If you load passengers at the back of an airliner first, you will shift the cg aft sufficiently to cause the airplane to tip back, break away from the jetway, and sit on its tail. You do not want to experience that.
I don't know of anyone having ever experienced that. I can find no information that that has ever happened due to passenger loading. There are a few incidents of improper cargo loading that have caused this. However, many airlines already load the back first and they don't tip back. It helps that while people are seating in the back, there is a line of people out the front door waiting to get seated, but mostly it just helps that people don't weigh much in relation to an airplane. Even a smaller plane like an ERJ-145 weighs about 26,000 pounds empty. Only about 18 passengers can sit behind the rear wheels, which the FAA figures as 2700 pounds. Their lever arm is small due to the proximity to the rear wheels. I wish I had a Pilot's Operating Handbook from an ERJ-145 so I could calculate for sure how many people would have to sit in the back lavatory in order to move the CG behind the rear wheels. I bet it's over 40.
That's practically never the fault of the airline, but of the airport baggage handlers.
It may depend on the airport, but certainly all of the baggage handlers that I knew personally worked for the airline. Also, all of the equipment seems to be labeled as belonging to a certain airline, and the handlers always seem to have uniforms identifying them as belonging to the airline.
Trouble is, I'm not someone who likes to get to the airport 2 hours early and hang around. That pretty much dooms me to a middle seat someplace unpleasant, doesn't it?
No. If you are computer savvy you can check in 24 hours ahead of time online and receive your boarding group letter. Then you can show up at the airport at your leisure, so long as you are at the gate 15 minutes ahead of departure time.
20 minutes is optimistic. I've had to have long long fights with check-in drones because they refused to let me attempt to get in the (ginormous) security line because I was only at the airport 45 minutes before my flight.
I meant 20 minutes earlier at the gate. Check in is something like 45 minutes to an hour depending on the airline.
While agreeing entirely with your sentiments in the rest of your post, you must drive very quickly:-) Three hours early, plus one hours (ish) flight, plus one hour "commute" at either end leaves you travelling at 100mph between end points.
Gate to gate on a 600 mile trip is probably going to be close to 2 hours, plus there is the half hour waiting for luggage. But you're right that 600 miles is borderline.
I drive to Chicago once or twice a year. It is about 750 miles. It takes about 12 hours if I eat while driving and empty out the bladder while filling up the gas tank. I once flew from Chicago back home, and the elapsed time from leaving the hotel to arriving at my doorstep was 13 hours. I suppose if you start counting delays you can get pretty outrageous, as it once took me 18 hours to fly 1300 miles from Tampa to my home. So I guess you have to just look at the averages to see if driving is better than flying. But the averages should include 15 minutes late each leg as on average, a plane will be 15 minutes late getting to the gate.
Elite passengers may know hot o get to their seat and get situated faster, but they still have to slow things down if they don't have a window seat because they will have to get up for the person who has the window. If they boarded window, middle, aisle, things would go more smoothly, but the middle and aisle people would be pissed because they never get an overhead space.
Actually, on anything that is a 757 or smaller, they should board, window, aisle, and throw away the middle seat, since the plane is much to small for 6 across seating.
I've never in many years of flying seen a gate-checked item checked through to a final destination.
I have, but your point still stands. Gate checking and picking up in the jetway is becoming very common now. It used to almost never happen. But that was back when people used to check most of their bags and just carry necessities, handbags and laptops onto the plane. Now that people are bringing their entire suitcase or suitcases onto the plane, it is necessary to check the bags at the gate since there is only room on most planes for about 1/3 of the people to do that. On regional jets, only small roll-ons will fit so about 90% of the people have to gate check.
It is still possible to gate check all the way through. If you are going to lose your bag for the one leg, you may be willing to not have to hassle with picking it up at the next leg and possibly rechecking it again on the next leg out. If so, and you are willing to hang around the luggage carousel, then you could ask to check it through to your destination.
I once flew to Honduras with a group that had a lot of luggage, boxes of medicine and supplies, and so forth. We flew American Airlines to New Orleans, then were flying on Taca Airlines down to Honduras. At New Orleans, we were instructed that our luggage could be automatically routed on to the next plane, but since the boxes carried medicines and stuff, that we would have to take them as carry ons. So we had to go out of security, collect all the boxes, bring them back through security, and then take them to the gate, where they promptly tagged them all with the final destination, and put them in the cargo hold along with our regular luggage.
I once nearly missed my plane at EWR even though I was there 2 hours early. I had changed my return trip the day before my flight, and the gate agent wanted to charge me for a no notice one way ticket, about $900 even though the rep the previous day had said it would be $100 change fee. My buddy on the same flight who had done the same thing paid his $100 and was waiting on me. The agent WOULD NOT give me the correct deal, I was on and off the phone with my office. They finally told me to pay the money and put in for reimbursement, and they would settle it with the airline. So I bought the ticket. By the time I had it all squared away she had waste an hour and 30 minutes of my time. It was getting to be half an hour to boarding and I wasn't through security so I asked her to call the gate. She said she would. However, not only did she charge me $900 for a $100 change, but she didn't call the gate, and she stamped my ticket for extra security. I had to go through a 20 minute ordeal at the security line. Funny thing was, my buddy didn't go through extra security and he took about three minutes longer than me.
We got to the gate and the door was closed. We asked if the agent had called to tell her we were on the way. Of course not. She gave us big time attitude about opening the door back up, but since the plane door wasn't shut yet, policy says they have to. But she felt she needed to give us a lecture about getting to the airport on time and thinking of other passengers. I told her that we had been there two hours ahead of time, and that her fellow employee had wasted 90 minutes of that time improperly charging me for a ticket instead of a change in schedule. She told me "Well, these days you need to get here three hours early." Right. If I need to get to the airport three hours early, than I am not going to fly anywhere within 600 miles of my home because it would be faster to drive and I wouldn't get the attitude.
If there is a law (it may be more of a policy) it is that if they KNOW a passenger is to be on that flight, and the passenger doesn't make it, then they have to take the bag off. But obviously, when the lose or delay a bag it must go on a flight that the passenger is not on. And often enough, even if you miss a connection, your bag may still make it and get on an earlier flight. Southwest will often put bags on the first flight headed toward your connection just to make sure it gets to the connection (they have done this with humans, like me, many times as well).
One flight attendant was most insistent that my laptop would have to be gate checked; I protested and another passenger finally volunteered to have his (massive) bag in the overhead gate-checked; I bought him a drink.
You protested and didn't get thrown in jail for disobeying a direct order from a flight attendant. Must have been awhile back.
In days of yore, I would have protested, too. It is against company policy to check a laptop. I could get in all kinds of trouble if it was lost or broken. But these days I have to weigh that against all the kinds of trouble I would get in if I tried to keep myself from getting in trouble with my company. If I refused to obey the flight attendant, I could be thrown in jail. If I just said "look, I'll take a later flight" and got off the plane, I could be detained as a possible terrorist. Or shot multiple times, like the poor mentally challenged guy.
If first class boards first, and they have used up all of their overhead space, they can use some of the cattle class overheads. Plus, they get to block traffic trying to get to the back of the plane while they steal space from other passengers, and then have to force their way back forward to the first class seats. If done correctly, one first class passenger can delay takeoff by 5 minutes, even longer if they forget which way is forward.
It would be faster until some guy arrives 5 minutes later then everyone else and has to go through security and get on the plane, because of the order everyone would have to stop, let him through, reorganize and then go through. In an ideal situation it would be faster but chaos is quicker then order because order can never truly happen.
If you aren't there 15 minutes (20 for some airlines) prior to boarding, then you aren't getting on the plane. Since it should only take 15 minutes to get everybody organized, the late of their own accord person is not a problem. The problem is the late because of the airlines person. That person doesn't have to be at the gate 15 minutes prior to takeoff. It wouldn't be fair to impose that requirement on a connecting passenger, since it is the airline's fault that he is late. But his being late would definitely screw up some sort of organized boarding system.
but the real problem is you can't get everyone ready to board right when they open the doors, so it's never as rational as it should be (eg, some person in row 29 is going to board when row 18 is boarding and cause a traffic jam)
People trying to get to the back don't cause traffic jams, or at least don't slow the rest of the line down by more than a second or two. The real problem is people who board ahead of the current row that is boarding, like elite and first class passengers. These people interrupt traffic by stopping at row 10 to put their two oversized carry-ons into the upper bin, then fuss and fidget and take forever to get seated while a huge line of people waits to get past them to row 29.
Do I have to pay back my credit card bills??
Well, no you don't because you're dead. However, your estate will have to pay them back, and if there isn't enough to cover them, then your heirs will have to pay them.
Straight guys don't have homosexual experiences unless they are gay or at least bi.
There are other possibilities. I had a homosexual experience when I was fondled by a homosexual man when I was around 10 or 11. I would imagine that there is a lot more of that going on then ever gets reported.
But I think you are correct that most hetero men would never even consider a homosexual experience. I have a good friend who is gay, and I think he is a wonderful guy and don't question his lifestyle at all, but the thought of sex with another man is just absolutely revolting to me.
Political expression is definitely protected speech, but does that give the candidates the right to put their campaign signs up on your front lawn without permission? No. It's your lawn, their right to speak doesn't include a right to use your lawn as their venue.
And yet they can still call you up and annoy you with pre-recorded messages which would be HIGHLY illegal for a commercial entity to do. Frankly, I still subscribe to the idea that political and religious speech should be free, but my right to privacy supercedes them. They should NOT be allowed to call you without prior permission.
This is the point where you either take a closer look at whatever you signed (you did read it before signing, right?) or you take them to small claims court over it.
When you sign up for long distance they don't give you anything to sign or tell you about any small print. I have never received any kind of contract or information about any long distance plan that I have ever had. I guess they are not required to disclose the details to the consumer.
Honestly? It's still the company's fault. If the company says "yes we can do this" then it means they should do it, I don't care if it was person #1 or person #20.
Big companies don't have to take responsibility for their employees actions. When I subscribed to long distance, I was given my choice, and since my Dad worked at AT&T, I chose them. I called the representative and she sold me an international calling plan and a long distance plan. A month later, I got a bill for about $400. The per minute rates I was paying were about 10 times what I had been told. When I called, they said I didn't have a calling plan. I told them of the plan that I had been sold by an AT&T representative. They said that plan is not available in my area. So what, instead of calling me and telling me their representative made a mistake, they just don't give me a plan and charge me 10 times what I had been told I would have to pay? I told them that I had been sold that plan and wanted that plan. They said they could not give it to me. The next best plan was about 50% more per minute than I had been quoted and also came with a monthly fee. I told them I would only pay them for the amount that it should have cost under the plan they sold me. They told me that that would be fine and they would report the rest to my credit bureau and a collection agency. All of this was a mistake that THEIR EMPLOYEE made, and the person who has to pay as a result is THEIR CUSTOMER or they will RUIN YOUR CREDIT RATING.
I would be more likely to kick someone who drove in one of those POS vans for me to repair then a miracle of engineering Ferrari.
Speaking as one who has performed work on exotics, they may be miracles of engineering, but they are not designed to be worked on like your typical car. Particularly for exotics used in racing. They figure after every race, you're going to pull the body off anyway, so no problem putting the oil filter somewhere only accessible with the body off. I had to do some work on the transmission on my Lotus Esprit. You don't "drop the transmission" like you would in any other car. Instead, it has to come up and out the trunk. In my case, the input shaft had frozen into the crank thanks to a melted bearing (it's underdesigned for a daily driver, but hey you're just going to replace it every few races anyway.), so I had to pull the tranny and the engine.
All that being said, it sure gives one a feeling of accomplishment to do all that work and have it start up after you've put it all back together.
Why are artists held to such a level, that they should be willing to play for free so long as someone enjoys their music? Anyone familiar with history knows that the most famous artworks were commissioned by aristocracy and wealthy individuals. Why in the 21st century should we suddenly expect art to be free?
I used to be probably not a superstar, but certainly a star consultant in datawarehousing, replication, and database administration. Somewhere along the way (thanks Osama!) I got off of my preferred career track and now find myself working in an environment which is challenging for all the wrong reasons. My job is challenging in the way that punching your way through a brick wall is challenging, not in the way that, say, designing a skyscraper is challenging.
I have been trying to break back into the datawarehousing world, but since my experience is now several years old, I have a hard time convincing companies to give me a chance.
To answer your question, the best way to hire is your network. It is the same way for hiring as for getting hired. If I knew people in my area that were in the datawarehousing arena, I could probably get hired in a second, and that would be a good thing for both me and the company. Good for them, because after brushing off the rust, I know I will do an outstanding job, and good for me because I will be once again doing something I enjoy and making a difference instead of the technical equivalent of banging rocks together, which is what I do now.
Are you hiring star datawarehouse people in addition to programmers?
Why is everything technical in slashdot always about programming? There is so much more stuff that "nerds" do besides programming.
"will come as a thief in the night" seems to suggest some element of surprise but several billion years of advance warning seems sufficient to not be surprised.
I think that is the point. While we're fat and happy knowing that the Earth won't be destroyed for billions of years, we get blindsided by a different apocalyptic event.
Panel member: If you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?
Ellie Arroway: Well, I suppose it would be, how did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?
And their answer? "The hard part was teaching our most respected scientists how to count to one."
4 out of 5 dentists recommend Dentyne
You bring up another misuse of statistics. The advertisement includes the phrase "...for their patients who chew gum." An important statement which they hope the viewer will not remember.
In fact, 5 out of 5 dentists insist that you not chew gum. 5 out of 5 dentists will recommend that you quit if you do chew gum. However, if you hold a gun up to their head and say "dammit, I'm gonna chew gum. If you tell me to quit, I'm gonna blow your brains out. Now which brand do you recommend?" 4 out of 5 of them will remember hearing the Dentyne commercial and say "Dentyne." The other 20% still insisted that their patient not chew gum, and got their brains blown out.
Slashdot Mirror
Cannibals, like snakes, eat from the head to the tail?
If you load passengers at the back of an airliner first, you will shift the cg aft sufficiently to cause the airplane to tip back, break away from the jetway, and sit on its tail. You do not want to experience that.
I don't know of anyone having ever experienced that. I can find no information that that has ever happened due to passenger loading. There are a few incidents of improper cargo loading that have caused this. However, many airlines already load the back first and they don't tip back. It helps that while people are seating in the back, there is a line of people out the front door waiting to get seated, but mostly it just helps that people don't weigh much in relation to an airplane. Even a smaller plane like an ERJ-145 weighs about 26,000 pounds empty. Only about 18 passengers can sit behind the rear wheels, which the FAA figures as 2700 pounds. Their lever arm is small due to the proximity to the rear wheels. I wish I had a Pilot's Operating Handbook from an ERJ-145 so I could calculate for sure how many people would have to sit in the back lavatory in order to move the CG behind the rear wheels. I bet it's over 40.
That's practically never the fault of the airline, but of the airport baggage handlers.
It may depend on the airport, but certainly all of the baggage handlers that I knew personally worked for the airline. Also, all of the equipment seems to be labeled as belonging to a certain airline, and the handlers always seem to have uniforms identifying them as belonging to the airline.
Trouble is, I'm not someone who likes to get to the airport 2 hours early and hang around. That pretty much dooms me to a middle seat someplace unpleasant, doesn't it?
No. If you are computer savvy you can check in 24 hours ahead of time online and receive your boarding group letter. Then you can show up at the airport at your leisure, so long as you are at the gate 15 minutes ahead of departure time.
20 minutes is optimistic. I've had to have long long fights with check-in drones because they refused to let me attempt to get in the (ginormous) security line because I was only at the airport 45 minutes before my flight.
I meant 20 minutes earlier at the gate. Check in is something like 45 minutes to an hour depending on the airline.
While agreeing entirely with your sentiments in the rest of your post, you must drive very quickly :-) Three hours early, plus one hours (ish) flight, plus one hour "commute" at either end leaves you travelling at 100mph between end points.
Gate to gate on a 600 mile trip is probably going to be close to 2 hours, plus there is the half hour waiting for luggage. But you're right that 600 miles is borderline.
I drive to Chicago once or twice a year. It is about 750 miles. It takes about 12 hours if I eat while driving and empty out the bladder while filling up the gas tank. I once flew from Chicago back home, and the elapsed time from leaving the hotel to arriving at my doorstep was 13 hours. I suppose if you start counting delays you can get pretty outrageous, as it once took me 18 hours to fly 1300 miles from Tampa to my home. So I guess you have to just look at the averages to see if driving is better than flying. But the averages should include 15 minutes late each leg as on average, a plane will be 15 minutes late getting to the gate.
Elite passengers may know hot o get to their seat and get situated faster, but they still have to slow things down if they don't have a window seat because they will have to get up for the person who has the window. If they boarded window, middle, aisle, things would go more smoothly, but the middle and aisle people would be pissed because they never get an overhead space.
Actually, on anything that is a 757 or smaller, they should board, window, aisle, and throw away the middle seat, since the plane is much to small for 6 across seating.
I've never in many years of flying seen a gate-checked item checked through to a final destination.
I have, but your point still stands. Gate checking and picking up in the jetway is becoming very common now. It used to almost never happen. But that was back when people used to check most of their bags and just carry necessities, handbags and laptops onto the plane. Now that people are bringing their entire suitcase or suitcases onto the plane, it is necessary to check the bags at the gate since there is only room on most planes for about 1/3 of the people to do that. On regional jets, only small roll-ons will fit so about 90% of the people have to gate check.
It is still possible to gate check all the way through. If you are going to lose your bag for the one leg, you may be willing to not have to hassle with picking it up at the next leg and possibly rechecking it again on the next leg out. If so, and you are willing to hang around the luggage carousel, then you could ask to check it through to your destination.
I once flew to Honduras with a group that had a lot of luggage, boxes of medicine and supplies, and so forth. We flew American Airlines to New Orleans, then were flying on Taca Airlines down to Honduras. At New Orleans, we were instructed that our luggage could be automatically routed on to the next plane, but since the boxes carried medicines and stuff, that we would have to take them as carry ons. So we had to go out of security, collect all the boxes, bring them back through security, and then take them to the gate, where they promptly tagged them all with the final destination, and put them in the cargo hold along with our regular luggage.
I once nearly missed my plane at EWR even though I was there 2 hours early. I had changed my return trip the day before my flight, and the gate agent wanted to charge me for a no notice one way ticket, about $900 even though the rep the previous day had said it would be $100 change fee. My buddy on the same flight who had done the same thing paid his $100 and was waiting on me. The agent WOULD NOT give me the correct deal, I was on and off the phone with my office. They finally told me to pay the money and put in for reimbursement, and they would settle it with the airline. So I bought the ticket. By the time I had it all squared away she had waste an hour and 30 minutes of my time. It was getting to be half an hour to boarding and I wasn't through security so I asked her to call the gate. She said she would. However, not only did she charge me $900 for a $100 change, but she didn't call the gate, and she stamped my ticket for extra security. I had to go through a 20 minute ordeal at the security line. Funny thing was, my buddy didn't go through extra security and he took about three minutes longer than me.
We got to the gate and the door was closed. We asked if the agent had called to tell her we were on the way. Of course not. She gave us big time attitude about opening the door back up, but since the plane door wasn't shut yet, policy says they have to. But she felt she needed to give us a lecture about getting to the airport on time and thinking of other passengers. I told her that we had been there two hours ahead of time, and that her fellow employee had wasted 90 minutes of that time improperly charging me for a ticket instead of a change in schedule. She told me "Well, these days you need to get here three hours early." Right. If I need to get to the airport three hours early, than I am not going to fly anywhere within 600 miles of my home because it would be faster to drive and I wouldn't get the attitude.
If there is a law (it may be more of a policy) it is that if they KNOW a passenger is to be on that flight, and the passenger doesn't make it, then they have to take the bag off. But obviously, when the lose or delay a bag it must go on a flight that the passenger is not on. And often enough, even if you miss a connection, your bag may still make it and get on an earlier flight. Southwest will often put bags on the first flight headed toward your connection just to make sure it gets to the connection (they have done this with humans, like me, many times as well).
One flight attendant was most insistent that my laptop would have to be gate checked; I protested and another passenger finally volunteered to have his (massive) bag in the overhead gate-checked; I bought him a drink.
You protested and didn't get thrown in jail for disobeying a direct order from a flight attendant. Must have been awhile back. In days of yore, I would have protested, too. It is against company policy to check a laptop. I could get in all kinds of trouble if it was lost or broken. But these days I have to weigh that against all the kinds of trouble I would get in if I tried to keep myself from getting in trouble with my company. If I refused to obey the flight attendant, I could be thrown in jail. If I just said "look, I'll take a later flight" and got off the plane, I could be detained as a possible terrorist. Or shot multiple times, like the poor mentally challenged guy.
If first class boards first, and they have used up all of their overhead space, they can use some of the cattle class overheads. Plus, they get to block traffic trying to get to the back of the plane while they steal space from other passengers, and then have to force their way back forward to the first class seats. If done correctly, one first class passenger can delay takeoff by 5 minutes, even longer if they forget which way is forward.
It would be faster until some guy arrives 5 minutes later then everyone else and has to go through security and get on the plane, because of the order everyone would have to stop, let him through, reorganize and then go through. In an ideal situation it would be faster but chaos is quicker then order because order can never truly happen.
If you aren't there 15 minutes (20 for some airlines) prior to boarding, then you aren't getting on the plane. Since it should only take 15 minutes to get everybody organized, the late of their own accord person is not a problem. The problem is the late because of the airlines person. That person doesn't have to be at the gate 15 minutes prior to takeoff. It wouldn't be fair to impose that requirement on a connecting passenger, since it is the airline's fault that he is late. But his being late would definitely screw up some sort of organized boarding system.
but the real problem is you can't get everyone ready to board right when they open the doors, so it's never as rational as it should be (eg, some person in row 29 is going to board when row 18 is boarding and cause a traffic jam)
People trying to get to the back don't cause traffic jams, or at least don't slow the rest of the line down by more than a second or two. The real problem is people who board ahead of the current row that is boarding, like elite and first class passengers. These people interrupt traffic by stopping at row 10 to put their two oversized carry-ons into the upper bin, then fuss and fidget and take forever to get seated while a huge line of people waits to get past them to row 29.
Do I have to pay back my credit card bills??
Well, no you don't because you're dead. However, your estate will have to pay them back, and if there isn't enough to cover them, then your heirs will have to pay them.
Straight guys don't have homosexual experiences unless they are gay or at least bi.
There are other possibilities. I had a homosexual experience when I was fondled by a homosexual man when I was around 10 or 11. I would imagine that there is a lot more of that going on then ever gets reported.
But I think you are correct that most hetero men would never even consider a homosexual experience. I have a good friend who is gay, and I think he is a wonderful guy and don't question his lifestyle at all, but the thought of sex with another man is just absolutely revolting to me.
Political expression is definitely protected speech, but does that give the candidates the right to put their campaign signs up on your front lawn without permission? No. It's your lawn, their right to speak doesn't include a right to use your lawn as their venue.
And yet they can still call you up and annoy you with pre-recorded messages which would be HIGHLY illegal for a commercial entity to do. Frankly, I still subscribe to the idea that political and religious speech should be free, but my right to privacy supercedes them. They should NOT be allowed to call you without prior permission.
This is the point where you either take a closer look at whatever you signed (you did read it before signing, right?) or you take them to small claims court over it.
When you sign up for long distance they don't give you anything to sign or tell you about any small print. I have never received any kind of contract or information about any long distance plan that I have ever had. I guess they are not required to disclose the details to the consumer.
Honestly? It's still the company's fault. If the company says "yes we can do this" then it means they should do it, I don't care if it was person #1 or person #20.
Big companies don't have to take responsibility for their employees actions. When I subscribed to long distance, I was given my choice, and since my Dad worked at AT&T, I chose them. I called the representative and she sold me an international calling plan and a long distance plan. A month later, I got a bill for about $400. The per minute rates I was paying were about 10 times what I had been told. When I called, they said I didn't have a calling plan. I told them of the plan that I had been sold by an AT&T representative. They said that plan is not available in my area. So what, instead of calling me and telling me their representative made a mistake, they just don't give me a plan and charge me 10 times what I had been told I would have to pay? I told them that I had been sold that plan and wanted that plan. They said they could not give it to me. The next best plan was about 50% more per minute than I had been quoted and also came with a monthly fee. I told them I would only pay them for the amount that it should have cost under the plan they sold me. They told me that that would be fine and they would report the rest to my credit bureau and a collection agency. All of this was a mistake that THEIR EMPLOYEE made, and the person who has to pay as a result is THEIR CUSTOMER or they will RUIN YOUR CREDIT RATING.
I would be more likely to kick someone who drove in one of those POS vans for me to repair then a miracle of engineering Ferrari.
Speaking as one who has performed work on exotics, they may be miracles of engineering, but they are not designed to be worked on like your typical car. Particularly for exotics used in racing. They figure after every race, you're going to pull the body off anyway, so no problem putting the oil filter somewhere only accessible with the body off. I had to do some work on the transmission on my Lotus Esprit. You don't "drop the transmission" like you would in any other car. Instead, it has to come up and out the trunk. In my case, the input shaft had frozen into the crank thanks to a melted bearing (it's underdesigned for a daily driver, but hey you're just going to replace it every few races anyway.), so I had to pull the tranny and the engine.
All that being said, it sure gives one a feeling of accomplishment to do all that work and have it start up after you've put it all back together.
Why are artists held to such a level, that they should be willing to play for free so long as someone enjoys their music? Anyone familiar with history knows that the most famous artworks were commissioned by aristocracy and wealthy individuals. Why in the 21st century should we suddenly expect art to be free?
I used to be probably not a superstar, but certainly a star consultant in datawarehousing, replication, and database administration. Somewhere along the way (thanks Osama!) I got off of my preferred career track and now find myself working in an environment which is challenging for all the wrong reasons. My job is challenging in the way that punching your way through a brick wall is challenging, not in the way that, say, designing a skyscraper is challenging.
I have been trying to break back into the datawarehousing world, but since my experience is now several years old, I have a hard time convincing companies to give me a chance.
To answer your question, the best way to hire is your network. It is the same way for hiring as for getting hired. If I knew people in my area that were in the datawarehousing arena, I could probably get hired in a second, and that would be a good thing for both me and the company. Good for them, because after brushing off the rust, I know I will do an outstanding job, and good for me because I will be once again doing something I enjoy and making a difference instead of the technical equivalent of banging rocks together, which is what I do now.
Are you hiring star datawarehouse people in addition to programmers?
Why is everything technical in slashdot always about programming? There is so much more stuff that "nerds" do besides programming.
"will come as a thief in the night" seems to suggest some element of surprise but several billion years of advance warning seems sufficient to not be surprised.
I think that is the point. While we're fat and happy knowing that the Earth won't be destroyed for billions of years, we get blindsided by a different apocalyptic event.
Panel member: If you were to meet these Vegans, and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what would it be?
Ellie Arroway: Well, I suppose it would be, how did you do it? How did you evolve, how did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself?
And their answer? "The hard part was teaching our most respected scientists how to count to one."
4 out of 5 dentists recommend Dentyne
You bring up another misuse of statistics. The advertisement includes the phrase "...for their patients who chew gum." An important statement which they hope the viewer will not remember.
In fact, 5 out of 5 dentists insist that you not chew gum. 5 out of 5 dentists will recommend that you quit if you do chew gum. However, if you hold a gun up to their head and say "dammit, I'm gonna chew gum. If you tell me to quit, I'm gonna blow your brains out. Now which brand do you recommend?" 4 out of 5 of them will remember hearing the Dentyne commercial and say "Dentyne." The other 20% still insisted that their patient not chew gum, and got their brains blown out.