A thermal scanner to watch their face for stress would probably flush out real names pretty accurately, if the barista managed to guess right. Really the key security issue with this whole premise is the barista. Why not just do a background check on them?

PWM is the most convenient term (the OP even stated such) and given a fixed frequency, you can think of a thyristor dimmer (the kind in question) as strictly a PWM tool (since each position of the dial corresponds to a specific on-time:off-time ratio), the only difference being that the duty cycle does not correlate 1:1 with the output power (you have to integrate since you are clipping part of a sine).

This has the obvious effect of also getting the valet to behave themselves. If I owned a Corvette, I would eagerly (but casually) say to the valet "the recorder is on, be careful". Otherwise, you have an insurance claim to file anyway after he wrecks it, regardless of what gets recorded.

Out with it, where are these scathing reviews of yours?

Most cheap electronic switches (motion sensor, time delay, dimmer, etc) will NOT work for crap with any sort of ballasted bulb like a CFL or tube. I'm surprised it turned on in the first place. It was *not* the repetitive on/off that killed your CFLs, it was the switch you used to do it. You need a ballast-rated switch (and a good one at that) to do it right.

Let me guess you scooped them out of the dollar bin? I have a vast collection of Sylvania CFLs that I have used, packed, moved, used, and repeated for about 10 years now. Occasionally the ones I use the most (that probably do burn 5,000 hrs/year) will blow out or develop a ballast issue (buzzing) and I retire them, long past their stated 10,000 hour lifespan. But the biggest advantage to buying superior CFLs is getting better color out of them. So many people shun CFLs because all they have experienced were the invisible reds and browns of a very shitty collection of bulbs.

You already have one, it's called a recent smartphone. Stick-on tags? here you go: https://www.sticknfind.com/

Its worth noting that those taking the LSAT fall into the "I want to be a lawyer" category... and then please direct your attention to where "Pre law" is on the list. The scores on this list are from people self-selected for wanting to make the leap from whatever undergrad degree they had, to law school. Pre-law scores are below average because *everyone* who got a Pre Law undergrad now has to go to law school and therefore must take the LSAT. Selection bias is funny like that. Meanwhile, people with other undergrad degrees either have a deep passion/talent for law (providing the inspiration for succeeding on the LSAT) or they simply ignore law school and do whatever else it is they graduated to do.

If you picked people at random (regardless of intention of going to law school) and sat them for the LSAT, you would get useful data. Please only interpret this as tacit disagreement with the premise that your data demonstrates the value non-STEM degrees; I am not trying to comment at all on the actual value of said degrees.

You mean like the 125 comments so far in this article, from STEM grads insisting that the coursework to earn their degree has prepared them perfectly for any possible situation in the real world? Yeah... about that...

Should be fine! Because there's no way the security of the stapled paper bag can be subverted (the method pharmacies use to "seal" hand-filled prescriptions). Not to mention the pharmacy won't let your drugs go to someone who doesn't know your DOB.

Great, so let's review: I am giving someone on Uber my DOB, home address, form of payment, telling them what drugs I am on, letting the pharmacy give them random paperwork about me (which might be an insurance form carrying my SSN) AND hoping they dont swap the drugs out for roofies and then come in and steal all my shit while i'm unconscious or simply fill the prescription and tomorrow steal my identity.

Sure, it should be fine, but I think I will trudge to the pharmacy myself, thankyouverymuch.

How else would I keep up with all the "someone just called you a cunt on slashdot" alerts I get on my phone? Oh, just wear a bluetooth headset around all the time? Good way to not look like a complete fucking toolbag! /sarcasm. No thanks, I would rather throw money at the smartwatch company. If you don't want one, don't buy one. However, the absence of a use case isn't a use case for absence. Or, in case you need it in plain fucking English, there's no fucking way you are smart enough to tell everyone else they don't need one.

At this point the embargo is there solely for the "I'm right as long as I don't admit I was wrong" effect. In that regard, it is highly effective. The other possible explanation is to serve as a warning to others (i.e. nations with resources we might actually want, such as Bolivia, Venezuela, etc) such that they know any further steps toward socialism would lead to economic disaster even worse that what they have already endured.

Sure I would (I do already, actually, regardless of financial incentives) but this isn't about me.

What good would this be, why not just use the existing method of locking the phone while it's in motion? Or, do you mean to have a way for all other phones in the vehicle to somehow also pair and abide by the steering wheel hand sensor, thereby allowing passengers to text only when the driver is being "safe"? Why not just have a working phone act as a key to the car, which then becomes locked (presumably its the driver's phone) and therefore who ever isnt the driver has a working phone still? Better yet, have electronic "driving gloves" in the car that are required to have hands firmly in them in order for the engine to run, which will naturally stop the user from being able to operate a touchscreen while driving (unless they have a blackberry or happen to be Bennett Hasselton, two punishments worth more than the crime of texting while driving anyway.)

The unfortunate thing is that drivers have a really endless list of dangerous shit they can do behind the wheel (ghost riding the whip, anyone?) and passengers do, too (watch any given episode of tosh.0 for hints) so bending over backwards to stop serial texters is probably not worth the trouble. Give cops good ways to spot and cite it, let the offenders get penalized, and if they dont stop then take their license away. Pretty simple, really. Alcohol, at least, has a chemically addictive component that isn't easily forsaken which calls for more specific punishment to encourage rehabilitation. Texting and driving is perhaps only rehabilitated if you take away the offender's friends.