almost all of the poor will once again be poor.

TopOnePercent

Re: wrong type of regression curve

Wealth tax might be one instrument, inflation is another, quantitative easing is sneakier, antibiotic resistant pandemic or crop-blight crueller; but politics will find an answer because if there is one lesson from history: hoarders eventually get their comeuppance & sharing is better alternative.

If there's only one economic lesson from history that lesson would be this:

Communism doesn't work! Socialism doesn't work. Capitalism has flaws but works better than any other system yet devised.

TopOnePercent

Really? Try buying a place to live in London on the average salary of 27,800GBP [1] then. Average house price is just over 592,000GBP [2].

People on average incomes have never bought average properties because the average household formation is 1.x people, and because the average equity isn't zero.

Lets say x is half a person, because I don't have the stats to hand, that now creates an income of £41,700. If we take a 4x multiplier on that we get to 166,800, and now we add a 10% deposit, and we're left a total of £183,480 which is more than enough to buy a 2 bed place in commutable distance of London. Rightmove has 100s of properties available for that price that are actually in London.

I've earned multiples of the average London income for years and I couldn't afford the house I wanted in London so I moved out. It's always been that way and it will be forever thus.

TopOnePercent

Wealth inequality is only a problem if you suffer from spite or envy. I care not how rich Bill Gates may be, only about the standard of living I can provide to my family.

TopOnePercent

Not bad, but not quite right....

If we have children, we do not need to save to educate them

Yes we do. State education is better than no education, but that is all it is better than.

The UK continues its educational decline as the grade curve continues its ever upward trend. The kids aren't getting smarter, the teachers aren't getting better, its just the exams getting easier (or replaced entirely by course work).

So yes, if you want a quality education for your child, you very much do need to save for it. Not only will those savings not be free of taxes, but you won't get a refund on the taxes paid for the state education you don't use.

We'd all agree that if you've £100k in equity in your two-bedder somewhere then you've £100k of wealth. But what if you've an inheritable tenancy at £5k a year below the market rent in social housing? You might have another 30 years to live in that place: is that £150k in "wealth" or not?

Obviously you have to count that £150k as wealth. The legally mandated subsidy (40%) provided to social housing must be counted as wealth in the same was as you imputed rent from a mortgage free home should be counted as wealth.

The rich getting richer is inevitable - it has to happen. However, that does not imply that the poor must be getting poorer, for that is demonstrably not happening.

Glassholes beware: This guy's got your number

TopOnePercent

We're gonna be overwhelmed - may as well accept it.

I find the whole idea of Glass to be a little odd. Constantly invading other people’s privacy so you can watch cat videos on the internet instead of looking where you’re going. That said, at 40, I’m not exactly the core target market.

The celebrity obsessed, fame hungry, me me me generation of post millennials will lap this up once it drops in price, as they’re used to having significant chunks of their life posted online.

If the borg marketing department are reading this, what you need to do is pay a celebutard (the more vacuous the better) to wear these so Heat magazine readers can experience life through the eyes of Paris Hilton/Jordan/Peter Andrex/whoever. Then they’ll want to emulate them like literally every other aspect of their lives, and they’ll fly off the shelves. This idea is yours on licence for the princely sum of 0.25% of revenue in the 12 months following the celebutard Glassing.

You've got two weeks to beat off Cryptolocker, GameoverZeus nasties

TopOnePercent
Joke

Encrypted you say....

... encrypted like eBay passwords?

Amazon workers in Germany celebrate strike anniversary with ... ANOTHER STRIKE

TopOnePercent

Re: Mystic Meg

As far as I understand the "middle class" in the USA earn less than their grandparents while the 1% earn more than ever.

You can pretty much thank globalisation for that. And for globalisation, you can pretty much thank the baby boomers - it was a cynical ploy to prevent their Gen X children earning more than them due to the wage inversion that classically occurs when a massive generation is followed by a tiny one.

The other reason being simply that those who have income from a job will usually lose out to those with income from a job and assets. The bigger the asset base the greater the income derivable from it. I don't see why you view that as somehow wrong or immoral.

In other words a 2% pay rise is not much or nothing. If the inflation was say 2,5% and the pay rise 2% then it would be the American way and nothing to be proud about.

You're trying to connect two seperate things. Inflation is the average increase in the cost of living. Pay, as in salary, is the replacement cost of someone that can do the role to an acceptable standard. Increases in inflation don't logically bring about increases in pay.

You might side with the 1% but I bet you are nowhere close. Or you are just sarcastic.

Well, I've a little way to go yet, but I'll bet I'm closer to it than anyone that ever voted to strike (millionaire union barons like bob crow being the exceptions). I'm also sarcastic.

And I still don't believe that the union will meet their goal. Clearly any court would decide that Amazon workers are indeed logistics workers rather than retail/mall employees, so its unclear why the union want to argue the point - its just cynical manipulation of their members for political ends.

TopOnePercent

Mystic Meg

My prediction for how this unfolds is that the union don't get the 5% rise they want.

Its not the 1970s anymore, so if you don't like the terms on offer, you're more than welcome to quit and seek employment elsewhere, while someone that does like the terms on offer fills your vacated role.

Google's driverless car: It'll just block our roads. It's the worst

TopOnePercent

Re: The courts will decide

BMW tried a similar "advancement" when they brought out that weird motorbike with a fully surround roll cage. The idea that you wear a safety harness and have a roll cage might mean that you don't have to wear a safety helmet, thus making a motorbike more appealing. Unfortunately, the law says that on all two wheeled vehicles the driver has to wear a helmet. The project was cancelled.

It wasn't only about avoidance of helmetage though - it was also designed to stop you breaking your balls on the fuel tank as you launch over old Mrs Miggins bonnet, while she executes a right turn without appropriate observation.

TopOnePercent
FAIL

1 second is quicker than a human can react to the light changing and go from brake to accelerator (for the US), or select 1st and release the handbrake.

Congratulations, you just failed your driving test. No, really, you did.

Red goes to red + amber, which is when you select gear and remove handbrake, and as they change to green, you go. You certainly don't wait for green to begin gear selection, or if you do, then please refer yourself to your nearest driving school for some further tuition.

TopOnePercent

Re: I will be the one to say it

I don't know about british unions , but Australian ones used to have "go slow" or "work to rule" campaigns.

In the UK unionised staff are on a permanent "go slow" for their normal working day. Its why they only exist now in the public sector.

TopOnePercent
Stop

Re: Highway neutrality

The sooner people stop driving cars the better for everybody. Want to drive, do a track day.

I want one of these JohnnyCabs, I really do. I'll use mine to commute to work, while either working, sleeping, or relaxing. It will be so much cheaper, faster, more reliable, and less stressfull than public transport.

However, that is the only journey I'll be using it for; You'll get my car keys from my cold dead hands.

I enjoy driving. I've spent a lot of time and money over the last 20 years to become an excellent driver. Not one who merely thinks he's good, but one that can back that up either on the road, or on a track.

I hold a couple of advanced test passes, have done skid pan training, and many many track days and car handling events.

I have the best part of 20 years no claims bonus to verify my safety on the road, and I have never had points or a speed awareness course.

During that time, I've driven every car like I stole it, and routinely broken the speed limit where I felt it was safe to do so. When I'm driving I make all of the decisions because I bear all the responsibility.

JohnnyCabs won't be safer than I am, but they may one day be as safe. They will be convenient, and for that I may be willing to compromise a little of my safety. What they will also be, is significantly safer than the average driver, but that is mostly because the average driver is an idiot who is only peripherally aware of their surroundings and puts as much thought into their actions as your typical celebrity puts into advancing the boundaries of rocket science.

Beware advocating the abolition of activities the general public don't excel at, because you'll find yourself tied to a Surface with only user level access sooner than you can say "But I know what I'm doing!"

TrueCrypt turmoil latest: Bruce Schneier reveals what he'll use instead

TopOnePercent

"TrueCrypt was created in order to provide disk encryption for operating systems that do not have built-in support for it. Currently the only one is Windows XP and since it is 'no longer safe' to use it, there’s no point in maintaining an encryption solution for it."

Erm... yeah there is. I use TrueCrypt for my cloud storage. I have no kowledge of, or indeed any interest, regarding what OS that storage resides upon. I just have a nice big encrypted vob that I can mount on any OS, make changes, and have synced down to all of my machines and accessible to me globally via the web.

London officials declare cabbie-bothering Uber is legal – for now

TopOnePercent
Go

I can't wait to see what the cabbies union makes of self driving google cars. Quite obviously someone will setup a business allowing you to hail a car using a smartphone and be driven where you want to go based on a fee.

As the car is a capital expenditure rather than time based cost, with fuel being the only distance related item, a fixed price fare should be possible.

The best part? No driver. So anyone that can afford the car and relevant licnecing can set up as their own cab firm running as many vehicles as they can afford.

Think about the possibilities..... EasyCab budget market with plastic chairs and flooring, normally upholstered cars, luxury hire with more space and leather / wood... SleazyCab self driving stripper cabs that charge more per mile.... the opportunities will be endless.

So I reckon instead of holding back progress, the cabbies should see which way the wind is blowing, start saving up, and then retire to Spain while their JohnnyCab earns their living for them.

Jade Rabbit nearly out of hop

TopOnePercent
Joke

They should have outsourced some of the wiring design to Italy. A small electrical fire would be enough to perk it up for a few more days.

TrueCrypt considered HARMFUL – downloads, website meddled to warn: 'It's not secure'

TopOnePercent

The real questions

Seems to me there's 2 likely possible triggers for all this:

1) The audit has indeed found something big and has notified the developers ahead of time. That would be courteous and professional, so not unexpected *IF* the audit found something.

2) Its just a hack of the site rather than the software.

I suspect #1 is rather more likely than #2, but both surely spell the end of TrueCrypt. so the real question is to what should everyone migrate? TrueCrypt was pretty much the universal standard, so is there anything waiting in the wings to take over, and if so, will it now be audited?

ICO raps UK Student Loans Co for leaking MEDICAL files and more

TopOnePercent
Mushroom

Toothless morons

Why oh why can't the ICO grow a set of balls and start issuing deterrent level fines?

Better still, lobby the government to change the law such that a company executive must be legally resposible for data privacy. This will allow serious breaches to result in bans from holding further directorships for a period of say 10 years.

Seriously, we'd be better off without these clowns. All they're doing is providing a cloak of legitimacy to the inept, and queering the pitch regarding individuals being allowed to sue for breaches of the act.

Softly softly is fuck all oftly.

It's Google's no-wheel car. OMG... there aren't any BRAKES

TopOnePercent
Joke

You'll look even more special when the car fails to notice and drives off without you!

TopOnePercent

Re: Horse Law

The really interesting case will be the first time a horse and a JohnnCab collide.

Horses are allowed on the road for 2 main reasons.

#1 - they used the roads before cars existed

#2 - they use the roads in very limited numbers

Its highly unlikely, in my view, that JohnnyCabs will be accorded the same legal rights as a horse, as unlike a horse, they can be fitted with manual overrides, and proper cars pre-date them.

What is more likely is that the occupants will bear legal liability due to the manual override button ("But your honour, I was up to my nuts in Chlamydia at the time and neither of us saw the old lady step out" is unlikely to be a defence), with the vehicle owners insurer bearing fiscal liability, followed by google bearing both if a defect can be proven.

TopOnePercent

Re: Total Recall

Are these supposed to be be replacements for taxis? If 50 or 60 different people could conceivably have been sat in the same seat as you, unsupervised, that day I'd want someone to clean up all the urine, poop, blood, semen, snot, whisky bottles and big mac wrappers at regular intervals.

If you think that's bad, try using the Tube!

There was some study done a good few years back on Tube seats which were sent to a lab for analysis. The results made exceptionally grim reading.

TopOnePercent

Re: Can these cars be sent off without a passenger on-board?

"Thanks. Now, go downtown to the dealer and get yourself serviced. Be back here by 5:30pm."

I see your point, but its even better than that - virtually no servicing. An electric motor is basically an alternator ran in reverse, and you don't routinely service an alternator.

A major service of a normal car typically includes:

Brake fluid - you'll still need this doing.

Gearbox oil - you might need this depending on gearbox.

Coolant - you won't need this.

Engine oil - you won't need this.

Air filter - you won't need this.

Oil filter - you won't need this.

Fuel filter - you won't need this.

Diff oil - You won't need this as driverless cars will almost certainly be front "engined" front wheel drive - possibly 4 wheel drive if they later use 4 motors.

Cam belt - you won't need this.

You might need to top up washer fluid, but its possible later cars won't have windows, just screens onto which images are projected.

I guess you could still wash & wax it, but many driverless cars will simply be a white good, and will have fibreglass panelling that doesn't rust, so you could just leave it out in the rain. Later versions may have solar cells instead of bodywork so your car can recharge a little while you're at work.

Tesla's top secret gigafactories: Lithium to power world's vehicles? Let's do the sums

TopOnePercent

You're forgetting the model where batteries get exchanged at 'petrol' stations. In that model, refuelling is quicker than filling a conventional car. The batteries are charged overnight on cheap electricity and you just buy the energy, leasing the container in the same way as Calor's model works.

Great, so long as the vehicle you buy is sold with old batteries and the range is measured using such. Otherwise you find you get the manufacturer specified range out of your first charge, then swap at a filling station and get some knackered old batteries in exchange which drops your range to half.

Anyione that doesn't believe me should feel free to send me a shinny new battery for my Lumia, and I'll send you my 1.5 year old battery that needs to be charged twice a day.

Tens of thousands of 'Watch Dogs' pirates ENSLAVED by Bitcoin botmaster

TopOnePercent

Re: Monetizing the pirates...

If a reliable crypto currency ever emerges (sorry BitCoiners, it just isn't, yet) this may well become the licencing model of the future for software.

It's possible it could become more difficult to escape than is worth the effort, which is pretty much ideal in licencing terms, and moves everyone onto a pay as you work/play model.

'I was trained as a spy' says Snowden

TopOnePercent

Re: Obviously still sore...

Interesting that The Register comments have become a target for pro nsa types.... It is all too obvious chaps...do piss off and play elsewhere...

I'm unashamedly pro NSA, DoD, CIA, MIx etc They have done a great many positive things (you're reading this on one of them) and have much to offer in future. Even the best of the best make mistakes and get things wrong. In this case, quite possibly very wrong. That, however, doesn't mean they got the Snowden thing right, and it doesn't excuse the apparent reluctance to learn from it.

It is all too obvious chaps...do piss off and play elsewhere...

It's supposed to be obvious. Did you imagine people would be universally anti-agency? Really? Nobody is disputing that lessons should be learned and a direction change may be needed, but that doesn't mean the world would be better without the intelligence agencies.

I was going to suggest that I presume you'll change username when you grow up in order to distance yourself from the digital record of your petulent childhood, but much like you that would have been playing the man not the ball, and that rarely enhances credibility.

Unless of course you actually own the The Register or indeed the internet?

TopOnePercent

Re: Sorry me old septic, but Bond is British

And in truth, spies aren't like James Bond, either.

I quite agree.

The point I should have made clearer, was that for me, he would have been better off embracing the low level employee tag. That low level employee pulled down the pants of intelligence agencies on at least 2 continents, and rodgered them senseless on international TV. So who's the fool? Well, it ain't the low level guy, is it?

Were someone to rip off the secrets of the bank at which I work, it would be a low level IT staffer. The senior managers don't have the technical capabilities to pull it off, and they don't have access to the systems either (legitimate or otherwise).

Low level staff do the doing. High level staff do the talking about the doing. T'was ever thus.

TopOnePercent
Paris Hilton

Sorry me old septic, but Bond is British

Yes, he did work for the alphabet soup.

Yes, he did obtain classified information.

And yes, he had a crack at bedding Anna Chapman (who really was a spy) and that has to count for something.

But in truth, he's no more James Bond than any other IT guy that's played Bond on Playstation.

For me he's destroyed his own credibility, but that has done no damage whatsoever to the credibility of the information he released. It doesn't diminish or excuse the intrusions into peoples private lives. And it shouldn't be allowed to undermine the need to have a realistic debate about the extent of surveillance the public are willing to accept.

Paris because she's about as credible as a Jane Bond as Snowden is as James Bond.

Poll: Climate change now more divisive than abortion, gun control

TopOnePercent
FAIL

Comminism always fails. environMentalists need to look elsewhere for solutions.

Let’s assume AGW is real and it is bad (in reality neither are in anyway scientifically proven).

So what do we do? Why are all the proposed solutions based upon the failed Marxist ideology of less? It makes it seem very much like a watermelon – a green shell around a red melon.

Nonetheless, accepting AGW as real, our only real world options are R&D. Replacement fuels mean nuclear power (Windmills simply won’t work. Ever). We need far more efficient jet engines, and then to turn over vast tracts of land to forest such that we can remove the carbon from burning jet fuel, and that means we have to abolish state subsidy of not-farming such as the CAP. We need to have fewer people, so again state subsidy of children must end by abolishing child support – those that can afford kids would have them and perpetuate the race, while those that can’t couldn’t then have them.

The irony of course, is that the chicken little’s that believe the sky is falling rail against all of those solutions to their problem. What they propose instead is to try to penalise everyone until nobody flies, nobody drives, nobody can heat their homes in winter, until people just have and do less. Communism, in essence. What makes that ironic, rather than just sad, is that those of us that know AGW is a crock, or believe the jury is still out, need do nought but live our lives as we wish, and we’ll continue to do so.

Some advice for the hockey team - Accept the models are wrong (when they can predict the past 200 years weather without any knowledge of it, then they *might* be able to predict the future), and refocus yourselves on the things you can achieve and can influence, or you’ll simply waste your lives trying to convince me to waste mine. Instead of wasting 100s of millions jetting off to conferences all over the globe, video conference instead and spend the money insulating your neighbours home – after all, if you’re right then it matters not who emits the CO2.

LulzSec turncoat Sabu avoids jail time thanks to co-operating with Feds

TopOnePercent

Not cool

Sabu seems to be your typical keyboard warrior. Talks very big online, but faced with real world consequences of his actions he simply can’t stand up to it.

That’s not to excuse the actions of law enforcement, if what has been reported is correct, as it seems to me to be digital entrapment. Just as DeLorean wouldn’t have had the first clue where & how to set up a mahoosive coke deal had the FBI not enabled, encouraged, and entrapped him into doing it; I strongly suspect that the some of the hacks for which people are serving jail time would not have happened without the FBI, via Sabu, encouraging, enabling, and ultimately entrapping them into doing it.

I’ve not yet read any reporting of a Mitnick-like ban from the internet/computers for a few years. Seems to me he’s basically walked away almost as though it never happened for him, and that just seems wrong. I can understand a reduced penalty for cooperation, but would he really have walked if he’d got busted with a van full of coke, provided he could point out someone else with a ship full? No. So why is online different?

Swiping your card at local greengrocers? Miscreants will swipe YOU in a minute

TopOnePercent
Mushroom

Re: Windows my dear Watson..

I'm guessing but I imagine it is just Windows malware.

http://www.eweek.com/security/java-primary-cause-of-91-percent-of-attacks-cisco.html

And you'd almost certainly have guessed wrong. Entrenched loyalties and miguided myopic viewpoints are the biggest threat to secure computing, not the hackers.

New XSS vuln hits eBay as rubbish passw0rds persist

TopOnePercent
Thumb Down

ICO are worthless

They're just a tick box exercise so the government have delegated responsibility to someone.

I've had various arms of the public sector wilfully breach the DPA in the past, and when reported to the ICO, they simply laughed it off. "We've written to <insert hopeless gov dept here> and reminded them of their responsibilities under the DPA".... well, yeah, but I'd already done that prior to raising the complaint.

The only way the DPA will be taken seriously is with large mandatory penalties and enforced dismissals of those responsible. Anything else is tinkering around the edges of a system that doesn't work.

NOT APPY: Black cab drivers enraged by Hailo as taxi tech wars rage on

TopOnePercent

Re: GPS is shite ....

I've been a truck driver for 20 years.

A little less than I've been driving a car for, but I do see the value in that experience.

You and I could both do a 200 mile run to somewhere, me in my truck and you following your Satnav and I'd arrive before you despite you having a 15MPH speed advantage because quite simply despite all the IQ routing and all that rubbish, it doesn't beat years of experience of the characteristics of the road network.

Over 200 miles? No, sorry, you've got that very wrong. A 200 mile journey will involve about 150 miles of trunk roads, meaning I'll already be about 30 minutes ahead of you before any local knowledge comes to the fore. And you're assuming you don't get stuck behind a caravan, slower truck, or other dawdler that I could overtake which could increase our speed differential substantially.

You've also fallen into the trap of assuming that my 20+ years knowledge would be wholly disregarded and I'd only follow the SatNav. Why would I do that when I know the roads well enough to know many of the same short cuts you know, but also can better access many in a car that aren't suitable for your truck.

I've been using Satnav for over a decade, first using Tomtom on a Nokia N70, and it is far from anywhere near capable of finding the truly quickest route given the time of day and day of week.

I agree, but that isn't its real purpose. Lets say I want to get from The Gherkin in the City to nappy valley in Clapham. I know the roads very well and would select a route as quick or quicker than the black cab (I used to live there which trumps the odd fare in that direction every few weeks) and definately faster than GPS. The Nav I only need if I'm going somewhere I don't know well or haven't been before. And that won't be the whole journey - I can drive as far as my knowledge takes me before falling back on the SatNav.

Nobody here is proposing black cabs be banned from the road. You'll still be able to pay over the odds for them if you wish. All anyone is asking for is the rest of us have free choice to use something else other than the monopoly.

"The Knowledge" doesn't substantially cut journey times over a little experience and a Sat Nav. Many minicab drivers have as much experience as black cab drivers and a similar understanding of the road layout. It just doesn't justify the fare premium, and the cabbies know it, which is why they're creating a fuss about it.

TopOnePercent

Re: GPS is shite ....

GPS is shite ....

Because I can, I stick my Nokias GPS "here" drive app on, most journeys.

It invariably chooses the "wrong" route. Yes, it may have calculated it as "quickest", but on the odd occasion I choose to follow it, I find it takes me the most obscure way possible, and has no knowledge of speed bumps, nasty right turns, or junctions where it's better to approach from a different direction to avoid right turns.

If a taxi driver is following that, rather than knowing the proper route, it's *not* a substitute for the knowledge.

Fine. If enough people agree with you they have nothing to worry about as Hailo / Uber et al won't be sufficient competition.

However, on the off chance most or even some people are willing to live with GPS guided cabs (who incidentally will learn the best routes the same way black cabs do - by driving them a lot) then why should some archaic monopoly be preserved to the financial cost of everyone else?

Black cab drivers have been having a laugh for 20 years. Technology has largely made them obsolete, and with the advent of Google JohnnyCabs when they hit the road, totally obsolete. Industries come and industries go, being Luddite about it didn't help Ned.

California gives green light to test self-driving cars on public roads

TopOnePercent

multiple, independent monitoring systems can be used to check and recheck all the system to ensure everything is working. If it is not, it reports to the ''driver", gets them to take control, and drive the vehicle to a place for checking and repair if required.

The driver will be asleep or drunk when the alert comes in. They'll then need time to wake up, realise what's happening, come up with a plan to avoid any impending accident, and then execute it. If they need to sober up too then it'll all take a lot longer.

Whatever the failure is will already have caused any accident it was going to cause a long time before the fleshy bit gets busy with evasive action. It's why the shuttle pilot isn't allowed to watch cat videos, drink or sleep while flying the shuttle, to cut down on effective handover time.

TopOnePercent
Go

Re: good news if

good news if

As long as they are programmed so they can't tailgate or overtake badly, I'm in favour.

Tailgaiting isn't an issue - they'll be programmed to do it safely. If you do suffer from it currently, just pull over and let the asshat go be someone elses accident.

Overtaking will rarely be required as all the JohnnyCabs will be driving at the speed limit, not 20 in a 30 or 40 in a 60 etc. Speed limits could even rise because average driving standards will improve.

TopOnePercent
Terminator

People problem

As usual, people will be the problem with this.

How can a human “assume control if the automation fails”? People that are supposed to be driving their vehicles don’t pay sufficient attention to what they’re doing which leads to a lot of accidents. The chances of them paying enough attention to notice the tech has failed and have the reaction times to correct it are slim to none. Not unless the car also policies its drivers awareness and stops if they’re sleeping, reading, chatting, or doing their bloody make-up.

While I think auto cars will reduce the overall injury rate, questions still need to be answered regarding who is legally responsible for its actions – someone has to be. You can pretty much guarantee it won’t be the car makers, or the state, which leaves the owner. When their JohnnyCab causes an accident and the impact wakes them up, 1 gets 10 they’ll invent a story blaming the innocent party because A) they were asleep so don’t know what happened, and B) they won’t believe their car could have been at fault. So now the cars will need secure 360 degree video recording building it that also records what the driver/passenger was doing.

Still further questions surround how these cars can be made to stop after an accident assuming their passengers are asleep or drunk. Will it always flawlessly detect that it’s just ran over old Mrs Miggins and stop, or will it carry on regardless. My money is on the latter because had it been aware of Miggins, it’d not have ran her over. Some hit & run drivers later hand themselves in to police or their friends & family report them, but if the driver and vehicle are completely unaware they’ve had an accident?

None of the problems are particularly hard to resolve technically, but people will get involved. Ambulance chasers, baby kissers, scammers looking for a quick buck, the anti-car lobby, and the speed enforcement industry. They’ll ruin, retard, and reduce the possibilities that could have been.

Self driving cars will come. They will be safe or at least safer than the average motorist. They just won’t be all they could be if everyone was pulling in the same direction.

You know all those resources we're about to run out of? No, we aren't

TopOnePercent

Diamonds. These are plentiful, made rare only by monopoly. But if you want a flawless 1000+ carat, the last of those was found in 1905 (cullinan).

We can make diamonds pretty well as large as we want. The scientific and engineering processes are solved, but it's just not cost efficent - despite the wholly artificial scarcity brought about by monopoly.

Much the same we can and do grow sapphires - military equipment use larger sapphires than we'd ever find naturally occurring in any quantity.

Your point, particularly with reference to Blue John (which I'd never heard of) seems sound, not least because we don't fully understand how its colouring works. However, had we not used the resources we would not have had the art work produced with them to enjoy down the centuries.

There's a whole scary debate of who the worlds resources belong to in global generational terms, but ultimately posession is 9/10ths of the law and its always 'current' generations that have the strongest claim resulting from their current possession of the resources.

Fuel for jets DOES grow on trees

TopOnePercent

Re: Scale

If you want solar energy and you can spare the land, use solar cells and make fuel (like ammonia, say) directly

Ammonia has only half the calorific value of kerosene, so can't be used for flight. It could be used for other transport though and is definately a good technology to have.

I agree, solar (in the right locations), nukes, tidal, and natural gas from biomass degredation could all form part of an internationally cohesive energy policy. Its just that none of them, bar nukes, can fly a plane, and nobody wants a nuclear reactor flying over their house.

Due to policies like the CAP, vast percentages of European farmland lie forever dormant. Quite clearly we could grow significantly more crops for fuel than we do now. Vegetation may not be able match current jet fuel requirements, but it doesn't have too. Flying will become more efficient, and it could always become more expensive too in order to trim back demand, such that one day we may be able to pass peak oil without suffering devastating impacts on our quality of life.

There's no one magic bullet that's waiting to take over from oil, but eucalyptus based jet fuel would be another few rounds tucked away in the armoury to help fuel the future.

TopOnePercent

Only one small problem... well two actually... some arseholes in Canberra who appear to be in the pay of big oil and big coal mining and really love fracking would never allow this to come about. They wouldnt get enough of a backhander from the guys producing the oil to make this feasible.

I quite agree, however, it would be nice to have the tech banked so it can be wheeled out when the "arseholes in Canberra" run out of other options. Sure, it won't be as mature as it could have been, but the decades following peak oil (again, *IF* we ever get there) would allow time to season the processes and preserve the travel opportunities people now rely upon.

Though I have to confess, I'd like to see fracking further developed as a technology, mostly because it would allow the UK a measure of energy independance should war or politics turn off the supply taps.

TopOnePercent
Thumb Up

Excellent news

Alternatives to dinosaur based jet fuel are one of the major stumbling blocks in bringing to an end the oil age. *IF* we ever get to peak oil, we won't have more than a few decades to resolve the issue or people will face significant lifestyle changes - my own family are spread over 3 countries in 2 continents - visiting would be difficult or impossible without flight.

There's simply no reason to divert crop space away from human consumable food. We could just abolish the CAP and pay farmers to grow stuff rather than paying them to not grow it.

Congress guts law to restrict NSA spying, civil liberty groups appalled

TopOnePercent

Re: Bring on the crypto-anarchy

I'm pretty sure said "people" will have a far better grasp on the need to secure their comms than your Avg Joe does.

You'd think so, sure. But then you'd be wrong:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/22/ba_jihadist_trial_sentencing/

Excel look up tables and a substitution cypher FFS. They're mostly derranged idiots.

Criminals have known about finger prints for > 100 years, but its amazing how many are caught because they don't think to wear gloves when committing crime.

If you were to plan to commit a crime (a proper one, not speeding), it'd probably be such a rare occurrance for you that you'd plan well and execute effectively. For those whom this is part of their normal day; they get sloppy, they make mistakes, or they just plain don't bother all the time.

Making strong encryption seamless, prevalent, and difficult or impossible to break really will protect these people, from themselves as much as from the agencies who do need to get into their comms.

10000000:1 the spooks have more info on those politicians than they'd ever tell you, and said class being said class, probably far more than enough to coerce them into NOT doing anything that might change the status quo.

I completely agree, which is why the only way to force change is to ensure widespread public demand for it that politicians can't ignore. To achieve that, the debate has to move beyond the current all or nothing trench warfare, which is neither pragmatic or effective.

TopOnePercent

Re: Bring on the crypto-anarchy

If legal reform isn't going to win, then change the rules of the game. Even the NSA can't break well-implemented cryptography, so let us put it everywhere, and make is so easy to use as to be transparent.

The only small snag with that is the people you do want to monitor are now protected too, No, really, you do want to monitor some people. Simplistic platitudes regards freedom & safety aren't a useful counter argument.

There needs to be a real debate about how we monitor terroists & criminal scum, while impinging on decent folks freedom as little as possible. Some intrusion is inevitable in order to determine which group you belong too.

Once the debate has been had, hopefully change can be implemented. At the moment what you have is the agencies in their trenches more or less saying "We need it all", and the tinfoil hatters in theirs ranting that the agencies "don't need any widespread electronic surveillance", each pointing at the other as the problem.

For as long as nothing changes, and be under no illusions, nothing *IS* changing, then the alphabet soup agencies will carry on as they are.

Don't snap SELFIES at the polls – it may screw up voting, says official

TopOnePercent

"It would depend on exactly what they were taking a photograph of. We have told them to take a note of the names and addresses of anyone doing it. But we would not necessarily call the police."

Do polling staff have the power to compel disclosure of a persons name and address?

I realise you'll have given it as part of the process of obtaining your ballot paper, but it doesn't follow that the staff will be able to recall the details as given.

I'm not for a minute suggesting a polling booth is an appropriate place to take photos, or that taking "selfies" are not an indicator of whether an individual is a self obsessed, attension seeking, and delusional wannabe famous bellend; I leave that up to the reader to decide....

E-cigarettes help you quit – but may not keep you alive

TopOnePercent

Re: 2nd hand vapours?

2nd hand vapours?

Less bad than smoke, I'll agree, but it certainly isn't "just water"

Nothing you can smell is just water; from rose petals through kebabs, and onto farts. It may not be your roses, your kebab, or your farts you’re smelling, but I’m pretty sure you don’t worry about passive rose-ing?

If any scientific studies reveal health risks from passive vaping that exceed background noise, then there may be a reason to look again at when and where vaping is appropriate. Until then, passive vaping is no more dangerous than passive farting, and it’s probably more socially acceptable.

TopOnePercent
Stop

Stop banning things!!!

I don’t smoke. I’ve never smoked (well, the odd thing at Uni and fist full of cigars a year).

eCigs are a fantastic invention that the smoke Nazis really should be welcoming. Passive vaping will kill even fewer people than passive smoking (still no real evidence this is harmful though I personally suspect it is). In terms of saving lives, it will save more people than almost any other invention this millennium.

Unfortunately, the fun police have already had vaping banned on public transport - I can just about see why, but really the smell is no worse than cheap perfume and Essex girls are still allowed on trains. Vaping no more normalises smoking than the anti-smoking lobby normalise state control, oppression, and Puritanism. And even were it true that vaping normalises vaping, well as far as we know its harmless so there's nothing to worry about - its just technological chewing gum.

I’ve lost enough family members in the generations before me to smoking related cancers. I don’t want to lose more from the generations to come just because some trumped up snivelling asshat from Islington has a raging hard-on for smokers, and due to being bullied at school now wants to use the government to exact revenge on anyone he can.

Brits to vote: Which pressing scientific challenge should get £10m thrown at it?

TopOnePercent

Re: desalination plants have it covered.

desalination plants have it covered.

Not when you are a landlocked, desert ridden country

To solve that problem we have legs. Countries are an artificial construct, so simply leave and move closer to water, and allow neighbouring countries with coast line or waterways to annex parts of the desert.

The world would arguably be a better place if Zimbabwe or Afghanistan ceased to be nations and instead were broken up and divided amongst their neighbours.

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