I find it bothersome that a news aggregator like Slashdot would post an article linking to another news aggregator's website, especially considering that BoingBoing displays not-safe-for-work advertising (suicide girls). Thank goodness I checked SlashDot before going to work today! Or should I be glad that I checked BoingBoing before work?
Editors: Please have a little more consideration of SlashDot readers than this.
A lot of people say they wouldn't have made the decision to drop the bomb, but knowing about how much destruction the Japanese were causing as they began to lose territory (along with their "leave no prisoners alive" mentality), I definitely would have dropped the bomb... just in different locations.
I'd have started by dropping the first bomb on the Tokyo side of Mt. Fuji, on a nice, clear day. The entire population of Tokyo would witness the power of a single nuclear bomb, yet death would have been minimal.
I'd then have given the Japanese notice that if they did not surrender within the next twelve hours, I would begin dropping similar bombs on heavily-populated areas, until there was no one left to surrender.
I don't know if the Japanese would have surrendered faster, but if they didn't, the second bomb would be dropped in the most densely-populated area of Tokyo... because I don't mess around.
I'm guessing, though, that after bombing Mt. Fuji in such a highy-visible way, the Japanese would have surrendered. What do you think?
Wait a second, folks... this isn't a duplicate story! Don't you see? The first one was posted under the Science category, and this article is about Hardware.
All joking aside, wouldn't it be nice if SlashDot's main page worked just like the moderation system? Every submitted story would start with a value of 1 and each moderator could push a story up or down one point. Of course, it all comes together when each user sets their own threshhold for front page stories...
I'm guessing this feature has already been suggested for SlashCode implementation. Maybe I should go check...
While I regret that racism is a part of our not-so-distant history, I'm also glad to see how much we as a society have grown. In order to see this, we must have access to the indications of how things used to be.
Sanitizing our history is tantamount to denying our history, and that is a horrible mistake.
This is why I continue to ask Disney to bring back Song of the South...
Assuming an average ticket price of $6.25, that would buy more than 907 million tickets to Revenge of the Sith--enough for every person in the Western Hemisphere, with the entire population of Poland included twice. Or enough tickets for every person in the U.S. to see it three times.
The fact that this journalist doesn't realize that Poland is in the Eastern Hemisphere leads me to question the accuracy of anything they wrote.
At those rates, I'd have trouble believing you'd be professional or reputable.
Here's the deal: call around and ask local plumbers and auto mechanics what their labor rate is. Find an average and charge that rate for your computer services. It'll be in the ball park of $85+, unless you're in a semi-rural area. Run your service in a similar fashion to these other service professionals: Document a description of the problem, provide an estimate, and get the customer's signature. Go in with a completely professional attitude. Wear a shirt and possibly even a tie. Solve their problem. If the problem is more complex than you'd anticipated, discuss the change in commitment and offer a significantly discounted rate for the additional time.
You can charge friends significantly less, of course, or preferably barter with them. But if you're dealing with a friend of a friend, at least get things documented.::Colz Grigor
I believe that being wise also includes investigating whether we have had any impact and, if so, attempting to reverse that effect and prevent any future impact.
If we only look toward our future, we'll never learn from our past, and learning from our past is where our true wisdom is derived.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the Secret Service would deface a website in this manner?
I'm guessing that this was more of a pre-election public relations maneuver and that this was something less of an event than we would be led to believe.
Okay, so I don't claim to be anyone special, but I am a Fifth Hope attendee. I'm journaling the sessions I attend at http://colz.livejournal.com. It's intermixed with my personal notes, too, which most of you won't care about. The journal is for me, but if you find any of it interesting, enjoy...
I'm a Linux fan and a Microsoft hater. I don't bash Microsoft, I just vehemently object to its existence. I do the same when it comes to Bill Gates' business strategies and customer consciousness (or lack thereof).
But really, people. This guy's got a ton of money that gets invested for him by his mob of finance monkeys. Ultimately, he pays the price when one of them screw up, but do you really think that he called his broker and insisted on this deal?
Okay, so he screwed up by hiring some folks that didn't do their research prior to making an investment in his name, but let's not harrangue the guy for it. There are much better reason for which to lambast Bill Gates!
::Colz Grigor
P.S. - If we spent as much time focusing on what we could do to make Open Source superior to Microsoft's crap as we do on on poking fun at Microsoft's crap, we might actually have had fully superior products by now...
Yeah, but that's a heck of a markup. I sincerely doubt the guy has put $3,200,000 worth of renovations into the property.
My guess: he got an extremely good deal on the property in the first place, perhaps at a government auction. More power to him: if someone is willing to pay $3.5 million for his property, that's what it's worth! We'll see...
What you describe is referred to in the legal world as "Product Tying" and may be illegal under Section 1 of the Clayton Act of 1914.
I'm positive that would be the grounds on which Dish Network will (or has) get the attention of the Federal Trade Commission in pursuing antitrust actions again Viacom.
So let us assume that no agreement is reached and Viacom pulls the plug to Dish tonight.
As a result, let us also assume that Dish refuses payment to Viacom for the time that Viacom is off the air.
Both these assumptions are reasonable.
Now let me assume that this mutual refusal continues for several months.
Will I, as a Dish Network customer, see a decrease in the rates I'm paying to Dish Network as a result? Somehow, I suspect not. This is why I would switch to DirecTV if for no other reason.
So Charlie, if you're reading this, make sure that you pass along your cost savings rather than screwing your customers.
Obviously, Slashdot is being inundated with twelve-year-olds!
Sad thing is, they know a hell of a lot more about contemporary computers than I do. And I know more about older computers than most of them will ever care to learn... which means that I'm going to be the one doing the systems integration for years to come.
Slashdot Mirror
But clowns are scary!
Editors: Please have a little more consideration of SlashDot readers than this.
I'd have started by dropping the first bomb on the Tokyo side of Mt. Fuji, on a nice, clear day. The entire population of Tokyo would witness the power of a single nuclear bomb, yet death would have been minimal.
I'd then have given the Japanese notice that if they did not surrender within the next twelve hours, I would begin dropping similar bombs on heavily-populated areas, until there was no one left to surrender.
I don't know if the Japanese would have surrendered faster, but if they didn't, the second bomb would be dropped in the most densely-populated area of Tokyo... because I don't mess around.
I'm guessing, though, that after bombing Mt. Fuji in such a highy-visible way, the Japanese would have surrendered. What do you think?
All joking aside, wouldn't it be nice if SlashDot's main page worked just like the moderation system? Every submitted story would start with a value of 1 and each moderator could push a story up or down one point. Of course, it all comes together when each user sets their own threshhold for front page stories...
I'm guessing this feature has already been suggested for SlashCode implementation. Maybe I should go check...
Exploring the desert south of Cairo yields some fascinating but yet-to-be-excavated stuff as well.
::Colz Grigor
The world sure is a nifty place!
Oh, how I agree.
::Colz Grigor
While I regret that racism is a part of our not-so-distant history, I'm also glad to see how much we as a society have grown. In order to see this, we must have access to the indications of how things used to be.
Sanitizing our history is tantamount to denying our history, and that is a horrible mistake.
This is why I continue to ask Disney to bring back Song of the South...
Assuming an average ticket price of $6.25, that would buy more than 907 million tickets to Revenge of the Sith--enough for every person in the Western Hemisphere, with the entire population of Poland included twice. Or enough tickets for every person in the U.S. to see it three times.
::Colz Grigor
The fact that this journalist doesn't realize that Poland is in the Eastern Hemisphere leads me to question the accuracy of anything they wrote.
At those rates, I'd have trouble believing you'd be professional or reputable.
::Colz Grigor
Here's the deal: call around and ask local plumbers and auto mechanics what their labor rate is. Find an average and charge that rate for your computer services. It'll be in the ball park of $85+, unless you're in a semi-rural area. Run your service in a similar fashion to these other service professionals: Document a description of the problem, provide an estimate, and get the customer's signature. Go in with a completely professional attitude. Wear a shirt and possibly even a tie. Solve their problem. If the problem is more complex than you'd anticipated, discuss the change in commitment and offer a significantly discounted rate for the additional time.
You can charge friends significantly less, of course, or preferably barter with them. But if you're dealing with a friend of a friend, at least get things documented.
In my area, that's somewhere between $85 and $105 an hour.
You can't be still in high school...
Your time must be more valuable than that...
What's this then?
Perhaps this is where that Strong Bad pumpkin originated.
The Brother Chaps rock!
If we only look toward our future, we'll never learn from our past, and learning from our past is where our true wisdom is derived.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the Secret Service would deface a website in this manner?
I'm guessing that this was more of a pre-election public relations maneuver and that this was something less of an event than we would be led to believe.
But really, people. This guy's got a ton of money that gets invested for him by his mob of finance monkeys. Ultimately, he pays the price when one of them screw up, but do you really think that he called his broker and insisted on this deal?
Okay, so he screwed up by hiring some folks that didn't do their research prior to making an investment in his name, but let's not harrangue the guy for it. There are much better reason for which to lambast Bill Gates!
P.S. - If we spent as much time focusing on what we could do to make Open Source superior to Microsoft's crap as we do on on poking fun at Microsoft's crap, we might actually have had fully superior products by now...
What was your fee, anyway?
My guess: he got an extremely good deal on the property in the first place, perhaps at a government auction. More power to him: if someone is willing to pay $3.5 million for his property, that's what it's worth! We'll see...
I'm positive that would be the grounds on which Dish Network will (or has) get the attention of the Federal Trade Commission in pursuing antitrust actions again Viacom.
As a result, let us also assume that Dish refuses payment to Viacom for the time that Viacom is off the air.
Both these assumptions are reasonable.
Now let me assume that this mutual refusal continues for several months.
Will I, as a Dish Network customer, see a decrease in the rates I'm paying to Dish Network as a result? Somehow, I suspect not. This is why I would switch to DirecTV if for no other reason.
So Charlie, if you're reading this, make sure that you pass along your cost savings rather than screwing your customers.
The movie made the Ents look like Oafs. They were far more magnificent creatures in the book.
If they can't own or steal the IP, Microsoft isn't interested. This has always been their business practice.
Sad thing is, they know a hell of a lot more about contemporary computers than I do. And I know more about older computers than most of them will ever care to learn... which means that I'm going to be the one doing the systems integration for years to come.