They have little handheld computers that swipe the credit card so its fairly quick but more often than not there were issues where people:
A) Didn't have their ID immediately accessable
B) Credit Card didn't swipe
C) Too drunk to get their wallet open
D) Too dumb to accomplish any of the above.
I've seen I.M. live before so I knew what was getting, I have been waiting 10 years for Dream Theater however and was rightfully pissed when the first song I heard was concluded with "Thank you everyone!"
I went to Iron Maiden last week. I showed up with my friends roughly 15 minutes before the opening act (Dream Theater) was scheduled to hit the stage. I got in on their second last song.
Fuck paperless, I have sworn off any concert that uses them from here on out because of that experience. And no, it isn't reasonable to require everyone to show up 1 hour before the show just so they can get inside in time to see the opening act
I agree, I mean in order for them to take you to court they need (apparently) a picture of your IP downloading the file. If they get caught fabricating these lists then it'll be lights-out for this blackmail system.
Obviously (if tests prove successful) BP will be buying this stuff by the boat-load. By successfully separating the oil to a (most likely) usable state they can recoup all that oil they lost into that darned ocean.
But for those of us who prefer running, certain sports, etc. "Workboots" just don't cut it. My last pair of shoes were some simple DC skater-style shoes. They lasted me two years until I wore the sole down so far it burned a hole through the bottom. I went to buy another pair of DC because they were so good to me but I sadly found that my local store didn't have any leather ones anymore. Only synthetics and the sole on the new shoe was thinner than some parts of my two year old shoes...
You're right saying consumerism is a part of the problem but the solution isn't "HEY EVERYONE BUY x PRODUCT"
[...] I have to say that if you put as much effort into real life as you do into gaming, you would get far greater rewards.
I actually disagree with this point. The reason why certain aspects of MMORPGs are so addictive is because of the link between effort and reward. In WoW if you spend x amount of time performing your profession you WILL get to 450/450. People see the link between how much time they spend doing something and the reward that comes from it: something that is not guaranteed in life.
For example, no matter how much time I try I doubt I'll ever become a professional sports player. I've played soccer for probably 17 years of my life and have won medals on a provincial level. But no matter how hard I will not make it professionally. I have had numerous ankle injuries (breaks and multiple sprains) as well as acute asthma that prevent me from becoming a hardcore sprinter. Here, I could put 5 years of effort into practice and training but I'll bet you $50 that I'll still be in the same place I am now, if not slightly further ahead. Here the link between effort and reward is broken as a simple reality comes into play that some don't find out until their 30's... just because mommy told you that "you can do whatever you want in life" it doesn't make it true.
This site is directed mostly at UK people being attacked by a very similar business model. Although not 100% relevant I'm sure it has plenty of information on there for anyone who's received a letter or simply wants to read some legal rights they may (or may not) have.
By the time people are 19 or 20 their personalities for the remainder of their lives are pretty much set. It takes some catastrophic event to change it (and rarely occurs). So yes, you're right. He was a douche all along: he just needed a reason to be extroverted about it. That reason happened to be fame and money.
I had a sore back and sore throat and went to the local 24hr clinic. They told me I pulled a muscle and that I had a lymph node infection. After taking the medication I broke out in a red polka-dot rash head-to-toe knowing full well I was not allergic to Amoxicillin (bleh spelling). So i booked an appointment with my doctor and he giggled after looking at my rash. Turns out I had mono and the "back pain" was my swollen appendix. The anti-infection medication caused the rash as it occurs when you have mono. He told me a short story about how when he worked in Africa they used it to diagnose mono because of the lack of clean needles for drug tests.
Rambling aside: 24hr doc could have killed me (Potential appendix burst since I was/am very active in rough sports like Krav Maga/Paintball) but my Doctor actually cared enough to look into things and get the right tests done.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you are North American correct? Doesn't the government provide all secondary education with a certain percentage of taxes every year? This money is used by the universities/colleges to keep tuition lower than if students had to take on the full costs themselves. So yes, you didn't get any money from the government directly but you still collected your pennies.
Again, please correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the assumption that is how it worked in USA as it does in Canada.
I'm in the same boat as you fellow Captain. I find however that the issue is employers seeming to THINK that Highschool isn't enough when it really is. Browsing the job market I see 75% of jobs requesting bachelors (of anything) or greater can be accomplished by two weeks of in-house training and a grade 10 education. The problem isn't that we have too many degrees saturating the market, its that every employer feels their entitled to request only those qualifications for their position when not required.
"Myth was a Scene group which ceased to exist after it was targeted in the FBI “Operation Site Down”" -Source
I personally believe Rockstar understood the logo was in the exe and left it there on purpose as sort of a "suck it pirates" attitude knowing there's nothing the pirate group could do about it.
C is historic, and not something I think anyone should want to ever use (why use an abacus when you have a calculator).
That made me chuckle a little bit because I'm also a student (Software Engineering) and right after learning some fundamentals of C++ they started ramming Assembly down our throats. By the time I got to a third year project programming a microprocessor in Assembly I'd punch a baby to be able to code in C.
Now I understand what you're TRYING to say but the reality is that unless you can get a grasp of a low level language before they push you into Java/C++ then you'll never have a "complete" understanding of the architecture you're coding for.
@#2 I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not but in the case of a 911 emergency cellular phones without a SIM or account are still capable of dialing out. (At least phone's I'm aware of can). Basically if you're stranded somewhere without a land-line and your account is frozen you can still dial 911 and it will go through. You can't dial other numbers however. Also a thing to note is that your phone will be more aggressive when fetching a signal. I've been able to get a 911 connection when my phone reported "no service". On top of that if you're not a preferred carrier (your carrier rents towers from a larger corporation) you sometimes will not be able to call out if the towers are 'occupied', but with 911 it forces your connectivity.
In reality my favorite games (of AWLLLL TIEEMMMM) are Half-life, Starcraft, Chrono Trigger and Final fantasy III (For SNES, its like FFVI or something)... in no particular order. Sure Half-Life & Starcraft may be comparably "simple" but they are extremely complex when you consider the plot, story, balance, and fluid game-play they provide (something that many modern games fail to achieve). Now I want ONE person out here to tell me that Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy are "Simple".
The challenge isn't simpler games, its making new games that don't completely fail in one of the fundamental sectors of decent gaming. You can have a game with great plot and story but if you can't play it worth a damn it will suck. You can have a very fluid game with great story (Halo 1) but if it lacks modern twists (Multiplayer online) then it doesn't fair up.
You know, there's a point where you have to step back and realize that you're a minority (by a long shot) and when you are on your own little unique land its *typically* not everyone else that's wrong.
I think you're all missing the point. The path the GP poster made was not necessarily to Best buy or whoever but to Sony. There's two scenarios:
1) You call the 1-800 Sony line and get Prakesh on the other line. For all you know he sympothizes with you but is powerless to do anything. He can't give you back Other OS, he can maybe apologize and bring it to management who proceeds to ROFL (yes, on the floor) and then scrap your complaint.
2) You take your purchase back to Best Buy: under law they are forced to return your price and then duke it out against Sony about the return charge.
Who do you think Sony listens to? Joe, who is upset with their firmware on the line, or Best Buy USA whose upper management is yelling at you because they got a surplus of PS3s that they've been forced to refund because of your shit decision?
I think you got me all wrong buddy. I'm not condoning the actions of corrupt police officers. Like I said, I honestly believe that they should be held to even STRICTER standards than regular civilians because if the cops go bad then who's the median?
I'm not trying to defend their actions I'm just saying that it isn't as black and white as you are attempting to make it. They're PEOPLE and there's more depth to their actions than good cop/bad cop. The investigations aren't simply guilty/innocent either because conviction requires evidence, evidence quite often is from witnesses. And more often than not the key witnesses are the officer's patrol partner who may or may not be involved with the situation. The investigators have to weed out the truth from the lies and decide who is at fault.
For every bad cop you hear about there's probably three or more good ones out there who take their job seriously and save people from dangerous situations or go above their duty to assist people.
Just to reiterate my standing: I agree with your views. If you can't handle the stress its YOUR DUTY to resign from the force before it effects the people you swore to assist. As an officer of the law you are required to abide by its rules as well.
Besides you're fooling yourself to think that civilians don't get 'get out of jail free cards' either. I'm speaking directly from decades of experience with officers from all ends of the force while as far as I can tell you're speaking directly from a view-point of offended citizen whose evidence is the 6pm news.
Unfortunately there's a lot of people (officers) out there who hold friendships higher then their sworn duty.
Translation: There are a lot of dirty cops.
Thanks for clearing that up for us.
I'm sorry if it's HARD to do your job, but then you shouldn't take the fucking job--especially when that job is a sworn duty essential to the proper functioning of civilization.
And I'm sure you'd have an extremely easy time making a decision to prosecute someone who you may have known for 20 years or more. Or maybe your spouse was involved in some illicit activities.
Its nice to make it sound like issues in real life are black an white but they really aren't. Conflict of interest is a very real problem in any career and a lot of people aren't capable of rising above. It doesn't necessarily make them bad people.
I'm not saying you're wrong; police officers really sort of are our last line of regulation but they're just as human as you or I. I don't condone the actions of any dirty cops, they probably should be punished a lot more severely than a civilian doing the same crime to attempt to discourage it.
Just remember, its easy to judge someone's actions when looking at them from afar, but people have their breaking point; and that point can be pretty small for some. Spend a decade or two of YOUR life dealing with the bottom end of society and come back telling me that you haven't once wanted to bend a rule to help a person in need, or punch the crap out of some racist/child molester/rapist/mother who just spent welfare for her 3 kids on drugs.... because it only takes one time to be labeled a dirty cop. You could have years of merit and gold stars on your record but I'm sure the media (and society) is willing to oversee that to put another cop's head on a pole.
Coming from a person who is the offspring of two RCMP members and (currently) dating the daughter of another police officer I can tell you that its not as cut and dry as that. Internal investigations are not simple when there's clics inside of the departments you're investigating. Unfortunately there's a lot of people (officers) out there who hold friendships higher then their sworn duty.
Slashdot Mirror
They have little handheld computers that swipe the credit card so its fairly quick but more often than not there were issues where people:
A) Didn't have their ID immediately accessable
B) Credit Card didn't swipe
C) Too drunk to get their wallet open
D) Too dumb to accomplish any of the above.
I've seen I.M. live before so I knew what was getting, I have been waiting 10 years for Dream Theater however and was rightfully pissed when the first song I heard was concluded with "Thank you everyone!"
"and to banish long will-call lines"
Bullfuckingshit
I went to Iron Maiden last week. I showed up with my friends roughly 15 minutes before the opening act (Dream Theater) was scheduled to hit the stage. I got in on their second last song.
Fuck paperless, I have sworn off any concert that uses them from here on out because of that experience. And no, it isn't reasonable to require everyone to show up 1 hour before the show just so they can get inside in time to see the opening act
--Flash video of a Yahoo! Answers question.
I agree, I mean in order for them to take you to court they need (apparently) a picture of your IP downloading the file. If they get caught fabricating these lists then it'll be lights-out for this blackmail system.
Obviously (if tests prove successful) BP will be buying this stuff by the boat-load. By successfully separating the oil to a (most likely) usable state they can recoup all that oil they lost into that darned ocean.
That damned water is contaminating our profits!
But for those of us who prefer running, certain sports, etc. "Workboots" just don't cut it. My last pair of shoes were some simple DC skater-style shoes. They lasted me two years until I wore the sole down so far it burned a hole through the bottom. I went to buy another pair of DC because they were so good to me but I sadly found that my local store didn't have any leather ones anymore. Only synthetics and the sole on the new shoe was thinner than some parts of my two year old shoes...
You're right saying consumerism is a part of the problem but the solution isn't "HEY EVERYONE BUY x PRODUCT"
[...] I have to say that if you put as much effort into real life as you do into gaming, you would get far greater rewards.
I actually disagree with this point. The reason why certain aspects of MMORPGs are so addictive is because of the link between effort and reward. In WoW if you spend x amount of time performing your profession you WILL get to 450/450. People see the link between how much time they spend doing something and the reward that comes from it: something that is not guaranteed in life.
For example, no matter how much time I try I doubt I'll ever become a professional sports player. I've played soccer for probably 17 years of my life and have won medals on a provincial level. But no matter how hard I will not make it professionally. I have had numerous ankle injuries (breaks and multiple sprains) as well as acute asthma that prevent me from becoming a hardcore sprinter. Here, I could put 5 years of effort into practice and training but I'll bet you $50 that I'll still be in the same place I am now, if not slightly further ahead. Here the link between effort and reward is broken as a simple reality comes into play that some don't find out until their 30's... just because mommy told you that "you can do whatever you want in life" it doesn't make it true.
This site is directed mostly at UK people being attacked by a very similar business model. Although not 100% relevant I'm sure it has plenty of information on there for anyone who's received a letter or simply wants to read some legal rights they may (or may not) have.
We must protect this house.
What I find more interesting is:
"Number of traffic sources in the room: 21"
Maybe I can't comprehend this properly but 22 AIM > 21 sources?
By the time people are 19 or 20 their personalities for the remainder of their lives are pretty much set. It takes some catastrophic event to change it (and rarely occurs). So yes, you're right. He was a douche all along: he just needed a reason to be extroverted about it. That reason happened to be fame and money.
Once a douche always a douche.
I had a sore back and sore throat and went to the local 24hr clinic. They told me I pulled a muscle and that I had a lymph node infection. After taking the medication I broke out in a red polka-dot rash head-to-toe knowing full well I was not allergic to Amoxicillin (bleh spelling). So i booked an appointment with my doctor and he giggled after looking at my rash. Turns out I had mono and the "back pain" was my swollen appendix. The anti-infection medication caused the rash as it occurs when you have mono. He told me a short story about how when he worked in Africa they used it to diagnose mono because of the lack of clean needles for drug tests.
Rambling aside: 24hr doc could have killed me (Potential appendix burst since I was/am very active in rough sports like Krav Maga/Paintball) but my Doctor actually cared enough to look into things and get the right tests done.
Correct me if I'm wrong but you are North American correct? Doesn't the government provide all secondary education with a certain percentage of taxes every year? This money is used by the universities/colleges to keep tuition lower than if students had to take on the full costs themselves. So yes, you didn't get any money from the government directly but you still collected your pennies.
Again, please correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the assumption that is how it worked in USA as it does in Canada.
I'm in the same boat as you fellow Captain. I find however that the issue is employers seeming to THINK that Highschool isn't enough when it really is. Browsing the job market I see 75% of jobs requesting bachelors (of anything) or greater can be accomplished by two weeks of in-house training and a grade 10 education. The problem isn't that we have too many degrees saturating the market, its that every employer feels their entitled to request only those qualifications for their position when not required.
If Munroe is a troll then follow the rules. Stop feeding the Troll. He'll keep doing it as long as you* keep reacting.
*I say "you" not as a personal attack but meaning a generic finger-point to everyone getting up in a fluff over this.
"Myth was a Scene group which ceased to exist after it was targeted in the FBI “Operation Site Down”" -Source
I personally believe Rockstar understood the logo was in the exe and left it there on purpose as sort of a "suck it pirates" attitude knowing there's nothing the pirate group could do about it.
C is historic, and not something I think anyone should want to ever use (why use an abacus when you have a calculator).
That made me chuckle a little bit because I'm also a student (Software Engineering) and right after learning some fundamentals of C++ they started ramming Assembly down our throats. By the time I got to a third year project programming a microprocessor in Assembly I'd punch a baby to be able to code in C.
Now I understand what you're TRYING to say but the reality is that unless you can get a grasp of a low level language before they push you into Java/C++ then you'll never have a "complete" understanding of the architecture you're coding for.
With all the Canadian "angry letters" I'm sure there has to be a paper-cut in there somewhere. Bury them in paper, that's how the canucks get violent.
@#2 I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not but in the case of a 911 emergency cellular phones without a SIM or account are still capable of dialing out. (At least phone's I'm aware of can). Basically if you're stranded somewhere without a land-line and your account is frozen you can still dial 911 and it will go through. You can't dial other numbers however. Also a thing to note is that your phone will be more aggressive when fetching a signal. I've been able to get a 911 connection when my phone reported "no service". On top of that if you're not a preferred carrier (your carrier rents towers from a larger corporation) you sometimes will not be able to call out if the towers are 'occupied', but with 911 it forces your connectivity.
In reality my favorite games (of AWLLLL TIEEMMMM) are Half-life, Starcraft, Chrono Trigger and Final fantasy III (For SNES, its like FFVI or something)... in no particular order. Sure Half-Life & Starcraft may be comparably "simple" but they are extremely complex when you consider the plot, story, balance, and fluid game-play they provide (something that many modern games fail to achieve). Now I want ONE person out here to tell me that Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy are "Simple".
The challenge isn't simpler games, its making new games that don't completely fail in one of the fundamental sectors of decent gaming. You can have a game with great plot and story but if you can't play it worth a damn it will suck. You can have a very fluid game with great story (Halo 1) but if it lacks modern twists (Multiplayer online) then it doesn't fair up.
You know, there's a point where you have to step back and realize that you're a minority (by a long shot) and when you are on your own little unique land its *typically* not everyone else that's wrong.
I think you're all missing the point. The path the GP poster made was not necessarily to Best buy or whoever but to Sony. There's two scenarios:
1) You call the 1-800 Sony line and get Prakesh on the other line. For all you know he sympothizes with you but is powerless to do anything. He can't give you back Other OS, he can maybe apologize and bring it to management who proceeds to ROFL (yes, on the floor) and then scrap your complaint.
2) You take your purchase back to Best Buy: under law they are forced to return your price and then duke it out against Sony about the return charge.
Who do you think Sony listens to? Joe, who is upset with their firmware on the line, or Best Buy USA whose upper management is yelling at you because they got a surplus of PS3s that they've been forced to refund because of your shit decision?
I think you got me all wrong buddy. I'm not condoning the actions of corrupt police officers. Like I said, I honestly believe that they should be held to even STRICTER standards than regular civilians because if the cops go bad then who's the median?
I'm not trying to defend their actions I'm just saying that it isn't as black and white as you are attempting to make it. They're PEOPLE and there's more depth to their actions than good cop/bad cop. The investigations aren't simply guilty/innocent either because conviction requires evidence, evidence quite often is from witnesses. And more often than not the key witnesses are the officer's patrol partner who may or may not be involved with the situation. The investigators have to weed out the truth from the lies and decide who is at fault.
For every bad cop you hear about there's probably three or more good ones out there who take their job seriously and save people from dangerous situations or go above their duty to assist people.
Just to reiterate my standing: I agree with your views. If you can't handle the stress its YOUR DUTY to resign from the force before it effects the people you swore to assist. As an officer of the law you are required to abide by its rules as well.
Besides you're fooling yourself to think that civilians don't get 'get out of jail free cards' either. I'm speaking directly from decades of experience with officers from all ends of the force while as far as I can tell you're speaking directly from a view-point of offended citizen whose evidence is the 6pm news.
Unfortunately there's a lot of people (officers) out there who hold friendships higher then their sworn duty.
Translation: There are a lot of dirty cops.
Thanks for clearing that up for us.
I'm sorry if it's HARD to do your job, but then you shouldn't take the fucking job--especially when that job is a sworn duty essential to the proper functioning of civilization.
And I'm sure you'd have an extremely easy time making a decision to prosecute someone who you may have known for 20 years or more. Or maybe your spouse was involved in some illicit activities.
Its nice to make it sound like issues in real life are black an white but they really aren't. Conflict of interest is a very real problem in any career and a lot of people aren't capable of rising above. It doesn't necessarily make them bad people.
I'm not saying you're wrong; police officers really sort of are our last line of regulation but they're just as human as you or I. I don't condone the actions of any dirty cops, they probably should be punished a lot more severely than a civilian doing the same crime to attempt to discourage it.
Just remember, its easy to judge someone's actions when looking at them from afar, but people have their breaking point; and that point can be pretty small for some. Spend a decade or two of YOUR life dealing with the bottom end of society and come back telling me that you haven't once wanted to bend a rule to help a person in need, or punch the crap out of some racist/child molester/rapist/mother who just spent welfare for her 3 kids on drugs.... because it only takes one time to be labeled a dirty cop. You could have years of merit and gold stars on your record but I'm sure the media (and society) is willing to oversee that to put another cop's head on a pole.
Coming from a person who is the offspring of two RCMP members and (currently) dating the daughter of another police officer I can tell you that its not as cut and dry as that. Internal investigations are not simple when there's clics inside of the departments you're investigating. Unfortunately there's a lot of people (officers) out there who hold friendships higher then their sworn duty.