It's always been an engineering rule of thumb: reducing the number of moving parts generally increases reliability and decreases maintenance. You may or may not be able to get as good a performance out of the end result, but at least there's less potential for random, fatigue-based breakage...
The reverse? *sigh* Landfills cringe at the thought...
To be fair, the jingle "i before e, except after c, or as in neighbor and weigh" does stop just shy of addressing words like weird, caffeine, and a few others I've forgotten at this time.
That's why I prefer "I before E except after C and where it doesn't":)
Yeah, spelling in english is a damned inconsistent nuisance, I most heartily agree...my sympathies and admiration are always with those who have mastered english as a second language. If I hadn't grown up speaking it, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have the patience to try to learn it from the outside in!
2 kids and they already cracked the glass on the ipad 2 fighting over it
So get them an etch a sketch until they demonstrate that they're old enough to respect their (or your) toys...or only let them use it while supervised by an adult.
Seriously, dude, buying another one (or two??) for them after they broke the first one? In the words of Great Big Sea, "I wanna be consequence free...". It's a nice philosophy for life, but a pretty irresponsible parenting model.
Here's the thing, they haven't released any details on the $299 version. If it is the exact same machine as the $499 version, you would be better off to buy it and get locked into the 2 years of Xbox Live at $10 per month. Why? simple math:
$499 + 2 * $55 per year for Xbox Live = $609 2 year cost of ownership
vs
$299 + 2 * $120 per year for Xbox Live = $539 2 year cost of ownership
I imagine the discounted one won't come with a Hard Drive, or a Kinect Sensor, or controller or something else to offset it. But all things being equal... it's a cheaper route to go.
You forgot option 3:
$499 + 2 * $0 (i.e., no XBox Live subscription) = $499 2-year cost of ownership.
I have never had a so-called 'gold' subscription, and haven't felt the least desire to get one. Any DLC I am interested in is still available for purchase without having to pay some sort of monthly M$ tax, and I simply have no hint of a wisp of a desire to game with people who aren't actually in the room with me on a second (or third or fourth) controller...FTF IRL always trumps PVP, in my opinion.
Like nobody's going to try their hand at hacking the thing? 15 days, no instructions, see you can make it connect somewhere else... sounds like a fun challenge to some.
Just had visions of CueCats in my head...no, these things never go pear shaped on them...
Well, just like XP brought standardized WiFi settings (I despised the hell that was Win2k WiFi, where every vendor had their own proprietary UI), Win7 brings things like better search (especially for programs in the start menu), SSD TRIM support, better security features, and 64bit.
Umm...no. Sorry, have to disagree with you there.
The search on Windows 7 was a huge step backwards for users who actually, you know, have an idea of what they're looking for but can't *quite* remember where it is. The clear and intuitive search interface of Windows XP (once you got rid of that annoying little dog) was replaced with...a text entry box. Filtering searches now involves trying to remember some byzantine, arbitrary keywords system instead of simply checking off a list of checkboxes or radio buttons and using some (almost) universally-known wildcards (*, ?).
Want to quickly switch between searching for filenames-only or filenames-plus-contents? No quick way to do this, sorry, you have to go into the folder properties, and even then you can't disable content searching for indexed locations (and don't even get me started on how the frigging indexing hogs my system resources...). It's also slow as a spavined mule, even in supposedly indexed locations, and even when you do (finally) have a results list, selecting to sort on a different column order resets and resubmits the entire frigging search!. Oh yeah, and sometimes it won't even find the file at all, even if I know it's in there. Doesn't seem to matter if it's indexed or not, I'll wait five minutes for it to show me a list of crap files that happen to have my search term somewhere in their metadata or contents, but not the one that has the search term in the actual filename...you know, the one I was actually looking for in the first place.
No. The search on Win7 is not better, it's an order of magnitude worse than on XP. For those who feel the same, FileSearchEX is worth the cost. I got it on sale for $10 a while back, but even at $20, I'd consider it worthwhile.
If the law says you can't wash your horse in your driveway on sundays, it may be a stupid law, but if the police find a wet horse in your driveway, you still broke it.
When you make $40K/year, have a mortgage payment, maybe a kid or two, car loans, maybe student loans, having to pay anywhere from $70/month or higher for slow broadband is not high on ones priority.
If that's your situation, then I don't think it is too unreasonable to suggest that you shouldn't be considering purchasing a next-gen console - or even a previous-gen console.
Better to have the kids playing GTA than living it...
The Microsoft vacuum cleaner, the first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
"Hello, this is the Microsoft Technical Support desk, I'm so sorry to hear you're having trouble with your new vacuum. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yes?
Okay, lets try removing all of the attachments...yes sir, including the bag...okay, now let's try unplugging the unit, counting to twenty, then plugging it back in...now let's reassemble the unit and try turning it back on. Still not functioning? And you already tried holding down the power button for five seconds with the rotor detached and while pushing the unit back and forth vigorously? You're sure the rotor was fully detached at the time?
I'm sorry to say it, sir, but it sounds like you may require a bigger bag and a faster motor to pick up the dirt you are describing. This model is really only suited for light dust pickup and cleaning up after short haired pets. Yes, I know the specifications said it could pick up moderate amounts of loose soil and longer hairs, but it can only do that occasionally, not full time, and this particular unit requires a full cleaning and refurbishing after each such use....I'm sorry you feel that way, sir.
Shall I put you in contact with our sales and upgrades department?"
Apparently he also managed to insult everyone who doesn't live in a major metropolitan area. SOMEONE has to live in Blacksburg Virginia!
A very telling point, however, is that there is a significant group of people who have little or no Internet access of any type: military personnel. Whether for security reasons or just being out on the nether end of nowhere. If they can't play without Internet, they'll find systems that can.
Not to mention families who bring their console to the cabin, or to grandmas house, or with them while RVing, etc. None of which is guaranteed to have any internet connection at all, much less a reliable one.
Granted, this probably happens a lot less now, with the proliferation of tablets and other small entertainment devices, than it used to when I was a kid...but it was great for rainy days at the lake.
Electronics manufacturers routinely use milli inch = 1/1000 of inch. I think kilo pound is also common to avoid inconsistent definitions of ton.
Not to be confused with the circular mil (cmil) which is actually a unit of area, and is typically used to indicate the cross-sectional area of conductors in a cable.
Essentially it's the area of a circle whose diameter equals one thousandth of an inch.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast...:o)
No, he got it correct - IMNAL is someone who has passed the bar, I'm Maybe Not ALawyer. This is just the usual attorney double-speak, but you're right a slightly more experienced lawyer would write IAAL; one in the business would write IANYL, but could be for the right price (prostitution). JIMHO.
Maybe he/she is just hopeful? as in "I Might Nail A Lawyer...if I hang out in this nightclub a bit longer" ? Just a bit of braggadocio, perhaps?:P
It could have been in an email: * State/gov authorities. * Insurance company. * Your doctor * Digital copy of payslip etc.
Do you not have access to your email via your phone?
Umm...if any company that I dealt with actually did this, I would be severing all relationships with them immediately and demanding that they remove my information from any and all databanks they use. They may actually have my SIN, as provided by me in person or via sealed snail mail when I contracted for their services, but that information should never, I repeat never be treated so casually.
No, I do not send or receive sensitive personal information such as my SIN via email. Nor do I scribble it in the dirt on my car windows...but to each their own, I suppose...
Rather than try to use technological stopgaps, this should be treated as a law enforcement issue. The purpose of these robocalls is to get people to pay money to the scammers running the operations. Follow the money, and you find the scammers. The FCC should get a surveillance warrant ahead of time, then call up pretending to be a normal customer interested in whatever product or service they're hawking, and pay with a traceable bank account. Find out where the money is going and you've got your perps.
I've always thought it would be interesting if people could request a fake CC number to use with these bastards. One that will appear to process correctly on their end, but will really trigger alerts and automatic backtracing on any attempt to actually use it. Once the CC processor has the financial info for the scumbags, turn it over to the authorities to get them shut down and their financial assets seized. Hit them where it hurts, the pocketbook, since that's the only thing they'll really notice.
Of course, this presupposes that people won't be malicious and try to use the fake CC numbers for legitimate online purchases, or to 'punish' other legitimate businesses that they may have a gripe with for whatever reason. But such cases should be fairly rare and easy to deal with, since the CC company already has the info on the person who requested the fake CC number in the first place. If they use it maliciously, fine them in addition to making them cover the costs of anything they tried to 'buy' with it...
I have already lived long enough to see lawsuits where unauthorized access to as little as a song invoked thousands of dollars in legal fees, while tax havens specifically crafted to avoid tax collections, operating in the Caribbean and Indonesian islands, continue to operate. This one-sided law is wearing heavily on my respect for law - its seeming more and more like organized muggery every day.
...
OH! Muggery...that's an m there...read something quite different at first.
Although come to think of it, in the context perhaps my initial mis-reading was more accurate...if not quite appropriate:o)
No, atheists are far worse. A secular person tells me they were at church, I say to myself "and I care why?" But man, how atheists go on and on and on and on and on.... about how stupid it is to believe in god. At least the secular people mention it in passing and move on.
They don't always act that way. On either side of the camp. I know (and live with) atheists who really don't care what you choose to believe, as long as you're not foisting it on everybody around you. I also know of several Christian groups who see it as their calling to evangelize to the world. Hint: they have the word "evangelical" in their name....
Good point. In my experience, actually, the majority of reasonable people are in the first camp, atheist or no.
There just happens to be a wide variety of religious views in my immediate and extended family: Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, agnostic and atheist (myself). Despite this, we all get along and love one another just fine, by respecting each other enough not to push our views at each other. If I'm at the in-laws when Sunday rolls around, I'll wish them a good time at church and arrange to meet them somewhere for lunch after, no fuss no muss. If there's a special event like a baptism, I'll go along to hang out with the family and coo over the baby niece/nephew, but otherwise they know and accept that there's nothing in it for me. They may pray for my soul, but they don't ask me to join in, and I wouldn't dream of demanding that they stop believing what they believe. Why? It harms no one and it makes them feel more content with their world. If it makes them happier, then I'm happier because I love them.
For goodness sake, there's certainly enough other ways to relate with the ones you love and the world in general. I have never understood people who define themselves solely based on their religious beliefs, to such a degree that they feel threatened by anyone who doesn't believe exactly the same thing as they do. Their lives must be very barren indeed.
Based on my experience, Samsung pushed back on capacitor repairs pretty hard until they lost the class action suit.
http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/
By the time they were "willing" to assist I had already replaced the capacitors. How very customer oriented of them...
Ah, I didn't know that. Interesting. I guess we were just lucky that ours failed later in the game...sorry to hear about your troubles with the same issue.
Makes me wonder what they could do against a volume of assault, such as a couple hundred thousand Slashdot readers all posting a comment on their Facebook page at once...
That assumes that a couple hundred thousand slashdotters have facebook accounts to begin with...do they have a Google plus page?
Btw before you say "well that was physical CC fraud and not online", I have two customers and one relative that have horror stories WORSE than mine because they all just ASSUMED that online sites are secure and it wouldn't be a problem if something happened. Since there is still a human element to fraud detection/credit repair, shit can always get fucked up...badly.
That's why I have a separate CC for online transactions, including PayPal, a card that's hard limited to $1000. I had to go back and forth a bit with my bank to be sure that they understood that no, they do not have my permission to automagically raise the credit limit on this card, that I really do only want a credit limit of $1000 on there. I used to have it at $500, but found that was just a bit restricting, especially around Christmas time:o)
Regardless, if I do want to go buy something that costs more than $1000 online, I simply have to transfer enough funds to my net card so that it's carrying a positive balance just before I make the purchase. It means a couple of days waiting to buy*, but I see it as much better than the alternative. If someone does gets my card, there's not a heck of a lot they can do with it...
* And can someone please tell me why, in this day and age, it still takes CC companies days, actual days to process payments? They sure don't delay that long processing charges.
I had problems start with my Samsung TV. It would take 10 minutes to turn on. Just sit there clicking on, off, on, off. I called Samsung and it was a known problem. They contacted a local repair shop and had the shop come out to my house and fix it THAT NIGHT. Zero cost to me.
Ditto for our 5 year old (at the time) 52" Samsung LCD TV. It wasn't quite the next day, but definitely within a week of us calling them they had a local contractor come by, and he fixed it right in our living room in about an hour, soldering and all. No bill for us, because it was a known capacitor issue, and it's worked great ever since.
That's a big part of why our new 65" LED is also a Samsung:o)
Slashdot Mirror
It's always been an engineering rule of thumb: reducing the number of moving parts generally increases reliability and decreases maintenance. You may or may not be able to get as good a performance out of the end result, but at least there's less potential for random, fatigue-based breakage...
The reverse? *sigh* Landfills cringe at the thought...
To be fair, the jingle "i before e, except after c, or as in neighbor and weigh" does stop just shy of addressing words like weird, caffeine, and a few others I've forgotten at this time.
That's why I prefer "I before E except after C and where it doesn't" :)
Yeah, spelling in english is a damned inconsistent nuisance, I most heartily agree...my sympathies and admiration are always with those who have mastered english as a second language. If I hadn't grown up speaking it, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have the patience to try to learn it from the outside in!
2 kids and they already cracked the glass on the ipad 2 fighting over it
So get them an etch a sketch until they demonstrate that they're old enough to respect their (or your) toys...or only let them use it while supervised by an adult.
Seriously, dude, buying another one (or two??) for them after they broke the first one? In the words of Great Big Sea, "I wanna be consequence free...". It's a nice philosophy for life, but a pretty irresponsible parenting model.
All kinds of wierd DRM has been packaged with PC games
Great, there goes another dolphin...you murderer! :p
Here's the thing, they haven't released any details on the $299 version. If it is the exact same machine as the $499 version, you would be better off to buy it and get locked into the 2 years of Xbox Live at $10 per month. Why? simple math:
$499 + 2 * $55 per year for Xbox Live = $609 2 year cost of ownership
vs
$299 + 2 * $120 per year for Xbox Live = $539 2 year cost of ownership
I imagine the discounted one won't come with a Hard Drive, or a Kinect Sensor, or controller or something else to offset it. But all things being equal... it's a cheaper route to go.
You forgot option 3:
$499 + 2 * $0 (i.e., no XBox Live subscription) = $499 2-year cost of ownership.
I have never had a so-called 'gold' subscription, and haven't felt the least desire to get one. Any DLC I am interested in is still available for purchase without having to pay some sort of monthly M$ tax, and I simply have no hint of a wisp of a desire to game with people who aren't actually in the room with me on a second (or third or fourth) controller...FTF IRL always trumps PVP, in my opinion.
Like nobody's going to try their hand at hacking the thing? 15 days, no instructions, see you can make it connect somewhere else ... sounds like a fun challenge to some.
Just had visions of CueCats in my head...no, these things never go pear shaped on them...
Love the title: Modelling Reveals Likely Spread of New H7N9 Avian Flu
Soo...those of us not in the modelling profession are safe, then? :P
Also, I wonder exactly what else those models are 'revealing'? Maybe those models should put some more clothes on if they don't want to catch the flu?
</silly_season>
I hope that term doesn't generically start referring to single, male programmers.
Fear not. I was once a young single white heterosexual male myself, but given a little time at least one of those things will change.
So...sex change, or pigment augmentation? Or just started hanging around in the right nightclubs, maybe? ;o)
Well, just like XP brought standardized WiFi settings (I despised the hell that was Win2k WiFi, where every vendor had their own proprietary UI), Win7 brings things like better search (especially for programs in the start menu), SSD TRIM support, better security features, and 64bit.
Umm...no. Sorry, have to disagree with you there.
The search on Windows 7 was a huge step backwards for users who actually, you know, have an idea of what they're looking for but can't *quite* remember where it is. The clear and intuitive search interface of Windows XP (once you got rid of that annoying little dog) was replaced with...a text entry box. Filtering searches now involves trying to remember some byzantine, arbitrary keywords system instead of simply checking off a list of checkboxes or radio buttons and using some (almost) universally-known wildcards (*, ?).
Want to quickly switch between searching for filenames-only or filenames-plus-contents? No quick way to do this, sorry, you have to go into the folder properties, and even then you can't disable content searching for indexed locations (and don't even get me started on how the frigging indexing hogs my system resources...). It's also slow as a spavined mule, even in supposedly indexed locations, and even when you do (finally) have a results list, selecting to sort on a different column order resets and resubmits the entire frigging search!. Oh yeah, and sometimes it won't even find the file at all, even if I know it's in there. Doesn't seem to matter if it's indexed or not, I'll wait five minutes for it to show me a list of crap files that happen to have my search term somewhere in their metadata or contents, but not the one that has the search term in the actual filename...you know, the one I was actually looking for in the first place.
No. The search on Win7 is not better, it's an order of magnitude worse than on XP. For those who feel the same, FileSearchEX is worth the cost. I got it on sale for $10 a while back, but even at $20, I'd consider it worthwhile.
If the law says you can't wash your horse in your driveway on sundays, it may be a stupid law, but if the police find a wet horse in your driveway, you still broke it.
Unless it's raining...
If that's your situation, then I don't think it is too unreasonable to suggest that you shouldn't be considering purchasing a next-gen console - or even a previous-gen console.
Better to have the kids playing GTA than living it...
The Microsoft vacuum cleaner, the first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
"Hello, this is the Microsoft Technical Support desk, I'm so sorry to hear you're having trouble with your new vacuum.
Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yes?
Okay, lets try removing all of the attachments...yes sir, including the bag...okay, now let's try unplugging the unit, counting to twenty, then plugging it back in...now let's reassemble the unit and try turning it back on. Still not functioning? And you already tried holding down the power button for five seconds with the rotor detached and while pushing the unit back and forth vigorously? You're sure the rotor was fully detached at the time?
I'm sorry to say it, sir, but it sounds like you may require a bigger bag and a faster motor to pick up the dirt you are describing. This model is really only suited for light dust pickup and cleaning up after short haired pets. Yes, I know the specifications said it could pick up moderate amounts of loose soil and longer hairs, but it can only do that occasionally, not full time, and this particular unit requires a full cleaning and refurbishing after each such use....I'm sorry you feel that way, sir.
Shall I put you in contact with our sales and upgrades department?"
Apparently he also managed to insult everyone who doesn't live in a major metropolitan area. SOMEONE has to live in Blacksburg Virginia!
A very telling point, however, is that there is a significant group of people who have little or no Internet access of any type: military personnel. Whether for security reasons or just being out on the nether end of nowhere. If they can't play without Internet, they'll find systems that can.
Not to mention families who bring their console to the cabin, or to grandmas house, or with them while RVing, etc. None of which is guaranteed to have any internet connection at all, much less a reliable one.
Granted, this probably happens a lot less now, with the proliferation of tablets and other small entertainment devices, than it used to when I was a kid...but it was great for rainy days at the lake.
Electronics manufacturers routinely use milli inch = 1/1000 of inch. I think kilo pound is also common to avoid inconsistent definitions of ton.
Not to be confused with the circular mil (cmil) which is actually a unit of area, and is typically used to indicate the cross-sectional area of conductors in a cable.
Essentially it's the area of a circle whose diameter equals one thousandth of an inch.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast... :o)
"They may actually have my SIN, as provided by me in person"
Hello fellow shadowrunner... is that a Corporate SIN or is it your fake SIN for your missions?
Ah, right, yanks call it a SSN, not a SIN...us canucks are all SINners, at least once we're old enough to work... :)
No, he got it correct - IMNAL is someone who has passed the bar, I'm Maybe Not A Lawyer.
This is just the usual attorney double-speak, but you're right a slightly more experienced lawyer would write IAAL;
one in the business would write IANYL, but could be for the right price (prostitution). JIMHO.
Maybe he/she is just hopeful? as in "I Might Nail A Lawyer...if I hang out in this nightclub a bit longer" ? Just a bit of braggadocio, perhaps? :P
It could have been in an email:
* State/gov authorities.
* Insurance company.
* Your doctor
* Digital copy of payslip
etc.
Do you not have access to your email via your phone?
Umm...if any company that I dealt with actually did this, I would be severing all relationships with them immediately and demanding that they remove my information from any and all databanks they use. They may actually have my SIN, as provided by me in person or via sealed snail mail when I contracted for their services, but that information should never, I repeat never be treated so casually.
No, I do not send or receive sensitive personal information such as my SIN via email. Nor do I scribble it in the dirt on my car windows...but to each their own, I suppose...
Rather than try to use technological stopgaps, this should be treated as a law enforcement issue. The purpose of these robocalls is to get people to pay money to the scammers running the operations. Follow the money, and you find the scammers. The FCC should get a surveillance warrant ahead of time, then call up pretending to be a normal customer interested in whatever product or service they're hawking, and pay with a traceable bank account. Find out where the money is going and you've got your perps.
I've always thought it would be interesting if people could request a fake CC number to use with these bastards. One that will appear to process correctly on their end, but will really trigger alerts and automatic backtracing on any attempt to actually use it. Once the CC processor has the financial info for the scumbags, turn it over to the authorities to get them shut down and their financial assets seized. Hit them where it hurts, the pocketbook, since that's the only thing they'll really notice.
Of course, this presupposes that people won't be malicious and try to use the fake CC numbers for legitimate online purchases, or to 'punish' other legitimate businesses that they may have a gripe with for whatever reason. But such cases should be fairly rare and easy to deal with, since the CC company already has the info on the person who requested the fake CC number in the first place. If they use it maliciously, fine them in addition to making them cover the costs of anything they tried to 'buy' with it...
I have already lived long enough to see lawsuits where unauthorized access to as little as a song invoked thousands of dollars in legal fees, while tax havens specifically crafted to avoid tax collections, operating in the Caribbean and Indonesian islands, continue to operate. This one-sided law is wearing heavily on my respect for law - its seeming more and more like organized muggery every day.
...
OH! Muggery...that's an m there...read something quite different at first.
Although come to think of it, in the context perhaps my initial mis-reading was more accurate...if not quite appropriate :o)
No, atheists are far worse. A secular person tells me they were at church, I say to myself "and I care why?" But man, how atheists go on and on and on and on and on.... about how stupid it is to believe in god. At least the secular people mention it in passing and move on.
They don't always act that way. On either side of the camp. I know (and live with) atheists who really don't care what you choose to believe, as long as you're not foisting it on everybody around you. I also know of several Christian groups who see it as their calling to evangelize to the world. Hint: they have the word "evangelical" in their name....
Good point. In my experience, actually, the majority of reasonable people are in the first camp, atheist or no.
There just happens to be a wide variety of religious views in my immediate and extended family: Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, agnostic and atheist (myself). Despite this, we all get along and love one another just fine, by respecting each other enough not to push our views at each other. If I'm at the in-laws when Sunday rolls around, I'll wish them a good time at church and arrange to meet them somewhere for lunch after, no fuss no muss. If there's a special event like a baptism, I'll go along to hang out with the family and coo over the baby niece/nephew, but otherwise they know and accept that there's nothing in it for me. They may pray for my soul, but they don't ask me to join in, and I wouldn't dream of demanding that they stop believing what they believe. Why? It harms no one and it makes them feel more content with their world. If it makes them happier, then I'm happier because I love them.
For goodness sake, there's certainly enough other ways to relate with the ones you love and the world in general. I have never understood people who define themselves solely based on their religious beliefs, to such a degree that they feel threatened by anyone who doesn't believe exactly the same thing as they do. Their lives must be very barren indeed.
I'm pretty sure that we're all from the past.
Not me. I'm from the future...but not your future... :o)
Based on my experience, Samsung pushed back on capacitor repairs pretty hard until they lost the class action suit.
http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/
By the time they were "willing" to assist I had already replaced the capacitors. How very customer oriented of them...
Ah, I didn't know that. Interesting. I guess we were just lucky that ours failed later in the game...sorry to hear about your troubles with the same issue.
Makes me wonder what they could do against a volume of assault, such as a couple hundred thousand Slashdot readers all posting a comment on their Facebook page at once...
That assumes that a couple hundred thousand slashdotters have facebook accounts to begin with...do they have a Google plus page?
Btw before you say "well that was physical CC fraud and not online", I have two customers and one relative that have horror stories WORSE than mine because they all just ASSUMED that online sites are secure and it wouldn't be a problem if something happened. Since there is still a human element to fraud detection/credit repair, shit can always get fucked up...badly.
That's why I have a separate CC for online transactions, including PayPal, a card that's hard limited to $1000. I had to go back and forth a bit with my bank to be sure that they understood that no, they do not have my permission to automagically raise the credit limit on this card, that I really do only want a credit limit of $1000 on there. I used to have it at $500, but found that was just a bit restricting, especially around Christmas time :o)
Regardless, if I do want to go buy something that costs more than $1000 online, I simply have to transfer enough funds to my net card so that it's carrying a positive balance just before I make the purchase. It means a couple of days waiting to buy*, but I see it as much better than the alternative. If someone does gets my card, there's not a heck of a lot they can do with it...
* And can someone please tell me why, in this day and age, it still takes CC companies days, actual days to process payments? They sure don't delay that long processing charges.
I had problems start with my Samsung TV. It would take 10 minutes to turn on. Just sit there clicking on, off, on, off. I called Samsung and it was a known problem. They contacted a local repair shop and had the shop come out to my house and fix it THAT NIGHT. Zero cost to me.
Ditto for our 5 year old (at the time) 52" Samsung LCD TV. It wasn't quite the next day, but definitely within a week of us calling them they had a local contractor come by, and he fixed it right in our living room in about an hour, soldering and all. No bill for us, because it was a known capacitor issue, and it's worked great ever since.
That's a big part of why our new 65" LED is also a Samsung :o)