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I took +Julie Abuelsamid's car over to UMTRI yesterday to get some equipment installed so that it could be a part of this safety pilot program. They installed a GPS receiver, data logger and transmitter that will send speed and location data receivers installed around Ann Arbor over the next year. It's part of a test of vehicle to infrastructure communications which has the potential to reduce congestion and improve safety and efficiency in coming years.
Bicycles, motorcycles to join thousands of talking cars operating in northeast Ann Arbor
Researchers are looking for more volunteers for a real-word deployment of roughly 2,800 connected vehicles in Ann Arbor.
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From the let sleeping dogs lie department comes the story of Michigan College Republican leader Justin Zatkoff who was beaten up by a "friend" at a party several years ago for being such an obnoxious drunk. In the process of taking advantage of the takedown provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, he has again reminded the world that he exists and that he once accused "liberal thugs" of being responsible for his beating.
Instead of letting the world forget the incident ever happened, he decided to try to scrub the internet of evidence of his bad behavior and in the process he got my friend +Mark Maynard's blog taken down. Given my aversion to the DMCA and copyright abuse in general, I'd like to remind everyone that no matter what your political persuasion, don't be an asshole!
My site was taken down in web-washing attempt by false “hate crime” victim Justin Zatkoff
I apologize for the interruption in service yesterday, but my site was taken down without my consent, at the request of a man by the name of
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It's possible that Apple is starting to see some cracks forming in its patent firewall and is now opting to license rather than risk further challenges. If that's the case, they may well offer Samsung and other vendors more reasonable terms in order to take the courts out of the picture.
If Apple and Samsung finally settle between now and their next court date in December, that will be a strong indicator that this is what's happening. On the other hand it's also possible +Nilay Patel is right and the much smaller HTC is feeling the pressure and Apple wants to refocus on Samsung and Google. http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/10/3629516/why-apple-and-htc-settled-their-patent-litigation
We'll probably have a clearer picture in the next 6 weeks.
Does HTC Deal Signal End to Apple’s Thermonuclear War Against Android?
Until its surprise announcement Saturday night, Apple had shown more interest in crushing Android phone makers than striking business deals with them. So what’s changed?
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Reshared post from +Google Consumer Surveys
Google Consumer Surveys ranked the second most accurate poll (most accurate online poll) during the presidential race according to Nate Silver.
We're really proud of the platform we put together and continue to be excited about the opportunity to help businesses of all sizes make accurate, data driven decisions.
Which Polls Fared Best (and Worst) in the 2012 Presidential Race
A number of polling firms that conduct their surveys online had strong results. Some telephone polls also did well. But others, especially those that called only landlines or took other methodological…
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+Ford Motor Company has however implemented EV+ on it's new generation hybrid systems in the C-Max and Fusion. Information about your location and driving habits is aggregated using SYNC GPS, to look for patterns. As the system learns when you are approaching regular destinations, the battery gets used more aggressively to save fuel. This works on the regular hybrids, but it really comes into its own on the plug-in hybrid C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi where it will try to use up the battery power as you approach locations where you regularly plug in. Both C-Max versions and the Fusion hybrid are available now and the Fusion Energi PHEV goes on sale early in the new year.
Between this and systems like Google Now on Android phones, the cloud will soon no more about us than we do.
Reshared post from +Green Car Reports
Would't it be nice if your electric car just knew when you were close to home?
2013 Ford C-Max Energi: New EV+ Feature ‘Learns’ Regular Routes
Every driver of a plug-in hybrid electric car eventually wants to drive more on electricity and less on gasoline. So it’s frustrating when the battery charge indicator shows a reasonable level of char…
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Then I noticed the price they were charging for these tablets. Until the 4th gen replaced it a couple of weeks ago, a 3rd gen 16GB WiFi iPad cost $499. QVC is bundling a bunch probably third-rate accessories (definitely not Apple brand stuff) and charging $779 for the previous generation model. That's more than 50% more than the iPad alone cost direct from Apple.
Please if you are considering buying this stuff from QVC, DON'T! You can get a newer faster one from Apple and get a similar bundle of accessories for under $100. If you really want a deal go to the Apple online store and get a factory refurbished unit that comes with the same one-year warranty as a brand new one for just $379 http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC705/refurbished-ipad-with-wi-fi-16gb-black-3rd-generation
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As the 9 million or so ballots from the Golden state were tallied, that argument quickly evaporated and the Donald Trumps head exploded (wishful thinking on that last part).
Nonetheless, Republicans still tried to maintain the lack of mandate argument based on the narrowed but still healthy majority they managed to win in the house of representatives. Unfortunately for John Boehner and his troops, a look past the surface reveals that even there, the GOP doesn't have a mandate to maintain the obstructionism of the past two years.
The Republican majority in the house is the direct result of gerrymandering and the highly politicized process of drawing district boundaries. by getting control of so many state legislatures in 2010, Republicans were able to control that process (something Democrats are just as guilty of in the past and even now in places where they are in command).
As a result we have boundaries that are are arbitrarily drawn in such a way that pockets of opposing support are heavily concentrated in fewer districts. The remaining districts are drawn to ensure just enough of a Republican majority to almost guarantee that they will maintain a majority in the house for the next decade (until after the next census and subsequent redistricting). Of course the same thing has been done on the other side in order to ensure the likelihood of some African Americans in congress so there is definitely plenty of blame to go around.
The bottom line this year is that the latest round of Republican-led gerrymandering has resulted in a mandate-less majority where they have a 233-194 advantage despite the fact that Democratic candidates collectively got 54,301,095 votes while Republicans got 53,822,442.
Going forward, we need to find a way to take district drawing away from partisan politicians and make the process neutral.
House Democrats got more votes than House Republicans. Yet Boehner says he’s got a mandate?
Jobs · Real Estate · Rentals · Cars · Print Subscription · Today’s Paper · Discussions · Going Out Guide · Personal Post · Videos · Home · Politics · In Politics · Campaign 2012 · Congress · Court…
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Reshared post from +George Takei
Robert Scoble calls my content "internet noise." His wife is a fan of mine, though, and disagrees.
I guess it's true: when one man's post really get another's wife going, there'll be trouble.
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This is another great visual representation of how the campaigns focus their efforts on a small proportion of states where there is a distinct possibility of turning the election one way or the other. These are the regions where support for the two major parties is split relatively evenly and the popular vote margins tend to be slim in either direction. The rest of the states tend to go much more one direction of the other.
For example in California, where Obama got 59.2% of the vote, he got nearly 2 million more votes than Romney. Prior to the west coast state results coming in on Tuesday, Obama was running slightly behind in the popular vote despite having an edge in electoral votes. Similarly in Texas, Romney got 57.2% and a 1.2 million vote edge.
Even without the electoral college, those states along with New York, New Jersey and most of the Old South probably wouldn't get much attention although the distribution might flatten out a bit. The bulk of the effort would still be spent on the purple states. Of course as demographics change in the future, that whole calculation will have to adjust as well.
Reshared post from +Jeff Jarvis
Really superb NPR visualization of campaign spending. It's also a magnificent demonstration of what I tell NPR people all the time: No, your value is not making great audio. It's explaining the world well.
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