If you think that is excessive, I was in Seattle a few years ago and and old man was hit by a car when the light turned green while he was still crossing the street. Thankfully he survived the accident, but the police came to the hospital the next day and wrote him a jaywalking ticket. The reckless driver got off without so much as a ticket.
Actually I thought that was the point of a jaywalking ticket... to ticket those pedestrians who were involved in accidents where it was clearly ntheir fault. I agree this was bogus, but would be more than happy to tell it to the judge.
What you describe is perfectly normal. I know of a friend who had to top on the highway because there were a large readerboard sign blocking the road that said "errect penis" and got hit by a large truck. He got a ticket for being illegaly parked, as both the sign and half his car were gone. Had a hard time telling it to the judge as he was just hit at 85mph + and didn't exactly have a car.
These tickets which are bullshit are used a evidence in accidents in situations where blame need to be assigned.
Having a huge truck or SUV bearing down on you can be somewhat intimidating, but just because they WANT to go faster, and act like they won't stop for your little car, doesn't mean they won't. Maybe I have nerves of steel, or perhaps I'm just numb anymore, but I maintain my speed and people like this simply don't bother me
It bothers me when they hit me as they have. I remember west virginia one of the most horrible experences was a large mac truck who thought it was a good idea to tag my bumper all the way up a hill... and what was sad was this was going uphill. Black as night road, unfamilar surroundings, and mac truck with high beams from hell on my arse.
It also bothers me the SUVs and trucks that have hit my car when I was going pretty darn close to the speed limit. The stupid people "I didn't see you" or "why were you going so slow" when I was going 5 over.
I agree with you slower traffic should keep right... just here in Washington no one seems to agree with me... and the super fast traffic prefers the right lane. I made a choice to go center lane with the flow of traffic... less accidents for me anyway.
I'm genuinely curious when you think it would be appropreate not to wear your safety belt.
In the early 90s IIRC there were some cars that employed the use of passive restraints by taking the seat belt and bolting it to the door. In accidents that caused the door to fly open, the occupent would be pushed outwards. These were pretty unsafe and I've not seen a car with such a simple system in a decade.
They have the ability to shift into low gears as well (for example, they go something like "P R N D 2 1"), but it's much more of a pain to do so because people driving automatics aren't used to it and it's harder to get exactly the gear you want (because they are linear instead of an H pattern).
My limited experence with automatics has been you can *sort-of* down shift at times. Sometimes you coast, sometimes you downshift. My old 1984 Tercel for example was a 3 speed auto and I would "try" to downshift to 2... and it would stay in 3 and coast.
Newer cards that offer 4 speed with an over drive often have a button control marked "overdrive". I know people who think using the "overdrive" is a bad idea and never turn it on. Others have no idea what it's for and never use it. From time to time I drive a Camry auto and I try to do the safe thing on large hills and downshift to 3 by using the overdrive button... and it doesn't do jack squat.
I was under the impression that you could only burn out a clutch when it was partially engaged (i.e. when the clutch and flywheel are turning at different speeds).
Assuming you have a perfect clutch, a perfect release plate... smooth perfect flywheel and a bell housing that is 100% free of oil and brake (ok clutch) dust... you would be mostly correct. Keep in mind that the normal operational range of a clutch is there and abouts of 50,000 miles, perhaps 75,000.
Keep in mind the fact that there is a large difference in force between gravity dragging you down hill and your engine doing the heavy work of keeping you at a slowish speed... you're going to get some slipping there. This is harder to notice on FWD autos but those rear wheel drives you can feel heat, serious heat between the passanger and drive along the bump.
Inside that bell housing for any transmission that has done any sort of work in it's life is going to be a mix of some oil contamination and a huge amount of dust that hopefully mixes with the oil and gets flung to the bell housing walls. This is under ideal condtions. Reality is a dusty dirty eniroment with no real way to tell how much meat is left on your cutch without pulling the tranny let alone the condition of your flywheel or release plate.
The point is... causing your clutch to do more work does result in it faiding faster esp when there is a bug difference between the speed the engine wants to go attached to the flywheel and the wpeed that the input shaft is turning the clutch.
It's best to distribute the work among all the parts as possible. You enjoy longer life and lower the risk of one getting too hot and burning out. This is esp true now we no longer can use asbestos for brake and clutch parts. Unfortunatly FWD cars you don't notice the huge amount of heat generated by the flywheel/clutch/release plate. Feeling warmth on the thigh was the perfect meter to tell you you're causing that part too much work.
Personally, I just put those glass frames that make my license plate unreadable except from direct frontal view, and stay frosty.
I would imagine those are illegal for obvious reasons. At least here in WA (USA) I mostly get pulled over for my license plate light going out... so I can only imagine what a cop would do if he caught me with one of those polorizing pieces of plastic that are designed to obscure my plate number. For a time I could buy one at my local auto parts store, but I doubt they are still sold for obvious reasons... esp when they showed clearly on the box "to avoid camera traps".
While I'm not a fan of speed cameras, i'm pro getting the cops out from behind the radar guns. This isn't about saftey in most cases but generating a random roadtax, and a machine can do that. In exchange i'd gladly accept the cameras so long as they ticked above and beyond a certain speed like 10mph or so... a reasonable margin for error. Police should use their own judgement in serving the public and not be bound to a quota.
Well, I've made only good experience with the police in WA. When I visited Seattle in 2003, I was stopped when biking without helmet (I'm a foreigner and didn't know that you have to wear one)
There was a case some time back where police stopped a bunch of asian students in seattle for about an hour or so, called out a few cars, pretty much did the whole 9 yards because of a jay-walking infraction. I have to admit Seattle is the only city, the abosultly only city where i've seen jay-walking enforced.
IMHO they were probally "trying" to be nice and trying to warn people who they thought were from out of town about the local laws... but the way they went about it was totally excessive. One guy was reported to getting a jay walking ticket when he felt they were being harrassed for being asian.. which considering how many times they asked "do you speak english"... they probally were being stopped for being asian. Hopefully the cops involved "learned" something... like if your going to just give a warning don't drag 7 other cops into the mess to search a bunch of kids who were going nothing else but crossing the street esp if the reason for stopping them is they looked like they were from out of town and didn't know the law.
But what really makes me laugh is the places were pedestrians get hit most are on cross walks, esp traffic controled cross walks.
I have a pysics teacher (also in WA) that drives as fast as he wants. Then when he goes to court for the speeding tickets he dazzles the judge with science and calculus until the ticket gets dropped..
The funny thing is it's possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the fact that the speed of a radar or laser ticket is inaccurate within a wide margin of error depnding on where you were when you were scanned vs where the speedgun was. The problem is any calcuation to this effect would also prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were in reality going faster.
Correction, the parent clearly was talking about American WA. not Oz W.A. Not my bad, anony-coward bad.
Come to think about it.. Washington also confuses people, esp in Seattle with Capital Hill. They wanted to name the state Columbia at some point... but it might have confused people with Washington D.C. (District of Columbia), so they decided to go with a name that would definatly confuse people.
Point is... place names that are the same will confuse people regardless of whether they know world geography or not.
WA == Western Australia, not Washington America, meet rest-of-world....
While it's my bad.. they both share the same letters Good rule of thumb... spell out an acronym or expand and abbrivation when dealing with a global site so others don't get confused:P
WA refers to two places on planet earth... best to denote Western Oz as W.A. and Washington as WA. because as you said... meet the rest-of-world.
No, you were a dumb ass because you rode your brake instead of downshifting (as well as using "your" instead of "you're").
Point two is correct... in this case I'm a dumb ass. You get to wear the observant hat. woot woot.
Point one... you loose the observant hat as I was refering to some other dumb ass. I don't know how it trully works in automatics as I own a manual for a good reason. But when "I" take my foot off the gas I coast, or if I take my foot off the gas and downshift, my engine revs a little and I coast. Perhaps oneone else with an automatic can share their experence.
But this is neither here nor there. The best way to go down a mountain is to not brake continualy, and not over tax your engine. your speed ends up in a waveform within +/-5mph or so under ideal condtions. That is safe and reasonable. Burning out a clutch isn't all that safe, nor is burning out your brakes. Otherwise things start to burn out or blow up.
just don't speed. it's not that hard. speeding causes an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes, which costs lives. just don't, there is no excuse to speed.
Yes there is.
1. You've got a huge mac truck on your tail that wants to go faster and won't stop for your little toyota. 2. You've got a huge SUV on your tail that wants to go faster that won't stop for your little toyota 3. Your driving down a huge mountain and your brakes gave out because you were a dumb ass and thought it was a good idea to go exactly the speed limit.
Look, i'm not going to justifify going unsafe speeds... I've done it enough in my life but not going to touch that. No excuse for that.
I am going to touch bases on the fact that keeping with trafic flow results in less accidents. I tried going the speedlimit in many places, thinking I was doing my part for the enviroment and saftey... and I get rear ended by everyone and their neighbor... so I have a choice... either go a little bit faster and reduce the number of accidents I have, or continue blindly following the signs and get in the hospital... again.
BTW... going different speeds, accelerating and decelerating cause an unneccessary amount of exhost fumes... so do automatic transmitions. Going one consistant speed for as long as possible yields the best benifit in fuel consumotion and the least amount of fume production.
In my life as a driver, I have NEVER been in an accident going over the speed limit keeping with trafic flow and being a generally safe driver. I have gotten into accidents when going the speedlimit. And now SUVs are so very popular... i'm going to keep it safe and go with traffic flow... cause it saves lives.
There is almost no place where you can truly go over the speed limit. The US is a relaxed, friendly place compared to those
the the folks from germany observed that here, at least in washington.... there are lots of speedlimit signs... which is good so you always know how fast you should go. But no one pays attention to these signs... a given 35mph might be an average of 45, some 45s an average of 60, and a random mix inbetween. They all pretty much decided to go with the flow... the signs had no meaning, and everyone was happy. Oh yea, no tickets.
(Warning for visitors: WA has one of the most zealous state highway patrol forces in the nation. Just don't exceed 10 over the limit here.)
Hmmm, i've gotten very few traffic tickets in my life in washington... and there are areas that I make damn sure to speed +10mph over and +20mph over.
the first time I got a ticket was when I was younger and going really +85 in a 55, and got a ticket for going 10 over. I didn't argue that one. I got another ticket for going 10 over in a small town.... it was inbetween a 30mph zone and a 45mph zone... The cop did in all fairness see a sign that said 30 from his angle of view, where I saw a sign "slow down speed zone ahead". The judge threw that out.
All the other times i've been pulled over have been for trivial offences such as a tail light being out, my license plates lights being out, failure to signal/turn signal light being out. Not that I don't replace those bulbs or anything, guess they only last a few years. One case right on red with sign... the sign was confusing as it was a 5 lane intersection, but there was a sign and I knew better.
Pulled over once because I put my year sticker in the "wrong" spot 10 days before my tabs were do... cop in all honesty thought they were expired. I explained that I put them there cause my year stack was full. He told me I need to get in there with a razor blade. I explained in friendly terms that I broke the razor and you could still see it sticking out of my year tabs. He just said "oh".
So three moving violations in my life, one thrown out, one paid in full, one midigated. One I feel was unjustified, one totally 100% justified, and one I just saw the judge to prove I had insurance and got a big discount for saying hello and not wasting his time.
In one sense, the crusaders are spot on. The perception of piracy has caused the music and film industries to want more and more draconian forms of protection.
The problem is.. these crusaders have been around for a very long time. For example, in 1987/1988 I had an atari... I bought a few games... and of those games I found nice cracked editions that allowed me to fit many on a floppy... esp useful as games were released on 90K floppies and the 360k floppy by that point was released.
I had problem with those guys then too... looking over my sholder
Jarhead "you stole that copy of Ultima-4" Me "Actually I bought a copy, see the little map, see the little ahnk..." Jarhead "But that's a blue floppy and Ultima didn't come on a blue floppy" Me "You are correct, but the origional which was on a double sided disc doesn't work on this drive, so I had to make a copy" Jarhead "you are stealing!" me "No... it's not offered on a disk that works with this drive. I could cut an index hole on the otherside so it will work running the risk I ruin the disk, or make a backup on these disks that work" Jarhead "you are stealing, people like you are the reason why atari doesn't support us anymore" Me "No atari moved on to newer systems... I bought this game when it was in it's prime, and still haven't finished it... it's a good game I enjoy it so much I made a backup so it'll work". Jarhead "your just fooling your self into thinking you are not commiting a crime" Me "I'm not... see this map, see the ahnk... this is a true blue paid for edition that i'm running on backups because the offical disks officaly will not work on this drive" Jarhead "what about those unemployed programers? What you gotta say to them" Me "release another one... odds are i'd buy it" Jarhead "your just stupid" Me "get the fuck out"
The problem with the crucaders is they are operating entirely on emotion without any reasoning skills what so ever. Most are very hypocritical, speaking about how important it is to pay for things so the people who made it get paid when all the while they just buy used editions of everything.
> My bypassing macrovision copy protection for > content I paid for, esp for that content that > doesn't even exist on DVD affects no one.
Actually it does. The rich stockholders will still take home money. They will cut the jobs of the lowest workers before they lose any profit.
Are you insane? A product that isn't made employs no one!
Most of the stuff I take the time to backup are things not sold on DVD that only exist as old copies on VHS. It's not even stealing it's copyright infringement, and even that it's "fair use"... I.e. I bought a copy and have the right to view it in any way I please. This license does not expire... the media "may" but that's why I back it up, so I don't loose it.
Are you telling me Danny Elfman will suffer in anyway by the fact that I happen to have bought a copy of Skeletons in the Closet in 1989 on VHS and took the time to back it up onto DVD?
This is exactly what i'm talking about, fruit cake nutjobs who can't wrap their head around the idea that I already paid for it, in many cases when it was sold for top dollar. Did my license expire when I wasn't looking?
Or wait, perhaps backing up some disney flicks the kids watch some how affects someone? Ok who? Disney is pretty reasonable in the fact that they offer cheapish replacements for discs no longer playable... so you can't say I'm obligated to pay $20 again to get Mickey Mouse again. It's bought and paid for... The stockholders are happy, the workers are happy, and the kids are happy, and i'm happy because that disk that just got eaten only cost me 60 cents.
If you think backing up stuff you bought somehow affects someone, your freaking nuts.
Buy it, stuff you like back it up and put it on display, store in a box away from children and idiots.
Why don't you watch it on VHS?? You want something and they want you to pay for it?? Bastards.
What's odd is I have to explain this concept on slashdot.
Funny thing is... I paid for it... on VHS. It is mine. I "want" it on DVD because I own two DVD players and two PCs with DVD drives. With DVD I can watch it in 4 places at home, or better yet take it with me and watch it elsewhere. Further more watching DVD doesn't in it self cause wear on the disc nor is ther any risk of the tape snapping.
I own one VHS deck worth speaking about. I own one VHS deck because I still own a fair bit of VHS tapes I have yet to copy. Once they are copied the VHS desk is going back into storage where it belongs.
Replacement value on a DVD player is under $50, heck rom drives are $20, burners are $40, and those cheeper import dvd players are nothing more than a rom drive in a box... so replacement value is pretty much $20ish. A VCR, a semi decent one, would cost $100 new.
Not to speak about the fact that I can put my media in one drive and watch it on another PC over the network provided it's not an encrypted disc... with no loss. I "could" go coax and broadcast a signal everywhere, that would be cool, but in the end i'm a cheap bastard with only two DVD players two PCs and bought something years back on VHS.
So yes... I copy material "i paid for" from VHS to DVD, esp material I CAN'T GET ON DVD.
Great IP holders should be able give away free versions if they want. What give you the right to tell them what they should do with their property?
They can do whatever they want with their property... that's rather my point. It's the jarheads that have NO right opening their mouth because they don't produce content, have no interest in the industry, are NOT the copyright holder... and should STFU.
Charles Manson has morals too. I don't think it makes a better society if everyone has Charles Manson's morals.
The funny thing about Charles Manson is the fact that his actions affected the lives of others in a tangable phyiscal way. He was a nut job with a screw loose that killed people. Copyright infringement isn't even a crime, it's a civil offence. My bypassing macrovision copy protection for content I paid for, esp for that content that doesn't even exist on DVD affects no one. Same as disney backups for the teething crowd... 60cent disc, no big deal.
It's the freaking bozos who stand on their soapbox and yell at me that i'm causing their media to cost more... and when I look around I see sub $20 dvds and sub $3.00 rentals. I call bullshit. If it was a true statement than we wouldn't see gone with the wind for $5.00 at walmart.
No I don't like paying extra for a DVD because someone else decided he/she didn't have to pay for it. Oh yeah right you were going to buy it anyway. No loss of sale right? Complete crap. Thanks freeloader for not bringing down the price by buying it. Grow a conscience. If you can't afford it you don't need it. Maybe you should study some instead of watching a movie and get a real job and start paying for stuff instead of stealing. Yes it is stealing.
#6 The crusaders
One step beyond the complainers. They are the ones who feel moraly and ethicaly bound to tell others how piracy affects them directly without any evidence to back it up. They speak of piracy as a form of theft rather than what it really is a form of copyright infringement. They can't grasp the idea while there are *some* moral issues regarding the subject... there was no physical theft.
These are the people who when visiting my pad rise a foot about my system to defeat macrovision without taking the time to look at the fact that I own something on VHS but want it on DVD, or even worse yelling about my backup copies of disney films when they are marked clearly "fair use backup". And heavy forbid my backup of 8-track of John Denver's greatest hits volume II... the one that I had to borrow an 8track player for.
What's sad is I'm somewhat empathic to the ideal that is being preached. One should pay for media.. it costs money to produce and these folks should make a buck, there is no question about that. But what these people fail to realise that even in piracy it's not a get something for nothing situation... it's the best form of advertisement there is... word of mouth. I would have never even known about red dwarf had it not been for those who taped it off the air.
These people need to learn that just because someone doesn't share your own moral values doesn't mean they lack morals. Even thieves have a code of conduct so what's their problem?
Don't get me wrong, a point and shoot is great, because I can put it in my jacket pocket, and I use it, but a digital SLR is really a joy to operate and it makes photography fun (if you're so inclined).
VS the huge disadvantage of SLRs is not nessicarly having a CCD array 36mm x 24mm. Unless you like having to go with an 18mm lens to get effectivly a 24mm wide angle with the added distortion. In other words... they are not as cool as they were designed to be.
I'm not saying SLRs are not cool. They are cool. What I am saying is because most digital cameras have screens on them you can ditch the mirror, prism, and viewfinder for the most part. While they are ultra cool in many ways... you can get away without using them by employing auto focus. Further more you'll get a big benifit designing lenses for CCD array size the camera actually has. You can move the apature inside the camera as was done with the pentax 110 slr. Not sure if we reached the point that we can do an LCD apature, would be nice to be able to do this without moving parts, but mechanical ones are good enough.
But needless to say there are many things that you can do which basicly are taking your usual point and shoot and adding the ability to remove the stock lens and replacing them... depend on the LCD for compsure and either a rangefinder for focus or auto focus. The end result would be something that would be cheaper to mass produce than an SLR, have the biggest cool feature of interchangable lens.
Still want something that you want in your pocket? Konica used a very short focal plane and offered pancake lenses, and they were really good. The side benifit of this apprach is you can pretty much put anything you want on the camera with just a simple adapter... so long as the focal plane was longer.
Me: "Extended warranty huh? Does it need it? I mean, I come to your store for quality goods that aren't going to fail... Is this product so sub-standard that it needs an extra warranty?"
I agree.. saying "I trust you sell quality goods that won't break" usually shuts them up... more so than my new approach of "no i'm happy with 3, 5 years, or life time". I thought being civilized, pointing out that I get longer for free would be a decent approach.... but no they still go for the hard sell.
What I don't understand is why anyone in their right mind would even try to sell a 2 year warranty on goods that carry a 3 year or more warranty. I can understand on those POS sub $100 printers, laptops, or other things along those lines.
I was offered a 2 year extended warranty on a pack of batteries of all things... and anything fancy like a $100 laptop battery... a pack of normal dispoable AA batteries. But they couldn't answer whether it covers normal use such as draining the battery and took back the offer. Too bad... I could use some compusa magic batteries that will get replaced for free when ever they run dry.
Theres this great stuff that comes in a roll that will store 24 or 36 "Photos". Apparently it lasts quite a long time. I _think_ its sometimes known as "Film", and in certain cases depending on the type as a "Slide" or a "Negative".
No no no, that would be silly, and not very high tech. Gotta focus that image through a lens onto a ccd array, convert into digital information which in turn is converted back into analog for long term storage on film.
Its a British thing. If someone is talking to you we can't walk away.
It's not just a british thing, lol. I just got that crap at CompUSA... problem is it's hard to walk way when you are trying to buy something and they have not taken your money yet.
Note this is for a power supply with a 5 year warranty marked clearly on the box. Cashier: "how about the 3 year extended warranty... bla bla bla bla will cover mishandeling bla bla bla". Me: "No i'm pretty happy with the 5 year warranty offered on the box." Cashier: "Oh but that doesn't cover mishandling or bent pins". [akward pause as I try to think to my self if there are really any pins on a power supply that can bend easily] Me: [Glairing, leaning forward] "Well then I just won't mishandle it." [still thinking to my self how can one mishandle something that is a very tough metal box].
What's worse is buying ram in those places. Me: "No i'm pretty happy with a lifetime warranty". Cashier: "but that doesn't cover mishandeling" Me: "I'm a dangerious man... i live on the edge.. i'll take the risk that I will not mishandle this stick of memory, ha ha ha ha".
Properly focusing a 6-8MP image manually on a tiny low-res screen takes at least 5-8 seconds and results in inaccurate focusing. For the forseeable future, nothing will beat being able to look through the actual lens with the human eye and checking the focus there.
For portrait photography... i'd actually agree with you, though average joe users are likely to auto focus. Prostudio work can be done on a real monitor. For run of the mill photography... the old rangefinder system was excelent.
...for example on cannon I think the multiplier is 1.6 great for zoom but tribble for wide angle unless you buy a 10 mm lens!!
IIRC it's not a multiplexer persay but rather the fact that the ccd array isn't 24mm x 36mm. The only camera I knew about that used a full sized ccd array was the Contax N1, a camera that didn't sell too well.
But you know the cost of a 10mm lens? You know the field of view is over 180 degrees horizontal... or rather resulting in a circular image being shown on the film plane. 10.5 is the practical limit, I've seen 8mm on the canon with total 180 field of view horizontal and vertical. Very nice lens but not one which you'd want to magnafy unless you want that distorted effect.. like those images on business websites showing the head shot from above.
But needless to say i'm holding out until such time that we either have full frame digital slrs, or digital cameras with interchangable lenses that are designed for a smaller frame size.
When I see people everywhere shooting digital point and shoot cameras I really wonder what they are doing with all the files
That's a very good question. home burnt CDs are none too archival, nor are DVDs.
Perhaps someone will invest a system where by one could take these digital images and convert them into an archival storage form that can last 100 years or more... perhaps some form of celluloid film that is very high resolution per volume that has proven it self very resistant against aging.
My Dad, who though far from computer illiterate, uses the software that came with his FujiFilm SLR. The camera is excellent, but the software is so bad, that it takes him 20 minutes to find the picture he wants, and he keeps a paper index to give him an idea of when he took the photo so he can find it by date. He doesn't do any photo editing, because its too complicated (the guy runs a primary school, and uses computers on a daily basis... he's not stupid) and getting the pictures to print well is an effort.
I'm currently out of touch with the current printer market. I know back I reccmended the HP PSC 950 to a few people.... it was an all in one unit with card slots but most importantly you could put in your camera card, hit proof sheet, and get a hard copy with all your pcs on it, and in turn tick the boxes for what photos you want, what size you want, pop it on the scanner and poof, instent prints. I'm not sure if there is a printer currently on the market that'll do this as i've not looked that carefully into userfriendly features like memory slots and a screen, but should be seriously considered by anyone who's taking 20min to find the pix they want.
What's more sad is with a card reader, windows XP is so ultra user friendly that when you pop in the card it asks you if you want to view the pictures, presents them in a film strip, and takes you to a print wizard. Unless you are doing editing I can't see why anyone would use the software that came with the camera when windows xp does a perfectly adquate job of getting A print to B paper.
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If you think that is excessive, I was in Seattle a few years ago and and old man was hit by a car when the light turned green while he was still crossing the street. Thankfully he survived the accident, but the police came to the hospital the next day and wrote him a jaywalking ticket. The reckless driver got off without so much as a ticket.
Actually I thought that was the point of a jaywalking ticket... to ticket those pedestrians who were involved in accidents where it was clearly ntheir fault. I agree this was bogus, but would be more than happy to tell it to the judge.
What you describe is perfectly normal. I know of a friend who had to top on the highway because there were a large readerboard sign blocking the road that said "errect penis" and got hit by a large truck. He got a ticket for being illegaly parked, as both the sign and half his car were gone. Had a hard time telling it to the judge as he was just hit at 85mph + and didn't exactly have a car.
These tickets which are bullshit are used a evidence in accidents in situations where blame need to be assigned.
Having a huge truck or SUV bearing down on you can be somewhat intimidating, but just because they WANT to go faster, and act like they won't stop for your little car, doesn't mean they won't. Maybe I have nerves of steel, or perhaps I'm just numb anymore, but I maintain my speed and people like this simply don't bother me
It bothers me when they hit me as they have. I remember west virginia one of the most horrible experences was a large mac truck who thought it was a good idea to tag my bumper all the way up a hill... and what was sad was this was going uphill. Black as night road, unfamilar surroundings, and mac truck with high beams from hell on my arse.
It also bothers me the SUVs and trucks that have hit my car when I was going pretty darn close to the speed limit. The stupid people "I didn't see you" or "why were you going so slow" when I was going 5 over.
I agree with you slower traffic should keep right... just here in Washington no one seems to agree with me... and the super fast traffic prefers the right lane. I made a choice to go center lane with the flow of traffic... less accidents for me anyway.
I'm genuinely curious when you think it would be appropreate not to wear your safety belt.
In the early 90s IIRC there were some cars that employed the use of passive restraints by taking the seat belt and bolting it to the door. In accidents that caused the door to fly open, the occupent would be pushed outwards. These were pretty unsafe and I've not seen a car with such a simple system in a decade.
They have the ability to shift into low gears as well (for example, they go something like "P R N D 2 1"), but it's much more of a pain to do so because people driving automatics aren't used to it and it's harder to get exactly the gear you want (because they are linear instead of an H pattern).
My limited experence with automatics has been you can *sort-of* down shift at times. Sometimes you coast, sometimes you downshift. My old 1984 Tercel for example was a 3 speed auto and I would "try" to downshift to 2... and it would stay in 3 and coast.
Newer cards that offer 4 speed with an over drive often have a button control marked "overdrive". I know people who think using the "overdrive" is a bad idea and never turn it on. Others have no idea what it's for and never use it. From time to time I drive a Camry auto and I try to do the safe thing on large hills and downshift to 3 by using the overdrive button... and it doesn't do jack squat.
I was under the impression that you could only burn out a clutch when it was partially engaged (i.e. when the clutch and flywheel are turning at different speeds).
Assuming you have a perfect clutch, a perfect release plate... smooth perfect flywheel and a bell housing that is 100% free of oil and brake (ok clutch) dust... you would be mostly correct. Keep in mind that the normal operational range of a clutch is there and abouts of 50,000 miles, perhaps 75,000.
Keep in mind the fact that there is a large difference in force between gravity dragging you down hill and your engine doing the heavy work of keeping you at a slowish speed... you're going to get some slipping there. This is harder to notice on FWD autos but those rear wheel drives you can feel heat, serious heat between the passanger and drive along the bump.
Inside that bell housing for any transmission that has done any sort of work in it's life is going to be a mix of some oil contamination and a huge amount of dust that hopefully mixes with the oil and gets flung to the bell housing walls. This is under ideal condtions. Reality is a dusty dirty eniroment with no real way to tell how much meat is left on your cutch without pulling the tranny let alone the condition of your flywheel or release plate.
The point is... causing your clutch to do more work does result in it faiding faster esp when there is a bug difference between the speed the engine wants to go attached to the flywheel and the wpeed that the input shaft is turning the clutch.
It's best to distribute the work among all the parts as possible. You enjoy longer life and lower the risk of one getting too hot and burning out. This is esp true now we no longer can use asbestos for brake and clutch parts. Unfortunatly FWD cars you don't notice the huge amount of heat generated by the flywheel/clutch/release plate. Feeling warmth on the thigh was the perfect meter to tell you you're causing that part too much work.
Personally, I just put those glass frames that make my license plate unreadable except from direct frontal view, and stay frosty.
I would imagine those are illegal for obvious reasons. At least here in WA (USA) I mostly get pulled over for my license plate light going out... so I can only imagine what a cop would do if he caught me with one of those polorizing pieces of plastic that are designed to obscure my plate number. For a time I could buy one at my local auto parts store, but I doubt they are still sold for obvious reasons... esp when they showed clearly on the box "to avoid camera traps".
While I'm not a fan of speed cameras, i'm pro getting the cops out from behind the radar guns. This isn't about saftey in most cases but generating a random roadtax, and a machine can do that. In exchange i'd gladly accept the cameras so long as they ticked above and beyond a certain speed like 10mph or so... a reasonable margin for error. Police should use their own judgement in serving the public and not be bound to a quota.
Well, I've made only good experience with the police in WA. When I visited Seattle in 2003, I was stopped when biking without helmet (I'm a foreigner and didn't know that you have to wear one)
There was a case some time back where police stopped a bunch of asian students in seattle for about an hour or so, called out a few cars, pretty much did the whole 9 yards because of a jay-walking infraction. I have to admit Seattle is the only city, the abosultly only city where i've seen jay-walking enforced.
IMHO they were probally "trying" to be nice and trying to warn people who they thought were from out of town about the local laws... but the way they went about it was totally excessive. One guy was reported to getting a jay walking ticket when he felt they were being harrassed for being asian.. which considering how many times they asked "do you speak english"... they probally were being stopped for being asian. Hopefully the cops involved "learned" something... like if your going to just give a warning don't drag 7 other cops into the mess to search a bunch of kids who were going nothing else but crossing the street esp if the reason for stopping them is they looked like they were from out of town and didn't know the law.
But what really makes me laugh is the places were pedestrians get hit most are on cross walks, esp traffic controled cross walks.
I have a pysics teacher (also in WA) that drives as fast as he wants. Then when he goes to court for the speeding tickets he dazzles the judge with science and calculus until the ticket gets dropped..
The funny thing is it's possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the fact that the speed of a radar or laser ticket is inaccurate within a wide margin of error depnding on where you were when you were scanned vs where the speedgun was. The problem is any calcuation to this effect would also prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were in reality going faster.
American traffic magistrates (at least in WA)
Correction, the parent clearly was talking about American WA. not Oz W.A. Not my bad, anony-coward bad.
Come to think about it.. Washington also confuses people, esp in Seattle with Capital Hill. They wanted to name the state Columbia at some point... but it might have confused people with Washington D.C. (District of Columbia), so they decided to go with a name that would definatly confuse people.
Point is... place names that are the same will confuse people regardless of whether they know world geography or not.
WA == Western Australia, not Washington
:P
America, meet rest-of-world....
While it's my bad.. they both share the same letters Good rule of thumb... spell out an acronym or expand and abbrivation when dealing with a global site so others don't get confused
WA refers to two places on planet earth... best to denote Western Oz as W.A. and Washington as WA. because as you said... meet the rest-of-world.
No, you were a dumb ass because you rode your brake instead of downshifting (as well as using "your" instead of "you're").
Point two is correct... in this case I'm a dumb ass. You get to wear the observant hat. woot woot.
Point one... you loose the observant hat as I was refering to some other dumb ass. I don't know how it trully works in automatics as I own a manual for a good reason. But when "I" take my foot off the gas I coast, or if I take my foot off the gas and downshift, my engine revs a little and I coast. Perhaps oneone else with an automatic can share their experence.
But this is neither here nor there. The best way to go down a mountain is to not brake continualy, and not over tax your engine. your speed ends up in a waveform within +/-5mph or so under ideal condtions. That is safe and reasonable. Burning out a clutch isn't all that safe, nor is burning out your brakes. Otherwise things start to burn out or blow up.
just don't speed. it's not that hard. speeding causes an unnecessary amount of exhaust fumes, which costs lives. just don't, there is no excuse to speed.
Yes there is.
1. You've got a huge mac truck on your tail that wants to go faster and won't stop for your little toyota.
2. You've got a huge SUV on your tail that wants to go faster that won't stop for your little toyota
3. Your driving down a huge mountain and your brakes gave out because you were a dumb ass and thought it was a good idea to go exactly the speed limit.
Look, i'm not going to justifify going unsafe speeds... I've done it enough in my life but not going to touch that. No excuse for that.
I am going to touch bases on the fact that keeping with trafic flow results in less accidents. I tried going the speedlimit in many places, thinking I was doing my part for the enviroment and saftey... and I get rear ended by everyone and their neighbor... so I have a choice... either go a little bit faster and reduce the number of accidents I have, or continue blindly following the signs and get in the hospital... again.
BTW... going different speeds, accelerating and decelerating cause an unneccessary amount of exhost fumes... so do automatic transmitions. Going one consistant speed for as long as possible yields the best benifit in fuel consumotion and the least amount of fume production.
In my life as a driver, I have NEVER been in an accident going over the speed limit keeping with trafic flow and being a generally safe driver. I have gotten into accidents when going the speedlimit. And now SUVs are so very popular... i'm going to keep it safe and go with traffic flow... cause it saves lives.
There is almost no place where you can truly go over the speed limit. The US is a relaxed, friendly place compared to those
the the folks from germany observed that here, at least in washington.... there are lots of speedlimit signs... which is good so you always know how fast you should go. But no one pays attention to these signs... a given 35mph might be an average of 45, some 45s an average of 60, and a random mix inbetween. They all pretty much decided to go with the flow... the signs had no meaning, and everyone was happy. Oh yea, no tickets.
(Warning for visitors: WA has one of the most zealous state highway patrol forces in the nation. Just don't exceed 10 over the limit here.)
Hmmm, i've gotten very few traffic tickets in my life in washington... and there are areas that I make damn sure to speed +10mph over and +20mph over.
the first time I got a ticket was when I was younger and going really +85 in a 55, and got a ticket for going 10 over. I didn't argue that one. I got another ticket for going 10 over in a small town.... it was inbetween a 30mph zone and a 45mph zone... The cop did in all fairness see a sign that said 30 from his angle of view, where I saw a sign "slow down speed zone ahead". The judge threw that out.
All the other times i've been pulled over have been for trivial offences such as a tail light being out, my license plates lights being out, failure to signal/turn signal light being out. Not that I don't replace those bulbs or anything, guess they only last a few years. One case right on red with sign... the sign was confusing as it was a 5 lane intersection, but there was a sign and I knew better.
Pulled over once because I put my year sticker in the "wrong" spot 10 days before my tabs were do... cop in all honesty thought they were expired. I explained that I put them there cause my year stack was full. He told me I need to get in there with a razor blade. I explained in friendly terms that I broke the razor and you could still see it sticking out of my year tabs. He just said "oh".
So three moving violations in my life, one thrown out, one paid in full, one midigated. One I feel was unjustified, one totally 100% justified, and one I just saw the judge to prove I had insurance and got a big discount for saying hello and not wasting his time.
In one sense, the crusaders are spot on. The perception of piracy has caused the music and film industries to want more and more draconian forms of protection.
The problem is.. these crusaders have been around for a very long time. For example, in 1987/1988 I had an atari... I bought a few games... and of those games I found nice cracked editions that allowed me to fit many on a floppy... esp useful as games were released on 90K floppies and the 360k floppy by that point was released.
I had problem with those guys then too... looking over my sholder
Jarhead "you stole that copy of Ultima-4"
Me "Actually I bought a copy, see the little map, see the little ahnk..."
Jarhead "But that's a blue floppy and Ultima didn't come on a blue floppy"
Me "You are correct, but the origional which was on a double sided disc doesn't work on this drive, so I had to make a copy"
Jarhead "you are stealing!"
me "No... it's not offered on a disk that works with this drive. I could cut an index hole on the otherside so it will work running the risk I ruin the disk, or make a backup on these disks that work"
Jarhead "you are stealing, people like you are the reason why atari doesn't support us anymore"
Me "No atari moved on to newer systems... I bought this game when it was in it's prime, and still haven't finished it... it's a good game I enjoy it so much I made a backup so it'll work".
Jarhead "your just fooling your self into thinking you are not commiting a crime"
Me "I'm not... see this map, see the ahnk... this is a true blue paid for edition that i'm running on backups because the offical disks officaly will not work on this drive"
Jarhead "what about those unemployed programers? What you gotta say to them"
Me "release another one... odds are i'd buy it"
Jarhead "your just stupid"
Me "get the fuck out"
The problem with the crucaders is they are operating entirely on emotion without any reasoning skills what so ever. Most are very hypocritical, speaking about how important it is to pay for things so the people who made it get paid when all the while they just buy used editions of everything.
> My bypassing macrovision copy protection for
> content I paid for, esp for that content that
> doesn't even exist on DVD affects no one.
Actually it does. The rich stockholders will still take home money. They will cut the jobs of the lowest workers before they lose any profit.
Are you insane? A product that isn't made employs no one!
Most of the stuff I take the time to backup are things not sold on DVD that only exist as old copies on VHS. It's not even stealing it's copyright infringement, and even that it's "fair use"... I.e. I bought a copy and have the right to view it in any way I please. This license does not expire... the media "may" but that's why I back it up, so I don't loose it.
Are you telling me Danny Elfman will suffer in anyway by the fact that I happen to have bought a copy of Skeletons in the Closet in 1989 on VHS and took the time to back it up onto DVD?
This is exactly what i'm talking about, fruit cake nutjobs who can't wrap their head around the idea that I already paid for it, in many cases when it was sold for top dollar. Did my license expire when I wasn't looking?
Or wait, perhaps backing up some disney flicks the kids watch some how affects someone? Ok who? Disney is pretty reasonable in the fact that they offer cheapish replacements for discs no longer playable... so you can't say I'm obligated to pay $20 again to get Mickey Mouse again. It's bought and paid for... The stockholders are happy, the workers are happy, and the kids are happy, and i'm happy because that disk that just got eaten only cost me 60 cents.
If you think backing up stuff you bought somehow affects someone, your freaking nuts.
Buy it, stuff you like back it up and put it on display, store in a box away from children and idiots.
Why don't you watch it on VHS?? You want something and they want you to pay for it?? Bastards.
What's odd is I have to explain this concept on slashdot.
Funny thing is... I paid for it... on VHS. It is mine. I "want" it on DVD because I own two DVD players and two PCs with DVD drives. With DVD I can watch it in 4 places at home, or better yet take it with me and watch it elsewhere. Further more watching DVD doesn't in it self cause wear on the disc nor is ther any risk of the tape snapping.
I own one VHS deck worth speaking about. I own one VHS deck because I still own a fair bit of VHS tapes I have yet to copy. Once they are copied the VHS desk is going back into storage where it belongs.
Replacement value on a DVD player is under $50, heck rom drives are $20, burners are $40, and those cheeper import dvd players are nothing more than a rom drive in a box... so replacement value is pretty much $20ish. A VCR, a semi decent one, would cost $100 new.
Not to speak about the fact that I can put my media in one drive and watch it on another PC over the network provided it's not an encrypted disc... with no loss. I "could" go coax and broadcast a signal everywhere, that would be cool, but in the end i'm a cheap bastard with only two DVD players two PCs and bought something years back on VHS.
So yes... I copy material "i paid for" from VHS to DVD, esp material I CAN'T GET ON DVD.
Great IP holders should be able give away free versions if they want. What give you the right to tell them what they should do with their property?
They can do whatever they want with their property... that's rather my point. It's the jarheads that have NO right opening their mouth because they don't produce content, have no interest in the industry, are NOT the copyright holder... and should STFU.
Charles Manson has morals too. I don't think it makes a better society if everyone has Charles Manson's morals.
The funny thing about Charles Manson is the fact that his actions affected the lives of others in a tangable phyiscal way. He was a nut job with a screw loose that killed people. Copyright infringement isn't even a crime, it's a civil offence. My bypassing macrovision copy protection for content I paid for, esp for that content that doesn't even exist on DVD affects no one. Same as disney backups for the teething crowd... 60cent disc, no big deal.
It's the freaking bozos who stand on their soapbox and yell at me that i'm causing their media to cost more... and when I look around I see sub $20 dvds and sub $3.00 rentals. I call bullshit. If it was a true statement than we wouldn't see gone with the wind for $5.00 at walmart.
No I don't like paying extra for a DVD because someone else decided he/she didn't have to pay for it. Oh yeah right you were going to buy it anyway. No loss of sale right? Complete crap. Thanks freeloader for not bringing down the price by buying it. Grow a conscience. If you can't afford it you don't need it. Maybe you should study some instead of watching a movie and get a real job and start paying for stuff instead of stealing. Yes it is stealing.
#6 The crusaders
One step beyond the complainers. They are the ones who feel moraly and ethicaly bound to tell others how piracy affects them directly without any evidence to back it up. They speak of piracy as a form of theft rather than what it really is a form of copyright infringement. They can't grasp the idea while there are *some* moral issues regarding the subject... there was no physical theft.
These are the people who when visiting my pad rise a foot about my system to defeat macrovision without taking the time to look at the fact that I own something on VHS but want it on DVD, or even worse yelling about my backup copies of disney films when they are marked clearly "fair use backup". And heavy forbid my backup of 8-track of John Denver's greatest hits volume II... the one that I had to borrow an 8track player for.
What's sad is I'm somewhat empathic to the ideal that is being preached. One should pay for media.. it costs money to produce and these folks should make a buck, there is no question about that. But what these people fail to realise that even in piracy it's not a get something for nothing situation... it's the best form of advertisement there is... word of mouth. I would have never even known about red dwarf had it not been for those who taped it off the air.
These people need to learn that just because someone doesn't share your own moral values doesn't mean they lack morals. Even thieves have a code of conduct so what's their problem?
Don't get me wrong, a point and shoot is great, because I can put it in my jacket pocket, and I use it, but a digital SLR is really a joy to operate and it makes photography fun (if you're so inclined).
VS the huge disadvantage of SLRs is not nessicarly having a CCD array 36mm x 24mm. Unless you like having to go with an 18mm lens to get effectivly a 24mm wide angle with the added distortion. In other words... they are not as cool as they were designed to be.
I'm not saying SLRs are not cool. They are cool. What I am saying is because most digital cameras have screens on them you can ditch the mirror, prism, and viewfinder for the most part. While they are ultra cool in many ways... you can get away without using them by employing auto focus. Further more you'll get a big benifit designing lenses for CCD array size the camera actually has. You can move the apature inside the camera as was done with the pentax 110 slr. Not sure if we reached the point that we can do an LCD apature, would be nice to be able to do this without moving parts, but mechanical ones are good enough.
But needless to say there are many things that you can do which basicly are taking your usual point and shoot and adding the ability to remove the stock lens and replacing them... depend on the LCD for compsure and either a rangefinder for focus or auto focus. The end result would be something that would be cheaper to mass produce than an SLR, have the biggest cool feature of interchangable lens.
Still want something that you want in your pocket? Konica used a very short focal plane and offered pancake lenses, and they were really good. The side benifit of this apprach is you can pretty much put anything you want on the camera with just a simple adapter... so long as the focal plane was longer.
Me: "Extended warranty huh? Does it need it? I mean, I come to your store for quality goods that aren't going to fail... Is this product so sub-standard that it needs an extra warranty?"
I agree.. saying "I trust you sell quality goods that won't break" usually shuts them up... more so than my new approach of "no i'm happy with 3, 5 years, or life time". I thought being civilized, pointing out that I get longer for free would be a decent approach.... but no they still go for the hard sell.
What I don't understand is why anyone in their right mind would even try to sell a 2 year warranty on goods that carry a 3 year or more warranty. I can understand on those POS sub $100 printers, laptops, or other things along those lines.
I was offered a 2 year extended warranty on a pack of batteries of all things... and anything fancy like a $100 laptop battery... a pack of normal dispoable AA batteries. But they couldn't answer whether it covers normal use such as draining the battery and took back the offer. Too bad... I could use some compusa magic batteries that will get replaced for free when ever they run dry.
Theres this great stuff that comes in a roll that will store 24 or 36 "Photos". Apparently it lasts quite a long time. I _think_ its sometimes known as "Film", and in certain cases depending on the type as a "Slide" or a "Negative".
No no no, that would be silly, and not very high tech. Gotta focus that image through a lens onto a ccd array, convert into digital information which in turn is converted back into analog for long term storage on film.
Its a British thing. If someone is talking to you we can't walk away.
It's not just a british thing, lol.
I just got that crap at CompUSA... problem is it's hard to walk way when you are trying to buy something and they have not taken your money yet.
Note this is for a power supply with a 5 year warranty marked clearly on the box.
Cashier: "how about the 3 year extended warranty... bla bla bla bla will cover mishandeling bla bla bla".
Me: "No i'm pretty happy with the 5 year warranty offered on the box."
Cashier: "Oh but that doesn't cover mishandling or bent pins".
[akward pause as I try to think to my self if there are really any pins on a power supply that can bend easily]
Me: [Glairing, leaning forward] "Well then I just won't mishandle it." [still thinking to my self how can one mishandle something that is a very tough metal box].
What's worse is buying ram in those places.
Me: "No i'm pretty happy with a lifetime warranty".
Cashier: "but that doesn't cover mishandeling"
Me: "I'm a dangerious man... i live on the edge.. i'll take the risk that I will not mishandle this stick of memory, ha ha ha ha".
Ording online is your friend.
Properly focusing a 6-8MP image manually on a tiny low-res screen takes at least 5-8 seconds and results in inaccurate focusing. For the forseeable future, nothing will beat being able to look through the actual lens with the human eye and checking the focus there.
For portrait photography... i'd actually agree with you, though average joe users are likely to auto focus. Prostudio work can be done on a real monitor. For run of the mill photography... the old rangefinder system was excelent.
...for example on cannon I think the multiplier is 1.6 great for zoom but tribble for wide angle unless you buy a 10 mm lens!!
IIRC it's not a multiplexer persay but rather the fact that the ccd array isn't 24mm x 36mm. The only camera I knew about that used a full sized ccd array was the Contax N1, a camera that didn't sell too well.
But you know the cost of a 10mm lens? You know the field of view is over 180 degrees horizontal... or rather resulting in a circular image being shown on the film plane. 10.5 is the practical limit, I've seen 8mm on the canon with total 180 field of view horizontal and vertical. Very nice lens but not one which you'd want to magnafy unless you want that distorted effect.. like those images on business websites showing the head shot from above.
But needless to say i'm holding out until such time that we either have full frame digital slrs, or digital cameras with interchangable lenses that are designed for a smaller frame size.
When I see people everywhere shooting digital point and shoot cameras I really wonder what they are doing with all the files
That's a very good question. home burnt CDs are none too archival, nor are DVDs.
Perhaps someone will invest a system where by one could take these digital images and convert them into an archival storage form that can last 100 years or more... perhaps some form of celluloid film that is very high resolution per volume that has proven it self very resistant against aging.
My Dad, who though far from computer illiterate, uses the software that came with his FujiFilm SLR. The camera is excellent, but the software is so bad, that it takes him 20 minutes to find the picture he wants, and he keeps a paper index to give him an idea of when he took the photo so he can find it by date. He doesn't do any photo editing, because its too complicated (the guy runs a primary school, and uses computers on a daily basis... he's not stupid) and getting the pictures to print well is an effort.
I'm currently out of touch with the current printer market. I know back I reccmended the HP PSC 950 to a few people.... it was an all in one unit with card slots but most importantly you could put in your camera card, hit proof sheet, and get a hard copy with all your pcs on it, and in turn tick the boxes for what photos you want, what size you want, pop it on the scanner and poof, instent prints. I'm not sure if there is a printer currently on the market that'll do this as i've not looked that carefully into userfriendly features like memory slots and a screen, but should be seriously considered by anyone who's taking 20min to find the pix they want.
What's more sad is with a card reader, windows XP is so ultra user friendly that when you pop in the card it asks you if you want to view the pictures, presents them in a film strip, and takes you to a print wizard. Unless you are doing editing I can't see why anyone would use the software that came with the camera when windows xp does a perfectly adquate job of getting A print to B paper.