Jon Stern

Ah, the joys of the internet getting the wrong end of the stick! The Fusion team was not laid off. The old Kolor team in France who originated the desktop stitching software was laid off.

Why’s it unexpected?

I’m from England, and I lived in SoCal for 11 years (now I’m in Northern California), while there is much to like, overall I didn't like the area (despite living in Laguna Beach). My wife was born and grew up there and she wants to move to the UK. I know a lot of British go lala for SoCal, while never missing an opportunity to bash our own country, but I can tell you that there's a lot of things that are not so great about that part of the world.

@Liamfind see my post on ISO 26262:

What I'd like to see is EUC companies using ISO 26262 principles. This would ensure that hardware and software components have been designed and qualified with safety in mind from the outset. While the small scale of EUC production probably means that ISO 26262 adherence could never happen, borrowing the principles would increase safety (and minimize the risks of lawsuits). The necessity of automotive component manufacturers to adhere to ISO 26262 means that there are a lot of Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) compliant components that could be leveraged for EUCs. In the particular area of microcontrollers, this means there are chips that use embedded Flash memory with Error Correcting Code (ECC), have Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC), a high-precision Deadman Time (DMT) that monitors the health of application software by requiring periodic timer interrupts within a user-specified timing window, etc.

I'm going to be at CES for a couple of days this year. I don't see any EUC companies on the exhibitor list (that's based on my searching for the names of the main companies). Does anyone know if any of them are exhibiting, maybe under a Chinese name?

Do you mean Hall Effect sensors? Hall Effect sensors are used to determine an electromagnet actuator/motor position.

Electric motor scooters are incredibly popular in China, and almost no one rides with their lights on at night. My understanding is they say they can see well enough by the street lights. They're completely oblivious to the fact that the lights are as much for being seen by cars as they are to see by!

I've been wondering about a structured light system myself. A projected grid of dots can be used to map the ground, like the Microsoft Kinect 1 did. Such a system could also detect potholes and bumps, although what the correct response should be (auto brake?), I’m not sure.

If you're near San Mateo, and want to borrow a Glide 2 Lite (short range, I know), I have one you can use.

The V8 comes with the top speed limited to something like 12mph. You can increase the limit to 19mph using the app. It warns you not to increase it unless you've been riding for a year, but after a few weeks of daily commuting I upped mine to max.

My new (Christmas present to myself from my wife) Demon United Flex-Force X D30 Top Body Armor V2 comes with a removable D3O back protector pad. I'm thinking that I'll remove it and ride with a less bulky jacket, but is this a smart move? Is there any plausible scenario under which back protection is needed on EUC? Has anyone hurt their spine in an accident?

Which action camera do you have?

Hmm, "Honey! Do these wrist guards make my hands look fat?"

Step 4: This wheel would fill a gap in my fleet. Step 5: Jason is sending me a beta test wheel soon. Step 6: It's a game changer (but there are a few issues)! Step 7: The final release version will fix the major issues. Step 8: My personal wheel will arrive in a month. Step 9: The delivery date has pushed out, but Jason says he's expecting them before next Christmas. Step 10: It arrived this morning. I've already put 300 miles on it. Step 11: You either get it or you don't. Step 12: I face planted at 18 mph