But is it not a rock, or at a minimum, 'like a rock'? Have they never seen a rock before? Doesn't sound like they've been paying all that much attention to what that rover's been doing up there....
[haven't commented on/. in 5+ years - but I saw your sig and had to check mine to see if they were the same... then I figured I'd say something]
It sounds like you'll be asking for entry into the US with almost no luggage. That's a sure sign of a terrorist (perhaps a suicide bomber?). Good luck with that...
I believe the organization you are looking for is the Air Force
As mentioned in the article I linked to, their mission statement begins with:
The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace...
No - nothing is actually free to clients/customers.
If you complete eliminated my cost of doing business, I'd be able to sell you my product for almost nothing. If I have to install a ramp, an extra door, etc, it's for the convenience of my customers - and therefore, MAY bring me more customers. However, if the increase in business due to the existence of a ramp on the front of my building does not allow me to realize enough profit to justify said ramp, then it's costing ALL my clients because I'm going to have to raise my prices to recoup my costs.
I could keep my costs lower by selling stuff from a non-climate controlled barn, but the number of customers I'd lose wouldn't justify the savings in my costs. So, the door the non-handicapped client uses is a convenience that has increased my costs in order to retain customers who would be willing to pay slightly more to be able to purchase my product from inside a "real" building, and not a drafty barn.
So yes, there's no one "charging admission", but as soon as someone's cost of doing business increases, expect the cost to be passed on to their customers.
To stay on topic - we COULD force businesses to provide the blind with bill counters, but I'd rather leave it up to the business owner that wants to attract blind customers to come up with a way that is convenient and low-cost in such a way that everyone benefits.
And that really is what happens to a printer that gets beat to death with a baseball bat... It's uncanny how similar that looked to the printer that used to be in our office... but perhaps I've said too much...
I've always speculated as whether gravity travels like light. Would "gravity waves" from the merge be felt here on earth the instant it happened, or would it take the same amount of time as light/electromagnetic radiation to reach us?
If you take a look at this book, you'll find that there is a way to measure the "speed of gravity" (according to the author) and that it is indeed faster than the (current) speed of light.
I'm not going to agree or disagree with what he puts forth, but if you're interested in questions such as the one you propose above, you'll probably find the book interesting. The supposition is that the speed of light and the speed of gravity were, at the time of the big bang, equal, and that the speed of light has gradually slowed over time.
I think the answer the author would give to your question is that the "gravity waves" you mention would arrive before the light would, but it would not be instant.
WTF? I really hope my sarcarsm meter is malfunctioning...
Just because you can find an example of something that fits into that sentence and makes no sense doesn't mean you've proved that anything stated in that form is wrong...
The high correlation between the number of folks carrying umbrellas and the likelyhood of rain does not imply that carrying an umbrella causes rain, any more than it implies that a higher probibility of rain occuring causes people to carry umbrellas.
So a woman that's about to be raped should just lie there and take it? Rape is not a crime punishable by death in most jurisdictions... If she's armed, she can't shoot her attacker?
What about the cop who is pulling someone over for speeding. If the speeder draws his gun and points it at the cop - w/out firing - the cop is going to do his best to shoot the speeder BEFORE he gets shot himself. Is this wrong? Speeding isn't a crime punishable by death...
If someone attempts to rob me and POINTS A GUN AT ME, s/he is essentially saying that if I do not comply, I will be shot. So, rather than comply, I'll save my own life by taking theirs.
No one is talking about being a vigilante. No one has offered that they'd go out of their way to hunt this guy down and kill him w/out a trial. But if this guy is unlucky enough to chose me (or the guy you're replying to) as his next victim, he won't be taking my money and getting away.
People will not be satisfied to say, oh, it was simply an accident we can't blame anyone
And that really sucks, IMHO...
I was on the highway on my way home from work (so durring rush hour), and since I live in Boston, the average following distance at this time is way too close... Anyway - the exit I was taking was backed up and about five of us in the right lane stopped just in time, but the guy behind me didn't. He pushed me into the guy in front of me and him into the guy in front of him...
No one was hurt - the guys in front of my had plastic bumpers that magically reformed to their original shape - but my truck and the car behind me were damaged.
The guy behind me screwed up and he admitted it. We got our vehicles off the highway, exchanged insurance info and went on home.
No one sued anyone else, no one got the slightest bit mad (except for the folks stuck in traffic now that one lane was stopped completely), and everyone was glad that everyone else was OK.
Why is it that I feel like this story is the exception to the rule? I've seen people in fist fights on the side of the highway after similar incidents, and I can't understand that at all.
It was an accident. Insurance was created for this specific reason. Get over it and get on with your life...
When you get in your car and get on the highway, there is risk involved. Do what you can to reduce it, but if you can't accept that something unexpected may happen, stay home.
Anyway - you are absolutely right. I saw a show recently about a car that can parallel park itself - and the segment ended with "the manufacturer is afraid to bring it to the US because of liability concerns". Ugh.
i also rather like the idea of hitting the keys very hard to generate caps
This would be a great way to train people into typing in a quieter manner. I'm pretty sick of listening to the woman two cube rows over smash the hell out of her keyboard every time she sends an email. Maybe she'd quiet down a bit if everyone replied with "stop YELLING at me in your email".
And if they did more to stop it, you'd be less likely to use their escrow service and they'd lose money...
I do think it's the consumer's responsibility ultimately, but just pointing out that eBay has incentive to drag their feet.
I'd be interested to see stats on the number of auctions that close every day vs. the number of auctions that are shut down or that turn out to be fraudulent. It seems, from the news coverage at least, that it's getting worse, but they're constantly getting bigger, so perhaps it's not.
There's no reason to report a successful, legal, pleasant experience on eBay, but people love to read about how others got ripped off. And those that get ripped off complain louder than those who have not will 'advertise' their non-fraudulent experience...
Right. Because if there's a "standard" way of doing something and you think of something better, you should bite your tongue, suck it up and continue using something you believe isn't as good as it could be.
I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but I'm quite surprised that everyone here seems to think that competition is evil, just because MS is the competition.
Take USB 1.0 vs. Firewire for example. Would we have seen USB 2.0 as soon as we did if Firewire didn't offer "faster competition" to USB 1.0?
I'm sure there are standards that saw competition and then ceased to exist because the competing standard was better.
Or you could ship to Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire or Oregon.
No state sales tax there.
If you don't already live in one of these states, you may live close enough to set up a mail drop. If not, maybe you should consider moving - this was the intent of allowing states to set up their own laws - anyone that wants can "vote with their feet".
Yes, I realize this is considered impractical to most, but at what point should we finally say "enough"?
At the risk of sounding like an AOL user, ME TOO!!!
They missed a really good opportunity to get me interested enough to want to purchase their game.
WTF? Don't they realize that they should have used this to get people who are not currently playing WoW to sign up? If they had put a face on the folks behind the game, rather than just write up these pathetically predictable and generic answers, they'd have had a better chance on getting my money. I'm sure that's true for most of the slashdot crowd. If they'd answered these questions (and not avoided them), there's a good chance I'd have signed up, just to see what the buzz was about...
Even if this went through (or to) their PR staff, they should have asked themselves "What's the best way to get more people playing?" and not "What's the best way to say absolutely nothing?"
I guess they just don't need my business... or something...
My pet peeve is: Where the fuck is Preferences? Edit->Preferences? Tools->Options? File->Preferences?
Funny you should list those three options. The "feature" you're talking about can be modified via the Tools->Customize menu choice, but you need to switch to the "Options" tab...
This annoys the hell out of me - it's the first thing I do after I install Office as well, but it takes me way too long to find the damn checkbox...
Or those of us with more than one monitor... Which four of the eight corners work? And what happens if I don't have two monitors that are the same size? The corners don't line up, so I have to be down an inch from the top on one monitor to move to the other. If I'm too high to jump screens, am I in a corner?
I'm glad you're fine with that. I'm not, so I'll continue to complain about it and argue for change.
If that offends you, you're welcome to move somewhere you're not required to pay to fund a government that's supposed to be defending my right to complain and argue for change.
I do not think it's right that taxes fund schools. My friends farm more than 650 acres in upstate NY, and their property tax increases are justified by the greater cost of education. They have ZERO children because they can hardly afford to run the damn farm. These school taxes play a major role in their financial situation.
Meanwhile, the single mom with six kids who collects subsidies from the state, rents subsidized housing and pays no property taxes has enrolled all six of her children in public school.
Subsidizing this behavior rewards and/or encourages it and is NOT good for society. You've got more kids being raised by people who are not responsible and less by those who work hard to barely get by.
Obviously, you and the posters above disagree and think that it's the responsibility of "society" to raise the children of the irresponsible (while encouraging them to remain irresponsible) but I'll agree to disagree.
As for roads - YES, if I don't use the road, I shouldn't have to pay for it. In fact, we've got a system set up that theoretically works like this; gas taxes, excise and registration taxes and tolls.
If you buy lots of gas, you pay lots of taxes. If you own a car, you pay excise tax. If you use toll roads, you pay to use the roads.
If the food I buy in the grocery store w/in walking distance from my house (or rolling distance if I have no legs) is delivered via these roads, the shippers pay the taxes and tolls and build this cost into their delivery fee. The store that pays them then builds that cost into their prices, and the head of lettuce that you can grow yourself in the middle of summer from a $0.01 seed, is sold for $2.00 in the middle of winter mainly because it's transported to you and someone pays for that.
If we paid for the roads entirely with user fees / tolls / gas tax / whatever, we'd all have more to spend on groceries or whatever. Yes, the costs of these goods would possibly go up, but the bureaucratic overhead of moving this money through the state government would be less. Maybe I'm optimistic, but removing the state from the equation looks like it would increase disposable income.
If my mail is delivered to me via a sidewalk I don't personally walk on, I'm still "using" the sidewalk. That's not that hard to understand, right? However, this avoids the question.
I just read that the Canadian Postal Service has refused to deliver mail to a woman because her stoop is 10cm too high. I don't know why you think you're entitled to mail delivery when you've done nothing to facilitate the delivery. If I expect the mail to come to my house, I'll provide a way for the mail carrier to get there. If they want to charge me because they need an off-road vehicle to get to my house, I'll either rectify this or pay them to get one.
Growing up, we paid for a dump permit. If we had to dispose of more than our normally allotted amount, we were charged extra. If we didn't want to use the dump, we didn't have to pay for it. It's not difficult to comprehend a user fee-based service working in this manner. It's still in practice today.
I'm not sure I get your point about water. Most places with town / city service pay for the amount they use. These fees go to maintaining the system etc. Growing up, we had a well. We paid to maintain that ourselves and did not have a town water bill.
When the town installs a water main through your area, you usually are forced to pay for it. Even if you're not going to use it.
As for bottled water... I'd be willing to bet that if you have town water, you're paying for what you use, and you haven't replaced your water use entirely with bottled water. But if you have (and you shower with it), you probably aren't paying much, if anything, for water service...
Slashdot Mirror
But is it not a rock, or at a minimum, 'like a rock'? Have they never seen a rock before? Doesn't sound like they've been paying all that much attention to what that rover's been doing up there....
/. in 5+ years - but I saw your sig and had to check mine to see if they were the same... then I figured I'd say something]
[haven't commented on
Is "financial bailout package" going to join "library of congress" as a standard slashdot UOM?
-bs
I believe the organization you are looking for is the Air Force
As mentioned in the article I linked to, their mission statement begins with:
The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests -- to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace...
-bs
I find your ideas intriguing, and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. [Please send it to me in an e-mail.]
No - nothing is actually free to clients/customers.
If you complete eliminated my cost of doing business, I'd be able to sell you my product for almost nothing. If I have to install a ramp, an extra door, etc, it's for the convenience of my customers - and therefore, MAY bring me more customers. However, if the increase in business due to the existence of a ramp on the front of my building does not allow me to realize enough profit to justify said ramp, then it's costing ALL my clients because I'm going to have to raise my prices to recoup my costs.
I could keep my costs lower by selling stuff from a non-climate controlled barn, but the number of customers I'd lose wouldn't justify the savings in my costs. So, the door the non-handicapped client uses is a convenience that has increased my costs in order to retain customers who would be willing to pay slightly more to be able to purchase my product from inside a "real" building, and not a drafty barn.
So yes, there's no one "charging admission", but as soon as someone's cost of doing business increases, expect the cost to be passed on to their customers.
To stay on topic - we COULD force businesses to provide the blind with bill counters, but I'd rather leave it up to the business owner that wants to attract blind customers to come up with a way that is convenient and low-cost in such a way that everyone benefits.
-bs
And that really is what happens to a printer that gets beat to death with a baseball bat... It's uncanny how similar that looked to the printer that used to be in our office... but perhaps I've said too much...
If you take a look at this book, you'll find that there is a way to measure the "speed of gravity" (according to the author) and that it is indeed faster than the (current) speed of light.
I'm not going to agree or disagree with what he puts forth, but if you're interested in questions such as the one you propose above, you'll probably find the book interesting. The supposition is that the speed of light and the speed of gravity were, at the time of the big bang, equal, and that the speed of light has gradually slowed over time.
I think the answer the author would give to your question is that the "gravity waves" you mention would arrive before the light would, but it would not be instant.
-bs
Just because you can find an example of something that fits into that sentence and makes no sense doesn't mean you've proved that anything stated in that form is wrong...
The high correlation between the number of folks carrying umbrellas and the likelyhood of rain does not imply that carrying an umbrella causes rain, any more than it implies that a higher probibility of rain occuring causes people to carry umbrellas.
-bs
What about the cop who is pulling someone over for speeding. If the speeder draws his gun and points it at the cop - w/out firing - the cop is going to do his best to shoot the speeder BEFORE he gets shot himself. Is this wrong? Speeding isn't a crime punishable by death...
If someone attempts to rob me and POINTS A GUN AT ME, s/he is essentially saying that if I do not comply, I will be shot. So, rather than comply, I'll save my own life by taking theirs.
No one is talking about being a vigilante. No one has offered that they'd go out of their way to hunt this guy down and kill him w/out a trial. But if this guy is unlucky enough to chose me (or the guy you're replying to) as his next victim, he won't be taking my money and getting away.
-bs
And that really sucks, IMHO...
I was on the highway on my way home from work (so durring rush hour), and since I live in Boston, the average following distance at this time is way too close... Anyway - the exit I was taking was backed up and about five of us in the right lane stopped just in time, but the guy behind me didn't. He pushed me into the guy in front of me and him into the guy in front of him...
No one was hurt - the guys in front of my had plastic bumpers that magically reformed to their original shape - but my truck and the car behind me were damaged.
The guy behind me screwed up and he admitted it. We got our vehicles off the highway, exchanged insurance info and went on home.
No one sued anyone else, no one got the slightest bit mad (except for the folks stuck in traffic now that one lane was stopped completely), and everyone was glad that everyone else was OK.
Why is it that I feel like this story is the exception to the rule? I've seen people in fist fights on the side of the highway after similar incidents, and I can't understand that at all.
It was an accident. Insurance was created for this specific reason. Get over it and get on with your life...
When you get in your car and get on the highway, there is risk involved. Do what you can to reduce it, but if you can't accept that something unexpected may happen, stay home.
Anyway - you are absolutely right. I saw a show recently about a car that can parallel park itself - and the segment ended with "the manufacturer is afraid to bring it to the US because of liability concerns". Ugh.
-bs
This would be a great way to train people into typing in a quieter manner. I'm pretty sick of listening to the woman two cube rows over smash the hell out of her keyboard every time she sends an email. Maybe she'd quiet down a bit if everyone replied with "stop YELLING at me in your email".
-bs
I do think it's the consumer's responsibility ultimately, but just pointing out that eBay has incentive to drag their feet.
I'd be interested to see stats on the number of auctions that close every day vs. the number of auctions that are shut down or that turn out to be fraudulent. It seems, from the news coverage at least, that it's getting worse, but they're constantly getting bigger, so perhaps it's not.
There's no reason to report a successful, legal, pleasant experience on eBay, but people love to read about how others got ripped off. And those that get ripped off complain louder than those who have not will 'advertise' their non-fraudulent experience...
-bs
Right. Because if there's a "standard" way of doing something and you think of something better, you should bite your tongue, suck it up and continue using something you believe isn't as good as it could be.
I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but I'm quite surprised that everyone here seems to think that competition is evil, just because MS is the competition.
Take USB 1.0 vs. Firewire for example. Would we have seen USB 2.0 as soon as we did if Firewire didn't offer "faster competition" to USB 1.0?
I'm sure there are standards that saw competition and then ceased to exist because the competing standard was better.
-bs
-bs
[omg - this is a post you can correctly respond to with "that begs the question"]
-bs
http://www.eyeonmogs.com/
No state sales tax there.
If you don't already live in one of these states, you may live close enough to set up a mail drop. If not, maybe you should consider moving - this was the intent of allowing states to set up their own laws - anyone that wants can "vote with their feet".
Yes, I realize this is considered impractical to most, but at what point should we finally say "enough"?
-bs
They missed a really good opportunity to get me interested enough to want to purchase their game.
WTF? Don't they realize that they should have used this to get people who are not currently playing WoW to sign up? If they had put a face on the folks behind the game, rather than just write up these pathetically predictable and generic answers, they'd have had a better chance on getting my money. I'm sure that's true for most of the slashdot crowd. If they'd answered these questions (and not avoided them), there's a good chance I'd have signed up, just to see what the buzz was about...
Even if this went through (or to) their PR staff, they should have asked themselves "What's the best way to get more people playing?" and not "What's the best way to say absolutely nothing?"
I guess they just don't need my business... or something...
-bs
Funny you should list those three options. The "feature" you're talking about can be modified via the Tools->Customize menu choice, but you need to switch to the "Options" tab...
This annoys the hell out of me - it's the first thing I do after I install Office as well, but it takes me way too long to find the damn checkbox...
-bs
-bs
-bs
Any mailable matter not bearing postage and found as described above is subject to the same postage as would be paid if it were carried by mail.
She'd have owed postage on the sample product.
-bs
If that offends you, you're welcome to move somewhere you're not required to pay to fund a government that's supposed to be defending my right to complain and argue for change.
-bs
I do not think it's right that taxes fund schools. My friends farm more than 650 acres in upstate NY, and their property tax increases are justified by the greater cost of education. They have ZERO children because they can hardly afford to run the damn farm. These school taxes play a major role in their financial situation.
Meanwhile, the single mom with six kids who collects subsidies from the state, rents subsidized housing and pays no property taxes has enrolled all six of her children in public school.
Subsidizing this behavior rewards and/or encourages it and is NOT good for society. You've got more kids being raised by people who are not responsible and less by those who work hard to barely get by.
Obviously, you and the posters above disagree and think that it's the responsibility of "society" to raise the children of the irresponsible (while encouraging them to remain irresponsible) but I'll agree to disagree.
As for roads - YES, if I don't use the road, I shouldn't have to pay for it. In fact, we've got a system set up that theoretically works like this; gas taxes, excise and registration taxes and tolls.
If you buy lots of gas, you pay lots of taxes. If you own a car, you pay excise tax. If you use toll roads, you pay to use the roads.
If the food I buy in the grocery store w/in walking distance from my house (or rolling distance if I have no legs) is delivered via these roads, the shippers pay the taxes and tolls and build this cost into their delivery fee. The store that pays them then builds that cost into their prices, and the head of lettuce that you can grow yourself in the middle of summer from a $0.01 seed, is sold for $2.00 in the middle of winter mainly because it's transported to you and someone pays for that.
If we paid for the roads entirely with user fees / tolls / gas tax / whatever, we'd all have more to spend on groceries or whatever. Yes, the costs of these goods would possibly go up, but the bureaucratic overhead of moving this money through the state government would be less. Maybe I'm optimistic, but removing the state from the equation looks like it would increase disposable income.
If my mail is delivered to me via a sidewalk I don't personally walk on, I'm still "using" the sidewalk. That's not that hard to understand, right? However, this avoids the question.
I just read that the Canadian Postal Service has refused to deliver mail to a woman because her stoop is 10cm too high. I don't know why you think you're entitled to mail delivery when you've done nothing to facilitate the delivery. If I expect the mail to come to my house, I'll provide a way for the mail carrier to get there. If they want to charge me because they need an off-road vehicle to get to my house, I'll either rectify this or pay them to get one.
Growing up, we paid for a dump permit. If we had to dispose of more than our normally allotted amount, we were charged extra. If we didn't want to use the dump, we didn't have to pay for it. It's not difficult to comprehend a user fee-based service working in this manner. It's still in practice today.
I'm not sure I get your point about water. Most places with town / city service pay for the amount they use. These fees go to maintaining the system etc. Growing up, we had a well. We paid to maintain that ourselves and did not have a town water bill.
When the town installs a water main through your area, you usually are forced to pay for it. Even if you're not going to use it.
As for bottled water... I'd be willing to bet that if you have town water, you're paying for what you use, and you haven't replaced your water use entirely with bottled water. But if you have (and you shower with it), you probably aren't paying much, if anything, for water service...
If wi-fi were installed for everyone, unless they