Or you could legalize marijuana and have all the government controlled growing operations situated beside coal plants. That way you could have security do double duty: protect the power plant from terrorists and the marijuana from civilians.
So would it be safe to assume these can't generate audible tones in a lower range, say below 1000hz or so? If so it is basically a wide band tweeter with really poor off axis response. Yes the tech is entirely different than a dome, ribbon or piezo tweeter (as none of those use ultrasonic signals to generate sonic ones), but the result is something with a similar sound range and what audiophiles would consider extremely poor performance (you want good off axis response not a beam of sound).
I wonder if this could be applied to computer speakers and an end product. I'd love to not have to wear headphones at work, but at the same time not bother people near me. That would be pretty cool.
This system seems quite complicated and I don't see any advantage in an OR
I have to agree. My significant other is a perioperative nurse and we have discussed keeping track of instruments and sponges (I do system analysis, so procedures interest me). The proposed new system using barcodes doesn't solve any issues with the traditional counting method imho. I was expecting RFID or something along those lines, not bars codes (how the hell do they work covered in blood?). I think the greatest improvement and obvious one at that was sponges that show up on an xray. Count not quite right? Just do a quick xray.
Imagine how much extra time this system would add. Every time you close you have to count. So even with one site that can be a lot of counts. Add the extra time of scanning sponges and tools and it has gone from tedious to painful. Plus, if there are people who can't count in their head or remember with the help of a circulating nurse who is writing things down... then maybe the OR isn't the right place for them to be working. I hear the cafeteria is hiring...
OK, maybe I spoke too soon about the slashdot moderation system. My original post which was more on topic (commenting on ambiguous moderations, stars and thumbs) is now "offtopic" and my off topic reply to a troll is now "interesting".
...I can watch as many movies as I want at home in comfort...
That's why I no longer go to the theatre. It used to be that the theatres had a monopoly on big screens and big sound systems. Now I can get that at home cheap and have comfort, the ability to stop the film and I can have whatever I want to eat or drink (as opposed to what the theatre dictates).
I don't know about the rest of the slashdot crowd, but I can't get through a long movie without having to run to the bathroom. It's run to the bathroom and miss something or sit there uncomfortably. Sure, I could drink less pop, but then my mouth would be parched from the waay too salty popcorn. Of course I could not eat popcorn, but I love popcorn and the movie wouldn't be half as enjoyable w/o it. I'd rather be at home on the couch with my significant other, beer or pop in hand, bowl of properly seasoned popcorn between us and bathroom breaks when we choose.
I'm just praying that some brave company will have the foresight to try simultaneous web/theatre releases. I wish I could pay $5 and download the film and watch it the same day as the theatre. They'd have to be making more cash than the % of my $10 theatre ticket. Plus depending on how much I like it I might want to even risk going out in public to see it on the real big screen (Transformers was great in the theatre).
It only takes one such moderator to bury a post on Slashdot...With Digg, it takes quite a few negative impressions to get a post buried.
I'm sure that's your excuse for all the troll and flamebait moderations you have received. Meta moderation is supposed to fix and prevent illegitimate down mods, and it seems to work for the most part. I have been modded down before for disagreeing with someone and later have popped up to a +4.
I wasn't talking about stuff being pushed down in my parent post, but I'm glad to discuss that as well. In my experience one down thumb on a DIGG post and it doesn't get viewed again, hence it never gets any more diggs. Same as your Slashdot theory which ignores meta moderation and the various ways of moderating a post. Also in my experience any amount of disagreement with a poster or the group thought and you get dugg down. There is no meeting of the minds where opposing views can have equal status, it's just, "I'm cooler than you. I gots more thummzz."
The whole thumbs up thumbs down thing just invites knee-jerk reactions. How often do you think someone thinks to themselves, "Man I disagree with that." and gives a thumb down vs, "Man I disagree with that, but there are some valid points and it was well thought out." and gives a thumbs up?
Don't get me wrong I don't hate Digg. As it's been said by others: I read Digg for the stories and slashdot for the comments. Although I have been visiting Digg less and less lately.
What's particularly troubling is how the misinformed get better ratings and more hits than the well informed.
I call this the "DIGG effect". It's what happens when you have an ambiguous rating system such as stars or thumbs up.
People aren't rating based on how informative, interesting, accurate or funny the item is, they are just rating how much they "like" it. So in reality the rating is just a popularity contest. Guess what? Dumb people like dumb things.
I'll check out TekSavvy. Thanks for the infor on that. I won't need a provider until May as I did a prepaid deal offered to students (basic cable and highspeed cheap, telus only started matching Shaw's student rate recently). For the price I pay for internet connectivity I am satisfied, but if I had to pay full price I'd be pissed. I had better connectivity for the same price as current retail when cable internet was first available in Victoria.
I just checked out TekSavvy. Both the 3Mbps and 6Mbps only have a 1Mbps up:P. I also assume they only include 1 dynamic IP (Shaw currently provides 2, although in the past they didn't complain until you grabbed more than 10). Netscape.ca's DSL has a down of 3M and a up of 800Kbps (bits not bytes).. ack. That's no deal at 29.95 as an intro (upto $40/month after). That's the same as the other options (they all offer the lower intro rate). Lame. It looks like the Teksavvy is the best bang for the buck though, but not by much.
If it were a majority government, I suspect it would pass easily,
Not if it meant losing their pvrs and mp3 players (which politicians refer to as Ipods and Tivos). See the no time shifting and device shifting clauses. Regardless of there being a majority Gov, the bill would have to go through the 3 readings and be debated. I'm sure the fact that it would basically make their favorite toys not legal would sway even the most horse-blinded politician. Imagine not being able to go home after a long day of bill reading and watching all those shows you had saved up while you were at work (Oprah, Cheerleader nation, Canadian Air Farce..).
I'm praying for some new entrants to the cell market. I've used every carrier available in my area other than Virgin.
I've used Telus (worst service of all but they did expand their data network in BC this September). IIRC telus was under review by the CRTC for their horrendous wait times on their call in lines. I recently waited 45 minutes on hold dealing with an issue on an inlaw's new cell.
I'm on Bell right now. They piggyback Telus's network in BC. I can get through to them quite quickly if I have an issue, but they haven't been the most helpful. I've had problem with my voice messaging since I signed up with them (>1.5 years) and they still haven't fixed it. I had to deal with at least one rude customer service rep who said, "We won't keep refunding your voice messaging.. rant rant blah blah". Ahh, if the service doesn't work as advertised I'm not paying.. would you rather be in a breach of contract situation?
Rogers network is decent (GSM across 98%? of populated canada or some such). I only used them as a work phone. No big issues, but they are big on pushing long contracts. I have a hard time trusting a company that is obsessed with locking you in. Nice thing is you can use unlocked GSM phones on their network.
And there is Fido. I used to love Fido. They were big into no contract and short ones. I got a near free phone (with a dvd player) for locking in for 3 months. Their coverage was great in Vancouver, decent in Victoria, but was shit most other places. They had an awesome deal for unlimited local calling in Vancouver. Then Fido was bought out by Rogers. At first they would charge you extra to use the Rogers network, now that isn't the case but they are pretty much Rogers with different commercials. Their service was great when they were really Fido, I haven't used them since the buyout (as they don't cost less anymore and are now contract crazy like Rogers).
If another provider showed up I'd try them in a second. Cell rates in Canada are absurd. My "deal" which at the time no one could beat, 2 cells on the same plan that share a wopping 450 daytime minutes, unlimited calling between the phones, free evenings and weekends (early eveings), voice messaging, call display and 1000 long distance minutes (obviously uses daytime minutes as well if I call in the daytime). It costs about $110 total per month. Most of the "good" features were "perks" for signing a 2 year contract (long distance, 150 extra daytime minutes). I think I should be able to get something similar for $80/month as I had as good a deal back in 2002 for $40/month. Cell providers here seem to have gone the same way as internet providers. The cost hasn't gone down, and you seem to get less for your money (though the cell providers could at least argue better coverage, which doesn't mean much to someone that spends 99% of their life in larger cities).
Don't get me started on "high speed" internet. While the advertised rate wasn't as good in 2000, I got way better bandwidth. Back then $40/month uncapped uploads and downloads, easy to reach 900KB/s DLing. Now for $50/month (extreme speed, woooah), I get an extended upwards cap from the "normal" to about 120KB/s ("normal" is 60KB/s!!!!! Down from no cap!!!!!) and download speeds aren't capped, but total monthly is monitored (the new definition of unlimited). My download rates have never met what I could previously do. Maybe I'm just on a bad node as far as downloading, but the upwards cap is complete BS. It takes waaaay to long to upload anything that is even 30MB imho. If I have files to distribute I now upload them to my webserver if I think I might have to send them to more than one person so I don't get stuck with a slow send time. They are guaranteed at least quadruple the DL speed from there and I only have to got through the painful upload once.
I say you have big glasses! I've been looking for something to hold an entire bottle of la fin du monde, yours sounds like it could even fit some head!
If the Wii could play DVDs I think I would use as much as I use my PS2 to play DVDs.
Really?! I doubt it. I have both and if my Wii played dvd's I'd use it in a second. The Wii has a great remote/controller and is slot load, while my ps2 is a fliptop (a la old school cd player) and the remote is optional (and it doesn't look as good on the coffee table).
With the Wii you could have really cool control over movies via moving the remote, and pointing the controller would be a lot easier than the 4-way keypad thing. I wish I could at least grab video off of my local network with it (xvid, divx etc).
Those topics were vaguely covered in my "Career and Personal Planning" class in highschool. Fondly referred to as CraPP due to its lack of substance. I would have gladly taken a economics or accounting class in school, I had a spare that was wasted playing billiards downtown or just "hanging out". The issue being the school I went to didn't offer any other courses I was interested in or saw intellectual value in (I had all the requirements for entry to engineering, and I sure as hell wasn't going to waste time on courses that would not count as credit in a university that were dull and pointless).
Of course if everyone knew finances well, then there wouldn't be a market for businesses such as paycheque advances...
Lending is a consensual act between two adults. Your panicking isn't justified unless that changed.
What if that adult has the intelligence of a child?
Before I get modded down into oblivion hear me out. I came home to the significant other watching Oprah, which wasn't surprising. What was surprising is that it caught my ear and I sat down to watch. It was on people with credit "issues". It blew my mind how many people have no idea about anything financial.
I can't believe people don't know what compound interest is. Seriously, how did you get out of high school without learning that? Not on the show, but I know someone that didn't understand that their minimum monthly payment wasn't even paying her monthly interest. She thought she was "good" just paying the minimum payment!!!
On the "O" show I heard the following question: "What should I pay off first: the credit card with the highest balance or lowest rate?"
WTF? I would have thought they slipped up and meant, "..highest balance or highest rate" but they seemed pretty certain about it.
The "expert" didn't even comment on the question directly, but did properly recommend consolidating at a lower rate. She should have told them to cut up their cards after doing that. I can't believe that people allow a credit card to hold a debt when in most situations they could get credit from another source at a much better rate.
Anyhow, my point is: maybe there should be more protection for borrowers as it seems many lenders are often taking advantage of the insufficient sophistication of their clients.
it took the best part of 4.5 hours to get through the non-residents queue..
At least you didn't spend 8 hours getting through customs followed by being tasered to death!
Most people would think you would be safe traveling to Canada. Just make sure you speak english I guess, as the victim did not provoke the police at all. Of course, as per usual the RCMP are investigating themselves (though there is one outside party). As it is of international interest, I wish officials from another country would be permitted to investigate as well.
Exactly. Call a lawyer. I'm sure you can get some consultation for free and it holds you to nothing with that lawyer.
IANAL, but what they have done sounds like intermeddling. They "provide a service" which you haven't requested and then try to charge for it (like a kid mowing your law at random then claiming you owe him money).
Also it appears you have no contract with this new company. You never accepted the new terms of contract by accepting, and they can't say you are bound by the old contract to agree to new policies and rate. Without your acceptance of their new offer there is no contract and you owe nothing to them. But of course contact a lawyer. The laws in my country are similar to your country, and to me it sounds like it could be covered under simple contract law. I sure there would be many other ways to attack it as well such as consumer laws etc, but ask a local lawyer. Who knows, you may be able to get some kind of special or punitive damages in order to "make and example" of the company in question (corporations are more difficult to punish than individuals).
Funny thing is I reconsidered going to the states to do some holiday shopping for the same reason (fingerprinting). While I have nothing to hide, I have never been fingerprinted and am hesitant to let another government have my fingerprints when my own government doesn't have a copy.
The good news for americans is that (to the best of my knowledge) canada hasn't caught onto this trend.. yet.
For you their service is good. You should read the horror story from the guy that writes behind the counter (a blog about working at walmart). He's definitely not a happy camper. It's entitled "Me vs Comcast in 66 rounds".
While it may be a waste of energy, the tanks are much easier and cheaper to produce than battery packs (lower environmental impact I'd assume as well). Air tanks don't lose charge and should have a longer usable life span than a battery pack.
Let's pretend that the energy going into the car is from a clean source such as wind, solar or tidal (ok, I know at this point it would be diesel, or coal generated electricity), does it matter that you are wasting it? Yes, it's not the best use of resources, but there are no battery packs to dispose of / recycle, it is affordable enough for poorer countries and doesn't create greenhouse gases.
Of course I am playing devils advocate. I would prefer energy being put into developing better batteries instead of stop gap solutions (*cough cough, hydrogen).
Slashdot Mirror
So why haven't either of you returned them? With issues like that I would have returned them to the store in short order.
I'm going to start a business selling normal speakers to all those running helium powered plasma arc tweeters.
Or you could legalize marijuana and have all the government controlled growing operations situated beside coal plants. That way you could have security do double duty: protect the power plant from terrorists and the marijuana from civilians.
There, fixed that for you.
Cool, thanks for the reply.
So would it be safe to assume these can't generate audible tones in a lower range, say below 1000hz or so? If so it is basically a wide band tweeter with really poor off axis response. Yes the tech is entirely different than a dome, ribbon or piezo tweeter (as none of those use ultrasonic signals to generate sonic ones), but the result is something with a similar sound range and what audiophiles would consider extremely poor performance (you want good off axis response not a beam of sound).
I wonder if this could be applied to computer speakers and an end product. I'd love to not have to wear headphones at work, but at the same time not bother people near me. That would be pretty cool.
I have to agree. My significant other is a perioperative nurse and we have discussed keeping track of instruments and sponges (I do system analysis, so procedures interest me). The proposed new system using barcodes doesn't solve any issues with the traditional counting method imho. I was expecting RFID or something along those lines, not bars codes (how the hell do they work covered in blood?). I think the greatest improvement and obvious one at that was sponges that show up on an xray. Count not quite right? Just do a quick xray.
Imagine how much extra time this system would add. Every time you close you have to count. So even with one site that can be a lot of counts. Add the extra time of scanning sponges and tools and it has gone from tedious to painful. Plus, if there are people who can't count in their head or remember with the help of a circulating nurse who is writing things down... then maybe the OR isn't the right place for them to be working. I hear the cafeteria is hiring...
OK, maybe I spoke too soon about the slashdot moderation system. My original post which was more on topic (commenting on ambiguous moderations, stars and thumbs) is now "offtopic" and my off topic reply to a troll is now "interesting".
That's why I no longer go to the theatre. It used to be that the theatres had a monopoly on big screens and big sound systems. Now I can get that at home cheap and have comfort, the ability to stop the film and I can have whatever I want to eat or drink (as opposed to what the theatre dictates).
I don't know about the rest of the slashdot crowd, but I can't get through a long movie without having to run to the bathroom. It's run to the bathroom and miss something or sit there uncomfortably. Sure, I could drink less pop, but then my mouth would be parched from the waay too salty popcorn. Of course I could not eat popcorn, but I love popcorn and the movie wouldn't be half as enjoyable w/o it. I'd rather be at home on the couch with my significant other, beer or pop in hand, bowl of properly seasoned popcorn between us and bathroom breaks when we choose.
I'm just praying that some brave company will have the foresight to try simultaneous web/theatre releases. I wish I could pay $5 and download the film and watch it the same day as the theatre. They'd have to be making more cash than the % of my $10 theatre ticket. Plus depending on how much I like it I might want to even risk going out in public to see it on the real big screen (Transformers was great in the theatre).
I'm sure that's your excuse for all the troll and flamebait moderations you have received. Meta moderation is supposed to fix and prevent illegitimate down mods, and it seems to work for the most part. I have been modded down before for disagreeing with someone and later have popped up to a +4.
I wasn't talking about stuff being pushed down in my parent post, but I'm glad to discuss that as well. In my experience one down thumb on a DIGG post and it doesn't get viewed again, hence it never gets any more diggs. Same as your Slashdot theory which ignores meta moderation and the various ways of moderating a post. Also in my experience any amount of disagreement with a poster or the group thought and you get dugg down. There is no meeting of the minds where opposing views can have equal status, it's just, "I'm cooler than you. I gots more thummzz."
The whole thumbs up thumbs down thing just invites knee-jerk reactions. How often do you think someone thinks to themselves, "Man I disagree with that." and gives a thumb down vs, "Man I disagree with that, but there are some valid points and it was well thought out." and gives a thumbs up?
Don't get me wrong I don't hate Digg. As it's been said by others: I read Digg for the stories and slashdot for the comments. Although I have been visiting Digg less and less lately.
I call this the "DIGG effect". It's what happens when you have an ambiguous rating system such as stars or thumbs up.
People aren't rating based on how informative, interesting, accurate or funny the item is, they are just rating how much they "like" it. So in reality the rating is just a popularity contest. Guess what? Dumb people like dumb things.
I'll check out TekSavvy. Thanks for the infor on that. I won't need a provider until May as I did a prepaid deal offered to students (basic cable and highspeed cheap, telus only started matching Shaw's student rate recently). For the price I pay for internet connectivity I am satisfied, but if I had to pay full price I'd be pissed. I had better connectivity for the same price as current retail when cable internet was first available in Victoria.
:P. I also assume they only include 1 dynamic IP (Shaw currently provides 2, although in the past they didn't complain until you grabbed more than 10). Netscape.ca's DSL has a down of 3M and a up of 800Kbps (bits not bytes).. ack. That's no deal at 29.95 as an intro (upto $40/month after). That's the same as the other options (they all offer the lower intro rate). Lame. It looks like the Teksavvy is the best bang for the buck though, but not by much.
I just checked out TekSavvy. Both the 3Mbps and 6Mbps only have a 1Mbps up
Not if it meant losing their pvrs and mp3 players (which politicians refer to as Ipods and Tivos). See the no time shifting and device shifting clauses. Regardless of there being a majority Gov, the bill would have to go through the 3 readings and be debated. I'm sure the fact that it would basically make their favorite toys not legal would sway even the most horse-blinded politician. Imagine not being able to go home after a long day of bill reading and watching all those shows you had saved up while you were at work (Oprah, Cheerleader nation, Canadian Air Farce..).
Shittier support than Bell? Wow there's a sell.
I'm praying for some new entrants to the cell market. I've used every carrier available in my area other than Virgin.
I've used Telus (worst service of all but they did expand their data network in BC this September). IIRC telus was under review by the CRTC for their horrendous wait times on their call in lines. I recently waited 45 minutes on hold dealing with an issue on an inlaw's new cell.
I'm on Bell right now. They piggyback Telus's network in BC. I can get through to them quite quickly if I have an issue, but they haven't been the most helpful. I've had problem with my voice messaging since I signed up with them (>1.5 years) and they still haven't fixed it. I had to deal with at least one rude customer service rep who said, "We won't keep refunding your voice messaging.. rant rant blah blah". Ahh, if the service doesn't work as advertised I'm not paying.. would you rather be in a breach of contract situation?
Rogers network is decent (GSM across 98%? of populated canada or some such). I only used them as a work phone. No big issues, but they are big on pushing long contracts. I have a hard time trusting a company that is obsessed with locking you in. Nice thing is you can use unlocked GSM phones on their network.
And there is Fido. I used to love Fido. They were big into no contract and short ones. I got a near free phone (with a dvd player) for locking in for 3 months. Their coverage was great in Vancouver, decent in Victoria, but was shit most other places. They had an awesome deal for unlimited local calling in Vancouver. Then Fido was bought out by Rogers. At first they would charge you extra to use the Rogers network, now that isn't the case but they are pretty much Rogers with different commercials. Their service was great when they were really Fido, I haven't used them since the buyout (as they don't cost less anymore and are now contract crazy like Rogers).
If another provider showed up I'd try them in a second. Cell rates in Canada are absurd. My "deal" which at the time no one could beat, 2 cells on the same plan that share a wopping 450 daytime minutes, unlimited calling between the phones, free evenings and weekends (early eveings), voice messaging, call display and 1000 long distance minutes (obviously uses daytime minutes as well if I call in the daytime). It costs about $110 total per month. Most of the "good" features were "perks" for signing a 2 year contract (long distance, 150 extra daytime minutes). I think I should be able to get something similar for $80/month as I had as good a deal back in 2002 for $40/month. Cell providers here seem to have gone the same way as internet providers. The cost hasn't gone down, and you seem to get less for your money (though the cell providers could at least argue better coverage, which doesn't mean much to someone that spends 99% of their life in larger cities).
Don't get me started on "high speed" internet. While the advertised rate wasn't as good in 2000, I got way better bandwidth. Back then $40/month uncapped uploads and downloads, easy to reach 900KB/s DLing. Now for $50/month (extreme speed, woooah), I get an extended upwards cap from the "normal" to about 120KB/s ("normal" is 60KB/s!!!!! Down from no cap!!!!!) and download speeds aren't capped, but total monthly is monitored (the new definition of unlimited). My download rates have never met what I could previously do. Maybe I'm just on a bad node as far as downloading, but the upwards cap is complete BS. It takes waaaay to long to upload anything that is even 30MB imho. If I have files to distribute I now upload them to my webserver if I think I might have to send them to more than one person so I don't get stuck with a slow send time. They are guaranteed at least quadruple the DL speed from there and I only have to got through the painful upload once.
I say you have big glasses! I've been looking for something to hold an entire bottle of la fin du monde, yours sounds like it could even fit some head!
Those topics were vaguely covered in my "Career and Personal Planning" class in highschool. Fondly referred to as CraPP due to its lack of substance. I would have gladly taken a economics or accounting class in school, I had a spare that was wasted playing billiards downtown or just "hanging out". The issue being the school I went to didn't offer any other courses I was interested in or saw intellectual value in (I had all the requirements for entry to engineering, and I sure as hell wasn't going to waste time on courses that would not count as credit in a university that were dull and pointless).
Of course if everyone knew finances well, then there wouldn't be a market for businesses such as paycheque advances...
What if that adult has the intelligence of a child?
Before I get modded down into oblivion hear me out. I came home to the significant other watching Oprah, which wasn't surprising. What was surprising is that it caught my ear and I sat down to watch. It was on people with credit "issues". It blew my mind how many people have no idea about anything financial.
I can't believe people don't know what compound interest is. Seriously, how did you get out of high school without learning that? Not on the show, but I know someone that didn't understand that their minimum monthly payment wasn't even paying her monthly interest. She thought she was "good" just paying the minimum payment!!!
On the "O" show I heard the following question: "What should I pay off first: the credit card with the highest balance or lowest rate?"
WTF? I would have thought they slipped up and meant, "..highest balance or highest rate" but they seemed pretty certain about it.
The "expert" didn't even comment on the question directly, but did properly recommend consolidating at a lower rate. She should have told them to cut up their cards after doing that. I can't believe that people allow a credit card to hold a debt when in most situations they could get credit from another source at a much better rate.
Anyhow, my point is: maybe there should be more protection for borrowers as it seems many lenders are often taking advantage of the insufficient sophistication of their clients.
At least you didn't spend 8 hours getting through customs followed by being tasered to death!
Most people would think you would be safe traveling to Canada. Just make sure you speak english I guess, as the victim did not provoke the police at all. Of course, as per usual the RCMP are investigating themselves (though there is one outside party). As it is of international interest, I wish officials from another country would be permitted to investigate as well.
Exactly. Call a lawyer. I'm sure you can get some consultation for free and it holds you to nothing with that lawyer.
IANAL, but what they have done sounds like intermeddling. They "provide a service" which you haven't requested and then try to charge for it (like a kid mowing your law at random then claiming you owe him money).
Also it appears you have no contract with this new company. You never accepted the new terms of contract by accepting, and they can't say you are bound by the old contract to agree to new policies and rate. Without your acceptance of their new offer there is no contract and you owe nothing to them. But of course contact a lawyer. The laws in my country are similar to your country, and to me it sounds like it could be covered under simple contract law. I sure there would be many other ways to attack it as well such as consumer laws etc, but ask a local lawyer. Who knows, you may be able to get some kind of special or punitive damages in order to "make and example" of the company in question (corporations are more difficult to punish than individuals).
Funny thing is I reconsidered going to the states to do some holiday shopping for the same reason (fingerprinting). While I have nothing to hide, I have never been fingerprinted and am hesitant to let another government have my fingerprints when my own government doesn't have a copy.
The good news for americans is that (to the best of my knowledge) canada hasn't caught onto this trend.. yet.
For you their service is good. You should read the horror story from the guy that writes behind the counter (a blog about working at walmart). He's definitely not a happy camper. It's entitled "Me vs Comcast in 66 rounds".
+5 interesting
The official guide.
While it may be a waste of energy, the tanks are much easier and cheaper to produce than battery packs (lower environmental impact I'd assume as well). Air tanks don't lose charge and should have a longer usable life span than a battery pack.
Let's pretend that the energy going into the car is from a clean source such as wind, solar or tidal (ok, I know at this point it would be diesel, or coal generated electricity), does it matter that you are wasting it? Yes, it's not the best use of resources, but there are no battery packs to dispose of / recycle, it is affordable enough for poorer countries and doesn't create greenhouse gases.
Of course I am playing devils advocate. I would prefer energy being put into developing better batteries instead of stop gap solutions (*cough cough, hydrogen).