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Print Edition of Encyclopedia Brittannica (EB) succumbs to Wikipedia

By Stuart Soffer • March 23, 2012 at 12:53 pm

The news this week that that EB discontinues the print edition of the encyclopedia should not too much of a surprise.  This should be seen in a larger context.  I used to work in the library automation and public catalog industry.  Twenty years ago, traditional libraries, our customers, feared their obsolescence due to competition from the Internet.  To reference librarians it was perceived as a threat, rather than the resource it actually is.  Brick and mortar libraries feared irrelevance, but have this far evolved to provide local-serving programs not otherwise available. Read more » about Print Edition of Encyclopedia Brittannica (EB) succumbs to Wikipedia

Driving at Perfection

By Bryant Walker Smith • March 11, 2012 at 3:20 pm

• “Nothing is going to catch this car by surprise…. It’s going to see hundreds of feet in all directions. [You’re] not going to have a pedestrian ‘come out of nowhere’ or the ball coming to the middle of the street. This car senses a lot.”
• “Our cars are designed to avoid the kinds of situations that force people to make last-minute value judgments while driving.”
• “[Our car] always does the right thing.” Read more » about Driving at Perfection

Autonomous Driving Bill Introduced in California (Plus Other State Developments)

By Bryant Walker Smith • February 24, 2012 at 9:05 am

California SB 1298 would expressly establish that California "presently does not prohibit or specifically regulate the operation of autonomous vehicles," direct the Department of the California Highway Patrol to "adopt regulations" regarding "specific safety requirements for the testing and operation of autonomous vehicles," and "not prohibit" such operation and testing prior to those regulations. The bill does not say who (if anyone) drives an autonomous vehicle in the legal sense, a question I asked about California's motor vehicle code in a post last month.

The bill's autonomous-driving-is-already-legal approach is similar to a proposed amendment to Florida HB 1207, though that amendment does state that "a person shall be deemed to be the operator of an autonomous vehicle operating in autonomous mode when the person causes the vehicle's autonomous technology to engage, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the vehicle while the vehicle is operating in autonomous mode." (But what if an automated system engages the autonomous technology?) Another such amendment would address liability following conversion of a vehicle to an autonomous vehicle.

Meanwhile, Arizona's bill failed in the House Transportation Committee after members expressed concern that it was too much too soon -- that is, the technology was not ready and the rulemaking burden on the state's Department of Transportation would be too great.

For a summary of all legislative and regulatory developments, see my wiki. Read more » about Autonomous Driving Bill Introduced in California (Plus Other State Developments)

Setting the Record Straight on Google’s Safari Tracking

By Jonathan Mayer • February 21, 2012 at 4:00 pm

Our recent research on Google’s circumvention of the Safari cookie blocking feature has led to some confusion, in part owing to the company’s statement in response (reproduced in its entiretybelow). This post is an attempt to elucidate the central issues. As with the original writeup, I aim for a neutral viewpoint in the interest of establishing a common factual understanding. Read more » about Setting the Record Straight on Google’s Safari Tracking

My Other Car Is a ... Robot? Defining Vehicle Automation

By Bryant Walker Smith • February 19, 2012 at 7:45 pm

The automobile, noted one scholar in 1907, “is variously referred to as [an] auto, autocar, car, machine, motor, motor car, and other terms equally as common but neither complimentary nor endearing.” Motorists, for their part, included “brutes,” “fat-headed marauders,” “honking highwaymen,” and “flippant fool[s]” who wrote themselves “down both a devil and an ass.” One hopes the horseless carriages of the future will earn monikers that are more flattering. In the meantime, we are left with assorted technical phrases like “electronic blind spot assistance, crash avoidance, emergency braking, parking assistance, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assistance, lane departure warnings and traffic jam and queuing assistance” to describe cars that (already) help us drive them, and with competing terms like fully automated, fully autonomous, self-driving, driverless, autopiloted, and robotic to describe cars that (may someday) drive us. Read more » about My Other Car Is a ... Robot? Defining Vehicle Automation

Safari Trackers

By Jonathan Mayer • February 17, 2012 at 4:31 pm

Apple’s Safari web browser is configured to block third-party cookies by default. We identified four advertising companies that unexpectedly place trackable cookies in Safari. Google and Vibrant Media intentionally circumvent Safari’s privacy feature. Media Innovation Group and PointRoll serve scripts that appear to be derived from circumvention example code. Read more » about Safari Trackers

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