Yes, very much so. I drive a pretty old car. It has long been paid off insurance as I said in another post is around $450 per year these days and I think taxes on it are around the $50 per year mark.
Despite being relatively high mileage it also generally doesn't require more than $150-200 per year in maintenance costs.
So for less than $1k per year can leave whenever I want - not wait around for somewhere to come and get me, but literally right now. If I want to toss 6 bags of garden soil in the trunk I can do so - not a lot of Uber drivers are going to appreciate that. I also can strap my kayak to the roof and drive out to the middle of nowhere where Uber/Lyft doesn't service and even if one day they did you'd be waiting forever for them to show up (assuming they'll want a kayak on top and a cooler full of fish in the car on the way back).
The "let's just rent everything" mindset leaves a lot to be desired. In the long run, owning things generally works out better financially. I can understand that many in the "I NEED A NEW PHONE EVERY 6 MONTHS!!!!" crowd just can't hold onto anything long enough to make that happen, but many people do keep and use things for long to make it the smarter choice.
It's actually legal to drive without insurance in some states. Basically if your record is clean for a certain number of years and you own your own car (because any entity with a lien on it won't allow this) then you can go to the DMV is fill out the paperwork to drive uninsured - but you're PERSONALLY on the hook for anything that goes wrong that is your fault.
It's not the wisest thing to do in the world - a single accident could essentially financially ruin you for a life - but it is available.
PS I looked it up and this is apparently legal in NH, VA, and my home state of SC (which is why I knew about it). In VA and SC you pay a $500-550 per year fee to the state in lieu of insurance - which would be a particularly bad deal for me as liability insurance on my old car is only about $450 per year.
I am amazed at you right wing nutcases sudden fake empathy for gay people. Where were you when homosexual sex was illegal? Where were you when the transgendered couldnt use a public restroom? Where were you when two people of the same gender wanted to get married?
Basically, you want to exploit this to war against people of a religion you despise. You don't care about gay people.
Most Christians disagree with the homosexual lifestyle and want to convert them straight. The Mormons in particular have a hilarious set of videos of obviously gay guys that have undergone counseling (I believe they even had a fancy name like "Same Sex Attraction Counseling" or something like that) to make them straight again (supposedly).
I personally am not Christian myself but was raised in a Christian family and one of the strongest tenants they stressed was "Hate the sin but love the sinner."
I might not agree with either group, but there's a big difference between:
1. I don't like what you're doing so I'm going to try to "fix" you.
and
2. I don't like what you're doing so I'm going to hang, behead, stone, or kill you in some other gruesome way.
We some to have lost all touch with degrees of offense in modern society. If China wholesale blocks large portions of the internet then the US is "just as bad" if you can find them blocking a single website. If Iran executes gays then the US is "just as bad" if we won't let transgender people into the bathroom of their choice. It's not the same.
Oh and yay Xbox. I still don't have one (so far I'm PS4 only for this gen) but in particular the single purchase option between Xbox and Win10 is a big draw. Basically I can play the games my computer is good enough for on that and as it ages out I can play on the Xbox for a bit longer until I can upgrade. I ran into much this same problem with Dragon Age Inquisition. I bought that for PC, couldn't play it, and ended up rebuying for the PS4 instead.
I have, however, run into atheists who are every bit as zealous and annoying as the people they love to publicly hate.
In all fairness, that's about the only type of atheists you're GOING to run into - or at least realize it. The ones that silently ignore people when they start talking about religion aren't really gonna make much of a lasting impression.
Generally religious people aren't hurting anyone - and religion actually keeps some people inline who wouldn't be mentally strong enough to behave without fear of consequences in the afterlife. As such most of them I'm happy to let believe whatever they want.
I think you're going to find that that's always the case when someone thinks they can solve any serious real world problem with an afterthought in a forum comment box.
A lot of people travel distances larger than is currently covered by many electric vehicle ranges. Most of the good ones seem to target 250 miles per charge. While that's fine for going to work and back, for interstate travel people can easily travel 700-1000 miles per day. Turning what would be a single day's drive into a multi day trip waiting for recharges is not very appealing.
Then there's the question of things like towing capacity. IE - I fish a lot. My boat isn't that big (its a small 16ft fishing boat), but the tow weight is still up around 2000 lbs. Not a lot of electric vehicles are rated to tow at all - much less that weight. That's not even considering commercial freight vehicles which need to tow SIGNIFICANTLY more weight.
We either need to get electric vehicles up to par in terms of refueling speed and towing power, OR we still have to have a secondary engine type that can accommodate those tasks.
I don't know - I don't have much interest myself (truthfully I don't listen to much music anymore - it's mostly podcasts), but given the number of people I know that listen to Pandora and other services somewhat similar to FM radio I'd wager some people still want it.
Truthfully though - if the function is already there and would cost nothing to turn on - just do it and let the market decide if they want to use it or not.
As as with any generic products, some of them are excellent and better than known brands, some of them are just okay and some of them you just need to stay away from.
Yep - although as time goes on I've noticed a general upwards trend in quality of the generic versions. Most of the big name brand products are old and established. The knock-offs have had decades now to keep tweaking their recipes.
And as you said - sometimes it's better. The best canned peaches I've found are actually the Dollar General store brand ones. BI-LO's "Southern Home" branded canned tuna is better than ANY of the name brands, and the Walmart version of the "Sweet and Salty Almond Granola" tastes better than Nature Valley. On the other hand if I'm frying stuff I've never found a generic breading/batter mix quite as good as House Autry:).
Making the entire "cooking" process automated shouldn't be harder than any other automated manufacturing process.
Whether it can be done isn't a question - it's a question of usefulness. Any automated machine still needs supervision to ensure that it's running reliably and to correct any issues/jams that will inevitably occur.
In a large factory where you're replacing hundreds of workers and replacing them with a half dozen people to monitor the machines that's an obvious savings.
In your average fast food place replacing the 3-4 guys in the kitchen with a bunch of machines and still 1 or 2 people to monitor the machines isn't quite as straightforward - particularly since those 1 or 2 guys have a more complex skillset than the 3 or 4 previous guys and as such would command a higher salar.
The actual ordering process is much easier to automate. Realistically the cashiers are ALREADY typing your order into a computer, swiping your card, and the guys in the back see it on screen. Really all they need to do is revamp the interface to be a bit more consumer presentable and turn the machine to face the other way.
You do realize that those companies are themselves likely paying FAR more taxes than you towards paying for those police forces and the justice system?
If you don't like what they're doing - just don't shop there, and DO shop at a company that aligns more precisely with your ideals. If enough like minded people follow suit they will cease to be operate and the other company you supported will thrive.
Business liability itself is an intrusion of the government (I'm not saying its BAD - but that it is). In an unregulated capitalistic society if your product malfunctioned and killed someone then other people would just know to probably stay away from your products. Bad press would be its own punishment.
Liability is an artificial legal concept, and as such government limitations on it aren't any more hypocritical than the liability itself.
One thing to keep in mind - according to many charts Mars and Venus are in our own star's habitable zone. Neither seem to have life. Even Earth seems like it would have a much hard time at it if not for some specific factors (ie, a large moon to stabilize the rotational axis - a rare feature for a rocky planet).
If we're batting only 1 out of 3 planets in the habitable zone of our own star actually having life, I wouldn't hold out too much hope of there being life on any of these planets just because its in the habitable zone. My guess (and really that's all we can do until we get a larger sample size of planets having life vs not) is that a very tiny percentage of these planets even in the habitable zones actually harbor life.
That said - even if there was only life in the universe at a rate of one inhabited planet per galaxy, the universe as a whole would still have billions of inhabited planets - it's just that there'd be virtually zero chance that life from one would ever be aware of or affected by life on another.
Nothing really - it's a buzzword. You need to parse that out really.
That doesn't mean that it won't be an improvement, but realistically the description would be more useful if they just said "It's a lot like Siri but it understands more complex questions and it can interact with third party applications.".
Granted, I'm an Android user to I use Google's assistant program, but I've found them to be a useful idea but certainly primitive. "Ok Google set alarm . .." is great - until it tells you that there are too many alarms (why can't the alarm program be configured to delete non-recurring alarms after they're past?). Then "Ok Google - Delete All Alarms" it doesn't understand so it goes off and does a search.
I love the tech and will continue to use it, but I have a feeling its going to be a LOT better in 10 years.
You completely missed my point by bringing it back to a road. My whole point was that speed doesn't have to be associated with driving at all.
If they are showing the speed on a photo, or doing trophies based on a speed, there are plenty of other ways to do that. You can safely get those trophies by travelling in an airplane, train, or conveyance other than a car.
Yep - not to mention the problem with passengers in the car having a phone - or people just hacking the phone to disable whatever triggers they car's lockout.
Besides - with self-driving technology improving as fast as it is, I doubt this will be an issue for much longer anyways. In 15 years very few humans will be "driving" cars.
Ok - so the users were morons, but there are plenty of completely legitimate ways to go 100MPH.
If they offered a trophy for snapping a picture of 10 Snickers bars and someone goes and steals them to achieve it, the company isn't at fault for "encouraging" theft - they would be offering a trophy for something achievable using completely legitimate and legal means, and the idiotic user decided to do something illegal as a shortcut.
Simply going at that speed isn't risky. Most people are going faster than that in an airplane.
Just because they award a trophy for something that you can be a complete idiot and try to achieve in an unsafe way, doesn't mean they company is at fault.
Meh - the rights are for sale. There's already two companies doing exactly this - Sling and Playstation Vue. I've subscribed to both in the past and currently subscribe to Vue.
Overall I like the concept, but Sling lost my business due to technical issues (I watch Youtube, Hulu, and Netflix all the time - no buffering. Sling would drop out frequently during live shows). Vue is BETTER but still not quite up to the technical quality level of Youtube or Netflix.
If Youtube offered the service at a similar price I'd try it out. Heck if it's ANY cheaper and includes AMC I'd probably go for it since realistically that's almost the only channel I watch on Vue. Except for that the only other thing I use it for is if my parents come over - they're not accustomed to Netflix and tend to be more comfortable with the concept of "channels" versus a list of shows.
It takes a lot of money to run for almost any office. Heck even in LOCAL politics your town council members tend to be the wealthier people in the area (wealth being a relative term).
To realistically achieve the office of president you have to be rich already, because pretty much no one else can afford to gallivant around the country for a year or two for at MOST a 50/50 shot at getting the office.
That's why at best I consider Democrats hypocrites. Democrats and Republicans - they're all pretty much rich, but the Democrats are the group of rich people running around blaming all the countries problems on . . . rich people.
That might actually pan out well for him. Despite all the cries that the Republican party is racist Ben Carson actually is relatively popular (as an aside - Tim Scott, a black Republican senator from my own state of SC, is also INCREDIBLY popular here). I think picking him would do well to lessen Trump's image as a bigot.
As it is, though, I live in an overwhelmingly red state.
That's pretty much how it is in mot of the country (well, either red or blue). I've already voted in the primaries where my vote actually mattered. In the general my state goes red anyways.
Realistically in the general election the result is determined by the swing states. To the rest of us the primaries are where we're really voting.
That I can agree with. I personally think you'll loose some educational momentum by taking a break, but if you do, gain some life experience and pickup a job during that time (I didn't take a break personally, but I worked construction every summer while in college).
IMHO the whole "live to party" sentiment is already too strong in today's youth (and increasingly into adulthood). They certainly don't need to take another year between high school and college to mooch off their parents for even more time.
Go to the beach, public park or your flipping room. Cars are so uncomfortable (exceptions are campers and vans).
Well the first two are quite likely to get you arrested and on the sex offenders registry, which basically screws up the rest of your life. The second one is generally fine for adults, but teenagers often can't just go to their room and have sex because their parents are home, nor can they legally rent a hotel room, so they end up doing it in cars a lot.
Heck even as an adult it happens. If you live too far from where you're hanging out or have other people staying with you (ie, roommates who have children or children of your own if you're a single parent) then you can't just bring home some chick from the bar, though admittedly for adults a hotel room is a better option there.
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Is it really more convenient to own your own?
Yes, very much so. I drive a pretty old car. It has long been paid off insurance as I said in another post is around $450 per year these days and I think taxes on it are around the $50 per year mark.
Despite being relatively high mileage it also generally doesn't require more than $150-200 per year in maintenance costs.
So for less than $1k per year can leave whenever I want - not wait around for somewhere to come and get me, but literally right now. If I want to toss 6 bags of garden soil in the trunk I can do so - not a lot of Uber drivers are going to appreciate that. I also can strap my kayak to the roof and drive out to the middle of nowhere where Uber/Lyft doesn't service and even if one day they did you'd be waiting forever for them to show up (assuming they'll want a kayak on top and a cooler full of fish in the car on the way back).
The "let's just rent everything" mindset leaves a lot to be desired. In the long run, owning things generally works out better financially. I can understand that many in the "I NEED A NEW PHONE EVERY 6 MONTHS!!!!" crowd just can't hold onto anything long enough to make that happen, but many people do keep and use things for long to make it the smarter choice.
It's actually legal to drive without insurance in some states. Basically if your record is clean for a certain number of years and you own your own car (because any entity with a lien on it won't allow this) then you can go to the DMV is fill out the paperwork to drive uninsured - but you're PERSONALLY on the hook for anything that goes wrong that is your fault.
It's not the wisest thing to do in the world - a single accident could essentially financially ruin you for a life - but it is available.
PS I looked it up and this is apparently legal in NH, VA, and my home state of SC (which is why I knew about it). In VA and SC you pay a $500-550 per year fee to the state in lieu of insurance - which would be a particularly bad deal for me as liability insurance on my old car is only about $450 per year.
I am amazed at you right wing nutcases sudden fake empathy for gay people. Where were you when homosexual sex was illegal? Where were you when the transgendered couldnt use a public restroom? Where were you when two people of the same gender wanted to get married?
Basically, you want to exploit this to war against people of a religion you despise. You don't care about gay people.
Most Christians disagree with the homosexual lifestyle and want to convert them straight. The Mormons in particular have a hilarious set of videos of obviously gay guys that have undergone counseling (I believe they even had a fancy name like "Same Sex Attraction Counseling" or something like that) to make them straight again (supposedly).
I personally am not Christian myself but was raised in a Christian family and one of the strongest tenants they stressed was "Hate the sin but love the sinner."
I might not agree with either group, but there's a big difference between:
1. I don't like what you're doing so I'm going to try to "fix" you.
and
2. I don't like what you're doing so I'm going to hang, behead, stone, or kill you in some other gruesome way.
We some to have lost all touch with degrees of offense in modern society. If China wholesale blocks large portions of the internet then the US is "just as bad" if you can find them blocking a single website. If Iran executes gays then the US is "just as bad" if we won't let transgender people into the bathroom of their choice. It's not the same.
Oh and yay Xbox. I still don't have one (so far I'm PS4 only for this gen) but in particular the single purchase option between Xbox and Win10 is a big draw. Basically I can play the games my computer is good enough for on that and as it ages out I can play on the Xbox for a bit longer until I can upgrade. I ran into much this same problem with Dragon Age Inquisition. I bought that for PC, couldn't play it, and ended up rebuying for the PS4 instead.
I have, however, run into atheists who are every bit as zealous and annoying as the people they love to publicly hate.
In all fairness, that's about the only type of atheists you're GOING to run into - or at least realize it. The ones that silently ignore people when they start talking about religion aren't really gonna make much of a lasting impression.
Generally religious people aren't hurting anyone - and religion actually keeps some people inline who wouldn't be mentally strong enough to behave without fear of consequences in the afterlife. As such most of them I'm happy to let believe whatever they want.
Not that it can't be done, it's just non-trivial.
I think you're going to find that that's always the case when someone thinks they can solve any serious real world problem with an afterthought in a forum comment box.
A lot of people travel distances larger than is currently covered by many electric vehicle ranges. Most of the good ones seem to target 250 miles per charge. While that's fine for going to work and back, for interstate travel people can easily travel 700-1000 miles per day. Turning what would be a single day's drive into a multi day trip waiting for recharges is not very appealing.
Then there's the question of things like towing capacity. IE - I fish a lot. My boat isn't that big (its a small 16ft fishing boat), but the tow weight is still up around 2000 lbs. Not a lot of electric vehicles are rated to tow at all - much less that weight. That's not even considering commercial freight vehicles which need to tow SIGNIFICANTLY more weight.
We either need to get electric vehicles up to par in terms of refueling speed and towing power, OR we still have to have a secondary engine type that can accommodate those tasks.
I don't know - I don't have much interest myself (truthfully I don't listen to much music anymore - it's mostly podcasts), but given the number of people I know that listen to Pandora and other services somewhat similar to FM radio I'd wager some people still want it.
Truthfully though - if the function is already there and would cost nothing to turn on - just do it and let the market decide if they want to use it or not.
As as with any generic products, some of them are excellent and better than known brands, some of them are just okay and some of them you just need to stay away from.
Yep - although as time goes on I've noticed a general upwards trend in quality of the generic versions. Most of the big name brand products are old and established. The knock-offs have had decades now to keep tweaking their recipes.
And as you said - sometimes it's better. The best canned peaches I've found are actually the Dollar General store brand ones. BI-LO's "Southern Home" branded canned tuna is better than ANY of the name brands, and the Walmart version of the "Sweet and Salty Almond Granola" tastes better than Nature Valley. On the other hand if I'm frying stuff I've never found a generic breading/batter mix quite as good as House Autry :).
Porn is already taking a toll there. Remember that in the old days there were no digital or printed boobs. It was the real thing or nothing.
Nowadays that's no longer the case. Not quite the same as the real thing of course, but I'd wager that a sexbot wouldn't quite be the same either.
Making the entire "cooking" process automated shouldn't be harder than any other automated manufacturing process.
Whether it can be done isn't a question - it's a question of usefulness. Any automated machine still needs supervision to ensure that it's running reliably and to correct any issues/jams that will inevitably occur.
In a large factory where you're replacing hundreds of workers and replacing them with a half dozen people to monitor the machines that's an obvious savings.
In your average fast food place replacing the 3-4 guys in the kitchen with a bunch of machines and still 1 or 2 people to monitor the machines isn't quite as straightforward - particularly since those 1 or 2 guys have a more complex skillset than the 3 or 4 previous guys and as such would command a higher salar.
The actual ordering process is much easier to automate. Realistically the cashiers are ALREADY typing your order into a computer, swiping your card, and the guys in the back see it on screen. Really all they need to do is revamp the interface to be a bit more consumer presentable and turn the machine to face the other way.
You do realize that those companies are themselves likely paying FAR more taxes than you towards paying for those police forces and the justice system?
If you don't like what they're doing - just don't shop there, and DO shop at a company that aligns more precisely with your ideals. If enough like minded people follow suit they will cease to be operate and the other company you supported will thrive.
Business liability itself is an intrusion of the government (I'm not saying its BAD - but that it is). In an unregulated capitalistic society if your product malfunctioned and killed someone then other people would just know to probably stay away from your products. Bad press would be its own punishment.
Liability is an artificial legal concept, and as such government limitations on it aren't any more hypocritical than the liability itself.
One thing to keep in mind - according to many charts Mars and Venus are in our own star's habitable zone. Neither seem to have life. Even Earth seems like it would have a much hard time at it if not for some specific factors (ie, a large moon to stabilize the rotational axis - a rare feature for a rocky planet).
If we're batting only 1 out of 3 planets in the habitable zone of our own star actually having life, I wouldn't hold out too much hope of there being life on any of these planets just because its in the habitable zone. My guess (and really that's all we can do until we get a larger sample size of planets having life vs not) is that a very tiny percentage of these planets even in the habitable zones actually harbor life.
That said - even if there was only life in the universe at a rate of one inhabited planet per galaxy, the universe as a whole would still have billions of inhabited planets - it's just that there'd be virtually zero chance that life from one would ever be aware of or affected by life on another.
Nothing really - it's a buzzword. You need to parse that out really.
That doesn't mean that it won't be an improvement, but realistically the description would be more useful if they just said "It's a lot like Siri but it understands more complex questions and it can interact with third party applications.".
Granted, I'm an Android user to I use Google's assistant program, but I've found them to be a useful idea but certainly primitive. "Ok Google set alarm . . ." is great - until it tells you that there are too many alarms (why can't the alarm program be configured to delete non-recurring alarms after they're past?). Then "Ok Google - Delete All Alarms" it doesn't understand so it goes off and does a search.
I love the tech and will continue to use it, but I have a feeling its going to be a LOT better in 10 years.
You completely missed my point by bringing it back to a road. My whole point was that speed doesn't have to be associated with driving at all.
If they are showing the speed on a photo, or doing trophies based on a speed, there are plenty of other ways to do that. You can safely get those trophies by travelling in an airplane, train, or conveyance other than a car.
Yep - not to mention the problem with passengers in the car having a phone - or people just hacking the phone to disable whatever triggers they car's lockout.
Besides - with self-driving technology improving as fast as it is, I doubt this will be an issue for much longer anyways. In 15 years very few humans will be "driving" cars.
Ok - so the users were morons, but there are plenty of completely legitimate ways to go 100MPH.
If they offered a trophy for snapping a picture of 10 Snickers bars and someone goes and steals them to achieve it, the company isn't at fault for "encouraging" theft - they would be offering a trophy for something achievable using completely legitimate and legal means, and the idiotic user decided to do something illegal as a shortcut.
Simply going at that speed isn't risky. Most people are going faster than that in an airplane.
Just because they award a trophy for something that you can be a complete idiot and try to achieve in an unsafe way, doesn't mean they company is at fault.
Meh - the rights are for sale. There's already two companies doing exactly this - Sling and Playstation Vue. I've subscribed to both in the past and currently subscribe to Vue.
Overall I like the concept, but Sling lost my business due to technical issues (I watch Youtube, Hulu, and Netflix all the time - no buffering. Sling would drop out frequently during live shows). Vue is BETTER but still not quite up to the technical quality level of Youtube or Netflix.
If Youtube offered the service at a similar price I'd try it out. Heck if it's ANY cheaper and includes AMC I'd probably go for it since realistically that's almost the only channel I watch on Vue. Except for that the only other thing I use it for is if my parents come over - they're not accustomed to Netflix and tend to be more comfortable with the concept of "channels" versus a list of shows.
They all are, and always will be.
It takes a lot of money to run for almost any office. Heck even in LOCAL politics your town council members tend to be the wealthier people in the area (wealth being a relative term).
To realistically achieve the office of president you have to be rich already, because pretty much no one else can afford to gallivant around the country for a year or two for at MOST a 50/50 shot at getting the office.
That's why at best I consider Democrats hypocrites. Democrats and Republicans - they're all pretty much rich, but the Democrats are the group of rich people running around blaming all the countries problems on . . . rich people.
That might actually pan out well for him. Despite all the cries that the Republican party is racist Ben Carson actually is relatively popular (as an aside - Tim Scott, a black Republican senator from my own state of SC, is also INCREDIBLY popular here). I think picking him would do well to lessen Trump's image as a bigot.
As it is, though, I live in an overwhelmingly red state.
That's pretty much how it is in mot of the country (well, either red or blue). I've already voted in the primaries where my vote actually mattered. In the general my state goes red anyways.
Realistically in the general election the result is determined by the swing states. To the rest of us the primaries are where we're really voting.
That I can agree with. I personally think you'll loose some educational momentum by taking a break, but if you do, gain some life experience and pickup a job during that time (I didn't take a break personally, but I worked construction every summer while in college).
IMHO the whole "live to party" sentiment is already too strong in today's youth (and increasingly into adulthood). They certainly don't need to take another year between high school and college to mooch off their parents for even more time.
Did you even read the summary?
His quote was:
"We will never backdoor Ubuntu; we will never weaken encryption,"
He never made any promises about Linux as a whole. Equating Ubuntu to Linux as a whole was a mistake of the editors here - not Shuttleworth.
Go to the beach, public park or your flipping room. Cars are so uncomfortable (exceptions are campers and vans).
Well the first two are quite likely to get you arrested and on the sex offenders registry, which basically screws up the rest of your life. The second one is generally fine for adults, but teenagers often can't just go to their room and have sex because their parents are home, nor can they legally rent a hotel room, so they end up doing it in cars a lot.
Heck even as an adult it happens. If you live too far from where you're hanging out or have other people staying with you (ie, roommates who have children or children of your own if you're a single parent) then you can't just bring home some chick from the bar, though admittedly for adults a hotel room is a better option there.