True there is more cell phone coverage in Europe than in the US. However the US has a lot less people. There are places where there is still NO coverage, no analog, no digital, not even a a smile land line phone for miles. However if people actually live in the area there is some form of coverage. True it may be analog in some areas, but there is cell phones and land lines to nearly everyone.
It shows that you have not been to North america lately. I have cell coverage until I really get out there. I get it when camping on an island. Sure I eventially get out of my digital only coverage area, but only when traveling well outside of the areas I normally travel. Most months I do not go out of my coverage area, and often when I do I get coverage back again at my destination.
P.S. I have a GSM cell phone however that means nothing to me. It is just an engineering protocol, and I frankly don't care what protocol my phone uses, I care that my phone works, and it does.
Just a word, it can take years before the effects are known. I used to work for a company that wa sbought out. 7 years latter the parent finially admited that the salemen would never sell the (good) products that the smaller company had, and got rid of everyone. Of course in 7 years most of the work force in the smaller company had changed just because few people stay on that long, so the people affected are not the people who were there when it happened. All along they funded some good engineering.
I finially rescued my ataris, minus the 1050 that was hit by lightening. (Likely repairable, the modem got hit and took out the SIO bus of everything on the chain, but it looks like the rest of the parts functioned) I've got Ms PacMan set up beside me. I'd play other games too, but those old disks seem to only old up to one reading, so I'm not touching them until I get a way to copy them. SIO2PC perhaps.
Please folks, if you know of a clasic computer not being used, grab it. If you don't want it someone will. Even broken ones, if there are any parts are worth it. Remember they don't make most of those chips anymore so repairs require a parts computer.
BURN them?!?! Not today. All too often I need to deal with an old computer. Those old books often have some critical information that I need to make the old comptuers work that isn't in the new book. Generally because the feature I need is obsolete and has been replaced by a better way on new impliemtations, but not the old. Upgrade sounds good, but not when you are in a lab testing compatability with those old systems.
I also like to keep those old books around for historical perspective. By paying attention to my origonal C book I was reminded that not all comptuers are 32 bits (back in the days when 16 bit was no longer worth my while to support, and 64 bits was not in). I never knew when my program might have to run on that 36 bit machine referenced. (Never mind that it was obsolete about the time I was born, it once existed and that was enough to remind me to keep my programs portable)
In one job I was responsiable for the code to switch from one redudant peice of hardware to it's backup, and more importantly the code that decided the master was bad. I wrote a comment in 1.0: // Do we need a witchover? I noticed it the next day, but left it in because knowing how they worked I decided that a witch was more likely to get the job done then my code.
Amazingly enough switchovers worked fairly well, perhaps I was just too close to the hardware and knew the limitations. I'd like to get another shot at redunadt hardware though to see how if the stupid tricks that we madw work are normal, or if there is a way to make it work that give an engineer confidence that it works.
While printers MIGHT have caught fire at times, it did not happen often. I've seen many jamed dot-matrix printers (funny how tractor feeds seemed to jam all the time, but plain paper which seems harder rarely jams), but none that even got hot enough to smoke.
The real reason for that comment was the Centronic parrel port had an error line for out of paper, an online status line, and another error line. The comment in the code read something like/* Not out of paper and not offline. Must be on fire */. Most of those ports were not bi-directional back then without some fancy tricks that printers didn't support, so all problems other than out of paper and offline had to all be lumped into one error.
Keep in mind when evaluating providers that if you like one except for one dead spot, if you write them a letter they can often add coverage to that area. The works best if they are already close, they may not have the license to cover a distant city.
It takes months or even years to build a tower, but it they do it all the time. It is worth a shot when you are just mildly annoyed by lack of coverage in some area. Of course if you are majorly annoyed then you should get a different provider.
Note that rich people don't like to see towers, even though they can't legally prevent a tower from going up, they can create enough hasstle that it doesn't get built. (and then complain about lack of coverage...)
Cell phone plans are confusing intentionally. That means there is NO BEST plan that can be recomended for everyone. DO you own research.
Some companies have email, sms, wap, paging, or several other features that I can't even name off hand. Sometimes voincemail is free, othertimes it costs extra. Decide which you will use, and consider that when choosing a plan.
No company has coverage everywhere in the world. Some have no coverage off of major hiways and cities. Some have cheap roaming plans for those times when you are outside your home area, often at no extra charge. Others have no raoming at all. So you MUST consider where the service area is, which not only includes home, but also work, relatives, friends, favorite parks/lakes, and everywhere inbetween.
Also what do the people you call use? Nobody can do construction today (in service area) without a NexTel phone, because everyone else in that buisness has one, and the mobile-mobil minutes are so cheap (That two-way feature). Most other companies offer similear plans of reduced rates when calling another customer. And of course there are family plans that allow shared minutes, and/or unlimited calling between family members.
One last consideration: Who do you want to call you. With the availability of no roaming/long distance plans (AT&T and Verizon) I know several people who have a phone number that is local to the area where all their friends live, even though they don't live there aremore. This is a little hard to work out, you have to lie to them, and get the bill sent to someone who you trust to forward it to you. Great for those who have moved.
I personally do not find email, SMS, WAP, and such features useless. Your milage WILL Varry. I wouldn't be surprized to say at some point in the future that some of the above are my most used features.
Re:1) light fire. 2) open gas can...
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Droning On
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· Score: 2
I'd call it a good thing that most (or nearly most, I don't recall election turnout) people don't vote. I want people voting who have put some thought into it. I don't want people voting for Kennidy because Nixon was sweating under the bright lights on TV. (I know several people who did back when that election was current)
I think you are stupid and wrong to vote for someone other than the person I cote for, but if you have at least put some honest effort into voting for the person you think you should vote for, then I don't mind you voting for the "wrong guy". If you vote for someone without knowing how they stand, what they belive, history, and so on, then I would prefer you stay home. (Note, sometimes I've voted for a second choice when I didn't want the incumant to win, not something I like to do, but sometimes you must)
Note that it has been suggested that those who don't know who to vote for vote randomly, because all the random vote should cancle, yet still register that you care - assuming you care. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it is worth considereing.
Because tax payers should not be paying for someone else's stupidity (not paying for their car enough that it has to be repossesed). In the US the Bank does a credit check, and charges interest in proportion to how likely it is that the car will need to be repossesed.
Personally though, I don't belive in loans for cars. Drive (and learn to maintain) a beater until you can save up the cash to afford a better car. Thats just me though, and most people think that is the least of my crazy ideas.
Depends... As one person I know said: "Linux is easier to port to [our custom platform] than netBSD, but netBSD is much easier to maintain once to port is done". Linux has no interest in systems he doesn't own, thus even though support from non x86 platforms exists, they are always behind. NetBSD makes an effort to keep things in sync.
There are platforms that linux supports that netBSD doesn't (netBSD requires 32 bits or more, linux has a 8086 16 bit port). If you did a strict count on that basis you would likely find that some form of linux runs on more platforms. However netBSD has official support for more platforms. That means the support is not out of date, and you are running with the latest modern netBSD features.
If my garbage hauler wants me to sign a release as such I will get a different hauler. Oh, you mean that you have a monopoly garbage system? How barbaric and senseless. It isn't a big deal to have several companies hauling garbage in town. But then I don't live in a town.
If I had to sign such a document I'd quit garbage service. It is a service, it isn't that much work to seperate garbage into recycleable (glass, plastic, metal), burnable (wood and paper, though the latter is recycleable), and compost (all the rest). Some things are just too much a pain to seperate, but it can be done, and if things get bad enough I will.
All well and good, but who checks the doctor. One advantage of a good pharmacist is they double check the doctors work. Pills often come in different dossages, it doesn't take much for the doctor to mix up and perscribe 5 500mg pills, when 1 500mg or 5 100mg is needed. The results of that can be deadly, so I want someone checking up. Rrobots can be programed to flag that situation, but if there are times when 5 500mg pills are needed then flagging it everytime will be an annoyance, while a pharmacist might know enough about the patient (without beind a doctor) to flag it as wrong only for her situation.
True, but don't fool yourself into thinking a degree is a sure ticket to a job. I have a BSCS, and I've been out of comptuer work for 6 months so far. It is likely to be longer because I had to take a construction job to pay bills.
Sure the union people will tell you that union means quality. However when you look closer you see a system the does nothing to reward quality, and everything to reward minimal quality. Unions demand that everyone be paid not based on how they work, but how long they have been around. Work in a union shop for 30 years and you will make a lot more than someone who only worked there for 5 years, even if you specalised in just one thing, while the 5 year guy can do every job in the shop faster than you, and achive better quality along the way. This isn't to say all unions work that way, but many do.
Don't forget politics. Unions generally donate heavilly to the democratic party, which is fine if you are a democrat, but if you work in a union shop and are a republican (or other party), you have no choice but to give some of your money to the democratic party.
I'm not against unions in general. However before you join make sure you know what the downside is.
You have made the clasic mistake of assuming because you are lucky everyone else is too. While it is true that too many people got into computers several years ago who had no buisness in computers, that does not mean that there are plenty of jobs for people who are good at computers. Those hiring have no good way of knowing who is good. They have a stack of resumes, and they don't tell you a thing about how good the auther is at programing.
You have a job. Me, and several hundred programers that I know do not. Some of them are in the group who shouldn't touch a computer, but many are good or excellent programers.
I have not giving up on computers. However I need to eat and pay my bills. Since nobody will pay me to work with computers, and I don't have the personality to sell myself (if there are contract jobs...) I've been forced to take a job in construction. I'm not alone in that choice.
State senators in Virgina IIRC represent each county.
I'm sure that the Virgina constitution says that senitors represent counties, but the US supreeem court decided a long time ago (100 years? I can't remember) that the little line in the US constitution about ensuring a democratly elected state (and local?) goverment means that state senitors cannot represent counties, they must represent people. Meaning most states have a two house legislator, but no difference in how they are elected.
I'm in favor of getting rid of that system in Minnesota, but it isn't all bad.
My grandpa recalls two cases. One he was selected for, and he stood up the first day of the trial and said "Your honor, it is true that I don't know the defendant, but I know three other people he has beat up". The lawyers couldn't get him out of there fast enough after that. (and because he knew those people he shouldn't have been selected anyway) However the other jurers would have no opportunity to know that this is not a one time incident, something he felt was important to suggest.
Another time a friend was on a big murder case, and they described cutting open the defendants coat and finding some metal, and that was the critical evidence that allowed them to convict him. Only afterwords was it pointed out that the coat had been to the FBI experts, and the odds of them not finding such critical evidence is low. However after the FBI was done with it other people (prosicution...) had opportunity to plant evidence. (Typically the jury isn't allowed to handle evidence, this was an exception that we don't understand)
In other words, the lawyers from both sides have it in their best interest to not have thinkers finding holes in their arguments. Normally the prosicution has things in order in criminal cases, and guilty is fairly likely (why waste your time with a trial if you are not 100% sure he is guilty. however sometimes they are wrong.)
I checked out Reading People:How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior-Anytime, Anyplace from my local library, and I STRONGLY recomend everyone who is interested in this story do so. The author is a professional jury selecter (She help selecte the Jury for the O.J. Simpson case), and her insites will help you understand what is going on.
Note: I found myself wanting to throw this book against the wall several times, Arguing out loud with it, and other behavior only reserved for things that are really wrong. In other words I don't recomend this as a way to learn to read people (not that I claim to know anything about reading people), so much as a way to understand lawyers. Not that I disagree with it so much as I find it horiable that people are choosen/rejected for the reasons stated. Often what she would call a definate no for a jury is someone I would want!
Ps: that link is to amazon.com, because it was the first I found. I know there are better companys to order from.
Re:Why should you even need land line service at a
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DSL Amidst Phone Wars
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You shouldn't, and I'm piss off about paying for a land line that I never use. I pay $40/month for my cell phone, with free long distance and (US, where there is service) roaming. I then pay $30/month for a measured line land line phone (Pay per minute, a normal unlimited local calls line would be $45/month) plus $50/month for my 720k DSL line (I could go to the slower 256k DSL and save $10/month).
I'm mad, I wrote the local PUC and they said "We are sorry, but we have no interest in helping you". I'm waiting for something else to come along that will work.
Re:Ice Cream Lovers Refuse To Switch To Gnu Cream
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Linux in the Workplace
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· Score: 2
For flavor I suggest you find a vanilla bean, and soak it in Burbon for a week. You wouldn't go back to store bought vanilla after that that. Even better if your brew your own burbon.
The Communist scare was very real. There were communists in the US in the 1950's who were planning a revolution, and they had some of the supplies they needed to pull it off. I've met some of the former participants.
I don't know anyone planning such a revolution today, but considering the population of the country I belive there are several groups planning a revolution. They are all crack pots, and will not gather enough support to pull it off, but that doesn't change the fact that they exist. While the National Gaurd will stop them quickly once we realise what is going on if/when they attack, if you are (by accident or design) one of the first targets that doesn't change a thing for you.
In several US states you are legally allowed to use deadly force against anyone unwelcome on your property. While this isn't a blanket, anyone who sues you for shooting at them in these states had better be able to prove they had a right to be on your property or the judge will just dismiss the case.
In all (or nearly all?) states there is a justifable homicide law where you can kill someone who you reasonably belive intends to kill you. (you better be prepared to show that you had reason to belive you were in serious danger, it isn't an easy defense, but it can be made)
The supreem court has said several times the police have no duty to protect any one person. Their job is to make the general area safer. (the case was where one women was being raped, a second hiding under the bed called the police, and the rapist answered the door to the police and said "everything is okay", and went back to his rape after they left)
Wait a minute, you installed over or next to windows, to use windows programs? I can't be the only one to think "God, that's dumb, just stay in windows!".
That only seems dumb if you don't want to run windows and unix programs at the same time. With Wine I can run that cool game without taking down my mail server. For that matter I can controll how programs work, wine will let me run a program that demands to run full screen in a window.
I've been told XP is a lot better, but wine allows me to run buggy windows programs, without worring what will happen to my other programs when it crashes.
Wine has its place. I would prefer that every windows program I'm interested in run native on linux, but wine is often good enough that I can use it anyway.
Yes we will bomb ourselves. Well actually we will bomb congress. Not with explosives, but something polititions fear much more then a physical bomb: we will vote them out. There are few issues that will get people to the polls to vote out the incumbant faster than a large increase in the gas tax. (Note that I said large, we will swallow a small one here and there, but we won't pay for a large increase)
Don't forget that in europe public transportation generally works, and people rarely have as far to go anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
True there is more cell phone coverage in Europe than in the US. However the US has a lot less people. There are places where there is still NO coverage, no analog, no digital, not even a a smile land line phone for miles. However if people actually live in the area there is some form of coverage. True it may be analog in some areas, but there is cell phones and land lines to nearly everyone.
It shows that you have not been to North america lately. I have cell coverage until I really get out there. I get it when camping on an island. Sure I eventially get out of my digital only coverage area, but only when traveling well outside of the areas I normally travel. Most months I do not go out of my coverage area, and often when I do I get coverage back again at my destination.
P.S. I have a GSM cell phone however that means nothing to me. It is just an engineering protocol, and I frankly don't care what protocol my phone uses, I care that my phone works, and it does.
Just a word, it can take years before the effects are known. I used to work for a company that wa sbought out. 7 years latter the parent finially admited that the salemen would never sell the (good) products that the smaller company had, and got rid of everyone. Of course in 7 years most of the work force in the smaller company had changed just because few people stay on that long, so the people affected are not the people who were there when it happened. All along they funded some good engineering.
I finially rescued my ataris, minus the 1050 that was hit by lightening. (Likely repairable, the modem got hit and took out the SIO bus of everything on the chain, but it looks like the rest of the parts functioned) I've got Ms PacMan set up beside me. I'd play other games too, but those old disks seem to only old up to one reading, so I'm not touching them until I get a way to copy them. SIO2PC perhaps.
Please folks, if you know of a clasic computer not being used, grab it. If you don't want it someone will. Even broken ones, if there are any parts are worth it. Remember they don't make most of those chips anymore so repairs require a parts computer.
BURN them?!?! Not today. All too often I need to deal with an old computer. Those old books often have some critical information that I need to make the old comptuers work that isn't in the new book. Generally because the feature I need is obsolete and has been replaced by a better way on new impliemtations, but not the old. Upgrade sounds good, but not when you are in a lab testing compatability with those old systems.
I also like to keep those old books around for historical perspective. By paying attention to my origonal C book I was reminded that not all comptuers are 32 bits (back in the days when 16 bit was no longer worth my while to support, and 64 bits was not in). I never knew when my program might have to run on that 36 bit machine referenced. (Never mind that it was obsolete about the time I was born, it once existed and that was enough to remind me to keep my programs portable)
In one job I was responsiable for the code to switch from one redudant peice of hardware to it's backup, and more importantly the code that decided the master was bad. I wrote a comment in 1.0:
// Do we need a witchover?
I noticed it the next day, but left it in because knowing how they worked I decided that a witch was more likely to get the job done then my code.
Amazingly enough switchovers worked fairly well, perhaps I was just too close to the hardware and knew the limitations. I'd like to get another shot at redunadt hardware though to see how if the stupid tricks that we madw work are normal, or if there is a way to make it work that give an engineer confidence that it works.
While printers MIGHT have caught fire at times, it did not happen often. I've seen many jamed dot-matrix printers (funny how tractor feeds seemed to jam all the time, but plain paper which seems harder rarely jams), but none that even got hot enough to smoke.
The real reason for that comment was the Centronic parrel port had an error line for out of paper, an online status line, and another error line. The comment in the code read something like /* Not out of paper and not offline. Must be on fire */. Most of those ports were not bi-directional back then without some fancy tricks that printers didn't support, so all problems other than out of paper and offline had to all be lumped into one error.
Keep in mind when evaluating providers that if you like one except for one dead spot, if you write them a letter they can often add coverage to that area. The works best if they are already close, they may not have the license to cover a distant city.
It takes months or even years to build a tower, but it they do it all the time. It is worth a shot when you are just mildly annoyed by lack of coverage in some area. Of course if you are majorly annoyed then you should get a different provider.
Note that rich people don't like to see towers, even though they can't legally prevent a tower from going up, they can create enough hasstle that it doesn't get built. (and then complain about lack of coverage...)
Cell phone plans are confusing intentionally. That means there is NO BEST plan that can be recomended for everyone. DO you own research.
Some companies have email, sms, wap, paging, or several other features that I can't even name off hand. Sometimes voincemail is free, othertimes it costs extra. Decide which you will use, and consider that when choosing a plan.
No company has coverage everywhere in the world. Some have no coverage off of major hiways and cities. Some have cheap roaming plans for those times when you are outside your home area, often at no extra charge. Others have no raoming at all. So you MUST consider where the service area is, which not only includes home, but also work, relatives, friends, favorite parks/lakes, and everywhere inbetween.
Also what do the people you call use? Nobody can do construction today (in service area) without a NexTel phone, because everyone else in that buisness has one, and the mobile-mobil minutes are so cheap (That two-way feature). Most other companies offer similear plans of reduced rates when calling another customer. And of course there are family plans that allow shared minutes, and/or unlimited calling between family members.
One last consideration: Who do you want to call you. With the availability of no roaming/long distance plans (AT&T and Verizon) I know several people who have a phone number that is local to the area where all their friends live, even though they don't live there aremore. This is a little hard to work out, you have to lie to them, and get the bill sent to someone who you trust to forward it to you. Great for those who have moved.
I personally do not find email, SMS, WAP, and such features useless. Your milage WILL Varry. I wouldn't be surprized to say at some point in the future that some of the above are my most used features.
I'd call it a good thing that most (or nearly most, I don't recall election turnout) people don't vote. I want people voting who have put some thought into it. I don't want people voting for Kennidy because Nixon was sweating under the bright lights on TV. (I know several people who did back when that election was current)
I think you are stupid and wrong to vote for someone other than the person I cote for, but if you have at least put some honest effort into voting for the person you think you should vote for, then I don't mind you voting for the "wrong guy". If you vote for someone without knowing how they stand, what they belive, history, and so on, then I would prefer you stay home. (Note, sometimes I've voted for a second choice when I didn't want the incumant to win, not something I like to do, but sometimes you must)
Note that it has been suggested that those who don't know who to vote for vote randomly, because all the random vote should cancle, yet still register that you care - assuming you care. I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it is worth considereing.
Because tax payers should not be paying for someone else's stupidity (not paying for their car enough that it has to be repossesed). In the US the Bank does a credit check, and charges interest in proportion to how likely it is that the car will need to be repossesed.
Personally though, I don't belive in loans for cars. Drive (and learn to maintain) a beater until you can save up the cash to afford a better car. Thats just me though, and most people think that is the least of my crazy ideas.
Depends... As one person I know said: "Linux is easier to port to [our custom platform] than netBSD, but netBSD is much easier to maintain once to port is done". Linux has no interest in systems he doesn't own, thus even though support from non x86 platforms exists, they are always behind. NetBSD makes an effort to keep things in sync.
There are platforms that linux supports that netBSD doesn't (netBSD requires 32 bits or more, linux has a 8086 16 bit port). If you did a strict count on that basis you would likely find that some form of linux runs on more platforms. However netBSD has official support for more platforms. That means the support is not out of date, and you are running with the latest modern netBSD features.
If my garbage hauler wants me to sign a release as such I will get a different hauler. Oh, you mean that you have a monopoly garbage system? How barbaric and senseless. It isn't a big deal to have several companies hauling garbage in town. But then I don't live in a town.
If I had to sign such a document I'd quit garbage service. It is a service, it isn't that much work to seperate garbage into recycleable (glass, plastic, metal), burnable (wood and paper, though the latter is recycleable), and compost (all the rest). Some things are just too much a pain to seperate, but it can be done, and if things get bad enough I will.
All well and good, but who checks the doctor. One advantage of a good pharmacist is they double check the doctors work. Pills often come in different dossages, it doesn't take much for the doctor to mix up and perscribe 5 500mg pills, when 1 500mg or 5 100mg is needed. The results of that can be deadly, so I want someone checking up. Rrobots can be programed to flag that situation, but if there are times when 5 500mg pills are needed then flagging it everytime will be an annoyance, while a pharmacist might know enough about the patient (without beind a doctor) to flag it as wrong only for her situation.
True, but don't fool yourself into thinking a degree is a sure ticket to a job. I have a BSCS, and I've been out of comptuer work for 6 months so far. It is likely to be longer because I had to take a construction job to pay bills.
Sure the union people will tell you that union means quality. However when you look closer you see a system the does nothing to reward quality, and everything to reward minimal quality. Unions demand that everyone be paid not based on how they work, but how long they have been around. Work in a union shop for 30 years and you will make a lot more than someone who only worked there for 5 years, even if you specalised in just one thing, while the 5 year guy can do every job in the shop faster than you, and achive better quality along the way. This isn't to say all unions work that way, but many do.
Don't forget politics. Unions generally donate heavilly to the democratic party, which is fine if you are a democrat, but if you work in a union shop and are a republican (or other party), you have no choice but to give some of your money to the democratic party.
I'm not against unions in general. However before you join make sure you know what the downside is.
You have made the clasic mistake of assuming because you are lucky everyone else is too. While it is true that too many people got into computers several years ago who had no buisness in computers, that does not mean that there are plenty of jobs for people who are good at computers. Those hiring have no good way of knowing who is good. They have a stack of resumes, and they don't tell you a thing about how good the auther is at programing.
You have a job. Me, and several hundred programers that I know do not. Some of them are in the group who shouldn't touch a computer, but many are good or excellent programers.
I have not giving up on computers. However I need to eat and pay my bills. Since nobody will pay me to work with computers, and I don't have the personality to sell myself (if there are contract jobs...) I've been forced to take a job in construction. I'm not alone in that choice.
P.S. anyone want to hire me?
State senators in Virgina IIRC represent each county.
I'm sure that the Virgina constitution says that senitors represent counties, but the US supreeem court decided a long time ago (100 years? I can't remember) that the little line in the US constitution about ensuring a democratly elected state (and local?) goverment means that state senitors cannot represent counties, they must represent people. Meaning most states have a two house legislator, but no difference in how they are elected.
I'm in favor of getting rid of that system in Minnesota, but it isn't all bad.
My grandpa recalls two cases. One he was selected for, and he stood up the first day of the trial and said "Your honor, it is true that I don't know the defendant, but I know three other people he has beat up". The lawyers couldn't get him out of there fast enough after that. (and because he knew those people he shouldn't have been selected anyway) However the other jurers would have no opportunity to know that this is not a one time incident, something he felt was important to suggest.
Another time a friend was on a big murder case, and they described cutting open the defendants coat and finding some metal, and that was the critical evidence that allowed them to convict him. Only afterwords was it pointed out that the coat had been to the FBI experts, and the odds of them not finding such critical evidence is low. However after the FBI was done with it other people (prosicution...) had opportunity to plant evidence. (Typically the jury isn't allowed to handle evidence, this was an exception that we don't understand)
In other words, the lawyers from both sides have it in their best interest to not have thinkers finding holes in their arguments. Normally the prosicution has things in order in criminal cases, and guilty is fairly likely (why waste your time with a trial if you are not 100% sure he is guilty. however sometimes they are wrong.)
I checked out Reading People:How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior-Anytime, Anyplace from my local library, and I STRONGLY recomend everyone who is interested in this story do so. The author is a professional jury selecter (She help selecte the Jury for the O.J. Simpson case), and her insites will help you understand what is going on.
Note: I found myself wanting to throw this book against the wall several times, Arguing out loud with it, and other behavior only reserved for things that are really wrong. In other words I don't recomend this as a way to learn to read people (not that I claim to know anything about reading people), so much as a way to understand lawyers. Not that I disagree with it so much as I find it horiable that people are choosen/rejected for the reasons stated. Often what she would call a definate no for a jury is someone I would want!
Ps: that link is to amazon.com, because it was the first I found. I know there are better companys to order from.
You shouldn't, and I'm piss off about paying for a land line that I never use. I pay $40/month for my cell phone, with free long distance and (US, where there is service) roaming. I then pay $30/month for a measured line land line phone (Pay per minute, a normal unlimited local calls line would be $45/month) plus $50/month for my 720k DSL line (I could go to the slower 256k DSL and save $10/month).
I'm mad, I wrote the local PUC and they said "We are sorry, but we have no interest in helping you". I'm waiting for something else to come along that will work.
For flavor I suggest you find a vanilla bean, and soak it in Burbon for a week. You wouldn't go back to store bought vanilla after that that. Even better if your brew your own burbon.
The Communist scare was very real. There were communists in the US in the 1950's who were planning a revolution, and they had some of the supplies they needed to pull it off. I've met some of the former participants.
I don't know anyone planning such a revolution today, but considering the population of the country I belive there are several groups planning a revolution. They are all crack pots, and will not gather enough support to pull it off, but that doesn't change the fact that they exist. While the National Gaurd will stop them quickly once we realise what is going on if/when they attack, if you are (by accident or design) one of the first targets that doesn't change a thing for you.
In several US states you are legally allowed to use deadly force against anyone unwelcome on your property. While this isn't a blanket, anyone who sues you for shooting at them in these states had better be able to prove they had a right to be on your property or the judge will just dismiss the case.
In all (or nearly all?) states there is a justifable homicide law where you can kill someone who you reasonably belive intends to kill you. (you better be prepared to show that you had reason to belive you were in serious danger, it isn't an easy defense, but it can be made)
The supreem court has said several times the police have no duty to protect any one person. Their job is to make the general area safer. (the case was where one women was being raped, a second hiding under the bed called the police, and the rapist answered the door to the police and said "everything is okay", and went back to his rape after they left)
Wait a minute, you installed over or next to windows, to use windows programs? I can't be the only one to think "God, that's dumb, just stay in windows!".
That only seems dumb if you don't want to run windows and unix programs at the same time. With Wine I can run that cool game without taking down my mail server. For that matter I can controll how programs work, wine will let me run a program that demands to run full screen in a window.
I've been told XP is a lot better, but wine allows me to run buggy windows programs, without worring what will happen to my other programs when it crashes.
Wine has its place. I would prefer that every windows program I'm interested in run native on linux, but wine is often good enough that I can use it anyway.
Yes we will bomb ourselves. Well actually we will bomb congress. Not with explosives, but something polititions fear much more then a physical bomb: we will vote them out. There are few issues that will get people to the polls to vote out the incumbant faster than a large increase in the gas tax. (Note that I said large, we will swallow a small one here and there, but we won't pay for a large increase)
Don't forget that in europe public transportation generally works, and people rarely have as far to go anyway.