Today brought a couple things on the Toyota front. The first item on the Toyota uncommanded acceleration news front is Yesterday's rather harrowing ride down California's I-8 in yet another runaway Toyota. According to multiple news reports, this one required help from the California State Patrol to get the car stopped. Why the driver didn't drop the car into neutral, I'll never know.
The second was an opportunity to watch Toyota's live press conference and webcast. That was some interesting TV. Anyone watching learned the basics of Toyota's fly-by-wire throttle control system. At least the part of it that involves human input.
However the main focus of the presentation is an attempt to shoot down an experiment by Professor David Gilbert. Gilbert demonstrated that under a fairly narrow set of specific circumstances an uncommanded acceleration can take place. A pedal-to-the-metal acceleration that occurs without setting a fault code in the computer or generating a "failsafe" shut down. In fact 90% of this presentation was all about smacking Gilbert across the nose with a rolled up news paper.
Toyota's presentation emphasized to a fault that Professor David Gilbert "re-engineered" the circuit. That he rewired the harness to introduce that fault condition.
That he did.
Toyota engineers and spokespeople stressed many times that trial lawyers suing Toyota are paying Gilbert to discover and perform that trick.
That they are.
Everyone at Toyota repeated many times, even while giving us a live demonstration of Gilbert's magic trick, the conditions that Gilbert set up creating a faultless unintended acceleration required, at the least, a wild combination of cascading events in the correct sequence.
They are right.
But Gilbert did demonstrate in an easily reproducible manner that it is possible to get an uncommanded full throttle acceleration while the computer thinks everything is just dandy. Something that Toyota said could not occur under any circumstances until Gilbert did his resistor trick.
There were some things missing from the Toyota presentation. It would have been interesting to see the computer module itself and the position of those wires in the computer connector. A look at the insides of one of those computer modules to follow the traces from the dual throttle sending wires would be enlightening to electron pushers like myself.
Even more interesting would be to look at the part no one seems to be talking about. That is the driver circuitry and electromechanical linkage that opens and closes the butterfly valve at the engine air intake. Some discussion as to how the computer knows where the butterfly is positioned would have been interesting.
Roughly two minutes were dedicated to praising the software that runs the computer that runs the car. But nothing was said about any code that gives the brake absolute override over the rest of the system. There is something that common sense says should be in every fly-by-wire ground vehicle.
It is a given that that Toyota engineers are looking at all of this and things I haven't even dreamed of. There are far wiser people then myself putting in some long hours on this problem right now as you read this. Toyota wants the problem indentified and fixed. This is as it should be. But if yesterday's Prius event turns out to be the real deal, Toyota has even more serious problems then they thought.
Doing the PR version of dropping a safe on Gilbert's head isn't going to fix it.
I hooked up my accelerator pedal in my car to my brake lights. I hit the gas, people behind me stop, and I'm gone.
Steven Wright
Tiger Woods made his first public statement on Friday. The major networks interrupted daytime programming to take the statement live. Camera failures aside, we got to hear the message in its entirety and watched as the spectacle ended with a loving hug between Tiger and his mother.
Tiger basically executed Celebrity/Politician/Sports-hero in trouble plan 1B. For those of you unfamiliar with Big-name-celebrity-in-trouble Plan 1B, let give you the basic outline:
- Go into hiding.
- Which turns out to be in patient rehab for _________ malady that led to the trouble in the first place.
- Come out briefly in a staged press event.
- Beg forgiveness while admitting weakness.
- Tell us that their personal life is none of our business (in so many words).
- The family is strictly off limits.
- Then go back into rehab.
He didn't do it as well as others. But he did it bigger then most with live television coverage around the world. I'm certain he is sorry that he got caught. I'm relatively convinced that he is sorry that his family found out.
He did speak about the Thanksgiving night debacle that brought all this to a head.
Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame.
Transcript of Tiger's statement
That was true. However she did take a few penalty strokes on out that car. It comes down to the individual's definition of what constitutes domestic violence.
Who can blame her? Not me.
Like Tiger, I too praise her for standing up to him. Even in light of the life of luxury she stood loose, the public humiliation, a highly public and possibly muddy divorce followed by years at the mercy of know-nothing authors speculating about her relationship in tell all pieces, she let him know in no uncertain terms he screwed up.
Nice swinging, Elin.
Pictures from the media circus
This is part of the temporary uplink farm at the Marriott where we, the unwashed media horde complete with reporters that might ask embarrassing questions, were relegated. That place was the Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center, Resort and Spa in Ponte Vedra, FL. which is roughly a mile away from the place that Tiger actually spoke. We watched on a satellite feed in one of the ballrooms or in our trucks.
Bill from WABC in New York came down for the show. It was good to see him again.
One more live shot from "the hill" outside the conference center. The amount of attention this event garnered from around the world will puzzle me for all the rest of my days. However, I do appreciate the work and the overtime.
See what you can get when you are rich, famous and willing to play around?
These two provided a certain amount of entertainment for our photographers until Marriott security banished them from the property. It really is a shame they tossed her out.
And a good time was had by all…
These are issues between a husband and a wife.
- Tiger Woods
Dr. Watts has been bound over for trial by jury:
A March 16 jury trial has been scheduled for a 51-year-old Toronto author charged with assaulting a Customs and Border Protection officer Dec. 8.
Peter Watts’ last chance to plead guilty to a charge of assaulting a police officer is March 5.
The Times Herald: Trial scheduled in Watts case
I would give a great deal to be there for the trial. In fact, if the fates and vacation Gods allow, I might even do that very thing. That way I can experience the trial first hand and then read about it on Boing Boing and other blogs.
It will be interesting to see if we all attend the same trial. That alone is worth the expense and vacation time.
There are three sides to every case. The plaintiff's complaint, the defense response and what really happened.
- Judge Robert. F. Phipps
Islamic leaders, in their infinite wisdom, issued a Fatwa against Muslims entering the new body scanners used in airport passenger screening. A Fatwa is basically a religious order that all Muslims are expected to follow. They object to the candid body outline displayed by the machine.
The Fiqh Council of North America — a body of Islamic scholars — issued a fatwa this week that says going through the airport scanners would violate Islamic rules on modesty.
"It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," reads the fatwa issued Tuesday. "Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts."
USA Today: Airport body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslims say
No Problem, take the bus!
Until I see a few strongly worded Fatwas forbidding fun filled Islamic extremist pass times like suicide bombing, hostage taking, public beheadings of infidels, targeting civilians, honor killings, etc, I don't want to hear from these clowns.
There is a rule of Sharia: If the enemy wants to suppress you, you are supposed to put up a strong resistance.
- Akhmad Kadyrov
Many people, some who might even be reading this blog, based some part of their 2008 presidential vote on objections to President Bush's warrant-less collection of cell phone call records, location data and taps on international calls. No matter how misguided and misinformed those perceptions were, that was one of the Left's chief complaints and rallying cries against the Evil Right Ring Overlords (tm).
The following is for all those aggrieved when the New York Times (a/k/a/ Al Queda's US Intelligence Arm) exposed the up-till-then remarkably effective counter-terrorism surveillance operations:
Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices.
In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
Those claims have alarmed the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, which have opposed the Justice Department's request and plan to tell the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Americans' privacy deserves more protection and judicial oversight than what the administration has proposed.
CNET: Feds push for tracking cell phones
So when will we see mass protests against President Obama and the Justice Department? Everything that was thrown at the Bush administration needs to be thrown at the new bosses now. We need to hear the shouted calls for impeachment, criminal proceedings, banishment to Hell, etc. We need to see protesters at every Obama event complete with signs and fliers. The Daily Kos needs to write an article a day condemning Obama and his efforts to secure the country. The Huffington Post must eloquently detail their indignation at the invasion of their rights. Where are the comparisons with Hitler?
I'm waiting…
Fair is fair, right?
Come on…
Heh… I didn't think so.
There is no better illustration of that crisis than the fact that the president is openly violating our nation's laws by authorizing the NSA to engage in warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens.
- John Conyers
Yesterday, Washington DC was under 30+ inches of snow. Mother Nature is expected to deliver another 15 inches by the end of the day. Trees are down. Power is out. Flat roofs are collapsing. The city is paralyzed.
This would be a great time to hold a congressional debate on global warming.
The sky is not burning, and to claim that it is amounts to journalistic malpractice... the press only promotes the global warming alarmists and ignores or minimizes those of us who are skeptical.
Mark L. Campbell
Making HD race car TV from Daytona!
Daytona Beach, FL - Even with the all my complaints, it is times like this that make it worth all the grief. I love this part!
Now for the Budweiser Shoot Out, assuming they can get the cat off the track.
Television? The word is half Greek, half Latin. No good can come of it.
- C. P. Scott
Sunrise over the Daytona International Speedway. Not a bad picture for an Android.
Daytona Beach, FL - I'm off to commit yet one more act of television to be held against me in the end. When you are watching the races today and tonight and the picture and sound are so good that you think you are really there, think of me. If it all goes to Hell in the middle of the race, blame the cable company.
"Look, we aren't curing cancer here. This is just television. If something goes wrong, no one is going to die and no one is going to get pregnant."
- Leo Millinger, Special Projects Producer.
Daytona Beach, FL - I'll be spending the next two weeks watching those fun loving guys and gals swapping paint at the Daytona International Speedway. Here's a few shots of my life so far this week.
This is the television compound. We have three networks set up in here. They are Speed, Fox and ESPN. I am old enough to remember when the TV compound was comprised of two trailers and an uplink.
Tweaking the newest of the C/Ku band uplinks. PSSI really did a nice job on this one.
Emerging from the Tunnel of Doom… Or just crossing under the track, which ever you prefer.
Someone's unmarked DSNG doing some infield live shots.
And of course, the reason we're all here. Zoom, zoom, zoooooooooooooooooooommmmm,,,
You win some, lose some, and wreck some.
- Dale Earnhardt
While perusing audio books to restock my supply of driving companions, I came across Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History by Dr. Margaret MacMillan
Allow me to quote the Publisher's Summary:
The winner of many prestigious awards for her scholarship, historian Margaret MacMillan is also the New York Times best-selling author of Paris 1919. In Dangerous Games, she illustrates how history should never be presented as a series of facts, but instead as a framing device for understanding the past.
As professional 21st-century historians cede the literary field to the popular amateur, history and its meanings become muddled - especially in the punditocracy championed by modern media. Copious amounts of cherry-picked facts and manufactured heroes are used to create a narrative rather than give any insight into past events. MacMillan offers an antidote to this by providing the necessary tools to help interpret history in constructive ways.
Audible.com
Let me repeat the important part of that: "history should never be presented as a series of facts, but instead as a framing device for understanding the past." I hope and pray those reading this blog can see what is wrong with that idea.
This is the same problem with today's versions of journalism. We no longer get the unvarnished facts. Instead we get a patch work of facts designed to be a framework to better our understanding of the reporter's, producer's and managing editor's point of view.
The only difference between history and news is that one is far more recent then the other. I want both of those things in their raw, unvarnished form. I don't want key points glossed over or left out. I don't want other things blown way out of proportion. I damn sure don't want someone else to tell me what I should think about these facts.
This just keeps getting worse and worse…
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
- George Orwell
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