>> ^dag:

I haven't found Camino to be particularly fast. It's like Firefox without the capability of extensions. Chrome is the browser to beat for me at the moment.

Camino is lean and open source. Not a lot of whizzy-pop. It's fast because it's not a huge, clunky browser like Safari or Firefox. I surf VideoSift a lot on my Macbook Air, and there's a major issue with one of the MBA's processors shutting off while playing videos, and vids become choppy and the computer non-responsive.

Camino is lean therefore faster for me. I haven't used Chrome on Mac, but I'm not a fan of it on PC.

I haven't paid much attention to any of this runaway Toyota stuff, but the first thing I though was why don't people put their car in neutral or shut it off. I've never driven a Prius, but after seeing this video I can now see how one can get away from you.

Everything is electronic, the shifter has no physical connection to the transmission, it just sends a signal to the computer to tell the transmission to go into neutral. The power button doesn't physically disconnect the power to shut down the car, it just tells the computer to shut off. What happens when the electronics fuck up? You can try to shift into neutral, but if your toy gear shifter doesn't sent the signal to the computer, it's never going to shift into neutral.

I blame design for mistakes more than most people. But I don't care how difficult it is to figure out the first time, if you don't know how to put your car in neutral, you should not be driving.

Also, you can't have the car shut off when you just push the power button, otherwise people would accidentally turn it off constantly. Maybe there should be the general power button, and another panic button next to it, and you have to hit both to turn it off immediately. But you can't have an unprotected one touch kill switch.>> ^braindonut:
This video is amusing, for sure... I laughed.
But the design of the Prius shifter is absolutely horrible. And with the fact that you have to hold the power button down for 3 seconds to turn it off... Also a horrible design. So his point, though amusing, is kinda moot.
Some people don't think too well when they are in a panic. I wouldn't hold it against some old lady for not interacting with her Prius correctly, given the nature of the designs she'd be working with.

The Prius that was in the news recently, here in San Diego, the conventional brakes were useless, and shifting to neutral wouldn't work, as it wouldn't allow it. What was successful, according to the CHP, was a very zealous tug on the hand brake (definitely an "emergency" brake in this case) as well as the foot pedal. The officer positioned his car in front, not to slow it down, but to prevent it from shooting forward after the driver finally got the car to a stop, despite it still wanting to move forward. Essentially the squad car was acting as a brick wall, but not a brake assist.

In this case, the car would not shift into neutral, nor did foot braking alone make a difference. It was muscle on the hand brake that ever so slowly dropped the speed.

You are correct about the first casualty. It was a Lexus and it happened in Santee, CA (part of San Diego County). The brake and neutral attempt were useless. The situation is described thus:

---
California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, his wife, Cleofe, 45, their daughter Mahala, 13, and Cleofe's brother Chris Lastrella, 39, were traveling on a freeway near Santee on Aug. 28 when their vehicle reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

Investigators found that a wrong-sized floor mat that trapped the accelerator was the cause of the crash. (Note, this has not been forensically proven, and is in dispute at the moment.)

A haunting 911 call captured Lastrella telling the others to pray before the car launched off the embankment.

...the Lexus ES350 "began to accelerate on its own." Saylor attempted to apply the brakes and do everything possible to stop the car, but he was unable to do so...
---

The video demonstrated the "technique" on a relatively low horse power (and low torque) four cylinder engine. A Lexus ES350 has a 272HP V6 (at full throttle) and the Prius has a high torque electric motor. Good luck with that braking.

>> ^silvercord:
>> ^supersparky:
What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.
Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.
The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.
No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.

My understanding is that the car driven by the off duty officer was a 2009 Lexus ES 350. That is not a hybrid. That said, I tried the 'move the shift to neutral' trick yesterday in my Windstar and it worked just fine.
However, the link I provided also noted: Last month, Consumer Reports found that models that don't have so-called smart-throttle technology, which allows the brake to take precedence over the throttle, a vehicle might not have adequate brakes to overcome a stuck throttle at 60 mph.
So, jam your foot down on the brake and kick it into neutral, pray like hell that you hit a truckload of Snuggies.
As for the electric cars, maybe a nuclear air burst that issues an effective electromagnetic pulse would do the trick.

>> ^supersparky:
What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.
Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.
The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.
No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.


My understanding is that the car driven by the off duty officer was a 2009 Lexus ES 350. That is not a hybrid. That said, I tried the 'move the shift to neutral' trick yesterday in my Windstar and it worked just fine.

However, the link I provided also noted: Last month, Consumer Reports found that models that don't have so-called smart-throttle technology, which allows the brake to take precedence over the throttle, a vehicle might not have adequate brakes to overcome a stuck throttle at 60 mph.

So, jam your foot down on the brake and kick it into neutral, pray like hell that you hit a truckload of Snuggies.

As for the electric cars, maybe a nuclear air burst that issues an effective electromagnetic pulse would do the trick.

What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.

Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.

The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.

No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.

Presumably it doesn't do dark colors very well, and surely not black at all, so I really don't see it working as a useful general purpose PC screen. If I could have this for all the windows on my house though, that'd be great. I'm sure you could find a lot of ways to really freak out the neighbors.

I've always wanted a television that became a mirror or an actual painting when you turned it off. I imagine that would be difficult to do though, arranging it so that whatever was behind the screen became black when it's shut off. I find electronics really screw up the aesthetics of a room. This is definitely a step towards that direction.

Some time ago I saw windows that became opaque white somehow when you flipped a switch. If you could do that in black and combine the two, that might be something.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

^@spoco2 - I checked my kettle once with a meat thermometer- and it looks to be just the right temp (80c) = after automatic shut-off. I'm not a frothy milk drinker, so it's not an issue for me, but yeah, you would probably need a frother.

I'm finding I like mine long macchiato style with extra hot water added and then just a dash of milk.

>> ^Jesus_Freak:
What I don't have to imagine is the ACTUAL reason I'm thankful for my Christianity. I've led a very satisfying life with very tangible blessings stemming from my relationship with Jesus Christ. I've found His teaching to be profound and reliable, I've found indescribable freedom, and I've found layers of comfort that surpass all understanding. If you wish to maintain a dim view of all Christians in some stereotypical way, you do so with a focus of poor examples of some individuals who share my faith, or from a lack of exeprience that your scientific analysis can't quantify.


That is in fact the root of the problem. You make all these unfounded assertions about the benefits of being absorbed in your religion, yet you show no proof of this, most probably because you can't. Then if we ask you why you can't, you say no one will ever know because its a mystery out of the reach of science. That is the same bullshit mentalists/psychics and other charlatans use every day to justify how none of them have passed the James Randi Educational Foundation "One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge". I do not maintain a dim view of Christians on the basis of the fact that they believe in something, only in the fact that they believe in something that 1. hasn't been shown to do what they claim it does 2. isn't worth believing in in the first place (since it is medieval bigotry at its finest) 3. demand that they shut off their bullshit detectors so that they can believe it blindly.

If you want to live your life on the precepts of Jesus, why not throw away the Old Testament and its irate God? Why not throw away everything else but the apostles' testaments? Why not try to reconcile the message of Jesus in light of scientific discoveries? Why not abandon, or suspend indefinitely your belief in, the idea of God as being superfluous to the realization of Jesus' message in this life? If you cannot do all this then you are not a Jesus freak, you are simply a God freak of the most hypocritical kind.

I wish they'd used an actual Prius in their "what to do" segment. You can't shift them into neutral while they're at speed. The car just beeps at you if you try it. Ditto for park and reverse.

The e-brake in a Prius is very much set up as a parking brake. You push the pedal in, and it locks in place. I wouldn't recommend that you try to use it to slow down at highway speeds (or hardly any speed at all).

I haven't tried it, but I don't think you can even shut off the ignition at speed, either.

I'm not sure why people act like the Prius is an especially slow car. It's the same as a normal 4-cylinder mid-size sedan. Not a rocket, but easily capable of hitting 100mph, getting up to speed on highway ramps, overtaking dickheads who're only going 75 in the left-hand lane...I can vouch for all those personally.

Yes, I own a Prius. I'm sure everyone's shocked.

After the cameras shut off, the sounds of six tiny pelvic bones cracking were heard around the studio.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
The answer is yes - of course Al Franken is just as guilty of cherry picking his numbers. I don't care what system you talk about, there is no such thing (statistically) as a ZERO when you are talking about a population in the millions. He's either making that up, or using some report that excludes medical bankruptcies. It doesn't matter what system the U.S. cooks up in Congress - there is never going to be a single day in the entire history of humankind that there will be 'zero medical bankruptcies' in the U.S. Such a claim is absolute bunk based on "cherry picking" how you define bankruptcy.
For example, Mr. Franken is probably not including Canada in his list of 'zero bankruptcies'...
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/Commerce.Web/pro
duct_files/HealthInsuranceandBankruptcyRates.pdf
He also probably isn't too eager to say that his desired system will be shutting off the tap of so-called 'free medical care' to millions on a regular basis based on economics. He also didn't seem to eager to quote the words of his own fellow democrats who say that grandma better get ready to "take the pain pill" and "we're going to let you die".
If you don't work, have no income, and have medical issues then you are 'medically bankrupt' even in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Zero - what a dingus. And some of you think this guy is smart?


[Krupo shakes head]

This is pretty dismal.

It's not cherry-picking to pick a well-defined topic and discuss it.

It's an absolute disgrace to take a topic of discussion and turn it into something completely different. Redefining the scope without informing others of your intent is akin to bringin a laser gatling gun to a fencing match.

Have you even for a moment considered that perhaps Canada has bankruptcy laws which may be easier for people to gain access to than the US, making it easier for them to wipe their slate clean after misfortune?

The topic at hand is regarding people who have to pay their hospital and doctor for treatment, can't, and go bankrupt.

If you go bankrupt in your personal life that is not a medical bankruptcy, that's just an ordinary bankruptcy.

So please stop twisting terms around, and encouraging other people's "junk science" - go Wiki "Fraser Institute" to note how it is, if anything, a clearinghouse for "junk science."

They're deliberately working on misleading people with your so-called study, and your twisting of the facts.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
The answer is yes - of course Al Franken is just as guilty of cherry picking his numbers. I don't care what system you talk about, there is no such thing (statistically) as a ZERO when you are talking about a population in the millions. He's either making that up, or using some report that excludes medical bankruptcies. It doesn't matter what system the U.S. cooks up in Congress - there is never going to be a single day in the entire history of humankind that there will be 'zero medical bankruptcies' in the U.S. Such a claim is absolute bunk based on "cherry picking" how you define bankruptcy.

All untrue, except possibly for the last sentence. Note that the Fraser Institute's study (and BTW, Fraser is a Canadian version of CATO), doesn't look at medical bankruptcy at all. It basically just looks at the per capita bankruptcy rate of Canada and the US, finds them similar, and declares Canada's program as being no help in general bankruptcy.

It doesn't define "medical bankruptcy" at all, nor does it attempt to breakdown the causes of bankruptcy in any way.

The latest study from the American Journal of Medicine on this topic, at least attempts to do all of those things.

He also probably isn't too eager to say that his desired system will be shutting off the tap of so-called 'free medical care' to millions on a regular basis based on economics. He also didn't seem to eager to quote the words of his own fellow democrats who say that grandma better get ready to "take the pain pill" and "we're going to let you die".

Liar liar, pants on fire. That's not what was said, dingus.

If you don't work, have no income, and have medical issues then you are 'medically bankrupt' even in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Zero - what a dingus. And some of you think this guy is smart?

Ahh, I see. So you make up your own standard of "medical bankruptcy" that doesn't match that of any reasonable person, and declare Franken a moron or liar.

"Medical bankruptcy" is shorthand for "bankruptcy caused by medical costs." There's a huge amount of wiggle room about how much medical cost means that it "caused" the bankruptcy, but it's pretty straightforward to say that if no one pays out of pocket for medical treatment, it won't make them go bankrupt.

If someone is sick, gets free care, and then goes bankrupt, they didn't go bankrupt from medical costs.

Unfortunately, we're not even talking about setting up some sort of universal, no out of pocket system for the US. What we're talking about mostly is mandated insurance, which should make it easier for families to budget their health care costs. Most of why they cause bankruptcy here is that no one plans to have major medical problems, nor do they plan on having their coverage rescinded by their insurance company, nor do they plan on getting laid off and losing their benefits.

The whole point of the health care reform is to attempt to address those issues.

The answer is yes - of course Al Franken is just as guilty of cherry picking his numbers. I don't care what system you talk about, there is no such thing (statistically) as a ZERO when you are talking about a population in the millions. He's either making that up, or using some report that excludes medical bankruptcies. It doesn't matter what system the U.S. cooks up in Congress - there is never going to be a single day in the entire history of humankind that there will be 'zero medical bankruptcies' in the U.S. Such a claim is absolute bunk based on "cherry picking" how you define bankruptcy.

For example, Mr. Franken is probably not including Canada in his list of 'zero bankruptcies'...

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/Commerce.Web/product_files/HealthInsuranceandBankruptcyRates.pdf

He also probably isn't too eager to say that his desired system will be shutting off the tap of so-called 'free medical care' to millions on a regular basis based on economics. He also didn't seem to eager to quote the words of his own fellow democrats who say that grandma better get ready to "take the pain pill" and "we're going to let you die".

If you don't work, have no income, and have medical issues then you are 'medically bankrupt' even in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Zero - what a dingus. And some of you think this guy is smart?

I refuse to be shut off!