#5: It's called a Chevy Volt.
Seriously though, you raise some good points. Unfortunately, none of them are very practical for someone with a 1+ hour commute each way every day, including a lot of 2-lane state highways. Not really your average Joe, I suppose, but a LOT of people who live in my state (myself included, for reasons I won't go into here) have to commute 150+ miles a day.
First off, it was a joke.
That having been said, I (and several friends and family members) have been harassed by police mercilessly at times. I've had friends who were Sheriff's Dept, and will testify that some are great guys -- but I have never met a city or sate police officer who was even courteous. Oh, except for one, who (after giving me a ticket for not slowing down quickly enough coming into his town of 500 people) said "Thanks, have a great day!" in a snarky voice.
I have a clean police record (except for breaking curfew when 13, and minor traffic violations), don't have an offensive bumper sticker or anything, wasn't a partier or any nonsense like that (c'mon, I'm on Slashdot), yet at one point, I was pulled over by police 8 times in two months, and given a ticket every time for one thing or another, including a failed headlight at 1am (even though we lived in a small town, where no stores were open at that time, and it had just failed that night -- I worked a night shift, and was on my way home), and a $400 ticket for not having insurance, because I couldn't find the slip fast enough (the cop gave me less than a minute to find it -- and the EXACT SAME OFFICER had pulled me over a week or so previous, so he knew I had insurance). I've been accused of being drunk more than once while on my way home from work, simply because it was 1am and I was a 20-something guy in a car alone.
And my bad experiences don't just extend to traffic incidents. I was walking in the park one day when I saw a cash box laying in the edge of the lake, so I called the police to report it. Before calling them, I walked over to it (didn't touch anything), to make sure it really was a cash box, not a tackle box or something. When they showed up, they accused me of being involved in the theft, then once I had convinced them that I wasn't, I was severely chewed out for the fact I had left footprints near the scene ('disturbed the evidence', even though I stayed about 10 feet away).
Oh, and another time, I was given a $45 ticket for 'uncertainty' (can you believe that's a crime!?!? I don't recall what the 'actual crime' was, but that's why the cop told me he was giving me the ticket.) because I went about 35 in a 45mph construction zone while in Denver, CO, while trying to get to my hotel. At the time, the city traffic made me nervous, as I had only driven in small towns.
So yeah, I think I'm justified in my distrust of the police.
The bigger concern than weight is recharging. No matter how far a battery pack will get you, you're eventually going to have to refill, and if that takes more than 10 or 20 minutes, the vehicle is no longer practical for long trips.
Problem is, you do anything you agreed not to do -- whether they had any right to ask for it or not -- and you are under breach of contract. They won't sue you for copy/patent/IP infringement, they'll sue you for breach of contract.
I actually don't fix anything with a CRT in it. Parts are too hard to get and expensive... unlike modern TVs, they don't have failed capacitors and diodes, they have failed CRT tubes and condensers.
The auto makers and land developers in collusion? That's a conspiracy theory for the books.
I live in a town of 8K people. The nearest true department store (Walmart) is 40 miles away. There are 4 towns smaller than us between here and there. The average person here cannot afford a new vehicle (I have an '05 car and an '87 truck, and I'm pretty average for around here), so the automakers definitely aren't benefiting from us. Our town was founded in 1911, and the other towns nearby were founded at similar times. I'm pretty sure there's no way for us to *not* have to drive 40 miles to get supplies, unless our city grows enough to support a Walmart by itself, or everyone moves away (not likely, since we're a farming community -- hard to take your farm/cattle with you to the city.)
Furthermore, I repair TVs and PCs for a living, and a lot of it is in-home repair. I don't encroach on the territory of my competition, yet I have an area that I have to cover that's 600 miles in diameter. I have no choice except to pay through the nose for fuel. Oh, and electric cars & hybrids wouldn't cut it for me, since most of my driving is highway, 200+ miles/day. And for the Greeners out there: if I charge any more for my services, people will just throw away their TV and buy a new one instead of getting it repaired. Is that very environmentally friendly?
I think using this for driving while texting would be counterintuitive for two reasons: First, it takes both hands. Swype only takes one. Second, the average person who knows braille probably doesn't do too much driving in the first place. If they did, I think texting would be the least of our worries.
I should point out that my 'blind texting' isn't so much for when I'm driving, but more simply because I feel like I've lost a few IQ points having to stare at the keyboard. I haven't had to look at my laptop keyboard for the better part of a decade -- why on earth should I need to look at my phone to type there?
This would be great for me, if only I knew braille. I would love to be able to text on my smartphone without looking -- that's the biggest regret I have for switching away from my old clamshell. I could text about 50wpm without looking on that thing. Swype is okay, but it's rather difficult without looking.
Being a former manager for Office Depot, let me explain their tech side. They make no money on tech. At all. They bring people in for the tech items, then make money by convincing them that they also need a package of pens or some stationary. It was never about tech -- tech just brought the people in. The markup on tech was typically 0-15%. The markup on 'supplies' (i.e. everything else, including furniture) was 50-95%. Copy center was the biggest cash cow, with a minimum 75% markup on everything.
I would disagree with the statement that they're there to protect property. They're there to put notches in their collective belts. Surely you've seen those 'real life' cop TV shows where they're detaining car thieves on the highway by taking out the car. The car is totaled every time. That's not protecting property. And what about 'evidence'? It's police property. The rightful owner rarely, if ever, gets it back. Typically it sits in storage until they decide to auction it off.
I was homeschooled K-12, and when I was entering 10th grade, we went to a computer sale held by our local high school. They were selling all of the computers that had just been replaced with iMacs. The apples were all Apple II's & Lisa's. There was one Macintosh 128k that had like $250 on it (they obviously thought it was the best thing there). The PCs (there were only a few) had 286s. I'm only in my 20s.
That having been said, one of the three reasons my parents homeschooled my sister and I is because of the idiotic grading system. At the time, we lived in Washington (State), and the local school made the papers for actually writing the test answers onto the chalkboard/whiteboard/whatever during the exams. Everyone always got A's there. In fact, when the school graduation issue released in the paper, they printed their GPA along with their name, photo, et al. The worst GPA was a 3.6, and over half the class were 4.0's.
Btw, my dad was an editor for the local paper at the time, hence we always had the inside scoop on the goings-on. About 4 years later, we moved to Wyoming because of the high crime rate. The papers here don't publish student GPAs, so I have no point of reference for whether our schools are better or worse, but at least my dad hasn't done a writeup on teachers cheating for their students.
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#5: It's called a Chevy Volt.
Seriously though, you raise some good points. Unfortunately, none of them are very practical for someone with a 1+ hour commute each way every day, including a lot of 2-lane state highways. Not really your average Joe, I suppose, but a LOT of people who live in my state (myself included, for reasons I won't go into here) have to commute 150+ miles a day.
First off, it was a joke.
That having been said, I (and several friends and family members) have been harassed by police mercilessly at times. I've had friends who were Sheriff's Dept, and will testify that some are great guys -- but I have never met a city or sate police officer who was even courteous. Oh, except for one, who (after giving me a ticket for not slowing down quickly enough coming into his town of 500 people) said "Thanks, have a great day!" in a snarky voice.
I have a clean police record (except for breaking curfew when 13, and minor traffic violations), don't have an offensive bumper sticker or anything, wasn't a partier or any nonsense like that (c'mon, I'm on Slashdot), yet at one point, I was pulled over by police 8 times in two months, and given a ticket every time for one thing or another, including a failed headlight at 1am (even though we lived in a small town, where no stores were open at that time, and it had just failed that night -- I worked a night shift, and was on my way home), and a $400 ticket for not having insurance, because I couldn't find the slip fast enough (the cop gave me less than a minute to find it -- and the EXACT SAME OFFICER had pulled me over a week or so previous, so he knew I had insurance). I've been accused of being drunk more than once while on my way home from work, simply because it was 1am and I was a 20-something guy in a car alone.
And my bad experiences don't just extend to traffic incidents. I was walking in the park one day when I saw a cash box laying in the edge of the lake, so I called the police to report it. Before calling them, I walked over to it (didn't touch anything), to make sure it really was a cash box, not a tackle box or something. When they showed up, they accused me of being involved in the theft, then once I had convinced them that I wasn't, I was severely chewed out for the fact I had left footprints near the scene ('disturbed the evidence', even though I stayed about 10 feet away).
Oh, and another time, I was given a $45 ticket for 'uncertainty' (can you believe that's a crime!?!? I don't recall what the 'actual crime' was, but that's why the cop told me he was giving me the ticket.) because I went about 35 in a 45mph construction zone while in Denver, CO, while trying to get to my hotel. At the time, the city traffic made me nervous, as I had only driven in small towns.
So yeah, I think I'm justified in my distrust of the police.
And what's up with your wife -- ten percent of the time she solves problems by lighting things on fire? Really?
Kinda a side topic, but hey, sounds like his wife has the right idea. When all else fails, light something on fire.
The bigger concern than weight is recharging. No matter how far a battery pack will get you, you're eventually going to have to refill, and if that takes more than 10 or 20 minutes, the vehicle is no longer practical for long trips.
Not all police are bad, it's just that 95% are giving the other 5% a bad name.
Problem is, you do anything you agreed not to do -- whether they had any right to ask for it or not -- and you are under breach of contract. They won't sue you for copy/patent/IP infringement, they'll sue you for breach of contract.
This comment should be an article published somewhere (I dunno, National Geographic or something). Very well written and very informative.
I think he's the real life version of Gaius Baltar. Do whatever will get you popular and get you women.
You know, as long as The Elders of The Internet will approve.
I actually don't fix anything with a CRT in it. Parts are too hard to get and expensive... unlike modern TVs, they don't have failed capacitors and diodes, they have failed CRT tubes and condensers.
Nope, they had to travel further and do with less. Which only bolsters my point. Travel is not optional, nor has it ever been.
The auto makers and land developers in collusion? That's a conspiracy theory for the books.
I live in a town of 8K people. The nearest true department store (Walmart) is 40 miles away. There are 4 towns smaller than us between here and there. The average person here cannot afford a new vehicle (I have an '05 car and an '87 truck, and I'm pretty average for around here), so the automakers definitely aren't benefiting from us. Our town was founded in 1911, and the other towns nearby were founded at similar times. I'm pretty sure there's no way for us to *not* have to drive 40 miles to get supplies, unless our city grows enough to support a Walmart by itself, or everyone moves away (not likely, since we're a farming community -- hard to take your farm/cattle with you to the city.)
Furthermore, I repair TVs and PCs for a living, and a lot of it is in-home repair. I don't encroach on the territory of my competition, yet I have an area that I have to cover that's 600 miles in diameter. I have no choice except to pay through the nose for fuel. Oh, and electric cars & hybrids wouldn't cut it for me, since most of my driving is highway, 200+ miles/day. And for the Greeners out there: if I charge any more for my services, people will just throw away their TV and buy a new one instead of getting it repaired. Is that very environmentally friendly?
Hey, at least it isn't a windows cursor.
That would just be so wrong.
In order for it to be a plausible experiment, doesn't the subject need to have a heart to begin with?
That, my friend, is brilliant. You finally gave me an excuse to learn Morse. And here I thought raw binary communication was was outdated.
I think using this for driving while texting would be counterintuitive for two reasons: First, it takes both hands. Swype only takes one. Second, the average person who knows braille probably doesn't do too much driving in the first place. If they did, I think texting would be the least of our worries.
I should point out that my 'blind texting' isn't so much for when I'm driving, but more simply because I feel like I've lost a few IQ points having to stare at the keyboard. I haven't had to look at my laptop keyboard for the better part of a decade -- why on earth should I need to look at my phone to type there?
This would be great for me, if only I knew braille. I would love to be able to text on my smartphone without looking -- that's the biggest regret I have for switching away from my old clamshell. I could text about 50wpm without looking on that thing. Swype is okay, but it's rather difficult without looking.
I'm not sure why, but in my head, this whole post was read in Colonel Tigh's voice.
It's as the bad proposal similar to evil poker.
That, my friend, is the quote of the day.
I know this is beside the point, but since when was Borders a 'tech store'?
Being a former manager for Office Depot, let me explain their tech side. They make no money on tech. At all. They bring people in for the tech items, then make money by convincing them that they also need a package of pens or some stationary. It was never about tech -- tech just brought the people in. The markup on tech was typically 0-15%. The markup on 'supplies' (i.e. everything else, including furniture) was 50-95%. Copy center was the biggest cash cow, with a minimum 75% markup on everything.
I would disagree with the statement that they're there to protect property. They're there to put notches in their collective belts. Surely you've seen those 'real life' cop TV shows where they're detaining car thieves on the highway by taking out the car. The car is totaled every time. That's not protecting property. And what about 'evidence'? It's police property. The rightful owner rarely, if ever, gets it back. Typically it sits in storage until they decide to auction it off.
Have you ever tried soldering aluminum (foil)?
I was homeschooled K-12, and when I was entering 10th grade, we went to a computer sale held by our local high school. They were selling all of the computers that had just been replaced with iMacs. The apples were all Apple II's & Lisa's. There was one Macintosh 128k that had like $250 on it (they obviously thought it was the best thing there). The PCs (there were only a few) had 286s. I'm only in my 20s.
That having been said, one of the three reasons my parents homeschooled my sister and I is because of the idiotic grading system. At the time, we lived in Washington (State), and the local school made the papers for actually writing the test answers onto the chalkboard/whiteboard/whatever during the exams. Everyone always got A's there. In fact, when the school graduation issue released in the paper, they printed their GPA along with their name, photo, et al. The worst GPA was a 3.6, and over half the class were 4.0's.
Btw, my dad was an editor for the local paper at the time, hence we always had the inside scoop on the goings-on. About 4 years later, we moved to Wyoming because of the high crime rate. The papers here don't publish student GPAs, so I have no point of reference for whether our schools are better or worse, but at least my dad hasn't done a writeup on teachers cheating for their students.