> At some point you're gonna have to trust an authoritative source. Whether that is APNews or NYT or straight from the government website.
Would you really teach your children "trust the New York Times and whatever the government says"? When both said Iraq had WMDs, did you believe them? In a perfect world we could all look at the source material (photos, videos, data, etc.) ourselves to figure out reality and there would be uncensorable platforms for individuals to call out corruption and reach the masses. This was the original promise of the internet and social media! Sadly the authoritarian left is insistent on defining "reality" and relishes censoring dissenting facts or opinions. Facebook and Twitter wields their "fact checking" and censorship on a might-is-right basis, which disenfranchises 50% of the population and is seriously incendiary to civil discourse.
I am terrified of the idea that the common public of 70 million people that voted for Trump did not have the basic skills to determine what's true and what's not from the evidence. They've been constantly fed lies - as we speak about election fraud. They're provided with plenty of evidence, they choose to not believe.
If you think about the world where 80% of the people are religious, who throw away evidence in favor of faith; you're in for a dark future.
I am saying I don't believe in authoritative sources of truth. All the "wrong" people out there don't enter into it when I am reading news. I look for facts that can be and have been validated.
And it's important to have humility about being right about everything. You don't have to go back far to find folks on the left excited about the prospects for Venezuela. Now, it's possible to find scapegoats, but it does explain some of the right-wing perspective on fake news. If the left and the media had to see a country basically collapse to call the Venezuelan government problematic, what do you call the reporting and debate points before that? "Factual" doesn't cut it.
Pompous comments like this only drive people further away. Evidence being presented by a biased media is not evidence to be trusted. MSM “science” and “facts” are just as much a religion as Catholicism.
If I’m presented evidence from someone that has routinely lied to me, called me names, destroyed my career, and shipped my job prospects overseas, I’m not believing a single word they say.
> When both said Iraq had WMDs, did you believe them?
Biden voted for the Iraq War and 70 million people just installed him as President so we can go back to the glorious way things were before. Certainly the billionaire elites, deep state, globalists, big tech, pro war Democrats and Republicans, big business (which loves infinite cheap labor), China - they're all thrilled with where this goes next.
I wonder if all the people cheering for Biden (including the Europeans) will be offering apologies when Biden & Co. start the next round of wars, as we return to the ways things were pre-Trump. Biden's brain is jello, so somebody else is going to be steering the ship the next few years until he steps down for health reasons to set up Harris to run for re-election in 2024 running as the incumbent. Zero chance Biden's health holds up against the rigors of the job given how much he has collapsed mentally in the past four years (the stress of the job will make it that much worse).
As an American, I'm increasingly interested in leaving the country. Not specifically because of Trump or Biden, but because of everything, the general direction of the country, the imploding culture, the partisan venom, the fiscal disaster, the superpower globalism (including the war machine), the disastrous immigration policies. The US is fundamentally broken and will not be repaired, it's only going to get worse as real authoritarianism rises on both sides (socialism and fascism, both of which require extreme political violence, a small taste of which we've just recently been getting). The future of the US is Brazil, with more money. Canada is looking very nice (sane immigration policies, national selfishness regarding their priorities, no war machine, spending allocated effectively (the US spends more of its economy on its mediocre welfare state than Canada does and gets a lot less for it), a stable culture, and national civility).
You are naive to think mass riots, looting and arson won’t lead to deaths. Someone with respect for human life wouldn't set fire to a building or repeatedly punch a disabled lady in a wheelchair in the back of the head and take her purse. Already at least 7 people have been shot. 63 people died in the 1992 LA riots.
America is very backwards in tech for daily life. About 2 years ago I was blown away when I arrived at the San Francisco airport and had to buy a train card with a Visa card; the customer service guy got flustered and pulled an old carbon paper swiper thing out from under the desk, and asked for my signature. In Australia it's all wireless payWave or PayPass. My Chinese GF uses her phone to pay for things and considers me old fashioned for using a card.
> America is very backwards in tech for daily life. About 2 years ago I was blown away when I arrived at the San Francisco airport and had to buy a train card with a Visa card; the customer service guy got flustered and pulled an old carbon paper swiper thing out from under the desk, and asked for my signature.
America is very backwards because of one thing that happened to you that has literally never happened to me in the 21+ years I have been an adult here?
How did you even find a human to pay? I have always used a ticket vending machine at SFO.
Cheques haven't even existed for 15+ years here in Ireland. America is quite slow on the uptake of tech considering they are arguably the most disruptive innovators in the world as a country.
I haven’t used checks routinely for the last 20 years in the states. I’m always really annoyed when some random niche activity requires it and can’t accept an online transfer. Then I have to go to the bank and get a temporary one.
Checks still have lower transaction fees for large amounts than most electronic forms do payment (cost: a postage stamp).
I was looking for electronic ways to send a substantial wad of money domestically once and almost all electronic transfer providers wanted a percentage.
Would be interested to know if there are any online services that can match the transaction fee of a check.
Checks have lived on beyond their useful life, unfortunately. I think the only reason they still exist is the arthritic ACH system and the desire by some receipients to avoid credit card processing fees.
Still, while checks may still be a thing they're pretty rare and rarely required. Mobile and contactless payment is pretty common (outside the food service industry, but I blame the food service industry for that).
I think it depends on who is the customer and where things take place. My mother in law still uses checks, prefers in person banking, and doesn't use technology. She loves getting cash back when she shops. Same with a brother in law of mine, cash is king, technology is a mobile phone to sms his family and friends. He is a successful business owner, btw.
I haven't written a check since the late 90's, when I receive a check, I deposit it directly from my phone. I never carry cash. When I shop its nearly all online. Unless its a restaurant, I've ordered and paid before stepping foot or driving through the place.
The point being, business's accommodate their customers and there is a shocking amount of people who don't care about technology in the US, especially outside of business and tech centers.
Taxes and Additional Costs
1. Government Stamp Duty will be charged to your account for each cheque book issued to you (currently €20 per cheque book of 40 cheques).
...
etc.
I had similar experiences with backwards technology while visiting the US. Buying tickets for the BART or Caltrain is nothing similar to the experience with NS in the Netherlands or even the BVG/MVG in Germany (even if Caltrain nowadays has an app), it feels really antiquated and buggy. Having my card swiped and asking for signatures in receipts at stores, cafés or restaurants is also a thing of the past even in Brazil.
The metro card in NYC is also pretty outdated, the whole metro system looks terrible but talking strictly about technology even the ticket machines are problematic, touch screens that don't work properly and so on; buying bus ticket in PABT is also a quite bad experience.
Except for the actual card technology issues (which are frustrating, though that glacier is slowly moving), those are all matters of how those transit agencies are run, not issues with the payment system.
As for cashless technology, there is significant political backlash to cashless systems. See the efforts by NYC to force businesses to accept cash as payment. I don't think the glacier is going to move much faster until that political resistance is addressed.
Edit: s/cars/cashless/
Android predictive autocorrect is worse than useless these days.
those are all matters of how those transit agencies are run, not issues with the payment system.
I think that was the point of the originator of the thread - the technology is there, it's just not applied properly. It may have improved recently, but when visiting SF for a few weeks in 2013 and 2014 I was left scratching my head about how best to charge my Clipper card for Muni transit. Topping up the credit via the website had a waiting time of 1-2 working days, so if you were trying to catch a tram or bus into the city centre from the outer neighbourhoods, you had to plan ahead for having enough credit, especially when the weekend was coming up. At BART stations it was usually less problematic to charge the cards - assuming the machine worked, which wasn't always the case.
At any rate, the whole thing felt very uncivilised and anachronistic compared to my experiences in much of Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. (Japan's Pasmo and similar cards require cash for charging and largely don't accept credit cards, but you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere where you'd have to walk more than a block for an opportunity to charge them - or to find an ATM for obtaining the cash you need.)
>As for cashless technology, there is significant political backlash to cashless systems. See the efforts by NYC to force businesses to accept cash as payment. I don't think the glacier is going to move much faster until that political resistance is addressed.
But it's political resistance for valid reasons.
Per the FDIC, 18% of Americans are underbanked
https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/ and 8% are unbanked.
The real problem is 1.) banks are a cancer on society. Most banks these days charge you ridiculous fees if you don't have even a $1500 in the account 2.) the unbanked and underbanked aren't introduced enough to credit unions which are ideally their answer to having savings account that doesnt fuck them 3.) unforunately credit unions cant afford to take risk with offering those with poor credit ratings a credit card
Otherwise, consider yourself lucky to be posting on HackerNews from probably working a tech job to be arguing for non-cash accepting stores. Plenty of people don't have that luxury.
Accepting cashless tech and not accepting cash are unrelated issues. Here I can use my phone alone as the transit ticket, buy a physical ticket with a contactless ATM card or with plain coins and bills.
>The metro card in NYC is also pretty outdated, the whole metro system looks terrible but talking strictly about technology even the ticket machines are problematic, touch screens that don't work properly and so on; buying bus ticket in PABT is also a quite bad experience.
The Metrocard is what one would call a hi-rel product, it hasn't been replaced because it works (baring the annoyance of the turnstile readers which one can eventually master and never have an issue). It is being phased out now in favor of NFC and contactless card payments by 2022. It's only really recently that NFC support has become widespread in private industry anyway and most banks have resisted the same on issuing contactless cards due to cost (and little or no retailer support until recently). They are also adding a buyable in cash payment card for those that dont have a phone or credit card for the poorer folks that don't have the luxury (essentially contactless Metrocard).
Touchscreens are another fun animal. The reason many suck is because they are resistive instead of capacitance touch. They can be made far more resilient against damage/vandalism than a capacitive touchscreen of a phone where the agency would go bankrupt repairing them every day. Downside is, resistive screens do really suck.
I've found Germany is even more backwards for consumer-facing tech. I frequently have to pay with cash at businesses here, and of course make sure to always have a coin on you for the shopping cart at the grocery store! Additionally, websites for German institutions are markedly behind what I was used to in the states (e.g. elementary schools), they all still rely heavily on phone calls and letters, and I still had people giving me photos burned on CD's, or emailing them to me one photo at a time. Software/internet UX in general just seems very behind, too.
That's not to say that Germany is less advanced than the US as a whole, but when it comes to consumer-facing software stuff, it feels substantially behind.
This one, yeah makes sense. Although it has less explanatory power for EC cards than credit cards imo. Aren't EC card payment fees quite low?
Plus IIRC studies show people being more willing to spend more with 'plastic' than cash, so it may actually be a false savings for the business.
And it's not like Germany is collectively taking some principled position against digital payments, they're just slower on the adoption curve; it IS still happening. To me this points more to the general conservatism on digital things that you can see elsewhere as well (e.g. uptake of digital books, downloaded vs physical video games, downloaded/streamed music, etc.) rather than something specific to payments themselves.
America's banking system is the best example. My clients still pay me via ACH that takes 2-3 days to clear. Meanwhile in my local market, I can send/receive money instantly for either zero or a fee capped at less than $0.10/transaction.
We use trains in America? I had a similar experience in Germany with cash. Many of the cafes in Munich did not accept cards. A Finnish student I met shared awkward stories about forgetting to carry cash. I had to walk across the Munich airport to find an ATM to pay my expensive cab with cash. His credit card app could not connect to its services.
How did you not find an automated kiosk to by a train ticket or pass? Many of these even have the same tap to pay that you are familiar with in Australia.
Since moving back to the states from China 3 years ago, I’ve gone to the ATM twice, and I no longer have to fumble with a phone to align QR codes. To each their own, I guess.
I think your experience is a complete outlier. I literally only go the ATM when I need to give cash to a friend or something weird like that. I spend most of my life in NYC / Financial District. I can't recall the last time I even had to use a physical credit card - everything is either Apple Pay or Level Up, i.e. pay with the phone. Even the subway lines I use have been converted to touchless entry. It's pretty marvelous.
This is beyond stupid. A lot of practical questions were not answered in the article…
- What is the date of birth and gender of this "legal person"?
- Is it a New Zealand citizen?
- How will the river enroll to vote? How will the river pay it's fines when it fails to vote?
- What will happen when the river breaks its banks and destroys property, and someone sues it for damages? Will it be in contempt of court for not showing up to appearances?
- If New Zealand enters a major war, can the river be drafted for military service? How do you fine or imprison a river for draft dodging?
- Where the river releases it's fluids at the beach, is it engaging in public urination?
- If a policeman issues it with a lawful order, and it fails to comply, can it be arrested?
> OPPO
> Naval slang - short for opposite number - for the person doing the same job as one's self in another watch or ship. In the former case, since you relieved each other (in the old two-watch days), it behoved you to become friends; thus the word Oppo came to mean Chum. On a two-watch watchbill, the name of a man's 'opposite number' in the other watch was shewn against his own name in the opposite column.
The clause allowing 0.x releases to contain breaking changes needs to go. Also, the first release should be v1; so many projects never leave 0.x despite being depended on by millions of projects and everytime they push a new minor all hell breaks loose as people have to manually look at the changelog and decide to upgrade.
If this were done, how would v1 be any different than v0 is now? Isn't it nice that people who want to avoid all that hell breaking loose can simply not use a package that hasn't gotten to v1? Why would you want to do away with that?
I find it quite useful. I've been bitten before when a system (Carthage) explicitly decides to be 'semver except that part', for some reason.
All projects take a little while to stabilize, and this simply formalizes (the numbering of) that process. Any project can trivially opt out of it by simply starting with "1", as you suggest.
Unless you were doing custom jQuery builds per project (which no-one was), it was always bad. People would routinely drop in the 35kb lib and only use 3-4 functions.
That's not really a problem with jQuery, that's a problem with the way people were using it.
Also, a slow loading JS lib wasn't as much of an issue 5-7 years ago when jQuery was really in its heyday. Web pages were simpler and more information based back then and it was usually a requirement that they be useable without javascript. Since you are (should be) loading jQuery at the end of the page (or asynchronously) the page should render just fine without jQuery and probably would have been loaded by the time any user interaction would have happened.
Also, since users were on computers (mobile wasn't really a thing) and data usage wasn't a limiting factor (most plans were unlimited), loading extra data didn't really matter that much.
Yeah, jQuery had extra functions that you didn't need, but it didn't really hurt much at the time and there wasn't really a better option.
It still doesn't hurt. Less than 300k of a cachable library isn't a big deal for mobile data, and jQuery has never (in any example I know pf at least) been the reason a mobile page is slow. Sites like the default mobile reddit manage to be absolutely atrocious without it (10+ seconds to load anything even on wifi), yet lots of sites with it are completely fine on any smartphone in current use (such as the same phone mobile reddit takes 10 seconds to load on because it's using some awful ajax setup - seriously, they had perfection with .compact and just abandoned it for this crime against humanity).
> Also, a slow loading JS lib wasn't as much of an issue 5-7 years ago when jQuery was really in its heyday.
Not to mention it was recommended to point your "src=" to one of the common cdns, so it would likely already be in the user's cache from some other website that used the same jquery version.
I wouldn't say jquery was bad. It was really a nice API with interesting innards. Easy to abuse, of course, it was too popular not to end up being the first thing people try to have 'modern' websites.
Would you really teach your children "trust the New York Times and whatever the government says"? When both said Iraq had WMDs, did you believe them? In a perfect world we could all look at the source material (photos, videos, data, etc.) ourselves to figure out reality and there would be uncensorable platforms for individuals to call out corruption and reach the masses. This was the original promise of the internet and social media! Sadly the authoritarian left is insistent on defining "reality" and relishes censoring dissenting facts or opinions. Facebook and Twitter wields their "fact checking" and censorship on a might-is-right basis, which disenfranchises 50% of the population and is seriously incendiary to civil discourse.