I want to say that I agree with a large quantity of what you have to say. As an urban dweller who wants to move out into the countryside, I even empathize with choosing that destination.

On the other hand, you ask what the city has done for you and I have to point out that the lion's share of your farming equipment is the direct result of factories in those cities. Can you till, plant and harvest without the benefits of tractors and combines anymore? Who is keeping those skills alive so that if the urban centers shut down, the countryside can continue operating as it does without petroleum and replacement parts?

I think there's a symbiosis between the rural and the urban that both resent to some degree.

If I were designing an electric bike, I'd look at my clientele.

First, the types of people I find most likely to want an electric are not going to be biking for performance but for practicality and an upright position does several things for you.:

• Better visibility both for you being able to see and for others being able to see you
• More comfortable riding position. (sure this is subjective but I ride both and find upright more comfortable)
• Less frightening for beginners. As someone else said earlier, having your ass up like a cat in heat is not an intuitive position for a beginner

Second, the mass added by making a bike electric undoes all of the weight savings and aerodynamics provided by having a racing position. It's like those people who ride in all spandex with their sperm-shaped helmet putting panniers on their bike. Why bother? You're counteracting all of the benefits. Might as well be upright, visible and able to look around.

I'm sorry, Tablizer, I'm afraid I can't do that.

Downtown Seattle, eh? Does that put you in the Gigabit Seattle coverage area?

Listen, I understand the irritation that arises in the interactions between cyclists and cars. We (cyclists) have to obey the same rules as cars. We have a few others thrown in for good measure in many places -- things like, "If you're on a 2 lane road with no shoulder, you may use the whole lane or, if there is a shoulder get over there instead". That kind of locally legislated crap. Fun fact: once you have your license to drive, there is nothing to make you go back and educate yourself on the rules that cyclists have to follow in order to use the road as well. In addition, there's nothing requiring drivers to educate themselves as to the meaning of road markings. Ever seen or looked up what a sharrow means in your region? It may not be the same as for me so you can't take it for granted that if you come to my city, bikes will use it the way you expect.

To make matters worse, confirmation bias. You see the asshole cyclists because they are the ones who rush to the intersection, track stand for a second at the red light and then take off while you are stuck waiting for the light to change when there's no cross-traffic. Of course this pisses you off. They're also the ones you see blowing stop signs like they're not there. I hate it when I go through a roundabout the correct direction and nearly get clocked by a car who is turning the wrong way because it's easier than going full circle to make that turn as much as you hate nearly creaming a cyclist who ignores traffic control. That doesn't make us all bad people on either side and we need to remember that a majority of road users we don't remember because they're not the ones who gave us an adrenaline rush or caused our lives to flash before our eyes on the way to work.

As for the chips on the shoulder, I attribute it to us feeling vulnerable, fragile, and scared in the face of your 1 ton car, that 18 wheeler and the delivery van with no back windows. Y'all are terrifying but but them's the roads I have to use, bud.

Lead me, Herdmaster!

[rolls over onto his back]

I see what you're trying to accomplish here but I think you fail to understand that by picking such an inflammatory comparison, you're likely to lose your audience and leave your attempted point lost in the negative response and bad connotations.

(I find it important to state at this point that I am not addressing whether I agree with the point or the approach)

That being the case, I would have to call this whole approach flamebait, whether or not you are doing it intentionally.

I believe the interesting part of that article was this:

Space Travel, though it made a very attractive game, served mainly as an introduction to the clumsy technology of preparing programs for the PDP-7. Soon Thompson began implementing the paper file system (perhaps `chalk file system' would be more accurate) that had been designed earlier. A file system without a way to exercise it is a sterile proposition, so he proceeded to flesh it out with the other requirements for a working operating system, in particular the notion of processes. Then came a small set of user-level utilities: the means to copy, print, delete, and edit files, and of course a simple command interpreter (shell). Up to this time all the programs were written using GECOS and files were transferred to the PDP-7 on paper tape; but once an assembler was completed the system was able to support itself. Although it was not until well into 1970 that Brian Kernighan suggested the name `Unix,' in a somewhat treacherous pun on `Multics,' the operating system we know today was born.

...this came after descriptions of how the original authors tried to get permission from Bell Labs to construct this thing. Instead, they built it on discarded hardware. This origin was not exactly company sanctioned.

...

begins crying because you are so...damn...right

I have to agree with arth1. I had a very similar experience with the ball-playing, PE type activities. I wish I could have those hours back to work on the 2 things I love: Bicycling and System Administration/Amateur Programming.

In response to your question about fitness levels, there are loads of physical activities that don't require one to submit to the hierarchy of the Jock-enabled elite and get your ass pounded by bullies. Even after having destroyed my right knee, I still came back to bicycling because it provides much needed exercise, convenient transportation, a decompression break between my work and home lives and, finally, a physical activity I can perform while thinking. Overall, for being in my mid 30's and a domestic and generally sedentary person, I'm in damn good shape.

Powered Over Ethernet? I don't see how that is relevant.

If I had control of this, I'd make a convenient script that gets run at some interval. It doesn't take much to provide someone with a quick-and-dirty script with a desktop icon.

In the case of rsync.net, the message is also signed. I have to assume the key is password protected so the script would include a prompt to enter the password, as well.

With X-Forwarding, SSH and other tools, having the interface to the switch be remote isn't even that difficult anymore. Hell, if the person responsible isn't the least bit tech savvy, you don't even have to rely on the CLI -- PyQT4 can create the UI. I'm sure there are other tools that are cross platform for performing these actions.

I know my reason for being interested in this kind of flag is that the current use of power looks more like abuse of power and until I feel that it is reigned in to a level I'm comfortable with, I want to undermine the (ab)use of that power.

I would rather err on the side of never penalizing the innocent rather than err on the side of always penalizing the guilty if it means that the innocent may be swept up in the dragnet.

Yes it would, as the Python interpreter is open source: Python License & History

Dear girlintraining: You made my day. Love, lightBearer.