Modern vehicles are marvels of electronics. Many contain over 200 controllers in domains from infotainment to ride management to engine control. But the software behind our driving experiences has been treated largely as afterthoughts.
Audi is trying a new approach in the Q6 e-tron SUV’s. It allows over-the-air upgrading of the software to all those different domains and controllers.
This involves a new way of working with component suppliers, dealing with regulations that differ country-to-country, and how to get cars certified in all these geos.
The article is a good quick read on the current state of affairs.
Car thieves are nothing if not persistent. Locks can be picked or ripped out. Wireless key fobs have become vulnerable to a number of new attacks.
Univerisity of Michigan students came up with a new method. Instead of relying on wireless fobs and locks, they connect a security monitoring device between the battery and electrical system. It watch for users to make a series of voltage changes on the electrical system before the car can start.
What voltage changes? They might perform some combination of flicking the windshield wipers, turn signal or headlights on and off, or locking and unlocking the doors.
Battery Sleuth’s default mode allows the battery to deliver enough current to power systems like electronics and lights, but not enough to power the vehicle’s starter. Only when it detects the pre-set series of voltage fluctuations in the vehicle’s electrical system does it turn up the juice, allowing the battery’s full power through to the starter.
In 2015, David Pickett, Volvo Australia’s technical lead, was a part of the team that tried to develop the world’s first kangaroo detection and avoidance system.
Volvo’s team spent the next two years searching for a way to make Volvo’s cars detect and avoid/brake for kangaroos. After 2 years, they admitted defeat in 2017.
Volvo’s camera and radar system were no match for the marsupials. Wallabies proved to be equally challenging.
They had numerous unsolved issues. The kangaroo look entirely different in full flight than when resting. They’re very fast and jump in unpredictable ways, maneuvering mid-air to confuse and outrun predators.
I recently found out about an old-Portland speakeasy. Dean opened up his basement in NE Freemont for people to come hang out and drink. He made some beers, ‘gave’ them away for a $20 door donation, and never bothered to get a liquor license or card people. People would come hang out in his basement and have some beers.
He got shut down in 2014 by the OLCC and it appears he died just a few years later, but not before he had tons of people swing by. He didn’t bother to card and it was apparently quite the little hangout.
While this is faked with green screen and adding the graphics in post using motion tracking, this should be absolutely possible to make. Mangazi Music shows off a guitar neck that has the lyrics and graphics of what he’s playing on it. Sounds like an interesting idea to me…
Bandai has decided to send it’s giant Gundam out in style. I got to see 2 different iterations of the Gundam one my trips to Japan – and the mini-shows were really great.
The 18 meter tall, life-sized replica of the classic RX-78-2 Gundam—the original main mobile suit of the 1979 anime—originally opened to the public at the Yokohama Gundam Base in Tokyo Bay in December 2020.
Bandai sent the Gundam out in style last night with one final exhibition, which featured luminaries from across the franchise’s history—including a few words from Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino
William Shatner went to Indiana University for an eclipse event. He was joined by performers from IU’s musical theatre and dance programs, as well as an appearance by retired NASA astronaut Mae Jemison and a concert by Janelle Monáe. He’ll be performing a spoken word piece as part of the celebration’s program, with his last words ending just as totality is beginning.
Oregon used to be #1 in this category. Now it looks as if Vermont (75%), New Hampshire (66%) and Maine (66%) are now the top share of adults who say they never or seldom attend church or religious services.
Ironically, half of people believe that’s a bad thing but only 30% of Protestants, 28% of Muslims, 23% of Catholics, and 16% of Jews report they attend services weekly.
There’s a ton of data in the Pew research link. Worth taking a look.
The Riddle Brother Ranch was built in the early 1900s beside the Little Blitzen River. The Bureau of Land Management purchased the historic property in 1986, and since then the ranch has existed as a hard-to-reach tourist attraction. Access is only permitted from Wed-Sun June to Oct via 4WD high clearance vehicles or horses.
The caretaker’s cabin at the ranch has a bed, electricity, running water, a refrigerator with a freezer, and cooking stove with an oven. Another building a half-mile away has a hot shower and additional food storage.
Those looking for more information or who want to apply can call Tara Thissell at 541-573-4400
There’s been some trouble lately in which free VPN services have been collecting and selling your data. Others have had major leaks or hacks (such as the new TunnelVision attack). So why not set up your own VPN and avoid those issues?
A few important reminders. VPN’s do not make you anonymous. They only create a secure pipe between you and that server. From that point on, your traffic can be collected and used – and many free VPN services do exactly that. Anonymity comes only if you use things like the TOR network.
But instead of paying a VPN service fee or potentially having your data collected and sold, you might set up your own VPN server on a Rasberry Pi.
Create an account on a cloud hosting provider like DigitalOcean
Download Algo VPN on your local computer, unzip it
Install the dependencies with the command lines on this page
Run the installation wizard
Double click on the configuration profiles in the configs directory
It’s important to note that there are some limitations. This setup is good if you need a secure connection from where you are to the location of the server (ex: You’re in China and need access to US services that are blocked). Again, this doesn’t make you anonymous as your data exits the VPN and becomes public again.
Paid VPN services also often offer servers in different countries so you can spoof being in specific countries. This will not do that unless you have paid for hosting in those countries.
