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Comment More than just iPhone 6 (Score 0) 375

Google Wallet and the Google Wallet card have done this since release.

While interesting it's not a "real" credit card that most people would use - no rewards, can't use in many stores, non-geek family members will not use, etc.

ApplePay is just that and more to anyone without an iPhone 6.

First of all, people with iPhone 4s or above will be able to pay using the device when the Apple Watch launches. Even now some iPad models also work with ApplePay, because you can also use ApplePay for online purchases.

But - my post is about the benefits of using ApplePay to link to credit cards, even if you don't use the phone to pay. Any device can technically use ApplePay to hold card data, and receive notifications when the cards are used even if you are not there.

Comment Reason to link credit card to phone is info (Score 0) 375

The phone and wallet don't have to be at war with each other, they cam complement each other quite well.

With Apple Pay in particular, there's one very good reason to link a card into that system even if you never intend to pay using the phone - you get push notifications when money is spent on the card linked to ApplePay, even if you just use the card itself to buy whatever.

While credit cards could do this with custom apps, I've not seen it done before (at least with credit - I'm pretty sure some banks were doing this already when payments were made from an account) - and it's really nice as a backup mechanism to know earlier rather than later if your CC number has been compromised, even wen using online.

Comment Yes, that is still my point (Score 1) 525

It is actually all about the time it takes the human body to react to stimuli.

Which is why it is so vital all cars are going similar speeds, because accidents USUALLY happen between cars going the same way on the road, not with stationary objects.

The simple fact is MOST people will ignore limits that re too low and drive faster than the limit. That leaves you with a number of drivers that are trying to obey the limit and creating an abundance of artificially slow traffic, where a faster (or slower!) driver has much less time to react to cars from the "other group" making mistakes.

This again is why accident rates in most states lowered when the national speed limit was raised from 55 to 65 in the U.S., because traffic speed was more equalized.

Comment Re:Less likely, less dangerous. (Score 1) 525

Going faster in the hope that an animal won't have time to jump out in front of you would amount to epic idiocy.

The only idiocy here is you denying something is true with no proof or even thought, and ignoring the laws of probability that say the less time you are on the road the lower changes are you will encounter an animal.

Why do you ignore this very basic fact?

If I can I don't drive in the evening in rural areas for exactly that simple reason.

Think about the much larger hole in the front of your car,

The whole point is that they can't get in front of your car as easily. The point is exactly that you want to avoid that, so you minimize the ability of the animal to get in front of you, and also minimize the probability you will be around the road at the same time an animal is nearby.

As for the "size of hole" thats pretty irrelevant as from 55 to 85 (or even much lower speeds), your car is not going anywhere after you hit a deer.

the blood and guts splattered over your hood and grill,

That happens at any speed if you hit an animal, which is why I seek to avoid it instead of increasing my chances of hitting one as you are doing.

When risk of hitting an animal exists, then slow down. Period.

If you can SEE an animal on or very close to the road, of course that makes sense (I've come to a dead stop because of deer that were indecisive about crossing).

But your absolute command even when nothing is visible makes no sense, because you are increasing your time on the road and chances an animal can get in front of your car.

Comment Physics make my case, not yours. (Score 1) 525

Driving faster is more dangerous unless you bend the laws of physics.

The laws of physics also state that the greater the relative speeds between two cars, the less time one car has to react to the other changing relative velocity.

Avoiding accidents involves way more than simply braking. For instance, one time I was at a dead stop waiting to turn left - I could someone going too fast come the opposite way around a snowy corner.

I could tell that wasn't going to work out well so I accelerated, to move my car off the road to the side. Seconds later the car, spinning like a top, glided through the space where I had been.

Similarly, I've avoided about three rear-end collisions by accelerating, not braking. That was possible in part because I was going the same relative speed as traffic with a good buffer, which allowed me leeway as to how to move my car - leeway that vanishes if someone in front of you is going a lot slower than you are.

Comment Re:The website states exactly what yeast (Score 1) 50

That's only true if you propagate yeast (internally) for many generations. You can also buy yeast, which a lot of brewers do because it saves them the trouble of doing careful quality control on a microbial culture.

It's also possible to acquire other brewers' yeasts unless they filter or sterilize their beer. Yeast labs do this on a regular basis and then sell it to other breweries (and to homebrewers). The yeast from The Alchemist, for example, is available from a couple of different companies now.

Only a handful of yeast strains are so interesting that their being "proprietary" is economically valuable. A lot of those have been cloned and are commercially available. Some are mixed microbial cultures (like with lambics), which are very challenging to copy because they're sensitive to their particular environment.

Really, the answer is that brewers don't worry about others stealing their secrets too much, because the market is big, it's pretty easy to make interesting beer recipes, and there are so many process variables that's it's very hard to make exact clones even if you have another person's secrets.

Comment Less likely, less dangerous. (Score 1) 525

Yes, and at 85mph, hitting that elk is a) far more likely to occur

Let's say you have to drive 60 miles (not unusual in Montana). Going 85 vs. 65 means you are on the road for less time, meaning a random encounter with an elk is LESS likely, because you are simply not on the road as long.

You also ignore the fact that many deer/elk accidents occur because a deer is startled and leaps in front of the car. Well if you are going fast enough the animal is either not going to have enough time to get in front of you, or leap to hit you at all... but going faster increases the chance an animal coming from the side will run into the side of the car instead of your front, which is much better for both of you.

Comment Accident rates by speed limit different (Score 3, Interesting) 525

You can check the road safety statistics to see just how dangerous it is on US roads compared to German ones.

Except the accident rates for the U.S. were often worse when the speed limit was lower (before it used to be 55). One pretty obvious reason for that is that some people would drive very fast anyway, so you had a greater discrepancy between speed of drivers on the road - after a lot of driving experience I'd say that's probably the biggest reason accidents happen, a slow driver does something suddenly and a fast driver cannot respond quickly enough.

In Germany things works out because multiple lanes are much more separate and slow drivers actually move right.

Comparing German accident rates to U.S. rates with very different driving situations makes no sense when arguing a speed limit should be raised or not, because it says nothing about how accident rates for U.S. drivers change at different speed limits.

Comment Except they still are after limits... (Score 1) 525

Except for leading the nation in deaths per highway mile...yeah, I suppose?

Since Montana still leads that figure after years of having a speed limit, the real question is - when do you admit you didn't think about how that correlated to high speed limits?

Funny how the only person I know to be killed in a traffic collision was, in fact, killed by a drunk driver in Montana.

What's even funnier: being drunk is unrelated to speed.

People don't drive "reasonably well" - ever. People have poorly maintained vehicles, especially in a by-and-large poor state like Montana with very little vehicle inspection

They drive better at a speed they are not bored at. They drive better when they reach somewhere before they get sleepy.

Guess who picks up the tab for the millions of dollars in medical care when Joe Cowboy

Bigoted much?

Comment To The Flatlander (Score -1, Flamebait) 323

Nice try at ad-hominem, normally though to carry some credibility it comes with at least a half-hearted attempt to address points raised... I note you can't refute a single point made against unions for programmers, therefore why should anyone listen to your rantings? You mention "the British", when we are talking about the situation of real workers and unions in present day...

Unions once had a very good reason to exist, but regulations have far supplanted the need for them. What I am for is systems evolving for efficiency and the bests interests of those who have to live inside said systems; what you are for is ironically apparently for an unchanging world regardless of how facts alter, like a simple monkey you fling poo at any that cross your mind as a transgressor to your rigid opinion.

You speak of dimensionality yet you have none yourself; your argument is as flat as a coke opened years ago and left in the back of the fridge, forgotten and unwanted.

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