Forgot your password?

Comment: SMS Server Slashdotted? (Score 1) 149





Comment: Re:Henry Mencken was right (Score 1) 348















Comment: Re:Confused (Score 1) 469





Comment: Re:Confused (Score 1, Insightful) 469















Comment: Re:Wrong order. (Score 2) 178

by RobertB-DC (#35204622) Attached to: Motorola Adopting 3 Laws of Robotics For Android?

As the user/owner of a non-self aware device, it should obey me, even if my intention is to use it to destroy itself, or others.

The problem is that this is the situation we already have. Our machines obey us, even if we have been socially engineered to instruct our machines to perform tasks that are malicious. A zombie PC damages itself, its owner, other machines, and their owners.

This application of the mythical "Three Laws" seems designed to protect us from ourselves.

Now, this is going to annoy the living crap out of me, and I will definitely want to find a way to disable the directives. Especially that Fourth Directive. Oh, sorry, I keep thinking of John Murphy's Prime Directives:

1. "Serve the public trust"
2. "Protect the innocent"
3. "Uphold the law"
4. (Classified)

Comment: Re:How to Mess with OnStar (Score 2) 599

by RobertB-DC (#35095968) Attached to: 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness

Hey, I never suggested that running out of gas in the middle of West Texas in the summer (or winter, or fall or spring for that matter) is a Good Thing, even if you've kidnapped the Gasoline Fairy and thrown her in the trunk for the trip. It's definitely up near the top of "The stupidest things RobertB has ever done."

What OnStar did in that case was rescue me from my stupidity. Which in a strictly Darwinian sense would be bad, I suppose... but from my RobertBinian perspective, not dying of heat stroke and dehydration is indeed a very Good Thing. Chances are, if I never used OnStar again, I'd keep my subscription just because of "that time that they saved my bacon."

Comment: Re:How to Mess with OnStar (Score 4, Funny) 599

by RobertB-DC (#35095364) Attached to: 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness

Talk to the nice lady from India (or Southern California) who has never seen ice in any amount larger than a water pitcher, and tell her you're kind of lost.

No need to work that hard, just do what I did. Run out of gas in West Texas, say between Childress and Quanah. Make it on a sunny 100-degree-plus Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer. You, too, can have a conversation with OnStar like I did!

Me (sheepish): I ran out of gas.
OnStar: We'll send someone right out.

Time passes...

OnStar: Sir, we show you near Childress, Texas, but I don't have any facilities there. What's the nearest larger town?
Me: This is West Texas, Ma'm. There are no larger towns.

They ended up sending out the county sheriff with a five-gallon jug of gas.
