I spend a lot of time near Manchester, VT where there are a handful of roundabouts including two in quick succession, one of which is as small as it is busy. The problem, based on my observations, is that many Americans have no idea how to use roundabout, nor how to signal through them. I feel unsafe every time I'm in the roundabout and have nearly been T-boned multiple times by people feeling they have the right to enter the roundabout regardless of existing motorists already being there. The Yield sign before the roundabout is ignored.
Also, require roundabout knowledge to pass the knowledge test to obtain a driver’s license, as well as practical experience when in a trainer’s permit. This ensures go forward expertise inherent in the population after a certain date.
People (education), process (implementation plan), technology (implementation).
It's possible, I haven't taken a driver's ed course in decades. Suggestions on potential data sources to confirm ground truth wrt this being included in current assessments?
> people feeling they have the right to enter the roundabout regardless of existing motorists already being there.
This baffles me. It's not like T-boning someone is good for your car either.
Only thing I can imagine is they think it will operate like getting on a freeway, where you have some time in a dedicated lane before you have to merge?
I live in the UK where roundabouts are ubiquitous and most people still don't understand them perfectly. The Highway Code[1] is too ambiguous.
- give priority to traffic approaching from your right, unless directed otherwise by signs, road markings or traffic lights
- watch out for all other road users already on the roundabout; be aware they may not be signalling correctly or at all
The second rule means if you have already entered the roundabout you have right of way over traffic yet to enter the roundabout to your right. What can happen in practice is that people to your right rock on and beep you out for the temerity of getting there first.
In the UK, roads entering the roundabout are often curved sharply towards direction of the traffic on the roundabout, so that it's more like merging lanes than entering a junction, so collisions are more likely to be sides hitting sides than a t-bone.
A guy i worked with called me over to try to help him figure out why his apple wireless mouse wasn’t working. I replace the batteries, restarted bluetooth, restarted the computer - i’d spent quite a bit of time working thru my mental checklist when the guy just started moving the mouse furiously, as if he expected that would re-animate it, and the cursor. It didn’t. But out of the corner of my eye i noticed the cursor moving on a screen two desks away, a desk whose occupant was out to lunch. I asked the inevitable question and the guy admitted that his mouse had stopped working, figured the batteries had run out (they had) and he was in a hurry so he grabbed somebody else’s mouse instead. To this day i don't know whether i’m more flabbergasted that he omitted to mention this when he first called me over, or that he thought the act of placing a mouse in front of his computer was all it took for the pair to communicate.
Whether or not intentially, the client is almost always lying to you.
I've seen the same wrong machine interface happen at checkout lanes with the handheld scanners (you'd think they'da kept them corded to their base station?).
>>Whether or not intentially, the client is almost always lying to you
There's a TV drama called House. It's ostensibly a medical drama with the titular Dr House having to diagnose people who provide incomplete information.
It took me 3 episodes to realise its actually a show about IT support (but who would watch that right?)
His catch phrase was "everyone lies" - and the first rule of IT support is that you should never believe a word they say.
These days remote desktoping almost takes the fun out of it. I now last about 2 minutes before demanding TeamViewer (or whatever.) The days of spending 45 mins on the phone listening to someone not tell me about the big prominent error message on their screen are over.
So next time you're watching House remember, this is an IT support allegory.
It is funny that my first rule for handling client's complaint is "It is (almost) always user's fault". And that was backed by several years of experiences as a programmer and IT Support for my institutions.
I have fond memories of watching Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, and Kevin Rose (of later digg fame) on The Screen Savers and Call For Help on the old ZDTV, then TechTV before it merged with G4. So many amazing hosts and shows got their start on that network, and many of them continue on their own shows/podcasts on YouTube and elsewhere, especially on the TWiT.tv video podcast network that Leo started. I met Leo once in SF at an impromptu meetup he announced on Twitter in the early 2010s, and he was the nicest person ever. Truly a larger than life personality and career, and you should check out all their shows if you're into IT on TV type content. They have like 10+ current active shows, including the namesake This Week in Tech and Security Now.
The closest to a show about IT support is Ask The Tech Guys, which is live in ~1.5 hours from now, and goes for 3 hours, and they have a Zoom link you can call in on @ call.twit.tv
I'll never forget watching Patrick accidentally break a brand-new ~$1-2K AMD 64-bit processor iirc live on TV while Leo watched in like 2002 due to misalignment or improperly mounting the heatsink. They were experts but they still make mistakes like the rest of us, and they took it in stride along with some good-natured mockery. It was the epitome of r/techsupportgore schadenfreude.
If instead you wanted a drama about IT support, I don't know of one - the closest would probably be a tie between the equally fantastic Mr Robot and Halt and Catch Fire.
Hiding behind a throwaway account allows you to make false statements, unless you can substantiate the "most of the money" comment. Wikimedia Foundation breaks down its expenditure here:
Exactly. The "realignment" in the article heading is clickbait. The article describes a group of right-leaning tech leaders meeting over dinner at one of their houses.
Shrinking GDP, yes, likely to move from technical to actual recession, sure, but "in a deep recession" is factually incorrect [1]:
"Ireland officially fell into recession last year as multinational exports slumped in the face of weaker global demand but the domestic economy still managed to grow, aided by stronger-than-expected consumer spending. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures published on Friday show the economy as a whole shrank by 3.2 per cent in GDP (gross domestic product) terms in 2023. The CSO noted that the more globalised sectors of the economy, including the multinational-dominated “Industry” sector, contracted for the first time since 2013. This was “driven largely by a fall of 4.8 per cent in exports,” the agency said. The figures show the economy was effectively in a technical recession for the entirety of 2023 with GDP contracting in all four quarters. The domestic economy as measured by modified domestic demand (MDD), a more reliable barometer of domestic activity, grew by 0.5 per cent on the back of a 3.1 per cent increase in consumer spending. Consumer spending was underpinned by strong employment growth with figures published last week showing a record 2.71 million people are now employed in the economy. Incomes also rose in real terms by 3.3 per cent, the CSO said. Worryingly, however, MDD contracted by 0.4 per cent in the final quarter of last year on the back of a fall-off in private-sector investment. Another quarterly contraction would turn Ireland’s technical recession into a real one."
I'm a huge fan of the books since childhood and hated Season 1. One big speech after another by some god/demagogue/mathematician. It took me months to bother watching Season 2 but was happily surprised to find it as good as Season 1 was bad. Not without flaw, for sure, but certainly more watchable.
I hate to have to ask this but how do you manage healthcare being a solo s-corp? I was under the impression this could only be done through a company if two unrelated family members owned the company? The only other alternative is "Obamacare"? I could be totally wrong.
Speaking as someone who has been mostly self-employed since about 2002, Obamacare is a godsend. Massively better than the old individual "underwriting" system that basically made it impossible to get coverage. Yes, health insurance is expensive, but you may be amazed that the ACA marketplace plans frequently cost less than employer plans with better market protections. The only way to do health insurance nowadays is to assume it's only for catastrophes; ie: an $8-15k deductible is nothing compared to a $250k hospital visit. Basically, you are buying a discount plan (your insurer's negotiated rates) plus a stop-loss cover. An example: I am an old fart at 63 and have an HSA plan with a $7,500 deductible. My premium is $900/mo, thus the MOST I will ever have to pay for health care in any 12 month period is $18,300. Way less than a $300k uncomplicated heart attack or a $1M cancer diagnosis. Work your tax returns right, and you can get subsidies that reduce the annual costs even more . . .
It's probably worth remembering this sort of thing when people say there is no difference between the parties. Every Republican voted against it, they almost repealed it, and apparently are gearing up for another crack at repeal https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/01/trump-o...
At your age, you'll likely be on Medicare soon either way, but some of us are still decades away.
I truly am waiting for Medicare (traditional only, no Advantage plans as those are a complete rip-off). I can tell you though, I've been continuously on the ACA since it started selling plans in 2012 and it's always been better than anything I could cobble together before. It's fantastic to be able to decide how and where I want to live my life without being locked into a shitty job or tied to a crap insurer because you can't pass underwriting to get on a different plan.
Also, I am on the highest ACA premium tier because of my age. Someone who's 35 could get the same policy I have for about $400/mo., unsubsidised.
Thank you - as someone with a bit of disability and facing future hip surgery, that's a helpful perspective. You're not far off on my age; I actually aged off my parents insurance right around the time the ACA passed and so I was able to get back on because of that law which extended parental coverage until 26. I'm currently quite happy with most aspects of my employment which includes my health insurance, but that situation never seems to last.
This is a good question and one that comes up often. I'd say it's around 60% to dealers, 40% to collectors. I'd like the skew to be more like 10%/90%, and that's my aim, but I take the position that a quick profitable sale to a dealer can be better than waiting for the right collector to come around and pay full retail price. It's a delicate dance and you need to develop an intuition for what coins are collector-friendly and quick sellers vs. what's more likely to sit around for a while. And the answer is different for every dealer and every series of coin. There are a lot of variables!
