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Google didn’t lead the self-driving vehicle revolution, John Deere did 11 years ago

In a somewhat tangentially related vein, Suncor Energy, one of the top Oil Sands mining companies in Canada, announced they're replacing their fleet of heavy haul trucks with automated ones[0] by 2020, in the artcle they interview a automated truck industry rep who basically calls the use-case 'simple':

"Really, what the industry is doing here is picking the low-hanging fruit. It's a lot easier to design and operate an autonomous truck on private property like the oil sands than it is on a on a public road. And there are a number of motivations. Computers drive better and more safely and better than humans."

[0] http://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-238-charleston-s-ame-ch...

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FAA says monetized videos shot from drones are subject to commercial regulations 11 years ago

Most of Gold Rush is filmed in Canada, specifically anything involving "The Klondike", which is in the Yukon, Canada.

They would need to abide by Transport Canada's UAV regulations, and would most likely require a SFOC, which is possible to get if you're operating <400ft commercially. The FAA does not yet have a similar permitting process for commercial drone use.

EDIT: SFOC/Transport Canada regulations: http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/standards/general-reca...

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Photographing people on the edge of a skyscraper in San Francisco 11 years ago

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time working on swingstages, towers and other structures, there's a few things that immediately caught my attention. Yes, I'm going to be that guy.

- As this appears to be a photoshoot for SmugMug, of SmugMug employees, does Smugmug carry the proper class of insurance on their employees to allow this sort of work? In most cases, unless additional coverage was purchased from the insurer, your general "office worker" insurance will not cover this type of work.

- Was the building owner aware of the photoshoot, and did they have the insurance to cover this sort of work?

- Does Von Wong's liability insurance cover this sort of work (especially since he's not tied off when jumping around on the ledges)?

- I don't see a shock absorber attached to the harness, whcih is necessary to limit the forces on the person to 900lbs (body belt) or 1800lbs (harness) in the even of a fall. I also note that the harness looks like it's a climbing harness NOT a proepr fall-arrest harness (the exception I saw was Hell-girl). Generally you must wear a full body harness rated for fall-arrest and be attached using the back D-ring when doing this type of work.

- The tie-off point, while not visible in the video/photos, (generally) must be a certified tie-off anchor or rated to 5000lbs arresting strength. Using a travel limiting device _may_ have been acceptable, but there doesn't appear to be one.

- The webbing making a sharp angle across the roof flashing is also not ideal, as you should be anchored from above in almost all cases.

- Was there a rescue plan in place? Had someone fallen, what would have happened?

If all of these things were taken into consideration and properly addressed, then thank you for doing your due diligence, otherwise I feel like this has OSHA violation written all over it.

I imagine the city of San Francisco also has regulations when suspending equipment beyond a buildings footprint over an active street.

People die regularly from improper fall arrest systems. You were not just doing a fun photo-shoot, YOU were responsible for these people's lives, as well as the lives of anyone walking below.

I will acknowledge that my knowledge relates to the Canadian labour code, but the US regulations appear to be similar.

https://www.osha.gov/Region7/fallprotection/fall_protection_... https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/construction/falls/fallarre...

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What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth 12 years ago

As far as running water through a water system to keep it from freezing:

That's exactly what we do here. The town _requires_ all households to have a bleeder turned on from about Nov-April at a rate of 1 Litre/minute. This is a small hose which is routed directly from your supply line into your drain pipe. The system is continuously cycling water through the line. You're correct in that this isn't cheap, but it's much cheaper than the alternative (water mains freezing).

You can see the advisory on the town's page here: "ATTENTION RESIDENTS: PLEASE TURN ON WATER BLEEDERS

Winter is here! Please ensure all water bleeders are TURNED ON!! They should be turned on at the rate of one litre per minute. Don't let your pipes freeze up on you!!" [0] http://cityofdawson.ca/

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What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth 12 years ago

To add to what's been said, another problem is currently our only fibre link to southern Canada is via the Alaska highway, which gets accidentally cut about once a year or so by a construction company.[0] We have microwave that it will fall back to, but that's extremely limited bandwidth.

[0]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/internet-slowdown-led-to...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/northwestel-restoring-ph...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/internet-outages-frustra...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/northwestel-trying-to-re...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-n-w-t-phone-intern...

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Those making $1,000+/month on side projects – what did you make? 12 years ago

more or less

What is an ABA routing number?

The ABA routing number is a 9-digit identification number assigned to financial institutions by The American Bankers Association (ABA). This number identifies the financial institution upon which a payment is drawn. Routing numbers are sometimes referred to as "check routing numbers", "ABA numbers", or "routing transit numbers" (RTN). Routing numbers may differ depending on where your account was opened and the type of transaction made.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/manage/faq-routing-nu...

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Fitness Crazed 12 years ago

Starting Strength is more about getting functionally strong, though an increase in muscle size would no doubt accompany that.

Taking the deadlift as an example, Rippetoe spends pages describing the proper form, and why you need to do them. This is not because he wants you to necessarily get 'big', but because the muscles involved are used on a daily basis.

"The deadlift is more functional in that it’s very hard to imagine a more useful application of strength than picking heavy shit up off the ground. "

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Wit_and_Wisdom_of_Mar...

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GoPro S-1 12 years ago

"Gold Rush: Alaska" and "Yukon Gold" are both filmed in my local area (Dawson, Yukon, Canada), and both companies strap GoPros onto every piece of heavy equipment they can. If they fall off and get run over, they're out $300, which is a negligible amount of money for productions of their scale.

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Level3 is without peer, now what to do? 12 years ago

From the article, it seems like the "flat-rate contract" the ISPs have for peering with L3 is $0.

The issue that L3 is raising, is that the equipment/appliances that the ISP has installed in these peering arrangements are insufficient to keep up with the amount of traffic which the ISP's customers are requesting, and L3 is attempting to provide.

If the ISPs were to upgrade their peering equipment to handle their customer's requests, there would be no issue.

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Square Pickup 12 years ago

That is definitely not unheard of. The dealers will do whatever they can do to get you to show up.

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