[DarenR]

In the future well not so far off future (2015), flexible screens will be the new craze. This technology will allow people to fold away screens and just put them in your pocket. I think this technology is great because phones should become lighter and more convenient and hopefully more durable. I don't know how many times I have dropped my phone and said----great my screen must be broken--- well the flexible screen should prevent this.

here

[tlhIn`toq]

Yep, we're all waiting for flexi's to become real, along with Red Planet style maps:


Nothing new about the idea... Just waiting for it to become real.
Then of course, the screen is flexi but the batteries aren't, nor are the circuits. So as your article points out this will still mean the screen is attached to a box of some kind to control it, even if the box is small and concealed in the base of the coffee cup the screen is wrapped around. Or within the dashboard of the car using the flexible screen as an HUD

[DarenR]

Yeah but it is a nice step toward truely portable items....I thought I had seen that idea ina movie but couldn't remeber which one----thanks for the image

[tlhIn`toq]

Oh - and Globals from Earth final conflict
http://www.google.co...p=49&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:94

Or the map from Babylon AD
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=67d50vpqqC8

[jon.kiparsky]

tlhIn`toq, on 06 July 2012 - 08:41 AM, said:

Yep, we're all waiting for flexi's to become real, along with Red Planet style maps:
red-planet-map-display.jpg

Nothing new about the idea... Just waiting for it to become real.
Then of course, the screen is flexi but the batteries aren't, nor are the circuits. So as your article points out this will still mean the screen is attached to a box of some kind to control it, even if the box is small and concealed in the base of the coffee cup the screen is wrapped around. Or within the dashboard of the car using the flexible screen as an HUD

That's what we need, isn't it? Buncha morons with "heads up displays" watching TV while they're supposed to be driving. Between this and the google goggles, the asshole brigade is getting a lot of tools coming down the pipeline.

[tlhIn`toq]

You're not wrong there. Then again, until they install breatholizers in cars it won't matter much. Here in Houston there have been 4 different accidents over the holiday period where someone was driving the wrong way on either the highway or the frontage feeder road. All involving drunks.

If I got drunk and started firing a gun randomly on the road I'd be in jail for years on a first offense. But some bubba gets drunk and drives his pick-up into 4 other cars and finally head-on into a state trooper and he'll get a fine.

As long as the HUD is only for instruments and not for YouTube it can actually be helpful. How many people do I see leaning WAYYYYYYY over to play with their stereo? Or take their eyes off the road to see if their dog in the back seat is pissing on the carpet... or stop watching the road to stare at the GPS... Anything that keeps their eye forward on the traffic has the potential to be a good thing.

[DarenR]

tlhIn`toq, on 06 July 2012 - 10:14 AM, said:

You're not wrong there. Then again, until they install breatholizers in cars it won't matter much. Here in Houston there have been 4 different accidents over the holiday period where someone was driving the wrong way on either the highway or the frontage feeder road. All involving drunks.

friend of mine last year was hit by a drunk driver while my buddy was on his motor cycle-- killed my buddy instantly--- the drunk driver got 2 1/2 years in jail and a 24k fine... my buddy got death

[jon.kiparsky]

I used to be a lot more tolerant. Lately, I'm pretty well convinced that anyone who's doing anything but driving while they're driving and is anything but sober when they're doing it should lose their license on the first offense. No exceptions, no give-backs. Catch me on a bad morning, when someone's just pulled some particularly boneheaded maneuver (I love the "ignore the lane markings" game, for example) and you might get some extreme suggestions regarding the second offense - or even the first.
Hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, paying full attention to the task at hand, period. Anything else and you're endangering everyone around you, and to my way of thinking that's not a choice you get to make for me.

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If I got drunk and started firing a gun randomly on the road I'd be in jail for years on a first offense. But some bubba gets drunk and drives his pick-up into 4 other cars and finally head-on into a state trooper and he'll get a fine.

I think your comparison is an apt one. I would accept your implicit suggestion that both situations should be treated similarly, and severely.

[jon.kiparsky]

DarenR, on 06 July 2012 - 09:23 AM, said:

friend of mine last year was hit by a drunk driver while my buddy was on his motor cycle-- killed my buddy instantly--- the drunk driver got 2 1/2 years in jail and a 24k fine... my buddy got death

Sorry to hear it. That's exactly what I'm talking about - the guy who decides to drive drunk will usually get away with it, but when he doesn't, someone dies.
And I don't see any distinction between a drunk and a moron babbling away on their chatterbox, except that one is considered socially acceptable. Maybe we need an advocacy group - "Mothers Opposed to Morons on Mobiles" or something.

[tlhIn`toq]

I have a titanium collar-bone from being on my bike and getting hit head-on by a drunk. He just fled the scene. I guess if you're not responsible enough to drive sober you're not the type to stick around and see if you killed someone or not if it means jail time.

I agree with ya Jon. A vehicle is anywhere from 1/2 to several tons of potential rolling death. My truck and RV are a combined weight of 12+ tons. The only thing the driver needs to be doing is drive. Not texting. Not eating lunch. Not putting on make-up. Not texting.

That used to be taught to us in high-school driver's ed. Now few schools even have driver's ed due to budget cuts. So mommy and daddy are doing the teaching. Assume they teach 60% of what they learned. Now take that down 2-3 generations at 60% each time. Today we have an entire generation of drivers that know less than half of what formally trained drivers were taught a few years back.

Quote

the "ignore the lane markings" game,

Oh yeah, love that. I drive a Ram 3500 dually. I take up my lane. There isn't an extra 3 feet for the other guy to drift into while he is changing the CD in his stereo.

Does it show my 'crotchety old man' age when I am considering a P.A. in my truck just so I can say "Hang up and drive: You're not that important". I was also considering a cell phone jammer under the hood. Watch everyone at the intersection or that I pass just suddenly loose connection. That's an idea: All cars should have cell phone jammers with a 3 foot range. If the car is running your phone isn't. Add that to the breathalyzer on the ignition system and accidents drop by huge numbers.

[lordofduct]

Where do you guys live?

Where I'm from getting drunk and ramming into a state trooper is going to come with FAR MORE than a fine (I actually know a few people that have... hey, it's Florida, we roll like that. But we also pay some hefty prices for rolling like that).

And DUI manslaughter usually gets far more than 2 years... unless it's the judges daughter. In that case it's a slap on the wrist and a new Lexus (IS class, cause you know, she's grounded). Mmmmmm corruption in the morning.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 06 July 2012 - 07:49 AM

[tlhIn`toq]

Since bars can now be found guilty as accessories to drunk driving cases, just require everyone to check their keys when they walk in. If you can blow a sober value when you exit you get your keys back. Make it part of a mandatory valet system for all bars.

[jon.kiparsky]

tlhIn`toq, on 06 July 2012 - 09:45 AM, said:

I have a titanium collar-bone from being on my bike and getting hit head-on by a drunk. He just fled the scene. I guess if you're not responsible enough to drive sober you're not the type to stick around and see if you killed someone or not if it means jail time.

Drunks know that they're breaking the law, and they know they've got a chance of getting away with it - it's generally night time, the roads are clear, all of the witnesses are going towards the victim. At least if you get hit by a cell-phone yapper, it's likely to be in daylight, in traffic, so they're more likely to stop. Small consolation, but at least you know who it is that you ought to kill with your bare hands, once you're recovered from your injuries.

Quote

I agree with ya Jon. A vehicle is anywhere from 1/2 to several tons of potential rolling death. My truck and RV are a combined weight of 12+ tons. The only thing the driver needs to be doing is drive. Not texting. Not eating lunch. Not putting on make-up. Not texting.

That used to be taught to us in high-school driver's ed.

When I did driver's ed, there wasn't any texting to not be doing...

Quote

Quote

the "ignore the lane markings" game,

Oh yeah, love that. I drive a Ram 3500 dually. I take up my lane. There isn't an extra 3 feet for the other guy to drift into while he is changing the CD in his stereo.

I'm on a bike. I get about three feet total, and it's the part where they don't fix the potholes. But it gets better - when I'm down in the city, there's a lot of places where I have to get into the vehicle lanes. For example, there's a spot on my daily commute where there's four lanes, two of which are required right turns basically onto a freeway, and the other two are for forward traffic. So I'm in lane number two - the right hand forward lane, which puts me in the bike lane when I get through the intersection.
It's a rare morning when some murderous asshole doesn't go straight through the intersection from lane three, ignoring the solid white line and the big green signs - which means I've got a car behind me that wants to floor it across the intersection (there's a green light at the next intersection, that's the way it's timed) and most likely a car to my right that's going to floor it across my path. These are the mornings when I exercise a fairly broad range of unacceptable vocabulary. One of these days, someone's going to have a pretty big bill from the body shop.

Quote

Does it show my 'crotchety old man' age when I am considering a P.A. in my truck just so I can say "Hang up and drive: You're not that important".

I don't need a PA. I'm on a bike, and between years of radio and years of singing, I know how to make myself heard. And let me tell you, people don't like it when they're blithering on about what Mathilda said to Martha, or whatever it is idiots blither on about, and they hear me telling them to shut the hell up and pay attention, god damn it, before you kill someone. It's almost as if they get upset, which is cute.

I've thought about getting some stickers printed up, bumper-sticker size, saying "Caution, driver not paying attention", with the stickiest adhesive I can find. As soon as I sort out the logistics of deploying them in traffic, I think I'll be doing that.

[tlhIn`toq]

I think it was George Carlin that suggested issuing paint ball guns with driver's licenses. Not only would it help you with your frustration with an idiot, but when the cops see a car with 7 different colors of splotches on it they know who to pull over.

[jon.kiparsky]

tlhIn`toq, on 06 July 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

I think it was George Carlin that suggested issuing paint ball guns with driver's licenses. Not only would it help you with your frustration with an idiot, but when the cops see a car with 7 different colors of splotches on it they know who to pull over.

Hell, I thought I was the first one to come up with that idea.
The only reason I don't actually do it is that pulling out a gun-shaped-thing and pointing it at someone's vehicle in traffic is several flavors of insanely stupid and dangerous, which would defeat the purpose.

lordofduct, on 06 July 2012 - 09:48 AM, said:

Where do you guys live?

Where I'm from getting drunk and ramming into a state trooper is going to come with FAR MORE than a fine (I actually know a few people that have... hey, it's Florida, we roll like that. But we also pay some hefty prices for rolling like that).

And DUI manslaughter usually gets far more than 2 years... unless it's the judges daughter. In that case it's a slap on the wrist and a new Lexus (IS class, cause you know, she's grounded). Mmmmmm corruption in the morning.

Unfortunately, it's not the drunks that are the problem around here. If I could get the drunks back on the road, and get rid of the sober self-distractors, I'd do it in a heartbeat. At least the drunks tend to be out when there's fewer targets.