They really should modernize the medallion system to allow companies to lease out the medallions by the hour. So services like Uber could still operate with a limited number of drivers based on Uber's medallion count. They could even work out deals with traditional taxi companies to lease under-used medallions. Thus they'd still be controlling the number of cars on the road, but they'd also allow technology to progress.
Exactly, thus my comment. The game companies don't care why you bought a Mac, just that people with Macs buy their games. I have no idea what the Venn diagram looks like for "people who buy Macs" and "people who will buy Vulkan-enabled games", but clearly someone thinks it's a good business move. Mac owners in general are more willing to buy software, so there's that.
I'm the same way with cars as I am with cell phones. I like them, appreciate them on a mechanical level. Hell, I even built and raced a little formula car.
But at the end of the day, it will get scratched. It will get dinged. That runaway shopping cart or braille parallel parker makes your fine, well-maintained sports car look just as shitty as an old Fiesta after a while of regular use. I don't get many smiles on my 15 minute commute, sports car or no sports car. In fact, having just an old Camry and an old minivan with no payments and no cosmetic worries is a pretty big stress reduction. Wife took out the neighbor's fence? Meh. Maintenance guy scratched up the front of the car with a snow blower? Meh. I was going to run it into the ground anyway - it's value eventually approaching zero. For my money, I'd rather have reliability than performance - you hardly ever get to enjoy the performance, but the reliability keeps you free from stress. If I want a track experience, I'll go to the track. My friend thinks differently. He does stuff like goes to Germany to pick out his BMW. To each his own. I'd rather have, like a house or something, but that's me.
Back to cell phones. Man, they are toys. Don't get me wrong, I love toys. Even expensive ones. My brother spends tens of thousands on his fishing boat. But I don't get enough extra enjoyment from spending $1000 vs $200 on a cell phone to make it worth it. I'd rather buy some really nice beer (like, any time I want for 2 years), buy something fun, or do something great on vacation. $800 is a round trip ticket to Europe! For that, it should do a lot more than open apps slightly faster, or have a merely decent camera instead of a shitty one. Just my $0.02.
I'm a bit skeptical of these superhero movies in general, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed Wonder Woman. I'm not sure why historical accuracy would detract in a movie that invents a new Greek/Roman god, who is then integral to the events in the 20th century. I mean, all bets are off, right? At the very least, you could have turned the sound off and enjoyed the eye candy that is Gal Gadot for 2 hours.
How is this any different than setting up toll booths? Make the company keep count, and make them hire an auditor to do spot checks to keep them honest. Hardly any administrative effort at all.
collecting the fees (taxes)
This is already done. No marginal cost.
disbursing them
Paying private contracts is an existing function of government and this additional check will add almost no marginal cost.
I-66
This is a state-owned route, so while I find our discussion about it interesting, this would serve to reinforce my opinion that the choice of how to toll is a policy issue and not fundamental to the ownership of the road.
Incidentally, since I rarely make it to the Virginia side of the DC area I was not familiar with I-66, so thanks for that. I found this opinion piece which is bullish on the I-66 tolling. Clearly it is contentious.
This isn't about administrative management, it's about how the incentive structure is put in place. If your societal goal is to subsidize road travel, then you subsidize road travel. So you, the government, can let a road owner set up toll booths any way they like (bad idea, see Ontario). You could let them set up express lanes (see Virginia). You could simply count cars and then reimburse the road company based on road usage (maybe a good idea in states without an electronic toll infrastructure). You could just give them an arbitrary pile of money every year (very bad idea - no incentives). It's simply a policy decision and does not involve any active "management".
I-66 is priced based on traffic. It hit $46.50 for a single passenger vehicle.
Is this set up the same as the I-95 arrangement I linked to? So still free if you aren't in the express lane, or if you are carpooling in the express lanes? I don't personally have a problem with this so long as the fee is presented ahead of time. I think it's great that someone is willing to pay so much of the road upkeep just to save a bit of time - everyone else benefits.
Now you are building up a straw man. You wouldn't be allowed to build a 1950s house, if only for code violations. Anyway, there is a shit-ton of 1950s housing stock. If it's not available in your area, your area probably was a farm in 1950.
They won't do it for the Pi specifically, but they'll do it for Blu-Ray/DVD Players and TVs.
I have no idea whether Broadcom licenses their design or created it in-house. If they licence it, they'd have incentive to redesign it to save on fees. At the very least, they can kill the DRM circuitry that makes sure you have a license to use the on-board MPEG-2 decoding.
Since I'm not a smart man, it seems something similar is already done in Virginia. Granted, the road is not "privately owned", but it is privately run and they have a form of the compromise that I outlined above in place - with the addition of free passage for HOV.
Who does private roads? This is uncharted territory. There is one in Ontario, which according to the (admittedly slanted) piece I read has been an unmitigated disaster. They used tolls. And (surprise surprise) poor people stay on the congested secondary roads.
I could see some kind of a compromise - allow half of lanes to be tolled and let them price the toll based on traffic. Returning again to MD, this is already done on I-95 approaching Baltimore. This would let the poor still access the highway, at the cost of time, and also let the rich subsidize the construction and maintenance by paying the tolls.
Certainly wasn't free, as it was already designed and produced under license. Wanna be the next generation of hardware encoders are free? (as in beer, to the manufacturer)
Slashdot Mirror
They really should modernize the medallion system to allow companies to lease out the medallions by the hour. So services like Uber could still operate with a limited number of drivers based on Uber's medallion count. They could even work out deals with traditional taxi companies to lease under-used medallions. Thus they'd still be controlling the number of cars on the road, but they'd also allow technology to progress.
They do offer ridesharing, though. There is UberPOOL and Lyft Line. They are even going to start bus-like routes.
Good lord, thanks for pointing this out. It's a self-reported study asking participants a hypothetical. This is about as weak as it gets.
Exactly, thus my comment. The game companies don't care why you bought a Mac, just that people with Macs buy their games. I have no idea what the Venn diagram looks like for "people who buy Macs" and "people who will buy Vulkan-enabled games", but clearly someone thinks it's a good business move. Mac owners in general are more willing to buy software, so there's that.
If you are a games vendor, you don't ask, "How many people will buy a Mac to play my game?"
You ask, "How many people with a Mac will buy my game?"
I'm the same way with cars as I am with cell phones. I like them, appreciate them on a mechanical level. Hell, I even built and raced a little formula car.
But at the end of the day, it will get scratched. It will get dinged. That runaway shopping cart or braille parallel parker makes your fine, well-maintained sports car look just as shitty as an old Fiesta after a while of regular use. I don't get many smiles on my 15 minute commute, sports car or no sports car. In fact, having just an old Camry and an old minivan with no payments and no cosmetic worries is a pretty big stress reduction. Wife took out the neighbor's fence? Meh. Maintenance guy scratched up the front of the car with a snow blower? Meh. I was going to run it into the ground anyway - it's value eventually approaching zero. For my money, I'd rather have reliability than performance - you hardly ever get to enjoy the performance, but the reliability keeps you free from stress. If I want a track experience, I'll go to the track. My friend thinks differently. He does stuff like goes to Germany to pick out his BMW. To each his own. I'd rather have, like a house or something, but that's me.
Back to cell phones. Man, they are toys. Don't get me wrong, I love toys. Even expensive ones. My brother spends tens of thousands on his fishing boat. But I don't get enough extra enjoyment from spending $1000 vs $200 on a cell phone to make it worth it. I'd rather buy some really nice beer (like, any time I want for 2 years), buy something fun, or do something great on vacation. $800 is a round trip ticket to Europe! For that, it should do a lot more than open apps slightly faster, or have a merely decent camera instead of a shitty one. Just my $0.02.
They don't need to "brick" it, simply make new games incompatible with it. Or, you can trade it in for a brand new one which supports all games.
We have it - it's called "the east coast".
I'm a bit skeptical of these superhero movies in general, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed Wonder Woman. I'm not sure why historical accuracy would detract in a movie that invents a new Greek/Roman god, who is then integral to the events in the 20th century. I mean, all bets are off, right? At the very least, you could have turned the sound off and enjoyed the eye candy that is Gal Gadot for 2 hours.
Not for nothin', but Japan has as much forest as just about any other developed country.
Japan is certainly urbanized, but still retains its forests.
The whole skyscraper will be made from engineered lumber. Not for rot necessarily, but for consistent dimensions, stability, strength, etc.
Figuring out how many cars are passing
How is this any different than setting up toll booths? Make the company keep count, and make them hire an auditor to do spot checks to keep them honest. Hardly any administrative effort at all.
collecting the fees (taxes)
This is already done. No marginal cost.
disbursing them
Paying private contracts is an existing function of government and this additional check will add almost no marginal cost.
I-66
This is a state-owned route, so while I find our discussion about it interesting, this would serve to reinforce my opinion that the choice of how to toll is a policy issue and not fundamental to the ownership of the road.
Incidentally, since I rarely make it to the Virginia side of the DC area I was not familiar with I-66, so thanks for that. I found this opinion piece which is bullish on the I-66 tolling. Clearly it is contentious.
You are simply living in the wrong country.
continues doing all the administrative management
This isn't about administrative management, it's about how the incentive structure is put in place. If your societal goal is to subsidize road travel, then you subsidize road travel. So you, the government, can let a road owner set up toll booths any way they like (bad idea, see Ontario). You could let them set up express lanes (see Virginia). You could simply count cars and then reimburse the road company based on road usage (maybe a good idea in states without an electronic toll infrastructure). You could just give them an arbitrary pile of money every year (very bad idea - no incentives). It's simply a policy decision and does not involve any active "management".
I-66 is priced based on traffic. It hit $46.50 for a single passenger vehicle.
Is this set up the same as the I-95 arrangement I linked to? So still free if you aren't in the express lane, or if you are carpooling in the express lanes? I don't personally have a problem with this so long as the fee is presented ahead of time. I think it's great that someone is willing to pay so much of the road upkeep just to save a bit of time - everyone else benefits.
Yeah, that seems relevant.
Now you are building up a straw man. You wouldn't be allowed to build a 1950s house, if only for code violations. Anyway, there is a shit-ton of 1950s housing stock. If it's not available in your area, your area probably was a farm in 1950.
They won't do it for the Pi specifically, but they'll do it for Blu-Ray/DVD Players and TVs.
I have no idea whether Broadcom licenses their design or created it in-house. If they licence it, they'd have incentive to redesign it to save on fees. At the very least, they can kill the DRM circuitry that makes sure you have a license to use the on-board MPEG-2 decoding.
You have the "personal choice" to make less money, just as you did in 1950. If you want a 1950s standard of living, by all means go have one.
Since I'm not a smart man, it seems something similar is already done in Virginia. Granted, the road is not "privately owned", but it is privately run and they have a form of the compromise that I outlined above in place - with the addition of free passage for HOV.
You could, but who does that?
Who does private roads? This is uncharted territory. There is one in Ontario, which according to the (admittedly slanted) piece I read has been an unmitigated disaster. They used tolls. And (surprise surprise) poor people stay on the congested secondary roads.
I could see some kind of a compromise - allow half of lanes to be tolled and let them price the toll based on traffic. Returning again to MD, this is already done on I-95 approaching Baltimore. This would let the poor still access the highway, at the cost of time, and also let the rich subsidize the construction and maintenance by paying the tolls.
Man, this is the INTERNET... I'll have seven propositions under this post.
Certainly wasn't free, as it was already designed and produced under license. Wanna be the next generation of hardware encoders are free? (as in beer, to the manufacturer)
There are already free (as in freedom) implementations that were only encumbered by patent.
Oh shit! I need to stop off at CVS to get a heart-shaped box of Whitman's Sampler and a plush toy devil.
Also, some lube and enemas.