A nomination for facebook boy. He was already overrated for importance before Time awarded (presumably because he sold them your personal information on the cheap) person of the year to him. Alfred Nobel would likely be rolling - no, exploding - in his grave if his top prize were awarded that arbitrarily.
It's been over 10 years now, and I doubt I could even find the ticket if I tried. I know at the time I was driving to a casino; my best guess is that it was in Dakota County, MN. The ticket was likely issued in an unincorporated town, just past what is likely the only stoplight in said unincorporated town.
As I mentioned in other replies in this thread, I simply did not have the available time to go back. I had to skip a day of work to go to the initial - judge-free - hearing, which was mandatory for anyone who did not want to pay the fee outright. I was given two choices at that hearing (beyond paying the ticket at face and accepting all of the terms of it):
Pay the reduced fine as requested from the DA, and accept the probationary terms to keep it from being reported
Wait longer to talk to the scheduling clerk to get a date some time in the future to see a judge
There was no option to see a judge that day, period. It took me almost two hours to get there, plus an hour waiting once I was there. I was not interested in repeating that exercise if at all possible. While I sure as hell was not doing the speed that was claimed on the ticket, I also sure as hell wasn't going to give them another day of my life.
If I had enough extra money lying around that a day's work was unimportant financially, I would have gone back to argue in front of a judge and easily demonstrated that the ticket was total BS. However I needed to get back to life, so I took the compromise - and never returned to that county again.
2nd world countries? Uhhh...newsflash, the Soviet Union and its satellites collapsed 20 years ago
We can call them "former 2nd world countries", or "former Soviet Bloc countries" if you prefer. Although doesn't the concept of a "third world" become a little muddy if there is no second world?
maybe you didn't get the memo?
I got the memo, alright. Although some might argue that Belarus never did...
Most spam is sent out by botnets anyways, which of course have compromised PCs from all over the world contributing to them. China cleaned up a few (million) boxes, but other 2nd and 3rd world countries have been coming online in larger numbers to make up for the loss.
In the end, its all for naught, however. As long as the spammers can make money sending out spam, they will find a way to do it. We can play international whac-a-mole with security and filtering settings but the spammers will continue to find ways around it because it is what they are paid for.
The only people who are genuinely making a difference in the fight against spam are the ones who actively work to disconnect the spammers from their revenue streams; everyone else is either contributing to the problem or armchair quarterbacking.
TFA specifically says that they haven't commented yet on which administration, Obama or Bush, was the one that actually began the investigation
Why would it matter? The two administrations have repeatedly made the same decisions at every opportunity thus far. We were led to believe that Obama was going to do things differently, instead what we see is that Obama is doing things exactly the same as Bush. Had Bush managed to steal a third term in office, we would have likely seen the exact same policies come to fruit that we've seen since Obama's inauguration in 2009.
It could have resulted in Apple retaining unique hardware, rather than moving to Intel CPUs. Of course, whether that would be for the better or the worse is an open question.
You participated in a racket and were ripped off and now you are proud?
I had to drive an hour and a half each way to get to the courthouse where I had to go to contest the ticket. I was not inclined to do it twice. Had I gone a second time the money saved would have been less than the cost of my time and gas; and the one trip kept the ticket off of my driving record which prevented my insurance from going up.
Sure, if I was independently wealthy and had nothing better to do with my time, I could have gone back and probably had the ticket thrown out completely. But I needed to get back to work.
And frankly that county is doing themselves a disservice by writing out so many inaccurate tickets, as it drives more people to not visit there.
Rule of thumb. Fight ALL tickets.
I did fight the ticket. I could have opted to pay it outright at the full price and take the hit on my insurance as well. Instead I went to the hearing and took the reduced fine. Sure, I gave them money in the end but they will never see me again, nor will their county ever see money from me in the form of business.
The last time I was issued a speeding ticket (around 10 or more years ago) I never met with a judge. I went to argue that the ticket was bullshit, as it required my ~80hp car with 3 men (including myself) in it to have accelerated from 0 to 45 in about 10 feet. However when I went to argue against the ticket I was greeted by a district attorney (DA) instead of a judge. I was told if I wanted to meet with a judge I would need to schedule another date beyond the one that I was there for, or I could talk to the DA and see if I could get a plea deal from them.
The DA saw I had a spotless record, and gave me a deal where I paid a lesser fine, and no offense was reported in my name provided I was not pulled over again in their county for at least 1 full year. I took that deal because I didn't want to go back there, and have never been in that county since.
Nonetheless my understanding is that my experience was fairly typical. I have heard that few jurisdictions place a speeding ticket in front of a judge immediately.
Really, I'm not sure why people are so passionate about the matter. I've been gradually switching my fixtures over to CFLs anyways, I'm fine with going that route - especially now that dimmable CFLs are more readily available. And the "made in China" bit is a red herring; even the slashdot article that is linked to by that admits that virtually nobody makes any light bulbs of any sort in the US either way, hence you'll be lighting with Chinese-made bulbs no matter what route you select.
I can see the side of the argument that wants to see less government intervention, but at this point fighting legislation with more legislation seems like a waste of time and money.
A cesspool of spammers looking to harvest email addresses? Sure.
A cesspool of the flakiest people from your community, who will seemingly fall off the face of the earth entirely when they are supposed to be coming to look at your trinket? Absolutely.
A cesspool of marginally literate people who will email you to ask you questions that you plainly addressed in your ad? You bet.
A cesspool of people who feel that SMS speak is a valid way to drive all communications throughout the known world, who will write almost completely un-decipherable emails to you in that manner? Check that as well.
A cesspool of crime, though? Not necessarily. Sure you'll find plenty of people who don't seem to worry too much about the law, but it isn't really a place where everyone is looking to intentionally break the law.
...which has a grammatical error in it's explanation...
BZZZZT Game over, thanks for playing.;-)
The "apostrophe - s" there shows possession. If the explanation belonged to John, we would say "John's explanation". Here I was using the informal "it" to refer to the company or product, hence "it's explanation" as the explanation belonged to it.
I just noticed that their main page says you can try it "risk-free" for 60 days. However the order form tells you that you can try it risk-free for 8 weeks.
I also find it interesting that they don't offer a Linux version; as there is of course a Linux version of Blender...
When you get down to the part where the website talks about the price:
Thats right. Your investment for the entire course is only $47 (this launch offer will closed anytime after February 25, 2011 ) And when we reach that point, I'll withdraw this offer immediately and not apologize for it.
So you have to go through several pages worth of text before you get to the price, which has a grammatical error in it's explanation. And then a vaporous promise to increase the cost later:
First I'll bump it up to $97.00...then to $197.00 and more...and it'll still be a bargain for what you're getting. So don't waste any time! Take action right now:
Although I really love how they have a 60-day trial; which apparently you pay full ($47) price for. I guess the figure after 60 days if you realize that you just paid for open source software, you won't be willing to take the initiative to ask for your money back. If you go to the order form, you find a "special offer" where they throw in some additional software for a "low additional cost!".
This reminds me a lot of the operations that take the free utilities for unlocking the Wii, and sell it at a random price promising "extras".
There is a period after the ".com" in the company name (though before the "/") which may cause some browsers to not find the domain correctly.
Killed by facebook? Not really...
on
The Death of BCC
·
· Score: 1
In order for something to kill BCC, that something would have to be as useful for serious correspondence as whatever email client I am using at the time. Facebook is several orders of magnitude less useful than real email - especially for me since I don't even have a login on facebook - so no, it will not change how I use BCC.
That said I don't use it very often. The times when I have a use for BCC are so rare I can't even think of the last time I used it. But I use it less because I don't need it; not because I have something that I would use instead of it.
I generally support just about any kind of scientific work, but I really don't see the value in studying how people use facebook. We all know it is for the most part a tremendous waste of time; I'm not sure what we have to gain by looking into how people use it.
If you say yes to the prompt where the program asks for root permissions and you type in your password, and your system gets deleted, isn't that on you?
Well, sure. But on the other hand, if the default install of your operating system gives the first user root permissions by default in all cases, without asking questions, then there is a serious flaw in the OS design.
In Unix, for example, it is nearly impossible for a user - even as root - to install bad software without interacting with it in any way. In Windows, on the other had, a user with Administrator privilege can - and often does - do exactly that. Being as a lot of Windows users don't even have a clue as to the magnitude of power they have over their OS, this is a huge problem. They quickly end up compromising their machine only through their ignorance, as opposed to compromising their own machine through their bad choices.
You should not have been moderated troll just for defending Microsoft Windows. Sure, the analogy doesn't work, but you are entitled to your opinion. The troll moderation is in no way a substitute for "I disagree" or "the poster shows lack of knowledge by using a bad analogy".
That's right...after all, it is the consumer that keeps using a vulnerable operating system
However, the consumer doesn't have a choice in the matter - or at least none that they are aware of. Most consumers buy their PCs at big box retailers, where Windows is the only option. They can't buy a PC with Linux on it, they can't buy a PC with DOS on it, nor can they buy a PC with no OS at all. They might be able to buy a Mac - depending on where they are shopping - but they might not be inclined to pay that much for a PC. Windows is sold as a working OS, but it is provided as something not quite at that level.
If I buy a refrigerator at the same big box retailer, I can expect it to work pretty well the same from the day I buy it until the day I stop using it. However Windows is in no way the same. You pay for Windows and you have to continually update it to keep it working the same as the day you bought it, otherwise you quickly end up with a compromised system that does not work as well as the day you bought it. And being as the consumer had no choice in the OS on their PC, they should not be exclusively responsible for the problems in that PC.
Windows is sold as a fully working operating system - a "fully cooked hotdog" would be a better analogy, really. In which case, if eating the fully cooked hotdog occasionally caused unexplained death, then the risk might be equivalent.
The responsibility goes to the consumer, when Microsoft is assigning responsibility (blame). After all, the highly vulnerable operating system clearly has nothing to do with it, hence the company behind said vulnerable operating system shouldn't have any liability either.
Slashdot Mirror
A nomination for facebook boy. He was already overrated for importance before Time awarded (presumably because he sold them your personal information on the cheap) person of the year to him. Alfred Nobel would likely be rolling - no, exploding - in his grave if his top prize were awarded that arbitrarily.
It's been over 10 years now, and I doubt I could even find the ticket if I tried. I know at the time I was driving to a casino; my best guess is that it was in Dakota County, MN. The ticket was likely issued in an unincorporated town, just past what is likely the only stoplight in said unincorporated town.
There was no option to see a judge that day, period. It took me almost two hours to get there, plus an hour waiting once I was there. I was not interested in repeating that exercise if at all possible. While I sure as hell was not doing the speed that was claimed on the ticket, I also sure as hell wasn't going to give them another day of my life.
If I had enough extra money lying around that a day's work was unimportant financially, I would have gone back to argue in front of a judge and easily demonstrated that the ticket was total BS. However I needed to get back to life, so I took the compromise - and never returned to that county again.
2nd world countries? Uhhh...newsflash, the Soviet Union and its satellites collapsed 20 years ago
We can call them "former 2nd world countries", or "former Soviet Bloc countries" if you prefer. Although doesn't the concept of a "third world" become a little muddy if there is no second world?
maybe you didn't get the memo?
I got the memo, alright. Although some might argue that Belarus never did...
Most spam is sent out by botnets anyways, which of course have compromised PCs from all over the world contributing to them. China cleaned up a few (million) boxes, but other 2nd and 3rd world countries have been coming online in larger numbers to make up for the loss.
In the end, its all for naught, however. As long as the spammers can make money sending out spam, they will find a way to do it. We can play international whac-a-mole with security and filtering settings but the spammers will continue to find ways around it because it is what they are paid for.
The only people who are genuinely making a difference in the fight against spam are the ones who actively work to disconnect the spammers from their revenue streams; everyone else is either contributing to the problem or armchair quarterbacking.
TFA specifically says that they haven't commented yet on which administration, Obama or Bush, was the one that actually began the investigation
Why would it matter? The two administrations have repeatedly made the same decisions at every opportunity thus far. We were led to believe that Obama was going to do things differently, instead what we see is that Obama is doing things exactly the same as Bush. Had Bush managed to steal a third term in office, we would have likely seen the exact same policies come to fruit that we've seen since Obama's inauguration in 2009.
No, Obama hasn't been in for 6 years. However, we are in the start of the 11th year of the Bush Administration and their agenda.
Should read
"This tells us the Obama Administration will do everything that the Bush Administration did"
And that applies to a lot more than just matters of "national security".
It could have resulted in Apple retaining unique hardware, rather than moving to Intel CPUs. Of course, whether that would be for the better or the worse is an open question.
You participated in a racket and were ripped off and now you are proud?
I had to drive an hour and a half each way to get to the courthouse where I had to go to contest the ticket. I was not inclined to do it twice. Had I gone a second time the money saved would have been less than the cost of my time and gas; and the one trip kept the ticket off of my driving record which prevented my insurance from going up.
Sure, if I was independently wealthy and had nothing better to do with my time, I could have gone back and probably had the ticket thrown out completely. But I needed to get back to work.
And frankly that county is doing themselves a disservice by writing out so many inaccurate tickets, as it drives more people to not visit there.
Rule of thumb. Fight ALL tickets.
I did fight the ticket. I could have opted to pay it outright at the full price and take the hit on my insurance as well. Instead I went to the hearing and took the reduced fine. Sure, I gave them money in the end but they will never see me again, nor will their county ever see money from me in the form of business.
The last time I was issued a speeding ticket (around 10 or more years ago) I never met with a judge. I went to argue that the ticket was bullshit, as it required my ~80hp car with 3 men (including myself) in it to have accelerated from 0 to 45 in about 10 feet. However when I went to argue against the ticket I was greeted by a district attorney (DA) instead of a judge. I was told if I wanted to meet with a judge I would need to schedule another date beyond the one that I was there for, or I could talk to the DA and see if I could get a plea deal from them.
The DA saw I had a spotless record, and gave me a deal where I paid a lesser fine, and no offense was reported in my name provided I was not pulled over again in their county for at least 1 full year. I took that deal because I didn't want to go back there, and have never been in that county since.
Nonetheless my understanding is that my experience was fairly typical. I have heard that few jurisdictions place a speeding ticket in front of a judge immediately.
Really, I'm not sure why people are so passionate about the matter. I've been gradually switching my fixtures over to CFLs anyways, I'm fine with going that route - especially now that dimmable CFLs are more readily available. And the "made in China" bit is a red herring; even the slashdot article that is linked to by that admits that virtually nobody makes any light bulbs of any sort in the US either way, hence you'll be lighting with Chinese-made bulbs no matter what route you select.
I can see the side of the argument that wants to see less government intervention, but at this point fighting legislation with more legislation seems like a waste of time and money.
A cesspool of spammers looking to harvest email addresses? Sure.
A cesspool of the flakiest people from your community, who will seemingly fall off the face of the earth entirely when they are supposed to be coming to look at your trinket? Absolutely.
A cesspool of marginally literate people who will email you to ask you questions that you plainly addressed in your ad? You bet.
A cesspool of people who feel that SMS speak is a valid way to drive all communications throughout the known world, who will write almost completely un-decipherable emails to you in that manner? Check that as well.
A cesspool of crime, though? Not necessarily. Sure you'll find plenty of people who don't seem to worry too much about the law, but it isn't really a place where everyone is looking to intentionally break the law.
...which has a grammatical error in it's explanation...
BZZZZT Game over, thanks for playing. ;-)
The "apostrophe - s" there shows possession. If the explanation belonged to John, we would say "John's explanation". Here I was using the informal "it" to refer to the company or product, hence "it's explanation" as the explanation belonged to it.
60 days ~ 8 weeks no ?
Close, but not exactly the same. Last I checked, 8 7-day weeks makes for 56 days. 56 is generally not accepted to be the same as 60.
I just noticed that their main page says you can try it "risk-free" for 60 days. However the order form tells you that you can try it risk-free for 8 weeks.
I also find it interesting that they don't offer a Linux version; as there is of course a Linux version of Blender...
Thats right. Your investment for the entire course is only $47 (this launch offer will closed anytime after February 25, 2011 ) And when we reach that point, I'll withdraw this offer immediately and not apologize for it.
So you have to go through several pages worth of text before you get to the price, which has a grammatical error in it's explanation. And then a vaporous promise to increase the cost later:
First I'll bump it up to $97.00...then to $197.00 and more...and it'll still be a bargain for what you're getting. So don't waste any time! Take action right now:
Although I really love how they have a 60-day trial; which apparently you pay full ($47) price for. I guess the figure after 60 days if you realize that you just paid for open source software, you won't be willing to take the initiative to ask for your money back. If you go to the order form, you find a "special offer" where they throw in some additional software for a "low additional cost!".
This reminds me a lot of the operations that take the free utilities for unlocking the Wii, and sell it at a random price promising "extras".
There is a period after the ".com" in the company name (though before the "/") which may cause some browsers to not find the domain correctly.
In order for something to kill BCC, that something would have to be as useful for serious correspondence as whatever email client I am using at the time. Facebook is several orders of magnitude less useful than real email - especially for me since I don't even have a login on facebook - so no, it will not change how I use BCC.
That said I don't use it very often. The times when I have a use for BCC are so rare I can't even think of the last time I used it. But I use it less because I don't need it; not because I have something that I would use instead of it.
I generally support just about any kind of scientific work, but I really don't see the value in studying how people use facebook. We all know it is for the most part a tremendous waste of time; I'm not sure what we have to gain by looking into how people use it.
If you say yes to the prompt where the program asks for root permissions and you type in your password, and your system gets deleted, isn't that on you?
Well, sure. But on the other hand, if the default install of your operating system gives the first user root permissions by default in all cases, without asking questions, then there is a serious flaw in the OS design.
In Unix, for example, it is nearly impossible for a user - even as root - to install bad software without interacting with it in any way. In Windows, on the other had, a user with Administrator privilege can - and often does - do exactly that. Being as a lot of Windows users don't even have a clue as to the magnitude of power they have over their OS, this is a huge problem. They quickly end up compromising their machine only through their ignorance, as opposed to compromising their own machine through their bad choices.
You should not have been moderated troll just for defending Microsoft Windows. Sure, the analogy doesn't work, but you are entitled to your opinion. The troll moderation is in no way a substitute for "I disagree" or "the poster shows lack of knowledge by using a bad analogy".
The responsibility goes to the consumer,
That's right...after all, it is the consumer that keeps using a vulnerable operating system
However, the consumer doesn't have a choice in the matter - or at least none that they are aware of. Most consumers buy their PCs at big box retailers, where Windows is the only option. They can't buy a PC with Linux on it, they can't buy a PC with DOS on it, nor can they buy a PC with no OS at all. They might be able to buy a Mac - depending on where they are shopping - but they might not be inclined to pay that much for a PC. Windows is sold as a working OS, but it is provided as something not quite at that level.
If I buy a refrigerator at the same big box retailer, I can expect it to work pretty well the same from the day I buy it until the day I stop using it. However Windows is in no way the same. You pay for Windows and you have to continually update it to keep it working the same as the day you bought it, otherwise you quickly end up with a compromised system that does not work as well as the day you bought it. And being as the consumer had no choice in the OS on their PC, they should not be exclusively responsible for the problems in that PC.
I sold you a frozen hotdog.
Windows is sold as a fully working operating system - a "fully cooked hotdog" would be a better analogy, really. In which case, if eating the fully cooked hotdog occasionally caused unexplained death, then the risk might be equivalent.
The responsibility goes to the consumer, when Microsoft is assigning responsibility (blame). After all, the highly vulnerable operating system clearly has nothing to do with it, hence the company behind said vulnerable operating system shouldn't have any liability either.