While on my way to work early one morning last October, I discovered a dead man in a car. I tried calling 911 from a pay phone around the corner, but the phone didn't work. I don't own a cell phone, I was kind of far from home and I still needed to get to work.
If there hadn't been for the pay phone at the subway station I would have had to call from work (which probably would have been dismissed as a prank).
Last year, while walking to a bus stop around 5AM, I realized the guy sleeping in a nearby car was actually dead. As one of the few remaining Americans who does not own a cell phone, finding a nearby pay phone was a relief (the 911 operator was a different story).
What about areas where cell phhoines can't reach? Here in Boston, the entire subway system is inaccessable to cell phones (no repeaters underground).
I ride AMTRAK on long trips because I hate flying. Three years ago, I rode AMTRAK from Boston to New Orleans (36 hours each way). AMTRAK is much more comfortable than the bus, and you get to meet some very interesting people.
Here in Boston (and many other cities), the commuter rail is run by AMTRAK. So not riding AMTRAK means not going to work for a lot of people.
I'd like to see what happens when black folks are harrassed as frequently on trains as they are on the highway. My sister lives in New Jersey, and racial profiling by the state police is the main reason why she refuses to get a drivers license.
What about people with boom boxes? Or people who are loud without having cell phones (talking to themselves, shouting to people across the aisles, yelling out the windows...)? Or the bus driver who was having a conversation with the microphone on, enabling the entire bus to hear (yes, she knew it was on)?
I don't have any problem with people using cell phones on public transit. Obnoxious people will be obnoxious, regardless of technology.
I work at a coffee shop (not Starbuck's), and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are unable to pull themselves away from their phone long enough to place an order.
I think that a better idea would be to check in all phones at the door, and then to have an employee or employees be an answering service for all phones that are currrently checked in, and go and get the people who get called. So no loud movie theatres, and makes sure people won't annoy
others if they need to talk.
Some restaurants in my area do this, taking messages instead of getting the customer. While it seems to work, I can't see it happenning in a 500-seat movie theater. Instead of phones ringing every five minutes, ushers would be getting people every five minutes. Would it be quieter? Perhaps. Less annoying? No.
I've spent 36 hours on a train (Boston to New Orleans), and I know people who have ridden a bus from Boston to Los Angeles (3 days). If you get up and walk around every few hours, you'll be fine.
In past years, I watched to other networks' unofficial halftime shows (usually the Simpsons) because halftime shows are usually very overhyped. That didn't seem to be an option this year (and I don't have cable), so I was forced to watch the official show.
First of all, I thought "Nelly" would be singer Nelly Furtado, not a rapper I've never heard of.
N*Sync and Aerosmith doing their song was fine, but when they threw in Mary J. Blige (who looked like she had just rolled out of bed), Brittany Spears, and Nelly, it became a bad case of "too many cooks".
My family had a Craftsman reel mower until 1995. It was much more reliable than the gas mover, much easier to start, quieter, and easier to maneuver on hills. Yes, it constantly jammed (lots of trees = lots of sticks to run over), but it didn't pollute. And it didn't scare the cats.
That's completely untrue for a technical job, even one like tech support. I could quit my job as a software engineer tomorrow and have a new job within a week, not the 2+ months that your silly formula states.
Oh, really?
I did tech support part-time for two years in a rural area. When I moved to Boston, I thought finding a full-time support job would be easy. I temped for a few months (no tech support, surprisingly enough), then left to job-hunt full time.
Almost four months later, I found my current jobs (one at a coffee shop, one at a delivery service) .
What happened? I don't know. But the arrogance in that statement is appalling.
Can't stand to miss a call? Get a cell phone service package with voice mail. If your phone is off or in use, callers can still leave messages. Just don't check your messages during a movie (or a concert, wedding, graduation, church service, etc.).
Next time someone's phone rings in the middle of a movie and they don't immediately shut it off -- or worse, they answer it and start talking, the people around them should chastise them for it.
I tried that at a Sonny Rollins show about a year ago, and I'm pretty sure that the guy would have beaten me up if his wife hadn't been there. Get an usher to throw them out. Nobody paid to hear some asshole talk on their phone.
Too often are students taught to "just plug it in to your calculator" without having a clue as to the theory behind it.
I got through my high school math and science classes (including chemistry) with a cheap calculator my father got at an insurance conference. I started using it in geometry because calculating sines, cosines, and tangents by hand took too long. When I got to college, I got through Physics, Statistics, and Pre-Calculus using a cheap scientific calculator.
When I got to Calculus 1, we were suddenly required to use a $90 graphing calculator. In the week I was in that class (I dropped it because I couldn't afford the calculator), we never did any actual calculus, we just learned how to use the graphing calculator.
Like computers, graphing calculators are nice tools. However, they shouldn't replace knowledge of the data behind the calculations.
Right now, I'm surfing with a Diamond SupraExpress 56isp on a noisy phone line. The highest download speed I ever got was 8k/sec or so. My first experience with the Internet was with my college's T1 line, and I definitely feel the difference.
DSL and cable are available in my area (inner-city Boston), but the prices are steep. I can't afford $80 per month for cable modem (which requires cable service) or $50 for DSL (not including the hub). If I can get comparabvle service using my rinky-dink, $20-per-month ISP, I'll do it.
I got interested in computers in college. However, my college computer group nearly drove me away from the field.
In the beginning, I could barely use windows. I was fine with being treated as a "newbie" when I actually was a newbie. But when idea after idea was ignored (then approved whenever sonmeone else made the same suggestion), when I was excluded from meetings and officer's functions (I was an officer), when help sessions with the TA included his best friend, I realized I would always be a second-class citizen.
I left the computer club after three years. Last I heard, it was in shambles, which doesn't surprise me. I run linux now, I go to local lug meetings, and I'm planning to go back to school and study technical writing.
Girls are definetly discouraged from studing technical stuff. Being treated like a token, or a novelty, doesn't help. Like anyone else pursuing a "nontraditional" career path, I've had to do a lot of stuff on my own.
My point? Female geeks need support from male geeks! Don't treat us like perpetual newbies. Invite us to play Quake sometime. Don't assume we're in it for the guys.
D'Angelo's, a sandwich chain here in New England, used to have two types of vegetarian subs. But because they were cooked on the same grill as meat, someone decided they could not be called "vegetarian". They're now "vegetable" subs.
Back before the economy took off, my hometown ran a lot of ads for "Postal jobs, Government jobs" and the like. They turned out to be test prep outfits.Even though the ads bordered on fraud, the paper never stoppped running them, even after the post office complained.
Were the job-seekers at fault for believing the ad? Or was it the fault of the test-prep people?
Not quite. There are wide areas of the USA (including half of Dallas, Texas) that are not wired for cable or DSL. In many rural areas, dial-up is the only game in town.Dial-up is also cheaper that DSL/cable. And unlike cable, you can choose your dial-up provider.
Don't discount dial-up yet. Years ago, people were forecasting the death of AM radio. It's still here.
It sure is sad how nine little numbers, originally intended as nothing more than a method of tracking social security benefits decades ago, has developed into a universally consistant method of tracking you from the cradle to the grave.
It has also made identity theft rediculously easy. All someone needs is your SS# and your birthdate, and they can become you. Then it's up to you to clear your name and credit history. Until recently, the person whose identity was stolen wasn't even considered the victim.
When Social Security was established, the cards actually said "Not for Identification". Unfortunately, there were no laws to punish anyone who required the number for ID, so we have today's situation.
In 1998, Arizona passed a law that banned colleges from using SS#s as student ID numbers. We need laws like that on a national scale.
Another thing- what if you don't have a SS#? What if you are a refugee, an illegal immigrant, or a foreign student? Can you still be denied municipal services for not providing a SS#?
Contrary to what a lot of people think, the US Constitution provides no explicit right to privacy. The few existing privacy laws are an amalgam of the prohibitions on "unreasonable search and seizure" and "self-incrimination."
The Boston Phoenix had a very interesting article recently on how to deal with this. For instance, sexual harassment could be considered an "invasion of privacy" instead of a "hostile work environment" (aren't they all?).
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While on my way to work early one morning last October, I discovered a dead man in a car. I tried calling 911 from a pay phone around the corner, but the phone didn't work. I don't own a cell phone, I was kind of far from home and I still needed to get to work.
If there hadn't been for the pay phone at the subway station I would have had to call from work (which probably would have been dismissed as a prank).
Last year, while walking to a bus stop around 5AM, I realized the guy sleeping in a nearby car was actually dead. As one of the few remaining Americans who does not own a cell phone, finding a nearby pay phone was a relief (the 911 operator was a different story).
What about areas where cell phhoines can't reach? Here in Boston, the entire subway system is inaccessable to cell phones (no repeaters underground).
I ride AMTRAK on long trips because I hate flying. Three years ago, I rode AMTRAK from Boston to New Orleans (36 hours each way). AMTRAK is much more comfortable than the bus, and you get to meet some very interesting people.
Here in Boston (and many other cities), the commuter rail is run by AMTRAK. So not riding AMTRAK means not going to work for a lot of people.
I'd like to see what happens when black folks are harrassed as frequently on trains as they are on the highway. My sister lives in New Jersey, and racial profiling by the state police is the main reason why she refuses to get a drivers license.
Here in Boston (and a bunch of other cities), AMTRAK runs the commuter-rail service. When you ride the commuter rail, you ride AMTRAK.
That adds up to 25,000 suicidal criminals per day in Boston alone.
Really. I can't even get a date on the internet.
What about people with boom boxes? Or people who are loud without having cell phones (talking to themselves, shouting to people across the aisles, yelling out the windows...)? Or the bus driver who was having a conversation with the microphone on, enabling the entire bus to hear (yes, she knew it was on)?
I don't have any problem with people using cell phones on public transit. Obnoxious people will be obnoxious, regardless of technology.
I work at a coffee shop (not Starbuck's), and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are unable to pull themselves away from their phone long enough to place an order.
I think that a better idea would be to check in all phones at the door, and then to have an employee or employees be an answering service for all phones that are currrently checked in, and go and get the people who get called. So no loud movie theatres, and makes sure people won't annoy others if they need to talk.
Some restaurants in my area do this, taking messages instead of getting the customer. While it seems to work, I can't see it happenning in a 500-seat movie theater. Instead of phones ringing every five minutes, ushers would be getting people every five minutes. Would it be quieter? Perhaps. Less annoying? No.
I've spent 36 hours on a train (Boston to New Orleans), and I know people who have ridden a bus from Boston to Los Angeles (3 days). If you get up and walk around every few hours, you'll be fine.
Favorite Commercials:
Least Favorite:
In past years, I watched to other networks' unofficial halftime shows (usually the Simpsons) because halftime shows are usually very overhyped. That didn't seem to be an option this year (and I don't have cable), so I was forced to watch the official show.
First of all, I thought "Nelly" would be singer Nelly Furtado, not a rapper I've never heard of.
N*Sync and Aerosmith doing their song was fine, but when they threw in Mary J. Blige (who looked like she had just rolled out of bed), Brittany Spears, and Nelly, it became a bad case of "too many cooks".
My family had a Craftsman reel mower until 1995. It was much more reliable than the gas mover, much easier to start, quieter, and easier to maneuver on hills. Yes, it constantly jammed (lots of trees = lots of sticks to run over), but it didn't pollute. And it didn't scare the cats.
That's completely untrue for a technical job, even one like tech support. I could quit my job as a software engineer tomorrow and have a new job within a week, not the 2+ months that your silly formula states.
Oh, really?
I did tech support part-time for two years in a rural area. When I moved to Boston, I thought finding a full-time support job would be easy. I temped for a few months (no tech support, surprisingly enough), then left to job-hunt full time.
Almost four months later, I found my current jobs (one at a coffee shop, one at a delivery service) .
What happened? I don't know. But the arrogance in that statement is appalling.
Can't stand to miss a call? Get a cell phone service package with voice mail. If your phone is off or in use, callers can still leave messages. Just don't check your messages during a movie (or a concert, wedding, graduation, church service, etc.).
Next time someone's phone rings in the middle of a movie and they don't immediately shut it off -- or worse, they answer it and start talking, the people around them should chastise them for it.
I tried that at a Sonny Rollins show about a year ago, and I'm pretty sure that the guy would have beaten me up if his wife hadn't been there. Get an usher to throw them out. Nobody paid to hear some asshole talk on their phone.
Too often are students taught to "just plug it in to your calculator" without having a clue as to the theory behind it.
I got through my high school math and science classes (including chemistry) with a cheap calculator my father got at an insurance conference. I started using it in geometry because calculating sines, cosines, and tangents by hand took too long. When I got to college, I got through Physics, Statistics, and Pre-Calculus using a cheap scientific calculator.
When I got to Calculus 1, we were suddenly required to use a $90 graphing calculator. In the week I was in that class (I dropped it because I couldn't afford the calculator), we never did any actual calculus, we just learned how to use the graphing calculator.
Like computers, graphing calculators are nice tools. However, they shouldn't replace knowledge of the data behind the calculations.
Right now, I'm surfing with a Diamond SupraExpress 56isp on a noisy phone line. The highest download speed I ever got was 8k/sec or so. My first experience with the Internet was with my college's T1 line, and I definitely feel the difference.
DSL and cable are available in my area (inner-city Boston), but the prices are steep. I can't afford $80 per month for cable modem (which requires cable service) or $50 for DSL (not including the hub). If I can get comparabvle service using my rinky-dink, $20-per-month ISP, I'll do it.
I got interested in computers in college. However, my college computer group nearly drove me away from the field.
In the beginning, I could barely use windows. I was fine with being treated as a "newbie" when I actually was a newbie. But when idea after idea was ignored (then approved whenever sonmeone else made the same suggestion), when I was excluded from meetings and officer's functions (I was an officer), when help sessions with the TA included his best friend, I realized I would always be a second-class citizen.
I left the computer club after three years. Last I heard, it was in shambles, which doesn't surprise me. I run linux now, I go to local lug meetings, and I'm planning to go back to school and study technical writing.
Girls are definetly discouraged from studing technical stuff. Being treated like a token, or a novelty, doesn't help. Like anyone else pursuing a "nontraditional" career path, I've had to do a lot of stuff on my own.
My point? Female geeks need support from male geeks! Don't treat us like perpetual newbies. Invite us to play Quake sometime. Don't assume we're in it for the guys.D'Angelo's, a sandwich chain here in New England, used to have two types of vegetarian subs. But because they were cooked on the same grill as meat, someone decided they could not be called "vegetarian". They're now "vegetable" subs.
Back before the economy took off, my hometown ran a lot of ads for "Postal jobs, Government jobs" and the like. They turned out to be test prep outfits.Even though the ads bordered on fraud, the paper never stoppped running them, even after the post office complained.
Were the job-seekers at fault for believing the ad? Or was it the fault of the test-prep people?
Dialup is quickly going the way of the dodo.
Not quite. There are wide areas of the USA (including half of Dallas, Texas) that are not wired for cable or DSL. In many rural areas, dial-up is the only game in town.Dial-up is also cheaper that DSL/cable. And unlike cable, you can choose your dial-up provider.
Don't discount dial-up yet. Years ago, people were forecasting the death of AM radio. It's still here.
It sure is sad how nine little numbers, originally intended as nothing more than a method of tracking social security benefits decades ago, has developed into a universally consistant method of tracking you from the cradle to the grave.
It has also made identity theft rediculously easy. All someone needs is your SS# and your birthdate, and they can become you. Then it's up to you to clear your name and credit history. Until recently, the person whose identity was stolen wasn't even considered the victim.
When Social Security was established, the cards actually said "Not for Identification". Unfortunately, there were no laws to punish anyone who required the number for ID, so we have today's situation.
In 1998, Arizona passed a law that banned colleges from using SS#s as student ID numbers. We need laws like that on a national scale.
Another thing- what if you don't have a SS#? What if you are a refugee, an illegal immigrant, or a foreign student? Can you still be denied municipal services for not providing a SS#?
Contrary to what a lot of people think, the US Constitution provides no explicit right to privacy. The few existing privacy laws are an amalgam of the prohibitions on "unreasonable search and seizure" and "self-incrimination."
The Boston Phoenix had a very interesting article recently on how to deal with this. For instance, sexual harassment could be considered an "invasion of privacy" instead of a "hostile work environment" (aren't they all?).
El Campo De Batalla Tierra- Es un rollo de Pelicula!