You seem to believe you will somehow pay less in taxes if this happens.
Doesn't seem "daft" to me.
If anything, your taxes will go up to pay for the postage to send out the bills, so that the revenue from the tolls can be maximized.
Taxes don't pay for the postage on the bills, the people receiving the bills do--it gets included in the toll.
Plus, why would you think, for one second, that the money from these tolls would be used to pay for road improvements anyway?
Because if the road or bridge becomes too badly damaged, the income from that road or bridge goes away. Hence, the people (city, company, state, whatever) who charge the tolls have a natural interest in charging enough to maintain the infrastructure, but not charge so much that people stop using it.
That's a big improvement over the current system, where the government taxes whatever it wants, uses the money to fight useless wars, and then lets the bridges and roads go to hell.
Isn't the purpose of the gasoline tax in the United States to account for the wear an tear that your vehicle causes to the roads?
Yeah, and then the Palins of this world redirect your tax dollars from California or Massachusetts to build roads and bridges to nowhere in their states.
If we start implementing tolling on nearly every major highway, we should start to see a reduction or removal of the gasoline tax.
The gasoline tax doesn't come close to covering the costs the automobile imposes on the nation. Costs resulting from driving aren't just maintaining the roads, they include the pollution, medical care, bad urban planning, ensuring the availability of oil, etc.
Driving right now are largely subsidized by income tax. We have this system because it works for a few powerful interests, and that's also the reason why other modes of transportation have such a hard time establishing themselves.
Instead of having politicians fight over which bridge to nowhere to build from tax dollars collected thousands of miles away, infrastructure gets paid for by the people who actually use it.
Sounds good to me. I hope it gets as widely deployed as possible.
I would find this useful. At home or at work, I put my phone on the desk anyway, so it can recharge easily then. I'd probably still charge it from the grid some of the time, but for travel or if it runs down, I'm not completely cut off.
In addition to the differences in optimization already mentioned, it also makes a big difference whether you run applications isolated (which is what running under WINE is) or as part of a desktop; when running as part of a (Linux) desktop, there's a lot of other code a browser talks to and waits for.
The Linux kernel is a gigantic C program, with lots of coupling, global variables, no module system, and lots of external dependencies. Those kinds of systems are exceedingly hard to shrink. And C encourages people to re-implement data structures and software components multiple times (hash tables, linked lists, etc.) instead of providing mechanisms for generic algorithms and reuse; that contributes further to the bloat.
In addition, the Linux kernel is adding a lot of functionality and generalizing functionality. For example, instead of simple hard-coded partitions, you now have several layers of abstractions and indirection allowing you to deal with partitions much more flexibly.
I have my own opinion as to whether the Linux kernel is well-engineered and whether I'd want to hire Linus. But as long as bloat and software engineering in the Linux kernel doesn't get in the way, I don't really care what it's written in or how it's written.
As long as it gets the job done, popularity and support are more important than elegance and code quality in a kernel.
Why make it so complicated? Why not stick with tech that we know works right now: ARM + Intel + nVidia chips, where the ARM chip can power off the other two when they're not needed?
8 ARM cores may seem cleaner and more symmetric, but it's a lot more work to take advantage of.
Even my parents (in their 70's) text, chat, send E-mail and take photos with their phones. They like playing with themes and ring tone. And if video calls, podcasts and movie making worked better, they'd be using that, too. And they are not technical people at all.
In fact, in my experience, many people find using a phone for some task easier than using a computer for the same task.
There are many different ways in which you can build payment systems on top of existing phone technologies.
But why tie this to a phone? Standard smart card or RFID technologies are already used for "waving" payment systems; they can easily be offered in a form that you can stick to the back of your phone if you like.
Apple patent is one of the more ridiculous patents, for many reasons. If this really becomes important, it will be challenged and probably thrown out.
However, I'm not convinced that multitouch is even all that important to begin with, beyond the kind of multitouch that some touch devices have had for decades anyway. In particular, the pinch, rotate, and zoom gestures are mostly gimmicks.
We've never preserved 100% of everything that happened. In fact, historically, only very select information has survived. Now, even if only 0.0001% of all the digital information survives, that will be more information than from any earlier time in history.
I couldn't give a damn whether any of those 150 web sites about the 2000 Olympics survive. There's probably more printed materials alone on the 2000 Olympics than any previous Olympics, and in addition, there's a lot of preserved digital information. Ditto for George W Bush.
It's ridiculous until one of your kids ends up with pics on the net that weren't authorized. The issue isn't that people are taking pictures, the issue is that people don't ask and you don't know what they're taking pictures of.
As long as you're in a public place, people don't have to ask to take a picture of you or your children. They also don't have to ask you whether they can publish it, unless it is pornographic or misleading.
So, if you make a fool of yourself in public by showing your beer belly or your wife makes a fool of herself by showing her whale tail or you have your kids run around in little Lolita outfits, I can take a picture and put it on Flickr.
As for this law, it is pointless. There are so many ways people can take pictures of you surreptitiously and publish them anonymously that such a law is pointless.
Sorry, but you are responsible for your appearance and reputation, nobody else. If you don't want to be made a fool of on-line, don't run around like a fool in public.
It may be time to put NASA brains on some more immediate problems, like alternative energy, and studying the causes of the continuing decline of every ecosystem on earth
What's there to study? The causes and remedies of both are very well understood.
When a stock is pummeled to the point that a company is no longer able to function effectively as a company gross economic damage is done.
If a company has been "pummeled" to the point where its stock value is lower than the assets it holds, then people can just snap it up and sell it for its parts.
The real problem is that a lot of companies have gotten used to an irrational and inflated stock value and think they have a right to print money and to retain employees in worthless paper (stock and stock options). And those are the companies that complain about "naked shorting". Of course, most of the companies in the US economies are such bloated paper tigers.
It's hard because the user interfaces have been bad. The existing user interfaces actually do a lot of bookkeeping and give the users interactive feedback. A Wiki does less of that, not more, so it's not going to help.
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Then we need to increase it.
The tolls pay for the roads you use (local expenses).
The gas tax pays for pollution, medical care, and the military (state and federal expenses).
Yes, we should raise both rather than paying for this stuff out of general funds.
You seem to believe you will somehow pay less in taxes if this happens.
Doesn't seem "daft" to me.
If anything, your taxes will go up to pay for the postage to send out the bills, so that the revenue from the tolls can be maximized.
Taxes don't pay for the postage on the bills, the people receiving the bills do--it gets included in the toll.
Plus, why would you think, for one second, that the money from these tolls would be used to pay for road improvements anyway?
Because if the road or bridge becomes too badly damaged, the income from that road or bridge goes away. Hence, the people (city, company, state, whatever) who charge the tolls have a natural interest in charging enough to maintain the infrastructure, but not charge so much that people stop using it.
That's a big improvement over the current system, where the government taxes whatever it wants, uses the money to fight useless wars, and then lets the bridges and roads go to hell.
What is to stop someone from making sets of fake plates with YOUR number on them and running through these toll roads or red lights?
Sooner or later, transponders will simply get integrated into license plates, and those will be a lot harder to clone.
Isn't the purpose of the gasoline tax in the United States to account for the wear an tear that your vehicle causes to the roads?
Yeah, and then the Palins of this world redirect your tax dollars from California or Massachusetts to build roads and bridges to nowhere in their states.
If we start implementing tolling on nearly every major highway, we should start to see a reduction or removal of the gasoline tax.
The gasoline tax doesn't come close to covering the costs the automobile imposes on the nation. Costs resulting from driving aren't just maintaining the roads, they include the pollution, medical care, bad urban planning, ensuring the availability of oil, etc.
Driving right now are largely subsidized by income tax. We have this system because it works for a few powerful interests, and that's also the reason why other modes of transportation have such a hard time establishing themselves.
Instead of having politicians fight over which bridge to nowhere to build from tax dollars collected thousands of miles away, infrastructure gets paid for by the people who actually use it.
Sounds good to me. I hope it gets as widely deployed as possible.
BeOS started development in 1991 and was first released in 1995; it's not prior art for anything.
Since bullets typically travel faster than sound, you first get hit by the bullet, and then you get an electric shock on top of that. What fun.
What will those IBM guys patent next?
I would find this useful. At home or at work, I put my phone on the desk anyway, so it can recharge easily then. I'd probably still charge it from the grid some of the time, but for travel or if it runs down, I'm not completely cut off.
What will you protest?
The usual: Microsoft's anti-competitive practices, their patent policies, their hiring policies, etc.
but most of our members really don't like them, because we had to buy their product once
If it only were just once. The problem is that we still keep having to buy it even though we don't want it.
In addition to the differences in optimization already mentioned, it also makes a big difference whether you run applications isolated (which is what running under WINE is) or as part of a desktop; when running as part of a (Linux) desktop, there's a lot of other code a browser talks to and waits for.
Why would you expect the kernel to shrink?
The Linux kernel is a gigantic C program, with lots of coupling, global variables, no module system, and lots of external dependencies. Those kinds of systems are exceedingly hard to shrink. And C encourages people to re-implement data structures and software components multiple times (hash tables, linked lists, etc.) instead of providing mechanisms for generic algorithms and reuse; that contributes further to the bloat.
In addition, the Linux kernel is adding a lot of functionality and generalizing functionality. For example, instead of simple hard-coded partitions, you now have several layers of abstractions and indirection allowing you to deal with partitions much more flexibly.
I have my own opinion as to whether the Linux kernel is well-engineered and whether I'd want to hire Linus. But as long as bloat and software engineering in the Linux kernel doesn't get in the way, I don't really care what it's written in or how it's written.
As long as it gets the job done, popularity and support are more important than elegance and code quality in a kernel.
Why make it so complicated? Why not stick with tech that we know works right now: ARM + Intel + nVidia chips, where the ARM chip can power off the other two when they're not needed?
8 ARM cores may seem cleaner and more symmetric, but it's a lot more work to take advantage of.
I didn't know Barbara Streisand was the King of Thailand.
Even my parents (in their 70's) text, chat, send E-mail and take photos with their phones. They like playing with themes and ring tone. And if video calls, podcasts and movie making worked better, they'd be using that, too. And they are not technical people at all.
In fact, in my experience, many people find using a phone for some task easier than using a computer for the same task.
There are many different ways in which you can build payment systems on top of existing phone technologies.
But why tie this to a phone? Standard smart card or RFID technologies are already used for "waving" payment systems; they can easily be offered in a form that you can stick to the back of your phone if you like.
Apple patent is one of the more ridiculous patents, for many reasons. If this really becomes important, it will be challenged and probably thrown out.
However, I'm not convinced that multitouch is even all that important to begin with, beyond the kind of multitouch that some touch devices have had for decades anyway. In particular, the pinch, rotate, and zoom gestures are mostly gimmicks.
We've never preserved 100% of everything that happened. In fact, historically, only very select information has survived. Now, even if only 0.0001% of all the digital information survives, that will be more information than from any earlier time in history.
I couldn't give a damn whether any of those 150 web sites about the 2000 Olympics survive. There's probably more printed materials alone on the 2000 Olympics than any previous Olympics, and in addition, there's a lot of preserved digital information. Ditto for George W Bush.
It's ridiculous until one of your kids ends up with pics on the net that weren't authorized. The issue isn't that people are taking pictures, the issue is that people don't ask and you don't know what they're taking pictures of.
As long as you're in a public place, people don't have to ask to take a picture of you or your children. They also don't have to ask you whether they can publish it, unless it is pornographic or misleading.
So, if you make a fool of yourself in public by showing your beer belly or your wife makes a fool of herself by showing her whale tail or you have your kids run around in little Lolita outfits, I can take a picture and put it on Flickr.
As for this law, it is pointless. There are so many ways people can take pictures of you surreptitiously and publish them anonymously that such a law is pointless.
Sorry, but you are responsible for your appearance and reputation, nobody else. If you don't want to be made a fool of on-line, don't run around like a fool in public.
Hmmm - maybe this problem is a BIT more complicated on second glance.
No, not really. The problem is unsustainable economic growth. Limit growth and limit globalization and the problem limits itself.
It may be time to put NASA brains on some more immediate problems, like alternative energy, and studying the causes of the continuing decline of every ecosystem on earth
What's there to study? The causes and remedies of both are very well understood.
Google is counting on participants to develop killer apps for their Android platform
Yes, whereas Microsoft is counting on their monopoly for the success of their Windows platform.
Sooner or later that will stop working, though.
When a stock is pummeled to the point that a company is no longer able to function effectively as a company gross economic damage is done.
If a company has been "pummeled" to the point where its stock value is lower than the assets it holds, then people can just snap it up and sell it for its parts.
The real problem is that a lot of companies have gotten used to an irrational and inflated stock value and think they have a right to print money and to retain employees in worthless paper (stock and stock options). And those are the companies that complain about "naked shorting". Of course, most of the companies in the US economies are such bloated paper tigers.
It's hard because the user interfaces have been bad. The existing user interfaces actually do a lot of bookkeeping and give the users interactive feedback. A Wiki does less of that, not more, so it's not going to help.
iPhone App Store since July, has been downloaded more than 395,000 times and continues to be installed at an average rate of about 5,000 copies a day
MobiPocket was at 1 million downloads in 2003 (before being bought by Amazon), and god knows where it is now.
MobiPocket runs on Palm, PocketPC, Windows Mobile, and Symbian, and one of those is almost certainly the most popular E-book platform.
The standard defense for gay bashing isn't "honest mistake", it's low/high blood sugar or psychological trauma.