Not that I'm doubting you or defending Yelp (I have never used them and have no idea if they are reputable or not), but all you've said is "there are quite a few allegations." And as we all know, anybody can allege anything about anyone, and that doesn't make it the truth.
Should it ever go to court, it would be unlikely to hold up, but I doub't an outfit like Yelp would resist a formal letter with some attached photocopies of some signed legal-sounding agreements. They'd probably yank the criticism from the site and then offer to sell some ads to the doctor in the same conversation. Don't forget, Yelp isn't selling anything to the users. Yelp's customer is the doctor.
RTFA. Yelp says that they have never taken down a negative review at a doctor's request, and they don't intend to.
Yelp told us that they "have never elected to remove a review in response this type of takedown request."
Yelp shares Seltzer's assessment, telling Ars that "there are any number of reasons to believe the agreements don't hold water as a legal matter." Yelp spokeswoman Stephanie Ichinose signaled a readiness to fight these agreements, which she says "put the needs of doctors ahead of a patient community that has surprisingly few places to turn for helpful information about the medical profession."
"We are happy to support a patient's right to free speech," Ichinose said.
I run with NoScript all the time, it's not really a problem if you're a geek. You need to make a judgement about the site you are visiting. Does it look a little sketchy, and was it just some joke link someone sent me? It stays blacklisted, and if the site doesn't work, well then I'll live without viewing it. Is it the front page of the New York Times? Well you can probably safely whitelist the main domain - if the page still doesn't work, whitelist each domain selectively until the page works - but don't whitelist anything that looks like it's from a web advertising company. It's not really that difficult, and it's been ages since I've gotten a virus, even though I visit many sketchy-looking sites. An added bonus is I never see those highly-annoying javascript ads that pop up off your screen or are animated.
That said, I don't enable NoScript on my wife's computer. She's not that geeky, and it would piss her off to have to whitelist every single site (she also doesn't have a whole lot of patience.) Just make sure they have a good virus and malware realtime scanner (Microsoft Security Essentials is a good, lightweight, free one), and most importantly have them run Firefox, and they'll be fine.
Tried just what you suggested in Google Image Search (in Firefox 4.0.1). Javascript blocked with NoScript: worked. Javescript not blocked: worked. Might want to check it again, or upgrade to 4.0.
It's not a terrible idea in theory, because as cars become more efficient there is less money collected in gas taxes, but you still have to maintain the roads and better fuel economy does not equal less wear on the roads.
However, if you intend to put a GPS tracking device on every car to implement it, that's where I draw the line. I'm as liberal/progressive/Democrat as they come, but I STRONGLY oppose any governmental program to track our driving. Oh they'll swear up and down that the data won't be used for surveillance, but when has law enforcement/FBI/CIA EVER turned down access to tracking methods or databases? And is it really cost-effective to put a $100-200 GPS on every vehicle in the country?
People ask "don't you trust your government"? Not in general - about some things, but not about this. I hated that Bush started illegal warrantless wiretapping and wholesale monitoring of internet traffic, and I hate that Obama is continuing it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong Obama supporter, but wrong is wrong no matter which political party does it.
As others have already commented, there's already a device in every car that tracks mileage driven - it's called an odometer. Just have the odometer read whenever you renew your registration, have your yearly inspection, or whatever your state requires. If making people give a lump sum all at once is a hardship, fold it into your yearly tax forms or something, maybe let people pay their mileage taxes they owe monthly or something. Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Hey that's great for you. You do realize different people have different skills? Not really sure what "requiring you to run service" means, but I look for jobs that allow me to have a desk job and use my computer and programming skills, not navigating for a living.
Don't necessarily make the assumption that just because she uses her GPS on familiar routes that she wouldn't be able to find her way without. I use mine all the time to direct me on familiar routes, or back to my office after I'm out at a remote site. It allows you to pay a little less attention on remembering the exact turns to make, and more time on your actual driving, and it reminds you the exact exit to take (very useful when the exits in your city are confusing - I think the freeways in Portland Oregon were designed by someone on crack.) It's also very convenient if there's traffic congestion on your route - just take the nearest exit, and the GPS will automatically plot you an alternate route. It's also a great way to explore and find alternate back routes - just start driving on a likely-looking back road, and have it plot a route to your destination.
I used to get lost all the time when I drove around the town. Not because I'm stupid, but because I have a hard time following complicated directions while I'm driving. I can also get distracted and...oops, that was my turn, now I have to drive 10 miles out of my way - if the GPS reminds me my turn is coming up in 1 mile, I wouldn't get in that situation. I have a hard time keeping multiple turn directions in my head, I have a hard time remembering phone numbers - which is why I had a Palm Pilot, then a Windows smartphone, now an Android smartphone with GPS and turn-by-turn navigation - it augments my memory and fills in for my brain's particular deficiencies.
That said, people need to make sure that they do a sanity check on a GPS's directions before they blindly follow them. My wife and I were late to a funeral (doh!) because she just did a search on google on her smartphone for the name of the graveyard, and the result she clicked on didn't even lead to a graveyard at all, and it was a completely wrong part of the city. For important situations like that, you need to look it up beforehand on your computer at home, and verify it's sending you to the right place. (The Chrome To Phone extension and Firefox's Send To Phone extension is great for sending an address from your computer to your Android phone.) GPS's are tools, they are not perfect, and people need to realize that instead of blindly following their instructions.
1) Very old (30 years) antenna on my roof, attached to my Win 7 Media Center with dual HD tuners. 16 crystal-clear HD channels absolutely free: all the major networks, public broadcasting, several local stations.
2) Frontier FIOS 25/25. Only service we have with Frontier. No monthly caps, no sharing bandwidth with the neighbors.
3) Netflix streaming, some other streaming sites occasionally.
4) Newsgroups: subscription to Giganews, www.binsearch.info for searching and downloading.nzb files, NewsBin Pro for downloading the actual media files using the.nzb files. Giganews and FIOS go well together, I can download at over 25Mbit/sec 24/7 if I want. Download an hour-long 1 GB 720p Mkv file in about 10 minutes, a 4 GB DVD in a half hour. HD TV shows are uploaded from the East Coast generally before they even air on the West Coast.
This setup would be a lot less useful without the newsgroup downloads, I admit.
Actually Zeus was ok with Prometheus using fire for his own personal use, but then Prometheus decided to make fire available to mankind through torch-to-torch networks, and he got hit by a massive distribution judgement.
Oh yeah Lethal Inspection, good call. Another great, touching episode, reminded me a bit of Jurassic Bark. Simpsons still make me laugh, but Futurama I watch every week when the new episodes are on, Simpsons every once in a while I download the episodes and watch some.
...and as another posted reminded me, the episode "The Late Philip J Fry" had a plot involving a time machine that only worked moving forward in time, and they discover that time is circular. Very cool sci-fi, and a touching love story too (really!) Probably my favorite episode of the current season.
I've been a huge Futurama fan since the show first came out (although I admit I stopped watching the last few years before it was cancelled, because Fox was screwing around and always pre-empting it with baseball games that ran too long, and constantly changing the time and day it was airing. But I watched them all on DVD, and have probably seen each episode 20-30 times by now.) The new episodes totally rock - some of this season's episodes rank up there as some of the best episodes of Futurama from any season.
There's an episode that spoofs iPhones and Twitter, an episode where the whole Planet Express team swaps brains with each other, one that lampoons California Proposition 8 (Proposition Infinity), etc.
I highly recommend the DVD movies too (commonly referred to as the 5th season) - especially Bender's Game, which makes fun of Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, and Fantasy in general.
Completely agree. I'd like to see some Theodore Sturgeon short stories filmed. Before reading Sturgeon, I wasn't a big fan of short stories, but he made me change my mind. His stories were ALWAYS about the characters, their emotions, and their interactions - the sci-fi was just the setting and set-up to allow the action to proceed and a device to further the plot.
Just had to reply to agree: Moon was an awesome sci-fi movie, most underrated movie of 2009 IMO. Sam Rockwell is a genius actor. I've watched Moon four times, and enjoyed it every time.
We should listen to Bill Gates because in this instance he's right. And believe it or not, because of his recent philanthropy, Bill is highly admired in non-tech circles. In a recent 2010 Gallup survey, Bill Gates tied for America's "fifth-most admired man."
So the reason we should care and publicize Bill saying this, is because his is a voice that is respected by many that might not take the time to research and be knowledgeable about the topic of vaccines as the readers of Slashdot have.
I agree with your larger philosophical argument, and I'd be much happier if teachers, scientists, and doctors were people's heroes. But in the real world, people listen to celebrities, so let's use them to do good.
I find it amusing that people are in favor of giving poor people in foreign countries food and money, but are horrified at the prospect of giving them jobs.
Giving money and food to poor people in a foreign country does not remove money and food from the poor people of my own country. Giving my poor neighbor's job to a poor person in a foreign country is penalizing my neighbor in favor of that foreign person.
I agree, but we have considerably less troops there than before, and at least we're no longer escalating the war in Iraq. I too hope we get all troops out eventually, the sooner the better. But this is about the best we're going to get at the present time from any president, Democrat or Republican...unless we elect a true Progressive like Kucinich or Bernie Sanders, and that's not very likely.
Wrong. He said he would double down in Afghanistan, but continue with Bush's plan to get out of Iraq. Which is exactly what he's done:
"Barack Obama will work with military commanders on the ground in Iraq and in consultation with the Iraqi government to end the war safely and responsibly within 16 months."
Promise Kept. The date has slipped by a few months, but the spirit of the promise has been kept.
"As Obama removes our combat brigades from Iraq, he will send at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent. He will also provide our armed forces with the reset capability that they need. He will replace essential equipment, and he will ensure that our men and women in uniform get the care and support they have earned."
Promise kept. He actually sent more brigades than he promised. I was a strong supporter of Obama before the election, and I distinctly remember these two promises. I agreed with the Iraq plan, I disagreed with the Afghanistan plan. But I'm now hearing all the time from other lefties, that they think Obama broke a promise about ramping up Afghanistan. No, it was pretty clear if you listened to what he said during the 2008 campaign, that he supported staying in Afghanistan. I think a lot of his supporters just maybe heard what they wanted to hear during the election. There's plenty to criticize Obama about since he got elected, but he did exactly what he said he'd do with Afghanistan. I think we should get out of there, sooner rather than later, but don't accuse Obama of lying about this.
Assange has done more for Democracy, as in the right of people to direct the actions of their government, than the entire Western world has done since WWII.
So you think this is more important than say the Berlin Airlift, the Korean Police Action, the US involvement in the Greek Civil War, the Brussels Pact, the establishment of NATO, SEATO and the UN, the strategic arms limitation treaties, the opening of China/US diplomatic relations, the founding of the Solidarity Union, and the fall of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. Combined.
Poppycock.
What do any of those examples have to do with "the right of people to direct the actions of their government"?
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't the general rule "innocent until proven guilty"?
Not that I'm doubting you or defending Yelp (I have never used them and have no idea if they are reputable or not), but all you've said is "there are quite a few allegations." And as we all know, anybody can allege anything about anyone, and that doesn't make it the truth.
So therefore...[citation required].
Should it ever go to court, it would be unlikely to hold up, but I doub't an outfit like Yelp would resist a formal letter with some attached photocopies of some signed legal-sounding agreements. They'd probably yank the criticism from the site and then offer to sell some ads to the doctor in the same conversation. Don't forget, Yelp isn't selling anything to the users. Yelp's customer is the doctor.
RTFA. Yelp says that they have never taken down a negative review at a doctor's request, and they don't intend to.
I run with NoScript all the time, it's not really a problem if you're a geek. You need to make a judgement about the site you are visiting. Does it look a little sketchy, and was it just some joke link someone sent me? It stays blacklisted, and if the site doesn't work, well then I'll live without viewing it. Is it the front page of the New York Times? Well you can probably safely whitelist the main domain - if the page still doesn't work, whitelist each domain selectively until the page works - but don't whitelist anything that looks like it's from a web advertising company. It's not really that difficult, and it's been ages since I've gotten a virus, even though I visit many sketchy-looking sites. An added bonus is I never see those highly-annoying javascript ads that pop up off your screen or are animated.
That said, I don't enable NoScript on my wife's computer. She's not that geeky, and it would piss her off to have to whitelist every single site (she also doesn't have a whole lot of patience.) Just make sure they have a good virus and malware realtime scanner (Microsoft Security Essentials is a good, lightweight, free one), and most importantly have them run Firefox, and they'll be fine.
Tried just what you suggested in Google Image Search (in Firefox 4.0.1). Javascript blocked with NoScript: worked. Javescript not blocked: worked. Might want to check it again, or upgrade to 4.0.
It's not a terrible idea in theory, because as cars become more efficient there is less money collected in gas taxes, but you still have to maintain the roads and better fuel economy does not equal less wear on the roads.
However, if you intend to put a GPS tracking device on every car to implement it, that's where I draw the line. I'm as liberal/progressive/Democrat as they come, but I STRONGLY oppose any governmental program to track our driving. Oh they'll swear up and down that the data won't be used for surveillance, but when has law enforcement/FBI/CIA EVER turned down access to tracking methods or databases? And is it really cost-effective to put a $100-200 GPS on every vehicle in the country?
People ask "don't you trust your government"? Not in general - about some things, but not about this. I hated that Bush started illegal warrantless wiretapping and wholesale monitoring of internet traffic, and I hate that Obama is continuing it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a strong Obama supporter, but wrong is wrong no matter which political party does it.
As others have already commented, there's already a device in every car that tracks mileage driven - it's called an odometer. Just have the odometer read whenever you renew your registration, have your yearly inspection, or whatever your state requires. If making people give a lump sum all at once is a hardship, fold it into your yearly tax forms or something, maybe let people pay their mileage taxes they owe monthly or something. Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Hey that's great for you. You do realize different people have different skills? Not really sure what "requiring you to run service" means, but I look for jobs that allow me to have a desk job and use my computer and programming skills, not navigating for a living.
Don't necessarily make the assumption that just because she uses her GPS on familiar routes that she wouldn't be able to find her way without. I use mine all the time to direct me on familiar routes, or back to my office after I'm out at a remote site. It allows you to pay a little less attention on remembering the exact turns to make, and more time on your actual driving, and it reminds you the exact exit to take (very useful when the exits in your city are confusing - I think the freeways in Portland Oregon were designed by someone on crack.) It's also very convenient if there's traffic congestion on your route - just take the nearest exit, and the GPS will automatically plot you an alternate route. It's also a great way to explore and find alternate back routes - just start driving on a likely-looking back road, and have it plot a route to your destination.
I used to get lost all the time when I drove around the town. Not because I'm stupid, but because I have a hard time following complicated directions while I'm driving. I can also get distracted and...oops, that was my turn, now I have to drive 10 miles out of my way - if the GPS reminds me my turn is coming up in 1 mile, I wouldn't get in that situation. I have a hard time keeping multiple turn directions in my head, I have a hard time remembering phone numbers - which is why I had a Palm Pilot, then a Windows smartphone, now an Android smartphone with GPS and turn-by-turn navigation - it augments my memory and fills in for my brain's particular deficiencies.
That said, people need to make sure that they do a sanity check on a GPS's directions before they blindly follow them. My wife and I were late to a funeral (doh!) because she just did a search on google on her smartphone for the name of the graveyard, and the result she clicked on didn't even lead to a graveyard at all, and it was a completely wrong part of the city. For important situations like that, you need to look it up beforehand on your computer at home, and verify it's sending you to the right place. (The Chrome To Phone extension and Firefox's Send To Phone extension is great for sending an address from your computer to your Android phone.) GPS's are tools, they are not perfect, and people need to realize that instead of blindly following their instructions.
If you want to save the Wales Greenpeace could probably do it.
Greenpeace has better things to do than worry about saving a small country that's a part of the UK.
Our cable-TV-free setup:
.nzb files, NewsBin Pro for downloading the actual media files using the .nzb files. Giganews and FIOS go well together, I can download at over 25Mbit/sec 24/7 if I want. Download an hour-long 1 GB 720p Mkv file in about 10 minutes, a 4 GB DVD in a half hour. HD TV shows are uploaded from the East Coast generally before they even air on the West Coast.
1) Very old (30 years) antenna on my roof, attached to my Win 7 Media Center with dual HD tuners. 16 crystal-clear HD channels absolutely free: all the major networks, public broadcasting, several local stations.
2) Frontier FIOS 25/25. Only service we have with Frontier. No monthly caps, no sharing bandwidth with the neighbors.
3) Netflix streaming, some other streaming sites occasionally.
4) Newsgroups: subscription to Giganews, www.binsearch.info for searching and downloading
This setup would be a lot less useful without the newsgroup downloads, I admit.
Actually Zeus was ok with Prometheus using fire for his own personal use, but then Prometheus decided to make fire available to mankind through torch-to-torch networks, and he got hit by a massive distribution judgement.
Also, don't base your aesthetics on what your wife will tolerate.
Never been married, have you?
As a married geek, I can tell you that you will be a lot more successful at getting what you want if you submit your proposals to the wife test first.
Oh yeah Lethal Inspection, good call. Another great, touching episode, reminded me a bit of Jurassic Bark. Simpsons still make me laugh, but Futurama I watch every week when the new episodes are on, Simpsons every once in a while I download the episodes and watch some.
...and as another posted reminded me, the episode "The Late Philip J Fry" had a plot involving a time machine that only worked moving forward in time, and they discover that time is circular. Very cool sci-fi, and a touching love story too (really!) Probably my favorite episode of the current season.
I've been a huge Futurama fan since the show first came out (although I admit I stopped watching the last few years before it was cancelled, because Fox was screwing around and always pre-empting it with baseball games that ran too long, and constantly changing the time and day it was airing. But I watched them all on DVD, and have probably seen each episode 20-30 times by now.) The new episodes totally rock - some of this season's episodes rank up there as some of the best episodes of Futurama from any season.
There's an episode that spoofs iPhones and Twitter, an episode where the whole Planet Express team swaps brains with each other, one that lampoons California Proposition 8 (Proposition Infinity), etc.
I highly recommend the DVD movies too (commonly referred to as the 5th season) - especially Bender's Game, which makes fun of Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, and Fantasy in general.
Completely agree. I'd like to see some Theodore Sturgeon short stories filmed. Before reading Sturgeon, I wasn't a big fan of short stories, but he made me change my mind. His stories were ALWAYS about the characters, their emotions, and their interactions - the sci-fi was just the setting and set-up to allow the action to proceed and a device to further the plot.
Just had to reply to agree: Moon was an awesome sci-fi movie, most underrated movie of 2009 IMO. Sam Rockwell is a genius actor. I've watched Moon four times, and enjoyed it every time.
Borrowed from China mostly, currently.
We should listen to Bill Gates because in this instance he's right. And believe it or not, because of his recent philanthropy, Bill is highly admired in non-tech circles. In a recent 2010 Gallup survey, Bill Gates tied for America's "fifth-most admired man."
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/233324.asp
So the reason we should care and publicize Bill saying this, is because his is a voice that is respected by many that might not take the time to research and be knowledgeable about the topic of vaccines as the readers of Slashdot have.
I agree with your larger philosophical argument, and I'd be much happier if teachers, scientists, and doctors were people's heroes. But in the real world, people listen to celebrities, so let's use them to do good.
I find it amusing that people are in favor of giving poor people in foreign countries food and money, but are horrified at the prospect of giving them jobs.
Giving money and food to poor people in a foreign country does not remove money and food from the poor people of my own country. Giving my poor neighbor's job to a poor person in a foreign country is penalizing my neighbor in favor of that foreign person.
I agree, but we have considerably less troops there than before, and at least we're no longer escalating the war in Iraq. I too hope we get all troops out eventually, the sooner the better. But this is about the best we're going to get at the present time from any president, Democrat or Republican...unless we elect a true Progressive like Kucinich or Bernie Sanders, and that's not very likely.
Wrong. He said he would double down in Afghanistan, but continue with Bush's plan to get out of Iraq. Which is exactly what he's done:
"Barack Obama will work with military commanders on the ground in Iraq and in consultation with the Iraqi government to end the war safely and responsibly within 16 months."
Promise Kept. The date has slipped by a few months, but the spirit of the promise has been kept.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/126/begin-removing-combat-brigades-from-iraq/
"As Obama removes our combat brigades from Iraq, he will send at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent. He will also provide our armed forces with the reset capability that they need. He will replace essential equipment, and he will ensure that our men and women in uniform get the care and support they have earned."
Promise kept. He actually sent more brigades than he promised. I was a strong supporter of Obama before the election, and I distinctly remember these two promises. I agreed with the Iraq plan, I disagreed with the Afghanistan plan. But I'm now hearing all the time from other lefties, that they think Obama broke a promise about ramping up Afghanistan. No, it was pretty clear if you listened to what he said during the 2008 campaign, that he supported staying in Afghanistan. I think a lot of his supporters just maybe heard what they wanted to hear during the election. There's plenty to criticize Obama about since he got elected, but he did exactly what he said he'd do with Afghanistan. I think we should get out of there, sooner rather than later, but don't accuse Obama of lying about this.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/134/send-two-additional-brigades-to-afghanistan/
I didn't say it was. But in case you haven't noticed, works of fiction frequently mirror, or comment on, real events in history.
Sounds like Gul Dukat. And you know how that turned out.
(re-watching season 6 of ST:DS9 currently)
Assange has done more for Democracy, as in the right of people to direct the actions of their government, than the entire Western world has done since WWII.
So you think this is more important than say the Berlin Airlift, the Korean Police Action, the US involvement in the Greek Civil War, the Brussels Pact, the establishment of NATO, SEATO and the UN, the strategic arms limitation treaties, the opening of China/US diplomatic relations, the founding of the Solidarity Union, and the fall of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. Combined.
Poppycock.
What do any of those examples have to do with "the right of people to direct the actions of their government"?