cpher

Welcome to Chicago. I've lived here 15+ years, and Illinois most of my life. And I still hate winter LOL.

I live on the southside and I don't hear anyone calling it Chiraq.

Wow, this looks great! My older 9 and 8 year-old girls will love this. I agree with the comments below about variables and conditional logic, which might be tough for kids in the 3-4th grade range. Anyway, good luck. Looking forward to the release.

Yes, I was out of line in this context to drop the f-bomb on you. I apologize. Also, it was not done re: racial insensitivity. It's more of a local thing, and it won't translate to this forum. I'm sorry.

thank you, well explained.

Yuri, after seeing these comments, we're going to have to agree to disagree. I'm not sorry for being angry, but I'm sorry for getting personal. I'm sure you're needing some help with something local to your community, unless you want to start a thread of how to help kids on the south side of Chicago get into this community.

Give me your honest opinion: to what degree am I racist if : 1) the Uber pulling up is an obvious gangbanger 2) If I refuse the driver for whatever reasons Uber lists when drivers pull up.

I'm going to assume your objection is to #1. If so, do you have any fucking idea how institutionalized racism is in Chicago, especially with CPD? Even sane white folks know this. There are mostly good apples, but some bad ones, and we don't need to be a part of any dragnet.

Are you really that naive to think gangbangers and drug dealers don't use ride-sharing programs and exploit it to their advantage? Every system will be exploited. If you dare live in the environment, you might experience it.

I would even go one step further. Certainly less than felons. For some reason in Chicago, I at least feel "safer" in a taxi because of the screaming decals and colors of the car.

I had an Uber from the southside to Midway, and I felt like just getting into his car I was being set up in a sting operation. I (white guy) shrunk down in the back seat the entire time. The dude was nice, but holy shit what does CPD think when white guys get in the backs of gangbanger's cars (yes, my driver was nice but sketchy, and his car was exactly the mid-90s low-riding Pontiac you see around here getting busted all the time). I felt like I was his "ride" while he circled the southside between drug pickups. It gave him an "out."

On the flip side, had an awesome middle aged white woman take us from A to B on the northside of Chicago. She was doing it as a part-timer and super nice.

I guess my point is that maybe with taxi companies you at least could/should have a hiring/interview process? I'll plead ignorance to the Uber/Lyft process, but is there even an interview? It's just hit or miss in Chicago.

Here you go:

http://watchdog.org/96500/illinois-rewarded-for-misspending-...

This is awesome! Kudos to you and the team (I assume you had help?). Yeah, I'm sure the tie breaking procedures drove you crazy. Imagine the rules committee meetings when they discussed all of them. :) How did you manage the complexity of the rules in your mind? I'm curious as to how you went from rules => mental model/entities => code. Did you use a formal process?

Thanks for your insights. We're considering this in my current company and I assumed it would be tricky.

I'll clarify that my question is more related to a team of consultants, not necessarily a microISV. Also, what benefits have you seen from this effort? Could be direct financial gains, employee morale boost, anything!

I don't have any objection to basic assessment tests, such as the Iowa Basic Skills test. It's been used around the USA since the 1930s (my mother grew up in Iowa in the 1940s and took the test every year!). It's useful for gauging general progress, but I would definitely object to using it as a "final exam" used for determining future advancement. I don't think the article even hints at that.

Regarding the VRBO research, how does this help you vs. plain ole' Google streetmap? Or is she using streetmap in a non-traditional way? We've been renting a property sourced from VRBO for the past 6 years, so I'm curious how you're researching properties.

I live in Chicago, and sometimes it's really hard to tell where the EV is coming from. They're ear-piercingly loud, and the sound bounces everywhere. You hear the siren, then frantically start checking all your mirrors every 0.5 sec, which probably creates more of a distraction to the driving you should be doing.

Very interesting. If I happened to live in a gated community, with beach access or something, I'd rather drive one of these around than a golf cart--although servicing it might be a problem.

I don't think they're always looking for efficiency of traffic flow. I live on the south side of Chicago. I swear the lights along major streets are timed to make it inconvenient for traffic flow ON PURPOSE. My unscientific theory is that this is done to prevent speeding, rack up violations for idiots that like to race, and make it easier for cops to pursue in their cars. Case in point: my street has a stretch of at least 3 blocks without a light; hence, we get idiots (cars and cycles) that like to gun it in a 30 mph zone.

That's usually because sales, engineering, etc are "profit" centers, while HR/Accounting/Reception are "cost" centers. One group produces while the other consumes. So, it's really comparing apples to oranges.

I don't think he was telling you personally to STFU, but rather making the argument that if you really want immigrants you should argue for green cards, not H1Bs which give the employer too much control. I think you mis-read what he wrote. BTW, I've upvoted you even though we "disagree."

Cool, good job. I had two issues: 1. The fixed header is an issue when scrolling. Also, the pricing table has the <li> bullet points still showing. (edit: on Chrome current version) 2. Looking at the pricing page, it took me a minute to distinguish between the names of your packages. Maybe have something less "mathy". Otherwise, great job.

There is absolutely nothing in your OP that indicates you're referencing anything other than the Federal government (given the thread's context), and it wouldn't matter anyway. How is that irrelevant? At this point I have no idea if you're even writing what you intend to--I'm not understanding it.

Yes, the state governments should have more power--I assume that was your point.

Ok, here is my last reply. Clearly, you don't want to consider any opinion other than your own:

1. You said Increasing overall production doesn't necessarily do anything for the lot of the median person.

Prove it. Provide sources. This is contradictory to the past 100 years of civilization.

2. You said In a democracy, where the interests of the majority are paramount, a policy that reduces overall production but leaves the median person better off could be rational.

Have you ever heard of "Tyranny of the Majority"? What if the majority wanted slavery? Would you still agree with your argument? We don't live in a democracy in the US--it's a simple way to communicate public participation in society, which is needed. You seem to be mixing stats and political metaphors with no coherent point.

Finally, I'm confused with your last assertion that policy that reduces overall production but leaves the median person better off could be rational. How is that rational? Then again, humans aren't rational so maybe I'm mistaken.

Before you downvote me, at least reply. You wrote It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Constitutional scheme to think that the Framers implemented "limited government."

That is exactly what the framers wanted from the federal government. Your following sentence directly contradicts your entire point. We're talking about FEDERAL POWERS.

Unless I'm an idiot but you just contradicted yourself or misunderstand-ed what you wrote. The Federal government is indeed intentionally limited in power. Why would you want it any other way?

I'm more of a Federalist--confusing name for an important concept. But I don't think that's what we're talking about. It sounds like we're disagreeing with what constitutes "general welfare" as you highlighted.

Ok, where do you draw the line in modern society? If you want to invoke the argument "what would the framers have wanted?" then what do you think they meant? Who can limit the definition of "general welfare" now. All you need is a bunch of loud people for any random issue, then it becomes a general welfare issue.

Not sure how you define "improving the welfare", but it's certainly not the function of the USA govt to provide anything but what's defined in the constitution. You may disagree on a philosophical basis, but that's what the constitution is designed to do.

I'm not GP, but I probably agree with his entire list. I think the home ownership incentives over the past decade may have been well-intentioned from an emotional standpoint, but they were the siren song of Lorelei for many people. "The spirit of America is expressed through owning a piece of property." That sounds awesome.

Who wouldn't want to help our food producers <cue a rugged farmer wiping the sweat off his brow>? I worked for years with farmers who got subsidies for completely spurious reasons. Even then, some were so bad at managing their operations they failed. Working your butt off during spring and fall should qualify you for that $100k combine (with corn and bean heads), right?

I think we may have gotten lucky because we were the only WWII country without a destroyed everything. So, we took advantage of our strategic position, played the odds in our favor, and didn't think 75 years into the future.

What's your opinion of using this for a kids' first computer? (Let's set aside the "toy" computers sold at Christmas). I'm assuming it's more than adequate for most things. Won't be used for video-encoding, playing hardcore games, etc. Literally for the family which means very simple needs. Is 1.4ghz really that slow? Really??!!

I've done it a couple of times. One guy asked for deodorant and food, so I walked with him to 7-11 to get deodorant, then across the street to McDonalds. And like the GP, you can talk with them along the way. Sometimes they don't want food. One homeless lady in my neighborhood (who recently passed away) refused the coffee we bought for her one cold morning. My wife had a few conversations with her and discovered that she like writing in notebooks--she had lots of them. So we bought her a few new notebooks and pencils. She didn't want food or help from anyone.

It also underpins the foundations of my field (GIS). It's used to describe network routing (e.g. streets, streams, utility systems) and topology (for vector datasets--points, lines, polygons).