I think that may be situational. I can see your point in urban areas, yet in the middle of nowhere (where the nearest exist before the construction is at least 3 miles) we can all go a constant speed instead of turning the construction site into a 2 way traffic stop in order to let each lane have a chance to pass.
I don't think I would count access ramps on interstates as a round-about.
I consider a proper round-about being a circular intersection that allows a driver to chose between maintaining course or exiting to another road, while drivers from the other roads can do the same (ie. A round-about should take the place of a traditional stop light).
If you are ONLY counting people driving on highways vs the train to/from very similar destinations then yes, mass transit wins hands down, always has.
Citation please. The behavior that I see is that mass transportation isn't used until after traffic becomes congested enough to make driving to work difficult. If you had a non-congested highway that allows you to get to work on your own schedule versus a train, I'd bet you would be tempted to drive.
Now, considering that situation would only be a small fraction of the total number of people who use said highways then you are probably looking at something more like $45B vs maybe $6-8B adjusted.
But you limited your count of people using the highway to the number who could have taken the train. I still doubt that the train would have more, and you don't count the people who are using the highway to pass through or go somewhere that mass transit is being served well. This makes the highway a better use of money.
Yep, I've driven in the USA and it's awful. The one that really got me was people merging from ramps without even looking and just shoving me out of the way if I happened to be there. How does that work...?
I find people who can't maintain a steady speed or go into the other lane to let me merge pretty irritating too. Not saying you do it, but I've lost count of people who sped up to keep me from merging in front of them. Don't get me started when they can't be polite enough to get in the other lane to make it easier for others to get on the interstate.
While we are griping, I hate drivers that:
stay in the left lane when they aren't passing anybody in the right line (especially the slow ones towing a trailer),
a-holes that flash their lights at you and tailgate, because they want to go faster than you while both of you are in the left lane passing slower traffic at speeds of 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
See a turn signal as a sign that they need to speed up to keep you from entering their lane.
Drivers who enter your lane when there is less than a car length between you and the car originally in front of you AND they didn't signal.
Drivers who wait until they reach the road workers before trying to merge into the correct lane so they can pass everyone else who already queued up to go through the construction.
Wow.. yea drivers here are awful. I heard on NPR that the worst drivers are those in the tech industry. I find that hard to believe since everyone on Slashdot goes the speed limit.;)
That's what quizzes are for. Didn't go to class, you probably made an F on a quiz. Most instructors drop the 2 lowest quiz grades. They also tend to make the quizzes count at least a letter grade for the course, so you blow off attending the class the highest you can hope for is a B. Others give quizzes a higher percentage of the course grade to help those who may have done poorly on the mid-term, I would make a point to always attend those classes. I view quizzes as a way to help those that attend class and make an effort to learn the material. Penalizing the absent student isn't the objective, but it's a perk... Yes I'm being evil today.
Turn in a stellar project a few days late, well if I was grading you, you would make a lower grade than the person who turned in a modest project on time. Sounds unfair? Not really... You get plenty of time to do the project, and why should I reward tardiness when someone else accepted a lower grade in order to turn it in on time?
You wouldn't fail the project, but your chances of making a B are pretty darn low. Wait more than few days then you might as well not turn the project in.
Luckily I don't teach... well... at least not now.
Most college students are of an adult age, while a surprising few are mentally mature enough to be an adult. Nevertheless, they are adults and nobody will force them to attend class. If I paid for a class, I would attend it as much as possible to get my money's worth out of the professor. I also encourage the interns here to do the same.
As others have noted here in the past, the number of processing cores do not a powerful computer make.
That is certainly true for the average to power user.
However, if you use software specifically written to take advantages of all the cores then you are the intended audience of the Mac Pro. We use the 8-core version and have slashed computing times down from over 5 minutes per data file to less than a minute. I can see an application for the 12-core version and the completely guessed $6000 price tag makes it competitive to the hardware we usually purchase to perform these tasks.
We used to have them. It was called dial-up and any upstart ISP could purchase enough of them and compete on price and features on a level playing field. If you didn't like your ISP, just sign up with another and the only thing that changed was the phone number on your communications program.
The need for speed changed the hardware requirements and ultimately the level playing field disappeared and was replaced with the large corporations willing to spend money to get the last mile of high speed connectivity to your house.
If only the government had built its own communication infrastructure instead of financing the small number of corporations that provided an infrastructure that pretty much locks the consumer to that corporation.
The republicans balk at net neutrality but they don't mind the corporate welfare system that our current telecommunication policy provides.
More like Apple would like its iOS devices judged on the performance that can be achieved when compiled code is used (*their* dev tools is GNU gcc well actually GNU Objective-C) instead of being penalized for the poor performance experienced with Adobe flash. Sure they make Xcode, but I don't know anyone who seriously uses it.
True. Alienware was purchased by Dell so that they could enter the boutique gaming PC market.
It is my understanding that Alienware doesn't directly compete on price. Of course being a DELL they have a token under $1000 machine, but the rest of them are configured for sale above $2000.
My point was not that Apple and others didn't outsource, but that there are other computer manufacturers that chose to compete mostly on features instead of solely on price.
Remember the grandparent post, that I replied to, suggested that Dell was forced to outsource because consumers demanded cheaper machines.
*We* the consumer have demanded the cheap prices of the hardware we buy, thus squeezing the profit margins of companies like Dell.
Half truth. Dell did not add any value to their products and decided to compete on price. In order to lower their prices and retain their profit margins they outsourced their assembly to countries with lower labor costs. Dell was not forced to lower their price, they choose to compete on price alone.
*We* the consumer did not demand cheap prices, instead we purchased whatever gave us the better value. Which for some means the cheapest machine that runs stock Windows 7 for home, but for others features and/or better components may be deciding factor (eq. Apple, Alienware, Voodoo PC, Sony, etc.)
Classical Greece and Rome only had a life expectancy of 28 years. Medieval Britain had a life expectancy of 30. Early 20th Century had a life expectancy of 30-45 years.
The average life expectancy in Colonial America was under 25 years in the Virginia colony,[18] and in New England about 40% of children failed to reach adulthood.
So in order to marry, have children and live long enough to care for them, you would have to marry at an early age of around 14 through 16. This probably the reasoning behind the NC state law mentioned earlier in this thread.
Do you hold all phone manufacturers to the same standard?
Google learned first hand how hard it was to directly support a phone when they introduced the Nexus One. The Nexus One came with a whole list of issues, and Google was deluged with customer complaints. Complaints included service eligibility problems, people not receiving their phones in a timely manner, and technical issues like poor 3G reception. Basically people complained that the 3G signal would drop when they picked up their phone (sound familiar?). Google had to resort to email only support.
Verizon dropped the Nexus One in favor of the Droid Incredible, Sprint dropped the Nexus One in favor of the Evo, while T-Mobile barely acknowledges its existence, and will pretty much drop it in favor of the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.
The mainstream media didn't hype the flaws of the Nexus One, nor did they demand Google to rectify the problems. Instead the technology press produced articles like:
"Why hasn't the Nexus One Flopped (yet)?" - CNet
"Google Nexus One: A Successful Flop" PC Mag
"The Nexus One is a total sales flop" - Gizmodo
The list continues just Google it...
I think the real issue is that we expect Apple to have a higher standard, and the media measures Apple with that standard. Maybe that is why Apple is the perceived leader of the smartphone market.
As for my fanboism: Yes I like Apple computers, but I also have an Android phone that I'm pretty much stuck with. My point is shouldn't we hold all phone manufacturers to the same standard?
Remember after only 22 days, Apple makes a very public appeal to satisfy its customers. Sure they were pressured to act sooner rather than later, but they have a history of providing good customer support. Because of their popularity they don't have the luxury of quietly letting the model die like the Microsoft Kin or the Google Nexus One...
These guys are supposedly providing the greatest consumer experience - I didn't think this was so great!
Yet you were able to walk into an Apple store and ask for help. You didn't have to wait on hold on some toll free tech support number and ask for an RMA number...
You need to make an appointment to speak to us, the next appointment is in 2 hours
They are able to give their full undivided attention to you in within 2 hours. You just need to make an appointment first.
This indicates that other people have went through the trouble of making an appointment and will expect to not have to wait when they arrive. You could have easily made an appointment while in the store, online prior to going to the store, or even call them to make an appointment. I have had my MacBook Pro serviced by them, and I made an appointment. They promptly looked at my laptop when I arrived for my appointment. They identified the bad part and was able to replace it within the time alloted to each appointment which meant I was able to leave the store with a fully repaired laptop within 45 minutes of my arrival. I had AppleCare so price was not an issue.
A coworker had to have the motherboard replaced. He went to the store, and they verified that it wasn't something that could be easily fixed and would need to stay at least overnight. He was pleasantly surprised by a phone call around 5pm that said that if he made it to the store before they closed later that night, he would be able to pick up his repaired laptop.
It'll cost $755 to repair
Sounds about right. I replaced my Sony Vaio with the Apple MacBook Pro because after 1.5 years the backlight on the 17" screen went out. Getting the part from Sony was going to set me back $800 and I still had to do all the repairs myself. So instead of repairing the laptop, I took the oportunity to upgrade, and I made sure I purchased AppleCare with the laptop. The laptop is now over 3 years old and, other than that one visit to the Apple store, it has never given me any more problems. I'm using it now.
We found instructions to replace the screen and the replacement part ($120) online and my son and I replaced it in about an hour.
Excellent news! I'm glad you were able to save some money. I'm surprised you were able to purchase a new screen for only $120, but as long as the MacBook works!
You do realize it's like taking your car to the dealer for repairs versus doing it yourself with a third-party part that may or may not work. Apple warrantees their repair. You were able to find an inexpensive replacement part and fix it yourself which in the end meant that you assumed all the risk. Luckily everything worked out for you.
I know their stuff is nice and shiny but this really pissed me off. I just found the attitude in the store a little extreme. And the price for the repair.
So you think you are better than everybody else, and don't need an appointment? Was the staff rude or were you just frustrated that they couldn't drop everything and look at your laptop?
Again I'm glad everything worked out in the end for you.
So their computer will break (that's what we do, we are the systems and network support) and they'll come and ask us about it. They get vexed when we say "I don't know what is wrong," they often look at you like you are an idiot, and why don't you go find the person who does?
I remember one time when a lab lost network connection so I was heading down there and he says "Why is the network down?" I said "I'm not sure," that got me a very quizzical look. So we got there and I said "Where's the switch, let's reboot that first," he said "Will that fix the problem?" I said "I don't know." He didn't seem to want to do it, since why bother if it wouldn't fix the problem? I found the switch, rebooted it, and the problem was solved. This was a totally mysterious process to the guy. How the hell could someone who didn't know what the problem was solve it without asking someone who did?
I mean no disrespect, but I was on the other side of your example once. Although, I knew what the problem was but it wasn't my job to fix it.
I had a router malfunction which took a whole computer lab offline. I called IT and they sent someone to fix the problem. I asked him if there were any other labs offline, and he told me he didn't know. So he went to the router turned off and back on, and looked at me like I was an idiot that wasted his time.
I, on the other hand, wanted him to look at the router and hoped that if he frequently came and worked on that same router then eventually the router would be replaced with another unit that was actually stable ( a guy can dream ). Anyway, it really irritated me that IT gets mad when you ask them for help which is the premise of their employment.
I believe the way it works is that all the revenue is distributed among the subsidiaries leaving the parent shell company with no profit. I believe it's only tax fraud if the subsidiaries didn't pay the taxes.I don't know since IANATL.
You are correct about the majority of the states versus population, but this is a good thing... let me explain this counter intuitive thought.
This allows better representation for everybody. The urban population centers wouldn't dictate what the rural states should do and vice versa.
Senate and state representation at the constitutional convention is a good compromise in the complexities of making sure all population and regional concerns are represented. Everybody has the same weight *and* it takes a significant majority to pass.
This is a very old trick, and I can't understand why people still fall for it.
Winston Groom had to learn the hard way when his deal involved a percentage of the net profits from Forrest Gump. Unfortunately for Winston, Hollywood accounting always makes sure there isn't any net profits.
This is why the big actors and producers always ask for a percentage of the gross revenue.
Slashdot Mirror
An even more accurate statement would be:
People deny the cause of evolution. People deny the cause of global warming.
That should get the juices flowing.
It's called being a Walmart employee....
I think that may be situational. I can see your point in urban areas, yet in the middle of nowhere (where the nearest exist before the construction is at least 3 miles) we can all go a constant speed instead of turning the construction site into a 2 way traffic stop in order to let each lane have a chance to pass.
1. Crap he caused me to hyphenate too... 2. They are called Cloverleaf interchanges.
I don't think I would count access ramps on interstates as a round-about.
I consider a proper round-about being a circular intersection that allows a driver to chose between maintaining course or exiting to another road, while drivers from the other roads can do the same (ie. A round-about should take the place of a traditional stop light).
Citation please. The behavior that I see is that mass transportation isn't used until after traffic becomes congested enough to make driving to work difficult. If you had a non-congested highway that allows you to get to work on your own schedule versus a train, I'd bet you would be tempted to drive.
But you limited your count of people using the highway to the number who could have taken the train. I still doubt that the train would have more, and you don't count the people who are using the highway to pass through or go somewhere that mass transit is being served well. This makes the highway a better use of money.
I find people who can't maintain a steady speed or go into the other lane to let me merge pretty irritating too. Not saying you do it, but I've lost count of people who sped up to keep me from merging in front of them. Don't get me started when they can't be polite enough to get in the other lane to make it easier for others to get on the interstate.
While we are griping, I hate drivers that:
Wow.. yea drivers here are awful. I heard on NPR that the worst drivers are those in the tech industry. I find that hard to believe since everyone on Slashdot goes the speed limit. ;)
I love roundabouts. However they do take up a lot of real estate.
As a southerner, I can't comment on the yanks ability to use one. ;)
That's what quizzes are for. Didn't go to class, you probably made an F on a quiz. Most instructors drop the 2 lowest quiz grades. They also tend to make the quizzes count at least a letter grade for the course, so you blow off attending the class the highest you can hope for is a B. Others give quizzes a higher percentage of the course grade to help those who may have done poorly on the mid-term, I would make a point to always attend those classes. I view quizzes as a way to help those that attend class and make an effort to learn the material. Penalizing the absent student isn't the objective, but it's a perk... Yes I'm being evil today.
Turn in a stellar project a few days late, well if I was grading you, you would make a lower grade than the person who turned in a modest project on time. Sounds unfair? Not really... You get plenty of time to do the project, and why should I reward tardiness when someone else accepted a lower grade in order to turn it in on time?
You wouldn't fail the project, but your chances of making a B are pretty darn low. Wait more than few days then you might as well not turn the project in.
Luckily I don't teach... well... at least not now.
Most college students are of an adult age, while a surprising few are mentally mature enough to be an adult. Nevertheless, they are adults and nobody will force them to attend class. If I paid for a class, I would attend it as much as possible to get my money's worth out of the professor. I also encourage the interns here to do the same.
I think that gesture is handled by iSight.
That is certainly true for the average to power user.
However, if you use software specifically written to take advantages of all the cores then you are the intended audience of the Mac Pro. We use the 8-core version and have slashed computing times down from over 5 minutes per data file to less than a minute. I can see an application for the 12-core version and the completely guessed $6000 price tag makes it competitive to the hardware we usually purchase to perform these tasks.
We used to have them. It was called dial-up and any upstart ISP could purchase enough of them and compete on price and features on a level playing field. If you didn't like your ISP, just sign up with another and the only thing that changed was the phone number on your communications program.
The need for speed changed the hardware requirements and ultimately the level playing field disappeared and was replaced with the large corporations willing to spend money to get the last mile of high speed connectivity to your house.
If only the government had built its own communication infrastructure instead of financing the small number of corporations that provided an infrastructure that pretty much locks the consumer to that corporation.
The republicans balk at net neutrality but they don't mind the corporate welfare system that our current telecommunication policy provides.
I use Safari, and why is everybody coming to my house?
More like Apple would like its iOS devices judged on the performance that can be achieved when compiled code is used (*their* dev tools is GNU gcc well actually GNU Objective-C) instead of being penalized for the poor performance experienced with Adobe flash. Sure they make Xcode, but I don't know anyone who seriously uses it.
True. Alienware was purchased by Dell so that they could enter the boutique gaming PC market.
It is my understanding that Alienware doesn't directly compete on price. Of course being a DELL they have a token under $1000 machine, but the rest of them are configured for sale above $2000.
There was a time that you paid a premium for a Sony brand machine, that is not necessarily true today.
True. However Apple does have labor, safety, and environmental standards that their fabricators must abide by. http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/
My point was not that Apple and others didn't outsource, but that there are other computer manufacturers that chose to compete mostly on features instead of solely on price.
Remember the grandparent post, that I replied to, suggested that Dell was forced to outsource because consumers demanded cheaper machines.
Half truth. Dell did not add any value to their products and decided to compete on price. In order to lower their prices and retain their profit margins they outsourced their assembly to countries with lower labor costs. Dell was not forced to lower their price, they choose to compete on price alone.
*We* the consumer did not demand cheap prices, instead we purchased whatever gave us the better value. Which for some means the cheapest machine that runs stock Windows 7 for home, but for others features and/or better components may be deciding factor (eq. Apple, Alienware, Voodoo PC, Sony, etc.)
Don't forget the change in life expectancy.
Classical Greece and Rome only had a life expectancy of 28 years. Medieval Britain had a life expectancy of 30. Early 20th Century had a life expectancy of 30-45 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
So in order to marry, have children and live long enough to care for them, you would have to marry at an early age of around 14 through 16. This probably the reasoning behind the NC state law mentioned earlier in this thread.
Do you hold all phone manufacturers to the same standard?
Google learned first hand how hard it was to directly support a phone when they introduced the Nexus One. The Nexus One came with a whole list of issues, and Google was deluged with customer complaints. Complaints included service eligibility problems, people not receiving their phones in a timely manner, and technical issues like poor 3G reception. Basically people complained that the 3G signal would drop when they picked up their phone (sound familiar?). Google had to resort to email only support.
Verizon dropped the Nexus One in favor of the Droid Incredible, Sprint dropped the Nexus One in favor of the Evo, while T-Mobile barely acknowledges its existence, and will pretty much drop it in favor of the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.
The mainstream media didn't hype the flaws of the Nexus One, nor did they demand Google to rectify the problems. Instead the technology press produced articles like:
"Why hasn't the Nexus One Flopped (yet)?" - CNet
"Google Nexus One: A Successful Flop" PC Mag
"The Nexus One is a total sales flop" - Gizmodo
The list continues just Google it...
I think the real issue is that we expect Apple to have a higher standard, and the media measures Apple with that standard. Maybe that is why Apple is the perceived leader of the smartphone market.
As for my fanboism: Yes I like Apple computers, but I also have an Android phone that I'm pretty much stuck with. My point is shouldn't we hold all phone manufacturers to the same standard?
Remember after only 22 days, Apple makes a very public appeal to satisfy its customers. Sure they were pressured to act sooner rather than later, but they have a history of providing good customer support. Because of their popularity they don't have the luxury of quietly letting the model die like the Microsoft Kin or the Google Nexus One...
What was your point?
Yet you were able to walk into an Apple store and ask for help. You didn't have to wait on hold on some toll free tech support number and ask for an RMA number...
They are able to give their full undivided attention to you in within 2 hours. You just need to make an appointment first.
This indicates that other people have went through the trouble of making an appointment and will expect to not have to wait when they arrive. You could have easily made an appointment while in the store, online prior to going to the store, or even call them to make an appointment. I have had my MacBook Pro serviced by them, and I made an appointment. They promptly looked at my laptop when I arrived for my appointment. They identified the bad part and was able to replace it within the time alloted to each appointment which meant I was able to leave the store with a fully repaired laptop within 45 minutes of my arrival. I had AppleCare so price was not an issue.
A coworker had to have the motherboard replaced. He went to the store, and they verified that it wasn't something that could be easily fixed and would need to stay at least overnight. He was pleasantly surprised by a phone call around 5pm that said that if he made it to the store before they closed later that night, he would be able to pick up his repaired laptop.
Sounds about right. I replaced my Sony Vaio with the Apple MacBook Pro because after 1.5 years the backlight on the 17" screen went out. Getting the part from Sony was going to set me back $800 and I still had to do all the repairs myself. So instead of repairing the laptop, I took the oportunity to upgrade, and I made sure I purchased AppleCare with the laptop. The laptop is now over 3 years old and, other than that one visit to the Apple store, it has never given me any more problems. I'm using it now.
Excellent news! I'm glad you were able to save some money. I'm surprised you were able to purchase a new screen for only $120, but as long as the MacBook works!
You do realize it's like taking your car to the dealer for repairs versus doing it yourself with a third-party part that may or may not work. Apple warrantees their repair. You were able to find an inexpensive replacement part and fix it yourself which in the end meant that you assumed all the risk. Luckily everything worked out for you.
So you think you are better than everybody else, and don't need an appointment? Was the staff rude or were you just frustrated that they couldn't drop everything and look at your laptop?
Again I'm glad everything worked out in the end for you.
I mean no disrespect, but I was on the other side of your example once. Although, I knew what the problem was but it wasn't my job to fix it.
I had a router malfunction which took a whole computer lab offline. I called IT and they sent someone to fix the problem. I asked him if there were any other labs offline, and he told me he didn't know. So he went to the router turned off and back on, and looked at me like I was an idiot that wasted his time.
I, on the other hand, wanted him to look at the router and hoped that if he frequently came and worked on that same router then eventually the router would be replaced with another unit that was actually stable ( a guy can dream ). Anyway, it really irritated me that IT gets mad when you ask them for help which is the premise of their employment.
I believe the way it works is that all the revenue is distributed among the subsidiaries leaving the parent shell company with no profit. I believe it's only tax fraud if the subsidiaries didn't pay the taxes.I don't know since IANATL.
You are correct about the majority of the states versus population, but this is a good thing... let me explain this counter intuitive thought.
This allows better representation for everybody. The urban population centers wouldn't dictate what the rural states should do and vice versa.
Senate and state representation at the constitutional convention is a good compromise in the complexities of making sure all population and regional concerns are represented. Everybody has the same weight *and* it takes a significant majority to pass.
Electoral college on the other hand is broken.
This is a very old trick, and I can't understand why people still fall for it.
Winston Groom had to learn the hard way when his deal involved a percentage of the net profits from Forrest Gump. Unfortunately for Winston, Hollywood accounting always makes sure there isn't any net profits.
This is why the big actors and producers always ask for a percentage of the gross revenue.