Plenty of competition? Four major airlines left. Prices through the roof. Services/experience worse than ever.
John Oliver on mergers
It's a bit long, forward to 2:30 unless you want a chuckle or two. He's right, JetBlue doesn't count.
Funny story, years ago my wife & I are in the computer room one evening (as usual) & Budapest, one of two cats comes running in meowing like crazy. It was like lassie trying to tell us that Timmy was stuck in the well. At the same time my wife & I say "Charlie fell of the balcony!". I go out & sure enough, I can hear him meowing somewhere below. We have a cat door in the screen because cats are a pain in the ass when it comes to doors.
Cats, dogs, even birds are smarter than many people give them credit for. Now days we have three cats & a dog. It's a lot of work but I feel our lives are much better due to the profound happiness these beasts give us.
It only takes one conscientious citizen to humor a robo-spammer long enough to get the real name/contact information behind the call, after which that company can be reported so the FTC can enforce their severe Do Not Call fines.
Years ago I tried just that & it failed to work. I suppose I wasn't a good enough actor. Every time they saw through my subterfuge & hung up. I did play along with the IRS guy with the british/nigerian accent for about 5 minutes before he got exasperated & told me a warrant has been issued & the police are on the way to arrest me! I couldn't stop from busting up laughing when he told me to go to a CVS for a payment card. "YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!" & I said hell ya!
Crappy part time job. Anecdotal story(ies?) that claim they got hours cut. "We just have to work faster to meet the same goals in less time". Smells like bullshit to me. Unless they weren't doing shit at 30 hours for one third of the time, then no way can they meet the same goals.
No low wage business keeps (or cuts the hours of) employees they don't need. If some business owner claims that a minimum wage increase caused them to lay off workers they are either lying or really bad at business.
Closing up shop due to increased labor costs, that I can believe.
Ahm.... these are DUI checkpoints. The revenue is not much, but they get drunk drivers who are currently drunk off the road. This isn't speed cameras or other big ticket revenue generators.
DUI convictions are huge money for municipalities. If somehow all alcohol users stopped driving, there would be budget shortfalls. A budget shortfall actually happened in the city of Westland Mi about 10 years ago due to a "labor action" on the part of the police department over contract negotiations. They stopped pulling people over & arresting them for DUI for several months.
The massive fines for DUI is actually part of many cities budgets.
I didn't even know it was on my S8. Thanks Slashdot! I uninstalled the app, no problem. Verizon S8... I get a nice discount from my employer with Verizon OK?!
For the most part, Prime seems to be OK, but Amazon's website sucks. The user interface hasn't changed much in 15 years & it was never good. It's impossible to drill down to locate something. The search & filters fail to actually filter. No search within a search. Plus all the non-Amazon sellers that come & go. All that & I still find myself buying crap from them.
If they ever updated it so that the search filters worked & one could actually locate what they want, most of their customers would lose their minds & complain.
Although when I said "Some folks would go bonkers..." the FCC wasn't my first thought. I was thinking law enforcement, recording industry, etc. Comcast/AT&T/Verizon might poop their pants a bit also. What the FCC is tasked to regulate would likely be changed fast.
"The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable."
So they don't cover yelling to my neighbor but if I use a wire/cable or any kind of radio, they do? What if someone comes up with new technology that doesn't use wire, cable, satellite, or any known form of radio frequency? Yes, science fantasy, but a big fat what if? The new tech allows large data transfers (including voice of course) with total security. Yes, its Orson Scott Card fantasy but I find the idea intriguing.
Not true. Community Reinvestment Act was never about making loans to people with bad credit. The "regulations being ignored" started 2002 by George W. Bush:
In the last month I've build two machines for my family & loaded up two notebooks for friends. One new gaming desktop which seemed to patch fine & reloaded Win 7 on the older one. The notebooks were from friends who wanted me to cleanup, patch, Windows & load, activate, & patch Office.
So of course I "check for updates" over & over until all updates are loaded. Does this mean I possibly loaded beta patches? That last notebook was really a POS, some cheap HP from wallymart sub $300. It took forever to patch & I was seeing weird errors & had to retry many times. I blamed on HP but maybe it was MS.
So what does one do with a new machine? Turn it on & hope for the best? That worked so well in the past.
Life's been a blast for me since... well since I was 24 or so. I've not been bored since I was 19. Dead at 52?! Fuck that, I've had too much fun in that last few years since I passed my 52nd birthday. I figure 85 is a better number but if something goes haywire before that, it's time for hookers, coke, booze, & a fast death. I can't wait to retire!
Whatever happened to the Equifax breach, oh yea, nothing... basically all Americans and a credit bureau... https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/b... . Looking into Google for a measly 500K, that most likely did not even get exposed to outsiders, deserves a look into, meanwhile one of the big three credit agencies can keep gathering more and more data and breaching...
Equifax: name, address(s), employment history, marital status, likely mother's maiden name, S.S.#, driver's license#, credit history, god knows wtf else.
Google+: User profile. Mine is quite empty, not even my last name. Not even sure when I last looked at it.
That's not to say whoever the douch(s) that decided to keep this quiet shouldn't be punished for stupidity. But damn, Equifax... no punishment that I can find.
Good for you, use cash. I've considered returning to cash only a few times. However, I do get protections from my CC company that I've used before. Plus that 4-5% cash back. & damn I got 80000 frequent flier miles! I used 70000 miles on this year for a excellent vacation for my wife & I.
So go ahead, I actually admire those that are able to only shop local on a cash only basis. It's just not for me. I pay for my credit protection service (not fucking LifeLock), & will pay attention. Rent cars as needed & buy stuff online that I can't get locally.
Way back when my team was in a chat room setting up line-ups for a match we were starting. Quake 2. One guy, someone who recently practiced enough to be one of our best (he was playing ALL THE TIME) says this:
"My wife just left"
"& I don't think she's coming back"
Next think ya know, he drops from IRC. We don't see him online for months. He actually saved his marriage.
It's just a story but my point is that divorce over video game addiction (or golf, gambling, crack) is nothing new.
Until your work is interrupted by your daughter complaining that her Disney stream is stopping/stuttering because Disney is not paying your provider the same as Netflix is to keep the streams ehem... steaming. But that's a different subject, isn't it?
I agree that 10 Mbps should be enough but in my experience, it rarely is. Diagnosing why... is it the provider? Is it the streaming service? Is it something in between!? Now days I am told I get "up to 150 Mbps downloads!" & speed tests seem to confirm it, but I still have problems. Fucking Comcrap.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep & the only one that actually understands what I am saying consistently. The Nameless One.
Plenty of competition? Four major airlines left. Prices through the roof. Services/experience worse than ever. John Oliver on mergers It's a bit long, forward to 2:30 unless you want a chuckle or two. He's right, JetBlue doesn't count.
Yes, our cats know their names.
Funny story, years ago my wife & I are in the computer room one evening (as usual) & Budapest, one of two cats comes running in meowing like crazy. It was like lassie trying to tell us that Timmy was stuck in the well. At the same time my wife & I say "Charlie fell of the balcony!". I go out & sure enough, I can hear him meowing somewhere below. We have a cat door in the screen because cats are a pain in the ass when it comes to doors.
Cats, dogs, even birds are smarter than many people give them credit for. Now days we have three cats & a dog. It's a lot of work but I feel our lives are much better due to the profound happiness these beasts give us.
My current employers IT can't recover files most of the time & the back-ups are on site. I get the feeling they don't actually try.
It only takes one conscientious citizen to humor a robo-spammer long enough to get the real name/contact information behind the call, after which that company can be reported so the FTC can enforce their severe Do Not Call fines.
Years ago I tried just that & it failed to work. I suppose I wasn't a good enough actor. Every time they saw through my subterfuge & hung up. I did play along with the IRS guy with the british/nigerian accent for about 5 minutes before he got exasperated & told me a warrant has been issued & the police are on the way to arrest me! I couldn't stop from busting up laughing when he told me to go to a CVS for a payment card. "YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!" & I said hell ya!
btw, you could be that conscientious citizen.
Crappy part time job. Anecdotal story(ies?) that claim they got hours cut. "We just have to work faster to meet the same goals in less time". Smells like bullshit to me. Unless they weren't doing shit at 30 hours for one third of the time, then no way can they meet the same goals.
No low wage business keeps (or cuts the hours of) employees they don't need. If some business owner claims that a minimum wage increase caused them to lay off workers they are either lying or really bad at business.
Closing up shop due to increased labor costs, that I can believe.
Ahm.... these are DUI checkpoints. The revenue is not much, but they get drunk drivers who are currently drunk off the road. This isn't speed cameras or other big ticket revenue generators.
DUI convictions are huge money for municipalities. If somehow all alcohol users stopped driving, there would be budget shortfalls. A budget shortfall actually happened in the city of Westland Mi about 10 years ago due to a "labor action" on the part of the police department over contract negotiations. They stopped pulling people over & arresting them for DUI for several months.
The massive fines for DUI is actually part of many cities budgets.
Government cheese! I've made a few omelets from it back in the 80s. The stuff was pretty decent. Do they still distribute it?
Excellent story about it at Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/31/643486297/episode-862-big-government-cheese
I didn't even know it was on my S8. Thanks Slashdot! I uninstalled the app, no problem. Verizon S8... I get a nice discount from my employer with Verizon OK?!
For the most part, Prime seems to be OK, but Amazon's website sucks. The user interface hasn't changed much in 15 years & it was never good. It's impossible to drill down to locate something. The search & filters fail to actually filter. No search within a search. Plus all the non-Amazon sellers that come & go. All that & I still find myself buying crap from them.
If they ever updated it so that the search filters worked & one could actually locate what they want, most of their customers would lose their minds & complain.
OK that makes sense, thanks!
Although when I said "Some folks would go bonkers..." the FCC wasn't my first thought. I was thinking law enforcement, recording industry, etc. Comcast/AT&T/Verizon might poop their pants a bit also. What the FCC is tasked to regulate would likely be changed fast.
"The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government created by statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable."
So they don't cover yelling to my neighbor but if I use a wire/cable or any kind of radio, they do? What if someone comes up with new technology that doesn't use wire, cable, satellite, or any known form of radio frequency? Yes, science fantasy, but a big fat what if? The new tech allows large data transfers (including voice of course) with total security. Yes, its Orson Scott Card fantasy but I find the idea intriguing.
Some folks would go bonkers I'm sure.
Not true. Community Reinvestment Act was never about making loans to people with bad credit. The "regulations being ignored" started 2002 by George W. Bush:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
In the last month I've build two machines for my family & loaded up two notebooks for friends. One new gaming desktop which seemed to patch fine & reloaded Win 7 on the older one. The notebooks were from friends who wanted me to cleanup, patch, Windows & load, activate, & patch Office.
So of course I "check for updates" over & over until all updates are loaded. Does this mean I possibly loaded beta patches? That last notebook was really a POS, some cheap HP from wallymart sub $300. It took forever to patch & I was seeing weird errors & had to retry many times. I blamed on HP but maybe it was MS.
So what does one do with a new machine? Turn it on & hope for the best? That worked so well in the past.
Computers will not get much faster. You can get more cores and less power usage, but that is essentially it.
That just makes me sad. Computers are still slow as shit & the software (fucking appity APPs!) is even slower. I am always waiting on something.
Yes. Computers are still too slow.
Interesting Planet Money podcast about sand. Mostly about beach sand. https://www.npr.org/templates/...
Life's been a blast for me since... well since I was 24 or so. I've not been bored since I was 19. Dead at 52?! Fuck that, I've had too much fun in that last few years since I passed my 52nd birthday. I figure 85 is a better number but if something goes haywire before that, it's time for hookers, coke, booze, & a fast death. I can't wait to retire!
Whatever happened to the Equifax breach, oh yea, nothing... basically all Americans and a credit bureau ... https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/b... . Looking into Google for a measly 500K, that most likely did not even get exposed to outsiders, deserves a look into, meanwhile one of the big three credit agencies can keep gathering more and more data and breaching...
Equifax: name, address(s), employment history, marital status, likely mother's maiden name, S.S.#, driver's license#, credit history, god knows wtf else.
Google+: User profile. Mine is quite empty, not even my last name. Not even sure when I last looked at it.
That's not to say whoever the douch(s) that decided to keep this quiet shouldn't be punished for stupidity. But damn, Equifax... no punishment that I can find.
Thanks Tom Clancy!
Good for you, use cash. I've considered returning to cash only a few times. However, I do get protections from my CC company that I've used before. Plus that 4-5% cash back. & damn I got 80000 frequent flier miles! I used 70000 miles on this year for a excellent vacation for my wife & I.
So go ahead, I actually admire those that are able to only shop local on a cash only basis. It's just not for me. I pay for my credit protection service (not fucking LifeLock), & will pay attention. Rent cars as needed & buy stuff online that I can't get locally.
Yep & they are all taken most of the time.
Way back when my team was in a chat room setting up line-ups for a match we were starting. Quake 2. One guy, someone who recently practiced enough to be one of our best (he was playing ALL THE TIME) says this:
"My wife just left"
"& I don't think she's coming back"
Next think ya know, he drops from IRC. We don't see him online for months. He actually saved his marriage. It's just a story but my point is that divorce over video game addiction (or golf, gambling, crack) is nothing new.
Believe it.
Comcrap, AT&T, Verizon & all the rest are scooping up everything. All of it.
Until your work is interrupted by your daughter complaining that her Disney stream is stopping/stuttering because Disney is not paying your provider the same as Netflix is to keep the streams ehem... steaming. But that's a different subject, isn't it?
I agree that 10 Mbps should be enough but in my experience, it rarely is. Diagnosing why... is it the provider? Is it the streaming service? Is it something in between!? Now days I am told I get "up to 150 Mbps downloads!" & speed tests seem to confirm it, but I still have problems. Fucking Comcrap.