Minnesota Valley Transit Authority buses are all equipped with multiple cameras both internally and externally. When I have either witnessed issues which could be considered safety hazards to the buses and/or the people riding, I have requested these feeds. Most of the time I am told the camera was not functioning at the time and they'd investigate why: http://www.lazylightning.org/mvtas-multimillion-dollar-bus-2-0-is-a-failure

When they were in the right they were quick to release the tape: http://www.lazylightning.org/mvta-rider-alleges-racism-over-bus-incident

This is exactly what will happen here.

In a past life I worked as a manager of a college's records department. We were putting all records onto a document imaging system beginning with more current records (paper -> scanner -> DIS) which kept all files current.

There was a legacy storage system (microfiche) which, when someone requested records or when we had spare staff/time, was converted adhoc to the new system. We didn't charge previous students for this service even though it was a huge fucking hassle.

This should be the same thing. The onus is on the organization to do this, not the person requesting their records.

I can tell the screen isn't as good on some apps (Carcassonne and iMessage particularly) but being I haven't ever used an iPad with a retina display, it's not bad at all.

A friend who had the iPad1 and the iPad3 Retina says the screen isn't as good as the 3 but the form factor and weight make it awesome for him.

2.5 and 5 months. Obviously the 2.5 year old will be the primary user for at least another 1.5 years.

It's not surprisingly low, it's surprising how high it is and how someone could possibly be open to the idea of higher profit margins on their devices.

I was in the market for a 7"-ish tablet. It was down to the FireHD, Nexus 7, or iPad Mini. While I was extremely disappointed in the price announced for the Mini, I ended up getting one anyway for a few reasons:

1. We have iPhones and my kid (who will be the primary user of the device) is already accustomed to the interface

2. The educational games/books we've downloaded for it are already there and ready to be synced.

3. I liked the educational software available in the Apple app store over what I saw available for both the Kindle and the Nexus 7. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough--I don't know but it seemed much better from the Apple side.

4. Everything the FireHD can do, the iPad can do possibly better depending on what review you read (the external speakers being one downside but I don't believe he'll be needing stereo speakers).

5. I like the look, size, and weight of the device with the larger screen.

6. As an Apple (iPhones, Mini, and MBP) and Amazon customer (I'm a Prime member and use them for video rentals, most online purchases, etc), I simply preferred the Apple device even though it was considerably more money.

YMMV.

A prosecutor and possibly a judge may argue that his actions differ from security cameras in the sense that a security camera is fixed in place and watches a predefined area to spot crimes and identify perpetrators.

I wasn't aware there were regulations limiting the adding of security cameras to places that record what's in the public's view. This is no different than a business putting up a camera on one corner of the building and deciding to move it to another.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harassment

The key here seems to be repeated attempts of what he is doing. I'm guessing as long as he doesn't do it after being told to stop he's not harassing anyone.

Annoying, perhaps but being annoying isn't illegal.

In the county in which I reside, if you "get out of jury duty" you still have to sit in the jury pool for three days of active on-site time and seven more days of "on-call" status.

Your best bet is to stop your fucking whining, do the damn trial for a day or two, and go home. My companies pay for jury duty so aside from it being a pain in the fucking ass being that we only have one car and the courthouse is 30 miles out in the middle of nowhere, it was better than being at work.

That's a moral issue, not what I was originally referencing.

I may be way off base here but I was under the distinct impression that working dogs and their handlers were trained to ignore such things and concentrate on the task at hand.

I found myself trying to scroll my laptop screen regularly with my fingers and then I got the MBP and now I'm able to do it on my touchpad.

FWIW, I hate smudges on my screen.

Not trained? What? Most people I know realize the tasks they do could be automated. However, they do everything in their power to ensure they aren't because they believe it keeps their relatively mindless and easy job "safe". This mindset is prevalent in the public sector and the unionized public sector especially.

I was able to come in and completely revamp a position I was hired to do to expand it to encompass at least 50x more work with a little Access/VBA and some learned-on-the-job DW knowledge.

They are still running the same exact reports I wrote when I left 5 years ago and haven't added a single one to the mix. Someone has now taken over my position and enters text in the fields the scripts prompt for and passes out the paperwork it automatically prints. It's a sad day for our tax dollars.

Actually, I would hire a contractor to do the work and expect him to farm out the work to subcontractors to do the parts he cannot. Usually these subs are brought in at the lowest bid the contractor can find to get the job finished on time while passing inspection.

A phone seems to fit this model just fine.

You know. You're right. You don't *need* any of those things in a phone. However, most people *want* those things in a phone.

I have a Garmin 76CSx with the entirety of North America loaded. I have used it extensively both for geocaching and traveling. It's an amazing device for autorouting and I would never consider a phone in their current states as a replacement for this device. That said, I use it only when I'm geocaching (which is pretty rare these days, after nearly 5000 found it's just not as fun as it used to be) or while I'm traveling across long distances which may find me out of service. The rest of the time I use my phone. Why? Because it's more convenient, it is easier to use, and it has voice turn-by-turn. Yup, they have their issues but claiming I wouldn't want a new phone w/a GPS I can turn on and off at will is silly.

I also own a Nikon D5000 DSLR. I use it to take photos fairly often, especially of food and ones of the kids that we want to make more special than our iPhone 4S and 5 can offer. However, it's a pain in the ass to upload and e-mail photos and it's big and bulky to carry around everywhere with us when we're already carrying stuff to fuel a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old. IOW, yeah, the DSLR is superior and an iPhone would never make up for it but the convenience factor alone makes the DSLR almost obsolete.

As for the browser and social media. I actually sometimes prefer the mobile browsing experience to the regular. In order to use my laptop I have to have access to it. Sometimes I'm somewhere that I do not have access to my machine. Other times the machine sits on the table and I am on my phone because it's easier to scroll through my RSS items, e-mail and social media stuff on the phone than it is on the computer. Oh and "high speed browsing" is kinda funny. My iPhone seems as fast as my MBP and it has LTE when I'm out of the house which matches (and sometimes beats--especially in upstream) my business class connection at home (I am routinely pulling 25/25 on VZW LTE in the MSP metro area vs 25/3 on Charter Business Class).

YMMV.

Do I not understand how search engine choice works? To me Google is not forcing users to use their search functions like MSFT was doing by forcing PC OEMs to push out Windows, right?

If we take a look at general websites with search functionality, don't they return internal results at the top and external results at the bottom because users of a particular site are likely to be interested in content pushed out by the same site their on more than external?

It has nothing to do with gas for me. It has to do with other costs: car cost, maintenance, taxes, insurance. My $700 bike with free yearly tuneups for life saves me a ton. Gas for a drive 5.1 miles one way is really negligible compared to the other costs.