How about contacting the auction winners through eBay. Explain who you are and that the item they just purchased was freely available. Ask them to leave negative feedback for the seller. A few bad ratings could go a long way. Maybe set up a web page and have them link that URL in their feedback.
I like the idea of sticking with lizard names too. Also, I'd like to avoid the duplicate name for the sake of Googling. I've always hated trying to search for stuff with overused words...Access, Word, C, etc. Firebird wouldn't be as bad, but why add to the problem?
Or just leave the browser as Mozilla and name the mail and other utilities something else.
I wouldn't want to play GTA online. Can you imagine an online world where 1% of the city's inhabitants drove normally and the other 99% were maniacs with guns? That makes it more like Quake, and takes the fun out of GTA, IMHO.
I guess saying it would be easy was a bit much, but with a 'real' coalition of countries, it would probably have been possible to get some resolution through. Perhaps by getting real support from Russia and China, France might have been persuaded to abstain.
I agree that the veto power of the permanent members on the security council is pretty stupid. It's like five countries put themselves in charge and the other members are just for show.
Come on. There are only two other countries putting troops on the ground. The U.S. government has to make it look like we have a lot of support, but if that was the case, getting UN support should have been easy.
Interesting analysis. I'm no fan of the governments of any of those countries, nor of what they've done to their own people. I just think it's bad policy for the U.S. to do this more-or-less on their own. Iraq was very unlikely to distribute bio/chem weapons to terrorists while the whole world was keeping an eye on them.
You'll quash the problems in Iraq and piss off some group in Syria or Indonesia, etc. who will take their place.
I was reading Yahoo this morning and found this quote from a Bush advisor:
"We no longer are protected by two vast oceans and by two great neighbors to the north and south. We live in a different world. And we better confront those regimes, those rogue regimes -- which are attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction -- now before they gain the capacity to distribute" and use them, he said.
I guess this means that once we beat up Iraq, we'll invade North Korea. Iran and Cuba aren't far behind.
As an independent software developer, I cringe every time I read about a new software patent. It scares me that I can sit down and code something and not know if I've infringed on a patent. I don't have an army of lawyers to make sure I haven't infringed, or to defend against someone who just claims I have infringed.
Aren't patents supposed to promote invention and science? As far as software is concerned, I think they're slowing us down.
I have a 1997 SL2 and it's just as quiet as the other small cars we drove around the time we bought it.
Here's some collision photos, though they're higher impact then you're referring to, I think. For small impacts the panels pop right back, though you can scratch the paint.
Unfortunately, Saturn is integrating themselves more and more with GM. There's even talk of a non-polymer panel vehicle in a couple years.:(
Now, why should UPS and FedEx get out of paying profit, gas, and employee taxes? Are they taxed more because they're shippers?
I don't think they're taxed more. I just think it's double taxation. If I have to pay sales tax on a shipment, plus the shipping fee (into which FedEx/UPS's taxes are built), I'm basically paying tax twice for the same thing. Not to mention the taxes I paid on my income in the first place.
Sometimes I think the patchwork US/state/local tax system is a deliberate attempt to confuse people into not knowing how much of their money really goes to taxes.
After reading the article, I didn't think this was too big a deal since it was basically requiring big retailers who set up their website as a separate 'organization' to charge sales taxes for states they were in. But now, I'm thinking that the agreement said they were going to charge for every state regardless of physical presence. That would begin the slipperly slope of getting online customers 'used' to paying sales tax.
I'm concerned that the big boys are going to work it out for themselves, and the little online shops (several of whom I develop websites for) will get screwed by having to pay for 'tax tables' or 'approved software' that will run us out of business.
Since the states will be getting sales taxes now, will they be willing to refund the taxes that UPS and FedEx pay (profit, gas, employee taxes, etc.)?
Guess I got lucky on this one, since I remember mine being able to shoot. I probably still have it in a storage box somewhere, crushed by other old toys. Probably a few $ in there if I could get around to organizing and eBaying it.
I remember waiting weeks for the Boba Fett with the firing missile, and how pissed I was that it wouldn't shoot. I kept trying to make it shoot, looking for a button, moving the arms to trigger it.:(
I also remember playing with a land-speeder for weeks before I could get any figures to go in it (parents should've gone for that early-bird thing), and also how upset it was when I lost Chewbacca's gun in the dark 70s shag carpet, never to be seen again!
Professors are being paid...
on
Professors vs. WiFi
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
In my day:), we had no wi-fi, so I would sit in the back of unimportant classes and do the school paper's crossword puzzle. I was quiet and didn't bother anyone, and was just there in case something important came up like a test date or critical part of a lecture.
That seems reasonable to me for many of the undergrad courses I took, which I only took because they were requirements.
At any rate, professors were being paid with my money...they shouldn't care if I skipped class or did the crossword or surfed the net as long as I didn't disturb any of the other students.
It's a good book and it's going to make a great movie.
This is my main complaint with the Crichton books in the past 10 years. All of the ones I read are basically movie scripts "disguised" as books. I read The Great Train Robbery (one of his books from the 70s) a couple years ago, and it was much better writing.
Has this thing called a "number portability surcharge." I called once to ask what it was. Basically, it allows me to keep my phone number if I switch to another phone company. This is a land-line, mind you, and gee, our small town has a monopoly phone company! Who am I going to switch to?
This stuff makes me want to start a competitor just for spite.
Credit Unions are great. The only downside with mine is that it's out-of-state, which means you can't find an ATM that won't charge you (instead I do a $100 cash withdrawal on your debit card at Wal-mart after buying a couple bucks worth of stuff).
I kept them, even after moving out of their state, because they're such an improvement on any bank.
I rented a car a few years ago in San Diego. We had to bring it back 'full'. This was the first car I had ever driven where the fuel gauge needle dropped quickly right after you filled the tank. On the other hand, my truck's needle stays above full for about 40 miles. This one was significantly below F less than 20 miles from where I filled up.
The rental company took it upon themselves to charge me for 2 gallons at $3.99 a gallon! They slipped it by me too, since we were in a hurry for our flight.
Fortunately a later complaint got the charges removed, but they probably slip it by lots of people. Makes me wonder if they special-ordered the car with the gauges set that way.
Use fast film and a large aperture lens to try to get photos of single meteors with stars as points. Use slower film (and longer exposures) to get star trails. That might be easier since you never know when the meteors will appear (last year I only saw about 100/hour for a couple hours).
You also have to watch out for dew condensing on your lenses. It might also be a good idea to keep your camera bag in the garage for a couple hours to let the camera and lenses cool down.
The U.S. government seems to be very inconsistent about providing public-domain information over the web. I wish they'd settle on a policy, hopefully of making everything I paid for wity my taxes freely available!
I didn't know about PubScience, but I have spent time trying to access USGS map data over the web. This data is a pain to find. The USGS has "business partners" who only make the data available for a fee. I generally have to track down the data state-by-state, from state-based agencies who make the data available for free (though they sometimes apply different licenses to the orignal USGS data), and some states aren't available.
In addition, I recently wanted to research the results of a class-action lawsuit on the U.S. Federal Courts website. It turns out that you can't do that easily. You have to register, wait 2 weeks for them to snail-mail you an access account, and if you look at too many pages (more than $10 worth), you get billed.
These agencies need a consistent data-distribution policy, and then with that, they'd be more immune to individual attacks by the SIIA and other deep-pocket lobby groups.
In my opinion, states are already making money off catalog and Internet sales. These items have to be delivered, typically by a national shipping company. States tax the delivery company's profits, tax the fuel for their vehicles, and tax the wages of the employees. That's got to be more than a few $. I'm also willing to be you'll find a tax-paying e-commerce company in every state in the country, and probably catalog companies as well.
So what it comes down to, the greedy state governments want more...big surprise.
Slashdot Mirror
How about contacting the auction winners through eBay. Explain who you are and that the item they just purchased was freely available. Ask them to leave negative feedback for the seller. A few bad ratings could go a long way. Maybe set up a web page and have them link that URL in their feedback.
I like the idea of sticking with lizard names too. Also, I'd like to avoid the duplicate name for the sake of Googling. I've always hated trying to search for stuff with overused words...Access, Word, C, etc. Firebird wouldn't be as bad, but why add to the problem?
Or just leave the browser as Mozilla and name the mail and other utilities something else.
I wouldn't want to play GTA online. Can you imagine an online world where 1% of the city's inhabitants drove normally and the other 99% were maniacs with guns? That makes it more like Quake, and takes the fun out of GTA, IMHO.
I guess saying it would be easy was a bit much, but with a 'real' coalition of countries, it would probably have been possible to get some resolution through. Perhaps by getting real support from Russia and China, France might have been persuaded to abstain.
I agree that the veto power of the permanent members on the security council is pretty stupid. It's like five countries put themselves in charge and the other members are just for show.
Come on. There are only two other countries putting troops on the ground. The U.S. government has to make it look like we have a lot of support, but if that was the case, getting UN support should have been easy.
1 3, 87~11268~1259840,00.html
http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,14
I hope the war is brief and Iraq benefits in the short and long term. But I still think the war was premature.
Interesting analysis. I'm no fan of the governments of any of those countries, nor of what they've done to their own people. I just think it's bad policy for the U.S. to do this more-or-less on their own. Iraq was very unlikely to distribute bio/chem weapons to terrorists while the whole world was keeping an eye on them.
You'll quash the problems in Iraq and piss off some group in Syria or Indonesia, etc. who will take their place.
I was reading Yahoo this morning and found this quote from a Bush advisor:
I guess this means that once we beat up Iraq, we'll invade North Korea. Iran and Cuba aren't far behind.
As an independent software developer, I cringe every time I read about a new software patent. It scares me that I can sit down and code something and not know if I've infringed on a patent. I don't have an army of lawyers to make sure I haven't infringed, or to defend against someone who just claims I have infringed.
Aren't patents supposed to promote invention and science? As far as software is concerned, I think they're slowing us down.
California will now be able to buy more copies of Oracle.
I have a 1997 SL2 and it's just as quiet as the other small cars we drove around the time we bought it.
:(
Here's some collision photos, though they're higher impact then you're referring to, I think. For small impacts the panels pop right back, though you can scratch the paint.
Unfortunately, Saturn is integrating themselves more and more with GM. There's even talk of a non-polymer panel vehicle in a couple years.
Now, why should UPS and FedEx get out of paying profit, gas, and employee taxes? Are they taxed more because they're shippers?
I don't think they're taxed more. I just think it's double taxation. If I have to pay sales tax on a shipment, plus the shipping fee (into which FedEx/UPS's taxes are built), I'm basically paying tax twice for the same thing. Not to mention the taxes I paid on my income in the first place.
Sometimes I think the patchwork US/state/local tax system is a deliberate attempt to confuse people into not knowing how much of their money really goes to taxes.
After reading the article, I didn't think this was too big a deal since it was basically requiring big retailers who set up their website as a separate 'organization' to charge sales taxes for states they were in. But now, I'm thinking that the agreement said they were going to charge for every state regardless of physical presence. That would begin the slipperly slope of getting online customers 'used' to paying sales tax.
I'm concerned that the big boys are going to work it out for themselves, and the little online shops (several of whom I develop websites for) will get screwed by having to pay for 'tax tables' or 'approved software' that will run us out of business.
Since the states will be getting sales taxes now, will they be willing to refund the taxes that UPS and FedEx pay (profit, gas, employee taxes, etc.)?
Guess I got lucky on this one, since I remember mine being able to shoot. I probably still have it in a storage box somewhere, crushed by other old toys. Probably a few $ in there if I could get around to organizing and eBaying it.
I remember waiting weeks for the Boba Fett with the firing missile, and how pissed I was that it wouldn't shoot. I kept trying to make it shoot, looking for a button, moving the arms to trigger it. :(
I also remember playing with a land-speeder for weeks before I could get any figures to go in it (parents should've gone for that early-bird thing), and also how upset it was when I lost Chewbacca's gun in the dark 70s shag carpet, never to be seen again!
In my day :), we had no wi-fi, so I would sit in the back of unimportant classes and do the school paper's crossword puzzle. I was quiet and didn't bother anyone, and was just there in case something important came up like a test date or critical part of a lecture.
That seems reasonable to me for many of the undergrad courses I took, which I only took because they were requirements.
At any rate, professors were being paid with my money...they shouldn't care if I skipped class or did the crossword or surfed the net as long as I didn't disturb any of the other students.
It's a good book and it's going to make a great movie.
This is my main complaint with the Crichton books in the past 10 years. All of the ones I read are basically movie scripts "disguised" as books. I read The Great Train Robbery (one of his books from the 70s) a couple years ago, and it was much better writing.
I recently got a cheap Handspring Visor and found this site for reading books with the cool Plucker browser.
It's old stuff, but it's free.
Maybe it'll start in the police and fire departments first. Our local newspaper currently has this poll on their website:
Do you favor law enforcement departments selling advertising space on their work vehicles as a means of offsetting costs?
I can see it now: the owner of the local Pizza Hut talking his way out of a ticket because his logo is on the squad car.
Has this thing called a "number portability surcharge." I called once to ask what it was. Basically, it allows me to keep my phone number if I switch to another phone company. This is a land-line, mind you, and gee, our small town has a monopoly phone company! Who am I going to switch to?
This stuff makes me want to start a competitor just for spite.
Credit Unions are great. The only downside with mine is that it's out-of-state, which means you can't find an ATM that won't charge you (instead I do a $100 cash withdrawal on your debit card at Wal-mart after buying a couple bucks worth of stuff).
I kept them, even after moving out of their state, because they're such an improvement on any bank.
I rented a car a few years ago in San Diego. We had to bring it back 'full'. This was the first car I had ever driven where the fuel gauge needle dropped quickly right after you filled the tank. On the other hand, my truck's needle stays above full for about 40 miles. This one was significantly below F less than 20 miles from where I filled up.
The rental company took it upon themselves to charge me for 2 gallons at $3.99 a gallon! They slipped it by me too, since we were in a hurry for our flight.
Fortunately a later complaint got the charges removed, but they probably slip it by lots of people. Makes me wonder if they special-ordered the car with the gauges set that way.
Here's my photo attempt from last year.
Use fast film and a large aperture lens to try to get photos of single meteors with stars as points. Use slower film (and longer exposures) to get star trails. That might be easier since you never know when the meteors will appear (last year I only saw about 100/hour for a couple hours).
You also have to watch out for dew condensing on your lenses. It might also be a good idea to keep your camera bag in the garage for a couple hours to let the camera and lenses cool down.
The U.S. government seems to be very inconsistent about providing public-domain information over the web. I wish they'd settle on a policy, hopefully of making everything I paid for wity my taxes freely available!
I didn't know about PubScience, but I have spent time trying to access USGS map data over the web. This data is a pain to find. The USGS has "business partners" who only make the data available for a fee. I generally have to track down the data state-by-state, from state-based agencies who make the data available for free (though they sometimes apply different licenses to the orignal USGS data), and some states aren't available.
In addition, I recently wanted to research the results of a class-action lawsuit on the U.S. Federal Courts website. It turns out that you can't do that easily. You have to register, wait 2 weeks for them to snail-mail you an access account, and if you look at too many pages (more than $10 worth), you get billed.
These agencies need a consistent data-distribution policy, and then with that, they'd be more immune to individual attacks by the SIIA and other deep-pocket lobby groups.
In my opinion, states are already making money off catalog and Internet sales. These items have to be delivered, typically by a national shipping company. States tax the delivery company's profits, tax the fuel for their vehicles, and tax the wages of the employees. That's got to be more than a few $. I'm also willing to be you'll find a tax-paying e-commerce company in every state in the country, and probably catalog companies as well.
So what it comes down to, the greedy state governments want more...big surprise.
802.11 is still a consideration...I'm still planning things. I'm a little paranoid about the security though.
:)
This is all a project to be completed when my real work slows down.