Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re: Customer service? (Score 1) 928

Where you sit on a plane has just about 0 effect on your arrival time at your final destination.
When you look at the overall travel time from leaving the door at your departure address, getting to the airport, flying, bag claim, getting from airport to your destination address; the 90 seconds you may have saved by seat choice is absolutely worthless. You're talking about 3-7 hours of total travel time and people think that a few seconds helps them in some way.

I also think that the boarding time has FAR less to do with the plan and much more to do with people's greed, stupidity and ignorance. Get in, put your bag OVER YOUR OWN SEAT, sit down, buckle your belt. Seems people suddenly forget that they need their book, have to piss, just have to ask a question of the flight crew, or any number of things other than getting luggage stowed and ass in seat.

Comment Re: name and location tweeted... (Score 1) 928

Airport terminals are public spaces
The airport itself MAY be private property, do not conflate "property" with "space"

Examples of private property, public space:
The customer areas of a shopping mall
Airport terminals
Rockefeller center square
Your unfenced front yard

Examples of private property, private space
The manager's office of the mall
Airport security offices, any area marked "secure" or "private"
The executive offices of the building
Your home

Examples of public property, public space:
Your local library
State Park

Example of public property, private space:
The police station

Comment Re:At least they're open about it. (Score 2) 109

Government can be accountable to the people. The wealthy have the means to promote their viewpoints loudly but the only viewpoints and opinions that matter are what goes on in the voting booths.
If the lazy Americans would stop re-electing 90%+ of the politicians they all state are doing a lousy job then perhaps we could get something productive done, like undoing a lot of the stupid that was enacted in the past 60 years. Party lines aren't the problem and people need to get over it and just vote the incumbents out.

If we start getting regular turn-over of elected officials then the back-room deals, the special interest groups, the lobbying all become less effective as they're starting from 0 every election cycle. The problems are caused by the old white men who've been in Congress or state legislatures for decades and the entrenched system of donations, perks and fringe benefits given to them by those with money. Will it be ideal? No. Will it be better? Probably.

Comment Re:Here we go... (Score 1) 454

Hamas wants Israel destroyed because the creation of Israel destroyed Palestine. There is no simple right/wrong or good/evil here. Israel keeps confiscating more land and shows no signs of stopping until Gaza and The West Bank are under their control. Both sides are fighting incursion but only one side has international support.

The Zionists chose Palestine and the UN went along with that choice. How would we feel if the UN instead had carved out ½ of New York City, or Paris or Vatican City and gave it to the Jews as a homeland? There would be outrage and retaliation for generations. Sound familiar?

Comment Re:Hmm (Score 1) 625

My point is both issues were self inflicted and so there is some parity between the two.
On a less severe note, if you choose to snow ski and break your leg, in most states you can get a temporary handicap placard.
The "will you get better" question doesn't seem to come in to play when the government assigns the designation of handicapped.

Comment Re:Not SHARING (Score 1) 507

I used my own car's real-world operations numbers and increased all my costs a bit.
2004 Golf TDI

These are number for operating the vehicle, not owning and so do not include depreciation, payments, repairs, etc. Just the wear and tear on normal service items. Uber does not claim their drivers are professionals or running a business so they don't get to do depreciation for purposes of "ride sharing". If they were taxi/limo drivers they could do that. Yes is costs more than this per mile to OWN a car, but not to drive it.

(all figures are $/mile)
fuel: $.09 [$3.77/gal at a real-world usage of at least 40mpg) (price/gal currently in Phoeinx, AZ)
tires: $.02 [$1,100 every 50,000 miles. I use really nice tires]
oil change: $.008 [$90 every 10,000 miles. includes air/oil filters]
insurance: $.02 [$480/yr at 20,000 miles per year]
miscellaneous: $.01 [washer fluid, headlights, etc. $200/yr assuming 20,000 miles]
Total per mile operating cost: $0.18 or about 5.5 miles per dollar.

Sure if you have an SUV getting 16mpg or a high performance car with really expensive tires or carry boat loads of insurance you can increase the cost per mile substantially, but that is an average car driven by an average person.

So let me do an "average" truck the Ford F150 which is the most popular vehicle in the US line according to a quick search.

fuel: $.17 [$3.55/gal 20mpg average estimated] (again price in Phx,AZ as of today)
tires: $.03 [$970 every 30,000 miles (assuming Nitto 420s) and they are worn down faster than the tread warranty]
oil change: $.005 [$50 every 10,000 miles] ) (10,000 is factory spec. even at 5,000 miles the cost is only a penny per mile)
insurance: $.06 [$720/yr assuming 12,000 miles/ year]
miscellaneous: $.03 [washer fuid, lights, etc. $360/ys assuming 12,000 miles]
Total per mile operating cost: $0.29

Comment Hmm (Score 3, Interesting) 625

So the people who could most use the exercise are going to have to walk the least.

I guess the overall plan makes sense; if you were to chop off your own leg you'd be considered disabled; I don't think the law makes any exceptions for self inflicted disability. It just seems wrong, though. Eat your way to not being able to fit in the office cubicle and your boss has to accommodate your mass by re-engineering the doors and floor to handle your breadth and heft.

Comment Not SHARING (Score 3, Insightful) 507

When you share something you don't charge for it. Uber drivers charge so this is a very simple vehicle/driver for hire setup we commonly call a taxi. If they are a taxi then they must abide by the taxi laws: meters inspected by weights and measures, taxes paid, licensing requirements met. (call them a Limo if you want, the term is irrelevant for most all regulation issues)

To be a "ride share" scenario the driver would have to have already been going to, near to or past the place you want to be. You could pay a little bit of money to cover the cost of fuel for the time the passenger is in the car.

This is all pretty well spelled out in the aviation laws already and my guess will be those laws/regulations will wind up as precedent against Uber/Lyft. As a commercial pilot you may charge whatever price you can for flying a passenger to a destination. As a private pilot you may only share a minority of expenses with the passenger and not make any profit. Ex: if it costs $50/hr to fly your plane then you can share that cost with the passenger up to $25/hr. The passenger must also have a common destination/purpose. I suppose you could itemize your charges as $25 for flight sharing, $200 for valet service on the airport ramps but due to oversight and licensing I don't know any pilot that would risk that maneuver.

So let's apply those same tests to the Uber/Lyft services:

Cost to operate a vehicle: in the range of $.12 to $.25 per mile, Uber rate: ~$1.50 per mile, 6 times the actual operating cost:
      cost share: fail
Common destination/purpose: The driver's goal is to get the passenger to the destination, the driver has no business at the destination:
      common purpose: fail

Comment "Wants to computerize"? (Score 1) 191

Is there a current model year car in the US that will run without computers today? Engine management, automatic transmission, RFID key systems, remote/button start, airbags, traction control, collision avoidance, backup cameras, auto headlights, the entire instrument cluster, the entire entertainment system.
I'd guess each and every car in production today in the US has at least 20 computers in it, doesn't that seem sufficiently "computerized"?

Understand that the processors in the computers are highly specialized to use the least amount of electricity and be the most reliable they can be. Has you engine every shut off because of a computer failure? The power usage is one that people don't seem to fully grasp. Your car generates its own electricity via the engine drivel alternator. IF you start tossing in high power general purpose CPUs and computer in the car you will increase fuel consumption for the added weight and power draw. It MAY be that the computer could offset those variables with added intelligence. Electricity use is one of the major reasons manufacturers are moving to LED lighting systems.

Comment Re:Good luck with that. (Score 2) 225

So stop complaining that we did the wrong thing and tell us what we should have done. Put up or shut up. There's a LOT going on politically behind the scenes with ambassadors and such chatting in isolated rooms.

There are three options I can see:
1. Ignore it and let the EU sort it out
2. Sanctions and hard rhetoric, some military posturing in the region
3. Invasion to reclaim the occupied lands. we (US, GB, etc) invade, China assists Russia, India assists us, Pakistan, Iran and the reset of the nuclear nations join in short order... see where this goes?

We chose the middle ground, what's your plan?

Slashdot Top Deals

Understanding is always the understanding of a smaller problem in relation to a bigger problem. -- P.D. Ouspensky

Working...