We have a busy-body on our street. She seems nice enough, but she tries to take care of the "speeding" problem herself. She will occasionally zap people with a radar gun and talk to them (or their parents). I think once or twice she's called the cops. And if she doesn't have the gun out and "thinks" you're speeding she'll yell out to you.
But I find myself insanely annoyed (border-line angry) at one thing she does. If she's driving towards you in the opposite direction and "thinks" you're speeding she will pull into the middle of the road with her SUV to get you to stop or slowdown.
WTF!
Yes people speed on our street, but not by much and not often. It's a short windy street that doesn't really take you anywhere. But the speedgun is a bit much. Heck, the street just loops back into itself to make a letter P so it's not like a shortcut to
anywhere so there's little point.
And stopping in the middle of the street to stop cars is pretty hazardous.
The leader of the Marijuana Party of Canada (don't get excited, even for a fringe party, they're pretty unimportant) reportedly pays taxes on his income from selling pot.
I think that's valid in the US too. From what I've been told, when filling out your tax forms it's OK to write your criminal activity from which you derived your income (prostitution, selling drugs, etc). Although I don't know if someone at the IRS monitors this and alerts authorities.
A plow alone wouldn't work. Assuming the plow was a strong and hard enough surface to not turn into a cheese grater after a few minutes, the pieces would simply start bouncing of. You'd need some sort of contraption to "trap" the junk.
I wonder what the environmental impact would be to try to deflect some of the smaller stuff into the atmosphere to burn up. You know, nothing big/dense enough to survive reentry.
I saw a couple of news blurbs on TV that were putting a negative spin on things. One in particular made it sound like the company knew that putting up those devices would cause a bomb scare and that it was probably their intent. Some reporters are either idiots or editorialize things to death.
In any case, I can easily see the city taking precautions and sending in the bomb squad to investigate. Say what you like, but better safe then sorry.
BUT, this whole thing afterwards is just insane. Politicians criticizing the company for doing this post 9-11, decrying the use of them putting up "hoax bombs", etc -- that stuff just infuriates me. The company could have handled the whole thing better, that's for sure, but they weren't putting up "hoax bombs," they were putting up advertisements. I realize they could have easily been IEDs but if you nail them for putting up "hoax bombs" you'll need to nail everyone that puts up anything short of a piece of paper.
Sure, one can't ignore the comedic circumstances: We're angry at you quitting, so as a result we're suing you and kicking you out. But even if the story has all of the important elements, I could see security escorting him out.
One of the main reasons for security escorting employees out is to ensure they do no damage (to physical or information property). This is usually as a result of just getting fired and the company doesn't want to give the employee a chance to "act out" or "fight back," but it can also include scenarios with similar potential dangers: like an employee getting investigated for something or whatever.
I'd say getting pissed at the guy and suing him would initiate the same scenario. I mean, what do you see happening:
"Umm Bob, we are angry with your actions and are suing you. As a result we've deactivated your accounts and are having security to escort you out."
"Umm Bob, we are going to sue you and our team of lawyers are going to crush your stones like ripe grapes. So please feel free to go back to your desk with all of your database password intact. I'm sure you'll be an adult about this."
Well, if you really want to sell it for $6 then place a "Reserve Price" on that item (in this case for $6). This way if nobody meets your reserve then you don't have to actually sell it. It's more honest, and you're letting people know ahead of time what to expect.
Now, that's not to say I wouldn't do what you're suggesting. I've yet to actually sell anything off eBay so I can't really judge, and honestly if it looked like my auction wasn't going as I'd hoped I might try bumping up the price a little.
In the end, it's kind of a coin toss. On one hand it's kind of fishy. On the other hand, the buyer will still be paying what he/she thinks the item is worth.
you can just switch your SIM cards to get another provider, no lock-in possible.
That's not technically true. The iPhone could still be locked unless Apple is very very stalwart on the issue. Take my Sony w810i... it's a nice GSM phone that is (or at least was) sold by Cingular locked.
Fotunately I bought mine from Sony-direct, so it is unlocked. Unfortunately, I can easily see Cingular trying to lock these phones down unless Apple contractually prohibits them or somehow made them impossible to lock.
Interesting. However (not to nitpickhow diverse are the non-Swiss inhabitants? For example, I do a lot of work with a Swiss company and talk to my collegues often. Interestingly enough, about 1/4 of the people I speak to at the Swiss office, about half (or a third) are either German or French because the office is so close to both borders. Kind of like how our sharing a border with Mexico means we have a lot of Mexicans.
So is it just those nationalities that are pumping up the diversity ratio? Or are they substantial percentages from across the board?
I'm not trying to poke holes in your stats or anything, I'm just wondering.
Some of those games were released as Gameboy Adv or Nintendo DS games. So they have the fiscal dilemma: release a game for $3-$5 USD when they are still trying to sell those games for $20-$30 elsewhere.
Ah Scan-Tron. I remember those.
A test I took once for some reason said I got half of them wrong (10/20). Yet on visual inspection I only got 2 wrong. On that day I was not the only one in the class with that problem.
All systems are prone to failure. Hanging chads, bad optics, the person not filling in the bubble fully, etc.
but bootup, shutdown, task switching, overall GUI responsiveness, etc., is visibly slower than the old system.
I'm not an MS fan, but the only real slowdown over 98 I've ever noticed was the bootup, and that was expected. You're comparing a (frankly) a low-grade OS with poor reliability with an OS dedicated to more "business-oriented" work. Remember, 2000 and XP are built upon their NT design while 98 was pretty much just garbage 95. One has more to load at startup because it does a lot more.
It's kind of like saying that a (real) go-cart is quicker off-the-line than an Infiniti G35. Sure it's a given, but one handles crashes a lot better.
Some of my SNES games don't save anymore (or "lose" the saves after a few days). So while I'm sure I could beat Super Mario World in one sitting (without taking the shortcut) I'd rather not. Same goes for Link to the Past (my favorite game of alltime).
Unfortunately, I don't see myself buying too many classics for my Wii. I bought F-Zero last night, and while fun it hardly felt worth it.
As a Wii user, I'm sorry but that's BS. If you're using them as instructed the things should not be flying like canonballs. I remember watching a video of a guy holding the Wiimote like a baseball, doing a fullstrength pitch, and letting go of the Wiimote (hoping the strap would keep it on his wrist when he let go). Sorry, that is NOT proper usage.
I've had it since the week it came out and played a lot of Wii Sports during the first week. And even at my strongest throws and such I never let the thing go.
(Honestly, I learned about refraction in third or fourth grade. What do they teach in schools these days?)
I learned it back then as well. I think it was around the time we were talking about concave and convex mirrors.
Then again, with the exception of stuff I've needed every day since (math, cursive writing, etc) I've forgotten much of what I've learned from those grades... except Eli Whitney for some reason.
True, but I think the point he was trying to make was that the Hard Drive is an essential part to a computer. If something happens to it then you're pretty much SOL, and its mechanical nature makes it prone to failure (particularly in a laptop that gets carried around). Meanwhile, if for whatever reason the motor on your DVD drive dies the computer is still functional and useful (unless you NEED the DVD/CD at that exact instant: movie, install, etc). Sure, the DVD Drive is still a mechanical part but not its not a piece that can prevents everything else from working).
So in the end, putting a lot of faith in a component that has a high risk of breaking due to its design. I'm not saying Hard Drives "suck" or anything, but in some cases an alternative would be preferable.
But as far as I know, this has always been the case in Denmark. Care was taken in selecting where to inhabit, and eventually care was taken when adding further protection.
Elsewhere, places would have to start protecting places where it was never much of a concern; Eh, you should be high enough, don't worry about flooding. Civil engineers probably didn't take much care in designing towns in certain places.
In the end, this would be a world-wide concern spanning all landmasses. I'm no expert, heck I can't even speculate as to the cost or effort, but I can't imagine it would be easy to handle by any means.
No really. It's one thing to say "wear short-sleeves and such," it's another to try and deal with rising water levels.
If the water levels rise then you have to either start considering evacuating places shorelines or try to protect them with dikes, damns, etc. And after the "Katrina" people are going to be very picky about how it's done, as one good storm could then destroy everything.
Granted, such a thing would happen over a LONG period (decades, centuries?) but I can't imagine protecting all of the populated coastal areas be considered "cheap."
And driven with few passengers? Do you think people buy minivans for the looks? Our minivan rarely goes anywhere with less than four people. That's why we got a minivan.
I believe what the grandparent was saying was that when you see a minivan you usually just see a 1-2 people in it; like the parent driving to work or a stay-at-home parent getting some groceries during school hours.
Sure, they probably have a family that travels together a lot (particularly on weekends). But logic dictates that unless it's used to carpool neighbors to work every day or the kids are home-schooled, it gets driven a LOT with just 1-2 people in the car.
going to work
going to the grocery store
runnig various errands.
etc
However the same goes with SUVs, I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen a large SUV driving around with just the driver (highway and street).
Reminds me of two co-workers I know. Great guys, very knowledgable, professional, and friendly. But when the conversation comes up about open spaces they say "We do that and it's perfectly fine. We enjoy it."
Out of respect I bite my tongue, but what I want to say is "there are only 2 of you!" Yeh, it's just the two of them sharing a rather large room (with 1 long table). Of course it's fine, it's just 2 friends sitting together working on the same project.
Meanwhile I have a friend that's going from a mix of offices and cubes (among 12 people from the same department) to open space with around 60 people (from three VERY unique departments).
Myself, I'm used to cubes as I spent most of the last 3 years in one, all-be-it in a very small farm. I've only observed open space once or twice in real-life situations and I wasn't fond of it. But perhaps it's the kind of thing I'd get used to.
Re:Don't feel like wading through reviews
on
Gears Sells a Million
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Technically, it's a 3rd person shooter. You're zoomed up pretty close to the guy, without the ability to change the perspective (except sniping). Normally I hate games like that, but this does it rather well.
Graphically, it's a pretty nice game. Sure, PC shooters already surpassed it but for a console game it's quite magnificent. Lots of detail gets rendered nicely for HD content.
Its gameplay is nothing ground-breaking, but it remains quite fun. The enemy AI isn't super intelligent, but smart enough for a good time. The whole game is big on taking cover: IE you walk up to a wall or ledge or stone debris and hide behind it. Then you peak out and fire, run to some different/better cover and repeat; failure to do so results in your death. Sure, there are places with little to no cover at which point it is simple shoot them until one of you die, but those environments are sparse.
The game takes place in a post-warzone Earth. It's been invaded by beings that have burrowed beneath the surface that pop out to slaughter the surface dwellers. Most of the creatures are bipeds (walk on hind legs like a human) with scatterings of more monsterous animals. The atmosphere is pretty dark (literally and metaphorically). The world is in shambles, there's not a building or neighborhood that isn't trashed. You meet some survivors who feel the military has turned their backs on the people, and see that their lives really really suck.
Pretty much, it's THE big console shooter (for the moment). Personally, I found it a lot more enjoyable than the Halo games.
Exactly how is it "wrong" to mass-search drivers' license pictures? So long as they don't ONLY rely on the computer then it's alright.
Person A gets caught on tape shooting a grocery store clerk. Unfortunately, that is the only lead.
While persuing the ordinary investigation (involving the public, looking for witnesses, looking for speeding vehicles), etc...
the police run the face through the recognition DB and get a number of hits
They then use ordinary police work to check out the potential suspects: geography, past records, maybe a few house calls, etc.
Now they shouldn't place TOO much faith in the system, after all when searching through a vast DB there are going to be multiple hits depending on how low you set the threshold. But as a tool it can be quite useful to find the guy.
As for your problems, yeh it sucks. But the article isn't saying that only convicted criminals go in: everybody goes in. So how is that punishing you? If you got nailed for involuntary manslaughter during a drunk driving hit-and-run a few years ago, and then a couple of years later it happens again in your neighborhood, you can be sure your name will come up again (even if only for a few seconds) -- with or without the system.
It's just an investigative tool to help find a list of suspects. The software is not good enough to treat it like "fingerprints" or DNA, it's just saying "these guys kind of look like the guy in the grainy black-and-white video tape. They'd need a lot more to charge you.
Yeh, "rich" isn't a requirement. It's cheaper than Cable around here, and not only "rich" neighborhoods have it. In fact, if you look at some of the places in my state you'd be surprised. Richer areas have no word on when they're getting it, but some rundown areas got it a while ago (both city and in the boonies).
Slashdot Mirror
We have a busy-body on our street. She seems nice enough, but she tries to take care of the "speeding" problem herself. She will occasionally zap people with a radar gun and talk to them (or their parents). I think once or twice she's called the cops. And if she doesn't have the gun out and "thinks" you're speeding she'll yell out to you.
But I find myself insanely annoyed (border-line angry) at one thing she does. If she's driving towards you in the opposite direction and "thinks" you're speeding she will pull into the middle of the road with her SUV to get you to stop or slowdown.
WTF!
Yes people speed on our street, but not by much and not often. It's a short windy street that doesn't really take you anywhere. But the speedgun is a bit much. Heck, the street just loops back into itself to make a letter P so it's not like a shortcut to anywhere so there's little point.
And stopping in the middle of the street to stop cars is pretty hazardous.
A plow alone wouldn't work. Assuming the plow was a strong and hard enough surface to not turn into a cheese grater after a few minutes, the pieces would simply start bouncing of. You'd need some sort of contraption to "trap" the junk.
I wonder what the environmental impact would be to try to deflect some of the smaller stuff into the atmosphere to burn up. You know, nothing big/dense enough to survive reentry.
In any case, I can easily see the city taking precautions and sending in the bomb squad to investigate. Say what you like, but better safe then sorry.
BUT, this whole thing afterwards is just insane. Politicians criticizing the company for doing this post 9-11, decrying the use of them putting up "hoax bombs", etc -- that stuff just infuriates me. The company could have handled the whole thing better, that's for sure, but they weren't putting up "hoax bombs," they were putting up advertisements. I realize they could have easily been IEDs but if you nail them for putting up "hoax bombs" you'll need to nail everyone that puts up anything short of a piece of paper.
One of the main reasons for security escorting employees out is to ensure they do no damage (to physical or information property). This is usually as a result of just getting fired and the company doesn't want to give the employee a chance to "act out" or "fight back," but it can also include scenarios with similar potential dangers: like an employee getting investigated for something or whatever.
I'd say getting pissed at the guy and suing him would initiate the same scenario. I mean, what do you see happening:
One of the computer geeks at the Pentagon better not be watching any Star Trek episodes.
For example, now the Internet uses tubes.
Well, if you really want to sell it for $6 then place a "Reserve Price" on that item (in this case for $6). This way if nobody meets your reserve then you don't have to actually sell it. It's more honest, and you're letting people know ahead of time what to expect.
Now, that's not to say I wouldn't do what you're suggesting. I've yet to actually sell anything off eBay so I can't really judge, and honestly if it looked like my auction wasn't going as I'd hoped I might try bumping up the price a little.
In the end, it's kind of a coin toss. On one hand it's kind of fishy. On the other hand, the buyer will still be paying what he/she thinks the item is worth.
Fotunately I bought mine from Sony-direct, so it is unlocked. Unfortunately, I can easily see Cingular trying to lock these phones down unless Apple contractually prohibits them or somehow made them impossible to lock.
Interesting. However (not to nitpickhow diverse are the non-Swiss inhabitants? For example, I do a lot of work with a Swiss company and talk to my collegues often. Interestingly enough, about 1/4 of the people I speak to at the Swiss office, about half (or a third) are either German or French because the office is so close to both borders. Kind of like how our sharing a border with Mexico means we have a lot of Mexicans.
So is it just those nationalities that are pumping up the diversity ratio? Or are they substantial percentages from across the board?
I'm not trying to poke holes in your stats or anything, I'm just wondering.
Some of those games were released as Gameboy Adv or Nintendo DS games. So they have the fiscal dilemma: release a game for $3-$5 USD when they are still trying to sell those games for $20-$30 elsewhere.
Ah Scan-Tron. I remember those.
A test I took once for some reason said I got half of them wrong (10/20). Yet on visual inspection I only got 2 wrong. On that day I was not the only one in the class with that problem.
All systems are prone to failure. Hanging chads, bad optics, the person not filling in the bubble fully, etc.
The only other way for the game to exist is with the DS's touchscreen + stylus (which it does). The game is spectacular!
Seriously, try it out, you'll love it.
It's kind of like saying that a (real) go-cart is quicker off-the-line than an Infiniti G35. Sure it's a given, but one handles crashes a lot better.
Some of my SNES games don't save anymore (or "lose" the saves after a few days). So while I'm sure I could beat Super Mario World in one sitting (without taking the shortcut) I'd rather not. Same goes for Link to the Past (my favorite game of alltime).
Unfortunately, I don't see myself buying too many classics for my Wii. I bought F-Zero last night, and while fun it hardly felt worth it.
As a Wii user, I'm sorry but that's BS. If you're using them as instructed the things should not be flying like canonballs. I remember watching a video of a guy holding the Wiimote like a baseball, doing a fullstrength pitch, and letting go of the Wiimote (hoping the strap would keep it on his wrist when he let go). Sorry, that is NOT proper usage.
I've had it since the week it came out and played a lot of Wii Sports during the first week. And even at my strongest throws and such I never let the thing go.
Then again, with the exception of stuff I've needed every day since (math, cursive writing, etc) I've forgotten much of what I've learned from those grades... except Eli Whitney for some reason.
So in the end, putting a lot of faith in a component that has a high risk of breaking due to its design. I'm not saying Hard Drives "suck" or anything, but in some cases an alternative would be preferable.
But as far as I know, this has always been the case in Denmark. Care was taken in selecting where to inhabit, and eventually care was taken when adding further protection.
Elsewhere, places would have to start protecting places where it was never much of a concern; Eh, you should be high enough, don't worry about flooding. Civil engineers probably didn't take much care in designing towns in certain places.
In the end, this would be a world-wide concern spanning all landmasses. I'm no expert, heck I can't even speculate as to the cost or effort, but I can't imagine it would be easy to handle by any means.
No really. It's one thing to say "wear short-sleeves and such," it's another to try and deal with rising water levels.
If the water levels rise then you have to either start considering evacuating places shorelines or try to protect them with dikes, damns, etc. And after the "Katrina" people are going to be very picky about how it's done, as one good storm could then destroy everything.
Granted, such a thing would happen over a LONG period (decades, centuries?) but I can't imagine protecting all of the populated coastal areas be considered "cheap."
Sure, they probably have a family that travels together a lot (particularly on weekends). But logic dictates that unless it's used to carpool neighbors to work every day or the kids are home-schooled, it gets driven a LOT with just 1-2 people in the car.
- going to work
- going to the grocery store
- runnig various errands.
- etc
However the same goes with SUVs, I can't even begin to count how many times I've seen a large SUV driving around with just the driver (highway and street).Reminds me of two co-workers I know. Great guys, very knowledgable, professional, and friendly. But when the conversation comes up about open spaces they say "We do that and it's perfectly fine. We enjoy it."
Out of respect I bite my tongue, but what I want to say is "there are only 2 of you!" Yeh, it's just the two of them sharing a rather large room (with 1 long table). Of course it's fine, it's just 2 friends sitting together working on the same project.
Meanwhile I have a friend that's going from a mix of offices and cubes (among 12 people from the same department) to open space with around 60 people (from three VERY unique departments).
Myself, I'm used to cubes as I spent most of the last 3 years in one, all-be-it in a very small farm. I've only observed open space once or twice in real-life situations and I wasn't fond of it. But perhaps it's the kind of thing I'd get used to.
Technically, it's a 3rd person shooter. You're zoomed up pretty close to the guy, without the ability to change the perspective (except sniping). Normally I hate games like that, but this does it rather well.
Graphically, it's a pretty nice game. Sure, PC shooters already surpassed it but for a console game it's quite magnificent. Lots of detail gets rendered nicely for HD content.
Its gameplay is nothing ground-breaking, but it remains quite fun. The enemy AI isn't super intelligent, but smart enough for a good time. The whole game is big on taking cover: IE you walk up to a wall or ledge or stone debris and hide behind it. Then you peak out and fire, run to some different/better cover and repeat; failure to do so results in your death. Sure, there are places with little to no cover at which point it is simple shoot them until one of you die, but those environments are sparse.
The game takes place in a post-warzone Earth. It's been invaded by beings that have burrowed beneath the surface that pop out to slaughter the surface dwellers. Most of the creatures are bipeds (walk on hind legs like a human) with scatterings of more monsterous animals. The atmosphere is pretty dark (literally and metaphorically). The world is in shambles, there's not a building or neighborhood that isn't trashed. You meet some survivors who feel the military has turned their backs on the people, and see that their lives really really suck.
Pretty much, it's THE big console shooter (for the moment). Personally, I found it a lot more enjoyable than the Halo games.
- Person A gets caught on tape shooting a grocery store clerk. Unfortunately, that is the only lead.
- While persuing the ordinary investigation (involving the public, looking for witnesses, looking for speeding vehicles), etc...
- the police run the face through the recognition DB and get a number of hits
- They then use ordinary police work to check out the potential suspects: geography, past records, maybe a few house calls, etc.
Now they shouldn't place TOO much faith in the system, after all when searching through a vast DB there are going to be multiple hits depending on how low you set the threshold. But as a tool it can be quite useful to find the guy.As for your problems, yeh it sucks. But the article isn't saying that only convicted criminals go in: everybody goes in. So how is that punishing you? If you got nailed for involuntary manslaughter during a drunk driving hit-and-run a few years ago, and then a couple of years later it happens again in your neighborhood, you can be sure your name will come up again (even if only for a few seconds) -- with or without the system.
It's just an investigative tool to help find a list of suspects. The software is not good enough to treat it like "fingerprints" or DNA, it's just saying "these guys kind of look like the guy in the grainy black-and-white video tape. They'd need a lot more to charge you.
Yeh, "rich" isn't a requirement. It's cheaper than Cable around here, and not only "rich" neighborhoods have it. In fact, if you look at some of the places in my state you'd be surprised. Richer areas have no word on when they're getting it, but some rundown areas got it a while ago (both city and in the boonies).