Because I like the finer things in life and that includes the people who helped me make money. I'm probably straight up evil by some accounts. We never had a problem with poaching, even as the industry matured. It was tough finding traffic engineers and training was often the only option. It's not like there were huge numbers of readily available bodies and, well, I think my employees knew it. Treat them like they're the greatest asset you have - they are. Also, as I've said before, shut the hell up and listen to them once in a while. You hired them because they know what they're doing, it's stupid to ignore their advice.
I am a bit of an aficionado so I buy a lot of cars and own a stupidly large number of vehicles. I never, ever, trade in my car. Well, okay, I've done it twice - sort of. One was an exchange where the dealer paid me money and a new car. It's a long story. I'll share it if you really want...
Anyhow, it's not hard to do a private sale. Just do it on your terms. I've moved more cars than I can think of right now. The internet really helps with this as does a cell phone. Just take it to the mechanic first (really, usually, worth it) and also get it detailed. Some cars are not worth that effort but usually they are if you're actually hoping to sell it for any real money.
You can use Craigslist, I can even do that in Maine. If you need to then set up a block of scheduled time for interested parties to view/test the car on a weekend. It does help to avoid tire kickers but that's something you learn with time. So, there's that. Another, if you really have something worth selling, is to go to a site that has a forum specifically geared towards your car. There are a lot of people who are into a whole variety of vehicles and are very dedicated to a specific model - even specific years, such as myself. (An example, as silly as this may sound to you - I own a fully restored 1982 Volvo 245 with the Canadian trim - meaning square headlights. I love that car. I paid a metric ton for that car and the restoration.)
There are sites that will let you list your car for a fee - I've actually heard good things about buying a car from eBay but I've never known anyone who sold a car with it. A buddy sold his Harley and was happy with the service, there's that - I guess. If you've taken good care of it then there's probably a market and communication is nearly free and very easy today. You can find a buyer - make the buyer do the work but try to be reasonable about it.
I dunno... I just figured that I'd throw this out there. It's not really that much work and it's worth it. If you've really got something nice then visit a car show. They're not all antiques or the likes. I don't own any vehicles that don't get driven, at least some of the time, and even I bring a new car to the weekly show that I attend at least some of the time. I've a standing offer for the above mentioned Volvo, $18,000. Sadly, I have more than that in it. Either way, it's not for sale. It's what I often take out on snowy nights - it's like a tank but rear wheel drive. Sure, 0 to 60 in three point two days but that doesn't matter in the snow. I'm pretty passionate about it and unless you're trying to unload a shitty econobox then someone may be very specifically interested in your used car.
Dealerships aren't going anywhere soon. You can't test drive over the internet. They're not going to set up a different infrastructure for that. I understand that one of the things that keeps dealerships afloat is their service department - often being partially funded by the OEM. Recalls will need to be done, a new infrastructure for that WITH quality assurance isn't going to be easy or cheap.
This doesn't mean I think people shouldn't be allowed to buy from the factory. It simply means that they're probably not going anywhere. What would probable be best would be a blended system. Instead of buying the cars (which dealers often do) they'd lease fewer from the OEMs and sell used models with 'factory recertification stickers' or the likes. Inside, after testing the model you like, you'd just use a kiosk and order the model you want with the features you want and it gets delivered to the dealership who then delivers it to you.
In fact, that's kind of how I ordered my new BMW. I went down to New Hampshire, test drove the model I wanted, decided to buy it, used a kiosk inside, ordered it, and they drove it up to Maine for me. I wasn't interested in anything they had in stock and they knew this as I'd called ahead to let them know that I'd be back down - I'd done business with them before. In fact, I know what it would cost me (including paying the Maine State taxes - no Sales Tax in NH but I am still obligated to pay it) and brought a bank check with me.
I paid what would have been less than MSRP (it was 'bespoke') but didn't mind paying the extra as the dealer provided a bunch of value added service. They did try to get me to trade in my old BMW. I declined. It's only two years old so I'm going to hand it down to my son. Either way, they provided a service that I don't think I'd get without some form of official representative dealership. I was even invited to go see my car built - I almost did but declined. They were going to let me drive around Germany for a week and not even charge me extra shipping. It was tempting.
Anyhow, I don't see them going anywhere too soon. At least not in some form. I suspect that I may be right in thinking how the future might be, at least for a while. When you're spending over 100k on a car, you do kind of want to know what driving it is like even if you're pretty certain that it is what you want. Hell, they actually had offered to bring one to me to test drive or to let me have it for a weekend. That's value added service - I'll pay for that and see a desire, if not outright need, for that. Until we can use VR to test drive vehicles, I think we'll probably need some sort of dealership as an official OEM representative. The adage is true, usually. You get what you pay for.
Shh! Don't tell them that! You'll break the system. Wait until they find out how much they should really have for a down payment on a house (if at all - cash is king) and then let them figure out why carrying a balance on your credit card (just to maintain a good credit score???) isn't all that smart either. The idea of putting off gratification and saving for big item purchases is the only thing we have holding up the house of cards. Don't break it!
Buy! Consume! Lease (sometimes makes sense, actually)! Rent to Own! Credit! Instant Financing! EZ Credit Check! Shiny!
Can't stop now, got a train to catch.
Le sigh. I really think the whole shit house might cave in if we all started acting in our own enlightened self-interest. Fortunately, world, you're probably safe - that's unlikely to happen. And no, getting lucky with the housing market doesn't make good financial sense - it means good luck. Houses should be homes, not investments. But, I digress and am rapidly approaching 'batshit insane on the internet territory.'
Nah, I own a few of his A stocks and some (more) of his B. So you're paying my family as well. See? We're all just one big happy family. Think of it like loaning your family money. You don't get it back but then can afford to buy you a better birthday present.
No, not the best analogy. I still haven't slept. 'Twas an attempt at humor. So, there's that.
Oh, it gets worse... *nods* (I apologize in advance.)
My company started by doing nothing but vehicular traffic modeling which, obviously, means that the only one purchasing our services were municipalities.
So, using their logic, their taxes were paying my taxes which paid into the general tax pool, which means they got my services for free! Or paid double...;-) I bet they opt to assume the latter.
Yeah, I saw you had corrected yourself (or had been corrected) further down the thread but Slashdot doesn't allow post editing or deletion. I'd have commented but I thought you might figure out that I'd figured it out and figured that I'd save myself some time. (That's a lot of figuring.)
Coffee, via IV, should be mandatory. Or beer. At least with beer, you've always got an excuse.;-)
I've taken lots of driving instruction - it's a passion and was also my job while enlisted, at least for quite a while. However, they happily accepted my license as "proof" that I could drive. They probably should have some subset of tests for foreign drivers, seeing as they drive on the wrong side of the road. It's not easy to shift, at first, and I don't really prefer an automatic. I can tell you, with no ego issues, that I truly sucked at driving in the UK for the first few hours.
Then, after adjusting, I was in France, on the right side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, still shifting with the left hand, while unaware of the local customs and just barely understanding the signage. So, I sucked in France too. The whole thing on the other side of the arch baffled me - I had no idea where to go. At that point, I realized I was a danger to myself and others and opted to not drive in Paris until leaving.
They really should require some sort of basic test, it could be quick and administered a single time - even by the rental car company (who may even get breaks on their insurance), to prove basic competency. I was not competent, then I was, then I wasn't, and then I was horrifically incompetent. There is also a different type of driving there. Much of it seems to be at slower, in-city, speeds. Sure, there are areas to open up the throttle but much of the driving seems to be urban. As an aside, I suspect that accounts for a portion of the difference in the per capita total automobile fatalities. There are more wide open areas (and higher speed limits - on average, I suspect) at least on a per mile basis but I've not compiled stats on that so take it as a guess and not fact.
Ah well... I survived and didn't kill anyone. I'd not say that I was competent. I'd do it again now that I'm more familiar. I still would be cautious going from one side of the road to the other. That's not something normally encountered in most of the countries that I visit.
Probably very few and I think the definition of abandoned that they used was also a little flawed, to be fair. I think they defined it as any project not getting updated in a year which is, well, kind of silly. I forget how many never got finished, never had their features fully implemented, etc... It was a pretty high amount. I still figure someone's using the half-baked version somewhere, code doesn't really die these days. It just gets tucked away in a server closet.
Sun's hardware was awesome. Their support, while expensive, was also awesome! Their workstations were also awesome but pricey. Also, not supported nearly as well. However, lemme just say, "Fuck Oracle."
With the various redundancies built into the Sun servers - we'd probably have had near perfect uptime had I not been the one in the server room and with the admin password. Never mind what I can do to a database.:/ I was, eventually, kicked out of my own server room - it was no longer my domain. I listened, mostly. It had simply become to complex and needy for me to be able to maintain it as the company grew. It'd have been pretty silly of me to hire people and then not listen to them.
I have no idea how Sun is now but I hope they still make good hardware, at least. I do have some experience with Oracle and I was not impressed. By the late 1990s we worked with data sets as large as a TB (or really close). We gave Oracle a shot but only as a trial and not on a live system. After about three months they still couldn't figure out how to make it work properly - I don't know exactly what the issue was, I hate databases and db admin with a passion. They tried to bill us even though we'd declined their services and the consulting was them actually sending in sales reps who didn't make it work. Legal was involved.
I understand their quality has improved but their price has gone through the roof and they're even sleazier with things like demos and the likes now - as well as adding on shelfware? I'm not sure if that's correct or not. 'Tis a shame to see Sun there but my finger is not exactly on the pulse and I was never an expert so I don't really know how that turned out.
But, there was a time... *sighs* I kind of miss it. Then I think about it for a little bit. Hell, Sun helped us write custom drivers for an in-shop crafted networked plotter back in the day. (The plotter wasn't made by us, we made the hub that had the cache, handled queuing, and hooked it to the network as such wasn't actually available at the time. At least not in the size we needed - if at all. It was a black box of doom - do not touch!)
I can attest that paying people MORE than what they're expecting (what they think they are worth) gets you hard work, dedication, quality work, and is an excellent investment. We used to have a fun game in the final interview which was more negotiations and form signing than anything. We'd tell them that we could not pay them the amount they'd requested but that we could pay them ten percent more. It is also worth relocating talent and cross-training talent. It is also worth investing in their eduction but those are different subjects, I suppose.
He's counting down. While his math is flawed, that is elsewhere. You're reading it wrong. Don't worry - I stared at it for a minute or two and almost responded before I figured it out.
Also, he should save money instead of financing everything. It's hard and you have to go without, while being patient. It's worth it, however.
I've often thought that some cities should do like Fez. Unless you have a special permit, you park outside the old city and bus in, walk, or bike. It's kind of hot for biking but I did see some scooters. Not as many as I saw in Asia but quite a few.
You'd think the username and the Icelandic text would clue you in. He's not from the US. IIRC he pays quite high taxes for his vehicular use. He probably does, indeed, cover his share.
My automatic translator doesn't seem to parse barbarian rune script.;-) Now, if I remember, "I say 'no?"
Two things... One, I'm glad you stated it so eloquently. Two, in some areas - well, this could have been a good thing. Optimization of traffic can include actually reducing throughput by way of increased public transportation and other varied metrics that I don't need to detail because I know you're smart. I specifically worked in the field of traffic modeling. That said, it sounds like - from what I'm reading, you are describing the result of someone taking a whole bunch of ideas that look good on paper and mashing them up and not actually bothering to take the resultant modeled data and check it against reality.
This was, almost certainly, a proposal from a specific company - perhaps just as a consultant to the local transportation or highway department (or the city council) and then implemented by traffic engineers for the municipality. (Most municipalities don't model their own traffic, they lack the compute power or expertise and I know of no viable software for them to license to do such a thing. I doubt they paid for custom work in that area, I hope not.) Do you know which consulting group or company they used that advised them to do this?
Anyhow... There's such a thing as too much of a good thing. Your description sounds like a complete and total mess and, likely, not specifically just at the transportation department level but also at a much higher level of government. It probably looked good on paper and I bet they paid a goodly sum. For a while, there were not too many companies doing this work. That has changed and, I'm biased, the quality of work has gone down. Modeling traffic and then making proposals, to be interpreted by the traffic engineers and then highway designers, is an art form as much as it is a science. Failing to check the output and actually get good data is the most common cause. It costs more but you need real people to actually observe the inputs to make sure you're actually modeling more than numbers but also accounting for specific behaviors.
It's probably too late for you to do anything about it now. If I were you, I'd remain purposefully ignorant of what the bill was from the consultants or design team. You probably don't want to see what you paid for this.
I don't think there's an actual definition, legal, for suburban. There is urban and rural and the threshold for urban is a lot lower than people probably think. A town with an institution (like a jail or a hospital) with 2500 people is urban. The line is at 1500 people, with no institution, otherwise and below that is rural. This is the data that is used in the census by the federal government. When people claim that more people live in 'cities' they're using the urban statistic so it's not really, necessarily, an accurate statement to make, for example.
While in the UK, I rented a car and then drove around for a while (it is strange shifting with the left hand). Then I got on the Brittany Ferry (I think that was its name) and went to France. In France they drive on the right side of the road but now I'm on the wrong side of the car - and still shifting with my left hand. I didn't bump into anything but I did drive all the way into Paris and they have some Liberty Arch/Monument thingie - I don't recall how to say or spell it, for I am an ignorant American. Anyhow, the traffic pattern is strange. I think I drove around in a circle for like a half hour but I'm not sure it was a circle. I saw that damned arch three times in that half hour. I eventually followed a taxi and he went somewhere and I was able to find a police officer who spoke English (I speak some "French" but it's Canadian French) and he was able to tell me how to get to my hotel.
I parked the car. I didn't get in it again until it was time to leave. I got clear directions from the hotel staff and drove my scared ass back to the UK, turned in the car, and haven't driven in either since. I believe much of Europe has higher driving test standards and rightfully so. Much of the area is older and not designed for cars, it's kind of complicated to me and I made a career out of traffic.
Back to the UK - I still haven't driven the magic roundabouts. I kind of want to but I don't want to scare the locals. For obvious reasons, they fascinate me. I'm not sure who designed them (I read about them at one point but have forgotten the name and it is immaterial) and I'm unsure if they're absolutely brilliant or complete lunatics. There was a small paper done on them, I guess the locals adapted pretty quickly. I don't know how well Americans would deal with it but it takes them about three years, on average, to adjust to a widely changed traffic pattern.
My kids both have a trust fund. However, it's based on the market and they can manage it themselves if they wanted. They're old enough. They don't. Neither makes much money on it. They can live, comfortably, but not well by doing nothing. My daughter doesn't touch hers - she's finished med school and is working in an ER. My son? Well... He's living on his $3k (or so) per month and cheated the system by dropping out of college and living in Peru - he's saving money. He says he's going back to school but he's sexing a beautiful native and smoking weed. As he doesn't drink, I'm going to help him pay for a small bar and take partial ownership of it and collect a portion of the profits until he repays the loan.
I say that because, well, part of leaving a decent planet as a legacy, or one better than when I came, is also leaving behind responsible people. When I die, most of what I have isn't theirs. It goes into a trust to maintain my acreage. Some goes to charities as a trust. Some goes to my grandchildren (which I don't have, yet and it's kind of pissing me off - I deserve to get revenge). Some goes to the family of friends. Some goes to an NPO that can then decide on specific groups to fund - again, a trust. And, what's left, goes to the kids. They're okay with it - which is good because I don't think I'd change it, much. Technically, they needn't work a day in their life but they won't be living that well. They'll be comfortable but not so comfortable as to be entirely unmotivated - I trust my son will find direction, he's a smart kid. He is also cheating. Bastard. I don't blame him one bit.
I figured that I'd add that. Anything else was like preaching to the choir.;-)
In my defense, albeit a poor defense, I didn't expect him to win. I don't think I'd actually have voted for him if I'd expected him to win assuming there were better candidates at the time. Also, I'm assuming either I mistyped or you mistook something. Not Rand Paul - I can't (and wouldn't) vote for him. His dad, Ron Paul, was the one meant to be discussed.
Hmm... I expanded what I wrote and looked. You misread or I wasn't clear enough.
I kind of, sort of, appreciated his dad. I voted for him knowing that he'd not win.
That and, if such a system existed, we'd simply take out the satellite long before we were sending manned bombers over there. We can target a satellite from the deck of a ship that's floating on the water - with all the movement that entails and all the accuracy that requires. If such exists, we know about it. We'll defeat that long before sending bombers over. It will be much like how we'll sit off-shore and fire missiles that target static radar platforms before sending in the stealthy planes. We're pretty stupid but we've got killing people pretty well figured out.
You mean like the Su-27 or better? Yeah... Russia's already got planes to do this. So doesn't China but I forget the names - I think I read that they'd kind of copies the Su. I'm not sure what the MiG's are up to but I bet it's fantastic.
The Cold War isn't over - it was just paused for the armistice. They were able to make more money from business deals but now that the economies are coming closer to each other, it will be time to get the war machine rumbling. We can argue if it's a good or bad thing (I suspect it is bad) but it's kind of sort of been the cornerstone of the major economies for a while now - like a hundred years unless I really want to stretch it further but I don't feel like belaboring the point. I'm sure there's a better and more just way but I don't actually know how to get there. Well, I have some ideas but I'm pretty sure they won't go over well and I'm not sure they'll work.
There was a documentary, Nova I think, that really pissed me off and made me hate the F-35 from the start. I actually like the idea - even though it can't be as good as a specialized device, I'm a fan of the Swiss Army Knife for example. Anyhow, I think the documentary name was something like Battle of the X Planes or something akin to that. Neither company actually had a fully functioning model, just concepts, that were actually changed even after the contract was awarded. If they were going to accept that then, really, the other plane looked, to a layman's eyes, like a greater potential than the hack job that was being demonstrated at the end of the bid process. It wasn't done, the losing model, but neither was the one that won.
It did make me wonder - with all the advanced modeling we have and the advent of cheap compute cycles... I bet we could open source (some) the design and maybe actually get some interesting and viable concepts to float to the top. Obviously those that filtered to the top would eventually need money but I bet we could have some sort of framework and then "rent" time to let them model it. I know, it's damned complicated and I'm not qualified but I'd be interested in seeing what the results were. It'd probably be cheaper than the F-35 and there's some chance that it would be better. Some sort of oversight committee to vet the designs that pass a certain automated testing criteria, then models - we do have 3D printing after all, etc...
I'd poke at the buttons but, obviously, I'm not qualified. Of course, that's what the testing would weed out so it would prevent me from doing any real harm. Maybe make it pass a local test on the user's computer(s) before going to be run with more intensive models that include more variables or whatnot. I'm sure there's room for improvement in the idea. I dunno if it'd work but it might be interesting.
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Because I like the finer things in life and that includes the people who helped me make money. I'm probably straight up evil by some accounts. We never had a problem with poaching, even as the industry matured. It was tough finding traffic engineers and training was often the only option. It's not like there were huge numbers of readily available bodies and, well, I think my employees knew it. Treat them like they're the greatest asset you have - they are. Also, as I've said before, shut the hell up and listen to them once in a while. You hired them because they know what they're doing, it's stupid to ignore their advice.
I am a bit of an aficionado so I buy a lot of cars and own a stupidly large number of vehicles. I never, ever, trade in my car. Well, okay, I've done it twice - sort of. One was an exchange where the dealer paid me money and a new car. It's a long story. I'll share it if you really want...
Anyhow, it's not hard to do a private sale. Just do it on your terms. I've moved more cars than I can think of right now. The internet really helps with this as does a cell phone. Just take it to the mechanic first (really, usually, worth it) and also get it detailed. Some cars are not worth that effort but usually they are if you're actually hoping to sell it for any real money.
You can use Craigslist, I can even do that in Maine. If you need to then set up a block of scheduled time for interested parties to view/test the car on a weekend. It does help to avoid tire kickers but that's something you learn with time. So, there's that. Another, if you really have something worth selling, is to go to a site that has a forum specifically geared towards your car. There are a lot of people who are into a whole variety of vehicles and are very dedicated to a specific model - even specific years, such as myself. (An example, as silly as this may sound to you - I own a fully restored 1982 Volvo 245 with the Canadian trim - meaning square headlights. I love that car. I paid a metric ton for that car and the restoration.)
There are sites that will let you list your car for a fee - I've actually heard good things about buying a car from eBay but I've never known anyone who sold a car with it. A buddy sold his Harley and was happy with the service, there's that - I guess. If you've taken good care of it then there's probably a market and communication is nearly free and very easy today. You can find a buyer - make the buyer do the work but try to be reasonable about it.
I dunno... I just figured that I'd throw this out there. It's not really that much work and it's worth it. If you've really got something nice then visit a car show. They're not all antiques or the likes. I don't own any vehicles that don't get driven, at least some of the time, and even I bring a new car to the weekly show that I attend at least some of the time. I've a standing offer for the above mentioned Volvo, $18,000. Sadly, I have more than that in it. Either way, it's not for sale. It's what I often take out on snowy nights - it's like a tank but rear wheel drive. Sure, 0 to 60 in three point two days but that doesn't matter in the snow. I'm pretty passionate about it and unless you're trying to unload a shitty econobox then someone may be very specifically interested in your used car.
Dealerships aren't going anywhere soon. You can't test drive over the internet. They're not going to set up a different infrastructure for that. I understand that one of the things that keeps dealerships afloat is their service department - often being partially funded by the OEM. Recalls will need to be done, a new infrastructure for that WITH quality assurance isn't going to be easy or cheap.
This doesn't mean I think people shouldn't be allowed to buy from the factory. It simply means that they're probably not going anywhere. What would probable be best would be a blended system. Instead of buying the cars (which dealers often do) they'd lease fewer from the OEMs and sell used models with 'factory recertification stickers' or the likes. Inside, after testing the model you like, you'd just use a kiosk and order the model you want with the features you want and it gets delivered to the dealership who then delivers it to you.
In fact, that's kind of how I ordered my new BMW. I went down to New Hampshire, test drove the model I wanted, decided to buy it, used a kiosk inside, ordered it, and they drove it up to Maine for me. I wasn't interested in anything they had in stock and they knew this as I'd called ahead to let them know that I'd be back down - I'd done business with them before. In fact, I know what it would cost me (including paying the Maine State taxes - no Sales Tax in NH but I am still obligated to pay it) and brought a bank check with me.
I paid what would have been less than MSRP (it was 'bespoke') but didn't mind paying the extra as the dealer provided a bunch of value added service. They did try to get me to trade in my old BMW. I declined. It's only two years old so I'm going to hand it down to my son. Either way, they provided a service that I don't think I'd get without some form of official representative dealership. I was even invited to go see my car built - I almost did but declined. They were going to let me drive around Germany for a week and not even charge me extra shipping. It was tempting.
Anyhow, I don't see them going anywhere too soon. At least not in some form. I suspect that I may be right in thinking how the future might be, at least for a while. When you're spending over 100k on a car, you do kind of want to know what driving it is like even if you're pretty certain that it is what you want. Hell, they actually had offered to bring one to me to test drive or to let me have it for a weekend. That's value added service - I'll pay for that and see a desire, if not outright need, for that. Until we can use VR to test drive vehicles, I think we'll probably need some sort of dealership as an official OEM representative. The adage is true, usually. You get what you pay for.
Shh! Don't tell them that! You'll break the system. Wait until they find out how much they should really have for a down payment on a house (if at all - cash is king) and then let them figure out why carrying a balance on your credit card (just to maintain a good credit score???) isn't all that smart either. The idea of putting off gratification and saving for big item purchases is the only thing we have holding up the house of cards. Don't break it!
Buy! Consume! Lease (sometimes makes sense, actually)! Rent to Own! Credit! Instant Financing! EZ Credit Check! Shiny!
Can't stop now, got a train to catch.
Le sigh. I really think the whole shit house might cave in if we all started acting in our own enlightened self-interest. Fortunately, world, you're probably safe - that's unlikely to happen. And no, getting lucky with the housing market doesn't make good financial sense - it means good luck. Houses should be homes, not investments. But, I digress and am rapidly approaching 'batshit insane on the internet territory.'
Nah, I own a few of his A stocks and some (more) of his B. So you're paying my family as well. See? We're all just one big happy family. Think of it like loaning your family money. You don't get it back but then can afford to buy you a better birthday present.
No, not the best analogy. I still haven't slept. 'Twas an attempt at humor. So, there's that.
Oh, it gets worse... *nods* (I apologize in advance.)
My company started by doing nothing but vehicular traffic modeling which, obviously, means that the only one purchasing our services were municipalities.
So, using their logic, their taxes were paying my taxes which paid into the general tax pool, which means they got my services for free! Or paid double... ;-) I bet they opt to assume the latter.
Yeah, I saw you had corrected yourself (or had been corrected) further down the thread but Slashdot doesn't allow post editing or deletion. I'd have commented but I thought you might figure out that I'd figured it out and figured that I'd save myself some time. (That's a lot of figuring.)
Coffee, via IV, should be mandatory. Or beer. At least with beer, you've always got an excuse. ;-)
I've taken lots of driving instruction - it's a passion and was also my job while enlisted, at least for quite a while. However, they happily accepted my license as "proof" that I could drive. They probably should have some subset of tests for foreign drivers, seeing as they drive on the wrong side of the road. It's not easy to shift, at first, and I don't really prefer an automatic. I can tell you, with no ego issues, that I truly sucked at driving in the UK for the first few hours.
Then, after adjusting, I was in France, on the right side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, still shifting with the left hand, while unaware of the local customs and just barely understanding the signage. So, I sucked in France too. The whole thing on the other side of the arch baffled me - I had no idea where to go. At that point, I realized I was a danger to myself and others and opted to not drive in Paris until leaving.
They really should require some sort of basic test, it could be quick and administered a single time - even by the rental car company (who may even get breaks on their insurance), to prove basic competency. I was not competent, then I was, then I wasn't, and then I was horrifically incompetent. There is also a different type of driving there. Much of it seems to be at slower, in-city, speeds. Sure, there are areas to open up the throttle but much of the driving seems to be urban. As an aside, I suspect that accounts for a portion of the difference in the per capita total automobile fatalities. There are more wide open areas (and higher speed limits - on average, I suspect) at least on a per mile basis but I've not compiled stats on that so take it as a guess and not fact.
Ah well... I survived and didn't kill anyone. I'd not say that I was competent. I'd do it again now that I'm more familiar. I still would be cautious going from one side of the road to the other. That's not something normally encountered in most of the countries that I visit.
Probably very few and I think the definition of abandoned that they used was also a little flawed, to be fair. I think they defined it as any project not getting updated in a year which is, well, kind of silly. I forget how many never got finished, never had their features fully implemented, etc... It was a pretty high amount. I still figure someone's using the half-baked version somewhere, code doesn't really die these days. It just gets tucked away in a server closet.
Sun's hardware was awesome. Their support, while expensive, was also awesome! Their workstations were also awesome but pricey. Also, not supported nearly as well. However, lemme just say, "Fuck Oracle."
With the various redundancies built into the Sun servers - we'd probably have had near perfect uptime had I not been the one in the server room and with the admin password. Never mind what I can do to a database. :/ I was, eventually, kicked out of my own server room - it was no longer my domain. I listened, mostly. It had simply become to complex and needy for me to be able to maintain it as the company grew. It'd have been pretty silly of me to hire people and then not listen to them.
I have no idea how Sun is now but I hope they still make good hardware, at least. I do have some experience with Oracle and I was not impressed. By the late 1990s we worked with data sets as large as a TB (or really close). We gave Oracle a shot but only as a trial and not on a live system. After about three months they still couldn't figure out how to make it work properly - I don't know exactly what the issue was, I hate databases and db admin with a passion. They tried to bill us even though we'd declined their services and the consulting was them actually sending in sales reps who didn't make it work. Legal was involved.
I understand their quality has improved but their price has gone through the roof and they're even sleazier with things like demos and the likes now - as well as adding on shelfware? I'm not sure if that's correct or not. 'Tis a shame to see Sun there but my finger is not exactly on the pulse and I was never an expert so I don't really know how that turned out.
But, there was a time... *sighs* I kind of miss it. Then I think about it for a little bit. Hell, Sun helped us write custom drivers for an in-shop crafted networked plotter back in the day. (The plotter wasn't made by us, we made the hub that had the cache, handled queuing, and hooked it to the network as such wasn't actually available at the time. At least not in the size we needed - if at all. It was a black box of doom - do not touch!)
I can attest that paying people MORE than what they're expecting (what they think they are worth) gets you hard work, dedication, quality work, and is an excellent investment. We used to have a fun game in the final interview which was more negotiations and form signing than anything. We'd tell them that we could not pay them the amount they'd requested but that we could pay them ten percent more. It is also worth relocating talent and cross-training talent. It is also worth investing in their eduction but those are different subjects, I suppose.
He's counting down. While his math is flawed, that is elsewhere. You're reading it wrong. Don't worry - I stared at it for a minute or two and almost responded before I figured it out.
Also, he should save money instead of financing everything. It's hard and you have to go without, while being patient. It's worth it, however.
I've often thought that some cities should do like Fez. Unless you have a special permit, you park outside the old city and bus in, walk, or bike. It's kind of hot for biking but I did see some scooters. Not as many as I saw in Asia but quite a few.
You'd think the username and the Icelandic text would clue you in. He's not from the US. IIRC he pays quite high taxes for his vehicular use. He probably does, indeed, cover his share.
Ég segi 'nei'
My automatic translator doesn't seem to parse barbarian rune script. ;-) Now, if I remember, "I say 'no?"
Two things... One, I'm glad you stated it so eloquently. Two, in some areas - well, this could have been a good thing. Optimization of traffic can include actually reducing throughput by way of increased public transportation and other varied metrics that I don't need to detail because I know you're smart. I specifically worked in the field of traffic modeling. That said, it sounds like - from what I'm reading, you are describing the result of someone taking a whole bunch of ideas that look good on paper and mashing them up and not actually bothering to take the resultant modeled data and check it against reality.
This was, almost certainly, a proposal from a specific company - perhaps just as a consultant to the local transportation or highway department (or the city council) and then implemented by traffic engineers for the municipality. (Most municipalities don't model their own traffic, they lack the compute power or expertise and I know of no viable software for them to license to do such a thing. I doubt they paid for custom work in that area, I hope not.) Do you know which consulting group or company they used that advised them to do this?
Anyhow... There's such a thing as too much of a good thing. Your description sounds like a complete and total mess and, likely, not specifically just at the transportation department level but also at a much higher level of government. It probably looked good on paper and I bet they paid a goodly sum. For a while, there were not too many companies doing this work. That has changed and, I'm biased, the quality of work has gone down. Modeling traffic and then making proposals, to be interpreted by the traffic engineers and then highway designers, is an art form as much as it is a science. Failing to check the output and actually get good data is the most common cause. It costs more but you need real people to actually observe the inputs to make sure you're actually modeling more than numbers but also accounting for specific behaviors.
It's probably too late for you to do anything about it now. If I were you, I'd remain purposefully ignorant of what the bill was from the consultants or design team. You probably don't want to see what you paid for this.
Does this mean you're "Straight out of Compton?"
I don't think there's an actual definition, legal, for suburban. There is urban and rural and the threshold for urban is a lot lower than people probably think. A town with an institution (like a jail or a hospital) with 2500 people is urban. The line is at 1500 people, with no institution, otherwise and below that is rural. This is the data that is used in the census by the federal government. When people claim that more people live in 'cities' they're using the urban statistic so it's not really, necessarily, an accurate statement to make, for example.
While in the UK, I rented a car and then drove around for a while (it is strange shifting with the left hand). Then I got on the Brittany Ferry (I think that was its name) and went to France. In France they drive on the right side of the road but now I'm on the wrong side of the car - and still shifting with my left hand. I didn't bump into anything but I did drive all the way into Paris and they have some Liberty Arch/Monument thingie - I don't recall how to say or spell it, for I am an ignorant American. Anyhow, the traffic pattern is strange. I think I drove around in a circle for like a half hour but I'm not sure it was a circle. I saw that damned arch three times in that half hour. I eventually followed a taxi and he went somewhere and I was able to find a police officer who spoke English (I speak some "French" but it's Canadian French) and he was able to tell me how to get to my hotel.
I parked the car. I didn't get in it again until it was time to leave. I got clear directions from the hotel staff and drove my scared ass back to the UK, turned in the car, and haven't driven in either since. I believe much of Europe has higher driving test standards and rightfully so. Much of the area is older and not designed for cars, it's kind of complicated to me and I made a career out of traffic.
Back to the UK - I still haven't driven the magic roundabouts. I kind of want to but I don't want to scare the locals. For obvious reasons, they fascinate me. I'm not sure who designed them (I read about them at one point but have forgotten the name and it is immaterial) and I'm unsure if they're absolutely brilliant or complete lunatics. There was a small paper done on them, I guess the locals adapted pretty quickly. I don't know how well Americans would deal with it but it takes them about three years, on average, to adjust to a widely changed traffic pattern.
Hmm... I'll get you a link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It turns out that there's some history on that page. See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Imagine that in downtown San Fransisco, Boston, or Atlanta.
My kids both have a trust fund. However, it's based on the market and they can manage it themselves if they wanted. They're old enough. They don't. Neither makes much money on it. They can live, comfortably, but not well by doing nothing. My daughter doesn't touch hers - she's finished med school and is working in an ER. My son? Well... He's living on his $3k (or so) per month and cheated the system by dropping out of college and living in Peru - he's saving money. He says he's going back to school but he's sexing a beautiful native and smoking weed. As he doesn't drink, I'm going to help him pay for a small bar and take partial ownership of it and collect a portion of the profits until he repays the loan.
I say that because, well, part of leaving a decent planet as a legacy, or one better than when I came, is also leaving behind responsible people. When I die, most of what I have isn't theirs. It goes into a trust to maintain my acreage. Some goes to charities as a trust. Some goes to my grandchildren (which I don't have, yet and it's kind of pissing me off - I deserve to get revenge). Some goes to the family of friends. Some goes to an NPO that can then decide on specific groups to fund - again, a trust. And, what's left, goes to the kids. They're okay with it - which is good because I don't think I'd change it, much. Technically, they needn't work a day in their life but they won't be living that well. They'll be comfortable but not so comfortable as to be entirely unmotivated - I trust my son will find direction, he's a smart kid. He is also cheating. Bastard. I don't blame him one bit.
I figured that I'd add that. Anything else was like preaching to the choir. ;-)
Actually, a quick Google indicates it may have been using aero-acoustics to study fluid dynamics. You're free to poke around here:
https://www.google.com/search?...
Anything published would have been post 1992. And sober up? Why, I never!
It is also technically correct to say a butter knife is potentially dangerous.
In my defense, albeit a poor defense, I didn't expect him to win. I don't think I'd actually have voted for him if I'd expected him to win assuming there were better candidates at the time. Also, I'm assuming either I mistyped or you mistook something. Not Rand Paul - I can't (and wouldn't) vote for him. His dad, Ron Paul, was the one meant to be discussed.
Hmm... I expanded what I wrote and looked. You misread or I wasn't clear enough.
I kind of, sort of, appreciated his dad. I voted for him knowing that he'd not win.
That and, if such a system existed, we'd simply take out the satellite long before we were sending manned bombers over there. We can target a satellite from the deck of a ship that's floating on the water - with all the movement that entails and all the accuracy that requires. If such exists, we know about it. We'll defeat that long before sending bombers over. It will be much like how we'll sit off-shore and fire missiles that target static radar platforms before sending in the stealthy planes. We're pretty stupid but we've got killing people pretty well figured out.
You mean like the Su-27 or better? Yeah... Russia's already got planes to do this. So doesn't China but I forget the names - I think I read that they'd kind of copies the Su. I'm not sure what the MiG's are up to but I bet it's fantastic.
The Cold War isn't over - it was just paused for the armistice. They were able to make more money from business deals but now that the economies are coming closer to each other, it will be time to get the war machine rumbling. We can argue if it's a good or bad thing (I suspect it is bad) but it's kind of sort of been the cornerstone of the major economies for a while now - like a hundred years unless I really want to stretch it further but I don't feel like belaboring the point. I'm sure there's a better and more just way but I don't actually know how to get there. Well, I have some ideas but I'm pretty sure they won't go over well and I'm not sure they'll work.
There was a documentary, Nova I think, that really pissed me off and made me hate the F-35 from the start. I actually like the idea - even though it can't be as good as a specialized device, I'm a fan of the Swiss Army Knife for example. Anyhow, I think the documentary name was something like Battle of the X Planes or something akin to that. Neither company actually had a fully functioning model, just concepts, that were actually changed even after the contract was awarded. If they were going to accept that then, really, the other plane looked, to a layman's eyes, like a greater potential than the hack job that was being demonstrated at the end of the bid process. It wasn't done, the losing model, but neither was the one that won.
It did make me wonder - with all the advanced modeling we have and the advent of cheap compute cycles... I bet we could open source (some) the design and maybe actually get some interesting and viable concepts to float to the top. Obviously those that filtered to the top would eventually need money but I bet we could have some sort of framework and then "rent" time to let them model it. I know, it's damned complicated and I'm not qualified but I'd be interested in seeing what the results were. It'd probably be cheaper than the F-35 and there's some chance that it would be better. Some sort of oversight committee to vet the designs that pass a certain automated testing criteria, then models - we do have 3D printing after all, etc...
I'd poke at the buttons but, obviously, I'm not qualified. Of course, that's what the testing would weed out so it would prevent me from doing any real harm. Maybe make it pass a local test on the user's computer(s) before going to be run with more intensive models that include more variables or whatnot. I'm sure there's room for improvement in the idea. I dunno if it'd work but it might be interesting.