I started putting all of my CDs on my computer a couple of years ago. It's neat listening to them at the computer instead of on the stereo and burning CD-RWs with 11 hours of music for long trips. But I didn't realize how handy it was until I had a poker party a few weeks ago. We used the dining room table to play poker, but there wasn't any music there. I could have used a boom box or turned the stereo up, but I had a much better option.
I pulled out my laptop, hooked up some old speakers, and programed 10 hours of random jazz. Then I set the whole thing above the kitchen cabinets out of the way.
With my DVDs and captures on the computer, I can pull them up and watch them anywhere I want, whenever I want, however I want. No searching through collections and worrying about getting them dirty or scratched.
And I can burn all of the episodes to DVD for backup.
As long as I can remember, I have had to buy airline and bus tickets and give someone my name. And as long as I can remember, such tickets where not transferable.
People who want to travel anonymously are in the minority and I don't really give a f*ck about them nor their perceived expectations. It's just like the guy in Portland Maine who wanted to prove he had a right to carry a firearm in public, and choose an outdoor, family oriented festival to prove it.
Yea... it's hard work typing www.bbc.co.ukinstead of www.foxnews.com. Oh wait, no it's not. www.bbc.co.uk has 2 fewer letters in it.
Or news.google.com, it has just as many letters as fox news.
I think you are confusing censorship with propaganda. Propganda is when the governemnt colors the truth and the media reports it because they don't know of anything else. Censorship is shutting down newspapers that refuse to print the propaganda or print stories in contradiction to it. I seem to recall many news articles reporting on the not-so-silver lining of the war, as they continue to do so.
It's obvious you have never had to integrate large-scale money transfer systems. First off, what is the max transfer rate?? 56KB?? Modern EFT transfers don't just send dollars, they send information. Ever notice all that description data that shows up in your bank statement when you do an EFT payment?
Transfer of just dollars can have over 500,000 transfers in them, and at 96 bytes/rec. With all the extra overhead records this creates a file over 50MB. Doing the math, that seems like over 2 1/2 hours using a 56KB modem(50MB/5600bytes/sec approx throughput), provided you don't lose the line. Phone transfers longer than 20 minutes are not reliable. Trying to meet a Federal Reserve deadline for transfers only to have your phone disconnect after 45 minutes is not good for business.
The truth of the matter is that many of these large transfers already take place using encryption over frame relay lines. Over the last few years, companies such as Clareon (now part of Fleet Bank) started to provide mechanisms for businesses to move hundreds of millions of dollars using the Internet.
Moving to the Internet is just the next logical step to cut costs. Go to the Federal Reserve Financial Services site for way too much information on the services offered.
Keep me from removing my air bag? I think not, this method presents nothing that a drill and appropriate sized bit can't resolve. Make the fastener internal so it's not exposed?? Carbide or diamond cutting wheels and torches can take care of that little problem? I'm taking it apart, who needs to put it back together again!
Never under estimate the ability to take something apart that was not designed to be taken apart.
What a freakin riot. It's refreshing to find someone that can poke the appropriate amount of fun at both parties without getting too wrapped up any moore.
The swf file can be found here so you don't have to deal with the ads and can save it on your own drive. Show the corporate types what the Internet is all about, sharing.
As I recall, products are not assigned UPC codes, companies are. The first half of a UPC code is the company. They can use the last half in whatever manner they deem fit.
But I haven't worked with bar codes for about 10 years, I could have remembered that wrong.
There is a difference between a law and law enforcement. It is possible to make some action illegal, yet not provide for any punishment or remediation. The law provides the ability to take action if there is some proof that a crime has been commited. Then it is up to a court to determine if the crime was actually commited and what steps are to be taken based on the punishment outlined by the law. If no one chooses to take action, or there are no means to enforce it, it just becomes some lines in a musty book.
You are absolutly correct in pointing out the flaw in my simple example. A better example might be that the check was misplaced, and then later found. Or there might have been a contract or invoice in which case it will be up to the check issuer to prove payment. Once it has been shown a check as been issued, then further action can be taken.
I doubt if either of us knows exactly why all those names are in the paper and what percentage is for what reason. I do know for a fact that at least some of those names in the state of Maine are there because people do not deposit or cahs checks that companies issue and that companies are audited on a regular basis to ensure that they are turning in checks that are not cashed.
BTW --- why do you think the banks turn that money over to the state?? Do you think they are generous and want to do the right thing?? Those funds are deemed abandoned property, just like non-cashed checks. Banks have to follow a minimum set of guidelines to track down those account owners, after which time they must turn the funds over to the state.
The US has a very complicated legal and distribution system regarding checks and how they work. You can write a check nn California and have it clear a bank in New York within 3-4 days and 3000 miles later. Our postal system doesn't work that well half the time.
This ease of use has been one of barriers to electronic cash acceptance. Checks are tactile and almost everyone takes them with a driver's license (well, at least if you don't make a habit of writing bad checks, we also have widespread databases with bad checks in them that all the stores access at checkout time.) It has taken years for people to warm up to using debit cards. This year the Federal Reserve figures show that personal check usage is down significantly. Again, in an interesting twist, ATM usage is also starting to go down as debit and credit card begin to become more accepted. ATM machines may become a thing of the past, along with cash, as younger people start to adapt to a cashless society.
Cash isn't always great either. I worked at a retail store one Christmas selling stereos. A man came in dressed like anyone else, and bought an Onkyo stereo for around $1000 dollars and paid with cash, mostly $100 bills but some 20s. I verified the 100s weren't counterfeit and got to joking with him about the cash because it is very unusual for someone to pay cash for large purchases. He told me that he was a captain on one of the freighters in the harbor (their stereo bit the big one). I don't remember where he was from, but he said there was so much counterfit money there that no one would accept new bills, they had to be old and wrinkled.
Ahhhh....the days of bank tutorials. What constitues a check.
In theory, a US check has to have these things:
The person or entity to whom the check is issued
The amount of the check
The date the check is issued
The account number
The bank the check is drawn on
The signature of the person issuing the check
I think that's right, it has been 20 years since I went through orientation, and 15 years since I worked at a bank.
Checks don't have to be on fancy safety paper, have the amount in both words and numbers, the routing number, or the name/address/phone number of the issuer.
If I wrote you a 'check' that had the above items on a piece of toilet paper, you could take it to your bank and attempt to deposit it. They would probably refuse, citing some type of bank regulation. But the real reason is either that they don't want to get stuck with a bad check or they don't want to have to deal with getting it through the Federal Reserve system. When you deposit a check in your bank, you are not presenting it for cash, you are signing it over to them. It becomes their check at that point. They are under no legal obligation to accept any check, but they will because checks are a more secure way of moving cash around than cash and it is to their benefit becase they want other banks to accept their checks.
Now that your bank has refused to cash that check, you come to my bank. They don't have to give you the money right away, they can take steps to verify the check is valid. The most obvious way is to compare the signiture on the check to the one they have on file.
Now I'm scared. I know way more about this stuff than any sane person should.
I agree one hundred percent with your comment. I don't think the intent of this US law is to make me pony up money to the government just because somebody forgets about a check.
However, that somebody still has the check, so if they came forward 5 years after the fact, they could make a case that I still owe them the money and take steps to recover it. It would be interesting to see how the courts would process it.
Everything in most companies is documented so there is that proof. Payroll runs and bank statements are in file cabinets. Most companies also keep records of outstanding checks so they can balance their accounts.
One company I worked for had an employee who would not cash his payroll checks until he needed the money. It was not unusual for this guy to have checks outstanding for months, for some bizarre reason. The company would continually be pestering him to cash his checks, and the only time they were guaranteed he would was just before the 6 months were up and they would tell him they were going to give the money to the government.
I guess he trusted the State of Ohio less than banks.
This check was before court ordered child support when I was sending my then soon-to-be-ex money to live on. I was trying to make a joke. Obviously I did not do a good job.
I can't speak to this individual, but often times there are rules about when and how stock can be sold. For instance, if a company goes public, it is often 3-6 months before employees can cash in their stock, and as much as a year before executives. I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar restrictions in effect in this case.
I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't restrictinos either either, but things like this are often 'negotiated' as part of termination settlements. 'You don't sue us, we give you $100M in stock, but you can't sell it for a year.'.
It is illegal in this country to issue a check without the funds to back it up. As long as the check is outstanding, there is a legal responsibility to maintain the balance of an account to support all outstanding items. You can collect interest on it, but you cannot spend it. A check is not a contract in this country, it is negotiable instrument, payable to the bearer. That is why you cannot write 'paid in full' on the memo line and have it honored.
Consider what you are suggesting a little different. You write me a check for $1000, but I lose it. You refuse to cancel the check and issue another because it would cost $12. I'm out $1000, but you keep the money. In this country, after 6 months, you have to turn that money over to the state government, who I can then go to get it. In fact, they have a legal responsibility to track me down. Every month, the local newspapers carry a couple of pages asking people whose names are on those pages to call the goverment to get their money. This law protects both parties by helping settle disputes over the status of a check. There are groups of people that comb those lists and offer help to people to claim that money for a fee, which is legal if not unethical since they can call the government and get it without a fee.
The basis behind the law is the concept of abandoned property. If you see a car alongside the road, and it sits there for a few months, you can't just drive it off. The government will come along, find the serial number or registration, and track the owner down. (That happened to a friend of mine who abandoned his car, and he ended up owing 4 months storage fees plus towing plus a fine.) The same goes if you find a wallet full of money, you cannot legally keep it.
If I fail to cash that check, it becomes abandoned and the government becomes the responsible party in order to settle any dispute of ownership. If I give the check back to you, or sign it over to someone else, the ownership passes on. In fact, when I deposit the check, the check becomes the property of the bank and they give me cash to take it. The only time I actually get your cash is if I go to your bank.
Now, there is one catch. Check issuers can put a stop payment notice on a check at which time the check becomes null. Anyone who is smart will put a stop payment on any check over a couple of months old. Then it is up to the bearer of the check to resolve any issues, and there are another whole set of laws governing that.
What is the value of a company's software offering??
What is the value of a company's workforce??
What is the value of a company's real estate holdings and other physical objects(factories, offices, computers, chairs, etc.)?
The answer? Whatever someone is willing to pay and who is asking. If the government is asking in order to calculate taxes, then the computers are all broken down, the real estate is over valued, the factories need to be refurbished, and no one wants the software. If it is an invester, then it is exactly the opposite. A company's balance sheet only holds part of the equation.
I'm not an accounting or investing expert, but from my limited experience, companies, their investors, and the boards know EXACTLY how many options are out there, who has them and how many more can be offered. Otherwise, they couldn't make deals. They know EXACTLY what they were valued at when they were initially issued. Private companies just don't know what they are worth at any other given point in time. It's a lot easier for public companies, since their value is public record for any point in time.
Stock options do impact the cash position of a company, but not in the way you think.
In privately held companies, stock is issued depending on the perceived value of the company and what monies investors have put up. While there is no true value, this stock is an indication of what percentage an investor 'owns' in a company. If the company is sold, the proceeds are split up depending on the stock ownership. It is not uncommon in those instances too for all options to become immediatly vested, the same is true of an IPO event.
As part of the intial funding, it is not uncommon for companies to set a specific amount of stock to be issued for internal use, often with very specific vesting periods to entice employees to stay. When employees leave, they are often required to excercise those options within a specific period or they are lost. When excercised, those funds are then made available back to the company. Of course, an employee can buy options at any time once they are vested, but I don't know if any reason to do so in a private company since there is no one to sell them to. I can see a reason for 'expensing' these options so that the later funds received offset them.
Now, here is where it gets fun. After an initial investing round, companies are often enticed by other investers or pursue new ones, and the games begin. The new investors try to convice the company that the company is not worth that much so they can get a bigger percentage of the company. The current investors don't want that to happen because whenever someone buys in after they have, their shares get 'diluted' because new shares have to be issued. Someone who owned 10% of all shares now only own 9.1% because 10% more shares were issued to the new investor to get their $50M.
The current investors want the money from the new ones, but they don't want it at the risk of losing a significant percentage of ownership. Of course, this can all be easily dealt with if everyone who invested before chips in, but even that is fraught with one-upmanship games.
In a roundabout way, this game the companies cash position. The number of stock issued (including options), their perceived value, and the future perceived worth of a company all impact the ability for companies to entice new investors. While this cash position is not tangible, it is very real and can make or break a company. If the company needs cash but has over extended its stock, it makes it very easy for a new investor to come in and set their own terms, sometimes diluting current shares to the point they are not worth anything.
Why not use the existing check laws as a guide? IANAL, but I believe in most states, a check left uncashed after 6 months can be deemed abandoned property.
I have worked for both banks and wrote payroll software. Banks treat checks being redeemed that are more than 6 months old as 'dead checks' and have policies about not honoring them. Our company in Maine regularly had state auditors review the books to make sure we were turning in all monies for payroll and accounts payable checks older than 6 months that were still outstanding. It then becomes the state's job to find these people or businesses. Only after a period of time (I don't know what period that is) does it become state funds.
This applies to personal checks also. In theory, if you send your ex-wife a check and she doesn't cash it after 6 months, you are supposed to notify the state and give them the money. Not that that has ever happened to me that I am aware of or have any remaining records.
Ever see those lists of names in papers asking people to contact your friendly state government?? Now you know where some of them come from. I don't know if it is such a huge windfall, the state spends a lot of money auditing books and advertising to find these people, and I'm sure a lot of entrepeners spend a lot of time trying to convince people that they can 'find lost money' for a cut. It would be very interesting to see what amounts states actually end up with.
I didn't go to college, yet my yearly income puts me into the upper middle-class range. My personal opinion is that formal college degrees are a waste of time for people that are smart and are willing to work hard. (Although I think technical colleges are vastly underrated and that for some careers, like medicine, college is unavoidable.) I go to where I am today by working hard, learning how to discuss, accept and support decisions made by others even when I disagree with them.
Remember that no one is indespensible no matter how good you are or how much you know. Now that you know that, be prepared to take on any task your boss asks. I remember licking envelopes when I was a programmer back in the 80s because the bank needed it done.
Second off, whatever you do, do it the best you can. A few years ago, I was loaned out as a consultant to a partner company for some vague technical skills task, but when I got there I found out all they needed was someone to sit in meetings and take minutes and publish them. Some people might have felt that it was beneath them. But if they were willing to pay my company $100/hour for my taking minutes, they were going to be the best damned minutes anyone had ever seen. After awhile, because I offered up opinions during meetings, people mentioned that I was over-qualified. But then I mentioned the above comment about the best damned minutes, and they were absolutley grateful that I was doing the task I was because the needed it done, and they were the best damned meeting minutes anyone had done. They repeatedly told my company's CIO and CEO what a great employee I was. Was I sucking up?? Maybe. But I got paid the same regardless. It was only for 3 months, and it was the most stress-free 3 months in my entire career. Besides, those CIOs and CEOs are the ones that decide who stays and goes during layoffs.
Thirdly, don't let them take advantage of you and be honest if they try. I've been through the 80 hour work weeks and was very honest with my boss about how long I was willing to do so. He pushed it, and I pushed back, albiet very lightly. I eventually left, but it was very cordial and he called me back from time to time to ask if I needed a job. That was very handy when I was laid off several years later.
Fourth, don't whine. If something is broke, offer up the problem and a solution to whoever is in charge. It's one thing to go to your manager and whine about the project being late, it's another to point out why it is going to be late, and what needs to be done to correct it. Whiners get ignored and become a pain in the arse.
Lastly, when opportunities present themselves to advance, grab them even if it means shifting careers. I started out as an office clerk, but jumped at a computer operator position, then started learning COBOL for my next jump. In my current job, I am the go-to guy when no one else can fix a problem because over the last 25 years I kept current with programing languages, took sys admin, network admin, telecom admin and database admin responsibilities in different systems and learned them all. Now, I can get all these folks into a room whenever there is a finger-pointing problem and keep them there until the problem is fixed. That is very valuable; I am known around the company as the guy you can't BS and my CEO knows that not only am I the guy to get things fixed, I am also the one who can do the work if needed no matter where the problem is. Guess who will not get laid off the next round.
Should you go to college?? If you want to, go. If you want to go into debt up to your eyeballs go ahead. There's nothing wrong with that and it might help you get a great job in 4 years. But if you are as bright as you think you are then get an entry position anywhere that offers tuition reimbursement and be the best warehouse/factory/secretary or whatever you can be. Take all the night courses you can on their dime, then watch the internal job postings and apply for anything you might be qualified for that improves your sal
I have been using Sun servers for years, and I will be the first to admit that for pur cost/CPU horsepower, the big boxes are very, very expensive when compared to the 2-12 CPU boxes.
You don't buy a 72 way box for pure CPU horsepower if you can distribute the work across multiple boxes.
Given that, there are many companies that feel that one 72 way box is cheaper to operate than the corresponding number of smaller boxes. I personally don't agree with that arguement, but I have worked for companies that subscribe to it.
You will also never get the same performance using six 12-way boxes that you can get from one 72-way box. The bus speeds and I/O throughput capabilities are much higher.
I have never seen an application that requires that extra boost and can jusitify the additional cost, but the capacity is there regardless.
I have supported many remote sites. If I needed to add hardware, I called the vendor. For one company, I never had to visit the remote sites at all. Local talent was contracted to do network stuff, and HP did the hardware end.
For the other (Sun systems), I did all the network stuff, and visited the remote site about once every 3-6 months. It was a new system, and we occasionaly re-worked the network for the first couple of years. We also did a couple of hardware swaps ourselves because we were able to, there would have been no reason not to have Sun do it.
There is no reason why a skilled admin in the United States, India, China, Brazil, or wherever cannot maintain a remote site anywhere in the world with the appropriate support structure. 99% of what a sys admin does has nothing to do with hardware itself.
If you find that you are having to constantly touch hardware, then I would look at whatever hardware vendor you are using and get a different one.
From what I have heard, there are two issues with the optical scanner method:
The forms tend to have lots of misreads due to stray marks on the paper. Not a big deal, go get another one and do it again. In Maine, you were allowed to request up to three do-overs, at which point it was at the descretion of the poll workers whether or no you got another form
Kinda hard to use if you are blind....
My personal opinon is I loved them. They were anonymous after the votes were cast, read electronically so that the initial counts were quick, but could be read manually to verify election counts.
I had several replies, but they all said something similar.
I tried to raise the suggestion that when people have no clue at all what the words format, data, or erasing mean, having the choice is a pointless affair. Obviously, everyone who responded understood these choices and I would agree that we would be able to respond to those dialog boxes (which I believe the original post pointed out).
It was not an endorsement of CLI over GUI, or even the other way around. Mearly an observation that arguments about GUIs being intuitive are cast aside when the unknowing show up.
Reminds me of the first hardware upgrade I experienced. We traded our big NCR box with dials and lots switches and lights for a new one without dials, switches, or lights. When we showed up on Saturday to test it, the guys who installed it had turned it off. The only button we could find had a I/O symbol on it. So we pressed it. Nothing happened. So we pressed it again. Still, nothing happend. No lights, no fans, no noise at all. We dug out the manuals and everything, and could not find any instructions about turning it on. Finally, I hit the button again and walked away. About 60 seconds later, the machine came on.
Today I know that the symbol was not I/O, but 1/0 for on/off (if they had put a cap on the one or a slash through the 0 we might have figured it out a little better). Hence, not having the knowledge made the icon useless. Pressing it twice turned it on and then back off again. Pressing it blindly without knowing it took 60 seconds for the machine to come on (POST testing I guess) did limited good. Only be accident did we figure out what the icon meant.
What does this round icon with a lightening bolt do.
<Click>
What does 'Formating C drive, Select Yes or No' mean??
<Click>
I don't know what it's doing, but it's 5% done.
You can get a better score on a true/false test than a 'Select A, B, C, or D' using random selections. The more choices, the higher the chance of selecting a wrong one.
If you have limited computer background, icons, menus, and dialog boxes can help with choices and can help people cross OS boundries a lot easier, or learn the next version.
Without that frame of reference, the choices mean nothing.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not about laziness, it's about options.
I started putting all of my CDs on my computer a couple of years ago. It's neat listening to them at the computer instead of on the stereo and burning CD-RWs with 11 hours of music for long trips. But I didn't realize how handy it was until I had a poker party a few weeks ago. We used the dining room table to play poker, but there wasn't any music there. I could have used a boom box or turned the stereo up, but I had a much better option.
I pulled out my laptop, hooked up some old speakers, and programed 10 hours of random jazz. Then I set the whole thing above the kitchen cabinets out of the way.
With my DVDs and captures on the computer, I can pull them up and watch them anywhere I want, whenever I want, however I want. No searching through collections and worrying about getting them dirty or scratched.
And I can burn all of the episodes to DVD for backup.
As long as I can remember, I have had to buy airline and bus tickets and give someone my name. And as long as I can remember, such tickets where not transferable.
People who want to travel anonymously are in the minority and I don't really give a f*ck about them nor their perceived expectations. It's just like the guy in Portland Maine who wanted to prove he had a right to carry a firearm in public, and choose an outdoor, family oriented festival to prove it.
He was a self-righteous a**hole too.
Yea ... it's hard work typing www.bbc.co.ukinstead of www.foxnews.com. Oh wait, no it's not. www.bbc.co.uk has 2 fewer letters in it.
Or news.google.com, it has just as many letters as fox news.
I think you are confusing censorship with propaganda. Propganda is when the governemnt colors the truth and the media reports it because they don't know of anything else. Censorship is shutting down newspapers that refuse to print the propaganda or print stories in contradiction to it. I seem to recall many news articles reporting on the not-so-silver lining of the war, as they continue to do so.
It's obvious you have never had to integrate large-scale money transfer systems. First off, what is the max transfer rate?? 56KB?? Modern EFT transfers don't just send dollars, they send information. Ever notice all that description data that shows up in your bank statement when you do an EFT payment?
Transfer of just dollars can have over 500,000 transfers in them, and at 96 bytes/rec. With all the extra overhead records this creates a file over 50MB. Doing the math, that seems like over 2 1/2 hours using a 56KB modem(50MB/5600bytes/sec approx throughput), provided you don't lose the line. Phone transfers longer than 20 minutes are not reliable. Trying to meet a Federal Reserve deadline for transfers only to have your phone disconnect after 45 minutes is not good for business.
The truth of the matter is that many of these large transfers already take place using encryption over frame relay lines. Over the last few years, companies such as Clareon (now part of Fleet Bank) started to provide mechanisms for businesses to move hundreds of millions of dollars using the Internet.
Moving to the Internet is just the next logical step to cut costs. Go to the Federal Reserve Financial Services site for way too much information on the services offered.
And as I recall I had complete access to those news sites from the US, and visited them often.
Kinda makes your censorship argument a little weaker, doesn't it.....it doesn't make it go away, but it does make it weaker.
Keep me from removing my air bag? I think not, this method presents nothing that a drill and appropriate sized bit can't resolve. Make the fastener internal so it's not exposed?? Carbide or diamond cutting wheels and torches can take care of that little problem? I'm taking it apart, who needs to put it back together again!
Never under estimate the ability to take something apart that was not designed to be taken apart.
What a freakin riot. It's refreshing to find someone that can poke the appropriate amount of fun at both parties without getting too wrapped up any moore.
The swf file can be found here so you don't have to deal with the ads and can save it on your own drive. Show the corporate types what the Internet is all about, sharing.
Maybe the nurse wouldn't be happy, but the patients would. I always like a hot nurse when I'm sick.
... couldn't resist.
Sorry
As I recall, products are not assigned UPC codes, companies are. The first half of a UPC code is the company. They can use the last half in whatever manner they deem fit.
But I haven't worked with bar codes for about 10 years, I could have remembered that wrong.
There is a difference between a law and law enforcement. It is possible to make some action illegal, yet not provide for any punishment or remediation. The law provides the ability to take action if there is some proof that a crime has been commited. Then it is up to a court to determine if the crime was actually commited and what steps are to be taken based on the punishment outlined by the law. If no one chooses to take action, or there are no means to enforce it, it just becomes some lines in a musty book.
You are absolutly correct in pointing out the flaw in my simple example. A better example might be that the check was misplaced, and then later found. Or there might have been a contract or invoice in which case it will be up to the check issuer to prove payment. Once it has been shown a check as been issued, then further action can be taken.
I doubt if either of us knows exactly why all those names are in the paper and what percentage is for what reason. I do know for a fact that at least some of those names in the state of Maine are there because people do not deposit or cahs checks that companies issue and that companies are audited on a regular basis to ensure that they are turning in checks that are not cashed.
BTW --- why do you think the banks turn that money over to the state?? Do you think they are generous and want to do the right thing?? Those funds are deemed abandoned property, just like non-cashed checks. Banks have to follow a minimum set of guidelines to track down those account owners, after which time they must turn the funds over to the state.
The US has a very complicated legal and distribution system regarding checks and how they work. You can write a check nn California and have it clear a bank in New York within 3-4 days and 3000 miles later. Our postal system doesn't work that well half the time.
This ease of use has been one of barriers to electronic cash acceptance. Checks are tactile and almost everyone takes them with a driver's license (well, at least if you don't make a habit of writing bad checks, we also have widespread databases with bad checks in them that all the stores access at checkout time.) It has taken years for people to warm up to using debit cards. This year the Federal Reserve figures show that personal check usage is down significantly. Again, in an interesting twist, ATM usage is also starting to go down as debit and credit card begin to become more accepted. ATM machines may become a thing of the past, along with cash, as younger people start to adapt to a cashless society.
Cash isn't always great either. I worked at a retail store one Christmas selling stereos. A man came in dressed like anyone else, and bought an Onkyo stereo for around $1000 dollars and paid with cash, mostly $100 bills but some 20s. I verified the 100s weren't counterfeit and got to joking with him about the cash because it is very unusual for someone to pay cash for large purchases. He told me that he was a captain on one of the freighters in the harbor (their stereo bit the big one). I don't remember where he was from, but he said there was so much counterfit money there that no one would accept new bills, they had to be old and wrinkled.
In theory, a US check has to have these things:
- The person or entity to whom the check is issued
- The amount of the check
- The date the check is issued
- The account number
- The bank the check is drawn on
- The signature of the person issuing the check
I think that's right, it has been 20 years since I went through orientation, and 15 years since I worked at a bank.Checks don't have to be on fancy safety paper, have the amount in both words and numbers, the routing number, or the name/address/phone number of the issuer.
If I wrote you a 'check' that had the above items on a piece of toilet paper, you could take it to your bank and attempt to deposit it. They would probably refuse, citing some type of bank regulation. But the real reason is either that they don't want to get stuck with a bad check or they don't want to have to deal with getting it through the Federal Reserve system. When you deposit a check in your bank, you are not presenting it for cash, you are signing it over to them. It becomes their check at that point. They are under no legal obligation to accept any check, but they will because checks are a more secure way of moving cash around than cash and it is to their benefit becase they want other banks to accept their checks.
Now that your bank has refused to cash that check, you come to my bank. They don't have to give you the money right away, they can take steps to verify the check is valid. The most obvious way is to compare the signiture on the check to the one they have on file.
Now I'm scared. I know way more about this stuff than any sane person should.
I agree one hundred percent with your comment. I don't think the intent of this US law is to make me pony up money to the government just because somebody forgets about a check.
However, that somebody still has the check, so if they came forward 5 years after the fact, they could make a case that I still owe them the money and take steps to recover it. It would be interesting to see how the courts would process it.
Everything in most companies is documented so there is that proof. Payroll runs and bank statements are in file cabinets. Most companies also keep records of outstanding checks so they can balance their accounts.
One company I worked for had an employee who would not cash his payroll checks until he needed the money. It was not unusual for this guy to have checks outstanding for months, for some bizarre reason. The company would continually be pestering him to cash his checks, and the only time they were guaranteed he would was just before the 6 months were up and they would tell him they were going to give the money to the government.
I guess he trusted the State of Ohio less than banks.
This check was before court ordered child support when I was sending my then soon-to-be-ex money to live on. I was trying to make a joke. Obviously I did not do a good job.
I can't speak to this individual, but often times there are rules about when and how stock can be sold. For instance, if a company goes public, it is often 3-6 months before employees can cash in their stock, and as much as a year before executives. I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar restrictions in effect in this case.
I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't restrictinos either either, but things like this are often 'negotiated' as part of termination settlements. 'You don't sue us, we give you $100M in stock, but you can't sell it for a year.'.
It is illegal in this country to issue a check without the funds to back it up. As long as the check is outstanding, there is a legal responsibility to maintain the balance of an account to support all outstanding items. You can collect interest on it, but you cannot spend it. A check is not a contract in this country, it is negotiable instrument, payable to the bearer. That is why you cannot write 'paid in full' on the memo line and have it honored.
Consider what you are suggesting a little different. You write me a check for $1000, but I lose it. You refuse to cancel the check and issue another because it would cost $12. I'm out $1000, but you keep the money. In this country, after 6 months, you have to turn that money over to the state government, who I can then go to get it. In fact, they have a legal responsibility to track me down. Every month, the local newspapers carry a couple of pages asking people whose names are on those pages to call the goverment to get their money. This law protects both parties by helping settle disputes over the status of a check. There are groups of people that comb those lists and offer help to people to claim that money for a fee, which is legal if not unethical since they can call the government and get it without a fee.
The basis behind the law is the concept of abandoned property. If you see a car alongside the road, and it sits there for a few months, you can't just drive it off. The government will come along, find the serial number or registration, and track the owner down. (That happened to a friend of mine who abandoned his car, and he ended up owing 4 months storage fees plus towing plus a fine.) The same goes if you find a wallet full of money, you cannot legally keep it.
If I fail to cash that check, it becomes abandoned and the government becomes the responsible party in order to settle any dispute of ownership. If I give the check back to you, or sign it over to someone else, the ownership passes on. In fact, when I deposit the check, the check becomes the property of the bank and they give me cash to take it. The only time I actually get your cash is if I go to your bank.
Now, there is one catch. Check issuers can put a stop payment notice on a check at which time the check becomes null. Anyone who is smart will put a stop payment on any check over a couple of months old. Then it is up to the bearer of the check to resolve any issues, and there are another whole set of laws governing that.
What is the value of a company's software offering??
What is the value of a company's workforce??
What is the value of a company's real estate holdings and other physical objects(factories, offices, computers, chairs, etc.)?
The answer? Whatever someone is willing to pay and who is asking. If the government is asking in order to calculate taxes, then the computers are all broken down, the real estate is over valued, the factories need to be refurbished, and no one wants the software. If it is an invester, then it is exactly the opposite. A company's balance sheet only holds part of the equation.
I'm not an accounting or investing expert, but from my limited experience, companies, their investors, and the boards know EXACTLY how many options are out there, who has them and how many more can be offered. Otherwise, they couldn't make deals. They know EXACTLY what they were valued at when they were initially issued. Private companies just don't know what they are worth at any other given point in time. It's a lot easier for public companies, since their value is public record for any point in time.
To your last point, I definitely agree.
Stock options do impact the cash position of a company, but not in the way you think.
In privately held companies, stock is issued depending on the perceived value of the company and what monies investors have put up. While there is no true value, this stock is an indication of what percentage an investor 'owns' in a company. If the company is sold, the proceeds are split up depending on the stock ownership. It is not uncommon in those instances too for all options to become immediatly vested, the same is true of an IPO event.
As part of the intial funding, it is not uncommon for companies to set a specific amount of stock to be issued for internal use, often with very specific vesting periods to entice employees to stay. When employees leave, they are often required to excercise those options within a specific period or they are lost. When excercised, those funds are then made available back to the company. Of course, an employee can buy options at any time once they are vested, but I don't know if any reason to do so in a private company since there is no one to sell them to. I can see a reason for 'expensing' these options so that the later funds received offset them.
Now, here is where it gets fun. After an initial investing round, companies are often enticed by other investers or pursue new ones, and the games begin. The new investors try to convice the company that the company is not worth that much so they can get a bigger percentage of the company. The current investors don't want that to happen because whenever someone buys in after they have, their shares get 'diluted' because new shares have to be issued. Someone who owned 10% of all shares now only own 9.1% because 10% more shares were issued to the new investor to get their $50M.
The current investors want the money from the new ones, but they don't want it at the risk of losing a significant percentage of ownership. Of course, this can all be easily dealt with if everyone who invested before chips in, but even that is fraught with one-upmanship games.
In a roundabout way, this game the companies cash position. The number of stock issued (including options), their perceived value, and the future perceived worth of a company all impact the ability for companies to entice new investors. While this cash position is not tangible, it is very real and can make or break a company. If the company needs cash but has over extended its stock, it makes it very easy for a new investor to come in and set their own terms, sometimes diluting current shares to the point they are not worth anything.
Why not use the existing check laws as a guide? IANAL, but I believe in most states, a check left uncashed after 6 months can be deemed abandoned property.
I have worked for both banks and wrote payroll software. Banks treat checks being redeemed that are more than 6 months old as 'dead checks' and have policies about not honoring them. Our company in Maine regularly had state auditors review the books to make sure we were turning in all monies for payroll and accounts payable checks older than 6 months that were still outstanding. It then becomes the state's job to find these people or businesses. Only after a period of time (I don't know what period that is) does it become state funds.
This applies to personal checks also. In theory, if you send your ex-wife a check and she doesn't cash it after 6 months, you are supposed to notify the state and give them the money. Not that that has ever happened to me that I am aware of or have any remaining records.
Ever see those lists of names in papers asking people to contact your friendly state government?? Now you know where some of them come from. I don't know if it is such a huge windfall, the state spends a lot of money auditing books and advertising to find these people, and I'm sure a lot of entrepeners spend a lot of time trying to convince people that they can 'find lost money' for a cut. It would be very interesting to see what amounts states actually end up with.
I didn't go to college, yet my yearly income puts me into the upper middle-class range. My personal opinion is that formal college degrees are a waste of time for people that are smart and are willing to work hard. (Although I think technical colleges are vastly underrated and that for some careers, like medicine, college is unavoidable.) I go to where I am today by working hard, learning how to discuss, accept and support decisions made by others even when I disagree with them.
Remember that no one is indespensible no matter how good you are or how much you know. Now that you know that, be prepared to take on any task your boss asks. I remember licking envelopes when I was a programmer back in the 80s because the bank needed it done.
Second off, whatever you do, do it the best you can. A few years ago, I was loaned out as a consultant to a partner company for some vague technical skills task, but when I got there I found out all they needed was someone to sit in meetings and take minutes and publish them. Some people might have felt that it was beneath them. But if they were willing to pay my company $100/hour for my taking minutes, they were going to be the best damned minutes anyone had ever seen. After awhile, because I offered up opinions during meetings, people mentioned that I was over-qualified. But then I mentioned the above comment about the best damned minutes, and they were absolutley grateful that I was doing the task I was because the needed it done, and they were the best damned meeting minutes anyone had done. They repeatedly told my company's CIO and CEO what a great employee I was. Was I sucking up?? Maybe. But I got paid the same regardless. It was only for 3 months, and it was the most stress-free 3 months in my entire career. Besides, those CIOs and CEOs are the ones that decide who stays and goes during layoffs.
Thirdly, don't let them take advantage of you and be honest if they try. I've been through the 80 hour work weeks and was very honest with my boss about how long I was willing to do so. He pushed it, and I pushed back, albiet very lightly. I eventually left, but it was very cordial and he called me back from time to time to ask if I needed a job. That was very handy when I was laid off several years later.
Fourth, don't whine. If something is broke, offer up the problem and a solution to whoever is in charge. It's one thing to go to your manager and whine about the project being late, it's another to point out why it is going to be late, and what needs to be done to correct it. Whiners get ignored and become a pain in the arse.
Lastly, when opportunities present themselves to advance, grab them even if it means shifting careers. I started out as an office clerk, but jumped at a computer operator position, then started learning COBOL for my next jump. In my current job, I am the go-to guy when no one else can fix a problem because over the last 25 years I kept current with programing languages, took sys admin, network admin, telecom admin and database admin responsibilities in different systems and learned them all. Now, I can get all these folks into a room whenever there is a finger-pointing problem and keep them there until the problem is fixed. That is very valuable; I am known around the company as the guy you can't BS and my CEO knows that not only am I the guy to get things fixed, I am also the one who can do the work if needed no matter where the problem is. Guess who will not get laid off the next round.
Should you go to college?? If you want to, go. If you want to go into debt up to your eyeballs go ahead. There's nothing wrong with that and it might help you get a great job in 4 years. But if you are as bright as you think you are then get an entry position anywhere that offers tuition reimbursement and be the best warehouse/factory/secretary or whatever you can be. Take all the night courses you can on their dime, then watch the internal job postings and apply for anything you might be qualified for that improves your sal
I have been using Sun servers for years, and I will be the first to admit that for pur cost/CPU horsepower, the big boxes are very, very expensive when compared to the 2-12 CPU boxes. You don't buy a 72 way box for pure CPU horsepower if you can distribute the work across multiple boxes.
Given that, there are many companies that feel that one 72 way box is cheaper to operate than the corresponding number of smaller boxes. I personally don't agree with that arguement, but I have worked for companies that subscribe to it.
You will also never get the same performance using six 12-way boxes that you can get from one 72-way box. The bus speeds and I/O throughput capabilities are much higher.
I have never seen an application that requires that extra boost and can jusitify the additional cost, but the capacity is there regardless.
I have supported many remote sites. If I needed to add hardware, I called the vendor. For one company, I never had to visit the remote sites at all. Local talent was contracted to do network stuff, and HP did the hardware end.
For the other (Sun systems), I did all the network stuff, and visited the remote site about once every 3-6 months. It was a new system, and we occasionaly re-worked the network for the first couple of years. We also did a couple of hardware swaps ourselves because we were able to, there would have been no reason not to have Sun do it.
There is no reason why a skilled admin in the United States, India, China, Brazil, or wherever cannot maintain a remote site anywhere in the world with the appropriate support structure. 99% of what a sys admin does has nothing to do with hardware itself.
If you find that you are having to constantly touch hardware, then I would look at whatever hardware vendor you are using and get a different one.
Or get a girlfriend.....
- The forms tend to have lots of misreads due to stray marks on the paper. Not a big deal, go get another one and do it again. In Maine, you were allowed to request up to three do-overs, at which point it was at the descretion of the poll workers whether or no you got another form
- Kinda hard to use if you are blind....
My personal opinon is I loved them. They were anonymous after the votes were cast, read electronically so that the initial counts were quick, but could be read manually to verify election counts.I had several replies, but they all said something similar.
I tried to raise the suggestion that when people have no clue at all what the words format, data, or erasing mean, having the choice is a pointless affair. Obviously, everyone who responded understood these choices and I would agree that we would be able to respond to those dialog boxes (which I believe the original post pointed out).
It was not an endorsement of CLI over GUI, or even the other way around. Mearly an observation that arguments about GUIs being intuitive are cast aside when the unknowing show up.
Reminds me of the first hardware upgrade I experienced. We traded our big NCR box with dials and lots switches and lights for a new one without dials, switches, or lights. When we showed up on Saturday to test it, the guys who installed it had turned it off. The only button we could find had a I/O symbol on it. So we pressed it. Nothing happened. So we pressed it again. Still, nothing happend. No lights, no fans, no noise at all. We dug out the manuals and everything, and could not find any instructions about turning it on. Finally, I hit the button again and walked away. About 60 seconds later, the machine came on.
Today I know that the symbol was not I/O, but 1/0 for on/off (if they had put a cap on the one or a slash through the 0 we might have figured it out a little better). Hence, not having the knowledge made the icon useless. Pressing it twice turned it on and then back off again. Pressing it blindly without knowing it took 60 seconds for the machine to come on (POST testing I guess) did limited good. Only be accident did we figure out what the icon meant.
Good thing it wasn't a format button....
If you have limited computer background, icons, menus, and dialog boxes can help with choices and can help people cross OS boundries a lot easier, or learn the next version.
Without that frame of reference, the choices mean nothing.