That is great - where they put the sensors in, and the sensors work. However it costs money to put the sensors in. Then the sensors have to survive freeze-thaw cycles (which are particularly bad in MN). Then you need to account for the weakening of the road by the sensors (may or may not be a factor, I don't know). Then account for the cost of all those wires running around the city to collect the data.
Now the cell phone towers have issues of their own. However people want cell phones, so they will build them anyway. So you only need to account for the cost of extracting data from the towers. (which isn't easy as easy as road sensor, but you avoid all the other costs)
Pavement sensors only work where installed. Most side roads don't have them. Once you get the towers working it is a trivial matter to check on any side road you are interested in.
Actually that is roofing. All roofers that I have ever known smoke pot. I think that you need to be high to be willing to go that high.
Carpenters tend to standard tobacco, though not as much as roofers to pot. I know several carpenters who don't smoke/chew (Seems like 1 in 4, while the general population is 3 in 4).
Of course I can only speak for those I know. I have not done a real study. It is still interesting.
My company doesn't want the hassle of distributing source code with our products. So we will never include a GPL grammar checker. (For our products this wouldn't make sense anyway, but for discussion lets assume that a grammar checker would be a useful addition to our products) Thus the GPL is something that my company cannot accept.
The question is what is your goal. If you want to make the world a better place by improving the grammar of written documents, you have only one choice for your grammar checker: the BSD license. If you want to improve free software only, than the GPL is the only choice. Take your pick: I would argue that the GPL is overly restrictive for the case of a grammar checker. (But I'm not a programmer on this project so I don't have any rights to set terms)
Note that you do not need to accept the terms of the GPL to run a GPL program. You only need to accept those terms if you distribute a GPL program. Thus click through licenses for GPL programs makes no sense. (Though I suspect the lawyers require it anyway)
True, but it misses the point: if you want others to use your code, the GPL prevents that. The BSD license is intentionall compatible with proprietary software. I want my code to be used in many cases.
A grammar checker is a perfect example. If I write a good grammar checker (I'd be a poor person to do this considering my grammar) I want the world to use it (or at least the English speaking world...), to make the world a better place.
This cannot happen with the GPL license - Microsoft will not replace their grammar checker with mine, even though mine is better. If I had used the GPL there is a good chance Microsoft would replace their grammar checker with mine - thus improving the written English language. In the process Microsoft may fix a bug or two and submit a patch back. Even if they don't right away they will quickly discover that the cost of intigrating all their patches into my code without releasing them is much greater in the long run. Thus the BSD license provides nearly as much benefit as much as the GPL, yet allows more people to use it.
Now if this is purely YOUR code, you can choose the license. I can understand the wish to force the GPL on your code (even though I often disagree on the end results of that), and give you the right to do that.
No need to stop and bother the poor collectors. We mail the check every month. We wouldn't mind if you stopped by the post office and got them to deliver it in a reasonable amount of time.
The GPL discourages collaboration. If you want to encourage collaboration you need a license like BSD. The GPL allows restricted collaboration, but only between GPL fans. The BSD license allows collaboration for everyone.
In my state there are some legal exceptions. (and other state courts are likely to hold these exceptions even if they are not in law)
Even if your property is posted, If my dog gets loose I am allowed to tresspass to get my dog back. If I'm hunting nearby, and shoot something that runs to your property I'm allowed to retrieve my kill. In both cases I am only allowed the most direct route to retrieve my possessions.
Road ditches are public property. You can post no tresspassing, and no snowmobiles/4x4s all you want, but so long as I remain in the ditch you can do nothing about it. (the law specifies which part of the ditch I'm allowed in actually)
I live in a rural area. It is legal to shoot dogs that are not under the owners direct control and doing anything harmful. There are laws about this that are more complex, but out here we just follow the 3 S: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut-up.
There are federal laws to the above effect. So even if your town has a no shooting in city limits law, you might be able to get around that in some cases. I wouldn't recommend trying it though, city limits rarely have any place where you can safely shoot a gun. They city might not be able to get your for shooting because the target was legal, but they can get your for recklessness.
The above makes it sound like all dogs are shot on site, but that is not the case. We have no problem shooting a dog that is a problem in anyway. A dog that comes over because he thinks we will throw a stick for him is likely to get a stick thrown. Dogs that are chasing/attacking animals (which could be the stick chasing dog latter one), or dogs that threaten people are likely to be shot.
Again, you can believe whatever you want, but it was the reason given for the war.
No, it was A reason. 1 of 30 something reasons. The one that the media ran with, and so Bush didn't try to push the others, but still one for many reasons given.
No he did not. We pulled them out and then he refused to let them back in.
So? The terms of the 91 gulf war required him to allow inspectors.
Now, which of those UN resolutions was worth a single US death? Why?
Which of them are worth the hundreds of billions of dollars we're spending? Why?
those are good questions. Don't disguise the good questions with irrelevant revisionism.
The tools stand for the process though. If they used RUP to create the tools, then you would expect the quality of the process to be reflected in the tools. If they did not use the process to create the tools you need to ask why not.
So while I agree you don't need the tools for the process, I judge the process itself (I have never used RUP for a project) in part by the tools created with it.
Though really all this proves is the process isn't a silver bullet, something Fred Brooks predicted years before it was dreamed up.
DeLay is still under investigation. He claims that he is innocent of wrong doing. (or perhaps an honest mistake, something that normal people would agree is trivial - not to say it is right)
Until the investigation is finished and we know the truth (if indeed they find the truth...) I insist that you keep quiet about the issue. There may or may not be anything here.
When you are powerful and have enemies, which both parties do, those enemies will from time to time plant evidence of wrongdoing that you did not do. This needs to be separated from wrongdoing that you do.
The republicans have a majority right now (though not by much), so it is no surprise that there are a lot of investigations of them. Some will prove false, some will prove true.
Besides, a good part of what DeLay is accused of is violating laws that are unconstitutional (campaign finance reform), and something that I would expect democrats would be jumping to defend him for. (though there are also charges of money laundering which are something that if true are reason to put him in prison)
So if I write one story I'm not a journalist? I have a day job, not at a newspaper. I took English in high school, and we covered how to write newspaper stories, and I even did one. (A stupid one that wasn't worth publishing, but it was a valid news paper story, and thus good enough to get me a good grade in class) Sure you can get higher education in journalism and learn things I don't know, but not a whole lot that I can't figure out on my own.
I could see myself writing a story sometime if no reporter was covering it, and it was interesting. Newspapers are always looking for stories to publish, particularly when it is a well written story that they can publish without paying the costs of a reporter. (there are legal issues here, but if I'm interested in the topic I might write something for free)
According to your definition I am not a journalist. Is that what you really want to say?
Lets change this: I'm a reporter working for a tiny weekly newspaper (circulation about 1000), my first story is embarrassing to the mayor. Are my sources not protected because this is my first story?
Lets change this a little, say I'm assigned a story to investigate the mayor's sex life as a first story. After interviewing some of the people he slept with I get uncomfortable with the whole business and resign without publishing anything. Are my sources, who spoke to me only because they thought I was a journalist not protected because I never published.
There are a lot of old computers out there that have not been upgraded. Windows 98 is still common, though mostly for kids games these days. (The games don't run on the parent's XP system, but the next kid can enjoy it just as much as the first) Many offices are still running Windows 2000 on the desktop. (NT 4.0 is still a popular server platform, though it is dieing slowly)
Many home users are using OOo, because it is free and better than whatever came with their system. Many offices are still on Word 97.
The market share of those using the newest versions of Microsoft stuff is increasing, but there is a large amount of old stuff out there.
It is very hard to count marketshare. OpenOffice.org is a freedownload. How many have downloaded it once and installed on many machines? Many companies have a site license for Microsoft software, whatever comes with the PC is wiped when the machine arrives, and their version installed. Don't count the shipped version of software as in use. So nobody really knows what the true numbers are.
I agree that his numbers sound exaggerated, but I wouldn't call them bad without getting his justification for them. He might know what he is talking about.
The problem there is that the American people often seem to vote for a center coalition, but get a left or right one. The outcome of the last two US elections was roughly similar to the outcome of the current German election in my interpretation (accounting for the extremely low turnout in US elections, which is clearly a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the choice they get).
I have to disagree with this. First of all, Both Bush and Kerry were moderates. Kerry was more liberal and Bush more conservative, but they are both centrists (for the US, understand that both look far right to the typical European)
US voter turnout was at all time records. 64% of those 18 and over voted. I know people who didn't vote, but it wasn't dissatisfaction it was disinterest. Now I'll agree this is a problem, but it isn't a problem that they would have voted if there was a choice they cared about.
China doesn't have a problem feeding its people. Well The food isn't what you and I would like to eat, but it is healthy. (And from what I can tell the Chinese prefer it to what we eat, so it is a matter of personal taste)
The US is buying a lot of 'junk' from China - China is running a trade surplus. If China has a problem with feeding it's people it could afford to buy food from the US where crops are burned in the field because it isn't worth the cost to harvest them.
The only countries that have starvation issues are countries where the government is actively starving the people, or where war has destroyed the crops, and relief can't get through.
Note that I'm not saying China has no problems, but the problems are not significant in regards to feeding people.
Last time I had to work in a place with Muzak (10 years ago - high school), were could choose which of about a dozen channels to listen to. Classical, classics, pop, country, seasonal (Christmas - I don't know what they did the rest of the year), and several others that I forget.
We just had to go into the office and turn a knob to change it. We even had a different setting for the back room (normally turned to off).
The US has enough problems of its own to take care of. Perhaps you have not noticed, but New Orleans is still a mess (though getting better it will take years to recover). Sure it would be nice to help everyone in trouble, but there is only so much that can be done - even when you are as large in the world as the US is, your abilities are limited.
I don't work for a congressperson. Just reporting what I've been told. Since the anthrax scares email has been upgraded in importance, previous to that email wasn't as useful, so depending on when you worked on a campaign, your info might be out of date.
Each congressperson is different. I'm sure each (which might be more the staff than the congressperson) has different rankings, and they can even change slightly. I know some have stated on their webpage that email is the best way to contact them, but that may not translate into their treatment of anything.
More than once I've seen someone take a gun, unload it, turn the safety on, then pull the trigger - the gun fired! In the first case the idiot didn't know how to use that gun, so he unloaded the chamber then loaded it from the magazine when he closed the chamber, then he misunderstood the safety and turned if off instead of on. The second case the guy was pretty sure something was wrong before he did this test. In both cases the safety mechanism was worthless, but fortunately both people were using good handling so there was no possibility of injury (despite not knowing how the one gun worked).
VMs are nice, but they can fail. Good programing practice will protect you from a failing VM.
What is the point in using a garbage collected language if you can still get memory leaks? If I have to run my programs through valgrind or the like to find leaks, why don't I just write them in C++ to start with?
I know there are other advantages to Java, C++ has some large ones too, and if you use the STL and RAII like you should, you end up simulating the advantages of java. (Plus you don't have to worry about the JVM license)
Reasonable belief? That is a given. I'm a white male of average build, and I am wearing a jacket that went into the door where the rape happened, at the same time the victim was dragged through that door (as shown by the RFID of her clothing). I'd call that reason to do an arrest. It just happens that I bought that jacket from the rapest (who in turn bought it from a black guy who bought it new - retail records can only show that the rapest wasn't the original purchaser)
There are two issues. First, the police needs to be respectful when they arrest people. In the mentioned case there was good reason to believe I'm guilty of a horrible crime, but further investigation will show I'm innocent. The constitution and other laws are suppose to make this the case, but it is very easy for police to abuse their power anyway.
The second issue is do we want this much evidence. I'm sorry for the victim, but on the other hand, I was needless detained. Where do you draw the line? The police could solve a lot more crimes if they would regularly search every home in the US. That isn't considered worth the cost though.
People learn currency when they are first introduced to it. The US has not has a major change in over 100 years, so most people never learned the difference between the two.
Sure when pointed out the differences are obvious, but when you reach your hand in your pocket you know that anything between the size of a 50 cent piece and a nickel is a quarter, so you never consider that there is something else in that range as well.
I learned my coins as the SBA was introduced. I can instantly tell the difference because when I was teaching myself to recognize coins that difference mattered. My parents learned when that difference was important, and they never entered learning mode, so they never learned the difference.
It isn't that you can't do it, it is that you never learned to pay attention. Intelligence is not a factor.
When I go to the bank I make it a point to get all my cash in 2 dollar bills. I will even trade any change in if I have enough. (I don't spends singles, given a choice, even if it means that I get a single in change) I like the looks on people's faces when I pay in two dollar bills. Besides, they are the most beautiful bills.
If I used cash more ($20 can last for months - I prefer the 1% back from my card) I'd get a bunch of dollar coins too, just because I like tell clerks "No, that is the exact amount, count it again".
There is a big difference between a 8' pine 2x5 from Home Depot vs the lumberyard. The lumberyard version is straight, and is dry enough that it won't warp after you build the house. (If you go to a good lumber yard) In addition the salesperson knows your voice when you call on your NexTel phone, and knows if you order 1/2 inch plywood that you really mean 7/16th OSB. He also ships it right to your job site so you can get the job done.
Oh, your are not a contractor building several houses a month? Sorry, you are not worth the lumberyards trouble to serve. Deal with the junk you can buy at Home Depot.
You are right, no store closed that will be missed. Many that are open have found an niche that isn't served by Home Depot, and give service that Home Depot cannot match.
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That is great - where they put the sensors in, and the sensors work. However it costs money to put the sensors in. Then the sensors have to survive freeze-thaw cycles (which are particularly bad in MN). Then you need to account for the weakening of the road by the sensors (may or may not be a factor, I don't know). Then account for the cost of all those wires running around the city to collect the data.
Now the cell phone towers have issues of their own. However people want cell phones, so they will build them anyway. So you only need to account for the cost of extracting data from the towers. (which isn't easy as easy as road sensor, but you avoid all the other costs)
Pavement sensors only work where installed. Most side roads don't have them. Once you get the towers working it is a trivial matter to check on any side road you are interested in.
Actually that is roofing. All roofers that I have ever known smoke pot. I think that you need to be high to be willing to go that high.
Carpenters tend to standard tobacco, though not as much as roofers to pot. I know several carpenters who don't smoke/chew (Seems like 1 in 4, while the general population is 3 in 4).
Of course I can only speak for those I know. I have not done a real study. It is still interesting.
My company doesn't want the hassle of distributing source code with our products. So we will never include a GPL grammar checker. (For our products this wouldn't make sense anyway, but for discussion lets assume that a grammar checker would be a useful addition to our products) Thus the GPL is something that my company cannot accept.
The question is what is your goal. If you want to make the world a better place by improving the grammar of written documents, you have only one choice for your grammar checker: the BSD license. If you want to improve free software only, than the GPL is the only choice. Take your pick: I would argue that the GPL is overly restrictive for the case of a grammar checker. (But I'm not a programmer on this project so I don't have any rights to set terms)
Note that you do not need to accept the terms of the GPL to run a GPL program. You only need to accept those terms if you distribute a GPL program. Thus click through licenses for GPL programs makes no sense. (Though I suspect the lawyers require it anyway)
True, but it misses the point: if you want others to use your code, the GPL prevents that. The BSD license is intentionall compatible with proprietary software. I want my code to be used in many cases.
A grammar checker is a perfect example. If I write a good grammar checker (I'd be a poor person to do this considering my grammar) I want the world to use it (or at least the English speaking world...), to make the world a better place.
This cannot happen with the GPL license - Microsoft will not replace their grammar checker with mine, even though mine is better. If I had used the GPL there is a good chance Microsoft would replace their grammar checker with mine - thus improving the written English language. In the process Microsoft may fix a bug or two and submit a patch back. Even if they don't right away they will quickly discover that the cost of intigrating all their patches into my code without releasing them is much greater in the long run. Thus the BSD license provides nearly as much benefit as much as the GPL, yet allows more people to use it.
Now if this is purely YOUR code, you can choose the license. I can understand the wish to force the GPL on your code (even though I often disagree on the end results of that), and give you the right to do that.
No need to stop and bother the poor collectors. We mail the check every month. We wouldn't mind if you stopped by the post office and got them to deliver it in a reasonable amount of time.
The GPL discourages collaboration. If you want to encourage collaboration you need a license like BSD. The GPL allows restricted collaboration, but only between GPL fans. The BSD license allows collaboration for everyone.
In my state there are some legal exceptions. (and other state courts are likely to hold these exceptions even if they are not in law)
Even if your property is posted, If my dog gets loose I am allowed to tresspass to get my dog back. If I'm hunting nearby, and shoot something that runs to your property I'm allowed to retrieve my kill. In both cases I am only allowed the most direct route to retrieve my possessions.
Road ditches are public property. You can post no tresspassing, and no snowmobiles/4x4s all you want, but so long as I remain in the ditch you can do nothing about it. (the law specifies which part of the ditch I'm allowed in actually)
I live in a rural area. It is legal to shoot dogs that are not under the owners direct control and doing anything harmful. There are laws about this that are more complex, but out here we just follow the 3 S: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut-up.
There are federal laws to the above effect. So even if your town has a no shooting in city limits law, you might be able to get around that in some cases. I wouldn't recommend trying it though, city limits rarely have any place where you can safely shoot a gun. They city might not be able to get your for shooting because the target was legal, but they can get your for recklessness.
The above makes it sound like all dogs are shot on site, but that is not the case. We have no problem shooting a dog that is a problem in anyway. A dog that comes over because he thinks we will throw a stick for him is likely to get a stick thrown. Dogs that are chasing/attacking animals (which could be the stick chasing dog latter one), or dogs that threaten people are likely to be shot.
Again, you can believe whatever you want, but it was the reason given for the war.
No, it was A reason. 1 of 30 something reasons. The one that the media ran with, and so Bush didn't try to push the others, but still one for many reasons given.
No he did not. We pulled them out and then he refused to let them back in.
So? The terms of the 91 gulf war required him to allow inspectors.
Now, which of those UN resolutions was worth a single US death? Why? Which of them are worth the hundreds of billions of dollars we're spending? Why?
those are good questions. Don't disguise the good questions with irrelevant revisionism.
The tools stand for the process though. If they used RUP to create the tools, then you would expect the quality of the process to be reflected in the tools. If they did not use the process to create the tools you need to ask why not.
So while I agree you don't need the tools for the process, I judge the process itself (I have never used RUP for a project) in part by the tools created with it.
Though really all this proves is the process isn't a silver bullet, something Fred Brooks predicted years before it was dreamed up.
DeLay is still under investigation. He claims that he is innocent of wrong doing. (or perhaps an honest mistake, something that normal people would agree is trivial - not to say it is right)
Until the investigation is finished and we know the truth (if indeed they find the truth...) I insist that you keep quiet about the issue. There may or may not be anything here.
When you are powerful and have enemies, which both parties do, those enemies will from time to time plant evidence of wrongdoing that you did not do. This needs to be separated from wrongdoing that you do.
The republicans have a majority right now (though not by much), so it is no surprise that there are a lot of investigations of them. Some will prove false, some will prove true.
Besides, a good part of what DeLay is accused of is violating laws that are unconstitutional (campaign finance reform), and something that I would expect democrats would be jumping to defend him for. (though there are also charges of money laundering which are something that if true are reason to put him in prison)
So if I write one story I'm not a journalist? I have a day job, not at a newspaper. I took English in high school, and we covered how to write newspaper stories, and I even did one. (A stupid one that wasn't worth publishing, but it was a valid news paper story, and thus good enough to get me a good grade in class) Sure you can get higher education in journalism and learn things I don't know, but not a whole lot that I can't figure out on my own.
I could see myself writing a story sometime if no reporter was covering it, and it was interesting. Newspapers are always looking for stories to publish, particularly when it is a well written story that they can publish without paying the costs of a reporter. (there are legal issues here, but if I'm interested in the topic I might write something for free)
According to your definition I am not a journalist. Is that what you really want to say?
Lets change this: I'm a reporter working for a tiny weekly newspaper (circulation about 1000), my first story is embarrassing to the mayor. Are my sources not protected because this is my first story?
Lets change this a little, say I'm assigned a story to investigate the mayor's sex life as a first story. After interviewing some of the people he slept with I get uncomfortable with the whole business and resign without publishing anything. Are my sources, who spoke to me only because they thought I was a journalist not protected because I never published.
Why? The only people who won't spill their guts are the people who wouldn't before anyway.
There are a lot of old computers out there that have not been upgraded. Windows 98 is still common, though mostly for kids games these days. (The games don't run on the parent's XP system, but the next kid can enjoy it just as much as the first) Many offices are still running Windows 2000 on the desktop. (NT 4.0 is still a popular server platform, though it is dieing slowly)
Many home users are using OOo, because it is free and better than whatever came with their system. Many offices are still on Word 97.
The market share of those using the newest versions of Microsoft stuff is increasing, but there is a large amount of old stuff out there.
It is very hard to count marketshare. OpenOffice.org is a freedownload. How many have downloaded it once and installed on many machines? Many companies have a site license for Microsoft software, whatever comes with the PC is wiped when the machine arrives, and their version installed. Don't count the shipped version of software as in use. So nobody really knows what the true numbers are.
I agree that his numbers sound exaggerated, but I wouldn't call them bad without getting his justification for them. He might know what he is talking about.
The problem there is that the American people often seem to vote for a center coalition, but get a left or right one. The outcome of the last two US elections was roughly similar to the outcome of the current German election in my interpretation (accounting for the extremely low turnout in US elections, which is clearly a sign of voter dissatisfaction with the choice they get).
I have to disagree with this. First of all, Both Bush and Kerry were moderates. Kerry was more liberal and Bush more conservative, but they are both centrists (for the US, understand that both look far right to the typical European)
US voter turnout was at all time records. 64% of those 18 and over voted. I know people who didn't vote, but it wasn't dissatisfaction it was disinterest. Now I'll agree this is a problem, but it isn't a problem that they would have voted if there was a choice they cared about.
China doesn't have a problem feeding its people. Well The food isn't what you and I would like to eat, but it is healthy. (And from what I can tell the Chinese prefer it to what we eat, so it is a matter of personal taste)
The US is buying a lot of 'junk' from China - China is running a trade surplus. If China has a problem with feeding it's people it could afford to buy food from the US where crops are burned in the field because it isn't worth the cost to harvest them.
The only countries that have starvation issues are countries where the government is actively starving the people, or where war has destroyed the crops, and relief can't get through.
Note that I'm not saying China has no problems, but the problems are not significant in regards to feeding people.
Last time I had to work in a place with Muzak (10 years ago - high school), were could choose which of about a dozen channels to listen to. Classical, classics, pop, country, seasonal (Christmas - I don't know what they did the rest of the year), and several others that I forget.
We just had to go into the office and turn a knob to change it. We even had a different setting for the back room (normally turned to off).
The US has enough problems of its own to take care of. Perhaps you have not noticed, but New Orleans is still a mess (though getting better it will take years to recover). Sure it would be nice to help everyone in trouble, but there is only so much that can be done - even when you are as large in the world as the US is, your abilities are limited.
I don't work for a congressperson. Just reporting what I've been told. Since the anthrax scares email has been upgraded in importance, previous to that email wasn't as useful, so depending on when you worked on a campaign, your info might be out of date.
Each congressperson is different. I'm sure each (which might be more the staff than the congressperson) has different rankings, and they can even change slightly. I know some have stated on their webpage that email is the best way to contact them, but that may not translate into their treatment of anything.
More than once I've seen someone take a gun, unload it, turn the safety on, then pull the trigger - the gun fired! In the first case the idiot didn't know how to use that gun, so he unloaded the chamber then loaded it from the magazine when he closed the chamber, then he misunderstood the safety and turned if off instead of on. The second case the guy was pretty sure something was wrong before he did this test. In both cases the safety mechanism was worthless, but fortunately both people were using good handling so there was no possibility of injury (despite not knowing how the one gun worked).
VMs are nice, but they can fail. Good programing practice will protect you from a failing VM.
What is the point in using a garbage collected language if you can still get memory leaks? If I have to run my programs through valgrind or the like to find leaks, why don't I just write them in C++ to start with?
I know there are other advantages to Java, C++ has some large ones too, and if you use the STL and RAII like you should, you end up simulating the advantages of java. (Plus you don't have to worry about the JVM license)
Reasonable belief? That is a given. I'm a white male of average build, and I am wearing a jacket that went into the door where the rape happened, at the same time the victim was dragged through that door (as shown by the RFID of her clothing). I'd call that reason to do an arrest. It just happens that I bought that jacket from the rapest (who in turn bought it from a black guy who bought it new - retail records can only show that the rapest wasn't the original purchaser)
There are two issues. First, the police needs to be respectful when they arrest people. In the mentioned case there was good reason to believe I'm guilty of a horrible crime, but further investigation will show I'm innocent. The constitution and other laws are suppose to make this the case, but it is very easy for police to abuse their power anyway.
The second issue is do we want this much evidence. I'm sorry for the victim, but on the other hand, I was needless detained. Where do you draw the line? The police could solve a lot more crimes if they would regularly search every home in the US. That isn't considered worth the cost though.
People learn currency when they are first introduced to it. The US has not has a major change in over 100 years, so most people never learned the difference between the two.
Sure when pointed out the differences are obvious, but when you reach your hand in your pocket you know that anything between the size of a 50 cent piece and a nickel is a quarter, so you never consider that there is something else in that range as well.
I learned my coins as the SBA was introduced. I can instantly tell the difference because when I was teaching myself to recognize coins that difference mattered. My parents learned when that difference was important, and they never entered learning mode, so they never learned the difference.
It isn't that you can't do it, it is that you never learned to pay attention. Intelligence is not a factor.
When I go to the bank I make it a point to get all my cash in 2 dollar bills. I will even trade any change in if I have enough. (I don't spends singles, given a choice, even if it means that I get a single in change) I like the looks on people's faces when I pay in two dollar bills. Besides, they are the most beautiful bills.
If I used cash more ($20 can last for months - I prefer the 1% back from my card) I'd get a bunch of dollar coins too, just because I like tell clerks "No, that is the exact amount, count it again".
There is a big difference between a 8' pine 2x5 from Home Depot vs the lumberyard. The lumberyard version is straight, and is dry enough that it won't warp after you build the house. (If you go to a good lumber yard) In addition the salesperson knows your voice when you call on your NexTel phone, and knows if you order 1/2 inch plywood that you really mean 7/16th OSB. He also ships it right to your job site so you can get the job done.
Oh, your are not a contractor building several houses a month? Sorry, you are not worth the lumberyards trouble to serve. Deal with the junk you can buy at Home Depot.
You are right, no store closed that will be missed. Many that are open have found an niche that isn't served by Home Depot, and give service that Home Depot cannot match.