VoicesInMyHead

5GB isn't a lot unless all you do is light social networking and email. Visit a few videos every now and then, and that will be gone *quick*.

Yes, the Nissan Leaf is certainly a potentially great commuter car, especially if you have the ability to plug-in at work. It's smaller than a Prius or Insight, and considerably more expensive, but the money savings (average of $2.75 per charge, which gets you 100 miles), will add up over the life of the car. There may be tax incentives for it; not sure. It requires a charging station to be installed, which is about $2000, plus installation. So, factor that into the cost of the car. It can trickle charge from a standard 120V outlet, but it's slow. They plan on releasing a much more po

The Prius is actually VERY roomy inside. Not small at all. I'm a big guy, and it is spacious, even to me. And you can't beat 50mpg in the city.

Before buying a Toyota Prius, I did a *lot* of research, including the Honda Insight. (I owned a Honda Civic, and was very interested in the Insight before I learned about it). While it is a more affordable hybrid than the Prius, it does have some drawbacks. The Honda Insight uses a slightly cheaper version of Honda's "Integrated Motor Assist" hybrid system. While this system does improve gas mileage somewhat, it is only about 10mpg more than any other normal gasoline engined car. The backseat of the Insight is very small (the Insight's chassis is based on the Honda Fit, a very compact

Love my Prius. 55MPG in city traffic in my daily Marietta commute. Sure, it still uses fossil fuel. But half as much. Economically, it made sense.

Good. Then, we're in agreement that there are averages for citations in police departments which must be met (which contradicts earlier claims that there are none.) And, for clarity, I don't recall anyone thus far claiming it is the duty of every officer to write a minimum of citations.

He's a cop. He's employed by the City of Atlanta. His only detail is stopping speeders on I-20 on his motorcycle. Rather than getting hung up on the details of whatever his title is, that's what he does for a living. And, yes... they have monthly averages they must maintain. A certain number of tickets per day averaged out across the month. Sheesh.

Deny the quota 'til your face turns blue. I have a good personal friend who happens to be a City of Atlanta traffic cop, and we have talked about this very subject on many occasions. There most certainly averages that have to be maintained. Maybe every department doesn't have them, or maybe certain divisions do and others don't. But, they do exist.

They may not get the money, but they are evaluated on their quota.. er, "averages".

I went through this yesterday. 1. You have to call for a burn permit. 2. To determine if burning is allowed on any particular day, go to http://www.gfc.state.ga.us/onlinepermits/ , scroll to the bottom of the page, and choose Paulding county. 3. Burns are not allowed on Sundays. 4. Burns are not allowed from May 1 through September 31.

Doesn't offend me... pretty much nothing offends me.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is good for about 30 days at current consumption rates. Unrest in Saudi Arabia that would be great enough to disrupt supply would last much, much longer than that.

That's like all of the SPLOST supporters when they said, "It's just one cent." Uh... it's one cent on every dollar.

... and that bothers me. Not the seatbelt stuff, per se... but the notion that the courts invent things that aren't in the law. I've read it myself (as I am sure you have, being the attorney and all) and there's not one smidgen of a mention on HOW it should be worn. There is no citing of any sort of standard for it, at all. Other parts of the law cite standards for things (such as the MUTCD). With an established standard, I can support court action on a citation. But without a standard that's clearly laid out, I feel it is completely unjustified. If it is the will of the governed t

Probable cause or not, the law specifically states that the unbelted occupant *must* be seen to make a case, which didn't happen. As for the starburst, according to witness accounts, the smash on the windshield was actually a result of the dash cover of the airbag swinging upward and breaking the windshield. So, in the end, the law was in favor of the driver, the driver called witnesses to that effect (where the GSP officer had none), but the Judge *still* found them guilty. While this more reflects poor judgement on behalf of the Paulding County Probate Judge, it also reflects eith

And while on the topic, an acquaintance of mine who is a traffic cop for the City of Atlanta flat out told me that they do indeed have a "quota" they must meet for their review (though, he was careful to correct me and tell me it wasn't a "quota" but an "average" of tickets written per day). He also confirmed that they will often take back citations if they were written to someone who was related to or was an acquaintance of a fellow law enforcement officer. While I have much respect for law enforcement officers, this kind of stuff is what helps give them a bad name.

I was involved in a traffic fine case within the last year. In preparation, I sat in on a morning's worth of cases heard before the Paulding County Probate Court. In this particular day, it was the GSP's turn for cases. It was amazing the amount of stuff that was patently wrong and contradictory to the law that the Judge allowed as fact. For example, a young lady was found guilty for her mother (a passenger in the front sear) not wearing a seat belt because the GSP officer testified that he saw glass breakage on the windshield that was indicative of an unbelted passenger. Neither the moth

Yep... I was looking this up because an earlier poster with "experience in law enforcement" said there was no law about that when I saw this post. I knew that was incorrect because I had read the law myself within the last year. § 40-14-8. When case may be made and conviction had ( a ) No county, city, or campus officer shall be allowed to make a case based on the use of any speed detection device, unless the speed of the vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit by more than ten miles per hour and no conviction shall be had thereon unless such speed is more than ten miles per

Kill as many as you can, as they are overwintering fertilized queens coming out to look for a place to setup their nest. For every one you don't kill, you're looking at a nest full of wasps. As for control, a decent can of wasp spray will do wonders. If they're in a place you'd rather not spray, I own two of these and they're FANTASTIC: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1420.html I've bought many items from BugSpray.com . They're based right here in Georgia, too. Disclaimer: I have no relationship whatsoever with these folks other than being a happy customer.

Interwebs and Jose Cuervo Golden Margaritas.

It sucks, true... but nuclear power is still safer than coal. Coal kills 22,000 people every year. That's more than all nuclear incidents combined... MANY times over. (And remember, Chernobyl was the only one that actually killed anyone). Coal kills many more... nuclear just does it more spectacularly. In any case, what a sucker punch on Japan. Earthquake... tsunami... now this.

Out of the many PCs and computer-related equipment I have ever owned (and that's a lot, both commercially-built and self-built), the three items that stand out the most are: 1. My Lenovo laptop. Best computer I have ever owned, and second-best computer I have ever used (second only to my Dell workstation powerhouse that I use at my professional software development gig). 2. My Western Digital Scorpio Black 2.5" laptop hard drive. Whisper quiet and blindingly fast (your "best of" list mentioned this drive... I agree). 3. My Cisco Valet Plus router. Yes, I can configure the most c

I think the claims that Internet Explorer is "insecure" is a little exaggerated. Internet Explorer 8 runs sandboxed on Vista or Windows 7 with UAC enabled (which it should be... don't make me get on that soapbox again!). Exploits are rare in that scenario. I, personally, am a Google Chrome user, but for no better reason than I just like it. Being the IT department for my family, I have no issues with them using Internet Explorer in their environments.

Nuclear waste does take a long time to decay. However, the tonnage of waste from coal plants is MUCH higher than the equivalent nuclear plant... and coal waste goes right into the air and into your lungs. Nuclear waste goes in canisters underground. At least, that's where it is supposed to go. You, I, and every other American has been paying taxes on building and keeping up the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. The problem is, it's not being used. Little by little, funding was cut for the project until the Obama Administration completely cut funding for the project. Now, all o

Although we've sparred on political topics, I do agree with your assessment here.