I don't have a link handy, so I'm going from memory here, but I think they are prohibited from requiring ID. They can ask, and that might be enough to ward off some folks trying to pull something, plus most legitimate people will show it. However, supposedly you could refuse (or lie saying you don't have it with you) and they are still supposed to run the transaction. It reduces down to largely the same thing in the end for anyone who knows what they are doing.

But, but... the Microsoft Office formats are open and documented!

With a very angry cat, I assume?

Are you sure? The reason I ask is this: They have winter usage monitoring where I live as well. However, the way it works here is during the summer, anything over the winter usage is assumed to be outside usage and hence not eligible to be billed against sewer usage (since outside water goes into the storm drains, not the sewer). So it has the net effect of lowering your overall bill vs. if they didn't have the winter usage concept. Not that I'd put it past a utility to work the way you say; just making sure you haven't been misinformed.

Reference.

> yawn apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -y
zsh: command not found: yawn

Ha ha. If only.... Seriously though, it becomes much more of a problem than the side windows for two reasons: 1) It only takes one drop of water or one decent-sized speck of dirt/dust to cover enough of the camera to be useless. Surface area will get you. 2) You only see the camera output when you are already in the car, in reverse (in the case of the back-up camera). Windows, you stand a chance of noticing they need cleaning as you are getting in. Plus you can roll down the window if you are desperate.

All that said, I still love my camera, and unlike most of the naysayers from the other day, I think they are a great asset. There is just room for improvement.

Yes, actually. Most annoying aspect of my back-up camera is when it gets dirty, or wet. Not all the manufacturers have figured out keeping them clean automatically yet.

You know what would be interesting...? If every year, MS lowered the price of Windows by some factor (like 13.5GPB using this discussion), to account for the reduced service life of that version. Of course the counter to that is it would probably make steering into a subscription model that much easier.

Pay attention to the version numbers. Basically (and I'm making up the numbers here), if you tell it to hide v5, the next time it'll offer v4. Hide that, v3. And so on. They go away once you've told it to hide every one of them. And it'll come back whenever they release v6, but if you've hidden all the others, once you hide that it won't show up again until v7. So it takes some effort, but they can be squashed, eventually.

Also add in the fact that 35% of people rent (in the US, according to these guys). Many of them may not be in a situation where they can reasonably change out the fixture, even if they possess the needed skills.

You know, if I didn't know better, I'd think someone did this on purpose... right now the fortune at the bottom is:

How do you know this? Is there some equation or strength tester I can use to calculate the strength of my keys vs. my passwords? (I know about, for example, the strength meter in KeePass, which I love; an equivalent for my keys would be interesting. And yes I do realize they aren't directly comparable due to the differences between how PKI and passwords work; I just found the statement of equivalency intriguing.)

Check.

Yes, they will reduce the current price by 50%. They may even do a 75% for early adopters.