I had a friend who worked in network operations for @home, back when it actually was making money. In their whois record they had the direct line to network operations which made a fair amount of sence as domain related issues should be directed to network operations. Problem is the fact that he always got calls from jarheads of report every ping detected as a hacker attack sort, but not nessicarly even from their domain.
It really is a double edged sword, on the one hand a good reason to have this contact information there in the first place is in the event something needs to be reported like virus/worm infection, system down, open proxy, that sorta thing. On the other hand, there are those who don't respect the fact that info is there for a good reason and it's not for trivial issues or spam.
I too read this expecting some insight into how fractical geometery distortions would affect digital streems. Part of the argument why vinyl sounds better then CD to some people is in part due to fuzzy non-quanitative reasons such as warmth or feel aka noise and distortion, and research into so-called noise I feel is important to out understanding of the perception of sound. Let's face it, sound it self is not only vibration but it's reverberation off the ambient enviroment.
I heard garbled CDs, nothing more then garbled CDs. I see it being useful to create random distortions which in turn can be converted into software to achieve the same effect, and one day perhaps you can get something to sound neet and weird, but that seems to be the only redeeming value to these experiments.
I would be more interested to hear the effect on your standard issue sin waves rather then "this is not a love song". Atleast that way I can actually have some measure of understanding of the actual effect.
Did Mcintosh [http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/] ever sue apple for their use of the name Macintosh?
I've never been a true audio geek, to be honest my best Amp is a circa 1980s Sansui right when quality control went to hell. But I have heard of Mcintosh, but it only sticks out in my mind because of the Apple Macintosh.
I remember one serial optical mouse about that vintage. Can't remember if it was Mouse Systems but I bought it from some dumb computer repair shop who couldn't get it to work. As I actually had a sun mousepad I had no issues. But take this info with a grain of salt, could have easily have been a mod.
I liked it well enough, but prefered my Logitech Trackman, till I burnt it out.
I think the complaint is the fact that when people hear "Apple" they assume Apple computers. It was less confusing before when you had Apple computer and Apple music. Now we have Apple music, it's believed that people won't even think about Apple records.
I guess that would be not the "Cordless" but the Trackman I started using in 1997.
Yes, I agree the trackman series design is among my personal favoriates. Back in those days, it was dubbed the Logitech Snail. The only reason I don't still use it is because of it's lack of buttons, the microsoft equilivent has 5 which I find remarkably useful. Too bad there isn't a cordless varity.
You just don't get it. the road usage charge we are talking about IS NOT MEANT JUST TO COVER THE COST OF REPAIRING THE ROAD. It is meant to improve the quality of life.
A gross tax based on use of the roads the fuel tax works just dandy! I will submit in order to prevent conjestion an entrance tax still makes sence too, but fuel tax in conjuction with an entrence tax seems to be all that are required rather then satalight based tracking of autos and billing them for their use.
While I'm still thinking that fuel tax + city parking fees + lowcost parking outside the city near a major transit center, I do see where you are comming from and still don't see a need for satalight based tracking of autos.
One may argue as well that living in a rural area enjoys some serious benifits over living in the city, and because of the high quality of life you get taxed for it. After all, being required to commuite has an impact on the eniroment as well. I'm willing to believe though that worst offending poluters are ones stuck in serious conjection.
I live in central London. Since the congestion charge started 6 months ago (five pounds to drive in central london during the working day), traffic outside my window has dropped dramatically. Noise is down. Pollution is down.
Actually I think I get it just fine, which is probally why propane fuel is not taxed so much. I will freely admit that my attitudes are prejusted based on living in America, in a state where there are endless arguments regarding who actually should pay for the roads rather then just accepting that we all benifit from them.
My current one is actually the Microsoft Optical Trackball. While there are those here that might be offended by my use of a Microsoft(tm) product, I will express that I looked long and hard for this design.
My old favorite was the first generation logitech trackball dubbed the snail. you use your thumb to move the ball around, and your three fingers on the buttons. But it being a traditional tracking device the little rubber rollers were subject to wear and it no longer worked like a mouse.
I selected the Microsoft one because it has a series of 5 buttons, rather then the Logitech Product "Trackman Wheel" only has the three buttons. I would have prefered the logitech as it offers a wireless model, but I enjoy having the extra two buttons too much. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=prod ucts/de tails&CRID=6&CONTENTID=5002&countryid=19&languagei d=1
Oddly enough, the cheeper "marble mouse" has 4 buttons but no scroll wheel looked acceptable enough to me to buy. But I don't feel quite as comfortable using it. The ball feels too big on my finger and I don't have the same accuracy as I would with a smaller ball like the Kensington orbit series. Those I enjoy, but I do prefer having the access to a scroll wheel.
Personaly I find the "Kensington Turbo Mouse" to be a touch cumbersome to use because when i'm controlling the ball, I can't click, basicly making it a two handed mouse. I can agree that as far as precise control it's perfectly spiffy.
Coffee is typicaly served at 180 F/82 c. A spill would hurt, but not cause 3rd degree burns. I believe 15 seconds of exposure is required to cause 3rd degree burns at that temp, and franky spilled coffee cools quickly enough for this to not be an issue. A first degree burn (sunburn) is far more likely... a second degree burn (blister) *might* happen.
McDonalds in their wisdom decided to serve their coffee at between 190F and 210 f (87.7 c to 98.8 c), basicly boiling into the cup. This was so a person can get coffee, drive to work, and have it still be hot (180ish F). This is all well and good, but they didn't make it clear that their coffee was served so hot. I've tried McDonalds coffee in the past before this sue, and it was awful burnt stuff that scorched my tounge. I was totally unaware of their practice personaly, and never returned to their coffee after that.
The woman in question was not aware how hot the coffee was, which I can understand as neither did I till I actually tried to drink it in their establishment. At 190F / 87.7c it only takes 3 seconds to produce 3rd degree burns. The woman did recieve 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her groin, inner thighs and buttocks. The woman in question required skin grafts as a direct result. This wouldn't have ever been an issue if the coffee was served at 180F, generally accepted as being hot but not hot enough to spoil the taste of the coffee.
Now the woman did spill the product in her lap, and everyone knows coffee is typicaly *hot*, so that clearly is her fault. But McDonnalds made a choice to serve their coffee hotter then the other guys, between 190 F/87.7 C and 210 F / 98.8 C, basicly turning up their perkulator to boiling and then turning it down a notch. They also made the choice not to tell anyone about it, it being a trade secret why their coffee is still hot when you take it to work. The woman lost skin and nerves as a direct result of this liquid served unusualy hot.
This isn't about being daft, it's not being common knowlege that a spill from this stuff is as dangerious as taking a pot with boiling water and splashing it on your groin. McDonnalds was stupid, they got sued, and lost.
As a direct result, there are standards with the serving temp of coffee, which is good as too hot spoils the flavor. You can ask for coffee served extra hot (190F / 87.7C) but typicaly it's sold at a temp that you can actually drink when served.
A fuel tax is a very unfair way to tax cars, especially in Europe
No, it's perfectly fair, what you pay is based on your consumption of fuel which tends to be proportional to how much you drive.
Our present system tends to car users in rural areas more than car owners in urban areas because the distances they have to drive tend to be larger.
This is what i'm not fully understanding. A person in a rural area has to drive more then a person in a urban area. They use more road daily, create more wear and tear on the road daily, they pay more money to use the road cause they use it more.
More over, less users on a particular road doesn't mean less cost, far from it. If you want to be realistic it costs more money per person on a lightly traveled road to put it in then it does on a with more people each paying their fair share.
Charging people a tax based on how many miles they use the road seems to be exactly the target goal. A tax on the fuel it uses is perfectly fair because it not only takes distance traveled into account, but also the vehicels weight.
Now... if you still think it's unfair for rural users to pay more money because they are required to use a car, there are two easy solutions.
1. Lower the tax for the rural users, either at the pump, with a card based tax discount, or some sorta refund from the tax department.
2. Move to a place with public transport so you don't have to use a car at all.
You can start nickpicking about rural users feeling like they are getting the short end of the stick, just as major metropolitan areas might feel it's not nessicary for their hard earned dollars to go into rural roads they don't even use, but let's face it... we all benifit from roads. Without roads you wouldn't have such swift access to goods and services, esp if you are a rural user. It's only common sence that a group effort to fund roads benifits all people. Rural users pay more to get anywhere... that's just a fact of living in a rural area.
If you still feel it is unfair... then I know at least in england there is a major major tax break for switching to propane fuel, as well as the benifit of lower cost per gallon due to less taxes. Propane is one of the lowest cost conversions i'm aware for automobiles. Even rural cars polute, you don't don't notice it as much.
Sorry, taxing users based on how much road they use makes perfect sence to me, and fuel is a fairly accurate means of metering useage. Drive a motorcycle, you use less fuel and pay less tax.
If you take a car in Paris then you are a pretentious twit who deserves to get his socks taxed off.
Ummmm. gas tax!
In rural france however, there are many areas where there is no public transport and the car is the only way to move about
Ummmm, lower rural gas tax.
Where I live there is a tax on fuel, but boat users can submit their rescripts to get a refund, as boats don't use the roads.
The idea about sattelite-based tracing is to make it more expensive to drive during rush-hour then at night, more expensive in city centers then in the country etc
Well... gas tax covers this to a degree, as in idle cars are buring fuel. Tracking seems like overkill though.... I would think it would be a hell of alot more simple to employ barcodes or radio tags for arterial and or city entry during such times you wish to discourage traffic.
Actually, the local doctor where I lived as a kid was from Hiroshima and was there during the blast. From the story I was told she and her twin sister were bathing in a local pond. She was fortunate enough to have been under water at the time and survived. Her twin sister was half incinerated.
Europe is not yet that integrated and the countries are relatively small. If vehicles are refueled outside of a country, but drive through another one, the minister of finance of the other country won't see a cent.
There is this issue in America, the fact of the matter is you can go to another state and buy gas and make out ahead if indeed it's cheeper cross the border. Many Canadians can do the same thing. It's not very practical to do this for the most part because the amount of money you save is pretty trivial, and in Europe where the gas prices are higher you are not very likely to save anything at all.
While this is a true statement, people driving through small countries will likely be doing so on major arterials / highways. It would be common sence if these trans-country highways were trans-federaly funded. This way the minister of finance will of these small countries would actually get money from these users.
If you want to be more fair about it, by all means peform a simple accounting system of how many users actually use the roadways in order to device up EU funds. I don't know all the details of EU finance, but it's only common sence. If the amount of users in a small country exceeds it's population for example, it would be only common sence for their minister of finance to patition the EU for road funding.
Besides, I would *think* you'd have less of an issue with this in Europe where there actually is something resembling public transport.
yeah, but what they really want to do is charge more for certain roads or road types - eg super-mega-freeways will be expensive (but fast and convenient), whereas smaller roads will be slow but cheap.
What they want to do is create a redundent costly beaurocracy on top of an already universialy simple system negating the fact that a country, much like a community, sholdering the burden as a whole makes like easier for everyone.
Just tax the god damned gas. Fuck creating a seperate tax system that has to pay for extra beaurocrats and a ton of extra staff to bill you when the gas stations are more then willing to do it for you.
Righto... things like this drive me nuts. There presently already is a cheep and efficent means of taxing cars based on distance they drive. By taxing the fuel it self you have an accurate means of charging for a vehicel's use on the road. Heavier vehicels such as SUVs pay more then a honda driver due to the fact that these vehicels use more fuel per mile.
Users who wish to by-pass being taxed on the fuel they use can already make the switch to propane, methane, alcohol, hydrogen, and a number of alternatives which i'd argue they deserve a reward if their fuel solution has a postive impact on air quality.
Users who don't drive as much don't pay as much tax. Users who drive a hell of alot pay a hell of alot.
Low tech, simple, difficult to circumvent, and already implemented. Who could ask for anything more?
I imagine that we will always consider toll roads in order to actually pay for specific roads that we can't convience the general public that we all actually benifit from. That's all well and good, but generaly speaking if you want to employ a general use fee for the roads you use, take the freaking fuel and don't bother launching high tech tracking devices. Barcodes and or radio tags would be perfectly dandy to maintain flow and charge a specific use tax for toll roads. If you really want to maintain your privacy, keep a cash only lane open.
Upside - smaller files to be sent. Downside is some CPU time spent at each end compressing/decompressing the files. This can be trivial in fairly static sites, become serious in very dynamic ones.
For static sites, wouldn't it make more sence to already have the file compressed. a sorta index.html.GZ for example? This way only the client has to bother with depression.
Agreed... I've known a number of independent record stores who's business was to carry new / used music that the big guys just didn't carry.
Many of them failed, which is sad but hey, most new businesses fail after 5 years anyway. This was before CD-R drives and Napster became popular.
The real problem is it's difficult for a one store owner to compete with the larger chains who have a massive selection of pop crap. You can say what you will about pop crap but you can't deny people buy it. Hell, even the large chains music shops closed their doors due to the fact that the mega all-in-one shops were undercutting their prices. I find this most sad because shops, indy or otherwise, who sell only music employ people who know something about it. K-mart employs people who are clean cut but don't have clue one about the music. I've always tried to avoid the clean cut stores in favor of people who actually have a clue.
Flatbed scanners used for video video conferencing? Twain support for video confrencing is not only practical, but solves that pesky privacy issue. When you want to actually participate in a video conference, all you need do is press your face to the glass and talk. When you need to leave the conference for a moment, people can't see what you are doing. Users who accidently leave their cameras on will only reveal what their ceiling looks like, or what the top of their scanner lid looks like.
The Philly firedepartment has said that this a valued tool to reduce the number of false alarms. User at alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.genitals-on-scanner says that they've been using this technology for years and it's not just an office prank.
Dialup modems still offer compression, but they are none too useful for compressing jpeg and gif files. Also, dialup modems often times are limited by a DTE speed of 115kb/sec where I believe text can easily be compressed by a factor of 4 or higher.
Which brings me to what i'm curious about. Wouldn't it be possible to serve compressed text pages that get de-compressed at the browser's end, there by actually reducing the actual number of bytes used to transfer information?
Actually... Comcast did raise their speeds I believe in Oregon and Atlanta http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5060321.htm l http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bcomcast+%2 Bsp eed+%2Bincrease&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=1 JK3b.226372%24It4.108600%40rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.n et&rnum=5
I believe that this is in part due to the pressue of earthlink dsl service, which offers 1.5meg/128k (384k in some regions) for roughly $50 a month.
Both comcast and earthlink WILL lower their monthly rate as part of a promotional deal to $30 a month when asked.
In tacoma, washington, there has been a local cable provider that provides broadband starting at $30.00 monthly with speeds typicaly 1.5m/128k depending on the isp you choosem as well as higher speeds for more money. BYOM (Bring your own modem).
In addition, they offer "worldgate service" which is basicly a form of web-tv. I don't have an exact quote of the speed, last time I checked though it was 128k/128k at roughly $12.00 monthly. To be honest, I have not tried worldgate service so I don't know the details of it.
I wonder if all this is worth the effort. For instance, Bell canada offers low speed dsl which is capped around 25 KB/s ~= 5x dial-up for only a couple dollars more than regular dial up. When you add in the fact that you don't have to tie up the phone line, and the other advantages of DSL such as high speed on all pages, not just frequently visited ones, you really have to wonder why anyone uses dial up at all anymore.
1: Dialup is available everywhere there is a phone line and is not dependent on a physical location. Even acoustic adapters exist for when you can't tie directly into the physical line, though limited to low speeds. DSL is not available everywhere, and is tied directly to a physical location. Contracts are often times 1 year, and are none too useful for people who move around alot.
2: DSL modems cost more then dialup modems typicaly speaking. Chances are your PC is already equiped with a modem so there is no additional fees or contracts.
3: People are attached to their e-mail addresses, using them rather like phone numbers. Changing ISPs often means a change of e-mail addresses.
While I personaly agree with you, if it was just a bang for the buck issue, i'd vote for 25KB/s dsl over dialup anyday. Never the less there are some good solid reasons why people stick to dialup.
Unless you're hungry or have a self-image problem, you're not likely to find a wallet with more money in it than your pride is worth to you.
No one needs morality when there isn't enough to eat, yes. It's why I had NO major complaints when I lost my wallet once only to find all my cards returned via US postal service. I was like 15/16 at the time, probally had enough cash for a school lunch as well as a driving permit, phone list, and misc other shit. Actually only the cards and misc crap was mailed back to me, the few bucks and wallet were never returned. All and all I can't complain.
I don't see it as a self image problem. Either the person who found my wallet needed my few bucks, didn't have any moral issues keeping the few bucks, or the wallet was actually run over and the contents scattered across the roadway. It would only be a self image problem if they percieved them selves as being honest yet using the finder's keepers rule.
This is not to say I haven't used the finder's keepers rule my self, but only after a good honest effort of trying to find the rightful owner. This happened once with a bankcard that I find stuck in a machine. I contacted the bank to report that it had been found, they wanted me to cut it up, I tried again to report it found, they said it was reported stolen. I asked for the address of the account holder so I can mail it back, they said they couldn't do that. I asked if I could give them MY address so the account holder could contact me to retrieve it, they said they couldn't do that either. I asked if I could mail it to them and they can mail it to the approperate address, they said no. I gave up on this and finally used it to apply bondo, and it might very well still exist in a bondo segment in my old car.
I guess I can respond to this being a human, though it's not directly related to shoplifting.
I've found a number of lost wallets and misc items. My knee jerk responce is to find the owner as it sucks loosing money, credit cards, and misc bits of paper that are required to operate in today's world. Costco is the most common place I find abandoned purses and things, fortunatly these days they have mobile phones in them.
Later on I think, d'oh could have gotten free cash, perhaps a tank of gas, but the moral responce wins. This isn't a fear of getting caught, it's just doing the cool thing.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a friend who worked in network operations for @home, back when it actually was making money. In their whois record they had the direct line to network operations which made a fair amount of sence as domain related issues should be directed to network operations. Problem is the fact that he always got calls from jarheads of report every ping detected as a hacker attack sort, but not nessicarly even from their domain.
It really is a double edged sword, on the one hand a good reason to have this contact information there in the first place is in the event something needs to be reported like virus/worm infection, system down, open proxy, that sorta thing. On the other hand, there are those who don't respect the fact that info is there for a good reason and it's not for trivial issues or spam.
I too read this expecting some insight into how fractical geometery distortions would affect digital streems. Part of the argument why vinyl sounds better then CD to some people is in part due to fuzzy non-quanitative reasons such as warmth or feel aka noise and distortion, and research into so-called noise I feel is important to out understanding of the perception of sound. Let's face it, sound it self is not only vibration but it's reverberation off the ambient enviroment.
I heard garbled CDs, nothing more then garbled CDs. I see it being useful to create random distortions which in turn can be converted into software to achieve the same effect, and one day perhaps you can get something to sound neet and weird, but that seems to be the only redeeming value to these experiments.
I would be more interested to hear the effect on your standard issue sin waves rather then "this is not a love song". Atleast that way I can actually have some measure of understanding of the actual effect.
Actually, I wonder...
Did Mcintosh [http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/] ever sue apple for their use of the name Macintosh?
I've never been a true audio geek, to be honest my best Amp is a circa 1980s Sansui right when quality control went to hell. But I have heard of Mcintosh, but it only sticks out in my mind because of the Apple Macintosh.
how many people had an optical mouse on their 386
I remember one serial optical mouse about that vintage. Can't remember if it was Mouse Systems but I bought it from some dumb computer repair shop who couldn't get it to work. As I actually had a sun mousepad I had no issues. But take this info with a grain of salt, could have easily have been a mod.
I liked it well enough, but prefered my Logitech Trackman, till I burnt it out.
I think the complaint is the fact that when people hear "Apple" they assume Apple computers. It was less confusing before when you had Apple computer and Apple music. Now we have Apple music, it's believed that people won't even think about Apple records.
Really, I thought microsoft bought the rights from Micheal Jackson... besides I believe it was the rights to the music, not apple records.
...but what about those of us that have four fingers?
you must have never taught a shop class
I guess that would be not the "Cordless" but the Trackman I started using in 1997.
Yes, I agree the trackman series design is among my personal favoriates. Back in those days, it was dubbed the Logitech Snail. The only reason I don't still use it is because of it's lack of buttons, the microsoft equilivent has 5 which I find remarkably useful. Too bad there isn't a cordless varity.
You just don't get it. the road usage charge we are talking about IS NOT MEANT JUST TO COVER THE COST OF REPAIRING THE ROAD. It is meant to improve the quality of life.
A gross tax based on use of the roads the fuel tax works just dandy! I will submit in order to prevent conjestion an entrance tax still makes sence too, but fuel tax in conjuction with an entrence tax seems to be all that are required rather then satalight based tracking of autos and billing them for their use.
While I'm still thinking that fuel tax + city parking fees + lowcost parking outside the city near a major transit center, I do see where you are comming from and still don't see a need for satalight based tracking of autos.
One may argue as well that living in a rural area enjoys some serious benifits over living in the city, and because of the high quality of life you get taxed for it. After all, being required to commuite has an impact on the eniroment as well. I'm willing to believe though that worst offending poluters are ones stuck in serious conjection.
I live in central London. Since the congestion charge started 6 months ago (five pounds to drive in central london during the working day), traffic outside my window has dropped dramatically. Noise is down. Pollution is down.
Actually I think I get it just fine, which is probally why propane fuel is not taxed so much. I will freely admit that my attitudes are prejusted based on living in America, in a state where there are endless arguments regarding who actually should pay for the roads rather then just accepting that we all benifit from them.
My current one is actually the Microsoft Optical Trackball. While there are those here that might be offended by my use of a Microsoft(tm) product, I will express that I looked long and hard for this design.
d ucts/de tails&CRID=6&CONTENTID=5002&countryid=19&languagei d=1
My old favorite was the first generation logitech trackball dubbed the snail. you use your thumb to move the ball around, and your three fingers on the buttons. But it being a traditional tracking device the little rubber rollers were subject to wear and it no longer worked like a mouse.
I selected the Microsoft one because it has a series of 5 buttons, rather then the Logitech Product "Trackman Wheel" only has the three buttons. I would have prefered the logitech as it offers a wireless model, but I enjoy having the extra two buttons too much.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=pro
Oddly enough, the cheeper "marble mouse" has 4 buttons but no scroll wheel looked acceptable enough to me to buy. But I don't feel quite as comfortable using it. The ball feels too big on my finger and I don't have the same accuracy as I would with a smaller ball like the Kensington orbit series. Those I enjoy, but I do prefer having the access to a scroll wheel.
Personaly I find the "Kensington Turbo Mouse" to be a touch cumbersome to use because when i'm controlling the ball, I can't click, basicly making it a two handed mouse. I can agree that as far as precise control it's perfectly spiffy.
Coffee is typicaly served at 180 F /82 c. A spill would hurt, but not cause 3rd degree burns. I believe 15 seconds of exposure is required to cause 3rd degree burns at that temp, and franky spilled coffee cools quickly enough for this to not be an issue. A first degree burn (sunburn) is far more likely... a second degree burn (blister) *might* happen.
/87.7 C and 210 F / 98.8 C, basicly turning up their perkulator to boiling and then turning it down a notch. They also made the choice not to tell anyone about it, it being a trade secret why their coffee is still hot when you take it to work. The woman lost skin and nerves as a direct result of this liquid served unusualy hot.
McDonalds in their wisdom decided to serve their coffee at between 190F and 210 f (87.7 c to 98.8 c), basicly boiling into the cup. This was so a person can get coffee, drive to work, and have it still be hot (180ish F). This is all well and good, but they didn't make it clear that their coffee was served so hot. I've tried McDonalds coffee in the past before this sue, and it was awful burnt stuff that scorched my tounge. I was totally unaware of their practice personaly, and never returned to their coffee after that.
The woman in question was not aware how hot the coffee was, which I can understand as neither did I till I actually tried to drink it in their establishment. At 190F / 87.7c it only takes 3 seconds to produce 3rd degree burns. The woman did recieve 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her groin, inner thighs and buttocks. The woman in question required skin grafts as a direct result. This wouldn't have ever been an issue if the coffee was served at 180F, generally accepted as being hot but not hot enough to spoil the taste of the coffee.
Now the woman did spill the product in her lap, and everyone knows coffee is typicaly *hot*, so that clearly is her fault. But McDonnalds made a choice to serve their coffee hotter then the other guys, between 190 F
This isn't about being daft, it's not being common knowlege that a spill from this stuff is as dangerious as taking a pot with boiling water and splashing it on your groin. McDonnalds was stupid, they got sued, and lost.
As a direct result, there are standards with the serving temp of coffee, which is good as too hot spoils the flavor. You can ask for coffee served extra hot (190F / 87.7C) but typicaly it's sold at a temp that you can actually drink when served.
A fuel tax is a very unfair way to tax cars, especially in Europe
No, it's perfectly fair, what you pay is based on your consumption of fuel which tends to be proportional to how much you drive.
Our present system tends to car users in rural areas more than car owners in urban areas because the distances they have to drive tend to be larger.
This is what i'm not fully understanding. A person in a rural area has to drive more then a person in a urban area. They use more road daily, create more wear and tear on the road daily, they pay more money to use the road cause they use it more.
More over, less users on a particular road doesn't mean less cost, far from it. If you want to be realistic it costs more money per person on a lightly traveled road to put it in then it does on a with more people each paying their fair share.
Charging people a tax based on how many miles they use the road seems to be exactly the target goal. A tax on the fuel it uses is perfectly fair because it not only takes distance traveled into account, but also the vehicels weight.
Now... if you still think it's unfair for rural users to pay more money because they are required to use a car, there are two easy solutions.
1. Lower the tax for the rural users, either at the pump, with a card based tax discount, or some sorta refund from the tax department.
2. Move to a place with public transport so you don't have to use a car at all.
You can start nickpicking about rural users feeling like they are getting the short end of the stick, just as major metropolitan areas might feel it's not nessicary for their hard earned dollars to go into rural roads they don't even use, but let's face it... we all benifit from roads. Without roads you wouldn't have such swift access to goods and services, esp if you are a rural user. It's only common sence that a group effort to fund roads benifits all people. Rural users pay more to get anywhere... that's just a fact of living in a rural area.
If you still feel it is unfair... then I know at least in england there is a major major tax break for switching to propane fuel, as well as the benifit of lower cost per gallon due to less taxes. Propane is one of the lowest cost conversions i'm aware for automobiles. Even rural cars polute, you don't don't notice it as much.
Sorry, taxing users based on how much road they use makes perfect sence to me, and fuel is a fairly accurate means of metering useage. Drive a motorcycle, you use less fuel and pay less tax.
If you take a car in Paris then you are a pretentious twit who deserves to get his socks taxed off.
Ummmm. gas tax!
In rural france however, there are many areas where there is no public transport and the car is the only way to move about
Ummmm, lower rural gas tax.
Where I live there is a tax on fuel, but boat users can submit their rescripts to get a refund, as boats don't use the roads.
The idea about sattelite-based tracing is to make it more expensive to drive during rush-hour then at night, more expensive in city centers then in the country etc
Well... gas tax covers this to a degree, as in idle cars are buring fuel. Tracking seems like overkill though.... I would think it would be a hell of alot more simple to employ barcodes or radio tags for arterial and or city entry during such times you wish to discourage traffic.
Actually, the local doctor where I lived as a kid was from Hiroshima and was there during the blast. From the story I was told she and her twin sister were bathing in a local pond. She was fortunate enough to have been under water at the time and survived. Her twin sister was half incinerated.
Europe is not yet that integrated and the countries are relatively small. If vehicles are refueled outside of a country, but drive through another one, the minister of finance of the other country won't see a cent.
There is this issue in America, the fact of the matter is you can go to another state and buy gas and make out ahead if indeed it's cheeper cross the border. Many Canadians can do the same thing. It's not very practical to do this for the most part because the amount of money you save is pretty trivial, and in Europe where the gas prices are higher you are not very likely to save anything at all.
While this is a true statement, people driving through small countries will likely be doing so on major arterials / highways. It would be common sence if these trans-country highways were trans-federaly funded. This way the minister of finance will of these small countries would actually get money from these users.
If you want to be more fair about it, by all means peform a simple accounting system of how many users actually use the roadways in order to device up EU funds. I don't know all the details of EU finance, but it's only common sence. If the amount of users in a small country exceeds it's population for example, it would be only common sence for their minister of finance to patition the EU for road funding.
Besides, I would *think* you'd have less of an issue with this in Europe where there actually is something resembling public transport.
yeah, but what they really want to do is charge more for certain roads or road types - eg super-mega-freeways will be expensive (but fast and convenient), whereas smaller roads will be slow but cheap.
What they want to do is create a redundent costly beaurocracy on top of an already universialy simple system negating the fact that a country, much like a community, sholdering the burden as a whole makes like easier for everyone.
Just tax the god damned gas. Fuck creating a seperate tax system that has to pay for extra beaurocrats and a ton of extra staff to bill you when the gas stations are more then willing to do it for you.
Righto... things like this drive me nuts. There presently already is a cheep and efficent means of taxing cars based on distance they drive. By taxing the fuel it self you have an accurate means of charging for a vehicel's use on the road. Heavier vehicels such as SUVs pay more then a honda driver due to the fact that these vehicels use more fuel per mile.
Users who wish to by-pass being taxed on the fuel they use can already make the switch to propane, methane, alcohol, hydrogen, and a number of alternatives which i'd argue they deserve a reward if their fuel solution has a postive impact on air quality.
Users who don't drive as much don't pay as much tax. Users who drive a hell of alot pay a hell of alot.
Low tech, simple, difficult to circumvent, and already implemented. Who could ask for anything more?
I imagine that we will always consider toll roads in order to actually pay for specific roads that we can't convience the general public that we all actually benifit from. That's all well and good, but generaly speaking if you want to employ a general use fee for the roads you use, take the freaking fuel and don't bother launching high tech tracking devices. Barcodes and or radio tags would be perfectly dandy to maintain flow and charge a specific use tax for toll roads. If you really want to maintain your privacy, keep a cash only lane open.
Upside - smaller files to be sent. Downside is some CPU time spent at each end compressing/decompressing the files. This can be trivial in fairly static sites, become serious in very dynamic ones.
For static sites, wouldn't it make more sence to already have the file compressed. a sorta index.html.GZ for example? This way only the client has to bother with depression.
Agreed... I've known a number of independent record stores who's business was to carry new / used music that the big guys just didn't carry.
Many of them failed, which is sad but hey, most new businesses fail after 5 years anyway. This was before CD-R drives and Napster became popular.
The real problem is it's difficult for a one store owner to compete with the larger chains who have a massive selection of pop crap. You can say what you will about pop crap but you can't deny people buy it. Hell, even the large chains music shops closed their doors due to the fact that the mega all-in-one shops were undercutting their prices. I find this most sad because shops, indy or otherwise, who sell only music employ people who know something about it. K-mart employs people who are clean cut but don't have clue one about the music. I've always tried to avoid the clean cut stores in favor of people who actually have a clue.
Flatbed scanners used for video video conferencing? Twain support for video confrencing is not only practical, but solves that pesky privacy issue. When you want to actually participate in a video conference, all you need do is press your face to the glass and talk. When you need to leave the conference for a moment, people can't see what you are doing. Users who accidently leave their cameras on will only reveal what their ceiling looks like, or what the top of their scanner lid looks like.
The Philly firedepartment has said that this a valued tool to reduce the number of false alarms. User at alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.genitals-on-scanner says that they've been using this technology for years and it's not just an office prank.
Dialup modems still offer compression, but they are none too useful for compressing jpeg and gif files. Also, dialup modems often times are limited by a DTE speed of 115kb/sec where I believe text can easily be compressed by a factor of 4 or higher.
Which brings me to what i'm curious about. Wouldn't it be possible to serve compressed text pages that get de-compressed at the browser's end, there by actually reducing the actual number of bytes used to transfer information?
Actually... Comcast did raise their speeds I believe in Oregon and Atlantam l2 Bsp eed+%2Bincrease&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=1 JK3b.226372%24It4.108600%40rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.n et&rnum=5
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5060321.ht
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bcomcast+%
I believe that this is in part due to the pressue of earthlink dsl service, which offers 1.5meg/128k (384k in some regions) for roughly $50 a month.
Both comcast and earthlink WILL lower their monthly rate as part of a promotional deal to $30 a month when asked.
In tacoma, washington, there has been a local cable provider that provides broadband starting at $30.00 monthly with speeds typicaly 1.5m/128k depending on the isp you choosem as well as higher speeds for more money. BYOM (Bring your own modem).
In addition, they offer "worldgate service" which is basicly a form of web-tv. I don't have an exact quote of the speed, last time I checked though it was 128k/128k at roughly $12.00 monthly. To be honest, I have not tried worldgate service so I don't know the details of it.
I wonder if all this is worth the effort. For instance, Bell canada offers low speed dsl which is capped around 25 KB/s ~= 5x dial-up for only a couple dollars more than regular dial up. When you add in the fact that you don't have to tie up the phone line, and the other advantages of DSL such as high speed on all pages, not just frequently visited ones, you really have to wonder why anyone uses dial up at all anymore.
1: Dialup is available everywhere there is a phone line and is not dependent on a physical location. Even acoustic adapters exist for when you can't tie directly into the physical line, though limited to low speeds. DSL is not available everywhere, and is tied directly to a physical location. Contracts are often times 1 year, and are none too useful for people who move around alot.
2: DSL modems cost more then dialup modems typicaly speaking. Chances are your PC is already equiped with a modem so there is no additional fees or contracts.
3: People are attached to their e-mail addresses, using them rather like phone numbers. Changing ISPs often means a change of e-mail addresses.
While I personaly agree with you, if it was just a bang for the buck issue, i'd vote for 25KB/s dsl over dialup anyday. Never the less there are some good solid reasons why people stick to dialup.
Unless you're hungry or have a self-image problem, you're not likely to find a wallet with more money in it than your pride is worth to you.
No one needs morality when there isn't enough to eat, yes. It's why I had NO major complaints when I lost my wallet once only to find all my cards returned via US postal service. I was like 15/16 at the time, probally had enough cash for a school lunch as well as a driving permit, phone list, and misc other shit. Actually only the cards and misc crap was mailed back to me, the few bucks and wallet were never returned. All and all I can't complain.
I don't see it as a self image problem. Either the person who found my wallet needed my few bucks, didn't have any moral issues keeping the few bucks, or the wallet was actually run over and the contents scattered across the roadway. It would only be a self image problem if they percieved them selves as being honest yet using the finder's keepers rule.
This is not to say I haven't used the finder's keepers rule my self, but only after a good honest effort of trying to find the rightful owner. This happened once with a bankcard that I find stuck in a machine. I contacted the bank to report that it had been found, they wanted me to cut it up, I tried again to report it found, they said it was reported stolen. I asked for the address of the account holder so I can mail it back, they said they couldn't do that. I asked if I could give them MY address so the account holder could contact me to retrieve it, they said they couldn't do that either. I asked if I could mail it to them and they can mail it to the approperate address, they said no. I gave up on this and finally used it to apply bondo, and it might very well still exist in a bondo segment in my old car.
I guess I can respond to this being a human, though it's not directly related to shoplifting.
I've found a number of lost wallets and misc items. My knee jerk responce is to find the owner as it sucks loosing money, credit cards, and misc bits of paper that are required to operate in today's world. Costco is the most common place I find abandoned purses and things, fortunatly these days they have mobile phones in them.
Later on I think, d'oh could have gotten free cash, perhaps a tank of gas, but the moral responce wins. This isn't a fear of getting caught, it's just doing the cool thing.