I had a similar situation when in college, as I had a van......So, what I did was to charge a nominal fee that benefited me...
The only liability to this is, well, liability.
Certainly more true for a van than a laptop, but now that they are compensating you for the service, you have a contractual obligation and enforceable verbal contract with terms determined by the statutes of your state.
In high school a friend asked to pay me to drive her friends to a function--I made it clear beforehand it was my gift to her and refused payment.
If anything goes wrong, you now have a legal responsibility to them, probably much greater than a lunch or beer.
Accepting a token of appreciation is great (and you'll learn more about people's characters if they voluntarily show their thanks, or not, as compared to demanding it of everyone) just don't ASK for one which puts you on the hook.
Of course, if you want to discourage the practice, just charge and make them read and accept all the EULA's as well as one of your own absolving you of any responsibility.
Really, a school that handles children on the wrong bus regularly is MUCH better than one who doesn't have systems in place for dealing with an unpreventable (if rare) occurrence.
I want my kid to learn what to do when things don't go right.
Since everyone has already provided the various "child locator" links that are easily Googled, here's my high tech AND trendy alternative that will not result in a socially alienated child unit.
Start a Twitter account for your child, like the one of the cat with half a million followers, make it SO popular people will send out "Tweets" whenever they see your child.
Setup a search for @yourchild'sname
You then can receive SMS messages, RSS feed, emails, whatever, whenever your child is someplace new (since people who regularly see your kid won't care enough to bother to say so).
If you succeed well enough in this plan, your child will shortly be followed by a group of paparazzi photographing their every move! If your child is a daughter, you'll even know when she "forgets" to wear her underwear. You'll be able to share Youtube links with family and friends of your child "in action". Conveniently, anyone who makes a website about her and tries to contact her you can direct to police, therefore outing any untoward behavior.
If you REALLY succeed well enough, the merchandising and socialite earnings will cover their college costs.
This is my favorite idea too. I don't usually go for the "whatever has been donated in your name" things but this one, let's face it, whatever you do with drives you give to them is probably a one-off use. USB drives have become a bit of disposable commodity. However kids' education? That's forever. Totally in spirit of the season too.
The only question is, if this is the ultimate, how to top it next year?
Take THEIR recommendations over some of the harmful ones here.
Most people don't want (IE, fear) radical changes in their lives much less addicts.
That's why addicts usually don't turn around until they've hit their bottom.
The bottom is different for everyone.
Failing one semester might not be enough, dropping out might not be enough, not being able to keep a McJob might not be enough, not being able to afford even sharing housing might not be enough, getting kicked out of his parents house and not having electricity to play might be the wake up call--or he might find alternatives to fill the "hole" in his life and seek a different bottom.
You would be a great friend to help him now, but the way to do that is with proven expert procedures, imo and experience.
Good luck! HTH, or rather hope both that this helps AND you can help.
Aside from those movies where seeing the trailer WAS seeing the movie (THOSE are the worst--I paid for this? I already saw the only good parts in the TV commercials...)
Trailers are like short skirts on hookers, just there to attract your attention, you don't find out how she'll screw you until after you've spent your money.
This movie is one I want to experience again, short skirts and all.
Unlike the other replies to this comment, if he wasn't chased into the cave, how would you feel about him randomly stumbling across elder Spock??
How would you set that up?
That would have felt totally hackneyed in a more random setup than how it happened. The fact that you wonder about why he was chased by hungry predators rather than wondering at the totally improbable odds of coming across Spock is a testament to how well planned and executed that was imo!
I avoid anyone dipping their fingers into my accounts and mucking things up.
Back when direct deposit was starting to become more common, a former girlfriend was paid that way and found her checking account overdrawn when they made an adjustment. (And no, they wouldn't cover the overdraft fees.)
Now sure, she shouldn't have relied on her balance statement alone, and nowadays some of us create separate accounts for those things, but it's much more of a hassle to try to track and keep accurate records and shift funds between all those accounts.
I can remember only needed a savings and checking account. Now I have those, a paypal account, another checking account to manage the paypal account, I had another account back when you could profit from poker online...(and the funds needed in each of those accounts not earning interest like they would in savings).
Some colleagues recently informed us that they use Twitter to track whether or not people feel earthquakes.
Oh interesting, just the other day on the Science Channel's "Weird Connections" show, an earthquake researcher (Jim Berkland apparently) talked about how he correlated increased missing pets with impending 'quakes by checking lost pet ads in the newspaper (which nearly doubled according to the data in "The man who predicts Earthquakes" starting on pg. 39).
Since searches can also be refined by area, I imagine it would be easy to monitor regularly for a sudden increase and heck, a bot could then "Tweet" a warning!
Probably the easiest, least expensive, most accurate earthquake predictor imaginable.
I read many responses, but have a slightly different perspective...
Right now your startup seems like your future. However the majority fail ultimately. Even if it succeeds, you probably are the personality type who will get bored and want to start the next big project instead of nurturing the old.
There are people who focus on startups. Spending a few years growing a startup into something "real" then moving on to the next interesting project.
The intent of the Megacorp is probably different than your intentions, even if they SAY they want to grow it and make it successful (as others have pointed out).
The smartest business decision is to take whichever route provides the greatest guaranteed profits. Therefore, sell, agree to aid the transition, then escape to invest your talents/enthusiasm/drive into your next big idea. While at megacorp, LEARN.
Nothing in your life teaches you more than starting your own company. Second to that is seeing how other companies do business (or fail to do business).
Whatever you do, don't accept an unrealistically long non-compete.
If you look back on this twenty years and five companies later (four failures and one success) you will laugh that you thought it was a difficult decision.
My reference for this is having a father who worked at Dunn & Bradstreet decades ago, my own experience observing a small company's failure, learning from their mistakes and starting my own company, working for other companies, and now effectively "retired" with property investments (akin to having my own moderately successful company I suppose, but a lot less work).
imo, if you were so driven with your own company--you wouldn't be asking this question or seriously be considering it. If you wanted the megacorp job, you'd also already have jumped.
Instead, realize that starting companies is a transitory occupation, handle selling this one, put that on your resume as a success and move on to start the next cool project!
PS: If you are Twitter.com, ignore everything I just said.
Wowzers! I clicked the link and bang, there was the page. It's nice to have a page load in less time on AT&T U-Verse now than back in dialup days. Isn't it weird how we have these amazingly fast connections now but it takes pages longer to load?
I'm a web user rather than designer, and have never heard of this guy, but I'm glad you define him as a "guru"...I wish more adopted his example.
I immediate found the search without scrolling (I often just bail on websites without a search).
There was an obvious separation between categories of info, both by physical and graphic methods.
There was actual provided content with section titles, so I was able to very quickly find info without trying to discern it through various distractions.
I bet it would work great on my phone too.
Speaking of which, sadly it didn't take off, but one trick to a far better web experience was using the mobile version of websites! Much more usable: faster, content without spurious distractions... I wish every website had an m.- alternative to www.-
Isn't it horrifying that often I will reach for my phone to access the web when I'm sitting in front of my computer with an open web browser?
The answer is simple. Break the camera device. It won't break your computer or portable. . it will break the camera.
Make it so it is obvious when you point it out.
The posted signage here at the courthouse specifically says that broken/damaged cameras are not permitted either. So doesn't matter how much you point it out, the statute prohibits bringing it in. (Which makes sense, it's easy to make something appear disabled yet enable it later inside.)
However authorized people who work there are permitted to have phones/devices with cameras.
What do coworkers do? I'm sure there is some procedure even at the Federal level. Check with security?
I would imagine it would be easier to get authorized than find alternatives.
Having options and choice in the marketplace is rapidly diminishing sadly as technology moves "forward" and things have to conform more. The economic situation isn't helping maintain alternatives either.
It will be interesting in the future when blind people will see via artificial camera eyes that are capable of recording...
I used my phone tethered exclusively for over a year and was satisfied.
However I didn't do much with videos, just Second Life and streaming music there and the like.
Download rates from DSLReports ran about 750 down at my tower (below average), if I drove down the highway I could get 1100 down from neighboring towers. I forget what the upload rate was, maybe 250ish?
SL daily plus music streams was tons of data, but I had Sprint's unlimited plan.
The only other issue was when it would reconnect, which happened fairly frequently and was only an interruption of a sec, but disrupted SL and would need a reload if a page was in the midst of loading. There were a couple outages impacting just my local tower, once for a week. However all outages still provided dialup speeds, only the EVDO was out.
It was possible to watch streaming video if you let half the video download first.
IMO the needs specified are greater than what EVDO will provide.
That wasn't as hard as pushng the drive's eject button!
(Since you asked, most common was having a friend help, alone it was left hand for the left keys and F-key, chin on the right two keys and right hand on the floppy drive... That was easier than trying to get a knee on the keyboard to hit the right keys.)
You had to hold five keys and first insert a disk then eject it again. (left control and shift, right control and shift, any function key--each key had a message but adding the disk offered the best...)
Upon insertion you saw on the Workbench 1.2 title bar, "We made the Amiga"
Upon removal: "They fucked it up"
1.3 removed the profanity/message and it ironically became "Born a champion", then "Still a champion".
Well first, it's an entertainment television show... The production team skills are in video production, not explosives or math or science. Don't get me wrong, I love Mythbusters, but as someone with a background in the video production industry, their production schedule and budget wouldn't encompass some of the things people have been assuming here.
That being said, they assuredly did make sure things were safe, there was a margin of error, and their insurance coverage was complete--said broken windows were replaced. If anything they seem too conservative to me, often limited in what they are permitted to do.
Which brings us to reality. When my local city was doing some blasting, they offered a free survey to cover any damage. From that company, I learned a funny technique that a blasting company had used before.
They announced blasting would be done in a neighborhood, but did NOT do it, instead, they did a test firing that wouldn't shake the ground but make a big "boom" then watched all the phone calls come in of people claiming the "blasting" shook their house and broke windows and caused wall cracks and all sorts of damage.
(I love that the chief had "several firefighters on hand", what do you want to bet that ALL the available firefighters of Esparto, with fewer than 2,000 people and 600 homes, were there to watch?)
Although I like some of the previous answers, another option would be to provide your own virtual world (Ã la' Second Life) or join with one of those starting up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSimulator
And it seems "AntiVandalBot" is the most controversial user. Oh wait...
Seriously, in years of casually editing Wikipedia on and off, I've never seen an edit war, but have helped revert vandalism often (in fact, just a moment ago on one of the pages I tested this tool with). Many edits happen on those pages daily.
I've long thought the most useful page isn't the most recent, but the most durable...
Slashdot Mirror
I had a similar situation when in college, as I had a van... ...So, what I did was to charge a nominal fee that benefited me...
The only liability to this is, well, liability.
Certainly more true for a van than a laptop, but now that they are compensating you for the service, you have a contractual obligation and enforceable verbal contract with terms determined by the statutes of your state.
In high school a friend asked to pay me to drive her friends to a function--I made it clear beforehand it was my gift to her and refused payment.
If anything goes wrong, you now have a legal responsibility to them, probably much greater than a lunch or beer.
Accepting a token of appreciation is great (and you'll learn more about people's characters if they voluntarily show their thanks, or not, as compared to demanding it of everyone) just don't ASK for one which puts you on the hook.
Of course, if you want to discourage the practice, just charge and make them read and accept all the EULA's as well as one of your own absolving you of any responsibility.
Really, a school that handles children on the wrong bus regularly is MUCH better than one who doesn't have systems in place for dealing with an unpreventable (if rare) occurrence.
I want my kid to learn what to do when things don't go right.
Since everyone has already provided the various "child locator" links that are easily Googled, here's my high tech AND trendy alternative that will not result in a socially alienated child unit.
Start a Twitter account for your child, like the one of the cat with half a million followers, make it SO popular people will send out "Tweets" whenever they see your child.
Setup a search for @yourchild'sname
You then can receive SMS messages, RSS feed, emails, whatever, whenever your child is someplace new (since people who regularly see your kid won't care enough to bother to say so).
If you succeed well enough in this plan, your child will shortly be followed by a group of paparazzi photographing their every move! If your child is a daughter, you'll even know when she "forgets" to wear her underwear. You'll be able to share Youtube links with family and friends of your child "in action". Conveniently, anyone who makes a website about her and tries to contact her you can direct to police, therefore outing any untoward behavior.
If you REALLY succeed well enough, the merchandising and socialite earnings will cover their college costs.
...due to the personal information, such as email
...due to the personal information, such as location
(fixed that...)
This is my favorite idea too. I don't usually go for the "whatever has been donated in your name" things but this one, let's face it, whatever you do with drives you give to them is probably a one-off use. USB drives have become a bit of disposable commodity. However kids' education? That's forever. Totally in spirit of the season too.
The only question is, if this is the ultimate, how to top it next year?
Take THEIR recommendations over some of the harmful ones here.
Most people don't want (IE, fear) radical changes in their lives much less addicts.
That's why addicts usually don't turn around until they've hit their bottom.
The bottom is different for everyone.
Failing one semester might not be enough, dropping out might not be enough, not being able to keep a McJob might not be enough, not being able to afford even sharing housing might not be enough, getting kicked out of his parents house and not having electricity to play might be the wake up call--or he might find alternatives to fill the "hole" in his life and seek a different bottom.
You would be a great friend to help him now, but the way to do that is with proven expert procedures, imo and experience.
Good luck! HTH, or rather hope both that this helps AND you can help.
Trailers are to movies as Twitter is to novels.
Aside from those movies where seeing the trailer WAS seeing the movie (THOSE are the worst--I paid for this? I already saw the only good parts in the TV commercials...)
Trailers are like short skirts on hookers, just there to attract your attention, you don't find out how she'll screw you until after you've spent your money.
This movie is one I want to experience again, short skirts and all.
Unlike the other replies to this comment, if he wasn't chased into the cave, how would you feel about him randomly stumbling across elder Spock??
How would you set that up?
That would have felt totally hackneyed in a more random setup than how it happened. The fact that you wonder about why he was chased by hungry predators rather than wondering at the totally improbable odds of coming across Spock is a testament to how well planned and executed that was imo!
I avoid anyone dipping their fingers into my accounts and mucking things up.
Back when direct deposit was starting to become more common, a former girlfriend was paid that way and found her checking account overdrawn when they made an adjustment. (And no, they wouldn't cover the overdraft fees.)
Now sure, she shouldn't have relied on her balance statement alone, and nowadays some of us create separate accounts for those things, but it's much more of a hassle to try to track and keep accurate records and shift funds between all those accounts.
I can remember only needed a savings and checking account. Now I have those, a paypal account, another checking account to manage the paypal account, I had another account back when you could profit from poker online...(and the funds needed in each of those accounts not earning interest like they would in savings).
Some colleagues recently informed us that they use Twitter to track whether or not people feel earthquakes.
Oh interesting, just the other day on the Science Channel's "Weird Connections" show, an earthquake researcher (Jim Berkland apparently) talked about how he correlated increased missing pets with impending 'quakes by checking lost pet ads in the newspaper (which nearly doubled according to the data in "The man who predicts Earthquakes" starting on pg. 39).
Here is a search of Twitter messages since 5/12/09 of missing dogs or cats.
Since searches can also be refined by area, I imagine it would be easy to monitor regularly for a sudden increase and heck, a bot could then "Tweet" a warning!
Probably the easiest, least expensive, most accurate earthquake predictor imaginable.
I read many responses, but have a slightly different perspective...
Right now your startup seems like your future. However the majority fail ultimately. Even if it succeeds, you probably are the personality type who will get bored and want to start the next big project instead of nurturing the old.
There are people who focus on startups. Spending a few years growing a startup into something "real" then moving on to the next interesting project.
The intent of the Megacorp is probably different than your intentions, even if they SAY they want to grow it and make it successful (as others have pointed out).
The smartest business decision is to take whichever route provides the greatest guaranteed profits. Therefore, sell, agree to aid the transition, then escape to invest your talents/enthusiasm/drive into your next big idea. While at megacorp, LEARN.
Nothing in your life teaches you more than starting your own company. Second to that is seeing how other companies do business (or fail to do business).
Whatever you do, don't accept an unrealistically long non-compete.
If you look back on this twenty years and five companies later (four failures and one success) you will laugh that you thought it was a difficult decision.
My reference for this is having a father who worked at Dunn & Bradstreet decades ago, my own experience observing a small company's failure, learning from their mistakes and starting my own company, working for other companies, and now effectively "retired" with property investments (akin to having my own moderately successful company I suppose, but a lot less work).
imo, if you were so driven with your own company--you wouldn't be asking this question or seriously be considering it. If you wanted the megacorp job, you'd also already have jumped.
Instead, realize that starting companies is a transitory occupation, handle selling this one, put that on your resume as a success and move on to start the next cool project!
PS: If you are Twitter.com, ignore everything I just said.
Wowzers! I clicked the link and bang, there was the page. It's nice to have a page load in less time on AT&T U-Verse now than back in dialup days. Isn't it weird how we have these amazingly fast connections now but it takes pages longer to load?
I'm a web user rather than designer, and have never heard of this guy, but I'm glad you define him as a "guru"...I wish more adopted his example.
I immediate found the search without scrolling (I often just bail on websites without a search).
There was an obvious separation between categories of info, both by physical and graphic methods.
There was actual provided content with section titles, so I was able to very quickly find info without trying to discern it through various distractions.
I bet it would work great on my phone too.
Speaking of which, sadly it didn't take off, but one trick to a far better web experience was using the mobile version of websites! Much more usable: faster, content without spurious distractions... I wish every website had an m.- alternative to www.-
Isn't it horrifying that often I will reach for my phone to access the web when I'm sitting in front of my computer with an open web browser?
The answer is simple. Break the camera device. It won't break your computer or portable. . it will break the camera.
Make it so it is obvious when you point it out.
The posted signage here at the courthouse specifically says that broken/damaged cameras are not permitted either. So doesn't matter how much you point it out, the statute prohibits bringing it in. (Which makes sense, it's easy to make something appear disabled yet enable it later inside.)
However authorized people who work there are permitted to have phones/devices with cameras.
What do coworkers do? I'm sure there is some procedure even at the Federal level. Check with security?
I would imagine it would be easier to get authorized than find alternatives.
Having options and choice in the marketplace is rapidly diminishing sadly as technology moves "forward" and things have to conform more. The economic situation isn't helping maintain alternatives either.
It will be interesting in the future when blind people will see via artificial camera eyes that are capable of recording...
I used my phone tethered exclusively for over a year and was satisfied.
However I didn't do much with videos, just Second Life and streaming music there and the like.
Download rates from DSLReports ran about 750 down at my tower (below average), if I drove down the highway I could get 1100 down from neighboring towers. I forget what the upload rate was, maybe 250ish?
SL daily plus music streams was tons of data, but I had Sprint's unlimited plan.
The only other issue was when it would reconnect, which happened fairly frequently and was only an interruption of a sec, but disrupted SL and would need a reload if a page was in the midst of loading. There were a couple outages impacting just my local tower, once for a week. However all outages still provided dialup speeds, only the EVDO was out.
It was possible to watch streaming video if you let half the video download first.
IMO the needs specified are greater than what EVDO will provide.
How did you insert the disk? With your foot?
That wasn't as hard as pushng the drive's eject button!
(Since you asked, most common was having a friend help, alone it was left hand for the left keys and F-key, chin on the right two keys and right hand on the floppy drive... That was easier than trying to get a knee on the keyboard to hit the right keys.)
You had to hold five keys and first insert a disk then eject it again. (left control and shift, right control and shift, any function key--each key had a message but adding the disk offered the best...)
Upon insertion you saw on the Workbench 1.2 title bar, "We made the Amiga"
Upon removal: "They fucked it up"
1.3 removed the profanity/message and it ironically became "Born a champion", then "Still a champion".
I've been having a hard time getting CAPTCHA to work the first time.
And the secondtime . And the third time. And the fourth. And the....
I thought captchas were the new online gambling?
Well first, it's an entertainment television show... The production team skills are in video production, not explosives or math or science. Don't get me wrong, I love Mythbusters, but as someone with a background in the video production industry, their production schedule and budget wouldn't encompass some of the things people have been assuming here.
That being said, they assuredly did make sure things were safe, there was a margin of error, and their insurance coverage was complete--said broken windows were replaced. If anything they seem too conservative to me, often limited in what they are permitted to do.
Which brings us to reality. When my local city was doing some blasting, they offered a free survey to cover any damage. From that company, I learned a funny technique that a blasting company had used before.
They announced blasting would be done in a neighborhood, but did NOT do it, instead, they did a test firing that wouldn't shake the ground but make a big "boom" then watched all the phone calls come in of people claiming the "blasting" shook their house and broke windows and caused wall cracks and all sorts of damage.
(I love that the chief had "several firefighters on hand", what do you want to bet that ALL the available firefighters of Esparto, with fewer than 2,000 people and 600 homes, were there to watch?)
Things like having certain people's calls go through without the Call Presentation thing.
You can do that! It's configurable by groups.
It seems they are transitioning GrandCentral users first? In the future there's an expectation of being able to offer invites à la original gmail.
However, availability of numbers in areas you want might be limited still?
I have a local friend who signed up about a week before the Google Voice transition announcement who hasn't heard back either.
And apparently they can't do math, wouldn't July 22nd have made more sense: 22/7? (Not that school would be in regular session then either I know....)
I'm not sure what 0.2142857 or 4.666667 has to do with Pi?
Ooo, yes, and let us revert "vandalism"? ;-)
... my guess is that flash penetration... ...since youtube...
Um, "flash penetration", don't you mean youporn?
(Which would also explain the percentage, since the Internet is for...)
Although I like some of the previous answers, another option would be to provide your own virtual world (Ã la' Second Life) or join with one of those starting up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSimulator
ROT 26 is so six months ago, go with next year's ROT 52!
And it seems "AntiVandalBot" is the most controversial user. Oh wait...
Seriously, in years of casually editing Wikipedia on and off, I've never seen an edit war, but have helped revert vandalism often (in fact, just a moment ago on one of the pages I tested this tool with). Many edits happen on those pages daily.
I've long thought the most useful page isn't the most recent, but the most durable...