Aside: London Underground introduced an RFID-based system for block-purchase of tickets, promising it would read your "ticket" in your bag/pocket as you passed by. This claim was dropped on introduction, and they now advise you to swipe the reader with your tag as you go by...
The DC Metro has been using "SmarTrip" cards for a couple of years now, and everyone just keeps them in their wallet and passes them over the sensor. I'd say that the success rate of this technique is around 90% -- with the 10% of failures due to George Costanza-like wallets.
Personally, I take great pleasure in always carrying an old-fashioned paper (with magnetic strip) Metro card in my wallet. I never buy/upgrade to the exact amount of my trip, as I have no desire to hold onto the change. As a result, I've had a paper card, usually valued between $0.10 and $0.50, in my wallet for the last five years or so.
(Aside: Metro decided to save some money by getting rid of parking attendants in its parking lots at the suburban station. Now, to pay for parking, you are required to buy a SmarTrip card. The card costs $25 and come pre-loaded with $20 of value on it. I guess gouging tourists is one way to increase revenues!)
Another reason for RFID chips is that they can be used to automatically detect bet amounts, and thus can be used to better determine appropriate player comps. For example, with blackjack, simply place a RFID sensor under the box where the player places his bet, and with the appropriate software, the floorman can instantly see how much the player has been betting (and, perhaps, winning and losing, although that's a little more tricky).
Also makes cashing out in the poker room quite a bit quicker.
Except that the average work year is 50 weeks (assume two weeks of vacation), and 50x5 = 250 work days. Re-work the math, and it comes out to $21 billion.
This is neither legal nor common. The companies who have done this in the past and their CFOs have gotten in big trouble for cooking the books in this way.
Face it -- "social security" is the world's biggest Ponzi scheme. The crazy thing is that in the US, it is illegal to run a Ponzi scheme -- unless you're the federal government.
Our money is taken and "saved" for our retirement whether we like it or not. The politicians think that they can plan better for our futures that we can. They think that they should decide when we should retire, and how much retirement income we should have. They think that they can invest for our future better than we can ourselves.
Meanwhile, they don't "save" our money, they spend it. They don't plan for the future -- they leave it to future generations to sort out the mess. They don't invest our money, and if they did, would you trust them to make wise investments?
Social security is a sham. The fact is that those of us who are young are probably never going to see a dime of it, and if we do, it is because our grandchildren are paying even more into it than we are. Part of the problem is that people are living much longer -- and will continue to live longer -- than they did when social security started. If the average lifespan increases by just a few years, that creates a huge problem.
Every time I hear a politician on TV talk about how they "can't let people make poor investments with their retirements" and "must secure our futures", I can't help but laugh, considering that these people are using the money for a PONZI SCHEME.
Bush's ideas are a step in the right direction, I suppose, but are ultimately inconsequential. So he's going to let me invest 3% of my social security funds privately? Ha! Why not let me invest ALL of it privately? If someone feels that they are not capable of handling their retirement and wants the federal government to do it for them, then fine -- but just because some people can't drive, don't make the rest of us ride the big yellow government bus even while it goes careening off the side of a cliff!
Ben Stein is very smart, but Ken Jennings would beat him every time. The contestants on Ben's show weren't exactly the brightest people on the game show circuit, and Ben did, after all, get beaten every few shows.
I see what you're saying, but I think it should be noted, quite obviously, that it is much easier to control access to an office building or data center than it is to a Sbarro, a public bus, or a nightclub.
Add to that the fact that Israel has a very prestigious technology university (the Technion, in Haifa), has a lot of young people out-of-work due to the poor economy, and has a large percentage of the population that speaks English at an acceptable level (they take English classes in school from a young age, and watch American television and movies), and it starts to make a lot of sense.
Ironically, one of the people that I work with told me that her husband works for an Israeli technology company's office here in Northern Virginia. Go figure.
The fact that we are even discussing what "researchers" at Berkeley think about an election is unbelievable. These are the same people who have elected a congresswoman (Barbara Lee) who illegally met with Fidel Castro and the Communist politboro. What a joke.
Today, I voted for Michael Badnarik for president--the first time I have voted for a Libertarian for our nation's highest office. I had been planning on doing so for a year, but had severe doubts last night about whether or not I should just vote for Bush. In the end, I think I made the right decision.
Happy voting, everyone, and let's pray this is over tonight.
I don't know how a president can ever "free us" from our oil dependence. We will be "free" when oil gets too expensive and consumers and manufacturers thus have an incentive to research and invest in alternative energy sources. All the government money in the world isn't going to solve the problem if the people who really drive the market (the producers and consumers) don't care. And the reality of the situation is that until there is money in it, they are not going to.
See: Alien & Sedition Act. See also: Japanese internment camps. Seriously, open a history book (for example, the one you're using in your 8th grade world studies class).
You do not get to vote for president. None of us do. Your state does. You vote for your state's electors, since that is the election system your state has set up. It is the state's choice to cast all of its votes for the state's popular vote winner (although one state currently has a ballot measure which would split up the electoral votes in some situations). We have a federalist system. If you do not and cannot understand the governmental system we use in this country and why we use it, then it's probably best that your vote "doesn't count."
The electoral college is not obselete. If we got rid of it, the presidential election campaigns would focus on the top five or ten population centers/media markets in the country, and effectively disenfranchise the rest of it. There is a reason why our forefathers gave disproportionate numbers of votes to smaller states--because they realized the danger of letting one particular geographical area or population center have control of the system.
You need to remember that this country is (or at least, is supposed to be) a federation of states, and the president is supposed to be the representative of the states, not necessarily the people in them. People do not cast ballots for presidents -- states do. The states can decide the procedures in which they determine how to cast their ballots in any way they deem appropriate.
If this does not make sense to you, think about the UN. You, as a person who lives in a country represented in the UN, do not get to vote for UN resolutions. Rather, your country's representative does.
As for our congressional election system, I think that although the Senate should remain in tact, it would probably benefit the country to change the House to a more European-style parliament so that people outside the Republican-Democrat duopoly could actually have a voice.
Amazing how in the battleground states where he has Kerry leading, he almost always uses the Zogby poll to validate his predictions.
This site is worthless and obviously partisan. If he really wanted to offer a realistic picture, then he would offer some sort of poll average rather than focusing on one pollster per state. Zogby has publicly said that he expects Kerry to win, and if you examine his and his family's activities, it is pretty clear that he is partisan. Not only that, you can see that in 2000, he was one of only two dissenting pollster opinions in the state of the race.
* Bookmark all tabs: Bookmarks -> Bookmark This Page... -> check "Bookmark all tabs in a folder" -> OK
* Open all bookmarks in folder in tabs: Bookmarks -> -> Open in Tabs
* Open new tab with a button: a) Middle-click blank space on tab bar; or b) View -> Toolbars -> Customize... -> drag "Open a new tab" button to toolbar -> click button
In all likelihood, the fault for these errors lies in whoever filled out the answers to the survey -- someone in the president's office or something. Clearly, if the magazine did it's own research, it would have found the correct answers just with simply Google searches. I find it hard to believe that Forbes would be unable to uncover the pages you link if they had been trying to find them. Not looking at your URLs, I went to ncsu.edu, and uncovered the instructions to create your own webpage in only 5 clicks.
This water can't possibly be worse than the dreck I drink from my kitchen sink in DC every day. I don't know what coliform is, but according to the notice I got last week, there's an unacceptable level of it in my pipes.
Slashdot Mirror
if (!question.isInteresting()) { frontPage.purge(question); }
Personally, I take great pleasure in always carrying an old-fashioned paper (with magnetic strip) Metro card in my wallet. I never buy/upgrade to the exact amount of my trip, as I have no desire to hold onto the change. As a result, I've had a paper card, usually valued between $0.10 and $0.50, in my wallet for the last five years or so.
(Aside: Metro decided to save some money by getting rid of parking attendants in its parking lots at the suburban station. Now, to pay for parking, you are required to buy a SmarTrip card. The card costs $25 and come pre-loaded with $20 of value on it. I guess gouging tourists is one way to increase revenues!)
Another reason for RFID chips is that they can be used to automatically detect bet amounts, and thus can be used to better determine appropriate player comps. For example, with blackjack, simply place a RFID sensor under the box where the player places his bet, and with the appropriate software, the floorman can instantly see how much the player has been betting (and, perhaps, winning and losing, although that's a little more tricky).
Also makes cashing out in the poker room quite a bit quicker.
Um, wouldn't a googol minus one be 100 nines?
Except that the average work year is 50 weeks (assume two weeks of vacation), and 50x5 = 250 work days. Re-work the math, and it comes out to $21 billion.
Only government workers get 12 weeks off a year.
This is neither legal nor common. The companies who have done this in the past and their CFOs have gotten in big trouble for cooking the books in this way.
Someone please mod down this parent.
Face it -- "social security" is the world's biggest Ponzi scheme. The crazy thing is that in the US, it is illegal to run a Ponzi scheme -- unless you're the federal government.
Our money is taken and "saved" for our retirement whether we like it or not. The politicians think that they can plan better for our futures that we can. They think that they should decide when we should retire, and how much retirement income we should have. They think that they can invest for our future better than we can ourselves.
Meanwhile, they don't "save" our money, they spend it. They don't plan for the future -- they leave it to future generations to sort out the mess. They don't invest our money, and if they did, would you trust them to make wise investments?
Social security is a sham. The fact is that those of us who are young are probably never going to see a dime of it, and if we do, it is because our grandchildren are paying even more into it than we are. Part of the problem is that people are living much longer -- and will continue to live longer -- than they did when social security started. If the average lifespan increases by just a few years, that creates a huge problem.
Every time I hear a politician on TV talk about how they "can't let people make poor investments with their retirements" and "must secure our futures", I can't help but laugh, considering that these people are using the money for a PONZI SCHEME.
Bush's ideas are a step in the right direction, I suppose, but are ultimately inconsequential. So he's going to let me invest 3% of my social security funds privately? Ha! Why not let me invest ALL of it privately? If someone feels that they are not capable of handling their retirement and wants the federal government to do it for them, then fine -- but just because some people can't drive, don't make the rest of us ride the big yellow government bus even while it goes careening off the side of a cliff!
Ben Stein is very smart, but Ken Jennings would beat him every time. The contestants on Ben's show weren't exactly the brightest people on the game show circuit, and Ben did, after all, get beaten every few shows.
I see what you're saying, but I think it should be noted, quite obviously, that it is much easier to control access to an office building or data center than it is to a Sbarro, a public bus, or a nightclub.
Add to that the fact that Israel has a very prestigious technology university (the Technion, in Haifa), has a lot of young people out-of-work due to the poor economy, and has a large percentage of the population that speaks English at an acceptable level (they take English classes in school from a young age, and watch American television and movies), and it starts to make a lot of sense.
Ironically, one of the people that I work with told me that her husband works for an Israeli technology company's office here in Northern Virginia. Go figure.
The fact that we are even discussing what "researchers" at Berkeley think about an election is unbelievable. These are the same people who have elected a congresswoman (Barbara Lee) who illegally met with Fidel Castro and the Communist politboro. What a joke.
Unfortunately, many of us only have two choices:
1) Best Buy: good luck finding someone to help you.
2) Circuit City: good luck keeping the sales rep from physically handcuffing himself to you until you buy something.
Today, I voted for Michael Badnarik for president--the first time I have voted for a Libertarian for our nation's highest office. I had been planning on doing so for a year, but had severe doubts last night about whether or not I should just vote for Bush. In the end, I think I made the right decision.
Happy voting, everyone, and let's pray this is over tonight.
I don't know how a president can ever "free us" from our oil dependence. We will be "free" when oil gets too expensive and consumers and manufacturers thus have an incentive to research and invest in alternative energy sources. All the government money in the world isn't going to solve the problem if the people who really drive the market (the producers and consumers) don't care. And the reality of the situation is that until there is money in it, they are not going to.
See: Alien & Sedition Act. See also: Japanese internment camps. Seriously, open a history book (for example, the one you're using in your 8th grade world studies class).
Who the hell modded this up?
You do not get to vote for president. None of us do. Your state does. You vote for your state's electors, since that is the election system your state has set up. It is the state's choice to cast all of its votes for the state's popular vote winner (although one state currently has a ballot measure which would split up the electoral votes in some situations). We have a federalist system. If you do not and cannot understand the governmental system we use in this country and why we use it, then it's probably best that your vote "doesn't count."
The electoral college is not obselete. If we got rid of it, the presidential election campaigns would focus on the top five or ten population centers/media markets in the country, and effectively disenfranchise the rest of it. There is a reason why our forefathers gave disproportionate numbers of votes to smaller states--because they realized the danger of letting one particular geographical area or population center have control of the system.
You need to remember that this country is (or at least, is supposed to be) a federation of states, and the president is supposed to be the representative of the states, not necessarily the people in them. People do not cast ballots for presidents -- states do. The states can decide the procedures in which they determine how to cast their ballots in any way they deem appropriate.
If this does not make sense to you, think about the UN. You, as a person who lives in a country represented in the UN, do not get to vote for UN resolutions. Rather, your country's representative does.
As for our congressional election system, I think that although the Senate should remain in tact, it would probably benefit the country to change the House to a more European-style parliament so that people outside the Republican-Democrat duopoly could actually have a voice.
Amazing how in the battleground states where he has Kerry leading, he almost always uses the Zogby poll to validate his predictions.
This site is worthless and obviously partisan. If he really wanted to offer a realistic picture, then he would offer some sort of poll average rather than focusing on one pollster per state. Zogby has publicly said that he expects Kerry to win, and if you examine his and his family's activities, it is pretty clear that he is partisan. Not only that, you can see that in 2000, he was one of only two dissenting pollster opinions in the state of the race.
For a real poll wrap, check: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls.html
Rather, Firefox does both. D'oh.
Mozilla does both.
* Bookmark all tabs: Bookmarks -> Bookmark This Page... -> check "Bookmark all tabs in a folder" -> OK
* Open all bookmarks in folder in tabs: Bookmarks -> -> Open in Tabs
* Open new tab with a button: a) Middle-click blank space on tab bar; or b) View -> Toolbars -> Customize... -> drag "Open a new tab" button to toolbar -> click button
So seriously, can this thing mow my lawn by itself? And, unlike my Roomba, will it be able to traverse 1/8" computer cables?
In all likelihood, the fault for these errors lies in whoever filled out the answers to the survey -- someone in the president's office or something. Clearly, if the magazine did it's own research, it would have found the correct answers just with simply Google searches. I find it hard to believe that Forbes would be unable to uncover the pages you link if they had been trying to find them. Not looking at your URLs, I went to ncsu.edu, and uncovered the instructions to create your own webpage in only 5 clicks.
This water can't possibly be worse than the dreck I drink from my kitchen sink in DC every day. I don't know what coliform is, but according to the notice I got last week, there's an unacceptable level of it in my pipes.
Yeah, I can see why you'd be afraid of the government that has freed tens of millions of people around the world.
Well, this is certainly guaranteed to increase the number of car crashes.
I hope he learned a lesson about doing work while on vacation. Hell, most of us don't even do work while at work.