So, what's the alternative to a petition? Fire-bomb a senator's house?? Unless you're a multi-billion dollar corporation, you have no legal way to really influence your own government, let alone influence the internationals deciding treaties in secret behind closed doors.
'We are continuing to investigate and will inform all customers whose email addresses and ICC IDS may have been obtained,' says AT&T. 'We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.'"
A classic textbook non-response from a corporation's P.R. machine. A guide, for those unfamiliar with the terminology:
* "We continue to..." / "We are continuing..." - Translation: We're not doing a thing
* "investigate" - Translation: To lawyer-up and get paperwork straight for a lawsuit
* "may have" - Translation: "did"
* "been obtained" - Translation: given out by us through incompetence
* "We take XYZ very seriously" - Translation: It only comes up in meetings when emergencies happen
* "we have fixed this problem" - Translation: We fired the employees who told us this problem would happen
* "we apologize" - Translation: We admit no legal wrongdoing
* "customers who were impacted" - people who paid us for the pleasure of a good corporate rogering
Why anyone even reads press releases by companies anymore, one can only guess. You'll hear those catch phrases in every one.
That's right. How DARE the unwashed masses try to contact a clearly superior human being. The aristocracy should be protected from such riff-raff. Don't you people understand that certain people are just better than others and should not be even looked at--let alone have their judgment questioned--by a "commoner".
No. That argument already commits a serious error. You own the phone. You get to decide what runs on it.
So jailbreak your phone then.
Apple's not telling you you can't run xyz on your phone. Apple's saying you can't DISTRIBUTE xyz through a store they own and operate. Should I be able to demand that Apple let me sell my fresh strawberries in their retail stores? They're really tasty...
I love his ridiculous idea of "cross-platform". So, let's see: It runs on old 32-bit Windows browsers, Intel and PowerPC Macs and 32-bit Linux. And there's a pre-release for 64-bit Linux, and maybe an Android version coming. That's it. Whooptdee doo. How far we have sunk when "cross-platform" means "works on more than one platform"!
This happens in commercial software development, too. There's this belief (often held all the way up the management chain to the top) that software, even bad software, represents some kind of massive, utterly permanent investment that must never be thrown away and re-written.
I've worked with managers who would think nothing of throwing away a million dollar manufacturing machine to replace it because it's old, yet cling with all their might to ancient software code that represents a similar level of investment.
#4 hits it out of the park. STOP making me register for your site! I already have hundreds of passwords--I don't need to remember another one from your crappy web site!
B.S. Bits don't rot. Out of negligence, laziness, or stinginess, companies throw away/re-purpose machines that they should probably leave in the vault untouched.
If you have older products that are in the maintenance phase that you may have to re-support one day, you need to keep the environment that is required to build/support it.
Neither. I'm saying I have a hard time believing that someone who is mildly intelligent would struggle to find a job that offers health insurance in a semi-affordable capacity.
You'd have to be living an extremely sheltered life if you don't know a single "mildly intelligent" person whose employer does not offer health insurance. And even if you don't, you really mean to tell us that, given health insurance's extreme cost, you can't even IMAGINE how some employers wouldn't offer it as a benefit?
I've just learned that my premiums are going to jump over 200% percent next year to pay for your health insurance due to the new legislation that just passed.
Let me guess: You read and understand every word in every 20+ page (6-point text) contract you sign, comb through every company's terms of service that they simply declare that you implicitly agree to before doing business with them, and carefully examine every "addendum to the addendum" agreement change that they mail you each quarter.
Congratulations, you have no life.
For the rest of us, if you want to partake in any basic service such as: opening a credit card, renting a car, getting utility service, being employed, or getting treated at the doctor's, you have to either go without, or sign or agree to a company-controlled, one-sided, "take-it-or-leave-it" agreement. Companies can sneak basically whatever they want into page 34, section 4, subsection 16, paragraph 7 of their "standard agreement" and either you'll miss it (which is what they count on)--or you catch it and have to forego the service and live like a hermit.
My ISP agreement may very well contain a clause letting them shoot my dog this month (after they just "modified" it again) and I'd pretty much have no idea.
An insurance company can't prevent you from being treated for a condition.
Total, unfiltered denial of reality.
If a medical procedure costs $400,000 and I have $400 in my bank account, and my insurance company says "We're not going to cover it." they are essentially PREVENTING me from being treated. If the treatment would save my life, they are effectively a "private death panel".
What if a doctor could see you for your average "I'm sick" visit for the same cost as filling a tank of gas. You say that is too expensive?
What if pigs could fly?
In reality, an uninsured routine visit to the doctor can cost what, between $200-$500? A broken arm is in the thousands, and for anything more serious, the sky is the limit. Obama does not set doctors' prices, nor does the Department of Health, the ACLU, or the Illuminati. It's set by the good ol' free market. And the free market says that if I want to see a doctor in the USA, I'm going to have to shell out a ton of money. That's why we have to have insurance.
Sure, I'd love to live in a universe where the free market results in $30 check-ups and $100 to set a broken bone, but we don't live in that universe.
We don't treat health insurance like insurance. Insurance is for EMERGENCY and RARE EXPENSIVE claims.
Every trip to the doctor is expensive. That's why people need to use insurance for every trip to the doctor. And that's why every trip to the doctor is expensive.
Slashdot Mirror
I have *never* seen a guy that doesn't have p0rn on his computer
On his WORK computer? Where the hell do you work?!?
So, what's the alternative to a petition? Fire-bomb a senator's house?? Unless you're a multi-billion dollar corporation, you have no legal way to really influence your own government, let alone influence the internationals deciding treaties in secret behind closed doors.
'We are continuing to investigate and will inform all customers whose email addresses and ICC IDS may have been obtained,' says AT&T. 'We take customer privacy very seriously and while we have fixed this problem, we apologize to our customers who were impacted.'"
A classic textbook non-response from a corporation's P.R. machine. A guide, for those unfamiliar with the terminology:
* "We continue to..." / "We are continuing..." - Translation: We're not doing a thing
* "investigate" - Translation: To lawyer-up and get paperwork straight for a lawsuit
* "may have" - Translation: "did"
* "been obtained" - Translation: given out by us through incompetence
* "We take XYZ very seriously" - Translation: It only comes up in meetings when emergencies happen
* "we have fixed this problem" - Translation: We fired the employees who told us this problem would happen
* "we apologize" - Translation: We admit no legal wrongdoing
* "customers who were impacted" - people who paid us for the pleasure of a good corporate rogering
Why anyone even reads press releases by companies anymore, one can only guess. You'll hear those catch phrases in every one.
That's right. How DARE the unwashed masses try to contact a clearly superior human being. The aristocracy should be protected from such riff-raff. Don't you people understand that certain people are just better than others and should not be even looked at--let alone have their judgment questioned--by a "commoner".
No. That argument already commits a serious error. You own the phone. You get to decide what runs on it.
So jailbreak your phone then.
Apple's not telling you you can't run xyz on your phone. Apple's saying you can't DISTRIBUTE xyz through a store they own and operate. Should I be able to demand that Apple let me sell my fresh strawberries in their retail stores? They're really tasty...
How about: It's Apple's store.
I suppose you posted your message by telneting to slashdot and crafting the HTTP message by hand, too...
Since we're talking about hypothetical "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts", let me throw one out:
Companies SHOULDN'T be writing contracts that they know their customers won't understand.
The street goes two ways.
I love his ridiculous idea of "cross-platform". So, let's see: It runs on old 32-bit Windows browsers, Intel and PowerPC Macs and 32-bit Linux. And there's a pre-release for 64-bit Linux, and maybe an Android version coming. That's it. Whooptdee doo. How far we have sunk when "cross-platform" means "works on more than one platform"!
This happens in commercial software development, too. There's this belief (often held all the way up the management chain to the top) that software, even bad software, represents some kind of massive, utterly permanent investment that must never be thrown away and re-written.
I've worked with managers who would think nothing of throwing away a million dollar manufacturing machine to replace it because it's old, yet cling with all their might to ancient software code that represents a similar level of investment.
All they have to do is threaten a minor hiccup in treasury purchases and we just lost our testicles.
The US can threaten to default. The testicle-holding is mutual.
When someone owes me $200, it's their problem. When someone owes me $2,000,000,000,000, it's my problem.
#4 hits it out of the park. STOP making me register for your site! I already have hundreds of passwords--I don't need to remember another one from your crappy web site!
B.S. Bits don't rot. Out of negligence, laziness, or stinginess, companies throw away/re-purpose machines that they should probably leave in the vault untouched.
If you have older products that are in the maintenance phase that you may have to re-support one day, you need to keep the environment that is required to build/support it.
You know, Dr. Evil, a million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days. Virtucon alone makes over nine billion dollars a year!
But much of America has no choice but to get TV from their cable company.
I live in the USA and I've never been forced to buy TV service. What the hell place do you live in?
Neither. I'm saying I have a hard time believing that someone who is mildly intelligent would struggle to find a job that offers health insurance in a semi-affordable capacity.
You'd have to be living an extremely sheltered life if you don't know a single "mildly intelligent" person whose employer does not offer health insurance. And even if you don't, you really mean to tell us that, given health insurance's extreme cost, you can't even IMAGINE how some employers wouldn't offer it as a benefit?
I've just learned that my premiums are going to jump over 200% percent next year to pay for your health insurance due to the new legislation that just passed.
You believe their reason? Sucker....
I'm not sure how one can take anything an article says seriously when it starts out with:
"At a time when anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is becoming broadly recognized as a politically driven, pseudo-scientific power-grab,"
LOL
Define "battlefield"
Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot were also all MEN! Clearly the entire MALE gender is to blame for mass-murder and genocide.
Let me guess: You read and understand every word in every 20+ page (6-point text) contract you sign, comb through every company's terms of service that they simply declare that you implicitly agree to before doing business with them, and carefully examine every "addendum to the addendum" agreement change that they mail you each quarter.
Congratulations, you have no life.
For the rest of us, if you want to partake in any basic service such as: opening a credit card, renting a car, getting utility service, being employed, or getting treated at the doctor's, you have to either go without, or sign or agree to a company-controlled, one-sided, "take-it-or-leave-it" agreement. Companies can sneak basically whatever they want into page 34, section 4, subsection 16, paragraph 7 of their "standard agreement" and either you'll miss it (which is what they count on)--or you catch it and have to forego the service and live like a hermit.
My ISP agreement may very well contain a clause letting them shoot my dog this month (after they just "modified" it again) and I'd pretty much have no idea.
Ahh yes, another one of those "contract worshippers".
So, if the contract said they could shoot your dog, no problem, eh? After all, it's a CONTRACT!
An insurance company can't prevent you from being treated for a condition.
Total, unfiltered denial of reality.
If a medical procedure costs $400,000 and I have $400 in my bank account, and my insurance company says "We're not going to cover it." they are essentially PREVENTING me from being treated. If the treatment would save my life, they are effectively a "private death panel".
What if a doctor could see you for your average "I'm sick" visit for the same cost as filling a tank of gas. You say that is too expensive?
What if pigs could fly?
In reality, an uninsured routine visit to the doctor can cost what, between $200-$500? A broken arm is in the thousands, and for anything more serious, the sky is the limit. Obama does not set doctors' prices, nor does the Department of Health, the ACLU, or the Illuminati. It's set by the good ol' free market. And the free market says that if I want to see a doctor in the USA, I'm going to have to shell out a ton of money. That's why we have to have insurance.
Sure, I'd love to live in a universe where the free market results in $30 check-ups and $100 to set a broken bone, but we don't live in that universe.
We don't treat health insurance like insurance. Insurance is for EMERGENCY and RARE EXPENSIVE claims.
Every trip to the doctor is expensive. That's why people need to use insurance for every trip to the doctor. And that's why every trip to the doctor is expensive.