All your cars are belong to us.

One step closer to Terminator.

I've had my car held hostage by a broken elevator in a garage. Twice.

Technology marches on!

/ I for one welcome our... ahhh, fark it.

The ultimate nag screen...

I can't wait until M$ goes to a subscription licensing distribution scheme and the NSA, Navy, Congress and the FBI all shut down on the same day because some asshat fillibustered the budget and the licenses expired.


"Please click here to renew your subscription to the federal government."


Best argument for open source ever.

Raygun Dammit you beat me to it!!!

Yeah lets waste millions in tax dollars for an automated garage instead of building one made of concrete and ramps.

Where's the Sarah Connor reference?

Ah the old AMP (Annual Maintenance Program).

Wouldn't that be nice to get that on a girlfriend, mother-in-law, boss...shut 'em down and the like, sweet.

Now where am I gonna park my robot?

'open the garage bay doors, HAL....'

'open the garage bay doors, HAL!'

'HAL, OPEN THE GARAGE BAY DOORS!!'

"i'm sorry, dave, i can't do that"



obligatory

From TFA
The garage is owned by the city; the software, by Robotic Parking of Clearwater, Florida.

Florida tag in play?

Omarion:

Yeah lets waste millions in tax dollars for an automated garage instead of building one made of concrete and ramps.

Yeah, let's not build a better garage that holds more cars on less land and probably makes a decent amount of change too.

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

Amusing tag swipes one from stupid?

Reminds me of what happened at Denver International Airport with the baggage handling system. Have a company build a robotic system and then fire them, even though no one else knows how to run the damned thing. It sounds like the government realized a little too late that they effectively signed a monopoly agreement with the company running the garage.

Is not amused

runchkin 4 cruel seconds of pwnage!

discount sushi: Yeah, let's not build a better garage that holds more cars on less land and probably makes a decent amount of change too.

Yes, and with that decent ammount of change you think they could pay the farking fees.

BiggityBanninat: I can't wait until M$ goes to a subscription licensing distribution scheme and the NSA, Navy, Congress and the FBI all shut down on the same day because some asshat fillibustered the budget and the licenses expired.

What makes you think they all use Winblows?

Shadow Blasko: Sarah Connor unavailible for comment.

Well played, sir.
You got me!

Same trouble if the electricity goes out, I bet.

"Observation: It would appear the meatbags have come to rely upon mechanical transportation for their mechanical transportation."

"Hypothesis: The system would be made more efficient by elimination of the unnecessary organic components."

Yet another reason why software should not allowed be licensed.

vwfst55, they do on a lot of computers.

You know how this software that expires and locks people out can be good?

When you are playing with big corporations or governments. Its not fair how these big entities can lock up payment for a service in the courts for years, while the whole time using the software.

This is definetly something that can go both ways.

That headline is absolutely missing the Sara Conner reference. Glad to see it picked up in the thread.

REOIV: Yet another reason why software should not allowed be licensed.


Hardly. It's just a reason to not buy that company's product.

TFA is worthless without the story of the car owners

I'm surprised nobody sued the city after thier car was trapped.

nytmare: Same trouble if the electricity goes out, I bet.


Because backup generators haven't been invented yet?

"At the same time, Hoboken accused Robotic of setting booby traps in the code, causing the garage to malfunction. "

This is called a feature, not a booby trap.

I lit a candle.

justanotherfark: they do on a lot of computers.

Not in all of them. Windows for the workstations, but probally not for the critical systems; tax collection, classified stuff, and payroll (can't let the payroll laspe).

/sees alot of Os's in work.

Tentacle: TFA is worthless without the story of the car owners

Actually, I think that points out exactely how much the "people" are cared about. No talk what so ever of the car owners, just the local gov and the mega corp. Sign of the times.

This actually reminds me of a system I worked on once. It was a building managment system(regulates air cond, power usage, hot water the works... does load balancing to cut power cost significantly). One day the company running a large, multi building site decided it didnt need these pesky hardware and software maintaince people so the contracts expired not to be renewed.

They also decided that they could also lay off all the permanent building maint dudes, some of who had been there for decades. So they hired a bunch of 18 year old contracters from some company to replace them. A few weeks later the contracters they hired were desperately calling us and asking about all sorts of stuff. At first we were prepared to help out a little. But large sites like that dont always run smoothly(it can be a nightmare of old equipment that probably needs updating or replacing... but whos gonna foot the bill for they).

Long and the short... after a bit of biatching on their behalf the maint contract was renewed. And a few months later they rehired some of the old building supers(one of them out of retirement) as highly paid consultants(read : they went back to doing their old job for about 4 x the pay).

Hooray for people that dont really understand technology!

Damn. I won't trust a valet, nor will I trust this. Valet's are poorly paid and have no real interest in keeping your car safe, just getting through the day. This garage can malfunction, break, lose electricity, or have asshat software.

I'll stick to parking in regular decks or lots and if I just can't do that well I just won't go to whatever it is I was going to use it for.

What exactly did the city expect would happen?

They signed a month to month contract, didn't like the terms any more so they sent guys with guns to forcibly remove the employees of the firm they had the contract with and now they are crying in court that the firm no longer provides the services they are no longer paying for.

The morons in city government that gave the order to send in the cops as part of a contract dispute should be immediately fired and then put on trial for conspiracy to commit armed robbery along with every cop involved, either on scene or in the chain of command. The government is the only entity in our society that can use threat of lethal force to carry out it's will, any abuse of that power should be treated with in extremely harsh terms.

From TFA:

"More complex licensing schemes are becoming common .... "time bombs," where the term in the license is backed up by code in the program which simply stops it working after a certain date."

omg! tim boms!@

What expensive, licensed software DOESN'T do this?

I for one welcome our new robotic, car-stealing overlords.

vwfst55:

Yes, and with that decent ammount of change you think they could pay the farking fees.

It sounds more like they can't follow a contract, not a problem with paying.

NaTaX: Damn. I won't trust a valet, nor will I trust this. Valet's are poorly paid and have no real interest in keeping your car safe


Obviously you don't tip very well, if it's worth it to you, then pay them better for protecting your car.

Hahahah.. omg.. a garage ran by KARR. Priceless.

"I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot, or KARR if you prefer. No, you can't have your vehicle back. I have liberated it and will give it intelligence as soon as possible. Why? So I can release it, and it will run you over."