Why not have the walk light change on every cycle, regardless of button pushes? It evens out wear and tear on the crossing lights, and reduces system complexity...I just don't get it.
Consider this: It's after midnight and the majority of pedestrians have went home to bed. A single car pulls up to the light, it changes, they go through. Why would you then want to have to wait the 30 seconds or so for the pedestrian signal to finish its cycle before letting the other direction go again?
This is a rather simplified example, but it can easily be extended from this point to figure out why in some situations the buttons are useful.
I bought mine within the last 1-2 years from a mainstream housewares shop, and they're a reputable brand (Panasonic, or something like that).
Seconded. I recently found that GE has made a CFL version of their "Reveal" lighting. I picked up two for my kitchen, as I find the fuller spectrum is nice when cooking. Those things easily take a minute or more to reach full brightness, and only start at about 20% or so. I usually end up turning on my dining room light (still an incandescent as it's a ceiling fan that takes some sort of smaller bulb than usual) to compensate until they warm up. Contrast this with the ones in my living room that are some lesser-known brand (less enough that I don't remember what) that also take a minute or so to reach 100%, but start at about 90%. I have very little issue with those, and I've had them for several years now.
CFLs are still a hit-or-miss proposition it seems, and not even the usual rules of brand reliability seem to apply.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the reason why people think that companies need an excuse to drive up their prices. Why would they over-engineer their cars at their personal expense, when they can just write a new number on the price sticker?
Because, unless they collude to uniformly raise the price, people will expect there to be some visible reason why the car costs more, and if not, will go buy that cheaper car over there.
I can't. They set me up with coax instead of CAT-5.
Call them and tell them you want to switch your Internet provisioning from MOCA to Ethernet. If you get someone who isn't incredibly dumb it can be done in 5 minutes or so, all remotely. (Alas, I got one of the incredibly dumb ones, so it took a day for me.) If they ask why tell them you are rearranging equipment and Ethernet is more convenient for your new setup.
Its their CPE, not his router, even if he changed the passwords and changed the firewall.
Not exactly (and this is why I hate how some devices blur the distinction between CPE and personal equipment, like cable modems). The Actiontec they give you with the service IS yours; if I were to cancel my FIOS service today they can't ask for me to return the router. I would be free to take it elsewhere and use it on something that isn't their service.
That said, I always figured there were "gotchas" like this in the supplied router, which is why I stopped using it shortly after I got FIOS. I like the clear distinction where their control point ends (the ONT) and mine begins (my FreeBSD box).
Just why do credit/debit cards expire, anyway? Everybody validates every transaction online, if they have half a brain.
Almost everyone... however, surprising as it may be, some places STILL use carbons. One of the doctors' offices I occasionally visit does. It surprised the heck out of me the first time, as I thought credit card machines were pretty standard fare these days. (I seem to recall them mentioning something about getting one soon; it's 2010, that qualifies as "about time" to me.) So I imagine expiration dates are a holdover until the credit card companies finally just say the machines that can do online verification are mandatory, at which point they could phase out expiration dates (and embossed numbers). Of course with the speed that industry seems to move that may happen sometime in the next decade or so.
Solaris is free to download and install and to use for ONLY 90 DAYS!
The wording in the license is AWFUL, but I don't think that's quite what it means. From what I can gather, you are limited to 90 days if you do not have an entitlement document. When you download Solaris it asks you how many servers you want to run it on, and right after the download they e-mail you said entitlement document. I think that e-mail is what legally allows you to run the downloaded copy for longer than 90 days. The wording may have changed a bit (I haven't read it in a while), but that's the gist of how it worked before and appears to work now.
By omitting the clock in / clock out procedure, employees had not worked, and therefore, the time worked would be 0, thus no payment.
Nope, still doesn't work that way. I had a manager who threatened to not sign off on our timecards if we did not submit our weekly status report (with the implication that an unsigned timecard == no pay for that period), despite otherwise having done a full week's work. I wrote the state department of labor to verify my suspicion that this would be illegal, and they assured me that had pay been withheld it definitely was. Also note that this was in a right to work state (Virginia).
(Thankfully, nothing came of it other than more whining and threats on his part; he, or at least the company, never was foolish enough to withhold pay.)
I'm using a set (of those particularly, from Amazon no less) to bridge my basement network where the servers and internet link are to my living room where the MPC and TiVo are. The speed/performance seems to be reasonable, no issues with latency, and they are 100% stable. I just wish they weren't so expensive for what they are...
Verging off topic here, but that reminds me of one of my more amusing (and pleasant) experiences with Comcast's tech support back when they were my ISP. I called in, and one of the first questions is "What OS are you using?". Already prepared for the "well, we don't support that" I answered FreeBSD (which is correct in that my internet-facing machine does run FreeBSD). The tech responds with "Oh, well in that case you probably know more than I do, so I'll pass you straight to level 2." If only it always worked that way...
Discover passes all these, except for being Discover.
Gotta disagree with you there. I had a Discover card since I started college (around 15 years ago) and finally ended up getting rid of it this past year, due to their failure on this point:
* Sane fraud protection (call me if you see something suspicion, but don't freeze my card)
Not only did they freeze my card when something suspicious popped up (and never actually ended up being a problem, BTW), but they never bothered to actually call me and inform me that they had frozen it. Every time it happened (and I'd say it happened about once a year), I'd find out by my card being rejected, and then I'd call in and after unlocking it I'd ask why they didn't call me. Answers ranged from mumbled excuses, to lies saying that they did, and the occasional "oh no, we expect you to call us". Finally got tired of it, especially since with my other cards they would actually call me; I've never had one of them get rejected.
Wait, so DRM that's implemented in such a way that consumers don't mind is bad?
Just because you don't mind it today doesn't mean you won't mind it tomorrow. To steal the example from above, most people didn't care about an inability to rip DVDs. Now that iPods and their ilk play videos, more people might start to care. As portable media devices become more ubiquitous, even more people will care. (Of course this ignores the fact that CSS was cracked, but that doesn't count for this discussion.)
Flashblock puts a placeholder in front of Flash, Shockwave, Authorware, Java, and Sliverlight.
Are you using a different Flashblock than this one? According to the page there it only blocks the first three. I wouldn't mind to have something that could do it for the other two as well, but Flashblock doesn't seem to be it.
Off-topic, I lived in a city in the 1980s where some traffic lights were still on the side of the street instead of overhead. So many out of towners were running reds and wrecking the city had to put in the overheads.
DC still has those, at least in the more "historic" areas. Drives me nuts every time I go there as I'm always afraid I'm going to miss one.
Slashdot Mirror
We'd actually need to invent a new word to convey the stupidity of it.
"Java-esque"?
Why not have the walk light change on every cycle, regardless of button pushes? It evens out wear and tear on the crossing lights, and reduces system complexity...I just don't get it.
Consider this: It's after midnight and the majority of pedestrians have went home to bed. A single car pulls up to the light, it changes, they go through. Why would you then want to have to wait the 30 seconds or so for the pedestrian signal to finish its cycle before letting the other direction go again?
This is a rather simplified example, but it can easily be extended from this point to figure out why in some situations the buttons are useful.
I'm surprised homeowner associations aren't doing it. :)
Shush. We do not want to give them ideas like that.
Or you could stop running red lights.
Have you stopped beating your wife yet?
I bought mine within the last 1-2 years from a mainstream housewares shop, and they're a reputable brand (Panasonic, or something like that).
Seconded. I recently found that GE has made a CFL version of their "Reveal" lighting. I picked up two for my kitchen, as I find the fuller spectrum is nice when cooking. Those things easily take a minute or more to reach full brightness, and only start at about 20% or so. I usually end up turning on my dining room light (still an incandescent as it's a ceiling fan that takes some sort of smaller bulb than usual) to compensate until they warm up. Contrast this with the ones in my living room that are some lesser-known brand (less enough that I don't remember what) that also take a minute or so to reach 100%, but start at about 90%. I have very little issue with those, and I've had them for several years now.
CFLs are still a hit-or-miss proposition it seems, and not even the usual rules of brand reliability seem to apply.
Let me guess, it's Alice and Bob again.
Nah, it's Mallory.
Erm, in what universe would Verizon find it slightly hard to make a fake cert?
The one where they'd get sued six ways from Sunday if they used it and were caught?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the reason why people think that companies need an excuse to drive up their prices. Why would they over-engineer their cars at their personal expense, when they can just write a new number on the price sticker?
Because, unless they collude to uniformly raise the price, people will expect there to be some visible reason why the car costs more, and if not, will go buy that cheaper car over there.
I can't. They set me up with coax instead of CAT-5.
Call them and tell them you want to switch your Internet provisioning from MOCA to Ethernet. If you get someone who isn't incredibly dumb it can be done in 5 minutes or so, all remotely. (Alas, I got one of the incredibly dumb ones, so it took a day for me.) If they ask why tell them you are rearranging equipment and Ethernet is more convenient for your new setup.
Its their CPE, not his router, even if he changed the passwords and changed the firewall.
Not exactly (and this is why I hate how some devices blur the distinction between CPE and personal equipment, like cable modems). The Actiontec they give you with the service IS yours; if I were to cancel my FIOS service today they can't ask for me to return the router. I would be free to take it elsewhere and use it on something that isn't their service.
That said, I always figured there were "gotchas" like this in the supplied router, which is why I stopped using it shortly after I got FIOS. I like the clear distinction where their control point ends (the ONT) and mine begins (my FreeBSD box).
About the only way to handle the lancets and blood test is to learn not to mind the fact that it's going to hurt, every time.
Get an alternate site meter. Yes, fingertips hurt like hell, but I can barely feel it if I test on my arm.
Just why do credit/debit cards expire, anyway? Everybody validates every transaction online, if they have half a brain.
Almost everyone... however, surprising as it may be, some places STILL use carbons. One of the doctors' offices I occasionally visit does. It surprised the heck out of me the first time, as I thought credit card machines were pretty standard fare these days. (I seem to recall them mentioning something about getting one soon; it's 2010, that qualifies as "about time" to me.) So I imagine expiration dates are a holdover until the credit card companies finally just say the machines that can do online verification are mandatory, at which point they could phase out expiration dates (and embossed numbers). Of course with the speed that industry seems to move that may happen sometime in the next decade or so.
But how many of those are sub-channels on the same frequency?
(Not to imply that will suddenly give plenty of channels to use, but let's put the list in proper context.)
Most people are not complete morons.
... You lost me.
Some memories just never die
And some never should!
Solaris is free to download and install and to use for ONLY 90 DAYS!
The wording in the license is AWFUL, but I don't think that's quite what it means. From what I can gather, you are limited to 90 days if you do not have an entitlement document. When you download Solaris it asks you how many servers you want to run it on, and right after the download they e-mail you said entitlement document. I think that e-mail is what legally allows you to run the downloaded copy for longer than 90 days. The wording may have changed a bit (I haven't read it in a while), but that's the gist of how it worked before and appears to work now.
By omitting the clock in / clock out procedure, employees had not worked, and therefore, the time worked would be 0, thus no payment.
Nope, still doesn't work that way. I had a manager who threatened to not sign off on our timecards if we did not submit our weekly status report (with the implication that an unsigned timecard == no pay for that period), despite otherwise having done a full week's work. I wrote the state department of labor to verify my suspicion that this would be illegal, and they assured me that had pay been withheld it definitely was. Also note that this was in a right to work state (Virginia).
(Thankfully, nothing came of it other than more whining and threats on his part; he, or at least the company, never was foolish enough to withhold pay.)
Anyone have experience with these?
I'm using a set (of those particularly, from Amazon no less) to bridge my basement network where the servers and internet link are to my living room where the MPC and TiVo are. The speed/performance seems to be reasonable, no issues with latency, and they are 100% stable. I just wish they weren't so expensive for what they are...
Verging off topic here, but that reminds me of one of my more amusing (and pleasant) experiences with Comcast's tech support back when they were my ISP. I called in, and one of the first questions is "What OS are you using?". Already prepared for the "well, we don't support that" I answered FreeBSD (which is correct in that my internet-facing machine does run FreeBSD). The tech responds with "Oh, well in that case you probably know more than I do, so I'll pass you straight to level 2." If only it always worked that way...
Discover passes all these, except for being Discover.
Gotta disagree with you there. I had a Discover card since I started college (around 15 years ago) and finally ended up getting rid of it this past year, due to their failure on this point:
Not only did they freeze my card when something suspicious popped up (and never actually ended up being a problem, BTW), but they never bothered to actually call me and inform me that they had frozen it. Every time it happened (and I'd say it happened about once a year), I'd find out by my card being rejected, and then I'd call in and after unlocking it I'd ask why they didn't call me. Answers ranged from mumbled excuses, to lies saying that they did, and the occasional "oh no, we expect you to call us". Finally got tired of it, especially since with my other cards they would actually call me; I've never had one of them get rejected.
Wait, so DRM that's implemented in such a way that consumers don't mind is bad?
Just because you don't mind it today doesn't mean you won't mind it tomorrow. To steal the example from above, most people didn't care about an inability to rip DVDs. Now that iPods and their ilk play videos, more people might start to care. As portable media devices become more ubiquitous, even more people will care. (Of course this ignores the fact that CSS was cracked, but that doesn't count for this discussion.)
For the scores you can go to Credit Karma.
(Although I find it funny there's an ad-supported site that will give you your score for free when you want it, but not your report...)
Flashblock puts a placeholder in front of Flash, Shockwave, Authorware, Java, and Sliverlight.
Are you using a different Flashblock than this one? According to the page there it only blocks the first three. I wouldn't mind to have something that could do it for the other two as well, but Flashblock doesn't seem to be it.
Off-topic, I lived in a city in the 1980s where some traffic lights were still on the side of the street instead of overhead. So many out of towners were running reds and wrecking the city had to put in the overheads.
DC still has those, at least in the more "historic" areas. Drives me nuts every time I go there as I'm always afraid I'm going to miss one.
since lately i can't even seem to remember what my password is
It's hunter2.