Wednesday, March 24, 2004

You Cruise, You Lose

Like a plague, anti-cruising laws are spreading to more and more communities every year (including the town I learned how to drive in). What is cruising? These laws define cruising as passing through a protected intersection or stretch of road a certain number of times within a certain period. They seek to reduce the numbers of people driving noisy cars up and down the same streets over and over again while honking, yelling, showing off their rides, and generally disturbing the peace. However, you can be pulled over for violating this law simply by circling around the same roads looking for a parking space, moving things back and forth between two locations, going back to the place you just left because you forgot something, driving around a scenic area because you like the view, or simply wandering around because you're lost.

Car and Driver has a good feature article discussing these laws, and the various challenges they've seen in the courts over the years. The more compelling cases have argued that anti-cruising laws infringe on a person's constitutional right to travel, and that all the behaviors that anti-cruising laws seek to prevent are, by and large, already illegal.

Friday, March 12, 2004

Linux is CRAP!

The Register has a nice little allegory summing up the crux of the SCO/Linux debate. I don't want to spoil anything... you have to read it.

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

A Woman's Car

Volvo has unveiled a concept car at the Geneva International Motor Show that was designed entirely by women. It's far from a fluffy pink lipstick tube on wheels... with a sports coupe body, gullwing doors, and a 215 hp gas-electric hybrid engine. The kicker is this quote:

The workers demanded everything in a car that men want in terms of performance and styling, "plus a lot more that male car buyers have never thought to ask for," said Hans-Olov Olsson, Volvo's president and chief executive.

"We learned that if you meet women's expectations, you exceed those for men," he said.


Update [3/23]: The link provided above is dead, so here's a link to another article about the car.