I would encourage a trade that cannot be outsourced. Electrician, plumber, A/C repair, etc. Once you've worked for someone else making b.s. money for a few years it's painfully easy to start your own business in those fields and make more than most engineers.
Completely true. Although I would say in Germany, trades are taken much more seriously and you see much cleaner work and so more respected. Here in the states, you have someone who can wire an outlet call himself a licensed electrician. I have seen many more people here take X week courses to "become certified" in something and we ended up as a jack of trades nation in that aspect. (My brother in law became a building appraiser in 3 weeks and he literally knows nothing about buildings...)
a) Many science/math teachers suck. Maybe it's because nerds tends towards autism spectrum, but I had teachers who couldn't communicate worth a damn. Of the ones who could speak english (some were imports and didn't master the language yet), many took delight in speaking in jargon and not english. One guy I knew prided himself on failing 3/4 of the class. And yes, college is hard (at least science/math) and it should be, but there is little excuse to obfuscate things.
Some teachers didn't suck, but they were the exception not the rule. They were a joy to have. When those didn't come up. Guess what? Learn from the book and just hope that's what the teacher tests you on.
b) Lack of hands on experience. Some of the best programmers I worked with never took college. Some of the worst graduated college but were fresh out, but couldn't program anything more complex than hello world in less than a day. Okay, a bit exaggerated, but it was like they were all theory and never sat down to program for fun.
c) I read 10 years ago that 30% of freshmen dropped out anyway. Assuming this is par for the course still, perhaps this 40% is not a big dea.
d) Not so much a proposition, but college shouldn't be the end of the world or beginning. There shouldn't be a monopoly on education nor should all the jobs that want degrees really even need them. Germany has a much better apprenticeship system, where you actually get paid a small amount to learn on the job and taught by a master for several years. Not like here where you get taught a bunch of unrelated classes, some focus on what may (or may not) be in your future job -- and then justify the $10's of thousands expense by calling you "educated" (or some other chestpuffing adjective you can lord over other less inclined) and not one of those "lowly tradesmen". (I've seen that here a lot).
I mean, get real, most Comp. Sci. grads won't become academics or push the edge, but most programmers get taught in college as if they were. Now, if they were to become Engineers (the real thing, with a rigorous test and certification and all that), it's a different story, but there really isn't much in this field like that.
It's because Android devices are marketed for nerds, by nerds. And nerds don't understand marketing or user experience.
Hit the nail on the head. There was a huge contingent here jeering and predicting in dire tones the huge failure of the iPad between its unveiling and release. Some nerds gets filled with nerdrage when tech isn't marketed to them, I guess. They also go about trying to sell products in all the wrong fashion and don't understand what drives people to buy them, and end up calling said (and popular) products crap in some hipster-nerd type of elitism which doesn't exactly bring them closer to understanding the market.
Anyway, from what I read, Apple's users more willingly pay for apps, so developers develop more willingly for iPhone. Since the price difference on iPhone and Android products are miniscule when subsidized, it's going to become a "It's the Apps stupid!" cycle ala Apple vs PC wars, except Apple is going to be on the flip side despite having a smaller base. (Also, less fragmentation of devices is nice for the developer as well, but $$$ is king of course.)
Though I wish Web OS became more popular, iOS and its clone Android has UI quirks that annoy me.
People aren't going to use Siri very much, because talking to your phone makes you look stupid. It's been on Android for years anyway, and no-one used it there. That Apple claim it's more useful now means nothing. It's like forward facing cameras - outside of a tiny niche no-one cares.
I think you're wrong. I had siri on my iPhone as a standalone app last year. I didn't use it because I had to open it by itself and it wasn't integrated very well. I tried the 4s at a store, and I *LOVE* searching with it.
I'm probably wouldn't use it to make calls, but I really hate typing into the search bar on a tiny screen.
Google would need to buy them and integrate it in a nice way with Android.
Google should have expertise from the Goog-411 service that it wouldn't need to buy a company. With google translate, might even work for many more languages too.
Not only that, he completely disregards for no apparent reason those existing services that are exactly like Siri was before Apple acquired it..
I had Siri on my iPhone last year as an app. If it's not integrated, it's not very useful. I used it a few times and then meh... So the guy is correct to say Apple has a head start (not sure if it's 2 years though). Call me back when Google does integrate it.
Re:I always wondered why nerds don't exercise
on
The Physics of Jump Rope
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Off-topic, but jump rope really is great exercise for both cardio, all-around conditioning, and coordination. A ton of boxers, past and present, do it, and it's my almost exclusive cardio. 12 minutes with a speed rope is more intense than 30 minutes jogging. Just have a decent surface to absorb shocks, and not hard like concrete. I used a wood pallet outside with a board on it as a cheap solution.
One of the factors driving health care up is that hospitals and doctors pass the cost of uninsured patients on to private insurance. One way or another, we are ALL paying for uninsured patients.
But having to treat the uninsured is another government intervention/rule. (Not that I'm necessarily against that rule or single payer Canada style). But it's not being uninsured by itself, but the rule that anyone with a life threatening condition has to be treated.
Oh okay. They changed the wording on that since I looked at it when the 4s first came out and it seemed to be able to use all carriers. Too bad I can't use all US carriers.
And compared to when I went to college just 15 years ago, these places are absolutely gorgeous. Until there is some means of implementing cost control at the schools - without affecting the ability of students to go to college - this won't change.
You know where else Government got involved in the 1960s. Health care via medicare. What happened to those costs? They skyrocketed. When I was born in the late 70s, my father wanted a private room for my mom. The nurse warned him that would be an extra $10 a day. Today, you couldn't even get an aspirin administered for that money. And it's not about inflation.
What happens in both is the provider does not lower costs because of Government input, it raised them to what the government pays and what the individual can bear. So we pay twice over. As individuals and as taxpayers. Same thing happens in education, where the avg $$$ per student at a public level is roughly twice as much as a charter school for worse results - although that is more of a local govt problem than a national govt problem - although the Dept of Education got started at roughly the same time as all these initiatives.
We also erred in several other ways. Not every job calls for a college degree, but that has become the mantra has the great majority of human resource departments, undoubtedly because they lack the competence or will or spine to assess a candidate on their own merits. Indeed, something like Germany's apprenticeship system would do us (the middle class) more justice than paying for college. There, you get lower (but at least some pay) for on the job training rather than endless theory for $X0,000 and still with no practical experience. (I know/. will feed me the old platitude that college isn't to teach you a trade but how to think, rounded person, blah blah blah - please shove it up your self-righteous behinds along with your student bills). Seriously, I see colleges for aspiring cooks, WTF!!! That's the shit the middle class bought into - paying to learn to work medium level jobs.
Second, we demand too much college for professions like doctors. Not that education is bad, but demanding they take Shakespeare and all the nonsense humanities just to get to medical school. Has nothing to do with anything, and it raises cost indirectly. Also, states are too inflexible about letting doctors of one state come in and be doctors in another area. And of foreign doctors. Movement is a good thing.
Third, doing nothing about medical malpractice. In some states, insurance starts with premiums at $1M a year. This raises costs and lowers quality (ever get the feeling your doctor is running out of the appointment before you got a word in edgewise?)
So, first, have the national govt do a strategic retreat from paying for these areas. And do malpractice reform. Have the state govts revise accreditation requirements and indicate they want to ease some standards.
I am thinking early next year Siri will be rolled out to iPhone 4 and iPad 2 owners (it may be the 3Gs is too old to handle it properly, as some audio cleanup and compression is probably done on the phone before transmission).
My brain may be addled, but I believe I was using Siri as a stand-alone app on my 3GS already, before it was bought up by Apple? As it's own app, it was not as good as the integrated thing it has become, but it was okay for searches. I also was using Apple's own voice recognition on my 3GS 2 years ago to dial numbers or "call home" or what not. Wasn't terribly good, which is why I hardly used it, but all I had to do was press and hold down the single button until it came up.
The reason it's not on the 3GS/4 is to make it an exclusive feature on the 4s as a reason to upgrade to it. Not that I care. I bought mine on the features it had at the time, not future promises. What make the 4s worth my while is the factory unlocked version coming to the US in November that's compatible with all networks (Verizon, Sprint, ATT, GSM worldwide). Since I travel internationally to a select few countries, I'm really anticipating a phone where I can swap out native sim cards at will, so I don't have to pay the ridiculous international roaming fees or carry 2 phones.
Re:I've said it once I'll say it again
on
Dennis Ritchie Day
·
· Score: 1
Even if you don't use lisp, it has affected programming. I see a lot of later languages as starting with a 'C' foundation moving towards lisp. Java would be a major example, python too.
You know, I'm sad that John McCarthy just died, with hardly a mention at all here, and I'm not out to piss off all the Dennis Ritchie fans just because I got my panties in a bunch. Some people need to grow up.
The Jews had a ruling once (if I remember correctly) after 49 years they divided all livestock among all families equally. As that was the representation of wealth, they collected all the money of the world and divided it equally among the people. Maybe we should do that.
It would accumulate again, and much to the same people except the "old moneyed" who never really learned anything. Most of the poor would still be poor, either due to bad education or bad habits. The people who worked their ass off would still get rich. The people who were at or near retirement would be screwed out of everything they worked for. Just look how it panned out in Russia since the fall of communism, where a bunch of workers got equal shares in the companies they worked for. Look at Zimbabwe after they kicked all the white farmers out and redistributed. What used to be the bread bowl of Africa is now the dust bowl, requiring food imports.
Wealth has never been nor will ever be created by redistribution. It has never improved a situation unless you're moving from true feudalism to freeing the serfs. And I'm not talking about fixing that label to people unhappy they can't afford to upgrade their TVs to a 60" LEDTV. Free markets help create wealth. The government should not be in the process of seizing assets and redistributing them. The government should protect indivudal rights and equalizing opportunities instead.
The coin has a "worth" of 1 million AUD but contains 50 million AUD of gold...
A $20 US Gold Coin weighs 0.96oz. An ounce being, what, $1700 per ounce these days? Doesn't mean that's what the mint sells it for.
And you wonder why the economy is down the crapper. Also... 50 million worth of gold. Perhaps some better use could be found for it then a vanity piece to show just how much Australia bows before its British superiors?
If there is a better use for gold, someone will buy it at the gold price, melt it, and use it. It's not forever lost.
My assumption that this was made was, yes for show, but also to relatively easily transport a lot of gold, and have enough detail on the surface and sides (like the ridges on the coin) to tell at a glance is someone is skimming off of it. Gold is soft, and I assume it's rather easy to skim off of blank blocks without a close inspection, and having a bunch of coins is hard to keep track of.
There are a lot of movies that do nothing new under the sun that do nothing *new* but package it well enough to convince people to buy it. Avatar was a $500M such risk. (And that was a risk, many people predicted it wouldn't make the money back.)
I argued the checklist bullshit with geeks many a time. That's a mindset useful maybe in the commercial sector, but consumers work differently once the basics are fulfilled.
You're all missing the point here. When Jobs returned to Apple, what resulted was a set of more or less "meh" Mac machines, a detour through the PowerPC, and a kludged up version of the Next OS. Apple desktop market share remained in single digits through that period.
You're really simplifying things. While I was no fan of the clamshell notebooks or early iMacs... the biggest difference in Job's immediate return is that he discontinued a metric ****-ton of computer lines that all overlapped on each other and many of which were unprofitable. The company made or at least branded printers for ****'s sake.
It might not seem innovative, but even today in every other manufacturer comes out with model names like MLO987XNYX. I see it when I go search on Amazon or browse Best Buy, like in the camera. Apple went with the Good, Better, Best approach to products, which is a lot more in line with how most people think, or really want to buy.
It also allowed Apple to free up their resources to make the early hits (iMac) and have the resources to make things like iPod.
But I agree about the part of Job's, Pixar, and his connections also helping get iTunes off the ground though.
I like how he still thought he was an innovator, when he admitted in his own book that another guy came up with the idea for products like the iPhone. That same guy received an award for it. That guy still works for Apple.
Steve Jobs was just the business man who could sell it. This has not only been blatantly obvious from the beginning, but now his own words back it up. So why are we still describing him as an innovator and visionary?
I can however credit him for being a good business man. And that's how he should be remembered. You know, the honest way.
Genius - 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Look around at the business world. How often do companies take chances vs. just operating off of inertia until somebody upsets their game? Every place it's about the next quarter, next quarter, next quarter, and less and less long-term.
I don't know if it's the patent frenzy in the US, of which Apple has no small blame in participating, but ideas by themselves are not as valuable as everyone makes them out to be.
But CA Public Employees Retirement System sounds left wing already, and if I were a worker, I'd be pissed that they're using my pension $ to play politics instead of simply focusing on good companies and divesting themselves of bad ones.
The headset is nearly useless. Talking over the phone is more distracting than a car passenger, because passengers realize when to stfu because of situational cues, and you aren't pressured to keep the conversation going when the situation demands all your attention since a passenger realizes this, but a phone participant doesn't and keeps on going.
Kind of like how those people who "work" 12 hours a day, brag about it, and lag behind people who work an honest 8 hours a day in productive because they spend most of the time at the watercooler or on the internet. Seriously, when you're driving, please drive - stop overestimating your abilities when they really get reduced by not paying attention. If you don't want to do that, either carpool with someone who doesn't have that problem and is willing to drive, or use mass transit.
But stfu because you can't stop diddling with your smartphone for 30 seconds and want to bullshit the rest of us that you're just as good with it as without it.
Why shouldn't distracted driving be an offense? You talk about specific rules (like banning food) but just like fraud, you can make the generalized cases illegal and not have to think of every form of it.
Look, I'm tired of speeding being the most enforced rule on the road. From what I experienced, speeders are focused on their driving, and less likely to put others around them to sleep. Yet, I never seen cops pull over people for failure to use turn signals or any other offense.
It's time to clamp down things other than speeding for once. Shit that leads to accidents. Just like drunk driving began to be taken more serious in the 70s and after.
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Completely true. Although I would say in Germany, trades are taken much more seriously and you see much cleaner work and so more respected. Here in the states, you have someone who can wire an outlet call himself a licensed electrician. I have seen many more people here take X week courses to "become certified" in something and we ended up as a jack of trades nation in that aspect. (My brother in law became a building appraiser in 3 weeks and he literally knows nothing about buildings...)
Let me put forth some propositions:
a) Many science/math teachers suck. Maybe it's because nerds tends towards autism spectrum, but I had teachers who couldn't communicate worth a damn. Of the ones who could speak english (some were imports and didn't master the language yet), many took delight in speaking in jargon and not english. One guy I knew prided himself on failing 3/4 of the class. And yes, college is hard (at least science/math) and it should be, but there is little excuse to obfuscate things.
Some teachers didn't suck, but they were the exception not the rule. They were a joy to have. When those didn't come up. Guess what? Learn from the book and just hope that's what the teacher tests you on.
b) Lack of hands on experience. Some of the best programmers I worked with never took college. Some of the worst graduated college but were fresh out, but couldn't program anything more complex than hello world in less than a day. Okay, a bit exaggerated, but it was like they were all theory and never sat down to program for fun.
c) I read 10 years ago that 30% of freshmen dropped out anyway. Assuming this is par for the course still, perhaps this 40% is not a big dea.
d) Not so much a proposition, but college shouldn't be the end of the world or beginning. There shouldn't be a monopoly on education nor should all the jobs that want degrees really even need them. Germany has a much better apprenticeship system, where you actually get paid a small amount to learn on the job and taught by a master for several years. Not like here where you get taught a bunch of unrelated classes, some focus on what may (or may not) be in your future job -- and then justify the $10's of thousands expense by calling you "educated" (or some other chestpuffing adjective you can lord over other less inclined) and not one of those "lowly tradesmen". (I've seen that here a lot).
I mean, get real, most Comp. Sci. grads won't become academics or push the edge, but most programmers get taught in college as if they were. Now, if they were to become Engineers (the real thing, with a rigorous test and certification and all that), it's a different story, but there really isn't much in this field like that.
Hit the nail on the head. There was a huge contingent here jeering and predicting in dire tones the huge failure of the iPad between its unveiling and release. Some nerds gets filled with nerdrage when tech isn't marketed to them, I guess. They also go about trying to sell products in all the wrong fashion and don't understand what drives people to buy them, and end up calling said (and popular) products crap in some hipster-nerd type of elitism which doesn't exactly bring them closer to understanding the market.
Anyway, from what I read, Apple's users more willingly pay for apps, so developers develop more willingly for iPhone. Since the price difference on iPhone and Android products are miniscule when subsidized, it's going to become a "It's the Apps stupid!" cycle ala Apple vs PC wars, except Apple is going to be on the flip side despite having a smaller base. (Also, less fragmentation of devices is nice for the developer as well, but $$$ is king of course.)
Though I wish Web OS became more popular, iOS and its clone Android has UI quirks that annoy me.
I think you're wrong. I had siri on my iPhone as a standalone app last year. I didn't use it because I had to open it by itself and it wasn't integrated very well. I tried the 4s at a store, and I *LOVE* searching with it.
I'm probably wouldn't use it to make calls, but I really hate typing into the search bar on a tiny screen.
Google should have expertise from the Goog-411 service that it wouldn't need to buy a company. With google translate, might even work for many more languages too.
I had Siri on my iPhone last year as an app. If it's not integrated, it's not very useful. I used it a few times and then meh... So the guy is correct to say Apple has a head start (not sure if it's 2 years though). Call me back when Google does integrate it.
Ok, I just found out that Verizon will unlock your phone after 60 days for international travel which is exactly what I need.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394536,00.asp#fbid=Qzjzk7NRtVm
Off-topic, but jump rope really is great exercise for both cardio, all-around conditioning, and coordination. A ton of boxers, past and present, do it, and it's my almost exclusive cardio. 12 minutes with a speed rope is more intense than 30 minutes jogging. Just have a decent surface to absorb shocks, and not hard like concrete. I used a wood pallet outside with a board on it as a cheap solution.
But having to treat the uninsured is another government intervention/rule. (Not that I'm necessarily against that rule or single payer Canada style). But it's not being uninsured by itself, but the rule that anyone with a life threatening condition has to be treated.
Oh okay. They changed the wording on that since I looked at it when the 4s first came out and it seemed to be able to use all carriers. Too bad I can't use all US carriers.
You know where else Government got involved in the 1960s. Health care via medicare. What happened to those costs? They skyrocketed. When I was born in the late 70s, my father wanted a private room for my mom. The nurse warned him that would be an extra $10 a day. Today, you couldn't even get an aspirin administered for that money. And it's not about inflation.
What happens in both is the provider does not lower costs because of Government input, it raised them to what the government pays and what the individual can bear. So we pay twice over. As individuals and as taxpayers. Same thing happens in education, where the avg $$$ per student at a public level is roughly twice as much as a charter school for worse results - although that is more of a local govt problem than a national govt problem - although the Dept of Education got started at roughly the same time as all these initiatives.
We also erred in several other ways. Not every job calls for a college degree, but that has become the mantra has the great majority of human resource departments, undoubtedly because they lack the competence or will or spine to assess a candidate on their own merits. Indeed, something like Germany's apprenticeship system would do us (the middle class) more justice than paying for college. There, you get lower (but at least some pay) for on the job training rather than endless theory for $X0,000 and still with no practical experience. (I know /. will feed me the old platitude that college isn't to teach you a trade but how to think, rounded person, blah blah blah - please shove it up your self-righteous behinds along with your student bills). Seriously, I see colleges for aspiring cooks, WTF!!! That's the shit the middle class bought into - paying to learn to work medium level jobs.
Second, we demand too much college for professions like doctors. Not that education is bad, but demanding they take Shakespeare and all the nonsense humanities just to get to medical school. Has nothing to do with anything, and it raises cost indirectly. Also, states are too inflexible about letting doctors of one state come in and be doctors in another area. And of foreign doctors. Movement is a good thing.
Third, doing nothing about medical malpractice. In some states, insurance starts with premiums at $1M a year. This raises costs and lowers quality (ever get the feeling your doctor is running out of the appointment before you got a word in edgewise?)
So, first, have the national govt do a strategic retreat from paying for these areas. And do malpractice reform. Have the state govts revise accreditation requirements and indicate they want to ease some standards.
My brain may be addled, but I believe I was using Siri as a stand-alone app on my 3GS already, before it was bought up by Apple? As it's own app, it was not as good as the integrated thing it has become, but it was okay for searches. I also was using Apple's own voice recognition on my 3GS 2 years ago to dial numbers or "call home" or what not. Wasn't terribly good, which is why I hardly used it, but all I had to do was press and hold down the single button until it came up.
The reason it's not on the 3GS/4 is to make it an exclusive feature on the 4s as a reason to upgrade to it. Not that I care. I bought mine on the features it had at the time, not future promises. What make the 4s worth my while is the factory unlocked version coming to the US in November that's compatible with all networks (Verizon, Sprint, ATT, GSM worldwide). Since I travel internationally to a select few countries, I'm really anticipating a phone where I can swap out native sim cards at will, so I don't have to pay the ridiculous international roaming fees or carry 2 phones.
Even if you don't use lisp, it has affected programming. I see a lot of later languages as starting with a 'C' foundation moving towards lisp. Java would be a major example, python too.
Thank you.
You know, I'm sad that John McCarthy just died, with hardly a mention at all here, and I'm not out to piss off all the Dennis Ritchie fans just because I got my panties in a bunch. Some people need to grow up.
It would accumulate again, and much to the same people except the "old moneyed" who never really learned anything. Most of the poor would still be poor, either due to bad education or bad habits. The people who worked their ass off would still get rich. The people who were at or near retirement would be screwed out of everything they worked for. Just look how it panned out in Russia since the fall of communism, where a bunch of workers got equal shares in the companies they worked for. Look at Zimbabwe after they kicked all the white farmers out and redistributed. What used to be the bread bowl of Africa is now the dust bowl, requiring food imports.
Wealth has never been nor will ever be created by redistribution. It has never improved a situation unless you're moving from true feudalism to freeing the serfs. And I'm not talking about fixing that label to people unhappy they can't afford to upgrade their TVs to a 60" LEDTV. Free markets help create wealth. The government should not be in the process of seizing assets and redistributing them. The government should protect indivudal rights and equalizing opportunities instead.
A $20 US Gold Coin weighs 0.96oz. An ounce being, what, $1700 per ounce these days? Doesn't mean that's what the mint sells it for.
If there is a better use for gold, someone will buy it at the gold price, melt it, and use it. It's not forever lost.
My assumption that this was made was, yes for show, but also to relatively easily transport a lot of gold, and have enough detail on the surface and sides (like the ridges on the coin) to tell at a glance is someone is skimming off of it. Gold is soft, and I assume it's rather easy to skim off of blank blocks without a close inspection, and having a bunch of coins is hard to keep track of.
There are a lot of movies that do nothing new under the sun that do nothing *new* but package it well enough to convince people to buy it. Avatar was a $500M such risk. (And that was a risk, many people predicted it wouldn't make the money back.)
I argued the checklist bullshit with geeks many a time. That's a mindset useful maybe in the commercial sector, but consumers work differently once the basics are fulfilled.
**** you.
You're really simplifying things. While I was no fan of the clamshell notebooks or early iMacs... the biggest difference in Job's immediate return is that he discontinued a metric ****-ton of computer lines that all overlapped on each other and many of which were unprofitable. The company made or at least branded printers for ****'s sake.
It might not seem innovative, but even today in every other manufacturer comes out with model names like MLO987XNYX. I see it when I go search on Amazon or browse Best Buy, like in the camera. Apple went with the Good, Better, Best approach to products, which is a lot more in line with how most people think, or really want to buy.
It also allowed Apple to free up their resources to make the early hits (iMac) and have the resources to make things like iPod.
But I agree about the part of Job's, Pixar, and his connections also helping get iTunes off the ground though.
Genius - 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Look around at the business world. How often do companies take chances vs. just operating off of inertia until somebody upsets their game? Every place it's about the next quarter, next quarter, next quarter, and less and less long-term.
I don't know if it's the patent frenzy in the US, of which Apple has no small blame in participating, but ideas by themselves are not as valuable as everyone makes them out to be.
Yes, but we're talking about books.
We're glad that there's no DRM on personal PDFs and webpages, that's so kind of them.
Way too busy? Of their own accord or being loaded down by work?
But CA Public Employees Retirement System sounds left wing already, and if I were a worker, I'd be pissed that they're using my pension $ to play politics instead of simply focusing on good companies and divesting themselves of bad ones.
The headset is nearly useless. Talking over the phone is more distracting than a car passenger, because passengers realize when to stfu because of situational cues, and you aren't pressured to keep the conversation going when the situation demands all your attention since a passenger realizes this, but a phone participant doesn't and keeps on going.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002374605_cellphones12.html
To add to the last post:
A lot less than many people think. Most overestimate their abilities:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794
Which is a very American trait, I noticed:
http://desicritics.org/2006/10/20/012720.php
Kind of like how those people who "work" 12 hours a day, brag about it, and lag behind people who work an honest 8 hours a day in productive because they spend most of the time at the watercooler or on the internet. Seriously, when you're driving, please drive - stop overestimating your abilities when they really get reduced by not paying attention. If you don't want to do that, either carpool with someone who doesn't have that problem and is willing to drive, or use mass transit.
But stfu because you can't stop diddling with your smartphone for 30 seconds and want to bullshit the rest of us that you're just as good with it as without it.
Why shouldn't distracted driving be an offense? You talk about specific rules (like banning food) but just like fraud, you can make the generalized cases illegal and not have to think of every form of it.
Look, I'm tired of speeding being the most enforced rule on the road. From what I experienced, speeders are focused on their driving, and less likely to put others around them to sleep. Yet, I never seen cops pull over people for failure to use turn signals or any other offense.
It's time to clamp down things other than speeding for once. Shit that leads to accidents. Just like drunk driving began to be taken more serious in the 70s and after.