I agree. And I can't believe they let people drive cars right next you! I mean, come on! They can just spray exhaust all over you! How is that NOT assault?
Oh, I see that you're a driver. Sorry, I didn't mean to condemn anything that YOU like doing.
>>I merely have to remove my foot from the accelerator so I don't convert my kinetic energy to heat.
I hate to nitpick, but any time you slow down, you lose that energy to heat (if friction is slowing you down, and it is). Any time you speed up, you lose energy to heat. In both cases, you also lose energy to the rotation of the earth, but it cancels out.
You're not really preventing the heat death of the universe by saving your brakes.
I am kind of surprised that it is apparently so easy for illegal immigrants to obtain these benefits. I know several people (single moms working overtime every week to pay for insurance and rent, etc.) who are right on the very edge of being homeless, and they cannot get these benefits. I live in MN where people like to complain about how easy it is to live off welfare forever. I wish it was that simple for the sake of the people who really need it.
I am also surprised that these workers can even GET tax returns. Don't you need a social security number to get tax returns? A permanent address? How is that even possible? Something smells fishy here. Even the poorest people I know with children and EIC don't make back a significant portion of their taxes- certainly not more than they paid in.
You are very much in the minority. The vast majority of people wake up as late as possible before work, and then use the evening for their leisure.
And really- a one-hour time change turns you into a zombie? Really? I hope you don't travel across time zones often- brains everywhere will be in danger from you and your zombie ilk.
One of the nice things about time zones is that it preserves the experience of time across locations. For example, "morning" means a time, usually around 6 am, and it is a concept that is easy to translate. Morning means morning no matter where you are, excepting very northern and southern latitudes.
Your system would work fine for internal time systems, but humans I think need that common ground for communication. Instead of saying, "an earthquake struck the Azores at 1300, which was 2 hours after sunrise," you could say, "An earthquake struck the Azores at 8 am." Or 0800. I don't object to a 24-hour clock; it's what I use at work.
I just don't see how it would be easier to say, "call me in the morning, which is 1500 your time," vs "Call me at my 0700. I'm 9 hours behind you." Human experience rotates around the sun, not numbers. Having morning be a different hour each thousand miles would not be any different from having morning be the same hour that happens over again every thousand miles. You need to remember eithe time zones or, er, a different kind of time zone. Unless you expect people to wake up in the middle of the night to suit your new time convention.
>>I'd rather punish people for actually hurting people rather than for nothing.
Speeding tickets are not a cure-all for traffic accidents. Rather, they are meant to influence behavior. It is better to prevent manslaughter than it is to punish it.
>>If you're alert, matching traffic, keeping your eye on the road and leaving adequate space between you and other vehicles you can drive quite fast and still be completely safe.
And that is a HUGE if. Most people in the U.S. are unable or unwilling to drive safely as you described. Egregious speeding is a sign of other unsafe behavior. I'm sure that you could show that, statistically, people prone to causing accidents are chronic speeders. And I also think that you could show that safe drivers typically drive close to the speed limit OR travel at the same speed as surrounding traffic. And as you said, if everyone is speeding, you don't really risk getting pulled over. If people can't control their own behavior, then there need to checks in place to force them to not risk other people's lives.
Maybe I'm biased because I drive close to the speed limit, I have never caused an accident, and I have never had a speeding ticket. On the other hand, everyone I know who has caused an accident speeds all the time. That's just my experience. Most people are not as safe as you and me, and cannot be trusted to regulate their own behavior safely. The roads are not a playground.
It's a complex issue any way you look at it. I, too, would like to see Americans packing chicken and picking beets. But then the price of those commodities would rise, and more would get imported since it would be competitive to do so. And then the Americans would lose their jobs. You could prevent that by imposing high tariffs on imported foodstuffs, but then you will wind up like france, where part of the reason the cost of living is so high is because people are essentially forced to buy food at uncompetitive prices that can only exist because of the import tariffs.
Your argument really could apply as much to imported goods as it does to imported labor; you are saying, I think, that goods and services consumed in the U.S. ought to be produced by Americans- in essence, you would like to keep the money inside our economy, right? In addition to the gainful employment of our own citizens, although I think that's secondary here.
I'm interested in how you would propose to keep the cycle I mentioned in the first paragraph from happening. I for one don't have an answer, other than just letting it be. The market is a strong force that will correct for anything you do to try to force it to change (e.g., black market). Up here where I live, close to the Canadian market, many people travel north to get prescription pills. During prohibition, people found ways to get drunk. Our food today is adulterated with corn byproducts because of corn subsidies. There are always unintended consequences to these things.
Now I need to go out to eat in a restaurant across the WI border because market forces in MN make it impossible to start a good provencal bistro, from what I can tell.
I have worked for the public sector. That's why I keep my current job despite its shortcomings. I frankly don't see how you people do it- no personal recognition for accomplishment, being a cog in someone's money-printing machine, getting fired for stupid crap instead of just being punished.../. has strong feelings about the military, I know; but when it comes to personal self-actualization, I can't imagine working for a private company.
I used to cook well over $10,000 worth of food per busy night (pure profit) at a restaurant before I enlisted. I never saw ANY of that money except for the $7.50/hr that I made for back-breaking work. I would rather be a self-actualized (and well-paid) cog as a public servant than be forced to make money for someone. Yeah yeah yeah, spare me the rants about how cheney is getting rich from the war. I know that. I don't like it. But I would rather that my ostensible purpose in life is to serve people rather than profit. The military may may misused, but we're also there piling sandbags when we're needed. When is the last time IBM sent its workers out to help flood victims?
It's a totally different paradigm being in the military or any other public service. As an ISTJ, I can't imagine being happier elsewhere. But of course this is waaaaay off topic. Sorry.
>>Which, I'm betting, is also pooled with your sick days, right? So 1 sick day = 1 vacation day = 1 paid day of leave per year. Sucks to be you if you get a bad cold...
Nope. 30 days of paid leave that I earn at 2.5 days per month. My leave is my vacation time, although of course I get all federal holidays off without penalty unless I'm on some special duty somewhere. I don't even know the policy on sick days because I've never been charged for them. The procedure is something like this: "Hey boss, I feel like crap today. I'll be in tomorrow." And then he says, "Alright then." Unless someone blatantly abuses this lax policy, everything works out OK. We all make up for it eventually.
My employer, btw, is the USAF, although the paid leave policies are military wide afaik. Other bases might keep track of sick days, but they do not come out of your paid leave. You just need a doctor's note if you'll be gone 3 days or more. There are all kinds of other leave categories that also do not get charged to your 30 days of paid leave. It is a pretty generous policy.
You have a good point, but I look at the success (or lack thereof) of the tablet-style notebooks that have come out from other companies. There are products that could do what you want, but I have yet to see one in person. I also have a hard time liking the idea of a writing tablet, since I can type much, much faster than I can write. I can already draw with my Wacom tablet, although I don't use it as often as I thought I would.
I think the biggest turn-off for me is that you have to choose between a purely stylus-based interface or the usual touchpad/keyboard interface. If you put the keyboard on the same plane as the writing screen, then you'll wind up with a rather large and unwieldy device. Or you could use a software keyboard like the iPhone uses; however, that doesn't address the issue of typing speed, as most people need some tactile feedback when they type.
I admit that I'm not the target market for a tablet-Air, but I just can't see it taking off. Maybe what you're looking for is something like the Kindle except with a touch-screen. It wouldn't be a computer as such, just a drawing and writing tablet. Maybe it could have email capability for transferring the files. The key to this would be keeping it cheap (cheaper than the Kindle) because not many people would buy it.
IMO your idea would work if there was more latitude in the level of service offered by carriers. As it is now, there is a minimum level of service that you need to pay for. If a carrier came along that was basically a greyhound bus with wings, they might be profitable for your demographic (the "it's only a damned flight, let's get on with it" demographic).
Cheap, used airplanes, small seats jammed everywhere, and first-come, first serve seating. Make multiple stops. No meals. Tickets from New York to LAX for $100.
Find yourself a Newton. Or design your own hardware. Or just realize that making super-specialized hardware for 0.001% of the population is not profitable for a consumer electronics company.
The point of all this isn't to point out that parents are jerks (some are, without a doubt, just like everyone else), but that an airline that catered to adults would be nice. Earplugs are fine except when you want to listen to music or watch a movie or, I don't know, talk to your companion.
I have had a screaming child wail in sync with my music once- it was great.
"Warm beer... Cold women..." WAAAAaaaAAAA! "I just don't fit in..." WAAA! "Every joint I stumbled into tonight" WAAA WAA WAAAAA! "That's just how it's been..." WAAAA WAAAAA! [Baby solo 40X] [refrain] [Baby solo] [Coda]
Yes! Thank you for pointing this out. You are absolutely correct. I have never killed anyone, but I have issues with certain things as a result of being shot AT. I think I might have issues from not being ABLE to shoot back. I have talked with other vets (Air Force usually, from Vietnam) who have the same issues. The total lack of control, the randomness of it, the powerlessness... It's a crap situation under any circumstances.
Sorry, I wasn't using 'you' as in you personally. I was using it to refer to people who are complaining about other people complaining about their kids. I must have misinterpreted you when you said, "it gets old."
>>So you need to get through security, and you're a bit late, and you have no idea who in front of you is more late than you, or if it's ok to skip the line. But if the airport has these boarding passes, you can build in a priority tracking system. Is your boarding pass blinking green? If so, skip the line to security. Is it not blinking? Fuck off, stand in line like everyone else. Big signs at security saying that you should let people through with blinking tokens.
I would love this. It would let me show up 10 minutes before my flight, plus I'd get through FASTER than before. There would be no penalty for being late, and no reward for being on time. Sweet! The only problem is that every other savvy traveler would do the same thing, leading to the 'expedited' line and the regular line which both take equally as long.
You would be OK crammed into the back of the plane while you can see 5 rows of empty seats up by the front? That is what your plan would do unless the plane was 100% full.
>>but I have seen other kids not travel great and ppl just gripping left, right, and sideways about it. It gets old.
Are you seriously complaining that people complain about things that are noisy and obnoxious? As in, you know they paid $800 for this ticket and they get to spend 8 hours a row away from a human car alarm and they should just shut up?
If everyone is staring at you because your screaming child is giving them tiny aneurysms, YOU are the problem for annoying people- What you're saying is that they should stop bitching because it upsets you? That's insane.
There are plenty of aircraft, clubs, resorts, cruise ships, and restaurants to go around. If a business can find a niche selling child-free services, then more power to them. They would not be depriving you of anything.
I'm lucky to fly military most of the time; however, I have to say that on almost every civilian flight I've taken, I was within two rows of a screaming infant. I respect your decision to be a parent, and I'm sure that YOUR kids are just darling, but 8+ hours of screaming and wailing is my version of hell. Maybe you're used to it by now but I'm not. I'll bet you get upset when teenagers drive by at midnight with bass blasting out of their Nissans or whatever. Well, how would you feel about listening to that for 8 hours?
Please don't take it personally that many of us would pay extra to forgo the family experience.
Mexicans endure great travails to enter this country in the first place. I'd say that being sent back IS a deterrent, considering what they have to do to get here. Many thousands of immigrants die in the barren deserts along the border every year. You try walking 100 miles of desert to get the only job you can find picking tomatoes, and consider what it would mean to get sent back. What if you're here with your family? You, the sole provider, get sent back- what does your family do?
And I never said that we SHOULD incarcerate people for growing a harmless plant. Nice strawman.
No, I don't live in Mexico- I live a quick drive from the Canadian border (which I now need a fracking passport to cross).
I think that it comes down to compassion for other living people. I don't usually have it for people I know, but I can't think of a reason that I could condemn an entire group of strangers to a short life of misery. It may seem like a non-choice to you (a person's life vs your pride), but for some of us it's a subject that deserves some consideration.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. And I can't believe they let people drive cars right next you! I mean, come on! They can just spray exhaust all over you! How is that NOT assault?
Oh, I see that you're a driver. Sorry, I didn't mean to condemn anything that YOU like doing.
-b
>>"If Mars goes around the sun in about 2 earth years..."
;)
Yeah, but how many Mars years does it take?
OOH! OOH!
Do me next!
-b
They make tentacle porn in Greek, Spanish, Turkish, Farsi, Italian, Russian, German, amd Hebrew?
You learn something every day.
-b
I gotcha.
-b
>>I merely have to remove my foot from the accelerator so I don't convert my kinetic energy to heat.
I hate to nitpick, but any time you slow down, you lose that energy to heat (if friction is slowing you down, and it is). Any time you speed up, you lose energy to heat. In both cases, you also lose energy to the rotation of the earth, but it cancels out.
You're not really preventing the heat death of the universe by saving your brakes.
-b
I am kind of surprised that it is apparently so easy for illegal immigrants to obtain these benefits. I know several people (single moms working overtime every week to pay for insurance and rent, etc.) who are right on the very edge of being homeless, and they cannot get these benefits. I live in MN where people like to complain about how easy it is to live off welfare forever. I wish it was that simple for the sake of the people who really need it.
I am also surprised that these workers can even GET tax returns. Don't you need a social security number to get tax returns? A permanent address? How is that even possible? Something smells fishy here. Even the poorest people I know with children and EIC don't make back a significant portion of their taxes- certainly not more than they paid in.
-b
You are very much in the minority. The vast majority of people wake up as late as possible before work, and then use the evening for their leisure.
And really- a one-hour time change turns you into a zombie? Really? I hope you don't travel across time zones often- brains everywhere will be in danger from you and your zombie ilk.
-b
One of the nice things about time zones is that it preserves the experience of time across locations. For example, "morning" means a time, usually around 6 am, and it is a concept that is easy to translate. Morning means morning no matter where you are, excepting very northern and southern latitudes.
Your system would work fine for internal time systems, but humans I think need that common ground for communication. Instead of saying, "an earthquake struck the Azores at 1300, which was 2 hours after sunrise," you could say, "An earthquake struck the Azores at 8 am." Or 0800. I don't object to a 24-hour clock; it's what I use at work.
I just don't see how it would be easier to say, "call me in the morning, which is 1500 your time," vs "Call me at my 0700. I'm 9 hours behind you." Human experience rotates around the sun, not numbers. Having morning be a different hour each thousand miles would not be any different from having morning be the same hour that happens over again every thousand miles. You need to remember eithe time zones or, er, a different kind of time zone. Unless you expect people to wake up in the middle of the night to suit your new time convention.
IMO.
-b
>>I'd rather punish people for actually hurting people rather than for nothing.
Speeding tickets are not a cure-all for traffic accidents. Rather, they are meant to influence behavior. It is better to prevent manslaughter than it is to punish it.
>>If you're alert, matching traffic, keeping your eye on the road and leaving adequate space between you and other vehicles you can drive quite fast and still be completely safe.
And that is a HUGE if. Most people in the U.S. are unable or unwilling to drive safely as you described.
Egregious speeding is a sign of other unsafe behavior. I'm sure that you could show that, statistically, people prone to causing accidents are chronic speeders. And I also think that you could show that safe drivers typically drive close to the speed limit OR travel at the same speed as surrounding traffic. And as you said, if everyone is speeding, you don't really risk getting pulled over. If people can't control their own behavior, then there need to checks in place to force them to not risk other people's lives.
Maybe I'm biased because I drive close to the speed limit, I have never caused an accident, and I have never had a speeding ticket. On the other hand, everyone I know who has caused an accident speeds all the time. That's just my experience. Most people are not as safe as you and me, and cannot be trusted to regulate their own behavior safely. The roads are not a playground.
-b
It's a complex issue any way you look at it. I, too, would like to see Americans packing chicken and picking beets. But then the price of those commodities would rise, and more would get imported since it would be competitive to do so. And then the Americans would lose their jobs. You could prevent that by imposing high tariffs on imported foodstuffs, but then you will wind up like france, where part of the reason the cost of living is so high is because people are essentially forced to buy food at uncompetitive prices that can only exist because of the import tariffs.
Your argument really could apply as much to imported goods as it does to imported labor; you are saying, I think, that goods and services consumed in the U.S. ought to be produced by Americans- in essence, you would like to keep the money inside our economy, right? In addition to the gainful employment of our own citizens, although I think that's secondary here.
I'm interested in how you would propose to keep the cycle I mentioned in the first paragraph from happening. I for one don't have an answer, other than just letting it be. The market is a strong force that will correct for anything you do to try to force it to change (e.g., black market). Up here where I live, close to the Canadian market, many people travel north to get prescription pills. During prohibition, people found ways to get drunk. Our food today is adulterated with corn byproducts because of corn subsidies. There are always unintended consequences to these things.
Now I need to go out to eat in a restaurant across the WI border because market forces in MN make it impossible to start a good provencal bistro, from what I can tell.
-b
I have worked for the public sector. That's why I keep my current job despite its shortcomings. I frankly don't see how you people do it- no personal recognition for accomplishment, being a cog in someone's money-printing machine, getting fired for stupid crap instead of just being punished... /. has strong feelings about the military, I know; but when it comes to personal self-actualization, I can't imagine working for a private company.
I used to cook well over $10,000 worth of food per busy night (pure profit) at a restaurant before I enlisted. I never saw ANY of that money except for the $7.50/hr that I made for back-breaking work. I would rather be a self-actualized (and well-paid) cog as a public servant than be forced to make money for someone. Yeah yeah yeah, spare me the rants about how cheney is getting rich from the war. I know that. I don't like it. But I would rather that my ostensible purpose in life is to serve people rather than profit. The military may may misused, but we're also there piling sandbags when we're needed. When is the last time IBM sent its workers out to help flood victims?
It's a totally different paradigm being in the military or any other public service. As an ISTJ, I can't imagine being happier elsewhere. But of course this is waaaaay off topic. Sorry.
-b
>>Which, I'm betting, is also pooled with your sick days, right? So 1 sick day = 1 vacation day = 1 paid day of leave per year. Sucks to be you if you get a bad cold...
Nope. 30 days of paid leave that I earn at 2.5 days per month. My leave is my vacation time, although of course I get all federal holidays off without penalty unless I'm on some special duty somewhere. I don't even know the policy on sick days because I've never been charged for them. The procedure is something like this: "Hey boss, I feel like crap today. I'll be in tomorrow." And then he says, "Alright then." Unless someone blatantly abuses this lax policy, everything works out OK. We all make up for it eventually.
My employer, btw, is the USAF, although the paid leave policies are military wide afaik. Other bases might keep track of sick days, but they do not come out of your paid leave. You just need a doctor's note if you'll be gone 3 days or more. There are all kinds of other leave categories that also do not get charged to your 30 days of paid leave. It is a pretty generous policy.
-b
You have a good point, but I look at the success (or lack thereof) of the tablet-style notebooks that have come out from other companies. There are products that could do what you want, but I have yet to see one in person. I also have a hard time liking the idea of a writing tablet, since I can type much, much faster than I can write. I can already draw with my Wacom tablet, although I don't use it as often as I thought I would.
I think the biggest turn-off for me is that you have to choose between a purely stylus-based interface or the usual touchpad/keyboard interface. If you put the keyboard on the same plane as the writing screen, then you'll wind up with a rather large and unwieldy device. Or you could use a software keyboard like the iPhone uses; however, that doesn't address the issue of typing speed, as most people need some tactile feedback when they type.
I admit that I'm not the target market for a tablet-Air, but I just can't see it taking off. Maybe what you're looking for is something like the Kindle except with a touch-screen. It wouldn't be a computer as such, just a drawing and writing tablet. Maybe it could have email capability for transferring the files. The key to this would be keeping it cheap (cheaper than the Kindle) because not many people would buy it.
-b
IMO your idea would work if there was more latitude in the level of service offered by carriers. As it is now, there is a minimum level of service that you need to pay for. If a carrier came along that was basically a greyhound bus with wings, they might be profitable for your demographic (the "it's only a damned flight, let's get on with it" demographic).
Cheap, used airplanes, small seats jammed everywhere, and first-come, first serve seating. Make multiple stops. No meals. Tickets from New York to LAX for $100.
-b
Find yourself a Newton. Or design your own hardware. Or just realize that making super-specialized hardware for 0.001% of the population is not profitable for a consumer electronics company.
-b
The point of all this isn't to point out that parents are jerks (some are, without a doubt, just like everyone else), but that an airline that catered to adults would be nice. Earplugs are fine except when you want to listen to music or watch a movie or, I don't know, talk to your companion.
I have had a screaming child wail in sync with my music once- it was great.
"Warm beer... Cold women..."
WAAAAaaaAAAA!
"I just don't fit in..."
WAAA!
"Every joint I stumbled into tonight"
WAAA WAA WAAAAA!
"That's just how it's been..."
WAAAA WAAAAA!
[Baby solo 40X]
[refrain]
[Baby solo]
[Coda]
Little fella was like a soft, stinky saxophone.
-b
On the other hand, I get 30 days of paid leave per year (I am American). Everyone's situation is different.
-b
Yes! Thank you for pointing this out. You are absolutely correct. I have never killed anyone, but I have issues with certain things as a result of being shot AT. I think I might have issues from not being ABLE to shoot back. I have talked with other vets (Air Force usually, from Vietnam) who have the same issues. The total lack of control, the randomness of it, the powerlessness... It's a crap situation under any circumstances.
-b
Sorry, I wasn't using 'you' as in you personally. I was using it to refer to people who are complaining about other people complaining about their kids.
I must have misinterpreted you when you said, "it gets old."
-b
>>So you need to get through security, and you're a bit late, and you have no idea who in front of you is more late than you, or if it's ok to skip the line. But if the airport has these boarding passes, you can build in a priority tracking system. Is your boarding pass blinking green? If so, skip the line to security. Is it not blinking? Fuck off, stand in line like everyone else. Big signs at security saying that you should let people through with blinking tokens.
I would love this. It would let me show up 10 minutes before my flight, plus I'd get through FASTER than before. There would be no penalty for being late, and no reward for being on time. Sweet! The only problem is that every other savvy traveler would do the same thing, leading to the 'expedited' line and the regular line which both take equally as long.
-b
-b
You would be OK crammed into the back of the plane while you can see 5 rows of empty seats up by the front? That is what your plan would do unless the plane was 100% full.
-b
>>but I have seen other kids not travel great and ppl just gripping left, right, and sideways about it. It gets old.
Are you seriously complaining that people complain about things that are noisy and obnoxious? As in, you know they paid $800 for this ticket and they get to spend 8 hours a row away from a human car alarm and they should just shut up?
If everyone is staring at you because your screaming child is giving them tiny aneurysms, YOU are the problem for annoying people- What you're saying is that they should stop bitching because it upsets you? That's insane.
-b
There are plenty of aircraft, clubs, resorts, cruise ships, and restaurants to go around. If a business can find a niche selling child-free services, then more power to them. They would not be depriving you of anything.
I'm lucky to fly military most of the time; however, I have to say that on almost every civilian flight I've taken, I was within two rows of a screaming infant. I respect your decision to be a parent, and I'm sure that YOUR kids are just darling, but 8+ hours of screaming and wailing is my version of hell. Maybe you're used to it by now but I'm not. I'll bet you get upset when teenagers drive by at midnight with bass blasting out of their Nissans or whatever. Well, how would you feel about listening to that for 8 hours?
Please don't take it personally that many of us would pay extra to forgo the family experience.
-b
Mexicans endure great travails to enter this country in the first place. I'd say that being sent back IS a deterrent, considering what they have to do to get here. Many thousands of immigrants die in the barren deserts along the border every year. You try walking 100 miles of desert to get the only job you can find picking tomatoes, and consider what it would mean to get sent back. What if you're here with your family? You, the sole provider, get sent back- what does your family do?
And I never said that we SHOULD incarcerate people for growing a harmless plant. Nice strawman.
No, I don't live in Mexico- I live a quick drive from the Canadian border (which I now need a fracking passport to cross).
I think that it comes down to compassion for other living people. I don't usually have it for people I know, but I can't think of a reason that I could condemn an entire group of strangers to a short life of misery. It may seem like a non-choice to you (a person's life vs your pride), but for some of us it's a subject that deserves some consideration.
-b