If you want to work/live in Canada, then you would need your Canadian citizenship. Since your father is still a Canadian citizen and you were born in Canada, you are probably already a Canadian citizen, but you just haven't bothered to get a Canadian passport.
Note, just because your father became a US citizen doesn't mean that he's not still a Canadian citizen. Some people may tell you that the US doesn't allow dual citizenship (this isn't true). Some others may also tell you that you are required to give up your Canadian citizenship to become a US citizen. This is also not true, because Canada simply did not recognize his renunciation when he became a US citizen. It takes more to renounce your Canadian citizenship than just telling some US official that you've renounced it.
I've had 6 TNs since 1999; 5 with the same company. My wife is on her 5th TN with the same company. Here are some random thoughts.
Renewals
First of all, how well does your job and qualifications mesh with the official NAFTA guidelines. For me, I have a CS degree and my job is as a systems analyst, so it's a 100% match. Having a 100% match makes things much easier. My wife has an economics degree, but her job is not strictly as an economist, so the match isn't as good.
For me, when I need to renew, I just drive to the border (I live in Seattle), tool around in Canada for 20 minutes, then drive back and ask to renew. They process it there and I'm done.
My wife gets her petition and paperwork done by an immigration lawyer and has it sent to the Nebraska INS processing center. It can take up to 3 months for this to happen, but as long as they're processing the renewal, she has an automatic extension to her visa. The application must be physically received by Nebraska before the current TN expires, but you don't need to send the extension application in 3 months in advance. From the time they get the application to the time they finish processing it, you can't leave the country, because you would have been deemed to have abandoned your application. So don't do that.
Like I say, if your job is a good match with the NAFTA descriptions, it's usually easier to renew by re-entering the country.
Travel
One you have your I-94 (the paper they stapled into your passport), you can leave and re-enter the country whenever you want. You shouldn't need anything else. One thing to keep in mind is that if you leave on an international flight, clueless airline personnel may try to remove your I-94 (even though it's plainly stamped "Multiple Entry"). You can try to argue with them on this, but it may come down to not boarding the flight unless you give up the I-94. It's a good idea to make a copy of the I-94 and put it in your luggage so that if this happens, you can show customs the copy when you re-enter. They'll just give you a new I-94.
Taxation
If you're planning to live in the US for 2 years or longer, you do not have to file a Canadian tax return. The exception to this is the first year you move, since you presumably were resident and earning income in Canada for part of that year.
You also need to apply to Revenue Canada to be treated as a non-resident. To do this, you have to show them that it is your intention not to return for at least 2 years (short visits are still allowed). This means cutting ties with Canada -- you can't keep your house, you can't put your stuff into storage, etc.; you have to demonstrate that you have very few ties left with Canada. There is a form on Revenue Canada's web site that you have to fill out. For me, the only ties I had were a bank account, an RRSP loan, RRSPs and a Canadian credit card, and Revenue Canada accepted the application. I don't recall if I filled out that form the day after I moved, or if I submitted it with my tax return, so you should find that out now.
In the first year that you move, you will have to fill out two tax returns. This is complicated, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to find an accountant who understands the nuances of dual-return situations.
If I recall correctly, for your Canadian return, you declare the income you earned up until the day you left, and they calculate your tax liability using a pro-rated tax rate.
For your US return, it depends on when you arrived. If you arrived with less than 3 months left in the year, then your situation is different than if you arrived earlier. You need to do your research on the IRS site with respect to dual returns.
Family
Immediately family (spouse, children) are allowed to live in the US but not work. They will need TD visas, which they can get by showing INS your TN, their marriage certificate and for the kids, the birth certificate.
Yes, you need a lawyer to watch over the immigration paperwork.
Note that a H1-B is very different than a TN visa. While you probably need a lawyer for the H1-B, if your situation is straightforward, you will not need one for the TN.
The advice to us was to always carry a copy of all paperwork related to the visa when crossing the border, as well as the phone number of the Immigration lawyer. If you have a spouse, make sure that they have the appropriate paperwork or visa as well.
Again, for a Canadian citizen with a TN, it's quite different. I go back and forth between Canada and the US, and all I need is my passport with the TN stamp and the I-94 which is stapled in my passport. I've also entered the US via LAX from Mexico the same way and my TN was due to expire in 2 weeks. I've also had my I-94 removed(!) by clueless airline personnel, and was able to re-enter at LAX. I just explained to the customs officer what happened and showed him a photocopy of the I-94 that I had the foresight to pack in separate baggage, and he just issued me a new one.
Never ever argue with a border guard, no matter how rude or stupid they appear.
Yes, and never speak or volunteer information unless directly asked.
In all likelihood you are still classed as a permanent resident of Canada, and will still have to report to Revenue Canada. (It takes very little to maintain that status - even one bank account will do it).
No, as long as you haven't lived or worked in Canada for 2 years, you are not considered a resident and are not subject to Canadian taxation. In addition, you can ask Revenue Canada to start treating you as if you are a non-resident from the day you leave. For this you have to show that it is your intention to not be a resident for two yearss, and to do that you have to show that you have cut ties with Canada. However, I think it takes more than just a bank account to establish a tie, because RC accepted my application and I still had a bank account, RRSP and Canadian credit card. Much more important to RC is if you are maintaining a residence, or if you put a bunch of your stuff into storage before you leave.
2) Ship your Canadian tax records and a copy of your US return to your Canadian accountant.
I haven't filed a Canadian tax return since 1999 (the year I moved to the US). Canada does not require citizens to file tax returns unless they are residing in Canada.
3) Have your Canadian taxes prepared, and pay an amount equal to your total Canadian tax bill, less whatever amounts in taxes you paid to the IRS.
Only if you're filing as dual-residence, which should only happen in the first year (when you actually made income in both Canada and the US).
Depending on the deductible or co-pay on your US medical insurance you may also want to take semi-annual trips to Canada for checkups and regular treatments.
If you're not a resident of Canada, you no longer have Canadian health care coverage.
TN policy is not concrete. It varies from officer to officer, based on the phase of the moon, side-of-bed wavelength, and officer perception of the cut of your jib. The background documentation requirements in particular seem to vary immensely from applicant to applicant, and require an average of about 1.8 visits to INS per applicant.
What you say is partly true; it does depend on which NAFTA officer you get. However, I've had 7 TNs since 1999, and on only one of them have I had to visit INS more than once, and that was the 2004 one.
All you need is your degree and your petition letter. On the time I was turned back, it was because they didn't feel that my petition letter was detailed enough. In general, if you fit the criteria well, you should get your processing done in less than an hour on the first visit.
I also think that the situation has been steadily improving over the last few years (my 2004 rejection notwithstanding). The NAFTA officers are getting a better understanding of the rules and are thus able to apply them more consistently.
So you don't really need an immigration lawyer (until it comes time to renew...
I've been on a TN visa for 5 years. I live in Seattle. When it's time to renew, I just drive up to the border and renew; it takes less than 30 minutes not counting driving time. No immigration lawyer needed.
You can also renew by sending your petition paperwork to the INS processing center in Nebraska. This takes a long time, but if they physically get the paperwork before your current TN expires, you get an automatic extension until your application is processed. My wife usually takes this approach.
... or until you decide to bring family along to live in the US.
I know lots of TNs who have brought their family with them. Immediate family members automatically get TD visas that allow them to live (but not work) in the US. They just need to show INS their spouse's TN, their marriage certificate, and the kids' birth certificates.
You're in for a rude surprise when it comes to how they're treated when you have a TN-1.
I'm not sure what this means; I've never heard of poor treatment of a TN's family members by INS.
Given that Randy Weaver's wife was shot at Ruby Ridge in August 1992, I'm wondering how this is Bill Clinton's and Janet Reno's fault. Or was Bill somehow responsible for this even while he was still governor of Arkansas?
"even if your protocol is binary; the conversion is trivial"
Actually its not unless the person has the specs. Ever tried it? Oh I forgot , every on slashdot as a 190 IQ.
Considering that the title of the article is "IETF Approves XMPP Core as Proposed Standard", it's a fairly safe bet that everybody will have access to the specs.
Isn't the art of good coding to make things as efficient as possible?
No, with today's CPUs, the art of good coding is primarily to make things as maintainable as possible, with the exception of very specific problem sets, of which chat is not one.
With a binary format the data can usually in whole or part be mapped direct onto a C structure. In other words the parsing is down for you in a few lines and uses up bugger all CPU.
Um, no. Binary data across a wire can never map directly on to a struct due to endianness differences on the CPU, and even due to differences in how the compiler chooses to pack the struct. Unless both sides are using the same processor and using identical C compilers (down to the version number), all bets are off.
Plus, clients written in one of the thousands of languages that are not-C still wouldn't benefit.
I said CASUAL snooping. If someone can just run tcpdump on a LAN they can read all the correspondance going on. If they have to figure out the protocol they'll probably not bother unless they have malicious intent.
Even if the protocol was binary, the main payload will still be ASCII, which casual snoopers can still read. You could compress or encrypt the protocol, but then you can compress or encrypt the XML protocol as well.
Yes it was, but being a high level network protocol was NOT one of them.
Funny, none of the most commonly used high level network protocols (HTTP, SMTP) use binary protocols.
I looked at the explorer, but from the pictures, it looks like it's designed for right-hand use. I use the trackball in my left hand.
I don't know about the ergonomic thing. What I like best is big trackballs - the bigger the better. The kensington's is big enough that i can manipulate it with my entire hand without discomfort, which is the only ergonomic standard I use.
Of course, my favorite non-optical trackball was the itac mouse-trak. 6 buttons, huge ball, and all buttons programmable to emit single or double clicks, and to emit click-and-hold (i.e., click once and it sends a button-down, click again and it sends a button-up). No holding the button down while you drag stuff around. The only problem is that it's not optical and it gets gummed up quite rapidly, and is difficult to clean.
If they came out with an optical trackball, they'd have my money in a second.
It took about a week to relearn where ctl, alt, space and enter were on the kinesis. After that it was second nature, and it's second nature to switch back and forth as well. I did remap the ~ to a different place. It's quite easy to remap the kinesis (it's done on the keyboard, not with the OS).
As for the safetype, all the keys are in the right place, it's just that you can't see them:-)
Of course, if you want to use home/end and arrows, etc. on the safetype, it's a pain. I do all my navigating with letter keys (emacs), so this doesn't bother me much.
Both split keyboards that I use have the 6 in the right place. These are the Kinesis Professional and the Safetype. The downside is that they're very expensive. For pure typing comfort, the Safetype has been a godsend for me. I can go a full day without any wrist discomfort.
I like the marble mouse - I own two of them. But, the Kensington expert mouse is way better. It has an optical trackball. Plus it has full-sized buttons 3 and 4 rather than those dinky little buttons on the marble mouse.
Finally (and this is why I'll never go back to the logitech) is the scroll wheel. It's a little wheel that works like the scroll wheel in a mouse. You just use your thumb to scroll any window.
The downsides are footprint and the price; it's much larger and much more expensive than the logitech. I still wouldn't go back, though.
First of all, many provinces in Canada have also mandated low-flow toilets, so going north might not be too useful.
Second, you can get low-flow toilets that flush correctly on the first flush. The CBC show Marketplace had an interesting segment on that. The agency in Toronto responsible for migrating the city to low flow toilets had an actual testing unit that they used to evaluate the toilets, using fake turds made from soy paste.
All of the toilets they tested were certified by the Canadian Standards Association, but many of them did not work. However, there were some brands that worked just fine.
If you want to buy a toilet, do your research first, and you will be able to find low-flow models that flush it all on the first try.
We're still burning fossil fuels because they're cheaper. Without regulations that force companies to pay for the pollution they generate, fossil fuels will always be cheaper than other forms of energy.
Nuclear energy is barely cost competitive now, and the only reason they are even close to competive is because of the heavy government subsidies that the industry gets. Without subsidies, nuclear energy wouldn't be cost effective at all, and the industry in every country is heavily subsidized. One of the biggest subsidies is governments acting as an insurer of last resort since regular insurance companies are not willing to offer policies against nuclear accidents.
I would rather see companies be penalized (via taxation) for the pollution they generate, which they can pass on to me in the form of higher prices, or they can switch to cleaner energy sources and offer me cheaper prices. At the same time, governments can stop subsidizing other forms of energy, which can be passed on to me in the form of lower taxes. As the markets rationalize, I suspect that I will see a net gain, while government tax income will be revenue neutral.
Sadly, this won't happen in America, since Republicans are mostly beholden to big oil, and Democrats are mostly beholden to the greens, neither of whom have my interests at heart.
If I recall correctly, back in the days of openlook, the props key was used to bring up the properties menu for a window. That's as much as I can remember.
Well, I am Canadian, although I currently live in the US (it wasn't for the health care; I would much rather have my old Canadian health care plan back). I can say unqualifiedly that when I lived in Canada, I never, ever considered going to the US for health care. Nor do I know a single person in the 35 years I lived there that considered it either, much less did it.
However, if you believe that the study had "an agenda", then it should not be difficult for you to find the flaws, right. If not, then you're just making shit up.
Of course it does. But when you're making minimum wage, you don't have a lot of mobility. How easy do you think it would be to pick up roots and move you and your two kids to someplace completely new when
a) you don't have a car b) you don't have the money to buy gas anyway c) you don't have the money to live in a motel for two weeks while looking for a new job d) you don't have the money to put down a damage deposit on an apartment even if you did find a job
Minimum wage earners are caught in an extremely viscious cycle where every they cent they make goes to sustaining themselves with essentials, so they can never afford to better their lives by actually putting some savings aside.
Even at the bottom, the adage that it takes money to make money applies.
The quote was "There are many , many people who vastly prefer Bush ( almost 50 % last time around).". He says nothing about voters, all he says is that "many people... almost 50%" vastly prefer Bush.
When someone says the word "people", without qualifying it, the most reasonable interpretation is that the person is referring to "the population".
...of these who showed up around 50% voted for him.
Yes, and around 50% voted for Gore. In fact, more people voted for Gore. What point are you trying to make?
There are many , many people who vastly prefer Bush ( almost 50 % last time around).
Well....
There were approximately 200 million voting-aged people in the 2000 election, and only half of them showed up to vote[*]. Bush got around 47% of the popular vote, so that means that 24.1% of Americans eligible to vote supported Bush. With 48% of the popular vote, Gore didn't do much better, with only 24.6% of Americans supporting him.
As to whether this 24.1% of voters "vastly preferred" Bush, that's impossible to know. All we do know is that 75.8% of voters either voted against him, or didn't like him enough to even come out and vote. To claim that nearly 50% of voters vastly prefer Bush is rank partisan spin.
As Jim Hightower said, "if God had meant us to vote, He would have given us candidates".
[*] According to this site, the exact numbers were 105,586,274 voters out of 205,815,000 eligible voters.
Tim Russert gleefully hit Dean with "gotcha journalism" questions and continued to pummel him for "evasiveness", and the press corps dutifully questioned Dean's ability to be a leader.
Flashback to 1999, when George w. Bush couldn't tell you the name of Pakistan's leader (a military dictator of a country with NUCLEAR weapons) and the same press corps, including Tim Russert, clamoured about how these "gotcha" questions were bad bad bad, and in no way reflected on the canditate's ability to lead.
The hypocrisy of our "press corps" knows no bounds.
The point is not that you can actually expect to win with a bluff, the point is that if you develop a reputation for "never bluffing", then you never get called when you have the goods. The occasional bluff will not win the pot, but if you get caught in a bluff, you will be more likely to get called when you actually have a hand.
This advertising strategy is one of the few that work in low-limit poker as well, because people tend to remember bluffers, and they have this irrational need to "keep them honest".
Bullshit. If the Nazi party was socialist, then the German Democratic Republic was a democratic republic. There's just something about that right-wing talking point that pisses me off.
This was in Keno, which is not at all like a slot machine. Keno is more like a lottery that runs every 10 minutes instead of twice a week, and actually has worse odds than a lottery.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to work/live in Canada, then you would need your Canadian citizenship. Since your father is still a Canadian citizen and you were born in Canada, you are probably already a Canadian citizen, but you just haven't bothered to get a Canadian passport.
Note, just because your father became a US citizen doesn't mean that he's not still a Canadian citizen. Some people may tell you that the US doesn't allow dual citizenship (this isn't true). Some others may also tell you that you are required to give up your Canadian citizenship to become a US citizen. This is also not true, because Canada simply did not recognize his renunciation when he became a US citizen. It takes more to renounce your Canadian citizenship than just telling some US official that you've renounced it.
I've had 6 TNs since 1999; 5 with the same company. My wife is on her 5th TN with the same company. Here are some random thoughts.
Renewals
First of all, how well does your job and qualifications mesh with the official NAFTA guidelines. For me, I have a CS degree and my job is as a systems analyst, so it's a 100% match. Having a 100% match makes things much easier. My wife has an economics degree, but her job is not strictly as an economist, so the match isn't as good.
For me, when I need to renew, I just drive to the border (I live in Seattle), tool around in Canada for 20 minutes, then drive back and ask to renew. They process it there and I'm done.
My wife gets her petition and paperwork done by an immigration lawyer and has it sent to the Nebraska INS processing center. It can take up to 3 months for this to happen, but as long as they're processing the renewal, she has an automatic extension to her visa. The application must be physically received by Nebraska before the current TN expires, but you don't need to send the extension application in 3 months in advance. From the time they get the application to the time they finish processing it, you can't leave the country, because you would have been deemed to have abandoned your application. So don't do that.
Like I say, if your job is a good match with the NAFTA descriptions, it's usually easier to renew by re-entering the country.
Travel
One you have your I-94 (the paper they stapled into your passport), you can leave and re-enter the country whenever you want. You shouldn't need anything else. One thing to keep in mind is that if you leave on an international flight, clueless airline personnel may try to remove your I-94 (even though it's plainly stamped "Multiple Entry"). You can try to argue with them on this, but it may come down to not boarding the flight unless you give up the I-94. It's a good idea to make a copy of the I-94 and put it in your luggage so that if this happens, you can show customs the copy when you re-enter. They'll just give you a new I-94.
Taxation
If you're planning to live in the US for 2 years or longer, you do not have to file a Canadian tax return. The exception to this is the first year you move, since you presumably were resident and earning income in Canada for part of that year.
You also need to apply to Revenue Canada to be treated as a non-resident. To do this, you have to show them that it is your intention not to return for at least 2 years (short visits are still allowed). This means cutting ties with Canada -- you can't keep your house, you can't put your stuff into storage, etc.; you have to demonstrate that you have very few ties left with Canada. There is a form on Revenue Canada's web site that you have to fill out. For me, the only ties I had were a bank account, an RRSP loan, RRSPs and a Canadian credit card, and Revenue Canada accepted the application. I don't recall if I filled out that form the day after I moved, or if I submitted it with my tax return, so you should find that out now.
In the first year that you move, you will have to fill out two tax returns. This is complicated, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to find an accountant who understands the nuances of dual-return situations.
If I recall correctly, for your Canadian return, you declare the income you earned up until the day you left, and they calculate your tax liability using a pro-rated tax rate.
For your US return, it depends on when you arrived. If you arrived with less than 3 months left in the year, then your situation is different than if you arrived earlier. You need to do your research on the IRS site with respect to dual returns.
Family
Immediately family (spouse, children) are allowed to live in the US but not work. They will need TD visas, which they can get by showing INS your TN, their marriage certificate and for the kids, the birth certificate.
Miscellaneous
Yes, you need a lawyer to watch over the immigration paperwork.
Note that a H1-B is very different than a TN visa. While you probably need a lawyer for the H1-B, if your situation is straightforward, you will not need one for the TN.
The advice to us was to always carry a copy of all paperwork related to the visa when crossing the border, as well as the phone number of the Immigration lawyer. If you have a spouse, make sure that they have the appropriate paperwork or visa as well.
Again, for a Canadian citizen with a TN, it's quite different. I go back and forth between Canada and the US, and all I need is my passport with the TN stamp and the I-94 which is stapled in my passport. I've also entered the US via LAX from Mexico the same way and my TN was due to expire in 2 weeks. I've also had my I-94 removed(!) by clueless airline personnel, and was able to re-enter at LAX. I just explained to the customs officer what happened and showed him a photocopy of the I-94 that I had the foresight to pack in separate baggage, and he just issued me a new one.
Never ever argue with a border guard, no matter how rude or stupid they appear.
Yes, and never speak or volunteer information unless directly asked.
In all likelihood you are still classed as a permanent resident of Canada, and will still have to report to Revenue Canada. (It takes very little to maintain that status - even one bank account will do it).
No, as long as you haven't lived or worked in Canada for 2 years, you are not considered a resident and are not subject to Canadian taxation. In addition, you can ask Revenue Canada to start treating you as if you are a non-resident from the day you leave. For this you have to show that it is your intention to not be a resident for two yearss, and to do that you have to show that you have cut ties with Canada. However, I think it takes more than just a bank account to establish a tie, because RC accepted my application and I still had a bank account, RRSP and Canadian credit card. Much more important to RC is if you are maintaining a residence, or if you put a bunch of your stuff into storage before you leave.
2) Ship your Canadian tax records and a copy of your US return to your Canadian accountant.
I haven't filed a Canadian tax return since 1999 (the year I moved to the US). Canada does not require citizens to file tax returns unless they are residing in Canada.
3) Have your Canadian taxes prepared, and pay an amount equal to your total Canadian tax bill, less whatever amounts in taxes you paid to the IRS.
Only if you're filing as dual-residence, which should only happen in the first year (when you actually made income in both Canada and the US).
Depending on the deductible or co-pay on your US medical insurance you may also want to take semi-annual trips to Canada for checkups and regular treatments.
If you're not a resident of Canada, you no longer have Canadian health care coverage.
TN policy is not concrete. It varies from officer to officer, based on the phase of the moon, side-of-bed wavelength, and officer perception of the cut of your jib. The background documentation requirements in particular seem to vary immensely from applicant to applicant, and require an average of about 1.8 visits to INS per applicant.
What you say is partly true; it does depend on which NAFTA officer you get. However, I've had 7 TNs since 1999, and on only one of them have I had to visit INS more than once, and that was the 2004 one.
All you need is your degree and your petition letter. On the time I was turned back, it was because they didn't feel that my petition letter was detailed enough. In general, if you fit the criteria well, you should get your processing done in less than an hour on the first visit.
I also think that the situation has been steadily improving over the last few years (my 2004 rejection notwithstanding). The NAFTA officers are getting a better understanding of the rules and are thus able to apply them more consistently.
I've been on a TN visa for 5 years. I live in Seattle. When it's time to renew, I just drive up to the border and renew; it takes less than 30 minutes not counting driving time. No immigration lawyer needed.
You can also renew by sending your petition paperwork to the INS processing center in Nebraska. This takes a long time, but if they physically get the paperwork before your current TN expires, you get an automatic extension until your application is processed. My wife usually takes this approach.
I know lots of TNs who have brought their family with them. Immediate family members automatically get TD visas that allow them to live (but not work) in the US. They just need to show INS their spouse's TN, their marriage certificate, and the kids' birth certificates.
You're in for a rude surprise when it comes to how they're treated when you have a TN-1.
I'm not sure what this means; I've never heard of poor treatment of a TN's family members by INS.
Given that Randy Weaver's wife was shot at Ruby Ridge in August 1992, I'm wondering how this is Bill Clinton's and Janet Reno's fault. Or was Bill somehow responsible for this even while he was still governor of Arkansas?
"even if your protocol is binary; the conversion is trivial"
Actually its not unless the person has the specs. Ever tried it? Oh I forgot , every on slashdot as a 190 IQ.
Considering that the title of the article is "IETF Approves XMPP Core as Proposed Standard", it's a fairly safe bet that everybody will have access to the specs.
Isn't the art of good coding to make things as efficient as possible?
No, with today's CPUs, the art of good coding is primarily to make things as maintainable as possible, with the exception of very specific problem sets, of which chat is not one.
With a binary format the data can usually in whole or part be mapped direct onto a C structure. In other words the parsing is down for you in a few lines and uses up bugger all CPU.
Um, no. Binary data across a wire can never map directly on to a struct due to endianness differences on the CPU, and even due to differences in how the compiler chooses to pack the struct. Unless both sides are using the same processor and using identical C compilers (down to the version number), all bets are off.
Plus, clients written in one of the thousands of languages that are not-C still wouldn't benefit.
I said CASUAL snooping. If someone can just run tcpdump on a LAN they can read all the correspondance going on. If they have to figure out the protocol they'll probably not bother unless they have malicious intent.
Even if the protocol was binary, the main payload will still be ASCII, which casual snoopers can still read. You could compress or encrypt the protocol, but then you can compress or encrypt the XML protocol as well.
Yes it was, but being a high level network protocol was NOT one of them.
Funny, none of the most commonly used high level network protocols (HTTP, SMTP) use binary protocols.
I looked at the explorer, but from the pictures, it looks like it's designed for right-hand use. I use the trackball in my left hand.
I don't know about the ergonomic thing. What I like best is big trackballs - the bigger the better. The kensington's is big enough that i can manipulate it with my entire hand without discomfort, which is the only ergonomic standard I use.
Of course, my favorite non-optical trackball was the itac mouse-trak. 6 buttons, huge ball, and all buttons programmable to emit single or double clicks, and to emit click-and-hold (i.e., click once and it sends a button-down, click again and it sends a button-up). No holding the button down while you drag stuff around. The only problem is that it's not optical and it gets gummed up quite rapidly, and is difficult to clean.
If they came out with an optical trackball, they'd have my money in a second.
It took about a week to relearn where ctl, alt, space and enter were on the kinesis. After that it was second nature, and it's second nature to switch back and forth as well. I did remap the ~ to a different place. It's quite easy to remap the kinesis (it's done on the keyboard, not with the OS).
:-)
As for the safetype, all the keys are in the right place, it's just that you can't see them
Of course, if you want to use home/end and arrows, etc. on the safetype, it's a pain. I do all my navigating with letter keys (emacs), so this doesn't bother me much.
Both split keyboards that I use have the 6 in the right place. These are the Kinesis Professional and the Safetype. The downside is that they're very expensive. For pure typing comfort, the Safetype has been a godsend for me. I can go a full day without any wrist discomfort.
I like the marble mouse - I own two of them. But, the Kensington expert mouse is way better. It has an optical trackball. Plus it has full-sized buttons 3 and 4 rather than those dinky little buttons on the marble mouse.
Finally (and this is why I'll never go back to the logitech) is the scroll wheel. It's a little wheel that works like the scroll wheel in a mouse. You just use your thumb to scroll any window.
The downsides are footprint and the price; it's much larger and much more expensive than the logitech. I still wouldn't go back, though.
First off, it's trivially easy on most machines to reconfigure the keyboard to dvorak and back.
Second, if there's no way to reconfigure, I can get back into qwerty touch typing within 15 minutes.
I'd still rather use dvorak than qwerty tho. It's much faster for me.
First of all, many provinces in Canada have also mandated low-flow toilets, so going north might not be too useful.
Second, you can get low-flow toilets that flush correctly on the first flush. The CBC show Marketplace had an interesting segment on that. The agency in Toronto responsible for migrating the city to low flow toilets had an actual testing unit that they used to evaluate the toilets, using fake turds made from soy paste.
All of the toilets they tested were certified by the Canadian Standards Association, but many of them did not work. However, there were some brands that worked just fine.
If you want to buy a toilet, do your research first, and you will be able to find low-flow models that flush it all on the first try.
We're still burning fossil fuels because they're cheaper. Without regulations that force companies to pay for the pollution they generate, fossil fuels will always be cheaper than other forms of energy.
Nuclear energy is barely cost competitive now, and the only reason they are even close to competive is because of the heavy government subsidies that the industry gets. Without subsidies, nuclear energy wouldn't be cost effective at all, and the industry in every country is heavily subsidized. One of the biggest subsidies is governments acting as an insurer of last resort since regular insurance companies are not willing to offer policies against nuclear accidents.
I would rather see companies be penalized (via taxation) for the pollution they generate, which they can pass on to me in the form of higher prices, or they can switch to cleaner energy sources and offer me cheaper prices. At the same time, governments can stop subsidizing other forms of energy, which can be passed on to me in the form of lower taxes. As the markets rationalize, I suspect that I will see a net gain, while government tax income will be revenue neutral.
Sadly, this won't happen in America, since Republicans are mostly beholden to big oil, and Democrats are mostly beholden to the greens, neither of whom have my interests at heart.
If I recall correctly, back in the days of openlook, the props key was used to bring up the properties menu for a window. That's as much as I can remember.
Well, I am Canadian, although I currently live in the US (it wasn't for the health care; I would much rather have my old Canadian health care plan back). I can say unqualifiedly that when I lived in Canada, I never, ever considered going to the US for health care. Nor do I know a single person in the 35 years I lived there that considered it either, much less did it.
However, if you believe that the study had "an agenda", then it should not be difficult for you to find the flaws, right. If not, then you're just making shit up.
Doesn't it depend on where you're living?
Of course it does. But when you're making minimum wage, you don't have a lot of mobility. How easy do you think it would be to pick up roots and move you and your two kids to someplace completely new when
a) you don't have a car
b) you don't have the money to buy gas anyway
c) you don't have the money to live in a motel for two weeks while looking for a new job
d) you don't have the money to put down a damage deposit on an apartment even if you did find a job
Minimum wage earners are caught in an extremely viscious cycle where every they cent they make goes to sustaining themselves with essentials, so they can never afford to better their lives by actually putting some savings aside.
Even at the bottom, the adage that it takes money to make money applies.
most I know come to America for it since theirs is so bad.
. htm
Bzzt. Wrong.
http://www.healthaffairs.org/freecontent/v21n3/s6
The quote was "There are many , many people who vastly prefer Bush ( almost 50 % last time around).". He says nothing about voters, all he says is that "many people... almost 50%" vastly prefer Bush.
When someone says the word "people", without qualifying it, the most reasonable interpretation is that the person is referring to "the population".
Yes, and around 50% voted for Gore. In fact, more people voted for Gore. What point are you trying to make?
There are many , many people who vastly prefer Bush ( almost 50 % last time around).
Well....
There were approximately 200 million voting-aged people in the 2000 election, and only half of them showed up to vote[*]. Bush got around 47% of the popular vote, so that means that 24.1% of Americans eligible to vote supported Bush. With 48% of the popular vote, Gore didn't do much better, with only 24.6% of Americans supporting him.
As to whether this 24.1% of voters "vastly preferred" Bush, that's impossible to know. All we do know is that 75.8% of voters either voted against him, or didn't like him enough to even come out and vote. To claim that nearly 50% of voters vastly prefer Bush is rank partisan spin.
As Jim Hightower said, "if God had meant us to vote, He would have given us candidates".
[*] According to this site, the exact numbers were 105,586,274 voters out of 205,815,000 eligible voters.
Tim Russert gleefully hit Dean with "gotcha journalism" questions and continued to pummel him for "evasiveness", and the press corps dutifully questioned Dean's ability to be a leader.
Flashback to 1999, when George w. Bush couldn't tell you the name of Pakistan's leader (a military dictator of a country with NUCLEAR weapons) and the same press corps, including Tim Russert, clamoured about how these "gotcha" questions were bad bad bad, and in no way reflected on the canditate's ability to lead.
The hypocrisy of our "press corps" knows no bounds.
The point is not that you can actually expect to win with a bluff, the point is that if you develop a reputation for "never bluffing", then you never get called when you have the goods. The occasional bluff will not win the pot, but if you get caught in a bluff, you will be more likely to get called when you actually have a hand.
This advertising strategy is one of the few that work in low-limit poker as well, because people tend to remember bluffers, and they have this irrational need to "keep them honest".
Bullshit. If the Nazi party was socialist, then the German Democratic Republic was a democratic republic. There's just something about that right-wing talking point that pisses me off.
This was in Keno, which is not at all like a slot machine. Keno is more like a lottery that runs every 10 minutes instead of twice a week, and actually has worse odds than a lottery.