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User: mindstormpt

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Comments · 274

  1. UK Highway Code, rule 126. Here's a direct link to the stopping distance chart.

    Spoiler: similar numbers to the "bullshit" website.

  2. Re:Reality of All Billionaires on The Winklevoss Twins Are Now Bitcoin Billionaires (theverge.com) · · Score: 3, Informative
  3. Re:Is that a normal denomination? on Flush With Cash: Swiss Toilets Mysteriously Stuffed With 500-Euro Bills (npr.org) · · Score: 1

    You are, of course, right. It's been a few years.

  4. Re:Is that a normal denomination? on Flush With Cash: Swiss Toilets Mysteriously Stuffed With 500-Euro Bills (npr.org) · · Score: 4, Informative

    That greatly depends on the country. In Switzerland, 500 EUR banknotes are common, though not as much as 500 CHF banknotes (you can use those to pay for your morning bread). UBS has ATMs for different denominations in many agencies and airports. Here, for instance, the leftmost ATM only gives out 100 EUR banknotes.

  5. Great! on Facebook Makes Safety Check a Permanent Feature (techcrunch.com) · · Score: 1

    The feature made perfect sense when it was first used for large-scale disaster, e.g. tsunamis affecting the majority of people in a given area. Nowadays, I'm flooded with alerts about some guy who ran around with a knife, as if there's any chance that the people I know in the same city were affected.

    Now that they're making it permanent, maybe they'll finally implement a setting to turn the whole thing off.

  6. Re:Facing facts on Medical Errors Are Number 3 Cause of US Deaths, Researchers Say (npr.org) · · Score: 2

    How nice for you. Finnish incomes are also thousands of dollars less per year compared to Americans, and that already takes into account the money you "save" on medical care; sounds like you're getting a bad deal.

    Depends on how you look at it. While the average household income in the US is significantly higher, it is top-biased. The average income for the bottom 20% is higher in Finland at $13253/year vs $11194/year in the US. Suffice it to say that it is not the top 20% who need universal health care.

    Furthermore, you're living in a tiny, sparsely populated monoculture at the ass end of Europe (...) Scaling that up to the whole population wouldn't reduce medical spending, it would massively increase it.

    There's plenty of countries larger than Finland with effective and efficient single-payer health care.

  7. Re:Here we go... on MIT's Ted Postol Presents More Evidence On Iron Dome Failures · · Score: 1

    +1 Funny

    (sorry, lacking mod points!)

  8. Little Snitch on Bug In Fire TV Screensaver Tears Through 250 GB Data Cap · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary is obviously wrong: Little Snitch, as a local traffic monitor, was only used to rule out his Mac being the culprit. He got to the Fire TV by trial and error.

  9. Re:This is so bizarre I'm not sure what to make of on Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe For a Better Oven · · Score: 3, Informative

    And you’re not going to be able to stop a cook from opening the oven door on occasion ... But designers could prevent that blast of cold air by building a blower into the door frame that generates a “curtain” of air whenever the door is opened, retaining more of the preheated air in the oven. ... Designing one for an oven is trickier because the chamber is small and turbulent currents could do more harm than good. Still, it could be done.

    Personally, I haven't found the occasional door-opening to be a big deal. It is discouraged for delicate foods like cakes. But clearly we need a complicated, expensive air curtain that either runs constantly or turns on in an instant. Nobody knows how to do it and it might be more trouble than it's worth, but Myhrvold is *sure* that someone (not him) will make it work.

    Siemens solved the door opening problem in a simpler/smarter way with its liftMatic ovens. These are wall mounted ovens, and instead of having a front door, you push a button that lowers the bottom and trays. They're predictably expensive.

  10. Re:The cheaper and worst perfs. See the Swiss repo on US Spying Costs Boeing Military Jet Deal With Brazil · · Score: 1

    Are you suggesting the Swiss couldn't afford whatever plane they wanted? Of all the reasons they could have had to go with the Gripen, good or bad, do you really think cost was the deciding factor?

  11. Re:As a resident of Switzerland... on Should the US Copy Switzerland and Consider a 'Maximum Wage' Ratio? · · Score: 1

    I'm all for the initiative, don't get me wrong. The funny part is that inequality in Switzerland is a little different from inequality elsewhere: you have people making a lot of money, and people making an absurd amount of money. There's no actual poverty and exploitation. Pretty much every other country in the world would need this law more than CH.

  12. As a resident of Switzerland... on Should the US Copy Switzerland and Consider a 'Maximum Wage' Ratio? · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've been having plenty of discussions on the topic. It's funny, as Switzerland is probably the country that needs something like this the least. The median salary is around 75,000 USD, and although there is no global minimum salary in the law, there are sectorial conventions. The salary for a supermarket cashier starts at around $4,000 USD per month, but a gardener with technical training, for instance, will not earn less that $4,600.

    It's also one of the few where citizens can change their constitution easily and directly, i.e. one of the few where this could ever happen. It won't happen this time (according to the polls), although many voters I talked to just disagree with the number, not the principle.

    The BBC has a nice article on it, showing the minimum and maximum salaries, and of course the ratio, for a few major Swiss companies. If you want to learn more about the direct aspects of Swiss democracy, the federal government publishes some information in English.

  13. Re:It's called the key on Driver Trapped In Speeding Car At 125 Mph · · Score: 1

    Modern lagunas are keyless; they use a keycard that either goes into a slot or works on presence alone, depending on the model. There is a start button but it can, of course, be ignored by software. Since it was modified for disabled drivers, I'm assuming this one has an auto gearbox as well, so your only option is the brakes, which might not be mechanical either.

  14. Re:Hard to feel sorry for her... on As Music Streaming Grows, Royalties Slow To a Trickle · · Score: 1

    And according to her income breakdown (http://zoekeating.tumblr.com/post/42057406771/where-does-the-filthy-lucre-come-from), music sales make up for less than 50% of her income. She seems to be doing very well.

    Of course, this is a discussion about the royalties paid by streaming, which I guess is a separate issue. But, if it does help increase the reach of her music (and I guess it does), it may still be a great deal.

  15. Re:not about murder; about improper financial bene on Transplant Surgeon Called Dibs On Steve Jobs' Home · · Score: 1

    It's not a cost issue. Many European countries won't give you a transplant because there is a shortage of organs. They will pay for whatever treatment you need, and they will (at least mine will) even fly you to Johns Hopkins if said treatments aren't available locally... They just won't waste a precious organ on someone who'll die anyway when it could be assigned to someone who will live to enjoy it.

    From watching House (I know, very reliable information), it seems a similar system is in place in the US: the nature of the condition leading to the transplant, and any related conditions (e.g. being an alcoholic, in case of a liver transplant) do influence your place on the waiting list. That makes sense, regardless of how much money you have.

  16. Re:Non-Native Insight on Raunchy Dance Routine a PR Nightmare For Microsoft · · Score: 1

    And yet I often end up correcting academic/formal writing by college-level native English speakers, even though my own is far from flawless; a quick look through my carelessly written past comments will yield plenty of evidence. Just look at the sheer number of native speakers who are unable to differentiate between their and they're. Let's not even get into the would of. Do these people define English?

    Of course, many others have a far better command of the language than I ever will, but nativism is overrated. I started taking English classes at the age of five, and nowadays it is my working language. Do you really think y'all in the good ol' States speak better English, just 'cause you ain't got no foreign passport?

  17. Re:Seriously? on Apple Sued By Belgian Consumer Association For Not Applying EU Warranty Laws · · Score: 1

    Yes, we do mandate *minimum* manufacturer guarantees. When you buy crap, you're not just screwing yourself, you're also eating up resources and producing extra waste, often dangerous or hard to process.

    No, this does not prevent secondhand sales at all? Why would it?

  18. They honour 2 year guarantees in Portugal, as does every other company. Under EU law, everyone in the supply chain has to. You can choose to go to the store, distributor, importer or manufacturer, and they all must accept the item for repair or replacement. Nowadays, stores often just give you a new one on the spot and then bill or sort it out with the supplier later. This is actually the first time I hear of something like this, and it makes me question Belgian consumer protection.

  19. 20 ms to the test servers on Ask Slashdot: What Is an Acceptable Broadband Latency? · · Score: 1

    I get 4 ms to the closest SpeedTest.net server, which is not on my ISP network, but I'm on a 100mbps FTTH connection. I'd consider up to 20 ms to a local server acceptable, but that's the limit. When I still had cable, I remember gaming on UK servers with 30ms latencies, and that's 1500 Km away.

  20. Re:Yes on Are Rich People Less Moral? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Making a ticket proportional to wealth is just discrimination. I hate it when people just want to penalize the rich for "being" rich. It's stupid and disingenuous to the debate over traffic safety.

    It's not. The GP explained it quite clearly: the value of a fine is meant to dissuade you from performing the action leading up to that fine. If the fine is irrelevant when compared to your income, it doesn't serve its purpose. Flat rate fines *are* discriminatory, since they only affect poor people. Making them proportional to your income fixes that problem. Also, someone "rich" who gets fined isn't being penalised for being rich; he's being penalised for not obeying the law.

    Case in point: some guy was fined around $1M a couple of years ago for speeding in Switzerland. His income is, presumably, many times that number. If he were fined $200, do you really think that would be a deterrent against future infractions?

    Now, you argue that fines are not the way to go. That's a different discussion. Where I live, you get a fine and lose your licence for up to 3 years - there's a penalty that affects all income brackets equally (*). I like your community service idea even better. But your analysis of the fairness of income-proportional fines is flawed, and typical of the "oh poor rich people, persecuted by the evil society" mindset, so unbelievably popular these days (with GOP candidates, I mean).

    (*) Well, at least on the surface. In fact, those of us with drivers will be less affected, as will those that can pay to take a cab anywhere they go.

  21. Re:Could this be it for ACTA? on ACTA Referred To Europe's Top Court For Analysis · · Score: 2

    If it doesn't comply with existing IEEE basic freedom protections, the ECJ will shoot it down. They have never been afraid to go against the comission, the parliament or a member state before.

    Now, why is the comission referring it to the ECJ? They may be stalling in order get people to calm down, as other commenters suggested, although that would be a very risky maneuver. If you ask me, they're folding and trying to save face, by being the ones stopping it instead of having the EP kill it in a very public manner.

  22. You also see those in SF on Oxford City Council Mandates CCTV Cameras In Taxies by 2015 · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they do actually improve driver safety. I just don't see how/why audio would help much. Where I live, there's CCTV everywhere, but they're not allowed to record audio. Take that out and it becomes much less intrusive, while still serving its purpose.

  23. Re:Fact Checking Anyone? on Hands On With Apple IPad 2 · · Score: 1

    "Yesterday's announcement of the ninth-generation iPed showed exactly why there was so much excitment around the device. As the video hands on shows, iPed 8 makes up for all the things lacking in the original iPed. The 1THz eigth-core A9 chip does justice to apps like Video Booth and over all user experience. Moreover, while the screen carries even more resolution, Orange was able to pack it in a noticably thinner iPed 5. Infact its dimensions, 1.34 mm to 0.88mm thick, make it 93% thinner than a sheet of paper. Also while the cameras are 4K, the inclusion itself provides an opportuntiy for Fecetime, which is actually more interactive than what we've seen so far on other Tomato devices."

    Looks like it could be wronger.

  24. ... and fanboys. on Apple Passes $300B Market Cap, 2nd In the World · · Score: 4, Funny

    Especially fanboys.

  25. Re:Whats next? on 'No Refusal' DUI Checkpoints Coming To Florida? · · Score: 1

    Alcohol - even in low quantities - increases your reaction time, leading to longer braking distances and impaired obstacle avoidance capability. You become an increased danger to others (and exceed the legal threshold) long before you start driving erratically.