After over three years of living in California, the HOV lane policy continues to drive me nuts.
Firstly, why should driving a more fuel efficient car give one the ability to drive in the "high occupancy" vehicle lane? If the intention of this lane is to give incentive for people to carpool, then this makes no sense. Further, the state stopped giving out these passes. It essentially created an elitist class of early adopter Prius/Honda Insight purchasers that get to use this lane. So, if the legislature decided it wanted to change the intended purpose of the HOV lane to also incentivise the purchasing of more fuel efficient cars, it has failed there as well. It seems beyond unfair to me to take publicly funded roads and give such a small percentage of drivers, who bought the right car at the right time, special lane privileges for eight hours a day.
Second of all, I remain unconvinced that HOV lanes actually increase carpooling. People I know who live reasonably close together, and work at the same business, usually do carpool. But the fact is that many people are not geographically close enough, or on similar schedules to co-workers to make carpooling make sense. I suspect that most of the people I see in the HOV lane on the 101 just happened to be making a trip somewhere together, which is much different than carpooling on a daily basis. A related point is that signs currently list a car with "2 or more occupants" as HOV lane acceptable. The rule SHOULD be 2 (or I'd argue 3) or more LICENSED DRIVERS. The many moms I see driving their kids around in the HOV lane are hardly taking a car off the road, now are they? That is unless the driving age has been lowered to 10 without me noticing.
Finally, the real reason this all bugs me, is the endgame: helping the environment. I see two arguments. Referring specifically to giving Priuses, or Leafs, or Volts access to the lane - The owners of all of them still own a car, and are still driving somewhere, just like the rest of us. In many cases, it is better for the environment to keep the car we have rather than purchase a new one. Last I read, a large portion of the environmental impact of a car lies just in its manufacture. My second argument is from obervation. I've seen many instances on a four lane highway, with the fourth lane being the HOV lane, where it was mostly not occupied, meanwhile the other three lanes were moving at a crawl. Wouldn't it be better to open the lane up to all and give the cars a chance to operate in their more efficient highest gear rather than polluting at a bumper to bumper snail's pace?
I really believe that HOV lanes in general are a flawed concept, that unfortunately are around forever, because who wants to be the politician trying to get elected lobbying against them? Talk about fodder for your candidate. You might as well argue we end the war on drugs.
I am looking for sites but haven't had enough time to narrow one down yet. I'm mostly interested in areas of the California coast, like Half Moon Bay or San Luis Obispo.... I have always had an interest in my own self-sacrifice to help the environment.
Oh yeah, because living around the California coast is such a self sacrifice. I mean Half Moon Bay? Who could think of living there? Only savages.
It's tempting to analyze everything from the RIAA's replies, however it would be preaching to the choir on this site, and rather unneccessary. However, this in particular stands out to me as a perfect example of how out of touch with reality the answers were:
"Given the increased cost to produce and distribute copyrighted works, Congress has tried to keep pace with what it has believed is necessary to continue to incentivize creators and publishers."
By increased cost, is he referring to the fact that you can record/make your own music with relatively in expensive equipment in your home, and distribute it to millions of people over the internet for the cost of a dialup connection?
I guess in their minds, it was easier/cheaper to pay for recording studio time, copies, and promotion to hopefully get your music played on a local radio station, where less than 1% of the audience the same song could receive on the internet today would actually hear it???
I'm not anti-millitary or anything, but doesn't it strike anyone as a bit twisted that with almost any new or improved technology the millitary's always standing by thinking of how it can help them kill people more efficiently? This just kind of bothers me.
On a side note, doesn't the whole mach5+ thing seem a bit pointless? Someone in an above post thought engineers shold spend more time building aquatic habitats or something. But sticking to the aerospace subject, instead of working to make the NY-LA trip 30 minutes, wouldn't it be much cooler if flight times stayed the same but the price was a lot cheaper? How cool would it be if you could do cross country for $50, $100 round trip. Want to fly down from NY to New Orleans for the weekend? $20! Now that would be useful. Who cares if a few elite rich people (or business people with big expense accounts) can get across the country in half an hour. I say make the safest form of mass transit (or any transit really) actually available to the masses. Just my $0.02
Ok, I'll admit I don't watch anime. Now and then I've caught bits and pieces of DBZ on tv, and it didn't seem that bad if you would get into it. I've also seen Ghost in the Shell, awesome movie. But cmon guys, the names of these shows just are not doin it for me - if anything they make me afraid to put this stuff on. Mobile Suit Gundam, *Cowboy Bebop*, Magic Knights RayEarth, Rurouni Kenshin, and then others I've heard of like Bubble Gum Crisis? It sounds like stuff for 7 year olds (although I can tell from the discussion they aren't). What's the deal with these gays names?
I don't understand something. HelixCode is
a company. Company's typically try to make
money. How do they plan on money by making
free GPLed software? I for one wouldn't want
to see HelixCode make a better Gnome and then
all the sudden we all have to start shelling out
money to Helix. And this new Eazel file manager.
Is this going to become the standard Gnome
file manager? If so, again, isn't this made by
a company? How are they seeking to make money.
I just don't see where all these startups
working on gpl software fit into the picture.
That quote in the news post is rather frustrating. Another case where linux beats Microsoft to a new technology standard? As I recall it took quite some time for the linux kernel to do udma32, while Windows supported it very quickly.
The internet, as well as slashdot, is getting totally ridiculous. People think that anything on the internet is legal, and untouchable. Everyone here jokes about MP3s (i.e. recent poll choice) and thinks it is funny, but it's theft. Does no one pay attention to the: "This may not be retransmitted without express written consent of the NBA, NFL, NHL, etc" at the end of any game? This is so _obviously_ illegal it's obscene. BTW, please don't Score: 0 Troll me, that's not the effect i'm going for.
OK, lots of places on the Net ask for a CC # to validate age. However, I think I speak for most people when I say that I'm weary of giving this out despite the notices that I will not be billed for anything. Why not make some form of digital ID for age verification? You get it at an office somewhere, or using a credit card (but only at one site). This way, after a one time hassle, you forever have a good way of supplying ID over the net.
OK, does anyone else feel that sometimes open source developers get to obsessive compulsive about things? I mean seriously, why have a discusssion on what determines an "alpha" label, when all it is is a label. Every software project is different. These days, even when a product is finished, it's still always undergoing change anyway. In the case of Mozilla, it could be released as an alpha, a theta, chi, or tau, who cares, all who use it know just what state the project is in. Just my $.02
OK, just to be short and to the point, all along, Jobs acted like he hated IBM and "big brother" and how they all had to dress the same, and be perfect employees. I don't know how true it is, but in the movie, Jobs turned into a psycho and ordered everyone around, and made them all be the *same* by being different. They all had to be pirates, just like IBMers all had to be whatever it was that they were.
And BTW, if you're really looking for a good view of Microsoft life, read Microserfs.
Oh I found it funny in retrospect, but it was much more funny that I read the whole review believing that some Unix nerds of the 60s wrote a book about ping
I don't see what makes this a good editorial for Slashdot.
It looks as if Panix thinks he and others in his "scene" are better because they care about what is going on technically, and they really could care less about actually using the emulators they write. He tries to make it sound that true emu people would be satisfied if they could make a perfect emulator and then never use it for actually playing games.
I also don't understand this "It's ok because we own N64's and the carts" argument. I mean, if you own an N64 and Mario 64, why would you go to the trouble of making an emulator just to play the game on a computer, requiring expensive rom backup equipment?
The only logical reason to make an emulator is to USE it to play roms, and that's just the way it is.
Lastly, Panix should not feel hostility for "outsiders" to his scene because of the legions of "3|337 h4X0rs" out there. Those people will always be around, either winnuking, stealing AOL passwords, mail bombing, warezing, playing roms, or whatever the current fun thing to do when you're 12 is. But such people should just be ignored, if he wants to let them take down their scene, then that's the scene's problem. I agree with some one else who equated this whole mess to that of MP3s.
In the mp3 case, I'd equate WinAMP/X11Amp to Ultra HLE, and of course MP3s to roms. However, when the author's of AMP/WinAMP found out people were pirating MP3s, they didn't act suprised and appauled and remove their program.
Slashdot Mirror
After over three years of living in California, the HOV lane policy continues to drive me nuts.
Firstly, why should driving a more fuel efficient car give one the ability to drive in the "high occupancy" vehicle lane? If the intention of this lane is to give incentive for people to carpool, then this makes no sense. Further, the state stopped giving out these passes. It essentially created an elitist class of early adopter Prius/Honda Insight purchasers that get to use this lane. So, if the legislature decided it wanted to change the intended purpose of the HOV lane to also incentivise the purchasing of more fuel efficient cars, it has failed there as well. It seems beyond unfair to me to take publicly funded roads and give such a small percentage of drivers, who bought the right car at the right time, special lane privileges for eight hours a day.
Second of all, I remain unconvinced that HOV lanes actually increase carpooling. People I know who live reasonably close together, and work at the same business, usually do carpool. But the fact is that many people are not geographically close enough, or on similar schedules to co-workers to make carpooling make sense. I suspect that most of the people I see in the HOV lane on the 101 just happened to be making a trip somewhere together, which is much different than carpooling on a daily basis. A related point is that signs currently list a car with "2 or more occupants" as HOV lane acceptable. The rule SHOULD be 2 (or I'd argue 3) or more LICENSED DRIVERS. The many moms I see driving their kids around in the HOV lane are hardly taking a car off the road, now are they? That is unless the driving age has been lowered to 10 without me noticing.
Finally, the real reason this all bugs me, is the endgame: helping the environment. I see two arguments. Referring specifically to giving Priuses, or Leafs, or Volts access to the lane - The owners of all of them still own a car, and are still driving somewhere, just like the rest of us. In many cases, it is better for the environment to keep the car we have rather than purchase a new one. Last I read, a large portion of the environmental impact of a car lies just in its manufacture. My second argument is from obervation. I've seen many instances on a four lane highway, with the fourth lane being the HOV lane, where it was mostly not occupied, meanwhile the other three lanes were moving at a crawl. Wouldn't it be better to open the lane up to all and give the cars a chance to operate in their more efficient highest gear rather than polluting at a bumper to bumper snail's pace?
I really believe that HOV lanes in general are a flawed concept, that unfortunately are around forever, because who wants to be the politician trying to get elected lobbying against them? Talk about fodder for your candidate. You might as well argue we end the war on drugs.
In C and C++, switch statements are far from syntactic sugar, they are a performance optimization.
You can't address a single bit.
I am looking for sites but haven't had enough time to narrow one down yet. I'm mostly interested in areas of the California coast, like Half Moon Bay or San Luis Obispo. ... I have always had an interest in my own self-sacrifice to help the environment.
Oh yeah, because living around the California coast is such a self sacrifice. I mean Half Moon Bay? Who could think of living there? Only savages.
fp
It's tempting to analyze everything from the RIAA's replies, however it would be preaching to the choir on this site, and rather unneccessary. However, this in particular stands out to me as a perfect example of how out of touch with reality the answers were:
"Given the increased cost to produce and distribute copyrighted works, Congress has tried to keep pace with what it has believed is necessary to continue to incentivize creators and publishers."
By increased cost, is he referring to the fact that you can record/make your own music with relatively in expensive equipment in your home, and distribute it to millions of people over the internet for the cost of a dialup connection?
I guess in their minds, it was easier/cheaper to pay for recording studio time, copies, and promotion to hopefully get your music played on a local radio station, where less than 1% of the audience the same song could receive on the internet today would actually hear it???
I'm not anti-millitary or anything, but doesn't it strike anyone as a bit twisted that with almost any new or improved technology the millitary's always standing by thinking of how it can help them kill people more efficiently? This just kind of bothers me.
On a side note, doesn't the whole mach5+ thing seem a bit pointless? Someone in an above post thought engineers shold spend more time building aquatic habitats or something. But sticking to the aerospace subject, instead of working to make the NY-LA trip 30 minutes, wouldn't it be much cooler if flight times stayed the same but the price was a lot cheaper? How cool would it be if you could do cross country for $50, $100 round trip. Want to fly down from NY to New Orleans for the weekend? $20! Now that would be useful. Who cares if a few elite rich people (or business people with big expense accounts) can get across the country in half an hour. I say make the safest form of mass transit (or any transit really) actually available to the masses. Just my $0.02
moderators please chmod to -1.
Ok, I'll admit I don't watch anime. Now and then I've caught bits and pieces of DBZ on tv, and it didn't seem that bad if you would get into it. I've also seen Ghost in the Shell, awesome movie. But cmon guys, the names of these shows just are not doin it for me - if anything they make me afraid to put this stuff on. Mobile Suit Gundam, *Cowboy Bebop*, Magic Knights RayEarth, Rurouni Kenshin, and then others I've heard of like Bubble Gum Crisis? It sounds like stuff for 7 year olds (although I can tell from the discussion they aren't). What's the deal with these gays names?
that this was going to be about Microsoft
finally releasing a new version of solitaire
for windows and killing the age old sol.exe
I don't understand something. HelixCode is a company. Company's typically try to make money. How do they plan on money by making free GPLed software? I for one wouldn't want to see HelixCode make a better Gnome and then all the sudden we all have to start shelling out money to Helix. And this new Eazel file manager. Is this going to become the standard Gnome file manager? If so, again, isn't this made by a company? How are they seeking to make money. I just don't see where all these startups working on gpl software fit into the picture.
That quote in the news post is rather
frustrating. Another case where linux beats
Microsoft to a new technology standard? As I
recall it took quite some time for the linux
kernel to do udma32, while Windows supported it
very quickly.
The internet, as well as slashdot, is getting totally ridiculous. People think that anything on the internet is legal, and untouchable. Everyone here jokes about MP3s (i.e. recent poll choice) and thinks it is funny, but it's theft. Does no one pay attention to the: "This may not be retransmitted without express written consent of the NBA, NFL, NHL, etc" at the end of any game? This is so _obviously_ illegal it's obscene. BTW, please don't Score: 0 Troll me, that's not the effect i'm going for.
OK, lots of places on the Net ask for a CC # to validate age. However, I think I speak for most people when I say that I'm weary of giving this out despite the notices that I will not be billed for anything. Why not make some form of digital ID for age verification? You get it at an office somewhere, or using a credit card (but only at one site). This way, after a one time hassle, you forever have a good way of supplying ID over the net.
OK, does anyone else feel that sometimes open source developers get to obsessive compulsive about things? I mean seriously, why have a discusssion on what determines an "alpha" label, when all it is is a label. Every software project is different. These days, even when a product is finished, it's still always undergoing change anyway. In the case of Mozilla, it could be released as an alpha, a theta, chi, or tau, who cares, all who use it know just what state the project is in. Just my $.02
OK, just to be short and to the point,
all along, Jobs acted like he hated
IBM and "big brother" and how they all
had to dress the same, and be perfect
employees. I don't know how true it is,
but in the movie, Jobs turned into a psycho
and ordered everyone around, and made them
all be the *same* by being different. They all
had to be pirates, just like IBMers all had to
be whatever it was that they were.
And BTW, if you're really looking for a good
view of Microsoft life, read Microserfs.
Oh I found it funny in retrospect,
but it was much more funny that I
read the whole review believing that
some Unix nerds of the 60s wrote
a book about ping
Am I the only one that actually
thought this was a real book
for any decent period of time?
It wasn't until I tried the
Amazon link that I found it
was a children's book.
I suppose after the fake
JWZ death post, it would
have been more obvious
that this was tongue in
cheek.
I don't see what makes this a good
editorial for Slashdot.
It looks as if Panix thinks he and others
in his "scene" are better because they care
about what is going on technically, and
they really could care less about actually
using the emulators they write. He tries
to make it sound that true emu people would
be satisfied if they could make a perfect
emulator and then never use it
for actually playing games.
I also don't understand this "It's ok because
we own N64's and the carts" argument. I mean,
if you own an N64 and Mario 64, why would
you go to the trouble of making an emulator
just to play the game on a computer, requiring
expensive rom backup equipment?
The only logical reason to make an emulator
is to USE it to play roms, and that's just
the way it is.
Lastly, Panix should not feel hostility for
"outsiders" to his scene because of the legions
of "3|337 h4X0rs" out there. Those people will
always be around, either winnuking, stealing
AOL passwords, mail bombing, warezing, playing
roms, or whatever the current fun thing to
do when you're 12 is. But such people should
just be ignored, if he wants to let them
take down their scene, then that's the
scene's problem. I agree with some one else
who equated this whole mess to that of MP3s.
In the mp3 case, I'd equate WinAMP/X11Amp to
Ultra HLE, and of course MP3s to roms. However,
when the author's of AMP/WinAMP found out
people were pirating MP3s, they didn't act
suprised and appauled and remove their program.