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Comment: Re:Hmm (Score 1) 295

by Dahan (#47378159) Attached to: Site of 1976 "Atomic Man" Accident To Be Cleaned

If the amount of radiation didn't even kill the guy, it sounds like razing the building and securely storing all the towels that touched him is a bit overkill.

...And by "a bit" I mean the other thing.

Perhaps it didn't kill the guy because the substance that was emitting the radiation was transferred from his body into the towels that touched him?

Comment: Re: Aperture-specific plugins... (Score 2) 214

by Dahan (#47346613) Attached to: Apple Kills Aperture, Says New Photos App Will Replace It

the "cloud" version of Photoshop is out of the question, because I sometimes work in the field where there is no internet.

"Cloud" is just a marketing term that can mean a wide variety of things. In the case of Adobe Creative Cloud, it means you're licensed on a subscription basis, and need to connect to Adobe's servers periodically to verify that your subscription is still active. It doesn't mean you run Photoshop in a web browser--it's still installed on your hard drive like traditional programs. As the FAQ says, "No, the desktop applications in Creative Cloud, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, are installed directly on your computer, so you donâ(TM)t need an ongoing Internet connection to use them."

Comment: Re:Not a problem (Score 2) 146

by Dahan (#47341557) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: SIM-Card Solutions In North America?

I don't know why you had such a problem. There are many GSM carriers that offer SIM/pre-pay, and have for as long as I can recall.

Agreed. He doesn't say exactly when his last trip to the US was, but AT&T and T-Mobile had prepaid SIMs "a few years ago". I don't know if there are any airport shops that sell them (seems like there would be), but as you say, they're readily available in various stores outside the airport.

However, AT&T's prepaid plans suck for tourists... if you have a smartphone (and seeing that this is /., I bet OP does), AT&T will make you get a "smartphone" plan, which starts at $25 for a month of service, and doesn't actually include any data--that's an extra $5 for a measly 50MB. T-Mobile has prepaid plans that I think would work better for a short-term visitor, e.g., perhaps their $3/day unlimited plan.

But I think the best prepaid plans in the US for visitors come from "MVNO"s--basically companies that resell access to either AT&T's or T-Mobile's network, such as Airvoice or Ultra. Unfortunately, their SIMs tend not to be available in actual physical stores, which makes buying their service impractical for a visitor.

Comment: Re:Levi stadium situation (Score 1) 404

by Dahan (#47310263) Attached to: San Francisco Bans Parking Spot Auctioning App

Despite sounding like a good idea, apparently in real life the margin on parking is so low that you can't really do it on a part time basis and make it worth your while. It's not that they are doing it wrong, their business model is to simply privatize the profit and socializing the liability and risks (e.g. city maintenance and self-insurance costs) not unlike a big-bad-bank...

FWIW, most of the office buildings around the Texas Rangers baseball stadium in Arlington turn their lots into pay parking on game days. (And for games at the Cowboys football stadium too, even though that's a bit of a longer walk from the office buildings).

Comment: Re:Massive conspiracy (Score 2) 465

by Dahan (#47260641) Attached to: IRS Lost Emails of 6 More Employees Under Investigation

You should also, you know, READ the original TIGTA report, too. It is very enlightening, even with its admitted flaws. For example, the targeting was still a very small part of the total applications, and the "Tea Party" targeting was also less than a third of all targeted applications.

Read it already, and you're misstating what it says. You seem to be referring to Figure 4 on page 8--that's showing that of the applications that went for special review, about 1/3 looked like they were from "Tea Party" groups. That doesn't really say too much about whether Tea Party groups were targeted or not; of course there will be other applications that look borderline and need more review. What does show that they were targeted is that in a random sample of all applications, all Tea Party-looking groups were selected for special review. In other words, if you're not a Tea Party group, you only get special review if there's something worth reviewing. But if you are a Tea Party group, you're definitely getting reviewed. If you had read the report, you would have seen that it specifically mentions that the IRS made the same argument you made, and the report refutes that argument:

Figure 4 shows that approximately one-third of the applications identified for processing by the team of specialists included Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names, while the remainder did not. According to the Director, Rulings and Agreements, the fact that the team of specialists worked applications that did not involve the Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 groups demonstrated that the IRS was not politically biased in its identification of applications for processing by the team of specialists. While the team of specialists reviewed applications from a variety of organizations, we determined during our reviews of statistical samples of I.R.C. 501(c)(4) tax-exempt applications that all cases with Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names were forwarded to the team of specialists.

Comment: Re:So when will the taxi drivers start protesting? (Score 1) 583

by Dahan (#47111019) Attached to: Google Unveils Self-Driving Car With No Steering Wheel

The tips are generally shared amongst some of the staff.... that portion of the staff makes shit wage, minimum wage law doesn't apply to them.

No, minimum wage law does apply to them: "If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference."

It's actually most white-collar employees (e.g., software developers such as myself) who are exempt from the minimum wage laws (and overtime too)... see this page for the full list of exempt employees.

Comment: Re:Don't trust the Wall Street Journal (Score 1) 129

Are there any of the major companies that aren't doing Fiber to the Press Release? Karl Bode has a hateboner for AT&T, but if you look at it objectively, Google's doing the same thing. Fiber in Austin! But where and when? Not here, and not right now--probably not for another year. Unlike AT&T's so-called FTTPR, which is currently available in the Austin suburb I live in.

Comment: Re:RightsCorp (Score 1) 196

But yes, restaurant wait staff often don't even get the minimum wage. Disgusting, isn't it?

They do in the US. If their wages plus tips ends up being less than the minimum wage, federal law requires that their employer pay the difference, so that they end up getting the minimum wage.

Comment: Re:No, thank you. (Score 1) 865

by Dahan (#46925805) Attached to: Did the Ignition Key Just Die?

This. My wife's car is completely keyless. She has to have the fob to open the doors or turn it on. This past winter she came out of work and couldn't get into her car let alone turn it on because the battery in her fob died. Fortunately it was at work and she had a warm place to go back to and call me to bring her the spare fob. If she had been somewhere without such recourse when it was -15 wind chill she very well could have died.

My Chevy Volt has keyless entry, remote start, and a keyless start option, but it still has a physical key. If the battery in the Fob dies I can still get in it. My old Chevy Impala I kept a spare key in my wallet. It wouldn't start it, but would open the door or trunk in case I locked the keys in the car or I could get to the emergency supplies I kept in the trunk.

You name the model car you have, and your old one. Why don't you name the one your wife has that's apparently a deathtrap in the winter?

Because if we knew, we'd link to the documentation showing that there is in fact a physical key inside the fob that can be used to unlock the door.


by Dahan (#46923931) Attached to: Did the Ignition Key Just Die?

Q: How do you turn the car off in an emergency - e.g. stuck accelerator pedal?
A: You can't just press start/stop, as the vehicle speed sensor inhibits the button, so you can't turn off the ignition whilie the vehicle is moving. This isn't even in the manual. However, pressing and holding start/stop for 10 seconds will cause the ignition to turn off completely. This is a surprisingly long time in an emergency. In fact, in several "unintended acceleration" episodes, the drivers said they tried to turn off the push-button ignition, but couldn't turn it off.

Karnal was talking about Lexuses--maybe this is a recent change, but you only need to hold the button for 3 seconds to turn the engine off. Or press it 3 times in a row. See, for example, page 484 of the 2012 ES 350 Owner's Manual. It's similar in Nissans... hold for more than 2 seconds, or press 3 times within 1.5 seconds (page 6-2 of the 2013 Altima Owner's Manual.

Comment: Re:.... don't see the issue with your plan? (Score 1) 865

by Dahan (#46923829) Attached to: Did the Ignition Key Just Die?

If you have to push the brake pedal down all the way to trigger the 'keep cranking until start' mode, you couldn't pop-start since the car wouldn't be moving :)

If the starter works, why would you want to pop-start the car? The idea is that the starter isn't working, for whatever reason. So you press the button twice to switch the ignition to "ON" mode, put the transmission in 2nd gear, step on the clutch, get a friend to push your car (or roll it down a hill), then slowly release the clutch. No brakes are involved. This page has some more details on the process.


by Dahan (#46922025) Attached to: Did the Ignition Key Just Die?

In Nissans and Toyotas with push button ignition, hold down the brake and press the button to crank. IIRC, it keeps cranking while you're holding down the button, although I haven't really tested that much, since I don't want to keep the starter engaged for too long once it's actually started. If you don't actually want to start the car, don't hold down the brake; just press the button to run accessories. Press it one more time to turn everything on.

I don't know if you can push-start a manual with this system, but it seems like you could.
