There was a $9B bond issue to build the CA high speed rail link between LA and SF, but I don't know what happened to it.
Anaheim to Las Vegas has been talked about a lot too, even as a private venture between Disney and the Vegas casinos. But it's hardly worth it, because it's under a 4 hour drive for most southern CA residents. Why spend an hour going to the train station, another hour messing with ticketing and security, etc., when you could be more than halfway there already? Then there's the cost -- train tickets, paying to park, etc. So it's not worth it for most people. I doubt most tourists have enough money for both Disneyland and Vegas anyway!
Both Sydney and Melbourne have excellent public transportation systems -- a combination of rail, bus, and ferry. In Sydney there are a few "holes" that are underserved, but this is true of London and Paris too. Consider yourself lucky -- it could be a lot worse.
Majore cities in the US have good public transportation. NY, Boston, Chicago, etc., are as good as anywhere. Even LA's is a lot better than people give it credit for. But the rest of the US sucks -- just like Australia!
Perhaps the biggest problem we have in the US is an anti-socialist mentality in high growth areas like the southeast. Red-state rednecks like their trucks, and don't want no gub'mint tellin' 'em what ta do.
The automobile was indeed the train killer, not GM. This GM-dismantling-the-railroads story has no credibility whatsoever.
People always point to the Los Angeles case, where the excellent light rail system was bought by a consortium of GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil. But this was not to dismantle it. It was to make sure they were invested in whatever transportation did eventually dominate in a fast growing city. At the time no one knew. In fact they did operate the railroad for many more years, in spite of dwindling ridership. They would have continued, too. But the citizens of Los Angeles were banging down the doors of City Hall, demanding the trolley cars be removed -- because they were blocking traffic.
Read your history. Talk to some long time Los Angeles residents. This is the truth.
If you know someone who is using Netflix right now ask them about the service? Do they like it?
Almost everyone I know uses it exclusively, and likes it very much. They epecially like the variety they'd never be able to get from B'buster or Walmart.
I don't know a single person that uses Netflix so that's rather difficult. I also haven't heard it *anywhere* other than on Slashdot. I wouldn't even know it existed otherwise.
Did someone pay you to write this, or have you been living under a rock? (Or both?)
It's pretty clear that Blockbuster has the size, relationahsips, channel, and most importantly, money to crush Netflix. Each day that passes is, in reality another day that the value of the company decreases.
They also have a lot of expensive real estate, payroll, and other costs associated with retail locations, which are becoming less and less relevent. Even if Blockbuster starts to dominate the mail order rental space, they're still saddled with the retail ball and chain -- which Netflix, etc., don't have. This was true from the beginning, and it's even more important now that mail order rental has "caught on."
I always loved the Transnote, an older Thinkpad with an integrated art tablet. It was designed for architects, engineers, etc., who liked to be able to sketch things.
In my experience from my school years, and 20 years of working in engineering afterward, middle easterners generally have the best math skills -- especially Persians, but Arabs too. We had a huge Persian influx in southern CA in the 80s. Most of those kids were way ahead in math, with many of them doing college level calculus by the 10th grade. Community colleges had many 16 year old middle easterners in their math and science programs, because high school would have been a waste of time for them. 20 years later, there's still a huge Persian/Arab presence in engineering companies in southern CA. These are global companies that hire the best people from everywhere. The best in this case has remained the middle eastern engineers.
So the GED has been mentioned. However, many American colleges and universities don't actually require high school graduation or a GED, if the student is otherwise qualified. This can be determined through testing. Most people don't realize this, but in fact it's true. OTOH, a GED should be a breeze for anyone who's truly college material.
I suggest your friend try to go straight to college. Contact admissions departments to see what the requirements actually are, and the best way to get from "here to there." One caveat though -- is your friend really ready for college, emotionally, and maturity wise? Think about this carefully -- even if intellectually ready, most students under 18, and especially under 16, are simply not ready for college level responsibilities. Then there's the language/cultural issue -- is this student fluent enough in English, and comfortable enough with American culture, to handle college studies?
I went to high school in a foreign country. I returned to the US for my senior year. In retrospect I should have gone straight to college, rather than waste that one year in American high school. (It really was a waste, but that's another story.) I was ready, both intellectually and emotionally. But the idea never occurred to me, my parents, or any of the counsellors I talked to. So I say to anyone in the same situation, if you think you're ready, just go for it. A good community college or state school is no more or less demanding than a rigorous high school program, but it puts you much further ahead in life. Coming from elsewhere, the rest of the American "high school experience" is meaningless anyway. Might as well adjust to college instead.
If you join one of the airline clubs for business travellers, you can use their lounge -- which have wireless internet access, and plenty of plugs to charge whatever you have. You can hang out there all day and work, netsurf, watch TV, etc., if you have a wait between flights.
Living in a colege dorm... I have a 360 capacity binder I use for my DVDs, a 280 binder I use for TV Shows, a 240 binder for games, and a 128 binder for drivers.
With all the time spent collecting and watching all that crap, when do you study?
...my next computer will probably be a Mac. I'm currently a Thinkpad user, but they're probably going away, at least as we know them. I'm sick of Windows. Just keeping it updated and working is a PITA. Networking sucks -- I have to reboot the machine to get it to release an IP address, etc., and that takes ten minutes. Programs leave crud all over the drive. You can't tell where your data is, etc., and searching the filesystem is slow and clunky. Command line ability is limited.
I like Linux. In fact I use it a lot, usually from a live CD these days. But I have to interact with the rest of the Office-using world (esp. Excel and Access), so that's probably out. Plus there are all kinds of hardware issues to be sorted out running Linux on laptops. There's always something that doesn't work, or is inconvenient to use, or requires tweaking, etc. I don't want to tweak, configure, spend time learning about work-arounds, etc. I just want to work. Some people get off on playing amateur sysadmin. The rest of us have real work to do.
I can solve all these problems in one fell swoop with a Mac. Recently I was talking to a friend about her new Mac. She loves it because, "It just fucking works."
OpenACS has been Postgres-based for a long time, as a free alternative to Oracle. You can get plenty of Postgres information at www.openacs.org The folks there have been using it for years for all kinds of sites, so it's pretty well tested. OpenACS is a unique system using AOLServer and TCL, but the database performance should translate to whatever server/scripting platform you're using.
Apparently it's not on the web yet, but the new Wired magazine has an interesting article on digital cinema, and how Mark Cuban (Landmark) is the first American cinema owner to go all digital.
The big holdup is there's little incentive for theater owners to spend $150k per screen. Some are holding out for studios to pay for the equipment, to ensure distribution of their digital product. After all, it's the studios, not the theater owners, who stand to benefit from this, because of greatly reduced distribution costs (no actual film).
Yahoo is the one I'm already steering clear of. When you start using their free email, they're constantly trying to hook you in to personal ads, financial info, groups, chat, etc. As you get into using all these services they're able to compile a pretty comprehensive dossier on you. No matter what BS you give them when you initially sign up, when you finally pony up with a credit card for enhanced mail, personals, etc., they've gotcha!
What Amazon knows by tracking what books I buy for myself and others pales in comparison.
Slashdot Mirror
There was a $9B bond issue to build the CA high speed rail link between LA and SF, but I don't know what happened to it.
Anaheim to Las Vegas has been talked about a lot too, even as a private venture between Disney and the Vegas casinos. But it's hardly worth it, because it's under a 4 hour drive for most southern CA residents. Why spend an hour going to the train station, another hour messing with ticketing and security, etc., when you could be more than halfway there already? Then there's the cost -- train tickets, paying to park, etc. So it's not worth it for most people. I doubt most tourists have enough money for both Disneyland and Vegas anyway!
Both Sydney and Melbourne have excellent public transportation systems -- a combination of rail, bus, and ferry. In Sydney there are a few "holes" that are underserved, but this is true of London and Paris too. Consider yourself lucky -- it could be a lot worse.
Majore cities in the US have good public transportation. NY, Boston, Chicago, etc., are as good as anywhere. Even LA's is a lot better than people give it credit for. But the rest of the US sucks -- just like Australia!
Perhaps the biggest problem we have in the US is an anti-socialist mentality in high growth areas like the southeast. Red-state rednecks like their trucks, and don't want no gub'mint tellin' 'em what ta do.
The automobile was indeed the train killer, not GM. This GM-dismantling-the-railroads story has no credibility whatsoever.
People always point to the Los Angeles case, where the excellent light rail system was bought by a consortium of GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil. But this was not to dismantle it. It was to make sure they were invested in whatever transportation did eventually dominate in a fast growing city. At the time no one knew. In fact they did operate the railroad for many more years, in spite of dwindling ridership. They would have continued, too. But the citizens of Los Angeles were banging down the doors of City Hall, demanding the trolley cars be removed -- because they were blocking traffic.
Read your history. Talk to some long time Los Angeles residents. This is the truth.
...instead of their investors.
If they really want to interoperate, they'll find a way. After all, it's -- OPEN SOURCE!
They can't be trusted, so why tell/ask them anything. Make 'em work for it!
If you know someone who is using Netflix right now ask them about the service? Do they like it?
Almost everyone I know uses it exclusively, and likes it very much. They epecially like the variety they'd never be able to get from B'buster or Walmart.
I don't know a single person that uses Netflix so that's rather difficult. I also haven't heard it *anywhere* other than on Slashdot. I wouldn't even know it existed otherwise.
Did someone pay you to write this, or have you been living under a rock? (Or both?)
It's pretty clear that Blockbuster has the size, relationahsips, channel, and most importantly, money to crush Netflix. Each day that passes is, in reality another day that the value of the company decreases.
They also have a lot of expensive real estate, payroll, and other costs associated with retail locations, which are becoming less and less relevent. Even if Blockbuster starts to dominate the mail order rental space, they're still saddled with the retail ball and chain -- which Netflix, etc., don't have. This was true from the beginning, and it's even more important now that mail order rental has "caught on."
In the gym in question, it's clear that this isn't being done to heighten security; it's just to keep people from having to drag a gym id around.
Or, to share their gym card with their friends.
Also, it's much faster to slam your thumb on a pad than to hold out a card for someone to scan.
And cheaper than paying someone to check the cards.
I always loved the Transnote, an older Thinkpad with an integrated art tablet. It was designed for architects, engineers, etc., who liked to be able to sketch things.
Sign me up for one of these!
We ought to forward this to every municipality in PA, in case this "sounds familiar." Some taxpayers are about to get fleeced.
It is said that there are actually few dishonest auto mechanics, but a lot of incompetent ones. Unfortunately the same it true in IT.
Software? Hardware? Widgets? Vacuum cleaners?
Programmers? Engineers? Diesel mechanics? Consumers?
In my experience from my school years, and 20 years of working in engineering afterward, middle easterners generally have the best math skills -- especially Persians, but Arabs too. We had a huge Persian influx in southern CA in the 80s. Most of those kids were way ahead in math, with many of them doing college level calculus by the 10th grade. Community colleges had many 16 year old middle easterners in their math and science programs, because high school would have been a waste of time for them. 20 years later, there's still a huge Persian/Arab presence in engineering companies in southern CA. These are global companies that hire the best people from everywhere. The best in this case has remained the middle eastern engineers.
...but nobody uses them. Of course this is ridiculous.
So the GED has been mentioned. However, many American colleges and universities don't actually require high school graduation or a GED, if the student is otherwise qualified. This can be determined through testing. Most people don't realize this, but in fact it's true. OTOH, a GED should be a breeze for anyone who's truly college material.
I suggest your friend try to go straight to college. Contact admissions departments to see what the requirements actually are, and the best way to get from "here to there." One caveat though -- is your friend really ready for college, emotionally, and maturity wise? Think about this carefully -- even if intellectually ready, most students under 18, and especially under 16, are simply not ready for college level responsibilities. Then there's the language/cultural issue -- is this student fluent enough in English, and comfortable enough with American culture, to handle college studies?
I went to high school in a foreign country. I returned to the US for my senior year. In retrospect I should have gone straight to college, rather than waste that one year in American high school. (It really was a waste, but that's another story.) I was ready, both intellectually and emotionally. But the idea never occurred to me, my parents, or any of the counsellors I talked to. So I say to anyone in the same situation, if you think you're ready, just go for it. A good community college or state school is no more or less demanding than a rigorous high school program, but it puts you much further ahead in life. Coming from elsewhere, the rest of the American "high school experience" is meaningless anyway. Might as well adjust to college instead.
...is with a Macintosh.
...is that they seem to have been written by adolescent goobers (of all ages) who failed high school English. This article is a shining example.
Battery technology has improved an awful lot in the last decade, since the EV1 was developed. I posted about this before.
If you join one of the airline clubs for business travellers, you can use their lounge -- which have wireless internet access, and plenty of plugs to charge whatever you have. You can hang out there all day and work, netsurf, watch TV, etc., if you have a wait between flights.
Living in a colege dorm... I have a 360 capacity binder I use for my DVDs, a 280 binder I use for TV Shows, a 240 binder for games, and a 128 binder for drivers.
With all the time spent collecting and watching all that crap, when do you study?
...my next computer will probably be a Mac. I'm currently a Thinkpad user, but they're probably going away, at least as we know them. I'm sick of Windows. Just keeping it updated and working is a PITA. Networking sucks -- I have to reboot the machine to get it to release an IP address, etc., and that takes ten minutes. Programs leave crud all over the drive. You can't tell where your data is, etc., and searching the filesystem is slow and clunky. Command line ability is limited.
I like Linux. In fact I use it a lot, usually from a live CD these days. But I have to interact with the rest of the Office-using world (esp. Excel and Access), so that's probably out. Plus there are all kinds of hardware issues to be sorted out running Linux on laptops. There's always something that doesn't work, or is inconvenient to use, or requires tweaking, etc. I don't want to tweak, configure, spend time learning about work-arounds, etc. I just want to work. Some people get off on playing amateur sysadmin. The rest of us have real work to do.
I can solve all these problems in one fell swoop with a Mac. Recently I was talking to a friend about her new Mac. She loves it because, "It just fucking works."
soo.. what does that make me, a person who is:
- No to capital punishment
- No to war (except in self defense(*) )
- No to abortion
- No to euthanasia
A good Catholic!
OpenACS has been Postgres-based for a long time, as a free alternative to Oracle. You can get plenty of Postgres information at www.openacs.org The folks there have been using it for years for all kinds of sites, so it's pretty well tested. OpenACS is a unique system using AOLServer and TCL, but the database performance should translate to whatever server/scripting platform you're using.
...would be awesome -- and cheap!
Apparently it's not on the web yet, but the new Wired magazine has an interesting article on digital cinema, and how Mark Cuban (Landmark) is the first American cinema owner to go all digital.
The big holdup is there's little incentive for theater owners to spend $150k per screen. Some are holding out for studios to pay for the equipment, to ensure distribution of their digital product. After all, it's the studios, not the theater owners, who stand to benefit from this, because of greatly reduced distribution costs (no actual film).
Yahoo is the one I'm already steering clear of. When you start using their free email, they're constantly trying to hook you in to personal ads, financial info, groups, chat, etc. As you get into using all these services they're able to compile a pretty comprehensive dossier on you. No matter what BS you give them when you initially sign up, when you finally pony up with a credit card for enhanced mail, personals, etc., they've gotcha!
What Amazon knows by tracking what books I buy for myself and others pales in comparison.