Re:We had been thinking about using kylix
on
Kylix in Limbo
·
· Score: 1
That is some good stuff! Now I'm ready to learn Python and start using wxPython. My only holdout was having to distribute an interpreter with the work. I really want the ability to remove the code && compile && test cycle, and the readability of python (and some of the perl-like features of python). That's gonna make quite a difference for me, I think. I bookmarked the page.
Thanks again, dude!
Re:Cost Could Be The Reason
on
Kylix in Limbo
·
· Score: 1
The open version is free, as long as the apps written are licensed under GPL. Funny how many people don't know even though Borland shouted it.
Maybe people took the time to figure out what the "free" version could do and discovered it was *so* crippled it was worthless? Especially considering that if you're just writing GPL software, and the toolkit's going to wind up being Qt, why not just use KDevelop and the Qt Designer? The Qt Designer is a straight-up rip of the Delphi RAD interface, only it outputs Qt code. Useful stuff! I'll bet most/all KDE apps are built with it somewhere in the development process, and I *love* KDE. Further, if you're actually wanting a reasonable shot at cross-platform independence in your app, turn to wxWindows, which has a number of free/relatively inexpensive RAD environments, some of them even work! (wxGlade is the one I had the best luck with) Borland may be giving us something for free and letting us work on GPL code with it, but what they're giving us for free (as in beer) doesn't even come close to approaching what we can use for free (as in freedom and beer).
They fucked up. We expected enterprise development tools for free (as we're accustomed to getting!) and we got their cheapo educrippled version to encourage free software development. I didn't subscribe to that crock of shit, and I'm really not surprised nobody else did either.
Apparently you miss interpreted what I meant by collectivistic. Collectivistic is defined as a culture which places the safety\sucessfulness of the group as a whole infront of that of individual. It does not mean for evryone to be the same.
Continuing with the Star Trek references, this could also be stated as "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." I would accept that as an axiom.:) Actually, I've never worked out whether or not I agree with that statement, just because it's a very general statement. It seems to me that at some point the needs of the one become more important than the needs of the group (as in the next movie, when the whole group of friends risk their lives and careers to save one person). but as a general procedure, I would agree with your statement about collectivism. The only question remaining is "When does the needs of the one become more important than the needs of the group?"
Oppositly a individualistic culture is one which the individual is more important than the group.
I don't understand this. Could you clarify?
I just think Americans need to stop being so selfish.
This I wholeheartedly agree with. We can be individuals without being selfish.:)
Oddly, it appears to me that the best response to problems like this is to use technology to redefine the problem. Make signals on the units used by emergency vehicles to affect traffic lights digitally signed and encrypted in a dynamic fashion - then not only would it be difficult to replicate for third parties, but you could use the same means to keep data about emergency vehicle path and response times.
Actually, using technology to make the exploit less vulnerable would be a good thing, but not solve the problem. The problem is inherent in human nature, people abusing an existing system for self-gratification. I'm all for making the system harder to crack, but not as a substitute for dealing with the basic human problem here.
To build a truely trustworthy compiler is impossible by only checking the source and the binaries.
I'm not a Gentoo zealot, but I suspect that Gentoo is probably safer in this regard. Not completely, because you still have to start with something before you can compile everything. maybe I'm just plain on crack in an old-fashioned way and need to go to bed.
We'll see if they pounce on this. If so, expect something like "See? Open Source projects are inherently vulnerable to hackers infiltrating and corrupting the code base" This is not good. But it is a good thing it was caught and never got released!
The proper response is "Of course you hear about this sort of thing. It's called Open Source. That means that everything we do is out in the open. Reading LKML if you're not a hacker is like watching CSPAN. I challenge you (Microsoft Rep or other voicehole) to show records that you have never suffered such exploits, and if you have, that you have caught it with such finality as this."
Let's not forget that Free Software and Open Source developers operate in the open, and that there are still more vulnerabilities regularly reported in closed-source apps. We know they try to cover this shit up, and we do not even try. Iceberg theory applies, here, I believe.
Franklin's quote used the word "essential" to qualify "liberty." Is being able to turn a stop light green an essential liberty? I think not.
You think not, that is correct.;P
The GP post didn't say a damn thing about being able to turn a stop light green as an essential liberty. Quite the contrary, GP said it was this liberty that is destroying this country. Correct my Franklin quote, the meaning of my post doesn't change in relation to the GP post.
First, I think your knee-jerk reaction is probably due to the fact that you're russian? Personally, while not russian, I don't see how him saying "eg russia" to provide a nationality for his evil-doer is such a Bad Thing(tm). Here's why:
He is giving the Russian Federation credit for having an educational level and technological level capable of pulling off this sort of scheme.
He gave it as an example. He could've just as easily said "eg France" or "eg UK" and his post wouldn't have meant anything different.
Americans, unfortunately, still tend to view Russians as adversaries. This is part of the legacy of the Cold War, and I'd like to see it change.
Not that I'm trying to apologize or anything, I just don't see the harm in the original post.
my point is, if someone has strong ethics, then they will not do this kind of thing. if you are skilled enough to submit patches, you can make living out of this without going to dark side. if the imaginary company is providing the patches themselves, why are they going to eg. russia? why not hire someone in the states? also, i don't understand how you can be under life threatening conditions and carry out such an operation which would possibly take months. it seemed to me that your comment was based on the assumption that people in ``developed'' countries are harder to be tempted to do something like this. that is not what i perceive.
In my limited experience, I've found that Russians tend to be of stronger moral fiber than Americans. Subjective, I know, and I haven't known a good statistical sampling of Russians, but that's been what I've seen.
However, I understand that Russian organized crime is currently in a pretty sweet spot with regards to the law in the country, much like the early Mob in the US. Essentially taking advantage of a young republic. It is a common technique among organized crime (also used by the Soviet Union, iirc, Nazi Germany, Mussolini's regime, Hussein and family, etc) to take a person's family and hold them hostage for a period of time in order to coerce a person to produce some unethical piece of work. The Yakuza do this stuff too, I understand.
I would assert that such a tactic on a Russian programmer is more likely to be successful than on an American programmer, simply because Russian society, as a whole, seems to place more emphasis on family than American society does. It could just be my point of view, though. In either case, however, I would venture that the tactic would be so successful in either country that it's entirely academic on whom it would be most successful.
I used to have tapes of the original series when the ABC replayed it years ago (about 1987 or 88 I think), I was about 12 and it blew my mind. They did it in 2x6 hour blocks over two weeks. The first one ended with Ford and Arthur on pre-historic earth. The second one was completely different to the books although there where elements of them in it. Where these two series? And are they available on disc or anything?
Not only did I get mp3's of the radio series off WinMX, I *also* got all 6 television episodes!
Copyright or not, you can't get this shit many other places. (Although they do tend to release the original radio series from time to time, last time I recall seeing it in stores was over 10 years ago, though)
3) Traffic Decency Guardians (aka TDGs) unleash a hail of accurate paintball fire at the offending motorist. The paintballs are colored bright purple, or perhaps a mixture of purple and orange. They are not water-soluble. They do mark said motorist as a complete assmunch, so other motorists are sure to treat the offender accordingly.
While we're at it, let's carve a big red "A" on the foreheads of people who cheat on their spouses, so that when they re-enter the dating arena other daters will see them as a complete assmunch and treat them accordingly.
why not mandate fuel governors for all cars to prevent them from speeding?
agreed.
Because technology should never second-guess the user. In what's supposed to be a country ruled by the people for the people, it is generally assumed that individuals are responsible. If you mandate a technological solution to remove individual responsibility (like you're agreeing to), then you also take away freedom from that person. When does this inch become a mile?
Besides philosophical reasons, there are good reasons otherwise. First, speed limits change from one road to the next. On my morning commute, I start on a 25mph road with 15mph speed bumps. Then I move onto a 35mph road, a 45mph freeway entrance, and a 60mph freeway. When I exit, I exit on a 35mph ramp to another 60mph freeway. When I exit that, I exit on a 45mph ramp to a 35mph road, and I'm on 35mph roads to the office. You could propose a fancy system that uses radio signals (or some other signal) to tell the speed governor what the speed limit is, but frankly I think my tax-paying dollars could be spent better. Speeders are the exception, not the rule, and speeders that cause accidents are few and far between, and usually influenced by something else (drugs and cell phones, for example). While the national aggregate looks high, it's not really, compared to other dangerous things that I'd rather my money be spent on (such as stem-cell research that is likely to produce a cure for cancer).
Doesn't it make more sense for people just not to screw with these things in the first place? Sure, it makes sense to put a certain amount of tamper resistance and security onto anything like a street light.. but it's ridiculous to go over the top..
IN order for Democracy to work, you must have a responsible citizenry. It is a required ingredient. Irresponsible citizens, no democracy for you.
Pathetically many of these PC shops aren't even aware that other operating systems exist, or that one can legally transfer a Windows license from one machine to another...
I just thought I'd like to share my testimonial with a local pc shop. They're not "small", but they're not huge either. They are a chain that stretches across several states. PC Club. Heard of them? The location I use is approximately 1 mile from One Microsoft Way.
I went in and picked up a PCI IDE card, because I had a motherboard that only let me see 30GB on my hard drives, but I had two 60 GB drives. Mandrake Linux 9.0, at the time. I read the box, and it said "Linux supported". I forget the brand. I took it home, *lost* the driver installation disk (it didn't have Linux drivers on it), and spent approximately 6 hours getting the thing to work. It *never* worked. SO I packed up everything I could, called the store and asked them about the restocking fee. The guy said bring it in and let us take a look at it. Since you lost the driver disk, expect a high restocking fee. They typically range restocking fees from 5%-30%, depending on how likely they are to sell the box again after it's been opened and how much of the retail price they can get.
So I went back in. Before I went to the counter to negotiate the restocking fee, I went back to the rack and picked up a Promise card, reputed to be well-supported by the kernel I had. I took both boxes to the counter and revealed who I was, in that I told him "I just called, I lost the driver disk, blahblahblah". The guy looked in the box, saw that the only thing missing was the driver disk, and noted that they usually get 30% restocking fee for this, but it required the managaer's approval. The manager came and asked me why I was exchanging it, and I explained to him the battle I had over Linux support with that card, and how this here Promise card was well-supported. I showed him on the box for the first card where it said "Linux support".
The moment of truth (forever cementing me as their customer) was when the manager said "5% restocking fee. It's not our fault, it's not his fault, but I'd rather eat this one then make him eat it." I was willing to pay the 30% I was expecting.
On a later transaction, I overheard a guy saying he wanted a laptop to put Linux on, and the guy in the store offered to install Linux for him, if he just named his preferred distribution, for a fee.
To top it off, this same store usually has the lowest prices in town for computer gear.
I've read that there are devices you can buy that you strap to motorcycles in order to set off these sensors, as bikes aren't big enough to do it alone. I imagine something like this would help in my situation as well.
That reminds me, I had the same problem on my Suzuki 450 bike. Very small bike. It had a spot for a second person to sit, but was very cramped when the second person sat. After I figured out the bike wasn't setting off sensors, I started pulling over to the side of the lane, leaving enough room for cars. Then I had to signal cars to pull up and set off the sensor, because they didn't want to be that close to me.:( Only drawback I had riding a bike...
slow or stop completely, depends on the situation. Th one time i didnt, there were 4 cop cars coming up behind me at a light, they were going like bats outta hell, i was at a dead stop, so i jsut stayed there, figured that was the safest. they blew by on both sides doing about 60 in a 25.
I got stuck in a left-hand turn lane with both of the straight lanes filled up. I kept thinking to myself "Pull up behind me so I can run the light, please! This is a *long* light!". The fuckers went in the ongoing lanes and turned left! Boy was I pissed.
Around here, the favorite dingus trick is to stop too far into the intersection, so that they are past the sensors. Usually, this means they are past the big white "stop" line. I enjoy thinking of the "instant karma effect": by being so impatient that they go an extra 20 feet before stopping, they delay themselves until someone else comes up behind them to trigger the light. I often stop way back, so that I don't trigger it, just to add to their suffering.
I used to drive a Chevy Spectrum, 2-door, Isuzu-made piece of crap. The thing was so light it wouldn't trigger the sensors. I sat at lights for upwards of 10 minutes in the middle of the night waiting for a car to come along and trigger the sensor for me. I got in the habit of pulling ahead of the sensor just in case the car that came along wanted to be in my lane, so he would have to hit the sensor. What a pain in the ass.
My brother reports the same problem in his '67 beatle.
True. But would you complain if you were following said rich person?
I've followed cop cars through red lights.:) I figure they've got their sirens on, they've got their lights on, they ain't gonna turn around and ticket me for running a red light.:)
But it is this liberty that threatens the very safety of its citizens.
He who is willing to sacrifice liberty for the temporary promise of safety deserves neither liberty nor safety. (I think that's a Ben Franklin quote)
Americans need to stop being so individualistic and start being more collectiveistic.
Why don't we all just plug ourselves into giant cube-ships and sail around the galaxy assimilating lesser civilizations? I like my individualism, and you can have it when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.
That said, I do practice the Golden Rule while driving. When there's a backup on an entrance ramp and I'm approaching it, I let one car in. I figure if everybody let One Car In(tm), then the loss in speed on the freeway isn't noticeable, and the people entering the freeway don't have to risk life and limb to get on the freeway. I'm careful at stop signs to make sure I take my turn when it's supposed to be taken.
Being an individual doesn't mean breaking all the rules all the time. Traffic laws are there for a reason. Traffic guidelines are also there for a reason, and there are good, compelling reasons to follow them. It's all just like the whole manners bit. Manners are a good idea, period. You show respect to everybody (even if you don't have any), and there's less trouble all the way around.
Now that these devices are out there, we can't account for all of them, the same way we can't account for all those WMDs in Iraq. A solution might be to change the systems to use a different authentication method so that only authorized users could change the lights.
Or we could declare eBay and the other website referenced as terrorist nations and send in the troops! (Hey, you're the one who made the WMD in Iraq comparison;) )
I think it's a more effective way of fundraising than having open ended needs.
I happen to agree with you, but possibly for different reasons. Yes, if you show everybody how they can contribute a smattering of cash to achieve the goal, more people will do it. The question is, is it because of the smattering of cash spread amongst many people, or the statement of a goal? Personally, I think that if you state your goal and your need, that's enough to raise donations.
Not that it's not useful to show how the load can be distributed and be most effective, just that I think stating the goal, which involves showing what the money will be used for, is more important.
I would like to point out that your reasoning is also the reasoning behind taxes, and you brits are notorious for taxing people without providing representation. *duck*
Slashdot Mirror
That is some good stuff! Now I'm ready to learn Python and start using wxPython. My only holdout was having to distribute an interpreter with the work. I really want the ability to remove the code && compile && test cycle, and the readability of python (and some of the perl-like features of python). That's gonna make quite a difference for me, I think. I bookmarked the page.
Thanks again, dude!
The open version is free, as long as the apps written are licensed under GPL. Funny how many people don't know even though Borland shouted it.
Maybe people took the time to figure out what the "free" version could do and discovered it was *so* crippled it was worthless? Especially considering that if you're just writing GPL software, and the toolkit's going to wind up being Qt, why not just use KDevelop and the Qt Designer? The Qt Designer is a straight-up rip of the Delphi RAD interface, only it outputs Qt code. Useful stuff! I'll bet most/all KDE apps are built with it somewhere in the development process, and I *love* KDE. Further, if you're actually wanting a reasonable shot at cross-platform independence in your app, turn to wxWindows, which has a number of free/relatively inexpensive RAD environments, some of them even work! (wxGlade is the one I had the best luck with) Borland may be giving us something for free and letting us work on GPL code with it, but what they're giving us for free (as in beer) doesn't even come close to approaching what we can use for free (as in freedom and beer).
They fucked up. We expected enterprise development tools for free (as we're accustomed to getting!) and we got their cheapo educrippled version to encourage free software development. I didn't subscribe to that crock of shit, and I'm really not surprised nobody else did either.
It most certainly is porn, but both the .com (porn) and .gov (evil suppressing bastards) were listed in the original comment.
And answered the question I had, which was "what about whitehouse.com?" :)
Apparently you miss interpreted what I meant by collectivistic. Collectivistic is defined as a culture which places the safety\sucessfulness of the group as a whole infront of that of individual. It does not mean for evryone to be the same.
Continuing with the Star Trek references, this could also be stated as "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." I would accept that as an axiom. :) Actually, I've never worked out whether or not I agree with that statement, just because it's a very general statement. It seems to me that at some point the needs of the one become more important than the needs of the group (as in the next movie, when the whole group of friends risk their lives and careers to save one person). but as a general procedure, I would agree with your statement about collectivism. The only question remaining is "When does the needs of the one become more important than the needs of the group?"
Oppositly a individualistic culture is one which the individual is more important than the group.
I don't understand this. Could you clarify?
I just think Americans need to stop being so selfish.
This I wholeheartedly agree with. We can be individuals without being selfish. :)
You can see why I would misinterpret your statement.
You weren't the only one. maybe I misread the GP post? Heh. I read it as:
Liberty's what makes this country great. But it is this liberty that is screwing up the country.
Pretty general, eh? :)
Oddly, it appears to me that the best response to problems like this is to use technology to redefine the problem. Make signals on the units used by emergency vehicles to affect traffic lights digitally signed and encrypted in a dynamic fashion - then not only would it be difficult to replicate for third parties, but you could use the same means to keep data about emergency vehicle path and response times.
Actually, using technology to make the exploit less vulnerable would be a good thing, but not solve the problem. The problem is inherent in human nature, people abusing an existing system for self-gratification. I'm all for making the system harder to crack, but not as a substitute for dealing with the basic human problem here.
To build a truely trustworthy compiler is impossible by only checking the source and the binaries.
I'm not a Gentoo zealot, but I suspect that Gentoo is probably safer in this regard. Not completely, because you still have to start with something before you can compile everything. maybe I'm just plain on crack in an old-fashioned way and need to go to bed.
We'll see if they pounce on this. If so, expect something like "See? Open Source projects are inherently vulnerable to hackers infiltrating and corrupting the code base" This is not good. But it is a good thing it was caught and never got released!
The proper response is "Of course you hear about this sort of thing. It's called Open Source. That means that everything we do is out in the open. Reading LKML if you're not a hacker is like watching CSPAN. I challenge you (Microsoft Rep or other voicehole) to show records that you have never suffered such exploits, and if you have, that you have caught it with such finality as this."
Let's not forget that Free Software and Open Source developers operate in the open, and that there are still more vulnerabilities regularly reported in closed-source apps. We know they try to cover this shit up, and we do not even try. Iceberg theory applies, here, I believe.
Franklin's quote used the word "essential" to qualify "liberty." Is being able to turn a stop light green an essential liberty? I think not.
You think not, that is correct. ;P
The GP post didn't say a damn thing about being able to turn a stop light green as an essential liberty. Quite the contrary, GP said it was this liberty that is destroying this country. Correct my Franklin quote, the meaning of my post doesn't change in relation to the GP post.
Thanks for playing!
First, I think your knee-jerk reaction is probably due to the fact that you're russian? Personally, while not russian, I don't see how him saying "eg russia" to provide a nationality for his evil-doer is such a Bad Thing(tm). Here's why:
Not that I'm trying to apologize or anything, I just don't see the harm in the original post.
my point is, if someone has strong ethics, then they will not do this kind of thing. if you are skilled enough to submit patches, you can make living out of this without going to dark side. if the imaginary company is providing the patches themselves, why are they going to eg. russia? why not hire someone in the states? also, i don't understand how you can be under life threatening conditions and carry out such an operation which would possibly take months. it seemed to me that your comment was based on the assumption that people in ``developed'' countries are harder to be tempted to do something like this. that is not what i perceive.
In my limited experience, I've found that Russians tend to be of stronger moral fiber than Americans. Subjective, I know, and I haven't known a good statistical sampling of Russians, but that's been what I've seen.
However, I understand that Russian organized crime is currently in a pretty sweet spot with regards to the law in the country, much like the early Mob in the US. Essentially taking advantage of a young republic. It is a common technique among organized crime (also used by the Soviet Union, iirc, Nazi Germany, Mussolini's regime, Hussein and family, etc) to take a person's family and hold them hostage for a period of time in order to coerce a person to produce some unethical piece of work. The Yakuza do this stuff too, I understand.
I would assert that such a tactic on a Russian programmer is more likely to be successful than on an American programmer, simply because Russian society, as a whole, seems to place more emphasis on family than American society does. It could just be my point of view, though. In either case, however, I would venture that the tactic would be so successful in either country that it's entirely academic on whom it would be most successful.
I used to have tapes of the original series when the ABC replayed it years ago (about 1987 or 88 I think), I was about 12 and it blew my mind. They did it in 2x6 hour blocks over two weeks. The first one ended with Ford and Arthur on pre-historic earth. The second one was completely different to the books although there where elements of them in it. Where these two series? And are they available on disc or anything?
Not only did I get mp3's of the radio series off WinMX, I *also* got all 6 television episodes!
Copyright or not, you can't get this shit many other places. (Although they do tend to release the original radio series from time to time, last time I recall seeing it in stores was over 10 years ago, though)
3) Traffic Decency Guardians (aka TDGs) unleash a hail of accurate paintball fire at the offending motorist. The paintballs are colored bright purple, or perhaps a mixture of purple and orange. They are not water-soluble. They do mark said motorist as a complete assmunch, so other motorists are sure to treat the offender accordingly.
While we're at it, let's carve a big red "A" on the foreheads of people who cheat on their spouses, so that when they re-enter the dating arena other daters will see them as a complete assmunch and treat them accordingly.
One step forward, two steps back.
why not mandate fuel governors for all cars to prevent them from speeding?
agreed.
Because technology should never second-guess the user. In what's supposed to be a country ruled by the people for the people, it is generally assumed that individuals are responsible. If you mandate a technological solution to remove individual responsibility (like you're agreeing to), then you also take away freedom from that person. When does this inch become a mile?
Besides philosophical reasons, there are good reasons otherwise. First, speed limits change from one road to the next. On my morning commute, I start on a 25mph road with 15mph speed bumps. Then I move onto a 35mph road, a 45mph freeway entrance, and a 60mph freeway. When I exit, I exit on a 35mph ramp to another 60mph freeway. When I exit that, I exit on a 45mph ramp to a 35mph road, and I'm on 35mph roads to the office. You could propose a fancy system that uses radio signals (or some other signal) to tell the speed governor what the speed limit is, but frankly I think my tax-paying dollars could be spent better. Speeders are the exception, not the rule, and speeders that cause accidents are few and far between, and usually influenced by something else (drugs and cell phones, for example). While the national aggregate looks high, it's not really, compared to other dangerous things that I'd rather my money be spent on (such as stem-cell research that is likely to produce a cure for cancer).
Doesn't it make more sense for people just not to screw with these things in the first place? Sure, it makes sense to put a certain amount of tamper resistance and security onto anything like a street light.. but it's ridiculous to go over the top..
IN order for Democracy to work, you must have a responsible citizenry. It is a required ingredient. Irresponsible citizens, no democracy for you.
Pathetically many of these PC shops aren't even aware that other operating systems exist, or that one can legally transfer a Windows license from one machine to another...
I just thought I'd like to share my testimonial with a local pc shop. They're not "small", but they're not huge either. They are a chain that stretches across several states. PC Club. Heard of them? The location I use is approximately 1 mile from One Microsoft Way.
I went in and picked up a PCI IDE card, because I had a motherboard that only let me see 30GB on my hard drives, but I had two 60 GB drives. Mandrake Linux 9.0, at the time. I read the box, and it said "Linux supported". I forget the brand. I took it home, *lost* the driver installation disk (it didn't have Linux drivers on it), and spent approximately 6 hours getting the thing to work. It *never* worked. SO I packed up everything I could, called the store and asked them about the restocking fee. The guy said bring it in and let us take a look at it. Since you lost the driver disk, expect a high restocking fee. They typically range restocking fees from 5%-30%, depending on how likely they are to sell the box again after it's been opened and how much of the retail price they can get.
So I went back in. Before I went to the counter to negotiate the restocking fee, I went back to the rack and picked up a Promise card, reputed to be well-supported by the kernel I had. I took both boxes to the counter and revealed who I was, in that I told him "I just called, I lost the driver disk, blahblahblah". The guy looked in the box, saw that the only thing missing was the driver disk, and noted that they usually get 30% restocking fee for this, but it required the managaer's approval. The manager came and asked me why I was exchanging it, and I explained to him the battle I had over Linux support with that card, and how this here Promise card was well-supported. I showed him on the box for the first card where it said "Linux support".
The moment of truth (forever cementing me as their customer) was when the manager said "5% restocking fee. It's not our fault, it's not his fault, but I'd rather eat this one then make him eat it." I was willing to pay the 30% I was expecting.
On a later transaction, I overheard a guy saying he wanted a laptop to put Linux on, and the guy in the store offered to install Linux for him, if he just named his preferred distribution, for a fee.
To top it off, this same store usually has the lowest prices in town for computer gear.
Guess where I buy my computer gear from? :)
I've read that there are devices you can buy that you strap to motorcycles in order to set off these sensors, as bikes aren't big enough to do it alone. I imagine something like this would help in my situation as well.
That reminds me, I had the same problem on my Suzuki 450 bike. Very small bike. It had a spot for a second person to sit, but was very cramped when the second person sat. After I figured out the bike wasn't setting off sensors, I started pulling over to the side of the lane, leaving enough room for cars. Then I had to signal cars to pull up and set off the sensor, because they didn't want to be that close to me. :( Only drawback I had riding a bike...
slow or stop completely, depends on the situation. Th one time i didnt, there were 4 cop cars coming up behind me at a light, they were going like bats outta hell, i was at a dead stop, so i jsut stayed there, figured that was the safest. they blew by on both sides doing about 60 in a 25.
I got stuck in a left-hand turn lane with both of the straight lanes filled up. I kept thinking to myself "Pull up behind me so I can run the light, please! This is a *long* light!". The fuckers went in the ongoing lanes and turned left! Boy was I pissed.
Around here, the favorite dingus trick is to stop too far into the intersection, so that they are past the sensors. Usually, this means they are past the big white "stop" line. I enjoy thinking of the "instant karma effect": by being so impatient that they go an extra 20 feet before stopping, they delay themselves until someone else comes up behind them to trigger the light. I often stop way back, so that I don't trigger it, just to add to their suffering.
I used to drive a Chevy Spectrum, 2-door, Isuzu-made piece of crap. The thing was so light it wouldn't trigger the sensors. I sat at lights for upwards of 10 minutes in the middle of the night waiting for a car to come along and trigger the sensor for me. I got in the habit of pulling ahead of the sensor just in case the car that came along wanted to be in my lane, so he would have to hit the sensor. What a pain in the ass.
My brother reports the same problem in his '67 beatle.
True. But would you complain if you were following said rich person?
I've followed cop cars through red lights. :) I figure they've got their sirens on, they've got their lights on, they ain't gonna turn around and ticket me for running a red light. :)
Dude, when are you in that big a hurry and NOT on the way to a fire already?
When I started the fire...
MS expends monopoly even further
Um, isn't that the whole point of the antitrust proceedings?
But it is this liberty that threatens the very safety of its citizens.
He who is willing to sacrifice liberty for the temporary promise of safety deserves neither liberty nor safety. (I think that's a Ben Franklin quote)
Americans need to stop being so individualistic and start being more collectiveistic.
Why don't we all just plug ourselves into giant cube-ships and sail around the galaxy assimilating lesser civilizations? I like my individualism, and you can have it when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.
That said, I do practice the Golden Rule while driving. When there's a backup on an entrance ramp and I'm approaching it, I let one car in. I figure if everybody let One Car In(tm), then the loss in speed on the freeway isn't noticeable, and the people entering the freeway don't have to risk life and limb to get on the freeway. I'm careful at stop signs to make sure I take my turn when it's supposed to be taken.
Being an individual doesn't mean breaking all the rules all the time. Traffic laws are there for a reason. Traffic guidelines are also there for a reason, and there are good, compelling reasons to follow them. It's all just like the whole manners bit. Manners are a good idea, period. You show respect to everybody (even if you don't have any), and there's less trouble all the way around.
Now that these devices are out there, we can't account for all of them, the same way we can't account for all those WMDs in Iraq. A solution might be to change the systems to use a different authentication method so that only authorized users could change the lights.
Or we could declare eBay and the other website referenced as terrorist nations and send in the troops! (Hey, you're the one who made the WMD in Iraq comparison ;) )
I think it's a more effective way of fundraising than having open ended needs.
I happen to agree with you, but possibly for different reasons. Yes, if you show everybody how they can contribute a smattering of cash to achieve the goal, more people will do it. The question is, is it because of the smattering of cash spread amongst many people, or the statement of a goal? Personally, I think that if you state your goal and your need, that's enough to raise donations.
Not that it's not useful to show how the load can be distributed and be most effective, just that I think stating the goal, which involves showing what the money will be used for, is more important.
I would like to point out that your reasoning is also the reasoning behind taxes, and you brits are notorious for taxing people without providing representation. *duck*
Imagine living in a country
Think how good it could be
Imagine how many
Who the fuck let John Lennon in here?