Ask The Experts

[Juli]

After this situation, I don't think we have the answer.

[martycanuck]

Dec 11, 2019 18:53:40 GMT -5 Juli said:

After this situation, I don't think we have the answer.

Wow, I had not seen that. How incredibly sad....

I’ll admit a lot of details to sort out yet. The UPS driver and innocent could have been killed by perps. 

But terribly sad if all 4 deaths were by Police bullets.

[MalcolmR]

The Queen's Granddaughter banned from driving.

Would four speeding offences in three years get you a ban for six months under US laws?

[kellylorraine]

It varies by State.

In NY, any 3 speeding tickets in 18 months or 11 points on your license (minimum is 3 points for 1-10mph over, max is 11 points if you're going 41+ over, with various points for other overages in between, or other moving violations) results in a suspension. Suspension can be definite or indefinite; speeding tickets would likely be a definite term, but it's generally up to the judge to determine the length. At the end of the suspension, you have to pay a suspension termination fee.

There's also the fines, minimum on the first one is around $150 (including surcharges) to around $600, depending on how fast they were going. Fines go up with each ticket. There's also an extra yearly fee the driver has to pay if they have between 6 and 10 points on their license. Plus the extra in insurance costs.

If your ticket is for speeding in a work zone, penalties are even higher. Two tickets, regardless of speed, results in a 60 day (minimum) suspension.

Traffic violations in other states or countries don't get added to the record unless it happened in Ontario or Quebec.

There's also the chance your license could be revoked, in which case you need to ask for permission to reapply after the period of time is over, and if granted, take the written and road test again, and may still be denied. Generally revocation isn't used in speeding issues but I suppose if a driver had a history of it or the speed was excessive enough, it could happen.

[martycanuck]

Hey Malc,
Kinda the same here. Ontario uses a points system also. >15 km/h over costs 2 (or 3?) points. >30 is 4 and so on. If you get above 9 points (old ones drop off your record after 2 years) you have to go to an interview with the Ministry to explain why they should not suspend your license. I had an interview once when I was young but I did not get my license suspended and obeyed speed limits a lot better after that.

There is also a law in Ontario that if you are caught going 50 km/h over the limit your license is suspended on the spot. Your car is towed and impounded. Both of these for 7 days. The fine is $10,000 and possible jail time. Then you have to pay to get your car out of impound which is $100’s per day. Then you’ll have to pay a license re-instatement fee. Of course after that your insurance costs would go through the roof if you can even get insurance. Very expensive mistake to make.

Just the other day the OPP caught a 19 year old going 218 in a 100 zone. Boy was that a dumb thing to do!

[Juli]

In Ohio, it would depend on how fast you were going and the limit for the zone. 70 in a 65 isn't as bad as 70 in a school zone. If you're really interested, here's the relevant section of the Revised Code.

Can you (anyone reading this) look up your record online? We can in Ohio. The unofficial is free and goes back 2 years, or you can request an official copy that goes back 3 years, and costs $5. If you ask the chat person nicely, they will look up how many points you have (I just did that).

[martycanuck]

Juli, not sure if I can do that or not but I know my insurance company has access to the info under certain circumstances.

Anyway I know my own record and I have not had any speeding tickets {touches wood} in a number of years so my record is currently clean.

Up here we can drive at or near 130 km/h in a 100 zone and the police don’t even take a second glance.

In NY State on the interstates I’ll drive 72 in a 65 mph zone or maybe a touch more. I definitely passed a State Trooper who was definitely using a radar gun on I-81 north bound on Friday going a bit over and he didn’t flinch.

[MalcolmR]

In the UK there is an unwritten law of "10% plus three" discretion, so in a 30 zone, 30+3+3=36 or in a 70, 70+7+3=80.

Except the bar-stewards police in Cumbria did me for 76 in a 70.

[graham]

Jan 9, 2020 3:50:58 GMT -5 MalcolmR said:

In the UK there is an unwritten law of "10% plus three" discretion

I'd always heard it as "10% plus two", but it's only because mechanical speedometers are not accurate and they're not allowed to under-read, so generally over-read by about 10%.

[MalcolmR]

I am still desperately trying to iron out all my problems with my Mac. I am getting to the point where I am wondering if I would be better off just cutting my losses and buying a new windows machine.

Backups. I have a WD MyCloud 2TB backup device. I installed it onto the Mac soon after I bought it, and it seemed to work OK. Since then I have had progressively more and more problems with it. Sometimes the Mac says it just don't exist. Other times it says it's there but I can't communicate with it. When I asked what is in it, the Mac says 'nothing'.

I can ping it, both by IP address and by name. It is connected to the Mac by USB and my hub by ethernet.

I haven't been able to log into it under my user name for months, but yesterday I got in as a Guest. I set off a backup. 20 hours later, it is half done. It has copied just 56GB out of 120 GB.

One of the reasons I bought the Mac was that I hoped to resurrect my interest in photography after I retired. But, I am not willing to spend hours teaching myself new software and techniques if I have no confidence that I will be able to retrieve the files tomorrow.

Do I just bite the bullet and buy a new Windows desktop machine? (And hope I can copy everything back across to it!)

[Jim]

If you're connected by USB and it's networked, is it possible that the dual connections have the machine confused?

[MalcolmR]

Jan 14, 2020 18:22:03 GMT -5 Jim said:

If you're connected by USB and it's networked, is it possible that the dual connections have the machine confused?

The twenty hours are nearly up, I'll leave it as it is until it is done. Which do you think I should remove? The USB?

[Jim]

I'd ditch the network connection. It's not like it's a shared device with multiple users. It's just used by you.

[MalcolmR]

Jan 15, 2020 18:16:00 GMT -5 Jim said:

I'd ditch the network connection. It's not like it's a shared device with multiple users. It's just used by you.

Hokey, dokey.

[martycanuck]

Malc, I have some troubles with my external back up drive too. I use an Apollo device.

Your questions reminded me that one of the things I suspected of causing back-ups to fail is a timeout due to the MB going to sleep. There is an app on the Mac App Store called Caffeine that will keep your computer awake for a defined (or undefined) period of time. Your choice of which. You might give that a try anyway. It’s a very tiny app and you only need to turn it on when you want the MB to stay awake.

[martycanuck]

Anybody got any travel tips for Munich? Restaurants and the like? Lisa and I are going for a trade show my company is exhibiting in. We’ll be there Friday - Friday. Most of the trip is tied up with the show so not a lot of sightseeing time.

But we gotta eat. Our hotel is right downtown, walking distance to Marienplatz and the English Garden etc.

[Perry]

I lived near Munich for many years so here are some my recommendations.

Hofbräuhaus, a typical German restaurant.
www.muenchen.de/int/en/sights/attractions/hofbraeuhaus.html
It is very close to Marienplatz so very walkable distance.
Default size of the beer is 1/2 litre. Mass is 1 litre of beer.

Another place I would recommend is an Aussie bar. Well it is the only Aussie bar in Munich.
It is called Ned Kelly's Australian bar www.nedkellysbar.com/
It has great food.

I remember that there are a lot of cafes around Marienplatz so you shouldn't go hungry.
I still have some friends near Munich so I'll ask to see what is good there and get back to you.

[martycanuck]

Jan 22, 2020 20:48:38 GMT -5 Perry said:

I lived near Munich for many years so here are some my recommendations.

Hofbräuhaus, a typical German restaurant.
www.muenchen.de/int/en/sights/attractions/hofbraeuhaus.html
It is very close to Marienplatz so very walkable distance.
Default size of the beer is 1/2 litre. Mass is 1 litre of beer.

Another place I would recommend is an Aussie bar. Well it is the only Aussie bar in Munich.
It is called Ned Kelly's Australian bar www.nedkellysbar.com/
It has great food.

I remember that there are a lot of cafes around Marienplatz so you shouldn't go hungry.
I still have some friends near Munich so I'll ask to see what is good there and get back to you.

We ate at Vecchia Lantern tonight. It was close and easy and right beside our hotel (Domus). 

It was so good it ruined food for me at a lot of other places. I was blown away! It was also very expensive but you only live once and I  will try to go back once more before we leave. Changed my ideas of what good dining was on a lot of levels. We were there 3 hours and ate very small courses over the time. But the flavours were crazy off the charts good. Even one of the breads in the bread basket has ruined all other bread for me forever. I could eat that one until I die.

[Juli]

At work the client is rolling out Windows 10 desktop environment, and we are the guinea pigs. I have problems with it, but the big one is that the Windows Explorer folders will close, even while I'm working in one. I like to have at least 3 folders open, because each has files I need to access to do my job, and it's more efficient to have them each open instead of just one, and losing my place when I need to get a file from a different folder. Sorry 'bout the rant, but my question is, is this a usual thing for Win 10, or just the vpn environment?

[Jim]

I've had that happen in Windows 10 but only if I try to navigate folders immediately after a fresh boot.

[Ben]

Jan 25, 2020 20:35:27 GMT -5 Juli said:

At work the client is rolling out Windows 10 desktop environment, and we are the guinea pigs. I have problems with it, but the big one is that the Windows Explorer folders will close, even while I'm working in one. I like to have at least 3 folders open, because each has files I need to access to do my job, and it's more efficient to have them each open instead of just one, and losing my place when I need to get a file from a different folder. Sorry 'bout the rant, but my question is, is this a usual thing for Win 10, or just the vpn environment?

I've used Win 10 both Pro & Home for several years now, and I think I've seen that maybe a handful of times, less than 10 for sure. Certainly not something that happens often.

[Jim]

I see it often, but, I'm logging into a lot of computers and I'm always in a hurry when it happens.

[Jim]

Just remembered, I used to see this more frequently on Windows 7, but, it never closed a program. It made navigating menus difficult, though. Something was trigging a desktop refresh multiple times per second. Problem seemed to come and go randomly. Never was able to narrow it down.

[Jim]

I'm looking into driving for Uber to make some extra cash. Does anyone have any experience driving for them or Lyft? Also, if I'm going to drive for them, I want a dashcam that records both inside and outside of the car. Looking for recommendations on one that can be hardwired into the car.

[Juli]

If you're in an accident and the other party tries to sue you and Uber, Uber will throw you under the bus. I have friends who drive for Uber, Lyft, Door Dash and a few other things. The cash may cover an immediate need, but you need a real job to pay for the gas, insurance, tires, maintenance.

[kellylorraine]

Feb 3, 2020 9:03:37 GMT -5 Jim said:

I'm looking into driving for Uber to make some extra cash. Does anyone have any experience driving for them or Lyft? Also, if I'm going to drive for them, I want a dashcam that records both inside and outside of the car. Looking for recommendations on one that can be hardwired into the car.

In addition to what Juli said, you need to make sure your insurance knows and has the right coverage. If you have just "normal insurance" and are in an accident, your insurance company may not cover it since you were using your vehicle as a 'work vehicle' and not just personal.  I think they both offer insurance, but that is only covered if you have a passenger in the car at the time.  If the accident happens while you're working, but not driving a passenger (in between rides), it isn't covered by their insurance.

You're an independent contractor, so that will impact your taxes.

It really helps if you're a people person.  Riders will score you and if you come across as angry/annoyed, you'll score lower, and a lot of riders will only choose drivers that have a high/perfect score. 

I don't drive for either, but I  know someone that does for one of them (unfortunately I don't know which) as a side job.  From one of her posts, I gathered that you don't always know where your passenger wants to go UNTIL you pick them up.  She accepted a ride, not realizing that the destination was over an hour away.  She got paid by the company there, but not on the way back.  She was lucky and her passengers tipped well enough to pay for her trip back, but that doesn't always happen.

[MalcolmR]

I hope you left ponders can watch this.

I couldn't get past the point where she says that watching all episodes of the Peaky Blinders is as polluting as a drive to Manchester from Birmingham. I just cannot see this.

Can somebody who is better at Maths and Physics than me do any calculations?

Manchester to Birmingham is 90 miles.
There are 30 hours of Peaky Blinders.

Even if no-one else was using the hard-drive or processor in the data-farm or the switches and routers between them and my home, I would find this surprising. But they aren't being used exclusively. Hundreds or thousands of other people will be sharing those devices. The only thing that will be used exclusively would be my PC, which probably only pulls a couple of amps.

Can anybody try to run the numbers for me?

[glennfrommars]

IMHO, it is a crap piece not worthy of the BBC. Not a whole lot of facts, just a lot of "the sky is falling". Common sense tells us that if the phenomenal growth of the Internet and Cloud computing had greatly impacted electrical consumption, it would have been a major problem before now. Areas of consumption have changed, very few people use tube type stereos to listen to music, TV's use significantly less power, computers use less power, etc. I personally dont drive to shopping areas with traffic congestion, I simply click a few buttons and it shows up via USPS, FedEx, UPS, or Amazon. I see those vehicles drive past my house every single day. The only intelligent comment in that video, was where she looked at the "smoke stacks" at a coal powered power plant and said "see the steam...". Due to years of new technology improving the burn of coal,and the use of filter systems, nothing much comes out but electricity and steam. CO2 emissions are way down in the US and many other countries.

[Jim]

Kind of a long shot question here, but, worth asking.

Would it be a reasonable request for me to ask for my employer to provide me with an office chair given the new work from home requirement? Prior to the virus, it was not expected that I would work from home. The office chair that I do have at home is worn and needs to be replaced, but, it wouldn't be used without the need to work from home. Normally, I'd just hang out on the couch. Two days working at home has shown that's even worse for my back.

[kellylorraine]

I don't think it's unreasonable. Even if they only loan you the one you normally use.