dripton

40 ms·

181.
by dripton 14y ago
A smartphone is at least $50 per month for 2 years, or $1200. Cable or satellite TV is also at least $50 per month. The initial teaser costs of these items are nowhere near the true costs. (Except for the rare user of a big screen TV who
182.
by dripton 14y ago
I like the idea too, except for fraud. When everyone making less than X automatically gets money from the government, the temptation to work off the books and double-dip grows. (Though I don't know if it's really any more of a problem tha
183.
by dripton 14y ago
Some people do have a lot of kids. However, the overall total fertility rate in the US was estimated in 2011 at 1.89 kids/woman, below replacement level. So without immigration, population would indeed be shrinking.
184.
by dripton 14y ago
Actually, not a lot of major US airports were built after 1970. Denver International Airport is the only big one I can think of. NIMBY makes it really hard to build airports except in the absolute middle of nowhere, where there's no need.
185.
by dripton 14y ago
The Ctirp study last year showed that remote CSRs at a Chinese travel agency were more productive than the ones in the office. Of course that might not be applicable to other jobs.
186.
by dripton 14y ago
They don't all forget. S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series is full of bikes.
187.
by dripton 14y ago
You're assuming that he won't murder anyone in prison.
188.
by dripton 14y ago
This time of year, the package delivery companies are hiring lots of temporary help. There was a sticker looking for temporary delivery guys covering up the local paper's lead story last week.
189.
by dripton 14y ago
Sometimes, anyway. Recall that the Canadian Supreme Court invalidated the parent on Viagra last week for failing to disclose the active ingredient.
190.
by dripton 14y ago
I've seen professional women coming to the office with free logo-emblazoned tote bags. Not all professional women are fashion-obsessed.
191.
by dripton 14y ago
"Hey, POTUS, you got us. BTW, we'll never lend you money again. Or vote for your party again." The US would never need to default on its debt, since its debt is in USD. Worst case, it would just print more money, leading to inflation.
192.
by dripton 14y ago
I have one in my car, with my entire music collection on it. Though I might want to delete some, since my car's interface for switching between albums is serial. Takes a long time to go from A to Z.
193.
by dripton 14y ago
Sorry, I was looking at the wrong page while I wrote that. But the greater point stands -- swinging Florida, Ohio, and Virginia would not have swung the election.
194.
by dripton 14y ago
Regardless, there's no way all of those Libertarian voters would have voted Republican. Some who voted Libertarian did so out of concern for civil liberties or drug legalization or avoiding war, and many of those would be more likely to
195.
by dripton 14y ago
No. Obama won by 313 to 225 electoral votes. Florida had 29, Ohio 18, and Virginia 13. If you switch all three states to Romney then Romney would have won 285 to 260.
196.
by dripton 14y ago
I am really annoyed to see many of these pages calling states for a candidate with 0% of votes in. Can't we at least wait until a statistically valid sample of actual votes is in?
197.
by dripton 14y ago
We used to only have the optical scanners in Virginia. The machines are a recent addition, and a big step back. I want them gone.
198.
by dripton 14y ago
Of course there's no foolproof way to tell if someone opened an email. You can do something like embed a link to an image with a unique URL for tracking, and hope people's email clients automatically follow such links. (Yours doesn't, min
199.
by dripton 14y ago
If they can afford Lucasfilm, they can surely afford to license Zahn's books. (Assuming Lucasfilm didn't already have the right to film them, which they might, if they thought to insert the right language into the book contracts.) Whether
200.
by dripton 14y ago
Counterexample: I got a National Merit scholarship. I didn't study for the PSAT at all.
201.
by dripton 14y ago
Good for you. I also categorically refused to buy anything with DRM on it, until I caved and bought a Kindle last year. I figured the DRM on the Kindle was at least easy to crack, so I could make backups of my books to keep Amazon from st
202.
by dripton 14y ago
I think the country most similar to the US is probably Canada. Canada has both significantly cheaper medical care (US$4360/person/year vs. $7960/person/year) and significantly higher life expectancy (80.7 vs. 78.2) than the US. Another can
203.
by dripton 14y ago
Maybe most of the market doesn't care, but I care a lot. I gladly paid $30 more for an ad-free Kindle, and I won't be buying one of the new Fires if they don't have an ad-free version.
204.
by dripton 14y ago
How would you know how many apps were blocked, if they never showed up in the store?
205.
by dripton 14y ago
I don't like the way he does coordinates for triangles and hexagons, having hexes with the same y-coordinate slope up to the right. I prefer having hexes with the same y-coordinate stay as close to horizontal as possible, meaning that even
206.
by dripton 14y ago
Obviously your test case is insufficient. In Kent Beck's "Test Driven Development by Example", he starts just like this, with an insufficient failing test. Then he writes a minimal function that passes it. Then he adds another test, then
207.
by dripton 14y ago
In a couple of decades of occasional job interviews, I've done mostly 1:1 and a handful of 2:1. I've only done one 4:1, which was actually lunch in between all-day 1:1 interviews, and which didn't feature any technical questions just random
208.
by dripton 14y ago
I was in the same boat until last fall, when I finally caved and bought a Kindle. I hate DRM too, but at least Kindle's DRM is easy to crack, so you have a way out of Amazon's walled cesspool if you need it. (I haven't needed it so far, s
209.
by dripton 14y ago
Warm rain doesn't matter, except that it affects your stopping distance so you need to brake earlier. Rain gear is mostly pointless in warm weather because it reduces ventilation and leads to getting wet from sweat rather than from rain. F
210.
by dripton 14y ago
I ride to work every day. Most of my commute is on a popular bike path. I always warn people before I pass them. Every few months, someone decides to do a U-turn or a left turn, without looking, right into my path, while I'm passing them

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