I hope this is coming from some over zealot unpaid interns, working for the congress. Not from the actual congressmen themselves.
I hope this is coming from the congressmen themselves. They're much less likely to cause damage trolling Wikipedia rather than if they're attempting to pass legislation.
The article linked in the summary requires you to answer survey questions or post it to your google+ / facebook before you can read it.
Don't put up with that crap. It's even worse than forcing you to watch advertisements before reading something. Filter out pcpro.co.uk with your hosts file or whatever other method instead.
Same here. I always press "1", which transfers to a live operator, and then I play along for a few minutes. Then I ask her what color underwear she is wearing. Most hang up at that point. but a few continue the conversation. If we all waste a little of their time, then these business will no longer be viable.
Or if you don't want to be stuck talking to them, just play along until they ask you for your credit card number, tell them, "oh, I have to find my wallet" -- and then set the phone down and do something else.
I once got one of them to waste fifteen minutes on me by picking up the phone every few minutes and making some new excuse.
(though if you did that with me, my reaction would be to cancel on principle because you ripped me off all the time, if you can lower your rate now, why couldn't you before? And I certainly have zero reason to continue business with a company that very obviously has no problem with ripping me off)
Presumably, if you're paying a particular rate in exchange for service, that's because you believe that the service has at least that much value to you. As long as that's the case, then the company providing the service isn't "ripping you off."
As a customer, there's going to be some upper limit to how much you're willing to pay for a service. For the company, there's some lower limit to the price that they can afford to offer. Obviously every customer would like the price to be set at that lower limit -- so skewed as much in the customer's favor as possible -- but it's not unethical for the company to set their pricing elsewhere.
Most videos (at least those linked to from meme-based image sites) are stored in GIF format...
While I don't disagree that the storing videos in GIF format is incredibly inefficient (and annoying), I somehow don't think that "meme-based image sites" are actually a significant fraction of internet bandwidth use compared to websites that use more standard video formats.
I don't think you understand what "voting with your wallet" means, because it's exactly what you are doing when you choose to order online rather than buy locally for any reason. It doesn't matter if that reason is price, convenience, merchandise selection, political views, or anything else. You are choosing which business receives your financial support, and will therefore be more successful. That is fundamentally what voting with your wallet is.
And if you don't think that people choosing to spend their money online rather than at a local retailer is a problem, then why are you complaining about it?
You missed my point. Ordering online is voting with your wallet. Your real problem is that people are voting with their wallets -- but they're voting the wrong way.
Complaints of "no one is innovating anymore" followed closely by "look at BB, stupids, phones HAVE to be one handed and pocketable! No innovation allowed!"
To be fair, "let's make our smartphone bigger!" isn't exactly groundbreaking innovation. It's exactly what everybody else has been doing for a few years now.
Here's the raw XML behind that data. Turning that into verbiage isn't that hard.
Not hard, but does it actually make sense to do so? Serious question, since I don't read the reports in question, but if they're so standardized it would seem like it would be easier for everyone involved to just stick with a tabular format of some sort, rather than trying to translate it into a "written" report.
I've got a better idea: how about not requiring me to pay for somebody else's elective health care, regardless of whether it's for contraception or not, and regardless of what my religious beliefs (if any) are?
As much as I hate "USian", what's the preferred alternative? American? America isn't a country, it's a pair of continents. Argentinians are no less American than New Yorkers are. Argentinians are no less American than New Yorkers are.
Nobody uses the term "American" to refer to a resident of one of the two American continents. That would be as dumb as referring to somebody as a "Eurasian", or an "Afro-European." Argentinians aren't "American;" if you insist on referring to them as residents of a continent, then they are "South Americans." The "USian" name is an attempt by the PC brigade to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist. In English, the term "American" when applied to a person always refers to citizens of the United States of America.
Aside from the whole organic-3D-printing-of-entire-humans angle...
The article doesn't actually describe anything similar to 3D printing either. The justification for calling it that is pretty much: 3D printing involves assembling a final product from raw materials; the proposal also involves assembling a final product from raw materials; therefore we're talking about 3D printing.
In general the idea is interesting -- although it's hardly new, and we're so far from the technology level required to do it that it's still in the realm of science fiction -- but the 3D printing angle is nonsense.
If people don't want to die a a horrid painful death they should choose their parents better
If people don't want to die a horrid painful death, they should avoid being born in the first place. What do you think most of us have to look forward to in the last couple years of our lives?
Not to sound cold, but this type of situation a good example for why you should make a living will. Does this poor lady want to go on tied to machines or does she want to be unplugged? The choice should be hers, but without knowing her wishes, that makes it a no-win situation.
Since she's conscious and communicating, presumably they could just ask her.
Reason we don't? No one thought of it when everyone was signing the agreements not to do weapons stuff in space.
... and it's really difficult (takes an awful lot of energy) to fly something into the sun. And it's wasting what will in the future be a valuable resource. Not to mention that no matter how safe your rocket design is, strapping your nuclear waste on top of hundreds of tons of explosives is inherently more risky than putting it into a hole in the ground.
The idea is nothing new; I'm sure people have been bandying it about since the first nuclear power plants came online. But it's really not a good idea.
Slashdot Mirror
I hope this is coming from some over zealot unpaid interns, working for the congress. Not from the actual congressmen themselves.
I hope this is coming from the congressmen themselves. They're much less likely to cause damage trolling Wikipedia rather than if they're attempting to pass legislation.
The article linked in the summary requires you to answer survey questions or post it to your google+ / facebook before you can read it.
Don't put up with that crap. It's even worse than forcing you to watch advertisements before reading something. Filter out pcpro.co.uk with your hosts file or whatever other method instead.
Same here. I always press "1", which transfers to a live operator, and then I play along for a few minutes. Then I ask her what color underwear she is wearing. Most hang up at that point. but a few continue the conversation. If we all waste a little of their time, then these business will no longer be viable.
Or if you don't want to be stuck talking to them, just play along until they ask you for your credit card number, tell them, "oh, I have to find my wallet" -- and then set the phone down and do something else.
I once got one of them to waste fifteen minutes on me by picking up the phone every few minutes and making some new excuse.
do you think you should have to pay a nickle everytime you log in to the government???
Gee, I wish I had a login for the government...
The alternative is to not have broadband at all -- which isn't an option for me.
In other words, you value having broadband very highly.
I don't blame you for wishing prices were lower, but there's nothing unethical about a company charging what you're willing to pay.
(though if you did that with me, my reaction would be to cancel on principle because you ripped me off all the time, if you can lower your rate now, why couldn't you before? And I certainly have zero reason to continue business with a company that very obviously has no problem with ripping me off)
Presumably, if you're paying a particular rate in exchange for service, that's because you believe that the service has at least that much value to you. As long as that's the case, then the company providing the service isn't "ripping you off."
As a customer, there's going to be some upper limit to how much you're willing to pay for a service. For the company, there's some lower limit to the price that they can afford to offer. Obviously every customer would like the price to be set at that lower limit -- so skewed as much in the customer's favor as possible -- but it's not unethical for the company to set their pricing elsewhere.
Most videos (at least those linked to from meme-based image sites) are stored in GIF format...
While I don't disagree that the storing videos in GIF format is incredibly inefficient (and annoying), I somehow don't think that "meme-based image sites" are actually a significant fraction of internet bandwidth use compared to websites that use more standard video formats.
You mean other than the fact they're a complete joke?
Even if you believe that the be the case, how does another complete joke of a law fix anything?
I don't think you understand what "voting with your wallet" means, because it's exactly what you are doing when you choose to order online rather than buy locally for any reason. It doesn't matter if that reason is price, convenience, merchandise selection, political views, or anything else. You are choosing which business receives your financial support, and will therefore be more successful. That is fundamentally what voting with your wallet is.
And if you don't think that people choosing to spend their money online rather than at a local retailer is a problem, then why are you complaining about it?
You missed my point. Ordering online is voting with your wallet. Your real problem is that people are voting with their wallets -- but they're voting the wrong way.
Yeah! Voting with your wallet will never happen, because it's far to easy to vote with your wallet.
Would you guys mind taking this argument to somewhere where it's relevant?
Turns out that it's easy to measure the weather with a cell phone tower.
Complaints of "no one is innovating anymore" followed closely by "look at BB, stupids, phones HAVE to be one handed and pocketable! No innovation allowed!"
To be fair, "let's make our smartphone bigger!" isn't exactly groundbreaking innovation. It's exactly what everybody else has been doing for a few years now.
Here's the raw XML behind that data. Turning that into verbiage isn't that hard.
Not hard, but does it actually make sense to do so? Serious question, since I don't read the reports in question, but if they're so standardized it would seem like it would be easier for everyone involved to just stick with a tabular format of some sort, rather than trying to translate it into a "written" report.
I've got a better idea: how about not requiring me to pay for somebody else's elective health care, regardless of whether it's for contraception or not, and regardless of what my religious beliefs (if any) are?
OP is a tourist, and there's a big difference between a tourist and a terrorist.
After going through customs a couple times, I'm pretty sure the US government considers them to be the same thing.
Do you really believe that an unemployed white guy is going to pick lettuce?
If the price is right, of course they will. Just because you're a lazy bastard doesn't mean everyone is.
But... they do!
A Brazillian refers to himself as American if using the english language.
http://www.usaisnotamerica.com...
It's kind of amusing that your link starts with the assertion: "America is the name of a whole continent."
Which is, of course, incorrect. There is no continent called America.
That's not discrimination. That's Progress.
As much as I hate "USian", what's the preferred alternative? American? America isn't a country, it's a pair of continents. Argentinians are no less American than New Yorkers are. Argentinians are no less American than New Yorkers are.
Nobody uses the term "American" to refer to a resident of one of the two American continents. That would be as dumb as referring to somebody as a "Eurasian", or an "Afro-European." Argentinians aren't "American;" if you insist on referring to them as residents of a continent, then they are "South Americans."
The "USian" name is an attempt by the PC brigade to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist. In English, the term "American" when applied to a person always refers to citizens of the United States of America.
Aside from the whole organic-3D-printing-of-entire-humans angle...
The article doesn't actually describe anything similar to 3D printing either. The justification for calling it that is pretty much: 3D printing involves assembling a final product from raw materials; the proposal also involves assembling a final product from raw materials; therefore we're talking about 3D printing.
In general the idea is interesting -- although it's hardly new, and we're so far from the technology level required to do it that it's still in the realm of science fiction -- but the 3D printing angle is nonsense.
If people don't want to die a a horrid painful death they should choose their parents better
If people don't want to die a horrid painful death, they should avoid being born in the first place. What do you think most of us have to look forward to in the last couple years of our lives?
Not to sound cold, but this type of situation a good example for why you should make a living will.
Does this poor lady want to go on tied to machines or does she want to be unplugged? The choice should be hers, but without knowing her wishes, that makes it a no-win situation.
Since she's conscious and communicating, presumably they could just ask her.
Reason we don't? No one thought of it when everyone was signing the agreements not to do weapons stuff in space.
... and it's really difficult (takes an awful lot of energy) to fly something into the sun. And it's wasting what will in the future be a valuable resource. Not to mention that no matter how safe your rocket design is, strapping your nuclear waste on top of hundreds of tons of explosives is inherently more risky than putting it into a hole in the ground.
The idea is nothing new; I'm sure people have been bandying it about since the first nuclear power plants came online. But it's really not a good idea.