Same age. Mine just had normal school cafeteria lunch but we all paid in cash. $1.75 each day unless you got something from the a la carte line. Issuing PINs and tracking the students is ridiculous.
Most people can handle it fine, just like most people can handle walking around without an iPod with no problems. Some people can't be bothered to watch out for their own safety (you can see this occur even without iPod involvement), these people will sometimes get hit when the timing is particularly poor. Quite frankly, if someone isn't willing to pay a small bit of attention to their own safety there's nothing to be done there, one way or another they're on their way to a Darwin award.
Here in the US the loans work a little differently. You can get some lower rate loans from the federal government if you qualify but you will likely still need private loans as well. Even the federal loans are variable rate now (I believe mine are at ~6% and my private ones at ~8%), you have a certain amount of time after graduation before you have to start paying them back but there is no clause that delays repayment until you are making X amount per year. For those unfortunate ones who end up way over their heads with no job or a very low paying job and no way to pay off the loans student loans are nearly impossible to have forgiven in a bankruptcy.
For a little perspective I attended a well-respected science/engineering school (RPI). I managed to land a very generous scholarship and I had a bit of help from my parents paying for tuition. I still graduated with ~$60,000 in debt, some of my friends graduated with $200,000 in debt or more and the college was still raising their tuition last I checked (seems to be a trend among many schools).
With tuition costs rising around the nation and employers wanting college degrees for more and more categories of jobs it seems like a catch-22 for students looking at college right now. When jobs that don't pay enough to pay off the loans required for college require a college degree to get the job I don't see a stable situation long term.
For your situation I would personally stick to internal combustion right now and wait till electric cars have been proven in those conditions. When getting stranded can result in the loss of your life you don't want to be the guinea pig for something new.
If this guy wins I will consider our legal system to have failed completely. Is it too much to ask for people to have even a shred of responsibility for their own actions nowadays?
I'll admit I did not RTFA as closely as I should have. I assumed leap seconds were calculated in much the same manner as leap years, arbitrarily declaring them is considerably harder to deal with.
At some point scientists will hopefully have enough data and computing power to model the changes and come up with an algorithm allowing the calculation of leap seconds much like there exists such an algorithm for leap years. Under the current system manual input will be required to handle leap seconds in software (yes I'm aware that leads to whole new bundles of possible problems, certainly not an ideal solution).
Flight industry and safety equipment also goes through very stringent testing. If the capability to handle leap seconds isn't included in their battery of tests then they have a hole in their testing procedure.
The ambulance ride is insanely expensive. I make every effort to drive myself to the hospital (if possible and safe to do) or get someone I know / taxi etc... to drive me there before I will consider an ambulance. Now if I'm in danger of dying that's another story of course.
Technically if the AT&T contract you signed when you got that iPhone listed jailbreaking the phone as an unauthorized use they could make the argument that upon jailbreaking you were an unauthorized user. Whether they would try something that stupid or whether it would hold up in court is another matter entirely.
Considering Nokia offers a completely open phone in the N900 and HTC has been supportive of the custom ROM community the only one I'd be worried about doing that in the first place is Motorola.
Oddly enough if you tell them you've installed Linux on it they void your warranty, at least on the netbooks. So they may not go to the extreme you use as an example but they're further in that direction than most probably think.
Sometimes it's not workable even if they might get the money spent back eventually. There is a small cafe near me that has no tables inside, not because they don't want them but because if they put in tables they would be legally required to convert the cafe to be handicap-accessible. It's not that they don't want to make it accessible, they simply cannot afford the initial cost to do so. Substantial work would have to be done and while their revenue is enough to support the cafe it can't support the needed work.
Having both an Xbox 360 and a PS3 I still choose to pay the ~$30 a year for LIVE (if you're paying more keep an eye on the bargain sites for a 1 year card) over the free online found on the PS3. I tried both and found that overall Live was a better experience. If someone doesn't like it then they shouldn't use it but no reason to trash on it. Microsoft does try to bring exclusives to the service as well, there was a period of time where netflix streaming in HD was only available on the 360 through LIVE and they are rolling out ESPN soon (sadly the NFL won't allow their games to be watched through it).
Why not just play all my games on PC? Well I have two "crowds" of friends I play games online with, mostly split between 360 and PC with a few who use both. In addition I feel certain types of games work better on a tv with a controller while others work better on a PC with mouse and keyboard (or joystick).
Finally gave in and put an 80GB X-25M in my desktop as an OS drive. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes overall, everything just feels much more responsive now, some games actually saw a huge difference. WoW loading times went from annoying to practically nonexistent, if I had to make the decision again I would buy the 160GB model instead.
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Same age. Mine just had normal school cafeteria lunch but we all paid in cash. $1.75 each day unless you got something from the a la carte line. Issuing PINs and tracking the students is ridiculous.
Don't know about India, but in the US most of us consider due process pretty damned important.
Not the RIAA and MPAA apparently.
One of the main reasons why they don't get my money.
Most people can handle it fine, just like most people can handle walking around without an iPod with no problems. Some people can't be bothered to watch out for their own safety (you can see this occur even without iPod involvement), these people will sometimes get hit when the timing is particularly poor. Quite frankly, if someone isn't willing to pay a small bit of attention to their own safety there's nothing to be done there, one way or another they're on their way to a Darwin award.
or paint with your menstrual blood...
Wow... you might want to seek professional help.
The ones who graduated with that much changed their majors (resulting in at least an extra year), it's not very uncommon to do so.
At my school that classroom was also used by one of the clubs as a movie theater.
Here in the US the loans work a little differently. You can get some lower rate loans from the federal government if you qualify but you will likely still need private loans as well. Even the federal loans are variable rate now (I believe mine are at ~6% and my private ones at ~8%), you have a certain amount of time after graduation before you have to start paying them back but there is no clause that delays repayment until you are making X amount per year. For those unfortunate ones who end up way over their heads with no job or a very low paying job and no way to pay off the loans student loans are nearly impossible to have forgiven in a bankruptcy.
For a little perspective I attended a well-respected science/engineering school (RPI). I managed to land a very generous scholarship and I had a bit of help from my parents paying for tuition. I still graduated with ~$60,000 in debt, some of my friends graduated with $200,000 in debt or more and the college was still raising their tuition last I checked (seems to be a trend among many schools).
With tuition costs rising around the nation and employers wanting college degrees for more and more categories of jobs it seems like a catch-22 for students looking at college right now. When jobs that don't pay enough to pay off the loans required for college require a college degree to get the job I don't see a stable situation long term.
For your situation I would personally stick to internal combustion right now and wait till electric cars have been proven in those conditions. When getting stranded can result in the loss of your life you don't want to be the guinea pig for something new.
Iran could be taken in a very short time. Civilian casualties would be very high though so I will agree it won't happen without problems.
I would have bought the whole Mythbusters Bluray box set just to see that! (Not that I wouldn't enjoy the box set anyway.)
I wonder if the planet can be "saved" merely by accepting Al Gore as its Lord and Savior.
He has ridden the mighty moon worm...
If this guy wins I will consider our legal system to have failed completely. Is it too much to ask for people to have even a shred of responsibility for their own actions nowadays?
Apple: "Marines! surrender!"
Marines: "WTF??? NEVER!!"
Apple: "In 10 minutes we'll start bricking your iphones one by one if you don't!"
Marines: "You do realize we can flatten your headquarters in minutes?"
Apple: "Touchè"
FTFY
I'll admit I did not RTFA as closely as I should have. I assumed leap seconds were calculated in much the same manner as leap years, arbitrarily declaring them is considerably harder to deal with.
At some point scientists will hopefully have enough data and computing power to model the changes and come up with an algorithm allowing the calculation of leap seconds much like there exists such an algorithm for leap years. Under the current system manual input will be required to handle leap seconds in software (yes I'm aware that leads to whole new bundles of possible problems, certainly not an ideal solution).
Flight industry and safety equipment also goes through very stringent testing. If the capability to handle leap seconds isn't included in their battery of tests then they have a hole in their testing procedure.
The sad thing here is I read and understood that sentence on the first try...
The ambulance ride is insanely expensive. I make every effort to drive myself to the hospital (if possible and safe to do) or get someone I know / taxi etc... to drive me there before I will consider an ambulance. Now if I'm in danger of dying that's another story of course.
Technically if the AT&T contract you signed when you got that iPhone listed jailbreaking the phone as an unauthorized use they could make the argument that upon jailbreaking you were an unauthorized user. Whether they would try something that stupid or whether it would hold up in court is another matter entirely.
Considering Nokia offers a completely open phone in the N900 and HTC has been supportive of the custom ROM community the only one I'd be worried about doing that in the first place is Motorola.
Better yet there could be an optional install so those who want it can get it and those who would prefer their privacy don't have it forced on them.
Better hope he doesn't patent it!
Oddly enough if you tell them you've installed Linux on it they void your warranty, at least on the netbooks. So they may not go to the extreme you use as an example but they're further in that direction than most probably think.
Sometimes it's not workable even if they might get the money spent back eventually. There is a small cafe near me that has no tables inside, not because they don't want them but because if they put in tables they would be legally required to convert the cafe to be handicap-accessible. It's not that they don't want to make it accessible, they simply cannot afford the initial cost to do so. Substantial work would have to be done and while their revenue is enough to support the cafe it can't support the needed work.
Having both an Xbox 360 and a PS3 I still choose to pay the ~$30 a year for LIVE (if you're paying more keep an eye on the bargain sites for a 1 year card) over the free online found on the PS3. I tried both and found that overall Live was a better experience. If someone doesn't like it then they shouldn't use it but no reason to trash on it. Microsoft does try to bring exclusives to the service as well, there was a period of time where netflix streaming in HD was only available on the 360 through LIVE and they are rolling out ESPN soon (sadly the NFL won't allow their games to be watched through it).
Why not just play all my games on PC? Well I have two "crowds" of friends I play games online with, mostly split between 360 and PC with a few who use both. In addition I feel certain types of games work better on a tv with a controller while others work better on a PC with mouse and keyboard (or joystick).
Finally gave in and put an 80GB X-25M in my desktop as an OS drive. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes overall, everything just feels much more responsive now, some games actually saw a huge difference. WoW loading times went from annoying to practically nonexistent, if I had to make the decision again I would buy the 160GB model instead.