Comment Haiku. (Score 1) 126
I download TV
So no-one will track me
Burma Shave is old
So no-one will track me
Burma Shave is old
the ZUNE Phone.
No, the PHUNE.
I think he was merely stating the obvious idea that with the weapons used by current day military, the whole defence-against-government argument for gun ownership is no longer valid. Whatever car roof-mounted machinegun you might have is laughably underpowered for the task of overpowering government.
That's funny, that's what they said in Viet Nam.
The Russians and Chinese sent them high tech weaponry to fight with. Even ISIS has little trouble getting the latest RPG and high tech missile launcher the Ukrainian "separatists" got a hold of to shoot down MH17 with.
A better example of how effective armed citizens are against the government would be Waco, but that doesn't support your point. The only reason that Waco lasted so long was because government rules prevented them from using overwhelming force. Or Chechnya, the Russian Govt. doesn't pull their punches... but Chechnya doesn't support your assertion either.
My thoughts: If I'm buying a used car, presumably I know who manufactured the car because the car will be littered in badges proudly proclaiming who, exactly, built and may have subsequently recalled some part of the car. Whether a Kia or a BMW or a Lincoln, I should be able to go to kia.com, bmw.com, or whatever, and find the recall information.
You cant trust a manufacturer to be truthful. I mean look at the recent GM ignition recalls. They waited until it killed serveral people before they did anything. In Australia faulty VAG transmissions have killed people yet VAG have done nothing.
A single source of information where you can look up individual models and see what ones have had recalls is absolutely necessary. The reason the government has to do it is because the private industry has
1) no incentive to do it.
2) no means to ensure that they do it accurately (BWM could pay them to keep their recalls on a separate page in the sub basement in a locked filing cabinet located in a disused lavatory with the sign "beware of the leopard" on the door).
Erm... sorry if this makes too much sense.
I don't need my government to save me the gross and unjust burden of typing "2010 toyota recalls" into Google
It'll bring up plenty of news articles, but not a lot of facts.
If I want to find an actual recall notice, I can go to recalls.gov.au and look by manufacturer. Yep, an Australian government run website (that works, oddly enough).
It shouldn't be zero revenue because there would be no 'deterrance' which is their stated goal.
However, the revenue should go into a different pot, like an annual donation to local charities that are not otherwise funded by the city.
Welcome to Western Australia (WA), Australia.
All revenue from speed and red light cameras go into the Road Trauma Trust Fund. This means it completely bypasses the states coffers. Millions sit in this fund because they cant actually do anything with it (every time they try, the media creates a giant circus over it, they even tried giving out free driving lessons to learners once before the Murdoch press got wind of it and shut it down).
The problem is fines alone dont change behaviour as the people who get fines just slap each other on the back and circle jerk over the Revenue Raising conspiracy theory. I'd love to see the end of the revenue raising conspiracy (I know conspiracy theories are hard to kill though). Basically if you want to see a change in driver behaviour you need to make punishments punitive. This means taking more and more drastic measures for repeat offenders. In my state if you go over 45 KPH your license is taken off you for 3 months (6 months for the second time, 12 for the third) and if you're caught driving without a license you can be sent to jail. As long as the only punishment is monetary, people will continue to pay and wont change behaviour.
By doing what I suggested I do, I actually AM driving with the general road conditions in this area...if you stop at a light that turns yellow, you will be rear ended by at least 2 cars.
After a few accidents, people will start to get the message. If this is the only way people in your area will learn then it's the way people in your area will have to learn.
Basically you're being part of the problem... and promoting that others do the same, you do need your license taken off you.
Now running a red light means that they have to build a timer into the red on both sides to prevent right angle crashes which are significantly more deadly and disruptive than rear end crashes (which rarely results in a fatality). The extended light timing will cause more disruption to traffic making your overall route slower. In effect, you're punishing everyone for your impatience.
In Australia we prefer using red light cameras as it doesn't punish everyone, only the people who run red lights. People who repeatedly run red lights end up having their licenses revoked.
Finally, I'm a defensive driver. If you're approaching a green light, you should be preparing to stop. This means you pay attention to the light and travel at a steady speed, I move my right foot over the brake (I drive a manual, not that anyone should left foot brake). If the light turns yellow you should already be aware of if you have sufficient time to stop safely (because you're paying attention) so no indecision here. You're pretty much the opposite of a defensive driver, we call your kind "organ donors".
You also have people from out of town that have learned their own light timing system and have an expectation when they visit you.
Basically, what you need is a national code for the programming of lights.
We have it in Australia, yellow light timing is the same nationally and you can report shortened yellow lights to the local council or state roads department. The biggest problem is with old lights using a mechanical system for timing (yes they still exist, its expensive to replace every traffic light in the country when new tech comes out) as these systems malfunction.
All the better to keep the ugly sheelas away with eh? Chuck another shrimp on the barbee skip!!!
Bugger me, another flaming mongrel is trying to speak 'strayan but using shrimp instead of prawn...
Get the tractor beam warmed up Bazza. I'll move the Camira so we can get to the Torana so we can get the Commo out of the shed. I'm pissed as buggery now.
You know what they say: "The plural of Anecdote is not Data".
Wouldn't that be "the plural of anecdote are not data"?
(I see you capitalised it, are you be referring to this Data)
No, it and of itself won't be meaningful. That's the crowdsource bit.
None of us are as dumb as all of us.
Trying to crowd source weather prediction will only result in wildly inaccurate predictions. Many smartphone users work in a climate controlled office... travel there in a climate controlled car from their climate controlled home. So the 5-10 minutes they spend outside wont provide enough data especially if it doesn't have accurate location and elevation data.
So actual meteorologists will continue to be more reliable than this crowdsoruced application.
Hmmm, a spaceship full of horny Chinese women. (jumping up and down in the back row) Oh! Pick me pick me...
The problem is that right behind you will be a second, larger spaceship full of Chinese mothers judging you and Chinese fathers disproving of you.
Yeah, my first thought was "one queue for tokens and another location for pickup using the single-queue-to-multiple-registers". This blog post was more along the lines of, "durr, me like ice, get now" than an actual "algorithm."
There should be two lines. One line for people who can queue like the British and one line for everyone else.
Snipers will pick out anyone who queues in to the British line and cant queue like the British.
One supermarket chain around Albany, NY tried implementing the single line system about a year ago. It only lasted a few months before they reverted.
At least at the grocery store, people disliked feeling corralled like cattle more than they dislike waiting slightly longer in a less efficient line. Might have been the way it was implemented, honestly. It had a rather frenetic feel to it, with the line “leader” guiding people to one of the actual registers with quite a bit of urgency and insistence. I’d guess there was probably some misguided, management-imposed, career-limiting metric system associated with the process such that the employee ultimately paid the price if customers dawdled and brought the throughput numbers down. That translated to a rather jarring mood to the whole thing.
Some stores have implemented this in several stores in Australia, one line served by a dozen checkouts and it actually is faster. The biggest issue is that they have more room to line the area with impulse items (not an issue for me as I can ignore impulse items, but I understand the point).
Airport check-in does it as well for the same reason. When you're processing 2-500 people which can take 5 to 15 minutes a piece (Oh dear god, she's fumbling through her 16 suitcases for her passport) having a longer line serviced by multiple people is faster and more efficient. However the lines tend to need a little bit of management, but it stops people from jumping from line to line and eliminates confusion. My only issue is with slow pokes... but I just overtake them when they take too long picking up their bags and moving forward.
However this isn't the right approach for a drinks line (who lines up for ice?), it's the opposite of a checkout or airport check in where the transaction is expected to take several minutes. With a drinks line you want people to get in and out as fast as possible, the best way to do this is to have multiple satellite stations rather than one main station to distribute the load but this is difficult and expensive.
Though I'm not a bit fan of MS... They continually have shown that they have no problem leaving old architecture in the dust -- when it suits them. When 2K3 came out, they made a "code optimization" change that left all P1, P2, P-Pro multi-processors behind. Few of their drivers are compatible from one version of an OS to another (and they can be digitally signed to one version). MS has not problem leaving "old" tech in the dust.
Because Mac chose a bad font
To be 100% fair to MS, whilst their drivers may be platform specific, 99% of applications still work from version to version. Few operating systems can claim this kind of backwards compatibility. I can still run most of my DOS and Win 9x programs on a Windows 7 boxen without an emulator. So MS aren't exactly leaving their architecture in the dust.
The problem Apple fanboys have is not that Apple chose a bad font, it's that Apple can do no wrong so they need to defend Apples choice no matter how bad it is.
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred. -- Superchicken
