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Could there be a better fit for self driving cars, than Nevada? You go to Vegas. You party hard. You can’t drive back to your hotel. You get a self-driving car to do the work for you! Seriously, Nevada is the first state in the union to pass legislation for the testing/deployment of self-driving cars throughout the state. This does not mean that you can go down to your local dealer and get a Google branded Passat that will drive you all over the place – this is just the first step to making self-driving cars legal.

“Nevada is the first state to embrace what is surely the future of automobiles,” Department of Motor Vehicles Director Bruce Breslow said. “These regulations establish requirements companies must meet to test their vehicles on Nevada’s public roadways as well as requirements for residents to legally operate them in the future.”

During the testing phase, these self-driving cars will have red license plates, which will turn to green once the cars have passed the appropriate testing and deemed safe. Up until now, there has only been one accident involving Google’s self-driving car and not surprisingly, it was due to human error and not the fault of the car itself – no points on its record…..yet.

The system combines information gathered from Google Street View with artificial intelligence software that combines input from video cameras inside the car, a LIDAR sensor on top of the vehicle, radar sensors on the front of the vehicle and a position sensor attached to one of the rear wheels that helps locate the car’s position on the map. As of 2010, Google has tested several vehicles equipped with the system, driving 1,609 kilometres (1,000 mi) without any human intervention, in addition to 225,308 kilometres (140,000 mi) with occasional human intervention, with one of two accidents occurring when another car crashed into the rear end of a test vehicle that was stopped at a red light and the other accident occurring while the car was being manually driven. Google anticipates that the increased accuracy of its automated driving system could help reduce the number of traffic-related injuries and deaths, while using energy and space on roadways more efficiently…

Google is pushing hard for the deployment and acceptance of its technology and I have no doubt that if the first couple waves of state-wide testing go well, we could see rapid deployment of self-driving cars over the next 5 years – especially for mass transit. I foresee a massive taxi and bus driver revolt!

The original Self-Driving Car

Source: TheVerge – Source: Wiki - Source: Nevada DMV

ACTA – ‘The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement’ is a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that would create its “own governing body outside existing international institutions” such as – the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.

DO YOUR PART! The internet is under attack – the open and free internet that we’ve all grown-up with, is now the target of powerful lobbyists and ignorant/bought government officials. This is no conspiracy theory – this isn’t fiction: This is a very real : very serious problem facing everyone. There are two bills of Legislation in Washington right now: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). Both bills were written by lobbyists and sold to congressmen/senators, whom know very little about the ramifications of these bills.

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act):

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.[4] - Read More…..

PIPA (Protect IP Act):

The bill defines infringement as distribution of illegal copies, counterfeit goods, or anti-digital rights management technology. Infringement exists if “facts or circumstances suggest [the site] is used, primarily as a means for engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the activities described.”^[8] The bill says that it does not alter existing substantive trademark or copyright law.^[9]

The bill provides for “enhancing enforcement against rogue websites operated and registered overseas” and authorizes the United States Department of Justice to seek a court order in rem against websites dedicated to infringing activities, if through due diligence, an individual owner or operator cannot be located.^[10] The bill requires the Attorney General to serve notice to the defendant.^[11] Once the court issues an order, it could be served on financial transaction providers, Internet advertising services, Internet service providers, and information location tools to require them to stop financial transactions with the rogue site and remove links to it.^[12] The term “information location tool” is borrowed from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and is understood to refer to search engines but could cover other sites that link to content…. - Read More…….

Hidden inside both pieces of legislation are powerful clauses, wording that will strip civil liberties, freedom of speech, safe harbor protections, business/online commerce and the physical back-bone of the internet – DNS. Action needs to be taken to stop these bills from become laws and everyone needs to participate, this will effect everyone. In a cohesive stance against SOPA & PIPA, hundreds of major companies from all over the world have decided to strike: Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Mozilla Corporation, Roblox, Reddit, the Wikimedia Foundation and human rights organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU, and Human Rights Watch. For more information regarding the  issues, please visit the SopaStrike website here and please pass the word about this very important issue. January 18th, 2012 has been declared a global WEB STRIKE DAY – Join In.

Source: SopaStrike

Oh Belarus! Usually, during the holiday break, tech news is so hard to come by but that’s when you stepped in – thank you. As of January 6th:

…a law will go into effect that makes it illegal for Belarusian citizens or residents to visit any foreign websites. Furthermore, businesses or individuals may not provide services through domains not registered in Belarus, and owners of internet cafes or other such businesses can face charges if they don’t monitor and report any violations of this law. This last provision even applies to individual citizens hosting guests in their home — if someone hits a foreign website, the computer’s owner is bound by law to report it, or face charges himself….

Nathan Ingraham, of The Verge breaks it down as simply as need be. On the completely insane scale, this law is a strong 10! Just so you understand the craziness of this broadband law, Belarus is making China jealous. Just reminds us that it’s not 2012 everywhere…..

Source: TheVerge

Seems like lobbyists haven’t got the message yet, so they released this gem of propaganda. The ad is solely based on made up information, drumming up fear from un-informed citizens about the “evils” of the internet. When will special interest groups realize that a free internet is now a civil right – one that grants people information, free speech and the ability to converse and protest. Good luck taking that away!

Today, Sony won a restraining order against playstation 3 hacker, Geohot. George Holtz (Geohot) has 10 days to turn over his computer and any equipment associated with the case but what does Sony really hope to gain? Holtz has already said numerous times that he created the jailbreak in order to load linux onto the PS3, not to enable pirated games to be side loaded, something Sony had disabled in the newest PS3 update. Worst of all, the jailbreak is already free all over the internet, going for a witch hunt now is just bad PR. Sony: Win the Battle, Lose the War. NEXT!!

Source: Arstechnica.com