This is a fascinating concept for actively controlling headlights to minimize the reflections from falling rain.

Inclement weather at night is one of the most difficult and stressful driving conditions imaginable. In addition to reduced traction, drivers have to deal with little or no visibility. 

The demonstration appears to work very effectively although given my own past experience with engineering demonstrations getting something to work in the lab under controlled conditions is very different from doing it in the real world. In the lab the water drops are falling straight down and are unaffected by wind blowing sideways and vehicle speed. There also isn't any spray coming back at your from the vehicles ahead. 

Snow is another huge variable since the size of the flakes and their speed can vary even more dramatically then water. I certainly hope the CMU researchers are successful since it make driving much safer. However, I'm not holding my breath. 

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Carnegie Mellon researchers develop 'smart headlight' prototype
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are working on a prototype "smart headlight" that avoids shining light on raindrops and snowflakes to reduce distraction for the driver. It works using a Viewsonic…

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An excellent editorial from +Nilay Patel about the broken mobile phone market. 

The mobile carriers are just like every other industry that has been obsoleted and wants to maintain a business model. We're already seeing more people move to prepaid plans where they forego the subsidy for a contract free experience.

Hopefully once http://ting.com/ starts offering some LTE phones we'll start to see some more uptake on their approach of selling voice, messages and data by the bucket and only charging for what you use. 

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Is the iPhone's success blinding us to a broken market?

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Five years after the iPhone, carriers are the biggest threat to innovation
Five years ago, the iPhone revolutionized the mobile business and kicked off a seismic shift in the technology industry that continues today. But the massive success of Apple's phone has overshadowed….

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Reshared post from +Jeff Jarvis

Verizon makes its arguments against the FCC's net neutrality rules — and they are fraught with danger. 

Verizon sees the net as its newspaper and believes it has First Amendment rights to control what goes on the net. This is why +Doc Searls has taught me that it is dangerous to see the net as a medium. No, the net is a network and Verizon only offers access to it. 

But there's the next argument: Verizon says the net is its private property and so it makes a Fifth Amendment claim that imposing restrictions on its ability to impose restrictions on the net is like confiscating property without compensation. 

Danger, danger! 

[Added later:]

The First Amendment argument is absurd on its face. Does Verizon really want to be responsible for everything distributed on the net, including libel, theft, and other illegal behavior? I doubt it. Verizon is no publisher. 

The Fifth Amendment argument is a corner we've painted ourselves into by finding ourself dependent on a public good privately owned. But just as we make restrictions on private property — I can't build a gas station on my house; I have to give access to public utility workers — so must we here. 

We need a SOPA/PIPA/ACTA-level fight for net neutrality, for not allowing Verizon et al to mess with the net. We need a principle: First, do no harm. You might want to at least start here, by signing the Declaration of Internet Freedom. 

See: My post on a Hippocratic Oath for the net: http://buzzmachine.com/2011/05/23/a-hippocratic-oath-for-the-internet/ And the Declaration of Internet Freedom: http://www.internetdeclaration.org/freedom

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Verizon: net neutrality violates our free speech rights
Company argues FCC regulations run afoul of Fifth Amendment property rights too.

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Oops!

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San Diego Accidentally Set Off All Its Fourth Of July Fireworks at Once
Folks in San Diego witnessed either the worst Fourth of July fireworks celebration — or the absolute best — when a technical malfunction caused all of their pyrotechnics to go off at the same time.

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My friend +Alex Nunez showed off the Camaro ZL1 on TV in Manhattan the other day. 

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Here's my appearance for ConsumerSearch on Good Day New York with the Camaro ZL1 from this morning. Thanks to Sam Abuelsamid for giving me the easy layman's explanation of Magnetic Ride Control in a comment on another social network, which I crib (and partially botch) here. 

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Video Landing Page – New York News | New York Breaking News | NYC Headlines
Watch live breaking news video from Fox 5.

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Just because ACTA is dead in Europe it doesn't mean the big media companies won't keep trying to lock things down.

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RIP ACTA!!

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ACTA Is DEAD After European Parliament Vote | TorrentFreak
Today at 12:56 CET, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a 478 to 39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA o…

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