It seems that in the US at least, the minivan is quite nearly dead. How many companies other than Chrysler are still making them for the US market at all? Not many.
As for the "pull down mirror", that isn't even remotely new technology. Other vehicles have had those for a decade or more. But of course because America - and the American media especially - love Toyota with a great passion, we regard it as a technological marvel.
Toyota are not really at the fore front of technology, with the exception of their hybrid engines (even BWM is using Toyota's hybrid tech) but Toyota are known for being rock solid and unbreakable which is what makes them really, really popular (imagine, a car that you don't have to replace in 5 years when everything starts failing... looking at you Ford and GM). A side effect of this is that Toyota cars are a bit behind the bleeding edge, the Corolla's 1.8L 2ZR engine hasn't changed much in 5 years because it's still reliable and efficient and hasn't had any need to.
Toyota's reputation is well deserved.
But Toyota's current line up is boring, they have been since they killed the Supra and MR2 back in 2002. Even the new 86 was a bit of a let down, it looked good and handled good but lacked a turbo.
The only secure Android phone is what is running Cyanogenmod.
Only if you personally are capable of security auditing every single line of source code. Otherwise, you'll be trusting someone or something...as virtually everyone else is doing.
And how much source code does Apple give you to audit.
There are levels of trust we accept because not everyone has the time or skills to audit source code. However many actions (like simply making source code available) make others more trustworthy than their competitors.
I know Google collects info from my Nexus 5 and 7 but Google are at least honest about what they collect, give me options on what gets sent and have demonstrated how it's annonymised.
Apple collects the same, if not more info from Iphone/Ipad users but they don't openly admit to it, they hid it deep in the fine print of the T&C's (something about sharing data with "partners") nor do they demonstrate that the data is anonymised at all.
Unless you're a complete idiot, it's easy to see who's the more trustworthy.
And when we got to the front, all the "electronic passport" aisles were gone and only the manned aisles were left. I know why they were removed - nobody uses them. They are too much a faff,
I use the electronic "smart gates" in Australia all the time, I've never had an issue with them. They get used a lot but there's never a long like at them because they're faster than a manned counter.
My biggest fear is another overzealous customs officer in another country doesn't do what one Malaysian one did and stamp the centre page that has the chip in it and the words "Do Not Stamp This Page" in bold lettering on it. Getting another passport is a bitch.
the solution of hiring more people will, of course, not be considered.
Nor should it be. The number of people that really care about a check-in terminal having a "human touch" is probably about 2%. The number willing to pay extra to have their ticket issued by a human is likely closer to 0%. Any airline hiring extra humans to deal with this will just lose business to their lower cost competitors.
Ultimately this.
A lot of the stress at the airport is self inflicted because people don't want to pay for things. They don't want to pay baggage so they lug an oversized case everywhere. In the US it has been a race to the bottom and it's been so bad that you don't have any airlines left that an Australian, Asian or European would consider to be "full service".
Let me be clear that I certainly don't blame individuals for the TSA cluster fuck, but beyond that it's down to cheap people being too cheap for their own good.
I just flew Singapore Airlines from Perth to Manila transiting through Singapore. Singapore is a great airline to fly on, 30 KG baggage in cattle class, 19" seats on their Airbuses, the cabin crew bring around hot towels before take off, a choice of meal in economy, decent tea and a good in-flight entertainment system. Beyond this, Changi International Airport in Singapore is a very easy place to get around. Free wifi that works, lots of signs, trains that run between the terminals every 4 minutes airside, plenty of free activities and lots of sitting areas.
The cost of this was A$200 above flying a budget airline like deathstar (JetStar) and for them I'd have to transit though Darwin (which meant collecting and re-checking my bags at Darwin). When you're in the air for 18 hours all up, its a small price to pay for a little extra comfort.
Let me help; the government that you're so disappointed with campaigned on and was democratically elected on exactly this platform. They left not one shred of doubt about what they would do with the carbon tax when elected.
LoL,
You are either a crusty old Liberal with their head so far up their arse that lump in your throat is your nose or have no idea how elections are run in Australia.
The Liberal government got in on the narrowest of margins due entirely to a series of dodgy preference deals.
Above that, they didn't advertise their polices, their entire campaign was based on "hate Labor". The Libs didn't even release a fiscal policy until after the election. Thats how bad they were. Their entire campaign was based on flinging shit at Rudd... Nothing more.
Since their election, they've become more unpopular than Labor ever was, it's so bad not even Newscorp can spin it into positive news. Just 9 months into his term and Opposition leader Bill Shorten is preferred prime minister by 10% (Abbot 34%, Shorten 44%) and if Tony Abbott were to call a double dissolution now (as many Australians wish he would) it would be a white wash for the LNP (Liberal-National Party).
Australians feel deceived by the Liberal government for good reasons, mainly because they've continued with several extremely unpopular policies that were either not spelled out before the election or are a complete reversal of what they promised before the election (which wasn't much). The media gagging over asylum seekers, Abbott's constant attacks on the ABC because they told the truth about Operation Sovereign Borders... Why is it any supprise to you that Australians are thinking of Tony Abbot as Australias worst ever prime minister.
The people of Australia
As a "person of Australia" (BTW, in Australia we just refer to ourselves as "Australians" not "the people of Australia", keep that in mind the next time you want to impersonate one) I want a sustainable energy policy, the Labor government had several good ideas including the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which was actually making money that Abbott is determined to axe for no reason other than it was Labors idea.
Please stop pretending you know anything about the current government in Australia, Australians or anything about Australia in General.
BTW, your "statism" quip shows just how out of touch with reality you are considering that is the best attack you could come up with.
I use the motherboard audio to plug my headphones into. However, the volume for headphones is never high enough even with the volume control maxed out in Windows. Would a separate audio card fix this problem?
Maybe.
Higher quality headphones, specifically ones that have their own amp, would probably work better, though.
I'd ask if the headphones are plugged into line out or the headphone port first.
"Tyrant judge"?! He was applying the law. A bad law in the opinion of many people, sure, but nonetheless crystal clear in its scope and effect. Are you saying the judge should have not applied the law? That he should have ignored the statute and made up his own rules? You're in favor of "activist judges"?
A judge should be free to question a law, yes.
Judges in Australia have come out of court saying the law was wrong. I believe Judges in the US are allowed to do the same if it contravenes your constitution (same here, we have a constitution too you know).
A judiciary that blindly follows the letter of the law is pointless as they just become to tools of politicians who often write bad and lopsided laws (hence making an independent judiciary pointedness). Nice try to poison the well with that "activist judge" quip, but it didn't work.
Parts of the UAE, the Emirate of Dubai specifically are already out of oil.
Hence the fact they're trying to diversify like mad, they're trying to become the financial centre of the region in the same way as New York or London.
I really hope this isn't the start of a really bad trend of porting over crap, shoving it out the door, and telling the PC community to just throw more hardware at it.
What do you mean by start... This has been happening for years.
Not arresting Russia's own cybercriminals is just another way for the notoriously erratic and thin-skinned Putin to poke the West in the eye and annoy us.
Now the guy was arrested in Guam, a US territory not the Maldives but I cant help but think this was also a ploy to get leverage on Russia. Maybe setting the scene for a good old prisoner swap... Seeing as the guy is the son of a member of the State Duma (house of parliament) so he's the son of someone important, The US will give him a nice trial, sentence him to prison an then ring Putin and offer him a friendly deal, Seleznev will "serve" the rest of his sentence in Russia and in exchange, the Russians give the US Snowden. This may not be the intent of arresting Seleznev, but it seems to be a very convenient opportunity.
Right, the US has gone completely off the rails in recent years. "oh, this guy stole some credit card numbers... Let's kidnap him, fly him out of the country and try him in some random court outside the country! Yea! Go USA!"
Seriously? It'd be one thing if he blew something up... but credit card fraud?
CC fraud is a huge problem and a persistent one.
I'd bet this guy was doing fraudulent transactions in the volume of thousands per week, if not per day.
You may be thinking "stuff em, it's only the banks money" but you forget two things. It has a knockon effect to the rest of the economy as the fraudulently transferred money is taken out of circulation and secondly that through hidden fees like merchant service and interchange fees, eventually the banks get the money back from you.
We aren't talking about someone who buys a TV with one stolen credit card number here. Its so big, the damage is in the hundreds of millions to billions. This would be proper, organised fraud. The kind the all western government should be cracking down on..
Uber is showing that a deregulated system can work.
Not really.
What Uber is trying to do is operate outside the law.
Because of this, Uber is one serious accident away from complete failure, doubly so in Australia. One serious crash and the insurance companies will come for blood. They'll pay out to the victims (including the passenger, but not the driver) and then come after Uber itself for compensation. That billion dollars in capital wont last long.
Uber is not a new idea, it's what is called "mini-cabbing" which has been around in London and other cities for years.
I used Thailand specifically because I knew someone would come back with the "but deregulation" angle. In Thailand there is no restriction on using a private car as transport. When I go there I can and do use them because it's a nicer car (a new Camry vs an old one) and its cheaper for long distances, this does not affect the prices of taxis in Phuket, where regulation does not exist nor diminish the number of taxis in Bangkok where its heavily regulated.
Actually, as someone who is a pretty conservative driver, I welcomed the option to let worse drivers subsidize my premiums in exchange for them tracking my driving for a while. I could care less that they know (for example) that I always signal turns and lane changes and don't aggressively accelerate or stop. I could also care less that people who can't demonstrate the same behavior are seen as a higher risk and charged a higher premium.
...except you, of course, since you're on my \. frinds list and all...
"Give me six lines written by an honest man and I'll find one with which to hang him"
Cardinal Richelieu is your first problem.
Your second problem is, a lot of people who think they are good drivers aren't. The Dunning-Kruger effect is strong with drivers.
Being slow doesn't make you a safe driver, in fact that causes as many accidents as going fast (fewer fatalities, but to an insurance company that's not as important as it is to the police because they'll still have to pay out).
I've found the people who tend to preface their driving style with "I never" or "I always" tend to be the most ignorant about their problems. Its the drivers who admit to being imperfect that are the least dangerous because they are acutely aware of the fact they can and do make mistakes and look for ways to minimise/mitigate them.
Consider the psychological impact of targeting the security apparatus itself: the thing that is claimed to keep people safe turns out to be what enabled them to be killed.
Not nearly as good as getting people when they let their guard down.
Terrorists target buses, planes, schools and theatres because they know that's where they can get the most people when they're most at ease (and that is the really scary bit). At a security checkpoint everyone is alert and awake not to mention the security staff who will actually be looking for suspicious people and things. There's security personnel stationed everywhere in an airport security inspection line, not just at the X-Ray.
Finally, it's not that good of a place to set off a bomb. Seeing as everyone is in a line, you'll only maim a few people directly in front and behind you (their bodies will form a shield of sorts protecting others). With a bus or a plane the explosion is contained in a much smaller area meaning a small explosion can kill or maim most, if not all occupants.
Aussies have voted themselves high taxes on all goods. If they are tired of paying the high taxes on them, well golly do something about it.
Care to name those specific taxes, Mr Expert?
This. There are no additional taxes on digital media beyond sales tax.
As an Australian, I import all my games and movies on disc from places like Hong Kong and the UK (I also buy my books from there too). I pay the UK/HK prices plus shipping and its still cheaper. Even if I had to pay tax (an order under A$900 is tax free) I'd just have to add 10% and I'd still be making a huge saving compared to buying it locally.... and this is 100% legal, it's even legal for an Australian company to drop ship media products and pay local taxes on the transaction.
So I'd also like Mr Expert to point out where these high taxes are?
Australia is amongst one of the lowest taxed nations in the western world (we pay more federal income tax, but no state income taxes like the US and Canada). High costs are a legacy of a time when the AUD was not strong (around US$0.5-0.6) and when we were so isolate we had no choice but to pay stupendously inflated prices. Isolation is not an issue anymore and the AUD has been strong for almost a decade.
The price differential is due to supply and demand, specifically the lack of supply/competition. The local stores have a monopoly on distribution through import agreements with manufacturers which lets them charge what the fuck they want, the retail prices contain a 100-200% mark-up over the actual wholesale cost, including tax, and it is pure profit.
With media, it isn't the stores charging the high prices, it's the distributors. Margins on media are razor thin and when it comes to Apple, Google and other online distributors, they are not local stores but still are beholden to the whims of the "rights holders".
Cab fares are regulated in NYC. Competition has nothing to do with it.
Shhh,
If you listen carefully you can hear the Randian's heads pop.
Everywhere I've travelled, the less regulated the taxi industry the more they take the piss and rip off customers. Thailand is a good example, in Bangkok taxis are cheap. From the Airport to the city centre is 400 Thai Baht + 70 Baht in tolls (approx 30 Baht == 1 USD), that's a distance of 35 KM and includes an airport fee. Taxi's are well regulated in Bangkok (its the same story in Singapore).
In Phuket, a taxi wont even turn on the engine for less than 200 Baht, it's less than that to get into a taxi in Australia. Taxi's aren't regulated at all, they operate like a Mafia using violence against their competition, ripping off customers. They sit there all day turning down paying customers because they aren't paying enough. The local Phuket govt isn't interested in doing anything (since the recent coup in Thailand, I've heard the army has been attempting to clean the taxi mafia up).
NYC Taxis have to carry $100k (per person) / $300k (per incident) liability insurance. That's the same for Uber drivers.
But how much do you want to be that UberX drivers dont have that level of liability insurance.
Here in Australia private car insurance (the kind everyone has on their car) does not cover business use, so if you're using your car for mini-cabbing (Uber isn't new, it's just Mini cabbing with a web 2.0 interface) your insurance wont cover you (also in my state, you're driving an unregistered vehicle because with private registration you get a tax cut off the cost of business rego). But Uber will flounder and die here because its not only just as expensive as a regular Sydney or Melbourne taxi, they're also extremely unreliable.
Eugenics is based in part on gross oversimplifications of genetics and in part on the absurd idea that attributes like economic status are biologically heredity.
Yes and no,
We've got a long history of breeding programs in animals to say that yes, a lot of traits are hereditary and are usually passed on by selective breeding. A horse sired by a successful racehorse is more likely to be a successful racehorse. Its not guaranteed because of the problems of random genetic mutation, recessive genes and natural variation but it is more likely. Also when you're running a breeding program for horses you dont keep breeding the failures, you send them off to be made into glue and dog food.
Even in humans, some traits are hereditary, my dad isn't bald, his dad died with a full head of hair, it's likely me and my children wont go bald either because there's no history of male pattern baldness in my family... however there is an increased risk of Diabetes because I have a family history.
However this is when you base it on scientific observation. If you go around shooting all the redheads* you will eventually get rid of the gene that causes red hair, it will take many generations though... However if you're criteria for living or dying is something as irrational and unprovable as demonic possession, you've got problems eugenics will never solve.
* I do not, under any circumstances recommend the systematic annihilation of red haired people. They currently hold Scotland and the Scots are not a people to be fucked with lightly.
Uh, I don't think the United Kingdom has any Republicans, or at least none with any particular political power...
Maybe not American Republicans... But the UK is currently in the grips of a Conservative government (that party is actually called the Conservatives but commonly referred to as the Tories) and much like the US conservatives, they hate the working class with a passion.
Two problems I've noticed thus far: 1, certain parts want you to use a microphone. I HATE websites that want to use my mic, and I'm pretty sure I'm far from alone in feeling that way.
1. You're not alone. I dont have a mic hooked up to my PC because I dont want websites to have access to it.
2. Duolingo has an app for Android (I suppose they have one for that other OS that is nothing more than a minor footnote in the glorious history of Android, but who cares about them) which is the one I've used.
Personally I dont like the gamification of it, but I'm fairly certain I'd be alone in that. I just dont like the "do shit and get enough shit to progress" thing. It holds me back as I can learn some things faster than the average person (some things I'm slower at, all swings and roundabouts) so sometimes I end up grinding just to move on (and I hate grinding).
Like most electronic language learning aids, it can teach you vocabulary, but not how to communicate.
Your long winded tirade didn't say anything about why 100 hours is required to learn how to drive and why mandatory waits are useful. In fact you pointed out why they aren't. One thing you forget, is that people forget. As I said, we have these mandatory hours and waits in Australia, they haven't helped one bit as new drivers do their hours quickly and sit around or just fabricate them.
Like most people, you're basing your opinion on bad ideas.
If you want to improve driver training, you need to improve the content, not the length. People drive badly because they were never taught how to drive properly in the first place, not because they haven't spent enough time doing it. People drive for 40+ years badly because they were never taught properly... After 40 years are you going to tell me it's because they haven't had enough practice?
My reaction time is low.
Now I know this is complete bullshit.
First of all your reaction time varies based on a number of factors (most notably fatigue but distraction is another big one), this ranges between 250ms and 5 seconds but the average time is around 2.5 seconds.
You dont have a low reaction time, like most bad drivers you've convinced yourself that you have a low reaction time when you really do not (the old Dunning-Kruger effect in action).
I actually understand that when I'm tired, it's dark or I'm distracted my reaction time will not be as good as it could be, so I adjust my driving style accordingly. I have had accidents (none were my fault) but there have been no fatalities or serious injuries because I drive to mitigate risk, not because I believe I'm that good.
Slashdot Mirror
It seems that in the US at least, the minivan is quite nearly dead. How many companies other than Chrysler are still making them for the US market at all? Not many.
As for the "pull down mirror", that isn't even remotely new technology. Other vehicles have had those for a decade or more. But of course because America - and the American media especially - love Toyota with a great passion, we regard it as a technological marvel.
Toyota are not really at the fore front of technology, with the exception of their hybrid engines (even BWM is using Toyota's hybrid tech) but Toyota are known for being rock solid and unbreakable which is what makes them really, really popular (imagine, a car that you don't have to replace in 5 years when everything starts failing... looking at you Ford and GM). A side effect of this is that Toyota cars are a bit behind the bleeding edge, the Corolla's 1.8L 2ZR engine hasn't changed much in 5 years because it's still reliable and efficient and hasn't had any need to.
Toyota's reputation is well deserved.
But Toyota's current line up is boring, they have been since they killed the Supra and MR2 back in 2002. Even the new 86 was a bit of a let down, it looked good and handled good but lacked a turbo.
Is Apple beginning to get like M$?
What do you mean by "beginning"?
The only secure Android phone is what is running Cyanogenmod.
Only if you personally are capable of security auditing every single line of source code. Otherwise, you'll be trusting someone or something...as virtually everyone else is doing.
And how much source code does Apple give you to audit.
There are levels of trust we accept because not everyone has the time or skills to audit source code. However many actions (like simply making source code available) make others more trustworthy than their competitors.
I know Google collects info from my Nexus 5 and 7 but Google are at least honest about what they collect, give me options on what gets sent and have demonstrated how it's annonymised.
Apple collects the same, if not more info from Iphone/Ipad users but they don't openly admit to it, they hid it deep in the fine print of the T&C's (something about sharing data with "partners") nor do they demonstrate that the data is anonymised at all.
Unless you're a complete idiot, it's easy to see who's the more trustworthy.
And when we got to the front, all the "electronic passport" aisles were gone and only the manned aisles were left. I know why they were removed - nobody uses them. They are too much a faff,
I use the electronic "smart gates" in Australia all the time, I've never had an issue with them. They get used a lot but there's never a long like at them because they're faster than a manned counter.
My biggest fear is another overzealous customs officer in another country doesn't do what one Malaysian one did and stamp the centre page that has the chip in it and the words "Do Not Stamp This Page" in bold lettering on it. Getting another passport is a bitch.
the solution of hiring more people will, of course, not be considered.
Nor should it be. The number of people that really care about a check-in terminal having a "human touch" is probably about 2%. The number willing to pay extra to have their ticket issued by a human is likely closer to 0%. Any airline hiring extra humans to deal with this will just lose business to their lower cost competitors.
Ultimately this.
A lot of the stress at the airport is self inflicted because people don't want to pay for things. They don't want to pay baggage so they lug an oversized case everywhere. In the US it has been a race to the bottom and it's been so bad that you don't have any airlines left that an Australian, Asian or European would consider to be "full service".
Let me be clear that I certainly don't blame individuals for the TSA cluster fuck, but beyond that it's down to cheap people being too cheap for their own good.
I just flew Singapore Airlines from Perth to Manila transiting through Singapore. Singapore is a great airline to fly on, 30 KG baggage in cattle class, 19" seats on their Airbuses, the cabin crew bring around hot towels before take off, a choice of meal in economy, decent tea and a good in-flight entertainment system. Beyond this, Changi International Airport in Singapore is a very easy place to get around. Free wifi that works, lots of signs, trains that run between the terminals every 4 minutes airside, plenty of free activities and lots of sitting areas.
The cost of this was A$200 above flying a budget airline like deathstar (JetStar) and for them I'd have to transit though Darwin (which meant collecting and re-checking my bags at Darwin). When you're in the air for 18 hours all up, its a small price to pay for a little extra comfort.
LoL,
You are either a crusty old Liberal with their head so far up their arse that lump in your throat is your nose or have no idea how elections are run in Australia.
The Liberal government got in on the narrowest of margins due entirely to a series of dodgy preference deals.
Above that, they didn't advertise their polices, their entire campaign was based on "hate Labor". The Libs didn't even release a fiscal policy until after the election. Thats how bad they were. Their entire campaign was based on flinging shit at Rudd... Nothing more.
Since their election, they've become more unpopular than Labor ever was, it's so bad not even Newscorp can spin it into positive news. Just 9 months into his term and Opposition leader Bill Shorten is preferred prime minister by 10% (Abbot 34%, Shorten 44%) and if Tony Abbott were to call a double dissolution now (as many Australians wish he would) it would be a white wash for the LNP (Liberal-National Party).
Australians feel deceived by the Liberal government for good reasons, mainly because they've continued with several extremely unpopular policies that were either not spelled out before the election or are a complete reversal of what they promised before the election (which wasn't much). The media gagging over asylum seekers, Abbott's constant attacks on the ABC because they told the truth about Operation Sovereign Borders... Why is it any supprise to you that Australians are thinking of Tony Abbot as Australias worst ever prime minister.
As a "person of Australia" (BTW, in Australia we just refer to ourselves as "Australians" not "the people of Australia", keep that in mind the next time you want to impersonate one) I want a sustainable energy policy, the Labor government had several good ideas including the Clean Energy Finance Corporation which was actually making money that Abbott is determined to axe for no reason other than it was Labors idea.
Please stop pretending you know anything about the current government in Australia, Australians or anything about Australia in General.
BTW, your "statism" quip shows just how out of touch with reality you are considering that is the best attack you could come up with.
I use the motherboard audio to plug my headphones into. However, the volume for headphones is never high enough even with the volume control maxed out in Windows. Would a separate audio card fix this problem?
Maybe.
Higher quality headphones, specifically ones that have their own amp, would probably work better, though.
I'd ask if the headphones are plugged into line out or the headphone port first.
"Tyrant judge"?! He was applying the law. A bad law in the opinion of many people, sure, but nonetheless crystal clear in its scope and effect. Are you saying the judge should have not applied the law? That he should have ignored the statute and made up his own rules? You're in favor of "activist judges"?
A judge should be free to question a law, yes.
Judges in Australia have come out of court saying the law was wrong. I believe Judges in the US are allowed to do the same if it contravenes your constitution (same here, we have a constitution too you know).
A judiciary that blindly follows the letter of the law is pointless as they just become to tools of politicians who often write bad and lopsided laws (hence making an independent judiciary pointedness). Nice try to poison the well with that "activist judge" quip, but it didn't work.
Parts of the UAE, the Emirate of Dubai specifically are already out of oil.
Hence the fact they're trying to diversify like mad, they're trying to become the financial centre of the region in the same way as New York or London.
I'm missing the part where something in Dubai is waiting to be a dystopia...
What do you mean "waiting to be". For most of the Indian and Filipino "guest workers" it already is.
The ultimate argument for the PC gaming master race is that you get a lot of console to PC ports but hardly a sniff in the other direction.
You can port up but you can't port down.
I really hope this isn't the start of a really bad trend of porting over crap, shoving it out the door, and telling the PC community to just throw more hardware at it.
What do you mean by start... This has been happening for years.
Not arresting Russia's own cybercriminals is just another way for the notoriously erratic and thin-skinned Putin to poke the West in the eye and annoy us.
Now the guy was arrested in Guam, a US territory not the Maldives but I cant help but think this was also a ploy to get leverage on Russia. Maybe setting the scene for a good old prisoner swap... Seeing as the guy is the son of a member of the State Duma (house of parliament) so he's the son of someone important, The US will give him a nice trial, sentence him to prison an then ring Putin and offer him a friendly deal, Seleznev will "serve" the rest of his sentence in Russia and in exchange, the Russians give the US Snowden. This may not be the intent of arresting Seleznev, but it seems to be a very convenient opportunity.
Replying to myself - as it turns out, the plot thickens:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Right, the US has gone completely off the rails in recent years. "oh, this guy stole some credit card numbers... Let's kidnap him, fly him out of the country and try him in some random court outside the country! Yea! Go USA!"
Seriously? It'd be one thing if he blew something up... but credit card fraud?
CC fraud is a huge problem and a persistent one.
I'd bet this guy was doing fraudulent transactions in the volume of thousands per week, if not per day.
You may be thinking "stuff em, it's only the banks money" but you forget two things. It has a knockon effect to the rest of the economy as the fraudulently transferred money is taken out of circulation and secondly that through hidden fees like merchant service and interchange fees, eventually the banks get the money back from you.
We aren't talking about someone who buys a TV with one stolen credit card number here. Its so big, the damage is in the hundreds of millions to billions. This would be proper, organised fraud. The kind the all western government should be cracking down on..
Not really.
What Uber is trying to do is operate outside the law.
Because of this, Uber is one serious accident away from complete failure, doubly so in Australia. One serious crash and the insurance companies will come for blood. They'll pay out to the victims (including the passenger, but not the driver) and then come after Uber itself for compensation. That billion dollars in capital wont last long.
Uber is not a new idea, it's what is called "mini-cabbing" which has been around in London and other cities for years.
I used Thailand specifically because I knew someone would come back with the "but deregulation" angle. In Thailand there is no restriction on using a private car as transport. When I go there I can and do use them because it's a nicer car (a new Camry vs an old one) and its cheaper for long distances, this does not affect the prices of taxis in Phuket, where regulation does not exist nor diminish the number of taxis in Bangkok where its heavily regulated.
Actually, as someone who is a pretty conservative driver, I welcomed the option to let worse drivers subsidize my premiums in exchange for them tracking my driving for a while. I could care less that they know (for example) that I always signal turns and lane changes and don't aggressively accelerate or stop. I could also care less that people who can't demonstrate the same behavior are seen as a higher risk and charged a higher premium.
...except you, of course, since you're on my \. frinds list and all...
"Give me six lines written by an honest man and I'll find one with which to hang him"
Cardinal Richelieu is your first problem.
Your second problem is, a lot of people who think they are good drivers aren't. The Dunning-Kruger effect is strong with drivers.
Being slow doesn't make you a safe driver, in fact that causes as many accidents as going fast (fewer fatalities, but to an insurance company that's not as important as it is to the police because they'll still have to pay out).
I've found the people who tend to preface their driving style with "I never" or "I always" tend to be the most ignorant about their problems. Its the drivers who admit to being imperfect that are the least dangerous because they are acutely aware of the fact they can and do make mistakes and look for ways to minimise/mitigate them.
"the psychological impact"
Consider the psychological impact of targeting the security apparatus itself: the thing that is claimed to keep people safe turns out to be what enabled them to be killed.
Not nearly as good as getting people when they let their guard down.
Terrorists target buses, planes, schools and theatres because they know that's where they can get the most people when they're most at ease (and that is the really scary bit). At a security checkpoint everyone is alert and awake not to mention the security staff who will actually be looking for suspicious people and things. There's security personnel stationed everywhere in an airport security inspection line, not just at the X-Ray.
Finally, it's not that good of a place to set off a bomb. Seeing as everyone is in a line, you'll only maim a few people directly in front and behind you (their bodies will form a shield of sorts protecting others). With a bus or a plane the explosion is contained in a much smaller area meaning a small explosion can kill or maim most, if not all occupants.
Aussies have voted themselves high taxes on all goods. If they are tired of paying the high taxes on them, well golly do something about it.
Care to name those specific taxes, Mr Expert?
This. There are no additional taxes on digital media beyond sales tax.
As an Australian, I import all my games and movies on disc from places like Hong Kong and the UK (I also buy my books from there too). I pay the UK/HK prices plus shipping and its still cheaper. Even if I had to pay tax (an order under A$900 is tax free) I'd just have to add 10% and I'd still be making a huge saving compared to buying it locally.... and this is 100% legal, it's even legal for an Australian company to drop ship media products and pay local taxes on the transaction.
So I'd also like Mr Expert to point out where these high taxes are?
Australia is amongst one of the lowest taxed nations in the western world (we pay more federal income tax, but no state income taxes like the US and Canada). High costs are a legacy of a time when the AUD was not strong (around US$0.5-0.6) and when we were so isolate we had no choice but to pay stupendously inflated prices. Isolation is not an issue anymore and the AUD has been strong for almost a decade.
The price differential is due to supply and demand, specifically the lack of supply/competition. The local stores have a monopoly on distribution through import agreements with manufacturers which lets them charge what the fuck they want, the retail prices contain a 100-200% mark-up over the actual wholesale cost, including tax, and it is pure profit.
With media, it isn't the stores charging the high prices, it's the distributors. Margins on media are razor thin and when it comes to Apple, Google and other online distributors, they are not local stores but still are beholden to the whims of the "rights holders".
Cab fares are regulated in NYC. Competition has nothing to do with it.
Shhh,
If you listen carefully you can hear the Randian's heads pop.
Everywhere I've travelled, the less regulated the taxi industry the more they take the piss and rip off customers. Thailand is a good example, in Bangkok taxis are cheap. From the Airport to the city centre is 400 Thai Baht + 70 Baht in tolls (approx 30 Baht == 1 USD), that's a distance of 35 KM and includes an airport fee. Taxi's are well regulated in Bangkok (its the same story in Singapore).
In Phuket, a taxi wont even turn on the engine for less than 200 Baht, it's less than that to get into a taxi in Australia. Taxi's aren't regulated at all, they operate like a Mafia using violence against their competition, ripping off customers. They sit there all day turning down paying customers because they aren't paying enough. The local Phuket govt isn't interested in doing anything (since the recent coup in Thailand, I've heard the army has been attempting to clean the taxi mafia up).
NYC Taxis have to carry $100k (per person) / $300k (per incident) liability insurance. That's the same for Uber drivers.
But how much do you want to be that UberX drivers dont have that level of liability insurance. Here in Australia private car insurance (the kind everyone has on their car) does not cover business use, so if you're using your car for mini-cabbing (Uber isn't new, it's just Mini cabbing with a web 2.0 interface) your insurance wont cover you (also in my state, you're driving an unregistered vehicle because with private registration you get a tax cut off the cost of business rego). But Uber will flounder and die here because its not only just as expensive as a regular Sydney or Melbourne taxi, they're also extremely unreliable.
Eugenics is based in part on gross oversimplifications of genetics and in part on the absurd idea that attributes like economic status are biologically heredity.
Yes and no,
We've got a long history of breeding programs in animals to say that yes, a lot of traits are hereditary and are usually passed on by selective breeding. A horse sired by a successful racehorse is more likely to be a successful racehorse. Its not guaranteed because of the problems of random genetic mutation, recessive genes and natural variation but it is more likely. Also when you're running a breeding program for horses you dont keep breeding the failures, you send them off to be made into glue and dog food.
Even in humans, some traits are hereditary, my dad isn't bald, his dad died with a full head of hair, it's likely me and my children wont go bald either because there's no history of male pattern baldness in my family... however there is an increased risk of Diabetes because I have a family history.
However this is when you base it on scientific observation. If you go around shooting all the redheads* you will eventually get rid of the gene that causes red hair, it will take many generations though... However if you're criteria for living or dying is something as irrational and unprovable as demonic possession, you've got problems eugenics will never solve.
* I do not, under any circumstances recommend the systematic annihilation of red haired people. They currently hold Scotland and the Scots are not a people to be fucked with lightly.
I have a few. whichever ones i successfully snatched off the playground. usually the slowest runners.
In case you haven't heard, there's a more fun way of getting kids.
Well I have my white van. I just need to write "Expensive Candy" on the side... Because lets face it, you cant ransom kids back to poor people.
Uh, I don't think the United Kingdom has any Republicans, or at least none with any particular political power...
Maybe not American Republicans... But the UK is currently in the grips of a Conservative government (that party is actually called the Conservatives but commonly referred to as the Tories) and much like the US conservatives, they hate the working class with a passion.
1. You're not alone. I dont have a mic hooked up to my PC because I dont want websites to have access to it.
2. Duolingo has an app for Android (I suppose they have one for that other OS that is nothing more than a minor footnote in the glorious history of Android, but who cares about them) which is the one I've used.
Personally I dont like the gamification of it, but I'm fairly certain I'd be alone in that. I just dont like the "do shit and get enough shit to progress" thing. It holds me back as I can learn some things faster than the average person (some things I'm slower at, all swings and roundabouts) so sometimes I end up grinding just to move on (and I hate grinding).
Like most electronic language learning aids, it can teach you vocabulary, but not how to communicate.
No you didn't.
Your long winded tirade didn't say anything about why 100 hours is required to learn how to drive and why mandatory waits are useful. In fact you pointed out why they aren't. One thing you forget, is that people forget. As I said, we have these mandatory hours and waits in Australia, they haven't helped one bit as new drivers do their hours quickly and sit around or just fabricate them.
Like most people, you're basing your opinion on bad ideas.
If you want to improve driver training, you need to improve the content, not the length. People drive badly because they were never taught how to drive properly in the first place, not because they haven't spent enough time doing it. People drive for 40+ years badly because they were never taught properly... After 40 years are you going to tell me it's because they haven't had enough practice?
Now I know this is complete bullshit.
First of all your reaction time varies based on a number of factors (most notably fatigue but distraction is another big one), this ranges between 250ms and 5 seconds but the average time is around 2.5 seconds.
here's some actual studies on the subject.
You dont have a low reaction time, like most bad drivers you've convinced yourself that you have a low reaction time when you really do not (the old Dunning-Kruger effect in action).
I actually understand that when I'm tired, it's dark or I'm distracted my reaction time will not be as good as it could be, so I adjust my driving style accordingly. I have had accidents (none were my fault) but there have been no fatalities or serious injuries because I drive to mitigate risk, not because I believe I'm that good.