>>>Why should they require their staff to put up with rude and aggressive asshats
Because that's what they are paid to do. Just the same as when I worked for JCPenney years ago, I was required to put-up with angry customers complaining about broken products, or late fees on credit cards, or whatever. It's called customer service, and you are expected to be patient with the customer, whether he's happy or angry.
Another reason these schedules are not copyrightable is because the MTA is owned by the NY government, and the NY government is owned/funded by the People, therefore the schedules belong to the citizens of New York State. They are free to copy the schedules as often as they desire, especially since they already paid for them via taxation.
This is just yet another case of government forgetting why it exists - to serve us.
All legitimate power flows from the bottom, up, and politicians which forget this need to be fired & replaced.
>>>suddenly our teacher is apparently standing up in class and saying that drinking is dangerous and causes liver damage
That's not "sudden". Virtually all teachers do exactly that - it's mandated by the law. How long has it been since you were in school? I got that lecture at least once a year from my teachers, and yes it would have seemed contradictory (from the student viewpoint) to visit Miss Apple's webpage and see her drinking only a few hours/days after she told me it's dangerous.
>>>no employer of mine gets the right to tell me where I go on my time off, nor to be told where I actually went.
GRRR.
Yes, well, this is why I'm an engineer that's trusted with a gov't clearance, while you're still just flipping burgers, helping Walmart customers, or whatever non-professional job you hold. I'm willing to take-on the restriction of informing my boss "I'm flying to England next week" and thus I get better pay, greater responsibilities, and a nice office. You on the other hand refuse to do that (because you're stubborn) and thus can't get a decent job. Like teaching.
Who cares? People who know that Jupiter does not have a minus 500 degree Celsius temperature (as JMS claimed in one of the episodes). Not only is that not true, but it's physically impossible for anything to be that cold. Babylon 5's a great show, and in my opinion the best science story ever produced for television, but there's still no excuse for bad science.
Bad science like that "jolts" me out of the story and takes-away the realism, just as surely as if I was watching 24 and Jack Bauer started to cast fireballs.
>>>why waste your time on the critical analysis. Are you bettering society?
Yes. Whenever you point-out, "This could never happen," you improve the general education levels. The American public is already woefully-stupid when it comes to science, so any article that tries to improve knowledge is a good thing. For example - No sounds do not exist in space, even though many think it does. I like one of the comments below the article:
But a "city planet"? Coruscant is the center, capital and most populous planet, we're told. So either there exist vast factories pumping out nitrogen and oxygen, or its life thrives on a hearty stew of carbon dioxide, ozone and heavy metals.
George Lucas stole that idea from Isaac Asimov who created the center of his Galactic Empire as a citywide planet (circa 1935). As Asmiov explained the planet was originally a farming planet just like any other, but as the 20,000 years of the empire's existence continued, it was paved-over with steel and buildings and bureaucracy.
In order to survive, the "cityplanet" relied on imports to bring-in food and water, and also exports to remove waste. Much like how our modern New York City survives. After Asimov's Galactic Empire fell, the ~50 billion people who lived on the center planet literally starved to death, and those who survived removed the steel, crushed the bones for fertilizer, and reverted back to subsistence-level farming.
True, true. For example *this* fanboy can't stand Science stories that have no science. Like Star Wars. It's really just a classic medieval knights-and-dragons-and-ladies fairy tale.
>>>Protecting property is hardly justification for risking someone's life, thief or no thief
With that view we would devolve into an anarchist society, because the thieves know there will be no consequences for their actions. They can just steal cars left-and-right, and the homeowners won't be able to stop them (for fear of being arrested, as happened to my local citizen). Thieves would be the new power while the rest of us cower behind our closed doors. That's anarchy.
BTW it's not "just property":
A car is worth about 20,000 dollars which is around 2000 hours worth of labor on the typical American job. So the thief has stolen a year of somebody's life and/or labor. If an employer made you work for a year, and then withheld paying your salary, I bet you'd bitch about it. But if a thief does the same, steals a year's worth of salary, then it's okay to just let him drive off??? Yeah right.
>>>What if it was your 15 year old kid getting drunk for the first time? How would you feel then?
First-off I wouldn't blame the homeowner, anymore than I'd blame the driver of a car if my kid ran-out in front of said car. It's the kid's fault. He basically committed suicide. Second I'd remind myself my kid's going to die anyway, whether its age 15 or 80..... ALL our children will eventually wind-up dead. Ys even your cute little girl will eventually breath her last breath. It's a basic fact of life. You live; you die.
I'd certainly be sad that he died so young, but I would see him again in the place where no shadows fall, so really it's a temporary loss, not a permanent one.
>>>Go talk to someone who has actually had to take a human life
The point you missed is that a drunken person entering a stranger's house, and getting shot, is committing suicide - just as surely as the DUI driver who runs into my car and dies is committing suicide. I'm sorry but I feel no guilt in either case. You foolishly commit suicidal acts, then the blame is on yourself, not me.
Also:
I think we tend to forget the life is ephemeral. Is it sad when a DUI driver runs into a pole and kills himself, or a drunk teenager commits suicide? Absolutely. But in 100 years we are ALL going to be dead, whether by suicide or by natural causes. We will all be wormfood. So in the grand scheme of the universe - nothing has changed. The DUI driver or suicidal teen simply got to their graves a little faster than the rest of us.
>>>This is a civilized country with civilized rules
Really?
Then how come on of my local citizens, who spied a thief trying to steal his car, and hit said thief over the head with a bat to stop him, was arrested by the policy *on his own property*? Why is the thief now suing the homeowner for medical damages?
This is not a civilized society when thieves are protected while homeowners trying to protect their homes/cars/yards are jailed and later sued. A civilized society doesn't take the view that homeowners should just quietly hide, while the thief drives-off with the car or other personal possessions. That's an anarchist society.
>>>In several states you are limited to "physical force" to deal with a trespasser
Right. And then the criminal sues you because you broke his arm or leg or whatever, as is happening with a local Pennsylvanian who hit a thief with a bat, to stop him from stealing his truck. The police arrested the homeowner, and the criminal is suing for medical expenses.
Us poor citizens just can't win in this damn government. Time to craft a new one IMHO.
"Your meaningless squiggles are my ticket to wealth. I love forging checks and you "squiggle people" make it so easy." - Mr. Scam Artist
I keep my signature as close to the original letters my teacher taught me. Therefore it looks virtually identical to my signature from 20 years ago when I first signed my SSI card. It's also harder to forge since any deviation would be immediately noticeable as "not me".
Your "joined" writing is probably readable, but it's a lot slower because you have to lift your pen off the paper. The reason why "cursive" was invented was so you could write an entire word with a single stroke, which speeds-up the writing process.
BTW:
My handwriting is beautiful. People probably think I'm gay because I write like a girl, but it's how I was taught, and also because I'm still old-fashioned enough to use a pad-and-pen rather than any kind of electronic gadget. The paper is free and ditto the pen, and that's my main motivation - to save money.
Okay, nobody really answered your question about MP3 so I'll give it a try:
- Cellphone voice calls are limited to about 5 kbit/s. - For comparison that's just one-tenth the speed of a dialup modem. In fact it's barely above reading speed (1 kbit/s). - In order to achieve such low bitrate, they use a codec specifically designed for human speech.
Neither MP3 nor AAC nor AAC+SBR, which are designed for general-purpose usage, would produce anything intelligible at such a low rate, so rather than improve quality, you'd actually make it worse. Yes you could expand the bandwidth to 20 kbit/s in which case AAC+SBR would work, but phone companies don't want to do that because they'd then have 1/4th as few calls per tower. They prefer to maintain the current 5 kbit/s rate.
>>>multi-tasking is simply how we have been raised
Studies show human multitasking doesn't work. See my post above. For that matter, see the video of the bus driver who rear-ended a car while he was "multitasking" with his cellphone.
Studies show that the human brain does not multitask. If the brain tries to split itself between two tasks, it will devote 40% to one task, 40% to another task, and 20% wasted on trying to juggle back-and-forth.
The brain is not a CPU.
That said rather than text my pals, I'd rather talk to them. The human voice conveys more information than a bunch of text, and the voicecall is the same cost as text message.
>>>Unless you have a corded telephone you can't really get great sound quality even over a landline. The cordless units these days tend to pick up all kinds of static >>>
Yes which is why I use a corded phone for my phone interviews. What's so difficult about that?
Another compelling reason to keep a landline is because it's the only thing that still works during power outage (thunderstorms, et cetera). Yes even cellphones die, because even though they have batteries, the receiving towers don't work without power. It's nice to have a landed line for backup phone connection during emergencies. You can even use the line for a power source to power a small radio.
Plus the 9/11 emergency in NYC and D.C. demonstrated how cellphones can become worthless when everyone's trying to use them. "Service not available." The only thing that still worked was the landline phones.
And finally, it's good to have a landline for dialup connection as backup in case your Comcast or Verizon monopoly disconnects you or otherwise becomes broken. That's happened to me at least once where the DSLAM died and I was without internet for two weeks. Fortunately I still had my 50k dialup to read email and surf the net.
Bottom line:
I keep my landline. It only costs between 5 and 10 dollars each month - that's cheaper than insurance.
Well first-off that's very unlikely in the case of an international seller. The case typically closes before they can meet the 10-day window of response.
But if it happened the Thailand seller mailed you an empty envelope as "proof" and won the Paypal dispute, you still have recourse. Simply file a credit card dispute that you received a damaged item, and then follow their directions to return it. But instead mail-back an empty box to Thailand for about $15 via International Express.
You'll eventually get back your money as a credit on your card.
To date, no seller has successfully scammed me, although many have tried.
First-off, your VISA card is violating U.S. law because it requires proof the item was delivered to your door, and clearly there's no such proof (no tracking across international borders).
Second this seller is violating ebay rules by claiming an item is in the U.S. when it's actually somewhere else. Report them.
Third, I always look at international sellers as an opportunity to get free stuff:
- Buy-up everything your seller is selling which looks interesting. Make sure it's at least $600 worth of stuff because that's how much you lost. - Stuff arrives at your door. - Wait 40 days - Open paypal dispute for "item not received" - Get refund when seller fails to provide proof-of-delivery - Keep the cool items you acquired from your American... ooops, Thailand seller. Laugh at how you reverse-scammed a scam artist.
Optional: - Sell any of the unwanted goods on ebay and collect the money.
Aside: - Yes two wrongs DO make a right. It's why we commit the "wrong" of putting people in jail and depriving them of their liberty. We call that justice.
Or Discover. I've found they will reverse any charge with few questions asked. Plus they have that cool "cash back" deal. I got back $35 this past month just through paying my usual hotel, electricity, food bills.
>>>$514.00 for initial transaction, +$78.30 to send the item back to Thailand for a grand total of me getting shafted in the amount of $592.30 >>>
Since you received a defective item what you should have done is claim "item not received", which forces the seller in Thailand to provide proof-of-delivery. Since most international sales don't include across-the-ocean tracking, you'd get your money back by default.
If you paid with a credit card, you can still file an "item not received" dispute. It may result in closure of your paypal account but you'll get your money back.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>Why should they require their staff to put up with rude and aggressive asshats
Because that's what they are paid to do. Just the same as when I worked for JCPenney years ago, I was required to put-up with angry customers complaining about broken products, or late fees on credit cards, or whatever. It's called customer service, and you are expected to be patient with the customer, whether he's happy or angry.
Another reason these schedules are not copyrightable is because the MTA is owned by the NY government, and the NY government is owned/funded by the People, therefore the schedules belong to the citizens of New York State. They are free to copy the schedules as often as they desire, especially since they already paid for them via taxation.
This is just yet another case of government forgetting why it exists - to serve us.
All legitimate power flows from the bottom, up, and politicians which forget this need to be fired & replaced.
Oh okay. I was thinking of my former classmates who used ordinary block letters, and then joined them with "legs" rather than use true cursive script.
Here. Obviously this is not my handwriting, but it's the style I was taught and still use today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive
>>>suddenly our teacher is apparently standing up in class and saying that drinking is dangerous and causes liver damage
That's not "sudden". Virtually all teachers do exactly that - it's mandated by the law. How long has it been since you were in school? I got that lecture at least once a year from my teachers, and yes it would have seemed contradictory (from the student viewpoint) to visit Miss Apple's webpage and see her drinking only a few hours/days after she told me it's dangerous.
>>>no employer of mine gets the right to tell me where I go on my time off, nor to be told where I actually went.
GRRR.
Yes, well, this is why I'm an engineer that's trusted with a gov't clearance, while you're still just flipping burgers, helping Walmart customers, or whatever non-professional job you hold. I'm willing to take-on the restriction of informing my boss "I'm flying to England next week" and thus I get better pay, greater responsibilities, and a nice office. You on the other hand refuse to do that (because you're stubborn) and thus can't get a decent job. Like teaching.
>>>There's nothing stopping them from sniping your next transaction
- Blocked bidder list.
- Refusal to ship to any Thailand buyers.
False. I've filed 5 or 6 chargebacks through Discover.
Who cares? People who know that Jupiter does not have a minus 500 degree Celsius temperature (as JMS claimed in one of the episodes). Not only is that not true, but it's physically impossible for anything to be that cold. Babylon 5's a great show, and in my opinion the best science story ever produced for television, but there's still no excuse for bad science.
Bad science like that "jolts" me out of the story and takes-away the realism, just as surely as if I was watching 24 and Jack Bauer started to cast fireballs.
>>>why waste your time on the critical analysis. Are you bettering society?
Yes. Whenever you point-out, "This could never happen," you improve the general education levels. The American public is already woefully-stupid when it comes to science, so any article that tries to improve knowledge is a good thing. For example - No sounds do not exist in space, even though many think it does. I like one of the comments below the article:
But a "city planet"? Coruscant is the center, capital and most populous planet, we're told. So either there exist vast factories pumping out nitrogen and oxygen, or its life thrives on a hearty stew of carbon dioxide, ozone and heavy metals.
George Lucas stole that idea from Isaac Asimov who created the center of his Galactic Empire as a citywide planet (circa 1935). As Asmiov explained the planet was originally a farming planet just like any other, but as the 20,000 years of the empire's existence continued, it was paved-over with steel and buildings and bureaucracy.
In order to survive, the "cityplanet" relied on imports to bring-in food and water, and also exports to remove waste. Much like how our modern New York City survives. After Asimov's Galactic Empire fell, the ~50 billion people who lived on the center planet literally starved to death, and those who survived removed the steel, crushed the bones for fertilizer, and reverted back to subsistence-level farming.
True, true. For example *this* fanboy can't stand Science stories that have no science. Like Star Wars. It's really just a classic medieval knights-and-dragons-and-ladies fairy tale.
>>>Protecting property is hardly justification for risking someone's life, thief or no thief
With that view we would devolve into an anarchist society, because the thieves know there will be no consequences for their actions. They can just steal cars left-and-right, and the homeowners won't be able to stop them (for fear of being arrested, as happened to my local citizen). Thieves would be the new power while the rest of us cower behind our closed doors. That's anarchy.
BTW it's not "just property":
A car is worth about 20,000 dollars which is around 2000 hours worth of labor on the typical American job. So the thief has stolen a year of somebody's life and/or labor. If an employer made you work for a year, and then withheld paying your salary, I bet you'd bitch about it. But if a thief does the same, steals a year's worth of salary, then it's okay to just let him drive off??? Yeah right.
>>>What if it was your 15 year old kid getting drunk for the first time? How would you feel then?
First-off I wouldn't blame the homeowner, anymore than I'd blame the driver of a car if my kid ran-out in front of said car. It's the kid's fault. He basically committed suicide. Second I'd remind myself my kid's going to die anyway, whether its age 15 or 80..... ALL our children will eventually wind-up dead. Ys even your cute little girl will eventually breath her last breath. It's a basic fact of life. You live; you die.
I'd certainly be sad that he died so young, but I would see him again in the place where no shadows fall, so really it's a temporary loss, not a permanent one.
>>>Go talk to someone who has actually had to take a human life
The point you missed is that a drunken person entering a stranger's house, and getting shot, is committing suicide - just as surely as the DUI driver who runs into my car and dies is committing suicide. I'm sorry but I feel no guilt in either case. You foolishly commit suicidal acts, then the blame is on yourself, not me.
Also:
I think we tend to forget the life is ephemeral. Is it sad when a DUI driver runs into a pole and kills himself, or a drunk teenager commits suicide? Absolutely. But in 100 years we are ALL going to be dead, whether by suicide or by natural causes. We will all be wormfood. So in the grand scheme of the universe - nothing has changed. The DUI driver or suicidal teen simply got to their graves a little faster than the rest of us.
>>>This is a civilized country with civilized rules
Really?
Then how come on of my local citizens, who spied a thief trying to steal his car, and hit said thief over the head with a bat to stop him, was arrested by the policy *on his own property*? Why is the thief now suing the homeowner for medical damages?
This is not a civilized society when thieves are protected while homeowners trying to protect their homes/cars/yards are jailed and later sued. A civilized society doesn't take the view that homeowners should just quietly hide, while the thief drives-off with the car or other personal possessions. That's an anarchist society.
>>>In several states you are limited to "physical force" to deal with a trespasser
Right. And then the criminal sues you because you broke his arm or leg or whatever, as is happening with a local Pennsylvanian who hit a thief with a bat, to stop him from stealing his truck. The police arrested the homeowner, and the criminal is suing for medical expenses.
Us poor citizens just can't win in this damn government. Time to craft a new one IMHO.
"Your meaningless squiggles are my ticket to wealth. I love forging checks and you "squiggle people" make it so easy." - Mr. Scam Artist
I keep my signature as close to the original letters my teacher taught me. Therefore it looks virtually identical to my signature from 20 years ago when I first signed my SSI card. It's also harder to forge since any deviation would be immediately noticeable as "not me".
Your "joined" writing is probably readable, but it's a lot slower because you have to lift your pen off the paper. The reason why "cursive" was invented was so you could write an entire word with a single stroke, which speeds-up the writing process.
BTW:
My handwriting is beautiful. People probably think I'm gay because I write like a girl, but it's how I was taught, and also because I'm still old-fashioned enough to use a pad-and-pen rather than any kind of electronic gadget. The paper is free and ditto the pen, and that's my main motivation - to save money.
Okay, nobody really answered your question about MP3 so I'll give it a try:
- Cellphone voice calls are limited to about 5 kbit/s.
- For comparison that's just one-tenth the speed of a dialup modem. In fact it's barely above reading speed (1 kbit/s).
- In order to achieve such low bitrate, they use a codec specifically designed for human speech.
Neither MP3 nor AAC nor AAC+SBR, which are designed for general-purpose usage, would produce anything intelligible at such a low rate, so rather than improve quality, you'd actually make it worse. Yes you could expand the bandwidth to 20 kbit/s in which case AAC+SBR would work, but phone companies don't want to do that because they'd then have 1/4th as few calls per tower. They prefer to maintain the current 5 kbit/s rate.
>>>multi-tasking is simply how we have been raised
Studies show human multitasking doesn't work. See my post above. For that matter, see the video of the bus driver who rear-ended a car while he was "multitasking" with his cellphone.
Studies show that the human brain does not multitask. If the brain tries to split itself between two tasks, it will devote 40% to one task, 40% to another task, and 20% wasted on trying to juggle back-and-forth.
The brain is not a CPU.
That said rather than text my pals, I'd rather talk to them. The human voice conveys more information than a bunch of text, and the voicecall is the same cost as text message.
>>>Unless you have a corded telephone you can't really get great sound quality even over a landline. The cordless units these days tend to pick up all kinds of static
>>>
Yes which is why I use a corded phone for my phone interviews. What's so difficult about that?
Another compelling reason to keep a landline is because it's the only thing that still works during power outage (thunderstorms, et cetera). Yes even cellphones die, because even though they have batteries, the receiving towers don't work without power. It's nice to have a landed line for backup phone connection during emergencies. You can even use the line for a power source to power a small radio.
Plus the 9/11 emergency in NYC and D.C. demonstrated how cellphones can become worthless when everyone's trying to use them. "Service not available." The only thing that still worked was the landline phones.
And finally, it's good to have a landline for dialup connection as backup in case your Comcast or Verizon monopoly disconnects you or otherwise becomes broken. That's happened to me at least once where the DSLAM died and I was without internet for two weeks. Fortunately I still had my 50k dialup to read email and surf the net.
Bottom line:
I keep my landline. It only costs between 5 and 10 dollars each month - that's cheaper than insurance.
Well first-off that's very unlikely in the case of an international seller. The case typically closes before they can meet the 10-day window of response.
But if it happened the Thailand seller mailed you an empty envelope as "proof" and won the Paypal dispute, you still have recourse. Simply file a credit card dispute that you received a damaged item, and then follow their directions to return it. But instead mail-back an empty box to Thailand for about $15 via International Express.
You'll eventually get back your money as a credit on your card.
To date, no seller has successfully scammed me, although many have tried.
First-off, your VISA card is violating U.S. law because it requires proof the item was delivered to your door, and clearly there's no such proof (no tracking across international borders).
Second this seller is violating ebay rules by claiming an item is in the U.S. when it's actually somewhere else. Report them.
Third, I always look at international sellers as an opportunity to get free stuff:
- Buy-up everything your seller is selling which looks interesting. Make sure it's at least $600 worth of stuff because that's how much you lost.
- Stuff arrives at your door.
- Wait 40 days
- Open paypal dispute for "item not received"
- Get refund when seller fails to provide proof-of-delivery
- Keep the cool items you acquired from your American... ooops, Thailand seller. Laugh at how you reverse-scammed a scam artist.
Optional:
- Sell any of the unwanted goods on ebay and collect the money.
Aside:
- Yes two wrongs DO make a right. It's why we commit the "wrong" of putting people in jail and depriving them of their liberty. We call that justice.
Or Discover. I've found they will reverse any charge with few questions asked. Plus they have that cool "cash back" deal. I got back $35 this past month just through paying my usual hotel, electricity, food bills.
>>>$514.00 for initial transaction, +$78.30 to send the item back to Thailand for a grand total of me getting shafted in the amount of $592.30
>>>
Since you received a defective item what you should have done is claim "item not received", which forces the seller in Thailand to provide proof-of-delivery. Since most international sales don't include across-the-ocean tracking, you'd get your money back by default.
If you paid with a credit card, you can still file an "item not received" dispute. It may result in closure of your paypal account but you'll get your money back.