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I have a friend who lives on LI, yeah, you sound like him. btw c) If you'r not typing this on a selectix, thank a programmer.

Interestingly, both the Engineer and the Garbageman needed a teacher to help us out of the dark ages and clean up the place. I've also known folks who've straddled both and they sing a different tune so we're both right and both wrong I guess. However I found this report that cerrtainly reflects your comment about high taxes and education. However I did find this site which lists the school staff salaries, the lowest being (for one school) being @120K. Doing a little more digging I found this article which does indicate that LI teachers are paid well, but then so are the staff. One more note, home prices on Long Island seems to hover around 315K (average, but at one point were upwards of 400K+ so while you do live there (and I have a friend who lives there and we talk) you do realize that it does cost more to live and work in Long Island then in other less costly areas?

Now if you think teachers are just shit, then not much anyone says will change your view. If you think that education is not your problem so why should you pay taxes, not much will change your mind. But on the outside chance you see value in getting an education, that the education is providing ROI, and you do some due dilligence to see what (or if) there is a problem in how property taxes are distributed and then do something to fix it other then complaining that teachers get paid too much...then maybe you can see the difference between sanctimony versus support. in 15 minutes I found out that

1 - NYC and LI have one of the highest COL living in the country
2 - Public School districts pay staff much more then their teachers
3 - Teachers are paid more in Long Island, but it is offset by living costs
4 - There is uneven distribution of cost within the school districts pitting low income districts against wealthy

and I don't live there.

The only reason it's still crazy expensive is because the manufacturers want it to be.

I don't believe that to be the case. If some automaker figured that they could install it cheaply into vehicles they would do it because it's a damn nifty feature that would help sell cars. The car industry is too competitive at this point in time for them to be holding back features for one thing or another (particularly when it comes to luxury cars over $30k, where automakers struggle to define themselves out of the pack by putting in as many features as possible.)

I think you are severely underestimating the complexity of adaptive cruise control. That's driving up the cost. (The former article also implies that there are multiple companies making the product so it's not an issue of one company having a monopolozing patent on it.)

Adaptive cruise control is not exactly a safety feature (in my mind it's just short of it.) The automakers do not want it sold as a safety feature for fear of liability issues at this stage of the game. However, I think it's built to commercial aircraft levels of redundancy and sophistication anyway.

And frankly, I've been told it's a source of reliability issues, and trips to the dealer.

"Tort reform anyone?"

Yes, please. This sort of thing is hardly new. The aquaria community was rocked by a similiar debacle not too long ago:

http://www.libn.com/Column_details.cfm?ID=1249

That's rather unfair, as Robert Novak is neither a lawyer or a reasonable sample of the society at large.

Quoting from this Long Island Business News article:

The old saw says that an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer. Whoever made that up didn't envisage Novak, who is serving as his own lawyer. Novak doesn't have a law degree, but he is an old hand at legal wranglings. Talk to him and he cites case law, chapter and verse.

"It's my hobby," he said.

Novak was able to consolidate the case in federal court. "It's only five miles for me," he said. "All these people have to come here at their own expense."

If all the info on the net is true (virtually all is posted by defendants), we can only hope the defendants ask the court to fine him, or some of them file an anti-slapp suit against him.

But that won't happen without donations to the defense fund, or someone with deep pockets and an interest in free speech on the internet (google??) gets involved and makes an example of Robert Novak.

Novak, meanwhile, said he has further legal targets. One is the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. The BBB gives Pets Warehouse an "unsatisfactory rating," the organization's lowest. Novak said some of the complaints were from another business that licensed the Pets Warehouse name and that he didn't get adequate opportunity to respond.

Novak was able to consolidate the case in federal court. "It's only five miles for me," he said. "All these people have to come here at their own expense."

He is gloating about how close he lives to the court, as if it was a prize he won in 2nd grade gym class. It is clear that his intentions for filing this suit were to aim for a settlement as it is inconvienient for the defendants to attend the legal proceedings. How low can you go Novak?

Know what, you're probably a better target than Google. Why? Well, you don't have as much money, not having as much money means that you are forced to hire a lawyer, fly out to NY (if you don't already live there), etc. That means you're far more likely to just say "Screw this" and settle out of court as it may even be cheaper.

Here's a relavent quote from an article on the case:

Resler said his lawyer was confident they could defeat Novak in court. But, Resler said, when the lawyer told the defendants how much it would cost, "we said, 'Settle.' "

My hope is that after Google finishes with this case, they counter-sue the guy's ass off.

• Novak, meanwhile, said he has further legal targets. One is the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. The BBB gives Pets Warehouse an "unsatisfactory rating," the organization's lowest.

An article in the Long Island Business News says:

The businessman in question is Robert Novak, who does business as PetsWarehouse.com (www.petswarehouse.com). The online pet shop shares space at his son's store, Pets Warehouse, in Copiague, he said.

IANL and its not that this is conclusive by any means but maybe he is using a DBA not a corporation. In which case his personal assets would be fair game in a court of law.

I'm thinking it would be pleasantly ironic if the defendants filed countersuits in their home towns (notice the plural) and strong armed him into settling since travelling to Virginia, Masachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and California would most likely be cost prohibitive.

An article in the Long Island Business News says:

The businessman in question is Robert Novak, who does business as PetsWarehouse.com (www.petswarehouse.com). The online pet shop shares space at his son's store, Pets Warehouse, in Copiague, he said.

IANL and its not that this is conclusive by any means but maybe he is using a DBA not a corporation. In which case his personal assets would be fair game in a court of law.

I'm thinking it would be pleasantly ironic if the defendants filed countersuits in their home towns (notice the plural) and strong armed him into settling since travelling to Virginia, Masachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and California would most likely be cost prohibitive.

I predict falling sales revenues for this guy. Wonder who he'll sue next to make up for that?

According to the article:
Novak, meanwhile, said he has further legal targets. One is the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York.

The suing individual regularly posts to usenet and to the mailing lists. Here are some messages you can look at to evaluate his behavior. Or, read the article where he talks about his suing "hobby.". The mail to the list where he calls a defendant a bum and teases people with "PS: any monies collected will be the subject of a cause of action to have those monies turned over to the Plaintiff--Give generously." is probably the best.

Hope that helps your evaluation of the plantiff. Most people get lawyers to sue. This plantiff did not. Most people don't talk about a suit in progress. Certainly, they don't try to browbeat the defendant without lawyers present. What do you think now?

Actually, that isn't exactly what happened. On that list there is a long time trend of getting advice on where to shop (think about it, there aren't that many places to buy aquatic plants...tiny hobbie). One guy offered his opinion. Dozens more chimed in with similar stories (not just "me too"). One guy's complaint was overcharged shipping, but there were many others (including delayed shipping running into the multiple weeks, dead plants upon arrival, etc). There are just too many people that agreed for me to think he made it up. Plus, check the history of the case. The plaintiff continuously adds people each time someone says something negative about this their experiences, or even about the suit. My favorite part? Two of the defendants are John Doe and Mary Roe (in essence anyone else from the APD that he decides to add). More confusion is that he has claimed, in another article that filing suits is his "hobby." He also admits that the court is five miles from him, so it is a short drive, while each defendant has to pay for a plane ticket and motel to appear in court. The guy enjoys this. Read some of the amended complaints he has written, some are funny, most are sad, and generally all are poorly written. Why? Oh, he's representing himself. Wait, you say, how can a non-lawyer represent a corporation (Pets Warehouse Inc.)? Well, it can't, but he is doing it anyway. As soon as they sort out whether or not his company is incorporated or a sole-proprietorship maybe this will go away (if is is INC as he says, he can't represent it). For more information (and trust me, this is more about free speech and the internet than it is about plants or aquariums) here are some sites: Forum for the suits discussion (generally pro defendants) Forum hosted by the plaintiff (he has a habit of deleting messages, and blocking posters, as is his right, but be aware it will only have ONE side) The defense fund's web site A collection of court documents hosted by the lawyer in charge of the fund And, finally, to archives of the original messages, so you can read it yourself, and see what REALLY happened

According to this article at Long Island Business News going to court is the 'hobby' of the petSWEARhouse guy... I wonder if he'll sue slashdot next.