Actually, earplugs can be very effective when paired with headphones, I would think... I used them while flying in the military (under a flight helmet) to cut out excess noise while still enabling me to hear essential radio chatter.
I wish, for those of us that ride motorcycles in this type of traffic in the US, that all states would adopt a sensible lane-spitting allowance for motorcycles. In country after country, lane-splitting has proven to help reduce congestion, and yet, if I try it here, I'll get a ticket. Ridiculous.
But honestly, how does this reduce congestion? My experience is that these motorcycles often dart between cars causing drivers to swerve slightly and tap their brakes.
I would argue this makes congestion worse as it causes more cautious drivers to brake (sometimes abruptly) and almost always slow down.
Finally, it is important to consider that as a vehicle, most of us are not looking for you and make small changes from left to right while in our lanes. It is not a goal of mine to accommodate motorcycle riders while driving. Splitter beware.
I'm all for sharing the road-- be we all need to subject to the same rules.
I'm aware of CA splitting -- it's not been adopted yet elsewhere in the US. It's too bad that you had to experience someone who was "swerving in and out" and not the majority of riders who would split sensibly and safely.
Lane splitting is only supposed to occur below a certain speed; splitting above that number would be a violation, of course.
Take a look at Europe to see how easily splitting can be integrated, for both driver and rider. It absolutely does reduce congestion: bikes move smoothly to the front and away, freeing space.
American drivers just aren't educated to realize this because negative stereotypes about motorcycles are so prevalent in the US, and the many positive benefits of riding aren't presented as options here.
I'm working on a MBP, but also really interested in the pixel. We tend to now work in the cloud more than ever, and like the lower cost and simplicity of the chromebook.
This: "Platform lock-in is a negative, customer-hostile approach."
Absolutely.
At my office, it was amusing when others would adopt the latest iPhone, but the charger was different... yet again! People would scurry about looking for a compatible charger, while the few of us with android phones would look at each other and mouth the words, "micro usb". Simple.
Good products can still be good while conforming to industry-wide standards -- something I seem to find less prevalent in my years of experience working with Apple products. (Design agency)
Well, privacy or no... I have found just the sheer "overhead" of _dealing_ with FB to be exhausting. I mean, really.
Trolling through so many mundane and inane posts to get to the few relevant items of interest has become a huge time-sink, for me.
Yesterday, I posted a simple, non-accusatory statement that said that I was stepping back from FB for a while, maybe forever, and that we could still stay in touch via email and text. So far, the response has been nothing but positive.
This list of common oversights could apply equally to any CMS installation. Although I really dislike working in WP, I've also seen these same mistakes in other setups that clients have come to us with over the years.
G+ is actually *not a "ghost town"; it doesn't presume that you have friend-like connections, and allows you to follow/circle and correspond easily with anyone. I tend to think of it as a more powerful Twitter, and have used it to stay in touch with what's going on in my profession. Very helpful to follow and participate in discussions with people from all over the world.
I find that messed up, that anyone can add me without me having to accept. Guess it makes sense in google's ideal panopticon world where privacy is a swearword though. It's just not something I would ever be a part of.
Oh, and it is a ghost town. When it launched, 3 people I know made profiles. None still have them.
I'm a webdev at an agency, and Meteor looks great from a prototyping perspective. Javascript is already a key component of much of our work, so this framework could help us roll out concepts much faster than we're doing now... looking forward to learning more about Meteor!
