Nope.

>I'm pretty sure all those companies developing autonomous cars are doing their damned best to secure them.

Heh, you really think so? Oh I'm sure they're paying some lip service to making them secure, but they're likely doing it in a sloppy, low-cost way that will be full of holes and vulnerabilities. Look at the whole IoT thing...their security may be a little better than that, but not much.

>There's no way they're going to release a car that's any MORE dangerous than existing manually driven cars.

Oh boy, I'll take that bet! Just by dint of being autonomous or remotely controllable it's automatically more susceptible to misuse by malicious people. I guarantee you that an autonomous car is potentially more dangerous than a standard vehicle in terms of being used in a deliberately harmful way by outside parties. Any hardware or software that manipulates the vehicle only adds to the existing risk factor.

> It isn't that difficult right now to just drive a truck through a crowd full of people in France

My point exactly. It's easy enough now, how much more likely will it be when you can do it by remote with almost no chance of getting caught?

Nonsense.

There are loads of companies working on developing autonomous vehicles; I doubt there's even one working on developing autonomous chainsaws.

If you really think that chainsaws are as a big a potential danger as autonomous vehicles are, I have some wonderful seaside property in Arizona I'd like to sell you. I also own a bridge in New York I'd be willing to part with for the right price.

> You seem to be talking about chainsaw *accidents*, versus *intentional* car sabotage. If you're inclined to cause a lot of damage with a chainsaw, you certainly can do so

That's why I don't think it's a good comparison. It's difficult to intentionally sabotage a chainsaw to cause widespread injury, but a car...the possibilities are endless. And that doesn't even bring into account the idea of an autonomous VBIED or one that can be driven remotely.

> It's still possible to get the free upgrade if you use pinky swear that you use assistive technologies:

Yes, but the point is that a lot of people don't want Win 10 on their machines and many of us actively oppose it. We also like to be able to reject or decline some of the patches that are offered. For example, I never install any of the Silverlight patches because I don't have Silverlight on my PC. But MS will happily offer them to me regardless.

>Seems like asking "How long before chainsaws are weaponized". Both are pretty-close to a weapon in their regular form.

Well, yes, but chainsaws aren't on the verge of being able to operate autonomously. People screw up and cause accidents with both chainsaws and cars, but chainsaws aren't usually used in crowds or operated in swarms (like traffic) the way cars are. No one is busy outfitting chainsaws to work without human guidance and they aren't usually let loose on the highways where they could cause major havoc. A chainsaw is typically a one-on-one operation and when you drop it, it usually stops being an active hazard. Autonomous cars have the ability to cause far more damage to groups of people, especially if driven into a crowd or made to cross into oncoming traffic.

"I would not put it past them to continue to sneak it in. Go on, accuse me of paranoia."

After my experiences with Microsoft, paranoia is in order. In fact, it's practically required.

I think it's finally time to turn off patches in my Win 7 machine, or at least wait a couple of weeks after each patch is made available to make sure that it doesn't fist-fuck my PC into becoming a Win 10 machine. If Microsoft wanted to force users to try Linux they could hardly have picked a better way. So it looks like it's time to make Linux Mint my main OS...I've been dabbling with it and using it on my laptop, but I think the time has come to make the switch to Linux on my primary PC.

> for $10 an hour you could just buy a cheaper drone with added protection to render the
> operator anonymous and skip the insurance. they can only sue you if they find you

Some drones cost $1000 ~ $2000 or more (I've seen them priced up to $15K and above on Amazon ) so depending on the circumstances it might make sense to buy it.

Also, if you're engaged in some paid-for activity like reporting on new or current events, or if you're doing inspection work. If you're engaged in commercial activity it might make sense from a legal standpoint, but again, for me it would depend on the circumstances (location, terrain, weather, presence of people, etc).

I think slashdot, like a lot of forums or discussion sites, is on the way down. It'll still exist for years and years but the original audience is dying off (literally, in some cases).

I've run dozens and dozens of forums, some of them going on 20 years now, and they have a lifespan that frequently seems to run in parallel with the users. People gain interest in a subject, seek out a discussion forum for it, and then participate for some period of time. After a while (anywhere from a month to 10 or 15 years) their interest wanes and they taper off or depart entirely. Interestingly, they are often not replaced by a fresh cop of newcomers. Either the subject is no longer relevant or new, more trendy forums pop up that attract new users, or other sources for the same information appear, drawing users away. The same info can often be found elsewhere

I've seen this happen repeatedly. Slashdot has a pretty entrenched footprint, but I don't see the traffic and lively discussions that I used to. The rise of dedicated trolls and off-topic junk, mixed with racism and flaming doesn't help either. Anything is possible but I predict a slow and steady decline overall in sites like slashdot. There will always be a place for discussion sites but the need isn't as great as it used to be.

What are you talking about?? It's not the phone provider at fault here, it's the extremely poor practices of the clowns that coded the app. For example, "The request for the old password was just for show, like a door lock with the deadbolt missing. It gave the appearance of security, but it didn't offer real protection against a malicious user".

That's not the phone provider's fault, that's the programmers sucking wind at what they do.

The benefits of a connected thermostat are few compared to a programmable, but the cost is much greater. Not really worth it.

That's my feeling as well. It *might* be handy to be able to be able to preheat the house if I'm going to be getting home early or something, but in reality that a) almost never happens, and b) isn't a big deal.
I could actually do this almost 20 years ago with some custom X-10 stuff I had rigged up, but I never used it then so I doubt I'd use it now.

Connery and Moore, in that order. None of the others should ever be mentioned, even in passing.