I had some people staying with me about 15 years ago and one of them must have called one of those free 'psychic' lines because a month later (after they had moved into their new house) I got a call from one of these people trying to get me to sign up for something and I hung up on them. Their supervisor called me right back and started to argue with me when I told him I hadn't called the number, and I told them, well, if you were really psychic you'd know that already!
That's a lot less polite than I would have put it, but essentially right. They don't need to target you specifically. They don't expect a 100% conversion. They don't expect anything like that, they just want slightly better then they are getting now. Advertisers work on statistics. Well, that and wishful thinking. Oh, and lies, can't forget the lies. Anyways, to get back on topic, for the reasons grandparent mentioned, they don't expect that high of a percentage of people to actually buy their product. They just expect a certain percentage to do so. If this is better than they were getting before, great (from their POV, not mine)! If it is worse, from being so badly targeted, it will go away. But in the end they really only expect to stay even if they do it, because so will their competition, but that's just the nature of business. Personally, I don't care what advertisements I see (for the most part) but more about how much of the show I'm actually trying to see is cut down to put them into it.
Years ago I lived in an apartment that used the large locked communal type box. The kind where each home has a different lock, but the mailman has one lock on his side. Well, it turns out they used one key for the mailman's side for the whole damn city and someone got a hold of that key. I had no idea my mail had been stolen until a month or so later the police dropped off a bunch of mail that they said they found when they raided some house and it became a big news story. I didn't have any problems with identity theft (and this was about 14 years ago), and they didn't even try to cash the check that was in there to pay my credit card. They just prevented it from getting there, and caused me to miss a payment, so I have no idea what they were looking for, and I never did find out what happened as a final result. So just because someone hasn't stolen the OP's mail yet, doesn't actually mean it is safe.
I tried to find out what "Indian methods of calculation" means but it mostly lead to pages in Japanese (and my Japanese is nearly worthless now) or to pages about psychic numbers and such. Care to give some info about what that method is actually about?
I can see you have a significant emotional connection to this thread. But people did write novels before copyright existed. And many of them were damn good. And people would continue to do so, as some people can't help themselves; there's a story in them and it fights to get out.
But I think the original poster wasn't so much talking about abolishing copyright, but more using it as a starting place to examine how much control (and for how long) such a monopoly should last. It used to be 28 years if you registered your copyright in this country, with an option to renew it for 28 more. It is far more than that now, without any need to register it (well, there are reasons to do so, but you don't have to register it I mean). Copyright is creeping up in duration every few years (every time Mickey Mouse is getting close, strange how that works, huh?) and we as a society need to decide if that is fair. How do we as society benefit from this unnatural control over ideas? I do think we benefit from the encouragement it offers, but I think we have gone too far and are now suffering for it.
Every author builds upon those who came before them. We are inspired by previous authors. We can not ignore the fact that our works are not created in a vacuum. Society has made such things possible, and therefore they grant us this unnatural control, in exchange for the rights to use the things we create freely at some point in the future. The natural state for the world would be a complete lack of copyright. If I tell you something, it is like allowing you to light a torch at my campfire. You may carry that torch away and light another campfire, all without my campfire getting any weaker (apologies to Thomas Jefferson).
I, too, am an unpublished author, and while I will probably never be more than I am (I am too harsh a critic to ever stop adjusting things here and there) I can still step back and see that copyright has gone too far.
I agree. If it was one person implying this, they may just be desperate, and/or feel betrayed that you are leaving. They shouldn't feel that way, but most people are just "talking beasts*." It is unlikely it is the company that is doing this, as there can be far too many legal repercussions to make this worth while most of the time. The company would be far more likely to offer you a raise and/or promotion to get you to stay, so this really makes it more likely it is just one person who thinks they need you at least until the end of a project or something is completed.
I don't know if you should stay any longer than the three weeks you gave them, but HR would probably be the right path to go rather than just dumping on the company (and your co-workers) just because of something one person did.
*By that I mean they are hardly self-aware and are not as far above other animals as they like to think.
Why is it I have mod points when everything good is already at +5, and everything stupid is already at -1, but when something good is at 1 or 2, I don't have mod points? Damn moderation system, why aren't you reading my mind? Slashdot has been around for how long now, and it still doesn't do that one little thing?
It looks it could be a good bit of viral marketing for a movie like Gremlins, or something like Planet of the Apes, etc. The About page explains the actual background pretty well.
I wish I had mod points for you. When people trust a system implicitly it is at least as bad as trusting a person implicitly. At least with a person they may have the character to not screw you. A systems has the morals of whoever is using it, and that changes with every user, legitimate or otherwise.
It seems if you had a backpack or something with the solar cells on it, and a connection (maybe inside in the backpack?) to plug into devices to recharge them it would make a lot more sense than having each device have the solar cells on it.
Depends on desire. If you just want a one night stand, you don't need intelligent, If you want long term you only get #2 (in a physical sense) for a while (baring plastic surgery), so you might as well go for 1 and 3 to start with (after you've had some of the others and understand the problems with not having 1 and 3).
Slashdot Mirror
I had some people staying with me about 15 years ago and one of them must have called one of those free 'psychic' lines because a month later (after they had moved into their new house) I got a call from one of these people trying to get me to sign up for something and I hung up on them. Their supervisor called me right back and started to argue with me when I told him I hadn't called the number, and I told them, well, if you were really psychic you'd know that already!
That's a lot less polite than I would have put it, but essentially right. They don't need to target you specifically. They don't expect a 100% conversion. They don't expect anything like that, they just want slightly better then they are getting now. Advertisers work on statistics. Well, that and wishful thinking. Oh, and lies, can't forget the lies. Anyways, to get back on topic, for the reasons grandparent mentioned, they don't expect that high of a percentage of people to actually buy their product. They just expect a certain percentage to do so. If this is better than they were getting before, great (from their POV, not mine)! If it is worse, from being so badly targeted, it will go away. But in the end they really only expect to stay even if they do it, because so will their competition, but that's just the nature of business. Personally, I don't care what advertisements I see (for the most part) but more about how much of the show I'm actually trying to see is cut down to put them into it.
Years ago I lived in an apartment that used the large locked communal type box. The kind where each home has a different lock, but the mailman has one lock on his side. Well, it turns out they used one key for the mailman's side for the whole damn city and someone got a hold of that key. I had no idea my mail had been stolen until a month or so later the police dropped off a bunch of mail that they said they found when they raided some house and it became a big news story. I didn't have any problems with identity theft (and this was about 14 years ago), and they didn't even try to cash the check that was in there to pay my credit card. They just prevented it from getting there, and caused me to miss a payment, so I have no idea what they were looking for, and I never did find out what happened as a final result. So just because someone hasn't stolen the OP's mail yet, doesn't actually mean it is safe.
Find who ordered that keyboard and I think you'll find out who the Flash is.
I tried to find out what "Indian methods of calculation" means but it mostly lead to pages in Japanese (and my Japanese is nearly worthless now) or to pages about psychic numbers and such. Care to give some info about what that method is actually about?
I can see you have a significant emotional connection to this thread. But people did write novels before copyright existed. And many of them were damn good. And people would continue to do so, as some people can't help themselves; there's a story in them and it fights to get out.
But I think the original poster wasn't so much talking about abolishing copyright, but more using it as a starting place to examine how much control (and for how long) such a monopoly should last. It used to be 28 years if you registered your copyright in this country, with an option to renew it for 28 more. It is far more than that now, without any need to register it (well, there are reasons to do so, but you don't have to register it I mean). Copyright is creeping up in duration every few years (every time Mickey Mouse is getting close, strange how that works, huh?) and we as a society need to decide if that is fair. How do we as society benefit from this unnatural control over ideas? I do think we benefit from the encouragement it offers, but I think we have gone too far and are now suffering for it.
Every author builds upon those who came before them. We are inspired by previous authors. We can not ignore the fact that our works are not created in a vacuum. Society has made such things possible, and therefore they grant us this unnatural control, in exchange for the rights to use the things we create freely at some point in the future. The natural state for the world would be a complete lack of copyright. If I tell you something, it is like allowing you to light a torch at my campfire. You may carry that torch away and light another campfire, all without my campfire getting any weaker (apologies to Thomas Jefferson).
I, too, am an unpublished author, and while I will probably never be more than I am (I am too harsh a critic to ever stop adjusting things here and there) I can still step back and see that copyright has gone too far.
Seriously. 11 pounds?!? I complain about my old laptop and it's only 7 or 8 pounds.
That sounds exactly like the plot of a movie about a guy like Al Capone. I wonder why? 8^)
I agree. If it was one person implying this, they may just be desperate, and/or feel betrayed that you are leaving. They shouldn't feel that way, but most people are just "talking beasts*." It is unlikely it is the company that is doing this, as there can be far too many legal repercussions to make this worth while most of the time. The company would be far more likely to offer you a raise and/or promotion to get you to stay, so this really makes it more likely it is just one person who thinks they need you at least until the end of a project or something is completed.
I don't know if you should stay any longer than the three weeks you gave them, but HR would probably be the right path to go rather than just dumping on the company (and your co-workers) just because of something one person did.
*By that I mean they are hardly self-aware and are not as far above other animals as they like to think.
And I hope they both win and lose just to spite people like me!
Why is it I have mod points when everything good is already at +5, and everything stupid is already at -1, but when something good is at 1 or 2, I don't have mod points? Damn moderation system, why aren't you reading my mind? Slashdot has been around for how long now, and it still doesn't do that one little thing?
Step 1: Build Mind reader
Step 2: Profit!
See how easy that was?
Um, check the authors again. He was correcting his own post, so I'd call him an authority on what he actually meant. LOL
Isn't that two steps really? One to fwd, and one to run a command?
Instead of adapting to the world she really did make the world adapt to her. That is actually pretty impressive.
You mean minty banana ass smell. Unfortunately, shit mixes with pretty much everything else (if it doesn't just overwhelm it).
It looks it could be a good bit of viral marketing for a movie like Gremlins, or something like Planet of the Apes, etc. The About page explains the actual background pretty well.
I've heard of pirates vs ninja, and even pirates vs lawyers, but I've never heard of ninja vs lawyers.
I wish I had mod points for you. When people trust a system implicitly it is at least as bad as trusting a person implicitly. At least with a person they may have the character to not screw you. A systems has the morals of whoever is using it, and that changes with every user, legitimate or otherwise.
Damn, how long did it take you to come up with that?
A solar sombrero?
It seems if you had a backpack or something with the solar cells on it, and a connection (maybe inside in the backpack?) to plug into devices to recharge them it would make a lot more sense than having each device have the solar cells on it.
LOL, who cares about worldy possessions? I'd rather still have all my manly bits intact when I trade her in.
Then who sent me the message to, "Kill the family"? Or was that, "Bill loves Emily"? Reception isn't too good some days.
I bet that's where they come up with the idea. Damn Swedish geeks. We don't need no spinners!
Depends on desire. If you just want a one night stand, you don't need intelligent, If you want long term you only get #2 (in a physical sense) for a while (baring plastic surgery), so you might as well go for 1 and 3 to start with (after you've had some of the others and understand the problems with not having 1 and 3).