and I begin to feel that we are slipping greatly in the subject of English.
People have felt that way five days after the first word was said. What we would consider very good, elegant English today would be offensively substandard for the educated 50-75 years ago, and somewhat unintelligible 100-125 years ago (and interestingly enough, the educated language dialect of 125 years ago would sound positively strange to a person educated or uneducated today, though we would mostly understand it.) This is not a big amount of time in the great scheme of things.
I used to get very depressed about the corruption of the language, but, as I became more interested in linguistics, I also became fascinated by how language changes. The linguist is interested in how's and why's, but not the "shoulds" of language change. Miscommunication is always a concern, but language is always evolving new ways of expressing concepts when other parts of the language die.
The French are notorious for policing their language, but, nevertheless, their language is a corruption from what it once was. This became clear to me when I saw the movie "The visitors" which has a lot of dialogue in Medieval French. Based on my knowledge of French (minor in college) I understood the Medieval French better than modern French. Remember that the Norman Invasion brought French careening into English. English carried on a lot of constructions, sayings, metaphors, et cetera, that the French added, but the French themselves went on a different path over those nearly thousand years. Odd that after a few years of college French, I find it easier to understand French from 1000 years ago than English from 1000 years ago.
Err...my argument for non-photo licenses (or I guess in other terms, photo optional licenses) is unrelated to race issues. My arguments in favor of photo optional licensing are rooted in privacy and security.
Somehow I collected the fax numbers of a bunch of newspapers and radio/TV stations in Ohio, wrote out a press release (go ahead and check out press released that other companies have written, found on their websites in the about us sections) and then faxed em over.
Apparently the preference is for emails these days, and the best you can do (without consulting an expensive book on media contacts) is just go searching the web for the newspapers you want to contact, and see what they say about sending press releases.
I've started the process of lobbying my state legislature (Ohio) to allow a voter to opt-out from using the DRE's...and vote on a paper ballot to be counted by the pollworker...if they wanted.
In fact, this is what I sent a state representative today:
The controversy concerning voting machine technology reliability and security alarm many Ohioans. The beauty of the elections system is that it has been tried and tested for many decades...processing votes by hand.
As a pollwoker myself, I believe that an Ohioan should be able to vote in the way they feel most comfortable and confident; clearly the failures in Florida reflect this. If a voter doesn't feel that the voting machine will count their vote accurately, they should not be forced to vote that way.
For this reason, I request that legislation be introduced allowing for an Ohio voter to opt out of using the machine and vote on a paper ballot.
I am not entirely sure on how this would work...certainly a county could print up a number of pre-printed cards with the candidate/referendum choices. However, it could also be possible for a voter to simply write down their choices, at the polls, on a piece of paper, and that paper be submitted into a ballot box (or envelope) for counting at the end of the night.
I believe this greatly enhances the security of the voting machines...voting machine companies would always be competing with the tried and true method of voting, and that competition will make for a better voting system. Not to mention the fact that Ohio voters will appreciate having the choice.
There's no reason why someone should be forced to vote on a machine they don't want to use, please make it possible for Ohio law to recognize this.
I got very irked once when a friend of mine mentioned that he was asked to copy his photo driver's license in order to get phone service (fortunately he lived in an area where you can choose another phone service provider, and he did.)
I then realized the catch...in order for Ameritech/SBC to give phone service, you have to send in a copy of your own driver's license...which indicates what race you are. So as part of my troublemaking activities, I sent out a press release for my little privacy organization saying that Ameritech was illegally collecting racial information on its clients, as a condition for phone service. (And if they kept it on record, any Ameritech employee could find out what race you are simply by checking your file.)
After a phone call or two (and a radio station claiming that Ameritech said that the photocopies didn't copy well enough to indicate race, but most photo driver's license will copy well enough to show the race of the individual, especially those licenses here in Ameritech's service region-(the east) I believe the've stopped the practice.
Now...what's this about the RIAA collecting racial information?
Most places have gone over to public funded and constructed roads because on the whole it works quite a bit better for everyone
I don't consider roads "public funded" in the same way NASA is publicly funded...the only people who pay for roads are those who pay motor vehicle registration fees, driver's license fees and gasoline taxes. It's all just a user fee system, and to say that the roads are public funded is like saying that passports are public funded, when in reality they are paid for only by the individuals who need them.
It so happens that government is the collector and owner of the roadways...and frankly, the only reason for that is because government is much more effective at getting right of way for roads than private institutions. If that weren't the case I think we would live in complex matrices of private roadways.
Businesses in FL are used to this sort of thing, and still would probably prefer the no-income tax benefit of FL over relocating to a different state.
While I agree that businesses in Florida may be used to it, I'm not so sure about the conclusion.
States without income tax often have to resort to "nuisance" taxes on random shiat, as noted above. There's quite a lot of red tape and bureaucracy involved, for both businesses and government, in enforcing tax compliance.
Not saying that the income tax does not introduce red tape and bureaucracy (but, generally, state (personal) income taxes are vastly simplified in comparison to federal, and the collection of which is a very minor paperwork issue for businesses. Furthermore, it is possible to design a corporate income tax that's simple (though states like to fark that up.)
Having said that, Florida would not make a good income tax state. A good percentage of the population lives there only a few months of the year, and another good percentage of the population is retired and therefore has no yearly income anyway.
In the past the Libertarian Party has had somethign called "operation homeless" (at least, that's what I recall) that asked homeless people the questions from the world's smallest political quiz.
They were overwhelmingly libertarian. The party marketed this by saying that the homeless know that the government is holding them back.
I believe (and I happen to be an employee of the party in some capacity, so keep that in mind) that this was the wrong conclusion. The real reason is that the homeless don't like to be entangled, don't like to make agreements, and really just want to be left alone with no responsibility, no registration, no contractural obligations.) There is so much financial help that one can get in the form of welfare, food stamps, et cetera...and they choose not to do it, sometimes it is pride, but often it's this amazing resistance to being registered (and i should also think dependent on one entity.)
Being homeless is the ultimate form of freedom (though the quality of life leave much to be desired.) I dunno if homeless in other countries are like this, but this often appears to be the case here. Nothing better than making your living "anonymously."
So there is a cost to allowing gambling. I have a problem with the government getting a vested interest in what could be viewed as also having a negitive societal cost. Seems like dirty money to me.
It's interesting to note here that, while Nevada has had legalized prostitution (in some counties) since 1955, the government has chosen to regulate but not tax that industry--which is amazingly lucrative. I suspect that they were indeed bothered by the idea of making money off of it (apparently Nevada's current fiscal shape is making them rethink their no-tax stance.)
I would recommend reading Sheldon Richman's book "Separating School and State" as a primer on the issues affecting education.
It discusses the idea that the model of our public school system is Prussian, a model specficially designed to make children uninterested, fatigued dopes, with a small percentage of them who can thrive in that terribly unnatural environment.
One of my favorite quotes from it is "The overwhelming evidence shows that American schools have never achieved more than they currently achieve." (Gerald Bracey)
The book obviuosly has a strong Libertarian bent, you may not like all of it, but the history makes for great reading.
Considering that one of the leading theories for the cause of the cascading blackout is a surge in the Niagara Mohawk power grid
This does not appear to be the case anymore...in fact, this seems like very old news...everything I've read suggests that all the interest focuses on Ohio and possibly Michigan...but somewhere in the great lakes [and on a side note, neither state is midwest, midwest doesn't start until central time, why doesn't CNN understand that?] not the N-M system.
I want to say that the blackout from years ago may have had the N-M system as a factor, so people jumped on that. This is clearly a different power failure.
It seems to me that just about any place I've ever worked that had a similar policy had a lot more problems than those without. Every AV software I've seen has some odd, random complication with particular programs. (That's usually the problem I've encountered. I still can't get my AV software and Eudora to get along, and I don't consider that an unusual program.)
AV software saves lives, but it's such a bitch to use. I liken it to a doctor following you around all day...yes you stay in good shape, and he'll detect an infection pretty quickly, but with considerable annoyance and negative productivity.
I'm going to be asking my state representatives to allow individuals who decide not to vote on the machines the ability to vote by good old pen and paper.
The pollworker system is actually pretty good. You have two "democrats" and two "republicans" (most of the time that's the case, but independents and other party people can be switch-hitters) and they watch over a particular precinct. The four person design was put in place to count votes when they were pen and paper. (Even in the county I live in, we have machines that count the votes and print the votes on magnetic tape and paper tape. However, votes for write ins are still counted by the pollworkers.)
So individuals who do not trust the machines can just vote pen and paper and let the pollworkers count em. I like that, because I trust the four people who I've seen at my polling station for many years now a lot more than some dingbat company and their closed code.
I've done lots of privacy work, especially concerning driver's license privacy.
About a year and a half ago, a well known local school board member (known for being very troublesome to other school board members, but extremely well respected and liked by the voters in his community) had an article printed about him in the newspaper saying that he had two driver's licenses.
The question was, how did they find out he had two licenses, since license data is protected by both state and national law. Unless the DMV actually had decided to take action against him (which they had not) someone with access to the database must have called up the paper.
So I called him up, and he said a few days before the article came out, he and his daughter were pulled over. His daughter was driving, but they were in a rented car, so the officer wanted to see his license, because he rented the car. The officer recognized who he was, talked about their military records, and let them on their way. So the hypothesis was that this officer then scanned through the computer, and found the two licenses, and called up the newspaper--which is where the violation of law occurred.
(With regard to the two licenses, the person claimed that it was an error on the part of the DMV. The two records had two different SSNs.)
Anyway, so I did the obvious. Based on freedom of information act, we asked the DMV and the state highway patrol (who runs the computer that the cops use in this state) to give us the data on who accessed the license records and when (a simple record request.)
The DMV cooperated immediately...and nothing of consequence there...they checked his license(s) records when the local newspaper called, to confirm whether or not he did have two licenses (an act which may have violated DPPA (driver's privacy protection act) but that hasn't been determined yet.)
The state highway patrol said that they didn't have to give up their records. Well, I checked through everything I could, but I couldn't find a single place which gave them that authority (though they claimed it.) They said they would perform an internal investigation, and give us the results of that investigation, but would redact the information concerning whom actually looked at his license(s) records.
The story ends there, more or less. The school board member decided that this issue wasn't worth pursuing, given time and resources. And he felt that he already caused enough trouble.
(Actually the story ends this way...two agents of the DMV came to his house and told him that if he gives up the two licenses, they will just reissue him one license at the DMV and that will be that. I don't need to tell you that this is pretty irregular behavior by the DMV (they didn't even charge him) but even with all the time I spend researching the DMV, I can't figure out why they did it.)
I guess the point is, the ability to get auditing records of such a database is vital for making sure it's being used correctly. When a state agency refuses to give up auditing records on yourself, it implies that a need for greater oversight on how they operate.
(My signature talks about my current driver's license privacy project in New Jersey...I wanted yall to know that it didn't happen in NJ, but in Ohio.)
What I imagine would be optimal would be a visual feedback that looked like you were pressing your finger into an LCD panel. The more you pressed (the deeper you went) the colors would become darker, more intense, and the surface area of the "blotch" would become larger.
I've had this idea rolling around in my head...though this technology is not strictly speaking a holograpm (but is some type of OVD--optical variable device.)
I would market with one little company, a special type of thin transparent paper that could go through a regular ink jet (and with a special ink jet cartridge) that could create high quality holograms. Sold obstensibly for "document security" their may purpose would be for faking the holograms on driver's licenses.
Then I would have another company selling really expensive equipment to banks and bars to detect fake licenses. The expensive equipment isn't all that sophisticated, all it would be doing is picking up a random particle that was specifically embedded into the holographic paper sold by the first company above. For some reason though, it also would reject some Lousiana driver's licenses.
Then, I change the holographic tansparent sheeting, put a new random particle in it...and then market a very expensive upgrade from the other company to the banks, bars, et cetera, so that they can now detect the new paper (but not detecting the old paper as well, Lousiana licenses work better, but now Alberta licenses are rejected.)
I would do this until someone figueres it out and requires me to take my cash and assortment of women out of the country.
As we've seen by the slashdot comments so far...many people all across the country have been able to get this DVR through Time Warner...and have had it for several months.
Admittedly, the article was written for New Yorkers, but it seems to imply that New York will be the first area to receive the Time Warner DVR, which isn't the case.
I guess my bitch is that I take it as another form of New York centrism...but perhaps I'm being too rough on the article.
rating: 8...problems with 1-10 scales
on
Solaris 9 For Dummies
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
This is an observation, but I have to wonder what a rating of 8 means (for this book.)
The reason is, individuals have their own ideas of where their 1-10 scales are centered. There are some people who center truly center the scales at 5, meaning that an 8 is a relatively good score. Some center them much higher, like in the 7 range, meaning that they give high numbers to absolutely everything. For myself, I center my scale relatively lowly...meaning that I never given a 10 for anything, a 9 is damn hard to come by, and a 5 is a relatively good score coming from me (I've described 3 as "ok" which pretty much makes 3 the center of my 1-10 scale.) This of course would imply that the spacing along a scale not on 5 is not geometric...but may be logarithmic.
It's a random thought off the top of my head...but I guess I'm saying that I dont think that 1-10 scales are really a good way of expressing opinion without knowing how that individual uses that scale.
Him: "Can slashdot tell me what I need to get myself boostrapped and productive?"
You: "You know what you need punk? To bootstrap yourself and get to work!"
He knows what his problem is, that's why he's asking the/. community. He's seeking out different ways at becoming productive. Your response was delightfully unhelpful.
Some people are blessed with the talent to just be effortlessly productive. Others need to put effort into it, some will not become productive until a crisis hits them, and a few will never be productive at all (which costs everyone time and money.) If you're in the first group, then congratulations, if you're in the second group, then congratulations that you found your system, if you're in the third group then I'm sorry for whatever may have happened (that also seem to have added a new crutch to you that you're not entirely aware of.)
I hear "high speed" as "very fast", and "full speed" as "fast as possible." But then again what do I know, clearly the group that made the change is more sensible.;)
Clearly these sensible folks have served many years writing the language sections of the SAT, warmly redifining the way words work.
High is to Full as
a.) Low is to Destroyed b.) Short is to Paralyzed c.) Perfunctory is to Realistic d.) Unrealized is to Maximum ____________ (Subtly created so that the answer is, as it always is, c.)
Toddlers might sometimes wonder why people need to learn so many words and learn to speak in complicated phrases, when it seems that all you really need to do is point and cry to get what you want. Then we grow up.
"Growing up" should never be taken as either a positive thing or a way of obtaining enrichment or as a manifestation of intelligence.
Even as a linguist, an individual who truly loves the power and diversity of language, I'm just delighted to know that a toddler can point and cry to express a wide variety of concepts, from the pleading
Slashdot Mirror
and I begin to feel that we are slipping greatly in the subject of English.
People have felt that way five days after the first word was said. What we would consider very good, elegant English today would be offensively substandard for the educated 50-75 years ago, and somewhat unintelligible 100-125 years ago (and interestingly enough, the educated language dialect of 125 years ago would sound positively strange to a person educated or uneducated today, though we would mostly understand it.) This is not a big amount of time in the great scheme of things.
I used to get very depressed about the corruption of the language, but, as I became more interested in linguistics, I also became fascinated by how language changes. The linguist is interested in how's and why's, but not the "shoulds" of language change. Miscommunication is always a concern, but language is always evolving new ways of expressing concepts when other parts of the language die.
The French are notorious for policing their language, but, nevertheless, their language is a corruption from what it once was. This became clear to me when I saw the movie "The visitors" which has a lot of dialogue in Medieval French. Based on my knowledge of French (minor in college) I understood the Medieval French better than modern French. Remember that the Norman Invasion brought French careening into English. English carried on a lot of constructions, sayings, metaphors, et cetera, that the French added, but the French themselves went on a different path over those nearly thousand years. Odd that after a few years of college French, I find it easier to understand French from 1000 years ago than English from 1000 years ago.
Err...my argument for non-photo licenses (or I guess in other terms, photo optional licenses) is unrelated to race issues. My arguments in favor of photo optional licensing are rooted in privacy and security.
Somehow I collected the fax numbers of a bunch of newspapers and radio/TV stations in Ohio, wrote out a press release (go ahead and check out press released that other companies have written, found on their websites in the about us sections) and then faxed em over.
Apparently the preference is for emails these days, and the best you can do (without consulting an expensive book on media contacts) is just go searching the web for the newspapers you want to contact, and see what they say about sending press releases.
I've started the process of lobbying my state legislature (Ohio) to allow a voter to opt-out from using the DRE's...and vote on a paper ballot to be counted by the pollworker...if they wanted.
In fact, this is what I sent a state representative today:
The controversy concerning voting machine technology reliability and security alarm many Ohioans. The beauty of the elections system is that it has been tried and tested for many decades...processing votes by hand.
As a pollwoker myself, I believe that an Ohioan should be able to vote in the way they feel most comfortable and confident; clearly the failures in Florida reflect this. If a voter doesn't feel that the voting machine will count their vote accurately, they should not be forced to vote that way.
For this reason, I request that legislation be introduced allowing for an Ohio voter to opt out of using the machine and vote on a paper ballot.
I am not entirely sure on how this would work...certainly a county could print up a number of pre-printed cards with the candidate/referendum choices. However, it could also be possible for a voter to simply write down their choices, at the polls, on a piece of paper, and that paper be submitted into a ballot box (or envelope) for counting at the end of the night.
I believe this greatly enhances the security of the voting machines...voting machine companies would always be competing with the tried and true method of voting, and that competition will make for a better voting system. Not to mention the fact that Ohio voters will appreciate having the choice.
There's no reason why someone should be forced to vote on a machine they don't want to use, please make it possible for Ohio law to recognize this.
I got very irked once when a friend of mine mentioned that he was asked to copy his photo driver's license in order to get phone service (fortunately he lived in an area where you can choose another phone service provider, and he did.)
I then realized the catch...in order for Ameritech/SBC to give phone service, you have to send in a copy of your own driver's license...which indicates what race you are. So as part of my troublemaking activities, I sent out a press release for my little privacy organization saying that Ameritech was illegally collecting racial information on its clients, as a condition for phone service. (And if they kept it on record, any Ameritech employee could find out what race you are simply by checking your file.)
After a phone call or two (and a radio station claiming that Ameritech said that the photocopies didn't copy well enough to indicate race, but most photo driver's license will copy well enough to show the race of the individual, especially those licenses here in Ameritech's service region-(the east) I believe the've stopped the practice.
Now...what's this about the RIAA collecting racial information?
Most places have gone over to public funded and constructed roads because on the whole it works quite a bit better for everyone
I don't consider roads "public funded" in the same way NASA is publicly funded...the only people who pay for roads are those who pay motor vehicle registration fees, driver's license fees and gasoline taxes. It's all just a user fee system, and to say that the roads are public funded is like saying that passports are public funded, when in reality they are paid for only by the individuals who need them.
It so happens that government is the collector and owner of the roadways...and frankly, the only reason for that is because government is much more effective at getting right of way for roads than private institutions. If that weren't the case I think we would live in complex matrices of private roadways.
Businesses in FL are used to this sort of thing, and still would probably prefer the no-income tax benefit of FL over relocating to a different state.
While I agree that businesses in Florida may be used to it, I'm not so sure about the conclusion.
States without income tax often have to resort to "nuisance" taxes on random shiat, as noted above. There's quite a lot of red tape and bureaucracy involved, for both businesses and government, in enforcing tax compliance.
Not saying that the income tax does not introduce red tape and bureaucracy (but, generally, state (personal) income taxes are vastly simplified in comparison to federal, and the collection of which is a very minor paperwork issue for businesses. Furthermore, it is possible to design a corporate income tax that's simple (though states like to fark that up.)
Having said that, Florida would not make a good income tax state. A good percentage of the population lives there only a few months of the year, and another good percentage of the population is retired and therefore has no yearly income anyway.
that quiz is rigged and you know it. What % of the people that take it come out as libertarian?
About 20% of individuals score "libertarian" enough in the quiz for us to consider sending them an information packet.
In the past the Libertarian Party has had somethign called "operation homeless" (at least, that's what I recall) that asked homeless people the questions from the world's smallest political quiz.
They were overwhelmingly libertarian. The party marketed this by saying that the homeless know that the government is holding them back.
I believe (and I happen to be an employee of the party in some capacity, so keep that in mind) that this was the wrong conclusion. The real reason is that the homeless don't like to be entangled, don't like to make agreements, and really just want to be left alone with no responsibility, no registration, no contractural obligations.) There is so much financial help that one can get in the form of welfare, food stamps, et cetera...and they choose not to do it, sometimes it is pride, but often it's this amazing resistance to being registered (and i should also think dependent on one entity.)
Being homeless is the ultimate form of freedom (though the quality of life leave much to be desired.) I dunno if homeless in other countries are like this, but this often appears to be the case here. Nothing better than making your living "anonymously."
The bigger question is how you ever got to talk to a person?
When Claire...the happy automted Sprint PCS minion asks "how can I help you today" you reply "cancel service."
With time, and efficiently allocation of the telephone numbers to companies, this will be possible, in a slightly different form:
(999)555-1236--fax
:-)
(999)555-1234--landline
(999)555-1235--moible
Can't do it exactly with the prefix, but could with the, umm...suffix.
(I do meet people who do have phone numbers in order like that incidentally.)
So there is a cost to allowing gambling. I have a problem with the government getting a vested interest in what could be viewed as also having a negitive societal cost. Seems like dirty money to me.
It's interesting to note here that, while Nevada has had legalized prostitution (in some counties) since 1955, the government has chosen to regulate but not tax that industry--which is amazingly lucrative. I suspect that they were indeed bothered by the idea of making money off of it (apparently Nevada's current fiscal shape is making them rethink their no-tax stance.)
I would recommend reading Sheldon Richman's book "Separating School and State" as a primer on the issues affecting education.
It discusses the idea that the model of our public school system is Prussian, a model specficially designed to make children uninterested, fatigued dopes, with a small percentage of them who can thrive in that terribly unnatural environment.
One of my favorite quotes from it is "The overwhelming evidence shows that American schools have never achieved more than they currently achieve." (Gerald Bracey)
The book obviuosly has a strong Libertarian bent, you may not like all of it, but the history makes for great reading.
Considering that one of the leading theories for the cause of the cascading blackout is a surge in the Niagara Mohawk power grid
This does not appear to be the case anymore...in fact, this seems like very old news...everything I've read suggests that all the interest focuses on Ohio and possibly Michigan...but somewhere in the great lakes [and on a side note, neither state is midwest, midwest doesn't start until central time, why doesn't CNN understand that?] not the N-M system.
I want to say that the blackout from years ago may have had the N-M system as a factor, so people jumped on that. This is clearly a different power failure.
It seems to me that just about any place I've ever worked that had a similar policy had a lot more problems than those without. Every AV software I've seen has some odd, random complication with particular programs. (That's usually the problem I've encountered. I still can't get my AV software and Eudora to get along, and I don't consider that an unusual program.)
AV software saves lives, but it's such a bitch to use. I liken it to a doctor following you around all day...yes you stay in good shape, and he'll detect an infection pretty quickly, but with considerable annoyance and negative productivity.
I'm going to be asking my state representatives to allow individuals who decide not to vote on the machines the ability to vote by good old pen and paper.
The pollworker system is actually pretty good. You have two "democrats" and two "republicans" (most of the time that's the case, but independents and other party people can be switch-hitters) and they watch over a particular precinct. The four person design was put in place to count votes when they were pen and paper. (Even in the county I live in, we have machines that count the votes and print the votes on magnetic tape and paper tape. However, votes for write ins are still counted by the pollworkers.)
So individuals who do not trust the machines can just vote pen and paper and let the pollworkers count em. I like that, because I trust the four people who I've seen at my polling station for many years now a lot more than some dingbat company and their closed code.
I've done lots of privacy work, especially concerning driver's license privacy.
About a year and a half ago, a well known local school board member (known for being very troublesome to other school board members, but extremely well respected and liked by the voters in his community) had an article printed about him in the newspaper saying that he had two driver's licenses.
The question was, how did they find out he had two licenses, since license data is protected by both state and national law. Unless the DMV actually had decided to take action against him (which they had not) someone with access to the database must have called up the paper.
So I called him up, and he said a few days before the article came out, he and his daughter were pulled over. His daughter was driving, but they were in a rented car, so the officer wanted to see his license, because he rented the car. The officer recognized who he was, talked about their military records, and let them on their way. So the hypothesis was that this officer then scanned through the computer, and found the two licenses, and called up the newspaper--which is where the violation of law occurred.
(With regard to the two licenses, the person claimed that it was an error on the part of the DMV. The two records had two different SSNs.)
Anyway, so I did the obvious. Based on freedom of information act, we asked the DMV and the state highway patrol (who runs the computer that the cops use in this state) to give us the data on who accessed the license records and when (a simple record request.)
The DMV cooperated immediately...and nothing of consequence there...they checked his license(s) records when the local newspaper called, to confirm whether or not he did have two licenses (an act which may have violated DPPA (driver's privacy protection act) but that hasn't been determined yet.)
The state highway patrol said that they didn't have to give up their records. Well, I checked through everything I could, but I couldn't find a single place which gave them that authority (though they claimed it.) They said they would perform an internal investigation, and give us the results of that investigation, but would redact the information concerning whom actually looked at his license(s) records.
The story ends there, more or less. The school board member decided that this issue wasn't worth pursuing, given time and resources. And he felt that he already caused enough trouble.
(Actually the story ends this way...two agents of the DMV came to his house and told him that if he gives up the two licenses, they will just reissue him one license at the DMV and that will be that. I don't need to tell you that this is pretty irregular behavior by the DMV (they didn't even charge him) but even with all the time I spend researching the DMV, I can't figure out why they did it.)
I guess the point is, the ability to get auditing records of such a database is vital for making sure it's being used correctly. When a state agency refuses to give up auditing records on yourself, it implies that a need for greater oversight on how they operate.
(My signature talks about my current driver's license privacy project in New Jersey...I wanted yall to know that it didn't happen in NJ, but in Ohio.)
What I imagine would be optimal would be a visual feedback that looked like you were pressing your finger into an LCD panel. The more you pressed (the deeper you went) the colors would become darker, more intense, and the surface area of the "blotch" would become larger.
I've had this idea rolling around in my head...though this technology is not strictly speaking a holograpm (but is some type of OVD--optical variable device.)
I would market with one little company, a special type of thin transparent paper that could go through a regular ink jet (and with a special ink jet cartridge) that could create high quality holograms. Sold obstensibly for "document security" their may purpose would be for faking the holograms on driver's licenses.
Then I would have another company selling really expensive equipment to banks and bars to detect fake licenses. The expensive equipment isn't all that sophisticated, all it would be doing is picking up a random particle that was specifically embedded into the holographic paper sold by the first company above. For some reason though, it also would reject some Lousiana driver's licenses.
Then, I change the holographic tansparent sheeting, put a new random particle in it...and then market a very expensive upgrade from the other company to the banks, bars, et cetera, so that they can now detect the new paper (but not detecting the old paper as well, Lousiana licenses work better, but now Alberta licenses are rejected.)
I would do this until someone figueres it out and requires me to take my cash and assortment of women out of the country.
As we've seen by the slashdot comments so far...many people all across the country have been able to get this DVR through Time Warner...and have had it for several months.
Admittedly, the article was written for New Yorkers, but it seems to imply that New York will be the first area to receive the Time Warner DVR, which isn't the case.
I guess my bitch is that I take it as another form of New York centrism...but perhaps I'm being too rough on the article.
This is an observation, but I have to wonder what a rating of 8 means (for this book.)
The reason is, individuals have their own ideas of where their 1-10 scales are centered. There are some people who center truly center the scales at 5, meaning that an 8 is a relatively good score. Some center them much higher, like in the 7 range, meaning that they give high numbers to absolutely everything. For myself, I center my scale relatively lowly...meaning that I never given a 10 for anything, a 9 is damn hard to come by, and a 5 is a relatively good score coming from me (I've described 3 as "ok" which pretty much makes 3 the center of my 1-10 scale.) This of course would imply that the spacing along a scale not on 5 is not geometric...but may be logarithmic.
It's a random thought off the top of my head...but I guess I'm saying that I dont think that 1-10 scales are really a good way of expressing opinion without knowing how that individual uses that scale.
**Worst advice ever**
/. community. He's seeking out different ways at becoming productive. Your response was delightfully unhelpful.
Him: "Can slashdot tell me what I need to get myself boostrapped and productive?"
You: "You know what you need punk? To bootstrap yourself and get to work!"
He knows what his problem is, that's why he's asking the
Some people are blessed with the talent to just be effortlessly productive. Others need to put effort into it, some will not become productive until a crisis hits them, and a few will never be productive at all (which costs everyone time and money.) If you're in the first group, then congratulations, if you're in the second group, then congratulations that you found your system, if you're in the third group then I'm sorry for whatever may have happened (that also seem to have added a new crutch to you that you're not entirely aware of.)
(Many Highways were required by law to have a certain amount of space that could be used as a landing strip)
This is regrettably an urban myth:
US DOT document concerning this
Snopes document on it
I hear "high speed" as "very fast", and "full speed" as "fast as possible." But then again what do I know, clearly the group that made the change is more sensible. ;)
Clearly these sensible folks have served many years writing the language sections of the SAT, warmly redifining the way words work.
High is to Full as
a.) Low is to Destroyed
b.) Short is to Paralyzed
c.) Perfunctory is to Realistic
d.) Unrealized is to Maximum
____________
(Subtly created so that the answer is, as it always is, c.)
Toddlers might sometimes wonder why people need to learn so many words and learn to speak in complicated phrases, when it seems that all you really need to do is point and cry to get what you want. Then we grow up.
"Growing up" should never be taken as either a positive thing or a way of obtaining enrichment or as a manifestation of intelligence.
Even as a linguist, an individual who truly loves the power and diversity of language, I'm just delighted to know that a toddler can point and cry to express a wide variety of concepts, from the pleading
"Can I have the doggie in the window?"
to the effervescently snappy:
"Bitch, hold this."