Can someone help me understand why anyone ever thought the 'digitize your mail' thing is a good idea? I mean, if you want to send/receive digital messages, you've already got a cornucopia of options - email, IM, Facebook messages, etc, etc, etc. You can 'scan' stuff yourself by snapping pix with your smartphone, etc. So if you want digital transmission of information you've got that right now, today, without having to go through the extra step of writing/printing it all out on paper and then going to the post office.

Conversely, if I've chosen USPS it's because I don't want stuff digitized. When my young kid makes something Amazingly Awesome for the grandparents I want that physical object delivered to them. Sure, it's an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper with (mostly) scribbles on it, but when the grandparents see that my kid has finally learned how to write their names out it'll melt their hearts, then go straight onto the fridge door.

Even people posting here seem to be mostly talking about ways to remove junk snail mail, not the Incredible Awesomeness of Outbox.

So, remind me again - how is this anything other than a terrible plan that died a well-deserved death?

</rant>
Ok, I feel better now :)

But on a serious note - I would really love some insight about why transforming the USPS into the world's largest scanning service seems like a good idea.

This brings to mind the ever-classic::

Dark Helmet: Before you die there is something you should know about us, Lone Star.
Lone Starr: What?
Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: What's that make us?
Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.
(from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...)

As of right now (12:23pm PST, 4/21/2014) the parent post is showing +2.... Flamebait.

I've been here a while but never seen a negative word attached to a positive score (it's always been +3 Informative, or +4 Insightful, or +2 Funny, or whatever). I don't think that my personal 'score adjusters' would give anything enough points to boost a -1 or 0 up to a +2.

I'm assuming it got mod'd up with a couple different modifiers (one insightful, one interesting, etc), then mod'd down with only Flamebait (and so Flamebait is the most common modifier), but I'm curious (1) if anyone else is seeing this and (2) does anyone have a better explanation about the score/modifier?

Mod parent up! The entire post is solid, but this quote is solid gold on top of that!

Three comments:

1. 1) Companies don't fly around in jets, people do
2. 2) People don't fly around in private jets, executives do
3. 3) We're still calling those executives that fly around in private jets assholes

LOL! Mod parent up - this is hilarious :)

I just want to say that while I started this thread/discussion hive in a humorous vein, these posts obsessing about and/or and neither/nor totally made it worth it. We (all) might not be geeking out about technology, but we're definitely, awesomely, geeking out :)

Whooooooooooosh! :)

(Yeah, you're probably right (at least, you're making a convincing case that the 'and' is a reasonable choice), but where else can I joke about needing a logical OR instead of a logical AND?)

C'mon people - aren't we nerds? Clearly we need an OR here, not an AND!

LOL. There's 4 reviews there (4/7/2014, 2pm PST).

While I agree that Amazon is actually a really good source of reviews I'm not 100% sure that the four (just 4!) reviews really offers a convincing sample size :)

Yeah, but those aren't really your options, are they?

The choice you actually get to make it whether you'd prefer a couple number of corporate overlords, each a master of their domain (oil, telecomm, etc) or a small number of government overlords (the military, Federal Justice department, etc).

"online subscribers" was exactly the weasel-word the needed defining, and parent did an awesome job of patching up the summary!

At least, I think I did. Where is the UID listed on this new version of Slashdot? :)

When I got my first license (in MA, USA) I had to do a road-test. But I took that test during high school, so maybe the road test requirement is based on age, or based it being my first license, etc.

When I got my second (WA, USA) I had to do a paper (well, computer) test but no road test. It did kinda weird me out at the time, but I'm guessing that since most people drive pretty much continuously after getting their license it would mostly irritate people to have to re-demonstrate skills they've already got. At least, that's how I rationalized it.

But yeah - I agree that the test isn't nearly as tough as it ought to be.

As someone who's tried this I'm going to say that I'd actually recommend reading something that explains the Bible (either concurrently, before, or even instead). Especially if you haven't read a Bible before. Not only are many passages opaque but the writing style is incredibly concise by modern standards. Not to mention the thousands of years of history since it was written. Having something that will help demystify what each passage means really helps open up the Bible.

Think of it this way - you wouldn't try Emacs / Vim for the first time by digging into source code, instead you'd find a 'tutorial for beginners' Digging into a Bible (not matter which version you choose to read) is way, way more complicated than Emacs or Vim. Smart people have dedicated their lives to understanding it, and some of them have have written orientations for beginners - go read one of those!