442 karma · joined January 25, 2013
I see, in general (and I am a certified scrummaster, FWIW), that companies tend to embrace sprints - usually going for two weeks - and daily standups (which they might do poorly, but at least they try). Everything else - estimation sessions, lessons learned, burndown charts - are up for grabs. Maybe that's a failure of the company. Maybe that's a failure or Agile, for failing to take into account the normal inertia of companies - I don't konw. It is better than waterfall, but it's not fully embraced.
It's not any one thing; it just seems to bog down, and I can't noodle out why, except Firefox seems to be the common denomator ATM.
Well, then, say goodbye to the Disney channel, the most oversaturated channel out there.
However, I fully agree this was a ridiculous stunt. They could have gotten the same results by demonstrating (on the highway, if they insisted) the air conditioner going full blast, the radio, and the picture of the hackers on the screen. Anything else (cutting transmission, obscuring visibility) should have been saved for a safer environment. The point still would have been made.
And it's got nothing to do with the vehicle and driver itself (though I wonder how the hackers knew the exact driving situation - was it plastered with cameras?) - what if two unrelated vehicles got in an accident for some reason and the test driver had to get out of the way, but couldn't?
And to make it worse, the cranked radio made it hard for the tester to communicate with the hackers. Very dangerous stunt.
Also, and I know it was unrelated to this particular hack, but if the UConnect recognizes voice commands (I assume so), and sends it back for processing, then might it not also be able to bug (eavesdrop) on the car's interior?
Many disturbing revelations came out of this, and I applaud them for making it known, but I criticize them harshly for the cavalier way they endangered public safety.
I can understand patenting things like file formats (e.g.: PSD) but general computer operation "controlling tones over a device connected to telephone lines to initiate a connection between a remote computer and a local one" or the more stupid GUI patents or obvious usage patents.
I have no problem if they all go away.
Synthesizers have had the same capability as shown in the video, but you had to reach to the side and twirl a wheel to get the same effect, which detracts from the playability.
Initially, this is not suited for traditional classical (probably better for jazz) but who's to say someone couldn't write a new classical based on this instrument (although goodness knows what the musical notation would be).
Really, though, it gives rise to other potential dangers (not that that's a reason to not do it). Imagine a USB flash drive with a full computer behind it (but so small you'd not know it was there).
There are real uses that would benefit greatly from this, such as artificial eyes that could do whole image processing and send it on to the brain.
By the same token, I've been interviewed myself where I've been given weird shit questions like others have mentioned; not the blender one, but shit along that line. That's nothing I personally do without some serious contemplation, not to be achieved in 5 minutes in an interview. Anyone who does so likely knew the answer ahead of time or is extremely puzzle-oriented. I think the real test is to examine the puzzle-solving processes of the candidate, but as a rule I don't think much of those kinds of questions.
On all of these, flavor has been bred out in favor of looks and hardiness, and we now have a generation of people who don't know what the stuff really tasted like. Hell, I'm forgetting what some of it is like myself, until I eat a different or heritage variety. And don't get me started on poultry.
That said, if we ever want EVs to "take over" the gas-powered engine industry, there's a lot of work to do, and we're a far, far, far cry from running long-range trucks on EV (granted, no one's talking about that now, but that's the obvious ultimate conclusion).
Effectively, they have a fundamental architectural problem, and don't know how to work past it.