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Comment Re:Going to cause a lot of fender-benders (Score 1) 231

When Arizona reversed course and banned red light cameras, it wasn't the "speeding community" (?) that drove it, but the sheriff's.

The damned things *increased* accidents, largely from the rear end collisions with the suddenly stopping cars!

Sure, both drivers were behaving in ways that they shouldn't, but we need to deal with *actual* human behavior, not what we want it to be.

Here in las vegas, when a light turns yellow, I have to pause and check my rear view mirror before even considering slowing--to make sure that I don't have something *accelerating* behind me!

Comment Re:Insurance cost reduction? (Score 1) 231

>Because insurance companies will keep their rates high to pad their bottom line.

those that tried that would be fairly quickly out of business.

There are many "mutual insurance" companies out there. These are owned by the policy holders, who receive an annual check of what would have been "profits".

In the past when I was using Amica, there was an estimated 20% future payment back for "participating members, who paid about 10% more than non-participating members. (but there is *no* guarantee of that dividend; in a bad year, it might be reduced, or not come at all, while in a good year it could be more.)

They were less expensive than the other options I considered at the time. But if a company tried keeping rates up when costs plummeted, they would be "somewhat" more expensive than mutual insurance, but "drastically" more.

Comment Re:BASIC hacks (Score 1) 106

Applesoft, TRS-80 Level 2, and most of the other built in were version 2 of Microsoft BASIC (or the 6502 port of that).

Until version 5, iirc, memory was searched serially, rather than using a table.

So jump to a high line number for setup, then back to midrange for general execution, with frequently used subroutines at low line numbers.

Version 4.52, then later 5, were common on CP/M.

BASICA/GWBASIC was pretty much an 8086 port of 5 with extensions.

Comment Re:Hastert rule strikes again (Score 1) 129

imagine a world in which 70% to 80% of the political *middle* in the house was choosing a speaker, the rules committee, and chairmen, shutting out the Dingbat Caucus on the democrats' left, and the Arson Coalition on the republican left.

Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine it--it worked this way for most of US history, for which party line votes were the exception, not the rule.

Comment Re:well, that explains one reason why I don't like (Score 2) 72

> I mean, who buys new thermostats every 15 years?

I'll take "Honeywell Customers" for $200.

Oh, and try *reading* the license on their smart ones . . . it basically says "we can do anything we want with your data, and disclose it to whomever we choose, especially if they're going to pay us."

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