No E-Books Allowed in This Establishment

[J. Strnad]

Let's see....

You order your food and every dollar you spend gets you a token. You take the tokens to your table and put them in the table meter. The spikes on the chair retract. When your time is nearly up, the chair begins to vibrate ominously, giving you five minutes to buy something else and get more tokens. Otherwise, up shoot the spikes. Hopefully you are not sitting down at the time.

Would that solve the problem?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

If they ban computers at that table during that time-frame, I would sit down with an abacus and see how many digits of pi I could get to in that 3-hour window

If it said "no computers" that would include an abacus. An abacus is a computer.

[patrickt]

I realize that for those of you who are the center of the universe, this is a big deal. For me, someone earning a living trumps me wanting to sit at their table during peak hours and read a book. I have no problem with the policy.

[pietvo]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If it said "no computers" that would include an abacus. An abacus is a computer.

If you make a calculation on a napkin or whatever you are a computer.

[ski_power]

Originally Posted by pietvo

If you make a calculation on a napkin or whatever you are a computer.

But still rules are rules. When they say no computers they absolutely mean NO Computers.

(expects to be kicked out)

[CyGuy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If it said "no computers" that would include an abacus. An abacus is a computer.

Technically that is true. And I might add that it is ahead of it's time: no keyboard, no mouse, multi-touch support, great battery life

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

Technically that is true. And I might add that it is ahead of it's time: no keyboard, no mouse, multi-touch support, great battery life

Lol. My Mom still uses an abacus. She flies on that thing. She even did accounts for businesses with it in her working days. She wasn't happy with my brother and me when we tried to sit on her abacus as little kids, trying to slide across the floor on it.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Smoking bans are doperules how?

Because they are rules which eliminate the exercise of discretion. A business owner is not allowed to decide that he can make more money by providing smoking and non-smoking areas within his restaurant. He must enforce the ban totally.

There's no reason that both smokers and non-smokers can't be accomodated in most places. We did it for years before the anti-smoking campaign finally succeeded. But of course, there were situations where a non-smoker's table was right next to the smoking area, so someone would have to make a reasoned decision about whether some smoker was violating a non-smoker's air space to the point where he should put out his cigarette.

Much easier to have a dope rule: "no smoking, anywhere."

There are other dope rules imposed by government. Take speeding laws, for instance. Technically, if you go one mile over the limit, you are in violation. The police have the ability to treat such violations strictly. In practice, they enforce them selectively, which is one of the dangers of having dope rules. I was on the highway this weekend, exceeding the limit by about 5 mph. So was a taxicab right in front of me. The cop passed me to pull the cab over. Cops are not dopes, so dope rules don't constrain them.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by pietvo

If you make a calculation on a napkin or whatever you are a computer.

Well, I can see how you might have a battery (in your pacemaker) but where the heck is your screen?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Harmon

There's no reason that both smokers and non-smokers can't be accomodated in most places. We did it for years before the anti-smoking campaign finally succeeded. But of course, there were situations where a non-smoker's table was right next to the smoking area,.

Right next to? If somebody smoked anywhere in a restaurant where you did not have airtight doors to the smoking area you would notice the smoke in the non-smoking part and the smoke would influence your eating experience negatively. Not counting all people with asthma that could not visit restaurants at all. Even smokers seems to like the smoking ban at restaurants.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Let's see....

You order your food and every dollar you spend gets you a token. You take the tokens to your table and put them in the table meter. The spikes on the chair retract. When your time is nearly up, the chair begins to vibrate ominously, giving you five minutes to buy something else and get more tokens. Otherwise, up shoot the spikes. Hopefully you are not sitting down at the time.

Would that solve the problem?

Welcome to the Monkey House, by Vonnegut, had - IIRC - a short story in which the ruler of the country wore a bomb around his neck. When enough people went into the voting booth and voted "no," the bomb exploded. Of course, every time a new guy came to the country, they made him ruler.

This device could be adapted to your solution. A little messier, perhaps, but less of a capital investment. Besides, the city inspectors would always be coming in to make sure that your chair spikes were sterile.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I try not to lump together disparate things. Government stripping us of civil rights, for instance, is distinctly different from a business acting on its own judgment and risking its own future. As long as it follows laws, I don't care to subvert.

Hmm. A solid libertarian point. Two, maybe.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

I now assume by dope rules this means any rules that you personally disagree with. I quite like being able to go out for a drink or a meal and not have be forced to put up with others bad habits. I don't honestly care whether they live shorter lives just as long as I don't have to contribute towards their health care.

I thought I made it quite clear that I object to any dope rule that doesn't have a rational relationship to genuine safety.

If you read what you wrote very carefully, you will see that you are hoist by your own petard.

For what it's worth, I'm a nonsmoker. Having both parents die of smoking related diseases is a rather instructive lesson about smoking. But it doesn't change the fact that the smoking ban is a dope rule.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by solitarywolf

This article reminds me back in 2000-01 there was a ban on reading the free newspapers in coffee shops in Seattle, Washington.

Can you elaborate on that? Do you mean that it was against the law to pick up a leftover newspaper to read? Or against cafe rules, somehow? Or that the cafe owners required that you only read papers you bought in that specific cafe? Or that you could read the establishment paper, but not the free underground paper?

[Marseille]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Well, I can see how you might have a battery (in your pacemaker) but where the heck is your screen?

Screens are for output. Humans typically output using written, oral, or physical expressions. As to the battery, while my Acer Aspire One comes with a 6 cell variety, your normal human ranges from 50 to 100 trillion cell versions.

Props to tompe for valiantly stepping in the middle of that sextuple posting extravaganza you had going.