Re: ...to get the point across
::snort::
Have a beer or I'll beat on you with my composing stick :-)
26584 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007
I'm a printer. I own a Heidelburg Windmill, and use it quite regularly. I used to collect typefaces, and own many, many trays, some quite esoteric and rare.
But I quit collecting. Do you know why? Because I found myself only using three or four on a regular basis. In addition, I almost never change the matricies on my linotype machine.
Why? Because the three or four are all that are needed to get the point across. Sure, I can use a zillion different typefaces if I choose. Yes, it says "more than just the semantics" ... it says "The looks are far more important (to me) than the actual content I am trying to convey! I'm here for art's sake, not information transfer! Need info? Look elsewhere!".
The WWW is a billion monkeys with a billion typefaces producing cut & paste copy from the Ransom Note School of Design.
Sometimes less is more.
Of course! When the Court demands it, alphagoo will quite happily remove all the gathered information from every single production and development system! And they will be equally happy for the court-appointed auditors to verify the removal!
During the meanwhile, at the carefully curated off-site backup location ...
Use your knee to steer, of course, just like everybody else.
There was one gal I used to see on a regular basis on the North bound 101 on-ramp from East bound San Antonio in Palo Alto ... Almost every morning, she'd be drinking coffee, eating a bagel, reading the WSJ, putting on her makeup, and cranking KOME[0] ... steering with her knee, One morning when I was running a trifle late I watched a tow service winching her car out of Adobe Creek.
When you are driving, drive. It's kind of important.
[0] Dating myself ... this was around 30 years ago.
The problem with that argument is that the unpredictable humans are supposed to share the roads with the supposedly near-perfect self-driving cars (which aren't, not by a long-shot). Obviously, things will go wrong ... and because there are more variables involved when you introduce something new, there is automatically more that will go wrong.
"If the law is more commonly broken than complied with, then it suggests it's a really bad law."
That is an entirely different kettle o' worms. If you (that's the royal "you") don't like a law, or laws, there are mechanisms to change it or them.
"the US doesn't use give-way lines."
Absolutely incorrect.
"The trouble is, from many other people's perspectives, it's not a matter of do or don't. It's do or starve. Dying in a crash would likely be preferable to people like them because they lack any kind of alternative (and no, they can't really afford or have access to anything else)."
That's a whole 'nuther kettle o' worms, and outside the scope of this discussion ... however, I'll point out the obvious: Not a single one of those people could afford a Tesla.
Alex, I;m a biker too ... and what you say is absolutely true. Most humans have not been properly trained to drive their cars. That doesn't alter the fact that these pseudo-autonomous vehicles don't belong on the street with human drivers.
Yes, a computer COULD beat a human. But they don't. Not yet, anyway ... and possibly never will. But until they do, this kind of thing should not be allowed on the road.
More likely it was the other way around ... you remembered grass snakes existed, and then your brain found one that you would have otherwise missed completely, just like you likely missed many others in the days/months/years since you had last remembered grass snakes existed.
Humans have a unique ability to tune out things that we deem unimportant.
I'm a hunter (mostly with a camera now), so I tend to see wildlife everywhere. Used to drive my Wife nuts because I'd always see the lizard, snake, racoon/possum in a tree, deer on the far hillside, birds everywhere, the odd feral European honey bee colony (which I often repatriated) ... to say nothing of mushrooms (edible and poisonous), and all kinds of edible plants. Now, after many years of walking in the wild with me, she sees these things by herself.
A couple of years ago, when I was walking the dawgs downtown I watched a young Redtail Hawk take a pigeon in mid-air. It landed in a muddle, obviously shaken up by the hit. It leaned against a car tire on the curb, wings covering its prey, shaking its head and trying to get its bearings. I stopped a couple from walking past it ... but they couldn't see it, just 15 feet away, even when I pointed it out to them! To them, it was a pile of leaves drifted up against the tire. When the bird took off with its prey a few seconds later, the woman let out a little screech and the man jumped ...
ANYway, keep your eyes and your mind open, you never know what you might see :-)
"Jake: What areas did you drive around?"
Pretty much all of the UK (including NI and all of the larger outlying islands, and quite a few of the smaller ones[0]). It's not like it's a big place, and I was a tourist quite interested in pre-Roman history (actually, I'm easily distracted by anything newly discovered from the middle ages back). A tourist with a work visa, but a tourist nonetheless.
[0] Obviously I walked or biked on many of the islands, sans car or motorcycle.
Then come up with a better name that describes it properly. Calling it "renewable" is a blatant lie. Or fuzzy thinking or outright ignorance, depending on who is using the term. Regardless, it does not endear itself to the literal, scientific set.
Thee typoes in mine were because the new pup in the house was insisting on helping. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience they caused you. Beer?
"Try getting above 25mph while driving in the Sunset or Noe Valley in SF. Or 20 mph for that matter."
Nah. The only reason I drive in any of those is when I take Sunset[0] to avoid 19th between the Bridge and 280 ... Otherwise I avoid San Francisco entirely. Hell-hole of a city.
[0] The lights are timed for approximately 37 MPH, the speed limit is 35. Go figure.
Cop salaries are NOT paid with traffic fines. Common misconception (or urban myth, perhaps?).
Several years ago, the local rag ("The Sonoma Sun") interviewed the City of Sonoma's Police Chief. One of the burning topics was (and still is) automobiles ignoring traffic rules around the pedestrian-heavy, tourist-centric Sonoma Plaza.
Specifically the reporter asked (paraphrasing) "Why don't you post a couple cops around The Plaza and ticket violators?". The Top Cop answered "Because we lose money for each citation issued. After the Court System takes their cut, we receive approximately $7 per citation ... which doesn't even pay the time it takes the officer to write the ticket and file the paperwork that follows".
See our local scoff-laws in action here. Note that this was a four-way stop before the street to the lower left was converted to outdoor dining (because Covid). Also note that the restaurant under the camera (Maya) is one of the best places to eat in Sonoma County. Highly recommended.
"The technology should be set up in such a way that, if the driver does not respond to a potential problem in time, the software will do it for you. It should also be dialled down so some features are disabled/enabled as I prefer, lane assist on narrow roads as an example."
From my perspective, if you can't drive ... DON'T!
Traffic lights here (California) are trending towards being more sensible ... during commute hours (school run, whatever), they move traffic in the direction of the commute at the expense of slowing traffic going other places just a bit. During times of lighter traffic and on weekends, they work on a more as needed basis, sometimes erroneously called "Sunday lights".
Frankly, I wish we had more roundabouts in logical places. We're getting there, if slowly, but as with people all over the world we are in the throws of an epidemic called NIH.
"There are a fair few STOP signs in the UK but mainly outside of urban areas."
Do you guys ignore stop signs so often you no longer even realize they are there? I've spent almost 20% of my life in the British Isles, and I remember plenty of stop signs, all over the place.
"Sure, some people are clutching their pearls about the lawbreakers who roll through stop signs."
Last time I checked, "stop" had a very simple meaning in law.
Complaining about people breaking the law is considered "clutching at pearls" these days?
I believe the word we're looking for here is "entitled".
You agreed to abide by the rules of the road when you signed for your license.
"I live and drive in the UK and I cannot think or recall a place where there is a stop sign equivalent to the ones in the US. Or even a stop sign at all."
Oh, bullshit. Here's one. Took me well under a minute a minute to find. Want me to dig up a couple thousand more?
"I don't understand the hostility towards Teslas by some contributors to this site."
Being a car guy, and a computer guy, and a guy who knows how sensors, servos, actuators and the like work and can be combined, I know how much can go wrong. Frankly,the concept of self-driving vehicles sharing the road with actual human drivers scares the shit out of me. Far, far too much to go wrong.
Couple that with the out-right lie of a so-called "emission-free" vehicle that is powered by electricity ...which as any fool can see is generated primarily from fossil fuels. Emmision-free my pasty white butt.
To say nothing of the entire "renewable energy" lie ... Thee is no such thing as renewable energy, entropy says no.
"Its a rare person that can accurately track a moving object with just their peripheral vision."
Thankfully, most humans can detect very, very slight movement in their peripheral vision, making your point rather pointless in this context.
"And it's also in /etc so it's specifically not in $PATH$"
That's "supposed to not be in your $PATH" ... I strongly suggest double checking this, do not assume, I got bit once at a place where you'd think they'd know better.
::grumble:: ::bitch:: ::gripe:: ::moan:: ; Hey you kids, ger orf me lawn!