Incorrect. There was plenty of evidence... both now with Obama and back when Dubya was in office. Citations: Compare the Patriot Act to the Constitution. Compare "Afghanistan and Iraq wars" against the lawful nature of declaration of war. Compare what was known about surveillance to the actual laws to the Constitution. There is a blatant and repeated disregard for the highest law of the land.
As for leaks: we don't know who to believe. Which news source? Which organization in government? They are going to discredit this guy as they did with every other leak so far. Perhaps rightly so perhaps not. We'll never truly know. When we don't know where to turn for good news, we'll just end up arguing amongst ourselves about trivial details... which will avoid us finding the real problems at hand.
I just had a image flash through my mind: Me in 10 years where I have 19 remotes just to turn on and set my TV, DVR, XBox One, Wii, Laptop, DRM Box, Cable Box, and iPod (all requiring Internet connection) -- just so that I can watch the latest Knight Rider reboot. Then I grumble about the good ol' days back in the 80s when I could just turn on the CRT with a quick switch and channel flip.
This program was secret until it was leaked. Are we really so naive as to think that worse things aren't being done that haven't been leaked? Maybe so, but I haven't been surprised at any of the government or business overreach in the last 15 years. So who's the one with the faulty paradigm? Sorry for the rant, I'm a little cranky today.
Don't apologize. You're allowed to be cranky when people say you're over-reacting, then a few years pass and what you said was happening did happen. Then you point that out to people and they still think you're overreacting. Then you scratch your head and wonder why people enjoy eating shit sandwiches. What is obvious to you and me is not obvious to others. I have my cranky days too.
Don't apologize. Just quietly figure out who you can talk to about it and speak softly. For the people who you can't talk to, don't say anything at all to them. They'll be the first to point at you when they are asked who doesn't like shit sandwiches.
Thank you for your support. I also posted my own response to geekoid along with some further (positive) information about my personal experiences dealing with this company.
geekoid, I'm rather surprised by the insult you hurled at me. I read your responses quite often. Sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't, but insults are not usually what I see from you. Maybe I have my filter set too high and only your better comments come through?
Perhaps what I suggest isn't the answer for BBC, but as I said, I use it. The one page on my website with the time on it actually has three different times on it because I have three different time zones. I have friends and family all over the world and I try to help them know what time it is where I live versus where I live. (It prevents phone calls in the middle of the night.) It successfully navigated the time zone change this spring... a time zone change which occurs about three weeks apart in the different countries.
For now, I'll just chalk up your insult to you having a bad day. Get some sleep and we'll shake hands in the morning.
Or This. Check out the API section. You'll have to drill down a couple of times.
No, I don't work for them, but I use the freebee version on my website. You'd have to pay if you were a company (especially the BCC), but it's only a few hundred bucks a year. Certainly less than paying 100 hours for a developer.
My brother and I didn't really bother to date when we were younger, although both of us definitely like women. Once, when he was in high school and I was in college, my Mom asked why we didn't date much and berated us for not asking the girls in our classes out more often -- to take a chance and just date women instead of being so picky. We briefly looked at each other, then looked at our Mom, and in a rapid fire back and forth between us explained to her that we weren't interested in drugs, alcohol, STDs, money moochers, and women who couldn't think. We both emphasized that's what our choices were. It was the last time our Mom ever asked us that.
There's a very good reason to store data. Local police will probably give it to the state or federal (FBI) police. I'm sure they can find ways around the HIPAA thing. It's a potential gold mine.
The Chicago Sun Times isn't throwing away "pixel quality" so much as "journalism quality" --- no wonder newspapers are dying.
They threw away real journalism a long time ago. Current newspapers around the country (both in print and online) are utter crap. Why bother keeping professional photographers if you have poorly written news?
Basically, all of the comments I see around here say "You need to have advanced math". I'm a programmer that tends to work with finances. Based on what I've read over the past few months here at Slashdot, I apparently need to be an expert in the following: advanced math, finances, client-server programming, web design, multi-threading, scripting, security (hardware and software), networking (on a hardware level), O.S. systems, tablet programming, database programming, database optimization, and multiple computer languages -- all that so that I can be a programmer at some company. What can a university offer in this list? Advanced math and finances, I suppose -- and I doubt very little practical application at that. My university (where I got my bachelors) certainly didn't teach anything that was useful for real world programming skills, but I digress.
No, I'm good at what I do, but I can't be an expert in everything. For most things, high school algebra at an advanced level will get you where you need to be. Some geometry and trig can be good from time to time as well. Game engine design and O.S. design? Yes, of course, you'll need higher maths. Most applications beyond that? No. That's what teams of people are for -- each with their own expertise. I fully agree that a programmer needs to be able to do more than program in just a single language (like Java), but I feel the comments I've been reading in Slashdot have been unreasonable. The poster asked if advanced math is reasonable and nearly everyone said yes. I disagree. I'll say yes but only for a very specific subset of computer science otherwise no. I challenge someone to make a list of what is reasonable for a programmer (or network engineer or O.S. guy) to know that can be learned in just a few short years that will actually help turn someone into a reasonable programmer. How much are we expecting him to swallow so he can be a productive member of society?
I noticed that politicians were omitted from both of your lists and I applaud both of you. It is a common mistake for many people to add politicians to lists such as these, but it is a proven fact that politicians were never human to begin with.
Turning off the floodlights won't work in the summer time. I live in northern Germany and I was coming home from my class last night at 10:00 PM. I could have pulled out my novel and easily read it because of the sunlight coming through the heavy clouds. There were no street lights around either. It simply does not get dark in Winter until very late and the sun rises pretty early.
I have a better idea for Microsoft and it will save them gobs of money and time and effort: www.xbox.com. (They already own it.) Here's another. www.xbox.microsoft.com.. And another: www.microsoft.com/xbox. I'm just full of ideas today. They want to launch Xbox One? Best answer: www.xbox.com/xboxone
Microsoft acts like a bunch of people who don't know how to use computers. They have websites that are very famous. Microsoft should use use the Internet as it was designed to be used instead of fooling around like this.
Yeah, I'm replying to myself, but I thought of something else I'd like to say.
I've seen good software "upgrade" south for bizarre reasons. I like PostgreSQL and right now it's a healthy community. I believe it is the best database out there, but you know what? I'd like to see MariaDB survive, thrive, and rival PostgreSQL. As a matter of fact, I'd like to have more than two reasonable choices for open source databases. The only way PostgreSQL will continue to be a great database is to have more great databases threatening it. It needs healthy competition. The circumstances surrounding MariaDB is far from perfect, but I can probably make the same argument for just about every other software out there. I think the situation with Apple and Windows and Android and Oracle is a lot worse than the current situation with MariaDB.
To the AC who posted this: Telling the MySQL community to switch to PostgreSQL because "it'll be there for a long time" is not only insulting to the MySQL and MariaDB community, but to the PostgreSQL community too. You've taken a topic about MariaDB and MySQL and hijacked the conversation without good reason and smeared the PostgreSQL name on it. There are real world considerations these DBAs and programmers have. Time and money is one of them. These are our brothers and sisters and we're in the same game as they are. We should be helping them with the topics at hand. Not telling them they've made the wrong decision and rubbing their noses in it. The same thing could happen to us in a few years. Hell, it's already happened to me several times in my career in the other areas / languages I've programmed in. It'll happen to you too. Don't be so righteous about this topic. PostgreSQL has been very lucky not to have a major fork in recent history like a lot of other major open source programs.
There have been a few ACs around here saying to switch to Postgres and I'm not sure why this one is modded an Insightful 3. I'm a big PostgreSQL fan but I'm not saying that everyone should use PostgreSQL. Simply put: if you want a drop in for a database that will be better than MySQL and without doing much work (and this is the key), then put MariaDB in before MySQL and MariaDB diverge. You'll have a lot more work to do once they diverge. If you want a much better database, then, yes, I suggest PostgreSQL as well... but that will involve a lot more work unless it is a very trivial database. There are very different reasons for suggesting PostgreSQL over MariaDB.
For those entrenched in MySQL, they should strongly consider migrating to MariaDB while it is still trivial to do so.
But there is no good reason to switch besides hypothetical future situations. If one is already on either product, just stay there until something happens... so long as they are both still compatible.
Everything is hypothetical until it happens then everything is obvious in hindsight. GP is right. It is wiser to be with the healthier brand / company / organization. MariaDB is in a much better position than MySQL. Just look at Oracle and it's history. A behemoth like that won't make a 180. What incentive do they have and what have they done to promote and make healthy the MySQL community? No, my friend, they're going to trash MySQL. Now is the time to switch to MariaDB before MariaDB starts implementing changes that distinguish it from MySQL... and I say this as a PostgreSQL fan.
You have some very interesting things to say. I'm going to comment on a couple of them.
What is so hard in having methods be PUBLIC by DEFAULT and attributes PRIVATE by DEFAULT?
Agreed. As a matter of fact, I'm tempted to go one step further. Why not have settings on the compiler decide some of this so there is no doubt? Or (my personal preference) require the words public and private when coding.
It does not mean it needs a keyword "static", nor "func"
I like the word "static" in the Java language. I think it has a good purpose and I'm not sure I can come up with a better descriptor word for its purpose.
func and void are interesting ideas. I'm mulling over whether or not we (as programmers) should do away with the notion of functions entirely. They are redundant and can be covered by "methods" (or by my preferred word "subroutines"). Methods can have in/out variables meaning they can return one or more variables at a time unlike a function. The only advantage a function has is that a programmer can define a variable while calling a function: string someVariable = foo(). I don't see why we can't define it earlier in the program or define it in while calling the method. I'm entirely convinced my idea is a good one, but I think it could work.
As far as your opinion about static void main(String[] args) {... } and how confusing it is to a student, that is easily overcome. Just tell the student "Don't worry about what all of that means right now. It will make sense within a couple of semesters. Treat it like magic. It's required to make the magic work." It's that simple. Of course, if you have moron professors (like I did), then they just treat everything as magic and never really teach you how to program. It took me 3 semesters to understand what the concept of an object was... and I had been doing procedural programming as a hobby for years. (This was back in 1998.) The issues of a programming language can be masked until it is time to reveal how the magic works if you have a good teacher. If you have a bad teacher then no programming language (no matter how good it is) can help.
how the fuck do you explain someone who starts programming what "static void main(String[] args) {... }" is supposed to mean?
In Pascal this is just:
"BEGIN....
END."// note the period
From what I recall of Pascal, that is because it is a procedural language vs the object oriented nature of Java or C#. There needs to be a way to define a subroutine by name with arguments which kicks off the program. Static has a very specific meaning which is required for both Java and C# -- or any object oriented language for that matter. Every word and character (except for void) is "required" in some form or fashion. C# is interesting (and different from Java) where String[] args is optional and main does not have to start the program. I like these features, but to truly understand why they are optional, you need to dig pretty deep -- something that won't happen on the first day of class. In any case, for a new programmer, there will be some hand waving to say "don't worry about it now" and "we'll get to that later".
Finally, you say something about not liking semicolons. I like them because it is clear when a single function is done being written. Although I usually prefer one command per line, I'm not forced onto one line. I can pile up several commands on a single line if they are short or break it up if they are long. It all revolves around readability and maintainability when I or someone else comes back to read the stuff later.
I don't know whether to agree with you or disagree with you so I'll just tell a story that happened to me instead.
I'm American, but my wife is not a U.S. citizen. We'd been living in the U.S. for years -- her with a green card paying her taxes every year on a business she ran in America. Uncle Sam loved us and we never had any problems. Circumstances changed and last year we decided to move to Germany -- her home country. In preparation, we called up the IRS and asked them what we needed to do. We went up multiple levels and finally got a guy who really did seem to be very knowledgeable (not something I say about others willy nilly)... except he couldn't tell us what we should do. Supposedly the IRS doesn't know what to do in our case.
I explained that we'd filed jointly for years (she had a business of only herself) and we'd made our proper quarterly estimates and that we wanted to know how to pay our taxes and pay our estimates during the move. Should we file jointly? Separately? If she did work on one side of the Atlantic and then got paid when we were on the other side... little technicalities that we wanted to make sure we got right. He understood our situation but the IRS rules didn't have anything for us. Really? You mean the IRS handles multi-national corporations with hundreds of thousands of people and they don't know what to do in a situation with a single-person business that is moving from one side of the Atlantic to the other? We were too complicated? WTF?
In the end, we hired a tax accountant in Germany, closed our eyes and hoped those guys knew what they were doing. My worst nightmare is the audit. With a business of one it would be very costly to defend ourselves if needed.
Simple, brilliant, cheap, safe, mathematically sound. Why can't everyone involved in driving / traffic / yellow lights think this way? Just don't forget that trucks need a longer distance to stop... or rather they don't slow as quickly as cars can.
I agree with everything you said, but I'll still call your simulator and raise you this book. It's a book written by a person who studied a lot about traffic and safety -- for cars, pedestrians, and bikes. No matter which side of the fence you're on, it will change the way you look at traffic. Despite the dry topic, I really enjoyed it.
Slashdot Mirror
Incorrect. There was plenty of evidence... both now with Obama and back when Dubya was in office. Citations: Compare the Patriot Act to the Constitution. Compare "Afghanistan and Iraq wars" against the lawful nature of declaration of war. Compare what was known about surveillance to the actual laws to the Constitution. There is a blatant and repeated disregard for the highest law of the land.
As for leaks: we don't know who to believe. Which news source? Which organization in government? They are going to discredit this guy as they did with every other leak so far. Perhaps rightly so perhaps not. We'll never truly know. When we don't know where to turn for good news, we'll just end up arguing amongst ourselves about trivial details... which will avoid us finding the real problems at hand.
Now that is fucking scary.
I just had a image flash through my mind: Me in 10 years where I have 19 remotes just to turn on and set my TV, DVR, XBox One, Wii, Laptop, DRM Box, Cable Box, and iPod (all requiring Internet connection) -- just so that I can watch the latest Knight Rider reboot. Then I grumble about the good ol' days back in the 80s when I could just turn on the CRT with a quick switch and channel flip.
This program was secret until it was leaked. Are we really so naive as to think that worse things aren't being done that haven't been leaked? Maybe so, but I haven't been surprised at any of the government or business overreach in the last 15 years. So who's the one with the faulty paradigm? Sorry for the rant, I'm a little cranky today.
Don't apologize. You're allowed to be cranky when people say you're over-reacting, then a few years pass and what you said was happening did happen. Then you point that out to people and they still think you're overreacting. Then you scratch your head and wonder why people enjoy eating shit sandwiches. What is obvious to you and me is not obvious to others. I have my cranky days too.
Don't apologize. Just quietly figure out who you can talk to about it and speak softly. For the people who you can't talk to, don't say anything at all to them. They'll be the first to point at you when they are asked who doesn't like shit sandwiches.
Thank you for your support. I also posted my own response to geekoid along with some further (positive) information about my personal experiences dealing with this company.
geekoid, I'm rather surprised by the insult you hurled at me. I read your responses quite often. Sometimes I agree and sometimes I don't, but insults are not usually what I see from you. Maybe I have my filter set too high and only your better comments come through?
Perhaps what I suggest isn't the answer for BBC, but as I said, I use it. The one page on my website with the time on it actually has three different times on it because I have three different time zones. I have friends and family all over the world and I try to help them know what time it is where I live versus where I live. (It prevents phone calls in the middle of the night.) It successfully navigated the time zone change this spring... a time zone change which occurs about three weeks apart in the different countries.
For now, I'll just chalk up your insult to you having a bad day. Get some sleep and we'll shake hands in the morning.
Or This. Check out the API section. You'll have to drill down a couple of times.
No, I don't work for them, but I use the freebee version on my website. You'd have to pay if you were a company (especially the BCC), but it's only a few hundred bucks a year. Certainly less than paying 100 hours for a developer.
My brother and I didn't really bother to date when we were younger, although both of us definitely like women. Once, when he was in high school and I was in college, my Mom asked why we didn't date much and berated us for not asking the girls in our classes out more often -- to take a chance and just date women instead of being so picky. We briefly looked at each other, then looked at our Mom, and in a rapid fire back and forth between us explained to her that we weren't interested in drugs, alcohol, STDs, money moochers, and women who couldn't think. We both emphasized that's what our choices were. It was the last time our Mom ever asked us that.
For the record, we are both married now.
There's a very good reason to store data. Local police will probably give it to the state or federal (FBI) police. I'm sure they can find ways around the HIPAA thing. It's a potential gold mine.
Wrong. Network. Skills are worth less than networking. When the axe falls in a company, he'll need a good network. Skills are a bonus.
Network both inside and outside the company. I know it sucks. Been there. Done that. If networking isn't his thing, have him start with Toastmasters.
The Chicago Sun Times isn't throwing away "pixel quality" so much as "journalism quality" --- no wonder newspapers are dying.
They threw away real journalism a long time ago. Current newspapers around the country (both in print and online) are utter crap. Why bother keeping professional photographers if you have poorly written news?
But, all the classes were directly integrated.
Wish I had gone to your school. Most universities are not like this.
Thank you!
(Warning; Rant)
Basically, all of the comments I see around here say "You need to have advanced math". I'm a programmer that tends to work with finances. Based on what I've read over the past few months here at Slashdot, I apparently need to be an expert in the following: advanced math, finances, client-server programming, web design, multi-threading, scripting, security (hardware and software), networking (on a hardware level), O.S. systems, tablet programming, database programming, database optimization, and multiple computer languages -- all that so that I can be a programmer at some company. What can a university offer in this list? Advanced math and finances, I suppose -- and I doubt very little practical application at that. My university (where I got my bachelors) certainly didn't teach anything that was useful for real world programming skills, but I digress.
No, I'm good at what I do, but I can't be an expert in everything. For most things, high school algebra at an advanced level will get you where you need to be. Some geometry and trig can be good from time to time as well. Game engine design and O.S. design? Yes, of course, you'll need higher maths. Most applications beyond that? No. That's what teams of people are for -- each with their own expertise. I fully agree that a programmer needs to be able to do more than program in just a single language (like Java), but I feel the comments I've been reading in Slashdot have been unreasonable. The poster asked if advanced math is reasonable and nearly everyone said yes. I disagree. I'll say yes but only for a very specific subset of computer science otherwise no. I challenge someone to make a list of what is reasonable for a programmer (or network engineer or O.S. guy) to know that can be learned in just a few short years that will actually help turn someone into a reasonable programmer. How much are we expecting him to swallow so he can be a productive member of society?
I noticed that politicians were omitted from both of your lists and I applaud both of you. It is a common mistake for many people to add politicians to lists such as these, but it is a proven fact that politicians were never human to begin with.
Don't like the rules, don't go to the country.
I'm not saying that I completely disagree with Nepal, but with your rebuttal, I'd never be able to visit any country in the world.
Turning off the floodlights won't work in the summer time. I live in northern Germany and I was coming home from my class last night at 10:00 PM. I could have pulled out my novel and easily read it because of the sunlight coming through the heavy clouds. There were no street lights around either. It simply does not get dark in Winter until very late and the sun rises pretty early.
I have a better idea for Microsoft and it will save them gobs of money and time and effort: www.xbox.com. (They already own it.) Here's another. www.xbox.microsoft.com.. And another: www.microsoft.com/xbox. I'm just full of ideas today. They want to launch Xbox One? Best answer: www.xbox.com/xboxone
Microsoft acts like a bunch of people who don't know how to use computers. They have websites that are very famous. Microsoft should use use the Internet as it was designed to be used instead of fooling around like this.
Counter Point with links: No idea which (if either) are true.
The Esquire interview with the guy who claims to have shot Bin Laden.
One of several sources claiming it is probably a fraud. (Google "esquire osama bin laden interview".)
Again, I don't know which if either are true (could be politics on several levels), but I thought I'd post both links for others to peruse.
Yeah, I'm replying to myself, but I thought of something else I'd like to say.
I've seen good software "upgrade" south for bizarre reasons. I like PostgreSQL and right now it's a healthy community. I believe it is the best database out there, but you know what? I'd like to see MariaDB survive, thrive, and rival PostgreSQL. As a matter of fact, I'd like to have more than two reasonable choices for open source databases. The only way PostgreSQL will continue to be a great database is to have more great databases threatening it. It needs healthy competition. The circumstances surrounding MariaDB is far from perfect, but I can probably make the same argument for just about every other software out there. I think the situation with Apple and Windows and Android and Oracle is a lot worse than the current situation with MariaDB.
To the AC who posted this: Telling the MySQL community to switch to PostgreSQL because "it'll be there for a long time" is not only insulting to the MySQL and MariaDB community, but to the PostgreSQL community too. You've taken a topic about MariaDB and MySQL and hijacked the conversation without good reason and smeared the PostgreSQL name on it. There are real world considerations these DBAs and programmers have. Time and money is one of them. These are our brothers and sisters and we're in the same game as they are. We should be helping them with the topics at hand. Not telling them they've made the wrong decision and rubbing their noses in it. The same thing could happen to us in a few years. Hell, it's already happened to me several times in my career in the other areas / languages I've programmed in. It'll happen to you too. Don't be so righteous about this topic. PostgreSQL has been very lucky not to have a major fork in recent history like a lot of other major open source programs.
There have been a few ACs around here saying to switch to Postgres and I'm not sure why this one is modded an Insightful 3. I'm a big PostgreSQL fan but I'm not saying that everyone should use PostgreSQL. Simply put: if you want a drop in for a database that will be better than MySQL and without doing much work (and this is the key), then put MariaDB in before MySQL and MariaDB diverge. You'll have a lot more work to do once they diverge. If you want a much better database, then, yes, I suggest PostgreSQL as well... but that will involve a lot more work unless it is a very trivial database. There are very different reasons for suggesting PostgreSQL over MariaDB.
For those entrenched in MySQL, they should strongly consider migrating to MariaDB while it is still trivial to do so.
But there is no good reason to switch besides hypothetical future situations. If one is already on either product, just stay there until something happens... so long as they are both still compatible.
Everything is hypothetical until it happens then everything is obvious in hindsight. GP is right. It is wiser to be with the healthier brand / company / organization. MariaDB is in a much better position than MySQL. Just look at Oracle and it's history. A behemoth like that won't make a 180. What incentive do they have and what have they done to promote and make healthy the MySQL community? No, my friend, they're going to trash MySQL. Now is the time to switch to MariaDB before MariaDB starts implementing changes that distinguish it from MySQL... and I say this as a PostgreSQL fan.
You have some very interesting things to say. I'm going to comment on a couple of them.
What is so hard in having methods be PUBLIC by DEFAULT and attributes PRIVATE by DEFAULT?
Agreed. As a matter of fact, I'm tempted to go one step further. Why not have settings on the compiler decide some of this so there is no doubt? Or (my personal preference) require the words public and private when coding.
It does not mean it needs a keyword "static", nor "func"
I like the word "static" in the Java language. I think it has a good purpose and I'm not sure I can come up with a better descriptor word for its purpose.
func and void are interesting ideas. I'm mulling over whether or not we (as programmers) should do away with the notion of functions entirely. They are redundant and can be covered by "methods" (or by my preferred word "subroutines"). Methods can have in/out variables meaning they can return one or more variables at a time unlike a function. The only advantage a function has is that a programmer can define a variable while calling a function: string someVariable = foo(). I don't see why we can't define it earlier in the program or define it in while calling the method. I'm entirely convinced my idea is a good one, but I think it could work.
As far as your opinion about static void main(String[] args) { ... } and how confusing it is to a student, that is easily overcome. Just tell the student "Don't worry about what all of that means right now. It will make sense within a couple of semesters. Treat it like magic. It's required to make the magic work." It's that simple. Of course, if you have moron professors (like I did), then they just treat everything as magic and never really teach you how to program. It took me 3 semesters to understand what the concept of an object was... and I had been doing procedural programming as a hobby for years. (This was back in 1998.) The issues of a programming language can be masked until it is time to reveal how the magic works if you have a good teacher. If you have a bad teacher then no programming language (no matter how good it is) can help.
how the fuck do you explain someone who starts programming what "static void main(String[] args) { ... }" is supposed to mean?
In Pascal this is just: "BEGIN ....
END." // note the period
From what I recall of Pascal, that is because it is a procedural language vs the object oriented nature of Java or C#. There needs to be a way to define a subroutine by name with arguments which kicks off the program. Static has a very specific meaning which is required for both Java and C# -- or any object oriented language for that matter. Every word and character (except for void) is "required" in some form or fashion. C# is interesting (and different from Java) where String[] args is optional and main does not have to start the program. I like these features, but to truly understand why they are optional, you need to dig pretty deep -- something that won't happen on the first day of class. In any case, for a new programmer, there will be some hand waving to say "don't worry about it now" and "we'll get to that later".
Finally, you say something about not liking semicolons. I like them because it is clear when a single function is done being written. Although I usually prefer one command per line, I'm not forced onto one line. I can pile up several commands on a single line if they are short or break it up if they are long. It all revolves around readability and maintainability when I or someone else comes back to read the stuff later.
why the fuck haven't you guys had another revolution yet?
Too much time on Xbox? Complaining about it on the internet is more attractive?
Not the "Internet" per se. It's Slashdot. Way too much time on Slashdot.
I don't know whether to agree with you or disagree with you so I'll just tell a story that happened to me instead.
I'm American, but my wife is not a U.S. citizen. We'd been living in the U.S. for years -- her with a green card paying her taxes every year on a business she ran in America. Uncle Sam loved us and we never had any problems. Circumstances changed and last year we decided to move to Germany -- her home country. In preparation, we called up the IRS and asked them what we needed to do. We went up multiple levels and finally got a guy who really did seem to be very knowledgeable (not something I say about others willy nilly)... except he couldn't tell us what we should do. Supposedly the IRS doesn't know what to do in our case.
I explained that we'd filed jointly for years (she had a business of only herself) and we'd made our proper quarterly estimates and that we wanted to know how to pay our taxes and pay our estimates during the move. Should we file jointly? Separately? If she did work on one side of the Atlantic and then got paid when we were on the other side... little technicalities that we wanted to make sure we got right. He understood our situation but the IRS rules didn't have anything for us. Really? You mean the IRS handles multi-national corporations with hundreds of thousands of people and they don't know what to do in a situation with a single-person business that is moving from one side of the Atlantic to the other? We were too complicated? WTF?
In the end, we hired a tax accountant in Germany, closed our eyes and hoped those guys knew what they were doing. My worst nightmare is the audit. With a business of one it would be very costly to defend ourselves if needed.
Simple, brilliant, cheap, safe, mathematically sound. Why can't everyone involved in driving / traffic / yellow lights think this way? Just don't forget that trucks need a longer distance to stop... or rather they don't slow as quickly as cars can.
I agree with everything you said, but I'll still call your simulator and raise you this book. It's a book written by a person who studied a lot about traffic and safety -- for cars, pedestrians, and bikes. No matter which side of the fence you're on, it will change the way you look at traffic. Despite the dry topic, I really enjoyed it.