Javascript. I kinda like javascript. My Linux box doesn't enjoy much attention from exploit writers. But, the javascript people did manage to hijack my browser a couple of times. Javascript. Yeah - make my entire desktop run on javascript, so that malware writers can more easily support Linux. Sweet. What more could a guy ask for? Instead of merely hijacking my browser for something relatively benign like a Rick Roll, they can hijack my desktop. What sort of fun can we have then?
If I have internet, I can interact with several government agencies, easily. Without internet access, it costs me about four gallons of gas to drive to the agency's office, wasting three or more hours of driving time, plus whatever time I spend in the office. Telephone might replace some of those in-person interactions, but then I may have to wait a week for the paperwork to come through. With internet, the paperwork is done already, before I leave the web page.
The same goes for my banking, and for bill paying - not to mention shopping. I've bought any number of things online, which I may or may not have found within driving distance. Specifically, no dealer carries parts for a Honda GL500. No aftermarket parts are available through any stores or dealers in the area. With internet, I can locate any and all parts for that GL500, along with some rather essential mods. (do a search for "fan grenade" for instance - the direct drive mechanical fan put on those CX and GL 500 engines are of a faulty design, easily replaceable with any of a number of electric fans, but without internet, I would never have heard of the problem)
The second point is - our dependency on the internet will only increase in years to come. Ten years ago, I felt as you do. The internet was really cool and all, but non-essential. Today, it is becoming more and more essential. Ten years from now, it will be very much an essential part of life. Society is changing due to the internet. Some of those changes may be for the better, others may be for the worse, but society IS changing. In another decade, internet access WILL be essential. Just as essential as an education, in my opinion.
It's rare that any government agency actually looks ahead, like the FCC is doing here. I have to give them points, as well as agreeing with them.
Blanket the nation in internet access, and make it as close to free as possible. The telcos charge to much, and they've failed to live up to their part of the bargain. Cellular just sucks at my house, along with 30% of my fellow rural American's houses. Sometimes, I can stand in front of a window, and get an acceptable signal. Other times, I have to walk out into the yard, and search for the right spot, then hold the phone just so, to get a strong enough signal to talk to my boss.
That is simply not right, for fifty dollars each month. That kind of service might be acceptable for five or ten dollars each month. Might be. It certainly is NOT acceptable for people who actually sign contracts for a hundred dollars and more per month!
Creative accounting aside - Microsoft's share of the market is shrinking. Bear in mind that their share is so huge, that any measurable shrinkage is freaking HUGE!
If Linux adds five million users to it's share, it will make a huge bump in the charts. When Microsoft loses five million users, it's hardly noticeable. But, over time, continued losses will add up.
I despise Bill Gates. I hate Microsoft. If we could find a way to break Microsoft up into a dozen smaller companies, I'd be shickled teatless. But, hatred can be irrational too. Purchasing all that crap that SCO has, just to spend millions of dollars worth of manhours poring over the contents, hoping to catch Microsoft doing something illegal seems irrational to me.
Then, if you actually find what you are hoping to find, then what? Spending yet more millions preparing to take Microsoft to court. Millions upon millions more, paying for all the legal counsel.
Phhhttt - all that money is better spent undermining Microsoft's current monopoly status. Go buy an Android and a Chromebook. Sign contracts with several companies that are in direct competition with Microsoft. Donate some Linux machines to a school near you. Hell, start a foundation that donates a few hundred Linux machines to schools in your state, annually.
Do something more useful than feeding the predatory lawyers who will swarm the case you bring against Microsoft.
That's very interesting. I've never heard of distributism before - maybe I lead a sheltered life or something. (That's a joke - I've led anything but a sheltered life, LMAO)
Only problem I see, as I skim the surface, is that I'm quite anti-Catholic. But, the philosophy looks good. I need to spend some time looking at this. Note, I don't say "spend some time studying", merely looking. I'm to damned old to actually start studying economics, nor am I especially interested.
I do know that where cooperatives are permitted and encouraged, they seem to do well. Those I know about include credit unions, farmer's coops, and rural electric utilities. Members actually have a stake in those businesses, and they might find a small personal loss acceptable, if they know that the loss is going to a business in which they hold an interest.
Personally, I get a small payment from the electric coop every year. It usually equals a week or so of electric usage. Errrr - maybe five days, I never actually did the math.
That is completely unfair. Weathermen are right at least half of the time. I mean, the worst weathermen I've ever known of were right half of the time. Good weathermen are right almost all of the time. Decent weathermen are right more than 3/4 of the time. Those people who ONLY REMEMBER when the weathermen were wrong tend to give weathermen a bad name. Despite that, they are mostly right.
Economists? I've never met one, never even heard of one that I trust. Bunch of self important douches, running about, selling the common man on pyramid schemes, ponzi schemes, etc ad nauseum. Screw them all - they belong in prison. Right after we shoot all the lawyers, we'll take care of that little detail. When the economists have been rehabilitated sufficiently, we'll send them to penal farms, and let them raise crops for a living.
Why are they picking on Australia, alone? The same can be said for Britain, the US, the EU - didn't we recently have a big banking collapse, with repercussions felt round the world?
When you read "Economists predict", you might as well stop reading. Wander out into the countryside, and jaw with the dairymen, the hog farmers, and the chicken farmers. You'll get more intelligent predictions from any of them.
God's way is what? Capitalism? I don't think so. If God subscribed to any ism's, communism would be as likely as any. At it's core, before the addition of greed and corruption, communism intends to take care of everyone, and to eliminate the rich, the poor, leaving only a middle class. "Give what you're capable of giving, and take what you need" almost sounds biblical. Almost.
Using a little imagination, a sub commander can rig up a flotation device, attached to a mast. The mast is weighted at one end, the antenna positioned at the other end. The boat can stay submerged just as deeply as the length of the coax permits.
Or, to save a little trouble, the mast might be affixed to an existing buoy, or maybe even an oil rig that might be conveniently located. A sub operating in the vicinity of a surface force task force might just ask that one ship or another drop a long coax for them to tap into.
Of course, attack boats might just surface. I'm not aware of any doctrine forbidding them to do so. The missile boats aren't coming up though.
If I owned a Mac, the first thing I would do is to investigate disabling automatic updates, remote control, and other internet access that I didn't approve of.
It's standard procedure. FFS, it's so standard, that even my sons do as much with all their devices. They demand that WHATEVER THE HELL they are running, it runs THE WAY THEY WANT IT to run.
Java OFFERS to install the Ask Toolbar, if I'm not mistaken. You get a little box to check or uncheck, indicating that you approve of the installation of Ask Toolbar. It defaults to installing the tool bar. If you are incapable of unchecking that little box, then Ask is your problem. Don't whine about your personal problems on slashdot.
Now, if you had complained that the installer should default to NOT INSTALLING the toolbar, you might find some agreement here.
The entertainment is free, just like Linux. Your lack of understanding is of no concern to us - take that up with your spiritual advisor, or whatever the hell those fruitcakes are called these days.
I'll ASSume that you read all the release notes prior to beginning an upgrade. I've borked a couple of systems by jumping into an upgrade, without first checking the known problems. After screwing things up, I checked those release notes, discovered the known problems, then realized that it was entirely my fault that the upgrade didn't go smoothly.
That said - I'm not all that happy with Ubuntu any more. It used to be cool, but they've lost the cool factor. Rolling releases are the cool thing today. Sabayon Linux, Linux Mint Debian, Debian, and more seem to be getting it right.
Try teaching what the kid is interested in? Many children have demonstrated an interest in something, only to be hushed, because the class was busy with something else, something more important. Horticulture, animal husbandry, chemistry, even history. "Tommy, we don't have time to discuss the Battle of Waterloo, get your colored pencils out, and draw me another meaningless chart that no one really gives a damn about!)
- How does one measure the progress of students?
When the kid begins to stretch YOUR mind, when he asks CHALLENGING questions, when you discover that YOU ARE LEARNING, just to stay ahead of him, then there is no need to measure the kid's progress. And, I speak from experience, believe it or not. I'm not a teacher in any formal education setting. Uncle Sam did make me an "Educational Petty Officer" in the Navy. Teach, teach, tutor, teach. I've continued in civilian life, always teaching my subordinates. And, those students challenge me often enough. They force me to learn more, in an attempt to stay ahead of them.
If your students never challenge your own knowledge and education, then you've done it all wrong.
- How does one understand something without remebering it?
You teach CONCEPTS, not facts and figures. One who learns concepts can solve any problem to which the concept might relate. One who memorizes facts, figures, dates, and names may or may not ever actually solve a problem. He might run into a problem that he sees as similar to a problem solved by Professor Numty in England, way back in 1860, but he probably can't remember how Professor Numty solved the problem. He never understood the formula or how to apply it. Instead, he wasted time memorizing the professor's name, his biography, and all the awards the professor earned. All meaningless BULLSHIT.
The real irony in such a situation would be, that Professor Numty's theory and formula aren't even applicable, because or poor memorizing fool really doesn't understand ANYTHING about his current problem, OR Professor Numty's work!
When some cute little kid looks up at you, and asks, "Why is the sky blue?" what answer do you offer? The kid has a burning desire to learn, to understand - do you waste the opportunity, or do you help the munchkin to understand his/her world better?
Bottom line, for me, is "Fuck the beancounters. Education is to important to allow Washington to have a say in it!"
" Schools provide opportunities to develop and hone social skills, to forge friendships and to discover new interests."
Using Chicago's schools as a prime example, I can see that is working quite well.
Basically, schools are perfect indoctrination centers. Little children who create guns from Legos are expelled from school, until they learn that guns are evil. Zero tolerance for anyone who doesn't conform.
The school systems are broken, plain and simple, They are broken due to government interference. Today's schools are no better than the little ten to fifty student schoolhouses that my parents and grandparents attended. People only BELIEVE that they are better, because government TELLS you that they are better.
With all the resources available on the internet today, I daresay a kid can get a much better quality education at home, if only he desires to do so.
Stop the contract. Buy a $45 dollar card from StraightTalk. Go your own way, do your own thing. Terminate the frigging contract. Don't like the service, don't do business with them. Screw ATT, and screw their rules.
That's because the rocket hasn't returned to earth. Wait - what is that? Ninja Monkey navigating stealthily behind the ISS! Ninja Monkey is going to use his Ninja skills to spy on the ISS crew, while they watch the Super Bowl!! Ninja Monkey says "Screw "futbol", I want some FOOTBALL!"
Will Ninja Monkey ever return to earth? Will Ninja Monkey master the rules of football? Will Ninja Monkey take over the space station? Tomorrow, boys and girls, same time, same station!!
Let's just assume that a city has an annual "profit" of $100,000 from red light tickets.
They contract to have red light cameras put up. Gross profits increase by 100%. The camera company takes their 50% or 60%. So, the city is left with $140,000 to $150,000, IF they actually collect on all those tickets. Some people just don't pay them, as has been pointed out by other people in this conversation.
So, net increase in RED LIGHT TICKETS is up 40 or 50% - but as a percentage of overall traffic ticket revenues, what is that? 5%? 10%?
In this little scenario, we've assumed that the population is "dumb", and that none of them have altered their driving habits. Person A may have gotten a ticket, then altered her route to work to avoid that camera. Her driving habits haven't changed, merely her route. Person B may actually learn to come to a complete stop, and not to cross that white line until the light turns green. Person C just doesn't pay tickets. Person D has sued the city for violating his privacy, tying up resources in that suit. Persons E through J have circulated petitions against city hall causing more headache for the city. Person K has vandalized the traffic camera, causing more cost for the city. Persons L through O have successfully challenged their tickets in court. All of this cuts into the net profit of those cameras.
But, rest assured, the contracting company is going to take their 50% or 60% right up front, for all tickets issued, meaning the city eats ALL COSTS.
That could potentially mean, the city makes no net profit at all.
You might have pointed out that airbags kill mostly women and children, but kill few (almost none) adult males over 5' 9". Still, I question the "killed more than they saved". I'm not sure of the real statistics, but I question it.
"The overwhelmingly vast majority of people obey stop signs and red lights even in the middle of the desert where you can see no cross traffic for 20 miles."
A: I've never made any claim to be part of any majority, and here, I'm proud of not being that majority.
B: You exaggerate, of course. There are some places where you can see 20 miles, while standing or siting on a portion of the earth's surface. I don't think "the desert" is among them - consisting mostly of flat, nearly featureless land, usually boxed in by mountains that have leeched moisture from the air.
C: You don't need to see very far, to safely "run a stop sign". 1/4 mile is generally sufficient, if you've slowed to a "rolling stop" of ten mph or less. In fact, there are some rare situations where a "rolling stop" almost certainly makes you safer. A yield sign sometimes makes more sense than a stop sign.
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Javascript. I kinda like javascript. My Linux box doesn't enjoy much attention from exploit writers. But, the javascript people did manage to hijack my browser a couple of times. Javascript. Yeah - make my entire desktop run on javascript, so that malware writers can more easily support Linux. Sweet. What more could a guy ask for? Instead of merely hijacking my browser for something relatively benign like a Rick Roll, they can hijack my desktop. What sort of fun can we have then?
Actually, you're missing a couple of points.
If I have internet, I can interact with several government agencies, easily. Without internet access, it costs me about four gallons of gas to drive to the agency's office, wasting three or more hours of driving time, plus whatever time I spend in the office. Telephone might replace some of those in-person interactions, but then I may have to wait a week for the paperwork to come through. With internet, the paperwork is done already, before I leave the web page.
The same goes for my banking, and for bill paying - not to mention shopping. I've bought any number of things online, which I may or may not have found within driving distance. Specifically, no dealer carries parts for a Honda GL500. No aftermarket parts are available through any stores or dealers in the area. With internet, I can locate any and all parts for that GL500, along with some rather essential mods. (do a search for "fan grenade" for instance - the direct drive mechanical fan put on those CX and GL 500 engines are of a faulty design, easily replaceable with any of a number of electric fans, but without internet, I would never have heard of the problem)
The second point is - our dependency on the internet will only increase in years to come. Ten years ago, I felt as you do. The internet was really cool and all, but non-essential. Today, it is becoming more and more essential. Ten years from now, it will be very much an essential part of life. Society is changing due to the internet. Some of those changes may be for the better, others may be for the worse, but society IS changing. In another decade, internet access WILL be essential. Just as essential as an education, in my opinion.
It's rare that any government agency actually looks ahead, like the FCC is doing here. I have to give them points, as well as agreeing with them.
Blanket the nation in internet access, and make it as close to free as possible. The telcos charge to much, and they've failed to live up to their part of the bargain. Cellular just sucks at my house, along with 30% of my fellow rural American's houses. Sometimes, I can stand in front of a window, and get an acceptable signal. Other times, I have to walk out into the yard, and search for the right spot, then hold the phone just so, to get a strong enough signal to talk to my boss.
That is simply not right, for fifty dollars each month. That kind of service might be acceptable for five or ten dollars each month. Might be. It certainly is NOT acceptable for people who actually sign contracts for a hundred dollars and more per month!
Creative accounting aside - Microsoft's share of the market is shrinking. Bear in mind that their share is so huge, that any measurable shrinkage is freaking HUGE!
If Linux adds five million users to it's share, it will make a huge bump in the charts. When Microsoft loses five million users, it's hardly noticeable. But, over time, continued losses will add up.
Economic ruin? Not for awhile yet.
So, how's that hernia working out for you? Have you hired a gorilla to carry the Cray for you yet?
I despise Bill Gates. I hate Microsoft. If we could find a way to break Microsoft up into a dozen smaller companies, I'd be shickled teatless. But, hatred can be irrational too. Purchasing all that crap that SCO has, just to spend millions of dollars worth of manhours poring over the contents, hoping to catch Microsoft doing something illegal seems irrational to me.
Then, if you actually find what you are hoping to find, then what? Spending yet more millions preparing to take Microsoft to court. Millions upon millions more, paying for all the legal counsel.
Phhhttt - all that money is better spent undermining Microsoft's current monopoly status. Go buy an Android and a Chromebook. Sign contracts with several companies that are in direct competition with Microsoft. Donate some Linux machines to a school near you. Hell, start a foundation that donates a few hundred Linux machines to schools in your state, annually.
Do something more useful than feeding the predatory lawyers who will swarm the case you bring against Microsoft.
That's very interesting. I've never heard of distributism before - maybe I lead a sheltered life or something. (That's a joke - I've led anything but a sheltered life, LMAO)
Only problem I see, as I skim the surface, is that I'm quite anti-Catholic. But, the philosophy looks good. I need to spend some time looking at this. Note, I don't say "spend some time studying", merely looking. I'm to damned old to actually start studying economics, nor am I especially interested.
I do know that where cooperatives are permitted and encouraged, they seem to do well. Those I know about include credit unions, farmer's coops, and rural electric utilities. Members actually have a stake in those businesses, and they might find a small personal loss acceptable, if they know that the loss is going to a business in which they hold an interest.
Personally, I get a small payment from the electric coop every year. It usually equals a week or so of electric usage. Errrr - maybe five days, I never actually did the math.
Thanks for the links!
That is completely unfair. Weathermen are right at least half of the time. I mean, the worst weathermen I've ever known of were right half of the time. Good weathermen are right almost all of the time. Decent weathermen are right more than 3/4 of the time. Those people who ONLY REMEMBER when the weathermen were wrong tend to give weathermen a bad name. Despite that, they are mostly right.
Economists? I've never met one, never even heard of one that I trust. Bunch of self important douches, running about, selling the common man on pyramid schemes, ponzi schemes, etc ad nauseum. Screw them all - they belong in prison. Right after we shoot all the lawyers, we'll take care of that little detail. When the economists have been rehabilitated sufficiently, we'll send them to penal farms, and let them raise crops for a living.
Why are they picking on Australia, alone? The same can be said for Britain, the US, the EU - didn't we recently have a big banking collapse, with repercussions felt round the world?
When you read "Economists predict", you might as well stop reading. Wander out into the countryside, and jaw with the dairymen, the hog farmers, and the chicken farmers. You'll get more intelligent predictions from any of them.
God's way is what? Capitalism? I don't think so. If God subscribed to any ism's, communism would be as likely as any. At it's core, before the addition of greed and corruption, communism intends to take care of everyone, and to eliminate the rich, the poor, leaving only a middle class. "Give what you're capable of giving, and take what you need" almost sounds biblical. Almost.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
Using a little imagination, a sub commander can rig up a flotation device, attached to a mast. The mast is weighted at one end, the antenna positioned at the other end. The boat can stay submerged just as deeply as the length of the coax permits.
Or, to save a little trouble, the mast might be affixed to an existing buoy, or maybe even an oil rig that might be conveniently located. A sub operating in the vicinity of a surface force task force might just ask that one ship or another drop a long coax for them to tap into.
Of course, attack boats might just surface. I'm not aware of any doctrine forbidding them to do so. The missile boats aren't coming up though.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
If I owned a Mac, the first thing I would do is to investigate disabling automatic updates, remote control, and other internet access that I didn't approve of.
It's standard procedure. FFS, it's so standard, that even my sons do as much with all their devices. They demand that WHATEVER THE HELL they are running, it runs THE WAY THEY WANT IT to run.
There's this newfangled tool that you've likely never heard of: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+to+disable+automatic+updates+on+Mac
So use OpenJDK instead?
Java OFFERS to install the Ask Toolbar, if I'm not mistaken. You get a little box to check or uncheck, indicating that you approve of the installation of Ask Toolbar. It defaults to installing the tool bar. If you are incapable of unchecking that little box, then Ask is your problem. Don't whine about your personal problems on slashdot.
Now, if you had complained that the installer should default to NOT INSTALLING the toolbar, you might find some agreement here.
The entertainment is free, just like Linux. Your lack of understanding is of no concern to us - take that up with your spiritual advisor, or whatever the hell those fruitcakes are called these days.
Dump the shit computer from the 1990's. No one gives a damn about a pentium taking twelve months to compile a modern operating system.
A week to compile xulrunner? Are you sure you're not using an 8086, and blaming the problem on Pentium?
I'll ASSume that you read all the release notes prior to beginning an upgrade. I've borked a couple of systems by jumping into an upgrade, without first checking the known problems. After screwing things up, I checked those release notes, discovered the known problems, then realized that it was entirely my fault that the upgrade didn't go smoothly.
That said - I'm not all that happy with Ubuntu any more. It used to be cool, but they've lost the cool factor. Rolling releases are the cool thing today. Sabayon Linux, Linux Mint Debian, Debian, and more seem to be getting it right.
AC should be modded +5 funny plus +5 informative and +5 insightful.
A fast personal computer is a terrible thing to waste. - Anonymous Botnet Operator
That would make a good sig . . .
- How does one teach understanding?
Try teaching what the kid is interested in? Many children have demonstrated an interest in something, only to be hushed, because the class was busy with something else, something more important. Horticulture, animal husbandry, chemistry, even history. "Tommy, we don't have time to discuss the Battle of Waterloo, get your colored pencils out, and draw me another meaningless chart that no one really gives a damn about!)
- How does one measure the progress of students?
When the kid begins to stretch YOUR mind, when he asks CHALLENGING questions, when you discover that YOU ARE LEARNING, just to stay ahead of him, then there is no need to measure the kid's progress. And, I speak from experience, believe it or not. I'm not a teacher in any formal education setting. Uncle Sam did make me an "Educational Petty Officer" in the Navy. Teach, teach, tutor, teach. I've continued in civilian life, always teaching my subordinates. And, those students challenge me often enough. They force me to learn more, in an attempt to stay ahead of them.
If your students never challenge your own knowledge and education, then you've done it all wrong.
- How does one understand something without remebering it?
You teach CONCEPTS, not facts and figures. One who learns concepts can solve any problem to which the concept might relate. One who memorizes facts, figures, dates, and names may or may not ever actually solve a problem. He might run into a problem that he sees as similar to a problem solved by Professor Numty in England, way back in 1860, but he probably can't remember how Professor Numty solved the problem. He never understood the formula or how to apply it. Instead, he wasted time memorizing the professor's name, his biography, and all the awards the professor earned. All meaningless BULLSHIT.
The real irony in such a situation would be, that Professor Numty's theory and formula aren't even applicable, because or poor memorizing fool really doesn't understand ANYTHING about his current problem, OR Professor Numty's work!
When some cute little kid looks up at you, and asks, "Why is the sky blue?" what answer do you offer? The kid has a burning desire to learn, to understand - do you waste the opportunity, or do you help the munchkin to understand his/her world better?
Bottom line, for me, is "Fuck the beancounters. Education is to important to allow Washington to have a say in it!"
" Schools provide opportunities to develop and hone social skills, to forge friendships and to discover new interests."
Using Chicago's schools as a prime example, I can see that is working quite well.
Basically, schools are perfect indoctrination centers. Little children who create guns from Legos are expelled from school, until they learn that guns are evil. Zero tolerance for anyone who doesn't conform.
The school systems are broken, plain and simple, They are broken due to government interference. Today's schools are no better than the little ten to fifty student schoolhouses that my parents and grandparents attended. People only BELIEVE that they are better, because government TELLS you that they are better.
With all the resources available on the internet today, I daresay a kid can get a much better quality education at home, if only he desires to do so.
Stop the contract. Buy a $45 dollar card from StraightTalk. Go your own way, do your own thing. Terminate the frigging contract. Don't like the service, don't do business with them. Screw ATT, and screw their rules.
That's because the rocket hasn't returned to earth. Wait - what is that? Ninja Monkey navigating stealthily behind the ISS! Ninja Monkey is going to use his Ninja skills to spy on the ISS crew, while they watch the Super Bowl!! Ninja Monkey says "Screw "futbol", I want some FOOTBALL!"
Will Ninja Monkey ever return to earth? Will Ninja Monkey master the rules of football? Will Ninja Monkey take over the space station? Tomorrow, boys and girls, same time, same station!!
So - unlock it. It's out of contract. Unlock the damned thing, and if anyone ever asks, then it's "I bought it this way, I don't know shit!"
Let's just assume that a city has an annual "profit" of $100,000 from red light tickets.
They contract to have red light cameras put up. Gross profits increase by 100%. The camera company takes their 50% or 60%. So, the city is left with $140,000 to $150,000, IF they actually collect on all those tickets. Some people just don't pay them, as has been pointed out by other people in this conversation.
So, net increase in RED LIGHT TICKETS is up 40 or 50% - but as a percentage of overall traffic ticket revenues, what is that? 5%? 10%?
In this little scenario, we've assumed that the population is "dumb", and that none of them have altered their driving habits. Person A may have gotten a ticket, then altered her route to work to avoid that camera. Her driving habits haven't changed, merely her route. Person B may actually learn to come to a complete stop, and not to cross that white line until the light turns green. Person C just doesn't pay tickets. Person D has sued the city for violating his privacy, tying up resources in that suit. Persons E through J have circulated petitions against city hall causing more headache for the city. Person K has vandalized the traffic camera, causing more cost for the city. Persons L through O have successfully challenged their tickets in court. All of this cuts into the net profit of those cameras.
But, rest assured, the contracting company is going to take their 50% or 60% right up front, for all tickets issued, meaning the city eats ALL COSTS.
That could potentially mean, the city makes no net profit at all.
"Much like airbags killed more than they saved."
You might have pointed out that airbags kill mostly women and children, but kill few (almost none) adult males over 5' 9". Still, I question the "killed more than they saved". I'm not sure of the real statistics, but I question it.
"The overwhelmingly vast majority of people obey stop signs and red lights even in the middle of the desert where you can
see no cross traffic for 20 miles."
A: I've never made any claim to be part of any majority, and here, I'm proud of not being that majority.
B: You exaggerate, of course. There are some places where you can see 20 miles, while standing or siting on a portion of the earth's surface. I don't think "the desert" is among them - consisting mostly of flat, nearly featureless land, usually boxed in by mountains that have leeched moisture from the air.
C: You don't need to see very far, to safely "run a stop sign". 1/4 mile is generally sufficient, if you've slowed to a "rolling stop" of ten mph or less. In fact, there are some rare situations where a "rolling stop" almost certainly makes you safer. A yield sign sometimes makes more sense than a stop sign.