My father is a volunteer tax preparer based out of our local public library. He will prepare anyone's taxes for free regardless of how complex they are. And this is not just him going it alone, he is part of a program that is funded by the IRS and use tax software the the IRS provides. I recommend that people look into this in their area if they would like someone else to do their taxes but don't want to pay someone like H&R Block to do it. This is a good option especially if you have a fairly complex tax situation. Since I travel for work a lot, I usually have to file taxes in more than one state. I have had as many as 5 state forms in a year. I used to win the award for the most complex taxes (especially the year I switch jobs, moved to a new state, got married and worked in 4 additional states), but he has been doing this for a while now and has encountered some really off-the-wall situations. Everything from I am self employed and have a pile of receipts for you" to "I haven't files my taxes for the past 10 years" to "I am a Syrian national living in the US under political asylum". I'm sure I could do this all myself with TurboTax just fine, but I do like having a person I can ask questions to. For instance, this year I got a really large refund. I don't like giving the government such a large interest free loan, so he was able to give me some advice on what factors were contributing the most to my huge refund (i.e. was it the amount of withholding, or one of the many deductions I was eligible for?) and devise a plan to try to reduce the size of my refund for the next year.
Never said there was anything sincere about Cathy's apology, nor do I really think his views have changed. What Cathy did admit was that making his views public was bad for business. If he still wants to be bigoted behind the scenes, then there's not much anyone can do about that. He has a right to his own thoughts. However, donations to hate groups is not a "behind the scenes" activity. So if you want to keep your opinions behind the scenes, then the donations have to stop or be concealed. It appears in Cathy's case, the donations have stopped, or at least significantly declined.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that the consumer should ignore the CEO's views. I am saying that a company should do everything it can to ensure that a CEOs views never become a deciding factor in the first place. Meaning, unless those views are directly related to the product you are selling, keep them to yourself. So when it comes to a web browser company, views on all things web, software, or even just plain business strategy/philosophy are all fair game. They could even be good differentiator. Everything else, particularly polarizing or controversial issues like gay marriage, abortion, etc. should be avoided like the plague (plagues should also be avoided). Up until recently, when you had to make a decision on what web browser to use, you may have considered many factors. Speed to load, adherence to standards, open vs closed source, non-profit vs. for profit company. I bet not once did you consider the political views of any of the CEOs, cause there was nothing of interest to even consider. As a company, you want to keep it that way. Now the cat's out of the bag, and you and many other people are factoring the CEO's views on gay marriage into what web browser to use (and rightly so!). That can only be bad for business.
Chick-fil-a's CEO, Dan Cathy, may actually disagree with you. Not long ago, he openly apologized for his comments about gay marriage and his donations to many of the apparent hate groups have declined or all together stopped. He cited many reasons for his change of heart, but the most telling was that "it was bad for business." http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US...
I remember reading at the time (although I can't find the source anymore) that while sales spiked during the initial publicity, they later declined to a point lower than before the controversy started. So they didn't really get any new customers from the whole thing, just lots of people who were already Chick-fil-a customers going out and making a statement. Once the controversy died down, existing customers went back to their old purchasing habits. However, they did lose customers. Those who used to be customers and were offended by the comments, will likely never be customers again.
A company needs to succeed based on the product that they are offering, whether its differentiating qualities are real or perceived. Anything else is simply a distraction. This goes for chicken and web browsers. The views of the CEO shouldn't be a consideration for customers when choosing a web browser.
Can we stop referring to these companies as "Ride Sharing" apps? It's just a way to make it sound like they are not car for hire services, but they really are. And I'm not complaining about the services themselves. I use Uber constantly. I love it. But I am under no illusion that UberX drivers "just happen to be going my way." They picked me up because they want my cash. And that is the real problem with the author's idea. The drivers don't want to barter. They don't need credit for future rides. This is their profession. Most of the drivers I have spoken to drive at least part time, if not full time. Last ride I got, I asked the guy when he usually called it quits for the day (it was the end of a long workday for me). His response: "I'll be driving all night. This is all I do." Does this sound like "ride sharing" to you? Regular taxis should have every right to be worried, though. And price is the least of it. I use a lot of taxis and Ubers, so I feel I can make a fair comparison. In general, Ubers are friendlier. Their cars are cleaner. And the biggest reason I use Uber, is because of the ease of payment. I travel for work, so I put everything on my corporate credit card, including taxis (Using cash means I 1) need to be carrying it, 2) I need to carefully track receipts and 3) I don't get the money back for another few weeks). With Uber, I just step out of the car, and my card is immediately charged and I receive and e-mail with the receipt. With regular taxis, he tells me how much, I say I want to pay with a credit card. At this point, I get one of two responses. If I am lucky, he says, "No problem" and takes my card. More often then not I get "can you pay cash instead?" or "the machine's down, cash please". I then insist on credit, at which point the machine magically works again. (No joke, last week a guy gave me the "machine's down" line and then after I suggest he do a carbon copy, he whips out his iPhone with a Square reader attached!). Ok, back to the machine. If the machine is the kind in the back seat, process is fairly smooth, but does take a little time. Or it's the old school one in the front that takes a little more time to process the payment and print out the receipts. I get that taxi drivers get less money and it takes longer to get paid (so I usually tip more), but it's a huge hassle, and creates a shitty experience when I have to argue with every taxi driver. Uber's experience is far superior. And there is no reason that taxis couldn't adopt the same payment system.
You should tell your friend that there are places where bent wheels can be straightened for a fraction of the cost of replacing the wheel. I have had this done a few times. One of my past cars had very low profile tires on 18" wheels and I bent all four after going too fast through a patch of road that was badly torn up by potholes and uneven cracks approaching curb-like qualities. Replacement of all four wheels would have run me close to $400 per wheel, but instead, had them straightened for roughly $100 per wheel. On another occasion, I bought a set of wheels off e-bay, but one of them wouldn't balance out due to it being bent. Once again, fixed them right up for a relatively low cost and wheel balanced perfectly after that. Not sure where you live, but I used this place in Pennsylvania. http://www.wheelcollision.com/ They used to be the only place that did this in the PA/NJ area, but I believe there are a lot more shops that do this now.
Car and Driver seems to disagree with your Lincoln claims, but your Cadillac statement seems to be accurate
2012 Lincoln MKS: http://buyersguide.caranddrive...
2013 Cadillac CTS: http://buyersguide.caranddrive...
Both cars get around 1 MPG less with AWD compared to their 2WD counterparts with same engine. And for the Lincoln, SAME ENGINE is the key word. The AWD Lincoln is able to achieve the same MPG as the FWD one assuming you upgrade to the EcoBoost engine, which, while yes is more powerful, is a completely different engine, so not a proper comparison of MPG from FWD to AWD. Even for the Cadillac it is hard to draw any hard conclusions without more information. There can be a lot of variability between the trims, deeper even than what is presented on the surface. I would not be surprised if the transmissions are geared slightly differently or if there was any weight saving measures taken for the AWD version. You could be correct, though.
Thanks for the advice. I always bring up my history of fainting and request to lie down and usually stay down for a little while afterwards since it hasn't always been during the draw that the lights have gone out (Once it was 15 minutes later back in the waiting room). My experiences have all varied. Some have turned out OK, others tortuous, so I know some of it is in my head. At the end of the day, I just need to man up and deal with it for the sake of my own health.
As someone who frequently faints or comes extremely close while having blood drawn, I am extremely excited about this tech. I hate getting blood drawn so much that I have a tendency to avoid scheduling routine physicals, which I know is not smart since yearly physicals are so crucial to spotting trouble before things get too bad. I don't just hate passing out (or nearly), but I hate needles in general, so having that needle stuck in my arm for the duration of the draw (or the frequent misses and retries) along with the whole losing consciousness is torture for me. Finger-prick was never a problem for me, though. I imagine I'm not alone, so if this means more people doing some preventative maintenance, then it likely also means less emergency room visits and major procedures resulting from ignored or uncaught conditions that would have otherwise been easily treated.
I just hope that my insurance will accept this method. I just got a letter in the mail from them the other day reminding me that they do not work with all labs.
The key disparity here is that you are assuming being a "leader" on a project means you were a project manager or officially managing others in some formal fashion. I don't think that is what any of these interviewers were asking. You don't have to be in an official leadership role to lead. It could be as simple as leading by example, or it could mean that others look to you for guidance or direction. Did you ever take any extra initiative to accomplish something new or particularly challenging that no one else had that guts to take on?
Now if they really were asking about formal leadership roles (i.e. Manager), then you should have given a similar explanation to what you posted in your question (except maybe without the whole, "I like being a follower", part). You get more satisfaction from solving engineering challenges hands-on than you do being a manager. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, some may worry that because you desire to stay in relatively the same place for a long time, that you will still want regular pay increases beyond cost of living adjustments, which means you will be very expensive relative to your peers. This may be OK assuming you can justify your larger salary and by justify, I mean prove on a regular basis. But this then brings me back to my first point about leadership vs. managing. Your greater level of experience should translate into you being a leader amongst your peers and explains why you have been asked such questions during interviews.
I will agree on this one, and I speak from experience. I travel a lot for work, and as such, rent a lot of cars. Every week I get to fumble around with whatever asinine "state of the art" infotainment system each manufacturer has come up with. Lately I have seen Toyata, Ford and GM's take on this. I have seen none that are better than just plain old buttons. Even just forgetting the fact that there is no tactile feedback for a second, the actual UI of the system is not conducive to operating with quick glances. The make it such a "rich" interface that I can't easily tell what is info and what is an actionable button. Then add in the fact that once you find a button and tap it, the whole screen changes and you have a whole new set of information and buttons to try to process (and god forbid the buttons stay in the same place or follow and common pattern from screen to screen). With the old classic buttons, I could generally hop in the car for the first time, take a quick look over the dash to figure out where volume and seek are and how to adjust the A/C, get those all set once, and then from then on, adjusting on-the-fly was easy, since I had already figured out everything that needed to be figured out. Not possible with these touch screens and I often catch myself fiddling while driving (which I really try to avoid, but these tend to lure me in much more easily).
Ford decided to take the idiocy to a new level, though. And I guess this makes sense given their relationship with Microsoft. So Ford was probably hearing all of these complaints about no tactile feedback and needing buttons and they say, "you know what, you're right, and boy do we have the solution for you!" They decided to put buttons in, but instead of regular old buttons (cause those are for losers!) they use touch sensitive buttons built into a textured panel. They function similar to those buttons that are not really buttons that some laptop and TV manufacturers started using a couple years ago (which I HATE) and the main Android buttons on many smartphones.So it looks like your old buttons, with each function having a dedicated location and being raised up from the dash with painted on labels/logos, but a little slicker since there are no gaps/seems around the buttons since nothing needs to be pressed in. At first glance, you think, neat, Ford gets it. Then you try to use it like your old school button interface, and that's where it all breaks down. You feel for the radio station seek buttons. There is a + and a -. You what to seek up, but your fingers find the down first.Ok, just gotta move over one and I got it, you think as you blindly feel around. But it's too late! you have already touch + and the radio station has switched in the wrong direction. You try to correct, but this time, when you again try to reach without taking your eyes off the road, you brush against the thermostat, and you've set it to full blast hot. An it's July. In Arizona. So now you are stuck literally sweating to the oldies while you barrel down the highway in a car you are not very familiar with. I'm sure if I owned these cars, I would get used to them, and it would be a little safer over time, but is it any better than what we had before
I'm OK with including a touch screen, but it can't be the only way to interact. It has to be a combination of buttons and touch. Buttons should be there for all of the standard, commonly used functions like volume, input change (i.e. FM, AM, SAT, AUX), seek, etc. If you want to then make all of the audio tweaks (Bass, treble, balance), car setup, device pairing, or other odd functions, sure, put them on the touch screen, since those are things I will typically only do when I'm not driving. Or if it's something like answering the phone, it just becomes a big touch screen button that I can mash with my hand quickly without the need for much accuracy. I think some manufacturers get this, or at least used to get this, and have done what I suggest (My parent's VW has such a system) but so many are getting carried away with turning the car into an iPad that they forget where they are putting it (a car) and what you will also be doing while trying to operate it (driving).
So if he is admitting that he needs financial help with the defense of his current court battle, it would be a pretty reasonable assumption that he does not have the funds to initiate a second court battle. Sounds like a pretty empty threat, if you ask me.
Does that mean that the several miles of the turnpike that run parallel to the Newark airport runway can now be considered "Little Autobahn"? For those unfamiliar with the area, planes litterally take of an land right next to the turnpike. When I'm flying into EWR, I know we are in our final approach when I can see the turnpike.
My mileage did vary. Not sure what the % over invoice was, but it was right on the mark for the "Great Price" listed on TrueCar.com. While I did have to go to the dealership and find the exact car we were interested in before we got the price, they did allow me to contact a competing (non-Costco) dealership to counter the offer. At this point I was not under any obligation to accept the Costco price. In fact the competing dealership matched the offer, however they could not match the additional $500 Costco gift card that was being offered (limited time offer after completing a survey). The competing dealershiop gave up the sale at that point and then we signed for the car with the Costco dealership. Only dealer incentives going on were for interest rates, but not for the specific model I wanted. I was able to get that interest rate, though, when negotiating with the finance manager. Each dealership may be different and if there are limited time dealership incentives, then yes, you may be able to get a better/different deal. I guess it still goes back to how hard you negotiate, even with the Costco pricing (maybe I just contradicted my original point).
If you are a Costco member, this is the reality. Costco pre-negotiates prices with participating dealerships and the price is just a hair above invoice. There is no haggling, no back and forth. Just show your membership, then they go grab the Costco price, end of negotiation*. Even if you're not a Costco member, the internet has made negotiating new car prices much easier with sites like TrueCar.com. They publish what people actually paid for new cars and give you a guide to what is a a good deal (this is how I knew the Costco price was a really good deal). You may still have to do some theatrics like walking out and saying your going to see what the dealership across town has to say, but you have a lot more leverage then you had in the past.
* The negotiation on the sale price is done, but if you plan to finance, the negotiation of financing terms (length, interest, extra servces, etc.) begins and can still be a pretty slimy feeling experience. When it comes to financing, I feel like I never know how much I'm paying each month until I get the first bill.
During Hurricane Sandy, despite not having power for 12 days straight, my Verizon FiOS was up and running the whole time. As long as I plugged the main FiOS modem (the big white panel they mount on the wall of your basement or wherever), router and internet/TV capable devices into my generator, I was set. This was the case with most of the people I talked to who had both FiOS and a generator. I did talk to one FiOS customer that didn't have service even after the power was back. For whatever reason, it seemed that Verizon's lines were much more durable that the power company's. Those with Comcast, on the other hand, had nothing from the beginning of the outage until well after the power came back on.
AUTObuntu was great until I upgraded to the latest release "sanguine sedan". They completely changed the UI from the steering wheel and pedals to a small RC car like controller. They claim it's to make the experience more consistent between RC cars and real cars, but I'm really having trouble adjusting. I'm on the verge of switching to "Auto Mint".
This only has to do the the PreCheck program. If you sign-up for pre-check you actually don't know when you will be allowed to use the expedited security line. You only find out after you get to the airport and scan your boarding pass before you even get in line for security. My colleagues that have it actually complain that they hardly ever get the go-ahead for expedited security. Even if the odds of getting the go-ahead were better, if there is still a chance you won't get the go-ahead, you can't take advantage of the time savings that the program allows. If I get to the airport 30 minutes before my flight and then get denied expedited security, I'm going to miss my flight. That means you have to get to the airport extra early no matter what. If I do get expedited security, I still end up just sitting in the terminal for the for the same amount of time I would have otherwise spent in line for security. Granted, I could get food/drinks, read, do some work, etc. in the terminal while I couldn't while in line for security.
Now if I could know in advance whether I get PreCheck or not, then I could take advantage of the time savings more effectively. Get an extra 30 min. of sleep, squeeze an extra meeting in at the end of the day, schedule an earlier flight so I get home and see my family sooner.
The danger here, though, is if someone can create a counterfeit bar-code. Then those who have not been through the up front screening required of the PreCheck program (and there is a lot of it. I won't do it just for the privacy concerns) can falsify PreCheck qualifications and better hide contraband.
But you know what, even as a very frequent air traveler, I find the whole PreCheck (at least right now) to be awfully inefficient. Hardly anyone has it and even fewer qualify the day of, so that is one extra x-ray machine with 2-3 extra TSA agents sitting idle, while the rest of the lines are backed up even further. The only way this becomes worthwhile for the airport is if there is enough PreCheck passengers to keep a constant flow of people through the PreCheck line. However, with the Orwellian sign-up process and the fact that you can't rely on whether you will get to use it (see points above), it is really hard to say if it will take-off. They tried doing this several years ago with Clear (run by a private company) but that was a bust (I think there were many additional factors there, though).
Next year's test should be much more interesting since both Verizon FiOS and Comcast just started offering 300mbps. Granted those are the most expensive plans, but my current FiOS connection of 25mbps (which usually speedtests at 30mbps) is being upgraded to 50mbps for no additional charge. Automatic speed bumps are occurring across the FiOS lineup, so the $/mbps ratio is becomiing more beneficial to users.
Actually, there are already bars like that in existence. The prices for each drink are set based on current demand. If everybody is ordering PBR and no one is buying Chimay, the price of PBR will go up and the price of Chimay will go down. Once everyone starts buying up the cheap Chimay, then the price goes back up again. I have never been to one of these places but seen them featured on TV. Check out Exchange Bar and Grill in NYC.
they're probably teaching it because they found out a lot of their incoming students were deficient in skills that would allow them to write papers or lab reports for other classes they need to take
This.
I had to take a similar course my first year of college. I was in the business school planning on majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS), but everyone in the business school had to take Intro to MIS. From the title, you would think the goal of the course would be get people with undeclared majors to be interested in majoring in MIS. It was very clear from the curriculum and even more clear once we got to our higher level business classess that that was not the goal. The goal was to make sure everyone knew how to use MS Excel very well. Sure we talked about what a computer is, software vs. hardware, OS vs. application, etc, etc, but much of the course involved going throught the MS Excel 2000 workbook excercise by excercise. Was it a bit mindless? Sure, but not only was that course invaluable in my career (I use Excel every day), but it was invaluable just to pass every other class I took. Every accounting course required the use of Excel. Statistics required Excel. Calculus required Excel. Operations Management, Micro/Macro/International Econimics, Finance, Excel, Excel, Excel. Point is, if you didn't know how to use Excel at an above-basic level, you were already playing catch-up.
I will second this option. My company uses Good for Enterprise on both Android and iPhone. The nice thing about it is that it is YOUR phone that happens to have a an app on it to access your work e-mail, calendar and contacts. You can view attachments, but not download them to the actual device. The app itself is password protected so you can choose your own level of security for the rest of your phone. The only bad part is that, well, naming an app "Good" will always result in it being bad. The interface is a bit clunky (GMail app, blackberry mail, etc. are all much more enjoyable to use) and I often have the issue of it not syncing regularly when i'm on WiFi (for some reason it's much more reliable on even a week mobile data connection). Additionally, the app will not install on a rooted or jailbroken phone (for security reasons). The geek in me wants to root my phone, but the other part of me that needs a fully functioning and reliable smartphone is happy limits were put in place. But despite the downsides, it does what I need it to do and it's liveable. The company is happy that their data is encrypted and sandboxed from the rest of the phone. I'm happy that I can do what I want with MY phone and don't have to worry about some rogue app messing with work data. The only
As someone who is having his first child in just over one month, I have very recently been looking at these options and have chosen a public bank. For the question of Public vs. Private vs. nothing, I think other slashdotters have covered it. Private is expensive and it's unlikely you'll need it. Public can do help for someone right now. Doing nothing is just throwing a promising resource in the trash. That's just my two cents about that. So let's say you have chosen the Public option. Well, here is where Slashdot is not well suited. You should be talking to both the hospital you plan to deliver at and your OB. I'm sure your OB has already given you all of the pamphlets, so you have an idea of what companies do what. If not, ask for them. Then talk to your hospital about which banks they work with. Depending on where the hospital is, what health system it's part of, etc. will determine which banks are available to you. This should narrow your list considerably. Then cross-reference the hospital's list with your OB's. Some OB's will charge for the collection, even for donations. Again, ask your OB if there is any charge for donations. I would be surprised if after talking to the hospital and your OB if you would even have a choice of which bank to use, so don't waste your time agonising over which bank is best.
First, no one said anything about civil disobedience. While civil disobedience is a form of protest, it does not cover all protests. Second, I don't think you quite understand what civil disobedience is. Basically, you find a law to be unjust, so you get lots of people together in to peacefully break that law in a very public place, preferably with lots of media coverage. The cops then show up and arrest everybody in front of all of the news cameras. If the group of protesters is large enough, maybe not all of them will be arrested, but at least some will be. You go into this act knowing full well that you WILL be arrested. The goal is to capture the absurdity of enforcing such a law on camera for the world to see. You do everything you can to make your groups actions peaceful, especially if you expect an aggressive response from the cops. This helps emphasize the absurdity. However, the key here is that you don't get a free pass just because you are protesters. Those who break the law are arrested. If you don't like the law, then try to change it. I hear civil disobedience is great for that.
Slashdot Mirror
My father is a volunteer tax preparer based out of our local public library. He will prepare anyone's taxes for free regardless of how complex they are. And this is not just him going it alone, he is part of a program that is funded by the IRS and use tax software the the IRS provides. I recommend that people look into this in their area if they would like someone else to do their taxes but don't want to pay someone like H&R Block to do it. This is a good option especially if you have a fairly complex tax situation. Since I travel for work a lot, I usually have to file taxes in more than one state. I have had as many as 5 state forms in a year. I used to win the award for the most complex taxes (especially the year I switch jobs, moved to a new state, got married and worked in 4 additional states), but he has been doing this for a while now and has encountered some really off-the-wall situations. Everything from I am self employed and have a pile of receipts for you" to "I haven't files my taxes for the past 10 years" to "I am a Syrian national living in the US under political asylum". I'm sure I could do this all myself with TurboTax just fine, but I do like having a person I can ask questions to. For instance, this year I got a really large refund. I don't like giving the government such a large interest free loan, so he was able to give me some advice on what factors were contributing the most to my huge refund (i.e. was it the amount of withholding, or one of the many deductions I was eligible for?) and devise a plan to try to reduce the size of my refund for the next year.
Never said there was anything sincere about Cathy's apology, nor do I really think his views have changed. What Cathy did admit was that making his views public was bad for business. If he still wants to be bigoted behind the scenes, then there's not much anyone can do about that. He has a right to his own thoughts. However, donations to hate groups is not a "behind the scenes" activity. So if you want to keep your opinions behind the scenes, then the donations have to stop or be concealed. It appears in Cathy's case, the donations have stopped, or at least significantly declined.
I think you misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that the consumer should ignore the CEO's views. I am saying that a company should do everything it can to ensure that a CEOs views never become a deciding factor in the first place. Meaning, unless those views are directly related to the product you are selling, keep them to yourself. So when it comes to a web browser company, views on all things web, software, or even just plain business strategy/philosophy are all fair game. They could even be good differentiator. Everything else, particularly polarizing or controversial issues like gay marriage, abortion, etc. should be avoided like the plague (plagues should also be avoided). Up until recently, when you had to make a decision on what web browser to use, you may have considered many factors. Speed to load, adherence to standards, open vs closed source, non-profit vs. for profit company. I bet not once did you consider the political views of any of the CEOs, cause there was nothing of interest to even consider. As a company, you want to keep it that way. Now the cat's out of the bag, and you and many other people are factoring the CEO's views on gay marriage into what web browser to use (and rightly so!). That can only be bad for business.
Chick-fil-a's CEO, Dan Cathy, may actually disagree with you. Not long ago, he openly apologized for his comments about gay marriage and his donations to many of the apparent hate groups have declined or all together stopped. He cited many reasons for his change of heart, but the most telling was that "it was bad for business." http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US...
I remember reading at the time (although I can't find the source anymore) that while sales spiked during the initial publicity, they later declined to a point lower than before the controversy started. So they didn't really get any new customers from the whole thing, just lots of people who were already Chick-fil-a customers going out and making a statement. Once the controversy died down, existing customers went back to their old purchasing habits. However, they did lose customers. Those who used to be customers and were offended by the comments, will likely never be customers again.
A company needs to succeed based on the product that they are offering, whether its differentiating qualities are real or perceived. Anything else is simply a distraction. This goes for chicken and web browsers. The views of the CEO shouldn't be a consideration for customers when choosing a web browser.
Can we stop referring to these companies as "Ride Sharing" apps? It's just a way to make it sound like they are not car for hire services, but they really are. And I'm not complaining about the services themselves. I use Uber constantly. I love it. But I am under no illusion that UberX drivers "just happen to be going my way." They picked me up because they want my cash. And that is the real problem with the author's idea. The drivers don't want to barter. They don't need credit for future rides. This is their profession. Most of the drivers I have spoken to drive at least part time, if not full time. Last ride I got, I asked the guy when he usually called it quits for the day (it was the end of a long workday for me). His response: "I'll be driving all night. This is all I do." Does this sound like "ride sharing" to you? Regular taxis should have every right to be worried, though. And price is the least of it. I use a lot of taxis and Ubers, so I feel I can make a fair comparison. In general, Ubers are friendlier. Their cars are cleaner. And the biggest reason I use Uber, is because of the ease of payment. I travel for work, so I put everything on my corporate credit card, including taxis (Using cash means I 1) need to be carrying it, 2) I need to carefully track receipts and 3) I don't get the money back for another few weeks). With Uber, I just step out of the car, and my card is immediately charged and I receive and e-mail with the receipt. With regular taxis, he tells me how much, I say I want to pay with a credit card. At this point, I get one of two responses. If I am lucky, he says, "No problem" and takes my card. More often then not I get "can you pay cash instead?" or "the machine's down, cash please". I then insist on credit, at which point the machine magically works again. (No joke, last week a guy gave me the "machine's down" line and then after I suggest he do a carbon copy, he whips out his iPhone with a Square reader attached!). Ok, back to the machine. If the machine is the kind in the back seat, process is fairly smooth, but does take a little time. Or it's the old school one in the front that takes a little more time to process the payment and print out the receipts. I get that taxi drivers get less money and it takes longer to get paid (so I usually tip more), but it's a huge hassle, and creates a shitty experience when I have to argue with every taxi driver. Uber's experience is far superior. And there is no reason that taxis couldn't adopt the same payment system.
You should tell your friend that there are places where bent wheels can be straightened for a fraction of the cost of replacing the wheel. I have had this done a few times. One of my past cars had very low profile tires on 18" wheels and I bent all four after going too fast through a patch of road that was badly torn up by potholes and uneven cracks approaching curb-like qualities. Replacement of all four wheels would have run me close to $400 per wheel, but instead, had them straightened for roughly $100 per wheel. On another occasion, I bought a set of wheels off e-bay, but one of them wouldn't balance out due to it being bent. Once again, fixed them right up for a relatively low cost and wheel balanced perfectly after that. Not sure where you live, but I used this place in Pennsylvania. http://www.wheelcollision.com/ They used to be the only place that did this in the PA/NJ area, but I believe there are a lot more shops that do this now.
Car and Driver seems to disagree with your Lincoln claims, but your Cadillac statement seems to be accurate
2012 Lincoln MKS: http://buyersguide.caranddrive...
2013 Cadillac CTS: http://buyersguide.caranddrive...
Both cars get around 1 MPG less with AWD compared to their 2WD counterparts with same engine. And for the Lincoln, SAME ENGINE is the key word. The AWD Lincoln is able to achieve the same MPG as the FWD one assuming you upgrade to the EcoBoost engine, which, while yes is more powerful, is a completely different engine, so not a proper comparison of MPG from FWD to AWD. Even for the Cadillac it is hard to draw any hard conclusions without more information. There can be a lot of variability between the trims, deeper even than what is presented on the surface. I would not be surprised if the transmissions are geared slightly differently or if there was any weight saving measures taken for the AWD version. You could be correct, though.
Thanks for the advice. I always bring up my history of fainting and request to lie down and usually stay down for a little while afterwards since it hasn't always been during the draw that the lights have gone out (Once it was 15 minutes later back in the waiting room). My experiences have all varied. Some have turned out OK, others tortuous, so I know some of it is in my head. At the end of the day, I just need to man up and deal with it for the sake of my own health.
As someone who frequently faints or comes extremely close while having blood drawn, I am extremely excited about this tech. I hate getting blood drawn so much that I have a tendency to avoid scheduling routine physicals, which I know is not smart since yearly physicals are so crucial to spotting trouble before things get too bad. I don't just hate passing out (or nearly), but I hate needles in general, so having that needle stuck in my arm for the duration of the draw (or the frequent misses and retries) along with the whole losing consciousness is torture for me. Finger-prick was never a problem for me, though. I imagine I'm not alone, so if this means more people doing some preventative maintenance, then it likely also means less emergency room visits and major procedures resulting from ignored or uncaught conditions that would have otherwise been easily treated.
I just hope that my insurance will accept this method. I just got a letter in the mail from them the other day reminding me that they do not work with all labs.
PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?!?!
The key disparity here is that you are assuming being a "leader" on a project means you were a project manager or officially managing others in some formal fashion. I don't think that is what any of these interviewers were asking. You don't have to be in an official leadership role to lead. It could be as simple as leading by example, or it could mean that others look to you for guidance or direction. Did you ever take any extra initiative to accomplish something new or particularly challenging that no one else had that guts to take on?
Now if they really were asking about formal leadership roles (i.e. Manager), then you should have given a similar explanation to what you posted in your question (except maybe without the whole, "I like being a follower", part). You get more satisfaction from solving engineering challenges hands-on than you do being a manager. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, some may worry that because you desire to stay in relatively the same place for a long time, that you will still want regular pay increases beyond cost of living adjustments, which means you will be very expensive relative to your peers. This may be OK assuming you can justify your larger salary and by justify, I mean prove on a regular basis. But this then brings me back to my first point about leadership vs. managing. Your greater level of experience should translate into you being a leader amongst your peers and explains why you have been asked such questions during interviews.
I will agree on this one, and I speak from experience. I travel a lot for work, and as such, rent a lot of cars. Every week I get to fumble around with whatever asinine "state of the art" infotainment system each manufacturer has come up with. Lately I have seen Toyata, Ford and GM's take on this. I have seen none that are better than just plain old buttons. Even just forgetting the fact that there is no tactile feedback for a second, the actual UI of the system is not conducive to operating with quick glances. The make it such a "rich" interface that I can't easily tell what is info and what is an actionable button. Then add in the fact that once you find a button and tap it, the whole screen changes and you have a whole new set of information and buttons to try to process (and god forbid the buttons stay in the same place or follow and common pattern from screen to screen). With the old classic buttons, I could generally hop in the car for the first time, take a quick look over the dash to figure out where volume and seek are and how to adjust the A/C, get those all set once, and then from then on, adjusting on-the-fly was easy, since I had already figured out everything that needed to be figured out. Not possible with these touch screens and I often catch myself fiddling while driving (which I really try to avoid, but these tend to lure me in much more easily).
.Ok, just gotta move over one and I got it, you think as you blindly feel around. But it's too late! you have already touch + and the radio station has switched in the wrong direction. You try to correct, but this time, when you again try to reach without taking your eyes off the road, you brush against the thermostat, and you've set it to full blast hot. An it's July. In Arizona. So now you are stuck literally sweating to the oldies while you barrel down the highway in a car you are not very familiar with. I'm sure if I owned these cars, I would get used to them, and it would be a little safer over time, but is it any better than what we had before
Ford decided to take the idiocy to a new level, though. And I guess this makes sense given their relationship with Microsoft. So Ford was probably hearing all of these complaints about no tactile feedback and needing buttons and they say, "you know what, you're right, and boy do we have the solution for you!" They decided to put buttons in, but instead of regular old buttons (cause those are for losers!) they use touch sensitive buttons built into a textured panel. They function similar to those buttons that are not really buttons that some laptop and TV manufacturers started using a couple years ago (which I HATE) and the main Android buttons on many smartphones.So it looks like your old buttons, with each function having a dedicated location and being raised up from the dash with painted on labels/logos, but a little slicker since there are no gaps/seems around the buttons since nothing needs to be pressed in. At first glance, you think, neat, Ford gets it. Then you try to use it like your old school button interface, and that's where it all breaks down. You feel for the radio station seek buttons. There is a + and a -. You what to seek up, but your fingers find the down first
I'm OK with including a touch screen, but it can't be the only way to interact. It has to be a combination of buttons and touch. Buttons should be there for all of the standard, commonly used functions like volume, input change (i.e. FM, AM, SAT, AUX), seek, etc. If you want to then make all of the audio tweaks (Bass, treble, balance), car setup, device pairing, or other odd functions, sure, put them on the touch screen, since those are things I will typically only do when I'm not driving. Or if it's something like answering the phone, it just becomes a big touch screen button that I can mash with my hand quickly without the need for much accuracy. I think some manufacturers get this, or at least used to get this, and have done what I suggest (My parent's VW has such a system) but so many are getting carried away with turning the car into an iPad that they forget where they are putting it (a car) and what you will also be doing while trying to operate it (driving).
So if he is admitting that he needs financial help with the defense of his current court battle, it would be a pretty reasonable assumption that he does not have the funds to initiate a second court battle. Sounds like a pretty empty threat, if you ask me.
Does that mean that the several miles of the turnpike that run parallel to the Newark airport runway can now be considered "Little Autobahn"? For those unfamiliar with the area, planes litterally take of an land right next to the turnpike. When I'm flying into EWR, I know we are in our final approach when I can see the turnpike.
My mileage did vary. Not sure what the % over invoice was, but it was right on the mark for the "Great Price" listed on TrueCar.com. While I did have to go to the dealership and find the exact car we were interested in before we got the price, they did allow me to contact a competing (non-Costco) dealership to counter the offer. At this point I was not under any obligation to accept the Costco price. In fact the competing dealership matched the offer, however they could not match the additional $500 Costco gift card that was being offered (limited time offer after completing a survey). The competing dealershiop gave up the sale at that point and then we signed for the car with the Costco dealership. Only dealer incentives going on were for interest rates, but not for the specific model I wanted. I was able to get that interest rate, though, when negotiating with the finance manager. Each dealership may be different and if there are limited time dealership incentives, then yes, you may be able to get a better/different deal. I guess it still goes back to how hard you negotiate, even with the Costco pricing (maybe I just contradicted my original point).
If you are a Costco member, this is the reality. Costco pre-negotiates prices with participating dealerships and the price is just a hair above invoice. There is no haggling, no back and forth. Just show your membership, then they go grab the Costco price, end of negotiation*. Even if you're not a Costco member, the internet has made negotiating new car prices much easier with sites like TrueCar.com. They publish what people actually paid for new cars and give you a guide to what is a a good deal (this is how I knew the Costco price was a really good deal). You may still have to do some theatrics like walking out and saying your going to see what the dealership across town has to say, but you have a lot more leverage then you had in the past.
* The negotiation on the sale price is done, but if you plan to finance, the negotiation of financing terms (length, interest, extra servces, etc.) begins and can still be a pretty slimy feeling experience. When it comes to financing, I feel like I never know how much I'm paying each month until I get the first bill.
During Hurricane Sandy, despite not having power for 12 days straight, my Verizon FiOS was up and running the whole time. As long as I plugged the main FiOS modem (the big white panel they mount on the wall of your basement or wherever), router and internet/TV capable devices into my generator, I was set. This was the case with most of the people I talked to who had both FiOS and a generator. I did talk to one FiOS customer that didn't have service even after the power was back. For whatever reason, it seemed that Verizon's lines were much more durable that the power company's. Those with Comcast, on the other hand, had nothing from the beginning of the outage until well after the power came back on.
AUTObuntu was great until I upgraded to the latest release "sanguine sedan". They completely changed the UI from the steering wheel and pedals to a small RC car like controller. They claim it's to make the experience more consistent between RC cars and real cars, but I'm really having trouble adjusting. I'm on the verge of switching to "Auto Mint".
This only has to do the the PreCheck program. If you sign-up for pre-check you actually don't know when you will be allowed to use the expedited security line. You only find out after you get to the airport and scan your boarding pass before you even get in line for security. My colleagues that have it actually complain that they hardly ever get the go-ahead for expedited security. Even if the odds of getting the go-ahead were better, if there is still a chance you won't get the go-ahead, you can't take advantage of the time savings that the program allows. If I get to the airport 30 minutes before my flight and then get denied expedited security, I'm going to miss my flight. That means you have to get to the airport extra early no matter what. If I do get expedited security, I still end up just sitting in the terminal for the for the same amount of time I would have otherwise spent in line for security. Granted, I could get food/drinks, read, do some work, etc. in the terminal while I couldn't while in line for security.
Now if I could know in advance whether I get PreCheck or not, then I could take advantage of the time savings more effectively. Get an extra 30 min. of sleep, squeeze an extra meeting in at the end of the day, schedule an earlier flight so I get home and see my family sooner.
The danger here, though, is if someone can create a counterfeit bar-code. Then those who have not been through the up front screening required of the PreCheck program (and there is a lot of it. I won't do it just for the privacy concerns) can falsify PreCheck qualifications and better hide contraband.
But you know what, even as a very frequent air traveler, I find the whole PreCheck (at least right now) to be awfully inefficient. Hardly anyone has it and even fewer qualify the day of, so that is one extra x-ray machine with 2-3 extra TSA agents sitting idle, while the rest of the lines are backed up even further. The only way this becomes worthwhile for the airport is if there is enough PreCheck passengers to keep a constant flow of people through the PreCheck line. However, with the Orwellian sign-up process and the fact that you can't rely on whether you will get to use it (see points above), it is really hard to say if it will take-off. They tried doing this several years ago with Clear (run by a private company) but that was a bust (I think there were many additional factors there, though).
Next year's test should be much more interesting since both Verizon FiOS and Comcast just started offering 300mbps. Granted those are the most expensive plans, but my current FiOS connection of 25mbps (which usually speedtests at 30mbps) is being upgraded to 50mbps for no additional charge. Automatic speed bumps are occurring across the FiOS lineup, so the $/mbps ratio is becomiing more beneficial to users.
Actually, there are already bars like that in existence. The prices for each drink are set based on current demand. If everybody is ordering PBR and no one is buying Chimay, the price of PBR will go up and the price of Chimay will go down. Once everyone starts buying up the cheap Chimay, then the price goes back up again. I have never been to one of these places but seen them featured on TV. Check out Exchange Bar and Grill in NYC.
This.
I had to take a similar course my first year of college. I was in the business school planning on majoring in Management Information Systems (MIS), but everyone in the business school had to take Intro to MIS. From the title, you would think the goal of the course would be get people with undeclared majors to be interested in majoring in MIS. It was very clear from the curriculum and even more clear once we got to our higher level business classess that that was not the goal. The goal was to make sure everyone knew how to use MS Excel very well. Sure we talked about what a computer is, software vs. hardware, OS vs. application, etc, etc, but much of the course involved going throught the MS Excel 2000 workbook excercise by excercise. Was it a bit mindless? Sure, but not only was that course invaluable in my career (I use Excel every day), but it was invaluable just to pass every other class I took. Every accounting course required the use of Excel. Statistics required Excel. Calculus required Excel. Operations Management, Micro/Macro/International Econimics, Finance, Excel, Excel, Excel. Point is, if you didn't know how to use Excel at an above-basic level, you were already playing catch-up.
I will second this option. My company uses Good for Enterprise on both Android and iPhone. The nice thing about it is that it is YOUR phone that happens to have a an app on it to access your work e-mail, calendar and contacts. You can view attachments, but not download them to the actual device. The app itself is password protected so you can choose your own level of security for the rest of your phone. The only bad part is that, well, naming an app "Good" will always result in it being bad. The interface is a bit clunky (GMail app, blackberry mail, etc. are all much more enjoyable to use) and I often have the issue of it not syncing regularly when i'm on WiFi (for some reason it's much more reliable on even a week mobile data connection). Additionally, the app will not install on a rooted or jailbroken phone (for security reasons). The geek in me wants to root my phone, but the other part of me that needs a fully functioning and reliable smartphone is happy limits were put in place. But despite the downsides, it does what I need it to do and it's liveable. The company is happy that their data is encrypted and sandboxed from the rest of the phone. I'm happy that I can do what I want with MY phone and don't have to worry about some rogue app messing with work data. The only
As someone who is having his first child in just over one month, I have very recently been looking at these options and have chosen a public bank. For the question of Public vs. Private vs. nothing, I think other slashdotters have covered it. Private is expensive and it's unlikely you'll need it. Public can do help for someone right now. Doing nothing is just throwing a promising resource in the trash. That's just my two cents about that. So let's say you have chosen the Public option. Well, here is where Slashdot is not well suited. You should be talking to both the hospital you plan to deliver at and your OB. I'm sure your OB has already given you all of the pamphlets, so you have an idea of what companies do what. If not, ask for them. Then talk to your hospital about which banks they work with. Depending on where the hospital is, what health system it's part of, etc. will determine which banks are available to you. This should narrow your list considerably. Then cross-reference the hospital's list with your OB's. Some OB's will charge for the collection, even for donations. Again, ask your OB if there is any charge for donations. I would be surprised if after talking to the hospital and your OB if you would even have a choice of which bank to use, so don't waste your time agonising over which bank is best.
First, no one said anything about civil disobedience. While civil disobedience is a form of protest, it does not cover all protests. Second, I don't think you quite understand what civil disobedience is. Basically, you find a law to be unjust, so you get lots of people together in to peacefully break that law in a very public place, preferably with lots of media coverage. The cops then show up and arrest everybody in front of all of the news cameras. If the group of protesters is large enough, maybe not all of them will be arrested, but at least some will be. You go into this act knowing full well that you WILL be arrested. The goal is to capture the absurdity of enforcing such a law on camera for the world to see. You do everything you can to make your groups actions peaceful, especially if you expect an aggressive response from the cops. This helps emphasize the absurdity. However, the key here is that you don't get a free pass just because you are protesters. Those who break the law are arrested. If you don't like the law, then try to change it. I hear civil disobedience is great for that.