The way it works in Germany is all mobile phones are in a special area code and the caller pays to call. Everyone knows the area code so there are no surprises.

I don't know much about CID and spoofing admittedly, but isn't there some way behind the scenes to digitally sign the CID data (public private keypair for example... the public key would be my phone company's key). ANyway, the idea I'm thinking of would be that caller ID w/o a signature could be sent to voicemail, caller id with a cypto signed signature would be trusted and I'd set my phone to ring. Just poking ideas.... but I see that spoofing has a valid purpose, but there's got to be a way to double check CID data.

Good point. It has to do with safety as well. In industry we keep getting more and more safety rules and safety devices that provide a false sense of security. The accident rate is maintained at nearly the same level in the 1930s when people working high steel didn't wear harnesses. They knew if they fell they were dead, so they were careful. Today we have safety gates that can't possibly stop a PIT vehicle but people believe they will and are complacent. Addition of safety gear doesn't always make you safe! We've had incidents where I guy was wearing a harness and lanyard because the safety rule said you had to have a harness on over 4ft up, but there was no place to tie off. His lanyard draped on a shaft, tangled and beat him to death. More recently the company I work for required us to wear reflective vests 100% of the time. A vibration tech was in the power house setting up his equipment and when he stood up, the pooched arm hole in the vest caught a 1/4 turn condensate (steam) valve and scalded his ribcage. If he'd had on a bright yellow tee shirt it wouldn't have happened but because the vest has reflective stripes it is "safer".

Never the less.... implementing safety systems doesn't always make us safer. In many cases it makes us complacent and less safe. Law of unintended consequences.

And I'll go on a limb and say that 80% of drivers don't understand the blind spots around other vehicles and linger in them.

I think the EU is in the same boat.... the PIGS are pulling down their economy, Germany is about the only country pulling the wagon. France and Nederlands are considering an exit. So here's the ultimate end of socialism.... as taxes get higher, people shrink from certain behaviors (or go to the black market). People have fewer children because they are expensive and that money is leaving the house in the form of tax. So the birth rate plummets and then there are no up and coming tax payers for the next generation. Tax revenue drops and so the politicians raise the rates. The worse it gets, the worse it really does get. Eventually they run out of money and start having to limit resources, or in the case of several socialist / communist attempts in the early 20th century, they forcefully remove undesirable elements from their society. After all, you don't have to share resources with people who don't exist. Since the "removal" of people is a recent open wound for EU so they won't exercise the genocide option again.

So pretty much, the solution for the high taxes boils down to 3 solutions:
1)Keep raising taxes and the cost of population emigrating to cheaper places or the birth rate going down.
2)Import an artificial generation of tax payers. This seems to be what EU is presently doing, but it won't work.... they'll become muslim countries and forfiet their identity and culture.
3)Reduce taxes and services offered... stop killing the golden goose. The problem with this is that while it is best for society, it is suicide for the politicans who count on buying votes with the public dole.

It's a shame the EU is committing suicide. I wonder if future generations will look back and wonder if it was worth it?

Way to end the debate dude... resort to name calling. I'm a fucking idiot because I remember seeing stories on the evening news talking about sprinkling coal dust on the north pole to help melt ice? Even when i was 8 years old in the late 70's I thought coal dust on the poles was a worthless endeavor.

Hey, you'll probably never see this, but I'll ask anyway.... I'm not debating climate change... the earth has a history of ice ages and warmer times... even a mini ice age in the 1600's.... but how much of it do you think is caused by man kind's activities? Mt Pinatubo in the philippines put out more CO2 than all of mankind in 7 days time. To say we collectively can make a dent in Earth's natural cycles is to think you can fill the ocean by pissing in it.

Wow... wish I had mod points... great story about the slant on the news. Now we get weather channel reporters faking terrible winds in addition to the selective reporting.

When I first got an iphone in 2008, I decided I'd give their music purchases for $1 a shot. You see, I not longer had to spend $17 on a CD with two good songs on it. Something happened to my phone and I reloaded it, but Apple wouldln't allow me access to the music I'd purchased. Even worse,when I relented and decided to buy it again, they told me I already owned it. So I went right back to the torrents I went. I tried to play ball, they made it difficult.

So how exactly does this work for , oh I dunno.... companies that run 24/7 such as electric generation facilities? What about service industries which are open from 9am until 9pm (ie best buy and other retailers) ?

The Tesla Model S uses the cell network to unlock the car. When you get out of the driver's seat, the car shuts off. It is entirely possible to get stranded if you exit the vehicle in a cell phone dead zone.... if you don't have a key fob. And yes, I own a model S.

When I was a kid in the 1970's it was global cooling and we'd have to sprinkle black coal dust on the icecaps to melt them. Then it was ozone. Then global warming. They've been wrong so many times, it is not simply called "climate change" which is pretty pathetic. Pick a side... but they can't because, to be fair, their data set it too small. How's about stop running around like your heads are cut off and the sky is falling until we /understand/ more.... until we have /more/ /data/.

The headline says: "Tesla was ranked last on a survey of 34 auto brands based on how helpful its salespeople are" I've been to a Tesla sales store... well they can't sell directly in my state, so they are very laid back. None of that running off to talk to the manager crap. The service manager was VERY nice as well, even making suggestions for us buying a used one.

When I bought my used Tesla, I called them with the VIN and they told me it wasn't salvaged. I was very concerned about getting locked out of the supercharger network. They would /not/ tell me anything else about the car until I'd sent them a copy of the title or registration to prove I was the owner. Aggravating, but not earth shattering. There were two recalls and upon my first visit to a service center they told me and fixed them on the spot.

The worst I've seen from Tesla is that they will disable supercharging access for salvage cars. Solution is unappealing... pay them $10,000 to go thru the car with a fine toothed comb and make sure it won't catch fire while supercharging. Can you image the bad press from a car catching fire? I have never heard of a tesla being out and out bricked.... and I own one.

Free markets end up with one or two big players who try for monopoly. When they can't buy out each other, they for a cartel. The cartel breaks down because one of the players will invariably offer a discount and violate the gentlemen's agreement. It is at this point the cartel breaks down (and prices fall) or the cartel members ask for government regulation to control the price of their collective product. The trick is to accept that prices will rise and fall in a cyclic manner as cartels form and fall apart. Government regulations are no good for the consumer (because they condone keeping prices high with the law used to punish cartel members who break rank).