I want shock collars and an IR setup. You get in your car and before it will start you must place the shock collar around your neck. At any point while driving, you can aim your IR pistol at another car which is covered with IR receivers. When those receivers are hit with the IR from your gun, they administer a shock to the vehicle's driver. If more than one other driver fires their IR gun at your car simultaneously, the amperage is increased.
I've actually thought about a similar system where "points" are assessed against drivers who are "shot" too many times. In this system, you filter out multiple hits from the same gun (so I can't just shoot you 10,000 times) and drivers with more than some minimum number of points are required to retake driver's ed and the licensing tests. Maybe you could add some sort of system for removing points too, so if someone lets you into a line of traffic, you could "reward" them.
But the shock collars are so much more satisfying.
See Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedometer_Error#Error) for info about speedometer error. Alignment has almost nothing to do with speedometer accuracy.
GPS inaccuracies occur for any number of reasons (see http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/errors.htm for details) and GPS speed measurements are widely known for being inaccurate over both short distances and short periods of time. My GPS is often ridiculously wrong--once it had me going 200 MPH, significantly faster then the top speed of my bike:-)
I've had three mistaken CC charges in the last six years and it's never been a hassle to get them reversed. In each case a single phone call and the return of a snail-mail letter (in a postage-paid envelope) sufficed. This of course depends on having an account with a reputable credit card company, not Joe's All-you-can-charge-bank. The consumer protection laws seem to work pretty well to protect credit card customers, though that's just my personal experience.
On the other hand, I would never, NEVER give my bank account info to anyone. Let alone the incompetent fools at PayPal--assuming here that I shouldn't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
It's better (IMO) to use a credit card with your PalPal account than to rely on the fact that you haven't had an overdraft yet. Credit card companies are forced to comply with a fairly consumer-friendly set of regulations (limitations of liability, not charging interest or attempting to collect disputed amounts) that your bank is not. Giving up banking details--to PayPal, epecially--seems fraught with risk.
I've had problems with credit card charges in the past (three times in the last six or so years) and because of the consumer protection laws that CC companies are forced to comply with, it was essentially painless to fix--leaving aside the time for a single phone call and filling out the snail mail form they sent. They aren't allowed to require you to pay fees or disputed amounts. If they're trying to stick you with this, you need to let your state AG know.
I reconcile my credit card statement with my budget at the end of every month (yes, every charge or cash payment goes into a spreadsheet, which I compare to the CC statement at month's end) and I've never had any "little charges" tacked on, either.
Of course, I understand that my experience might not be universal, but if you're really having those kinds of problems with your CC company I think the problem is that you need to switch to a credit provider that has better customer service. From personal experience I can recommend American Express (they've been great) or a credit union.
And this is why you NEVER, NEVER give your bank account information to anyone, let alone PayPal (PayPal motto: screwing buyers AND sellers since 2002)
If you must use PayPal--and I concede that it's barely imaginable that there's something you just have to buy that you can only get online and that is only sold by a site that only takes PayPal--you link your account to a credit card. Then if PayPal screws you, you contest the charge and they can take it up with American Express or whoever.
Under no circumstances does any online business get my checking/savings account info. If they don't take credit cards, I'll find somewhere else to shop. The inability to block charges from creating an overdraft and the lack of consumer protection that banks give account holders make this something that no one should ever do. Combine those faults with the dangers inherent in a recurring charge system and it's a no-brainer: don't give PayPal (or anyone else, especially anyone with as bad a customer service reputation as they have) your bank account info.
Just had child number two a month ago and had completely forgotten how tiring they are when very small. Also, I've discovered that the complications of being a parent increase geometrically with the number of children you have. Having two is significantly more than twice as complicated as just having the one.:-)
But if they've already had their allotted child, then they wouldn't be good candidates for this--you want couples who are willing to have kids, but wanting to wait. I doubt you'd get many takers if you told them essentially "We're testing this and if it fails, the State will force you to have an abortion"
I used to read the newspaper pretty regularly--for a while as a subscriber even, not just in the break room. I stopped reading when I was interviewed by a reporter and read the story she wrote--it was full of "quotes" that I hadn't said. Not only were these quotes marked with quotations marks (which are supposed to be an indication that the text is a direct quote, not a summary) but several things I was quoted as saying were direct reversals of what I'd said. And this reported used a tape recorded AND took notes.
I've pretty much sworn off believing reporters since. When a story is interesting to me, I might read it--but then I always try and look at direct sources.
You're still equating something that's an inconvenience (ID theft) with physical harm.
And I've worked as an electrician, so I think I have a pretty good idea what's involved in getting wires into the vault--hint: pretty much any competent company does this work themselves and only relies on utility workers for putting the split-bolts and scotchfil on.
Of course, yours is the traditional take of elitists: computers are too complicated and dangerous to be left in the hands of the great unwashed. We must have a certification and licensing scheme to drive up wages and an association (like the ABA or AMA) to prevent accountability.
...you cannot connect your own natural gas service, electrical service, telephone service, or cable service to your home.
You can't install cable yourself because you have to connect to the distribution box owned by the cable provider. But actually, when my dad used to do phone installs, he would run the final run to the phone dist box and punch down the wires, as I recall.
You can do pretty much everything except the final cutover when installing gas and electric (including pulling the wires from your home's main panel to the vault) and the same is true for gas--but the cutover requires shutting off the electricity/gas of other users and the danger of actual physical harm, something that's not present with computers.
Somehow I (and most non-techies I know) find arguments that try and create a parallel between death by third degree burns and getting malware on a PC quite a bit less than compelling.
It's as if in 1942 the U.S. President/Vice President's last names were "Abolf" and "Hiter". And there were bumper stickers saying "Vote Abolf Hiter"
I just find it funny that a simple transposition of one letter in one name and the insertion of a syllable in the second creates the name of the U.S. (supposed) Public Enemy #1.
Not only do they spend every penny, they almost always go over budget. Spending just what you got is fine if you want your budget to stagnate, but a true bureaucrat's goal is to increase their power within the fiefdom--and you don't get that by holding your budget at last year's level. You must overspend, so you can show that you NEED more money when the next year's appropriations are made. After all, if they budgeted x and you spent x+y, obviously this year's budget needs to be at least x+y adjusted for inflation.
With a higher income, you can, for example, afford a longer commute,
I don't know anyone who wants to "afford" a longer commute. Generally near urban area people commute because they can't afford housing near where they work--homes in outlying areas are cheaper. For instance, I have a 20 mile commute because although my employer is in Palo Alto, I can't afford a house there. Instead, I bought a place in Santa Clara--20 miles away, but about 1/2 as expensive.
That said, I agree that a ten-fold increase in income wouldn't necessary translate into a 10x increase in housing prices.
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Not hours of agreement.
Here in Oceania, we've always been at war with East RIAA and we just need a Two Minutes Hate.
Orwell was an optimist.
I want shock collars and an IR setup. You get in your car and before it will start you must place the shock collar around your neck. At any point while driving, you can aim your IR pistol at another car which is covered with IR receivers. When those receivers are hit with the IR from your gun, they administer a shock to the vehicle's driver. If more than one other driver fires their IR gun at your car simultaneously, the amperage is increased.
I've actually thought about a similar system where "points" are assessed against drivers who are "shot" too many times. In this system, you filter out multiple hits from the same gun (so I can't just shoot you 10,000 times) and drivers with more than some minimum number of points are required to retake driver's ed and the licensing tests. Maybe you could add some sort of system for removing points too, so if someone lets you into a line of traffic, you could "reward" them.
But the shock collars are so much more satisfying.
Echos of Alan Dean Foster's short story, "Why Johnny Can't Speed" :-)
See Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedometer_Error#Error) for info about speedometer error. Alignment has almost nothing to do with speedometer accuracy.
GPS inaccuracies occur for any number of reasons (see http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/errors.htm for details) and GPS speed measurements are widely known for being inaccurate over both short distances and short periods of time. My GPS is often ridiculously wrong--once it had me going 200 MPH, significantly faster then the top speed of my bike :-)
I've had three mistaken CC charges in the last six years and it's never been a hassle to get them reversed. In each case a single phone call and the return of a snail-mail letter (in a postage-paid envelope) sufficed. This of course depends on having an account with a reputable credit card company, not Joe's All-you-can-charge-bank. The consumer protection laws seem to work pretty well to protect credit card customers, though that's just my personal experience.
On the other hand, I would never, NEVER give my bank account info to anyone. Let alone the incompetent fools at PayPal--assuming here that I shouldn't attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
It's better (IMO) to use a credit card with your PalPal account than to rely on the fact that you haven't had an overdraft yet. Credit card companies are forced to comply with a fairly consumer-friendly set of regulations (limitations of liability, not charging interest or attempting to collect disputed amounts) that your bank is not. Giving up banking details--to PayPal, epecially--seems fraught with risk.
I'm not sure I agree...
I've had problems with credit card charges in the past (three times in the last six or so years) and because of the consumer protection laws that CC companies are forced to comply with, it was essentially painless to fix--leaving aside the time for a single phone call and filling out the snail mail form they sent. They aren't allowed to require you to pay fees or disputed amounts. If they're trying to stick you with this, you need to let your state AG know.
I reconcile my credit card statement with my budget at the end of every month (yes, every charge or cash payment goes into a spreadsheet, which I compare to the CC statement at month's end) and I've never had any "little charges" tacked on, either.
Of course, I understand that my experience might not be universal, but if you're really having those kinds of problems with your CC company I think the problem is that you need to switch to a credit provider that has better customer service. From personal experience I can recommend American Express (they've been great) or a credit union.
And this is why you NEVER, NEVER give your bank account information to anyone, let alone PayPal (PayPal motto: screwing buyers AND sellers since 2002)
If you must use PayPal--and I concede that it's barely imaginable that there's something you just have to buy that you can only get online and that is only sold by a site that only takes PayPal--you link your account to a credit card. Then if PayPal screws you, you contest the charge and they can take it up with American Express or whoever.
Under no circumstances does any online business get my checking/savings account info. If they don't take credit cards, I'll find somewhere else to shop. The inability to block charges from creating an overdraft and the lack of consumer protection that banks give account holders make this something that no one should ever do. Combine those faults with the dangers inherent in a recurring charge system and it's a no-brainer: don't give PayPal (or anyone else, especially anyone with as bad a customer service reputation as they have) your bank account info.
And a background check! A waiting period isn't sufficient--we need time for the FBI to check up on you and make sure it's OK for you to have a kid.
Wait, you're David Koresh's brother?
Just had child number two a month ago and had completely forgotten how tiring they are when very small. Also, I've discovered that the complications of being a parent increase geometrically with the number of children you have. Having two is significantly more than twice as complicated as just having the one. :-)
But if they've already had their allotted child, then they wouldn't be good candidates for this--you want couples who are willing to have kids, but wanting to wait. I doubt you'd get many takers if you told them essentially "We're testing this and if it fails, the State will force you to have an abortion"
I think the location of that injection (RISUG) might put a lot of guys off.
You want to stick a needle WHERE?
I used to read the newspaper pretty regularly--for a while as a subscriber even, not just in the break room. I stopped reading when I was interviewed by a reporter and read the story she wrote--it was full of "quotes" that I hadn't said. Not only were these quotes marked with quotations marks (which are supposed to be an indication that the text is a direct quote, not a summary) but several things I was quoted as saying were direct reversals of what I'd said. And this reported used a tape recorded AND took notes.
I've pretty much sworn off believing reporters since. When a story is interesting to me, I might read it--but then I always try and look at direct sources.
Like the quote from Star Wars:
"That's because droids don't pull people's arms off when they lose. Wookies have been known to do that"
You're still equating something that's an inconvenience (ID theft) with physical harm.
And I've worked as an electrician, so I think I have a pretty good idea what's involved in getting wires into the vault--hint: pretty much any competent company does this work themselves and only relies on utility workers for putting the split-bolts and scotchfil on.
Of course, yours is the traditional take of elitists: computers are too complicated and dangerous to be left in the hands of the great unwashed. We must have a certification and licensing scheme to drive up wages and an association (like the ABA or AMA) to prevent accountability.
No thanks.
You can't install cable yourself because you have to connect to the distribution box owned by the cable provider. But actually, when my dad used to do phone installs, he would run the final run to the phone dist box and punch down the wires, as I recall.
You can do pretty much everything except the final cutover when installing gas and electric (including pulling the wires from your home's main panel to the vault) and the same is true for gas--but the cutover requires shutting off the electricity/gas of other users and the danger of actual physical harm, something that's not present with computers.
Somehow I (and most non-techies I know) find arguments that try and create a parallel between death by third degree burns and getting malware on a PC quite a bit less than compelling.
It's as if in 1942 the U.S. President/Vice President's last names were "Abolf" and "Hiter". And there were bumper stickers saying "Vote Abolf Hiter"
I just find it funny that a simple transposition of one letter in one name and the insertion of a syllable in the second creates the name of the U.S. (supposed) Public Enemy #1.
Unfortunately, they're single use.
Not only do they spend every penny, they almost always go over budget. Spending just what you got is fine if you want your budget to stagnate, but a true bureaucrat's goal is to increase their power within the fiefdom--and you don't get that by holding your budget at last year's level. You must overspend, so you can show that you NEED more money when the next year's appropriations are made. After all, if they budgeted x and you spent x+y, obviously this year's budget needs to be at least x+y adjusted for inflation.
Wow. Just wow.
I don't know anyone who wants to "afford" a longer commute. Generally near urban area people commute because they can't afford housing near where they work--homes in outlying areas are cheaper. For instance, I have a 20 mile commute because although my employer is in Palo Alto, I can't afford a house there. Instead, I bought a place in Santa Clara--20 miles away, but about 1/2 as expensive.
That said, I agree that a ten-fold increase in income wouldn't necessary translate into a 10x increase in housing prices.
Not the whole site...
See: http://www.oracle.com/sun/index.html
Bill Shatner. On. Slash. Dot?
No he's not!