Just as an argument on the air-conditioner side of things-- this device can't generate energy unless there's a temperature difference between the wearer's body temp and the outside temp. If you were in an environment where it's hot enough for an air conditioner to be worthwhile, chances are the temp difference between yourself and the outside world won't be enough to make any sort of air conditioner run. If the outside temperature is equal to your body temperature, the device is incapable of generating power. If the temperature outside is greater than that of your body, you have to be able to *absorb* more heat into your body in order to generate the power to run an air conditioner, which would make you pretty damn hot.
Heh, a world trade law... I'm sure the US will find some way of ensuring that foreign-origin spam can't enter the country, but they'll force other countries to accept domestic-origin spam.
Your credit card provider doesn't help you, the small losses they get are covered by fees and interest rates. If it were a major problem, then Visa or Mastercard would close eBay's accounts.
What power do Visa and Mastercard have over eBay? eBay's not a vendor, after all. eBay's credit card transactions aren't fraudulent in any way-- eBay only has their auction fees, and eBay's not actively defrauding people-- the frauds are individuals.
Stores can prevent shoplifting by strip searching you all at the exit, but you won't go back. So, they tolerate a certain amount of "inventory shrinkage".
What the heck? That's the first I've ever heard about that. Back when I was working retail, one of the lessons in the RadioShack Canada's Store Operating Manual is that we have to be *excruciatingly* careful how we deal with suspected shoplifters. Bottom line is that the people exiting the store do NOT have to stop for you, and if you make a citizen's arrest without actually witnessing the suspect attempting to steal something (ie, without concrete proof), the suspect can sue your store/company. One of our competitors was successfully sued for $75000 in the 1980s for stopping a guy they thought was shoplifting-- they stopped the guy, called the police, and when the police arrived and searched the guy (the store's employees were adamant that he was a thief), they found that he hadn't stolen a thing. Then came lawsuit time, and the guy won a large settlement. The Radio Shack that I worked for never ever ever ever called the police for suspected shoplifters-- my boss would confront would-be thieves *inside* the store (as they were leaving, so no theft had actually taken place yet), and simply asked that they return the merchandise, which they always did. No unwanted lawsuits against us, and not much inventory shrinkage. The inventory shrinkage that existed was a tax write-off anyhow, so it wasn't an overburdening cost.
Now, if we'd tried to strip search *anybody*, even people we were absolutely convinced were shoplifters, we'd be in a whole world of trouble-- only the police can perform strip searches, and only in special circumstances-- not every suspect can be strip searched, and in some cases, the police can't even pat-down a suspect.
Currently at UBC we have 4.5 monthly hours of free dialup time included in our tuition. Any university student can use one of the ethernet ports in the libraries, provided they have a dialup account. Time/bandwidth when connected at a library is currently free, and those ports are underused (seems not many students can afford laptops).
Next year UBC will start charging for bandwidth for laptop users in libraries-- apparently they're unhappy with the people in the dorms who're using Napster, so the people who connect in the libraries (me) get to pay for bandwidth for checking email. They haven't set the fees yet.
It's a good thing I have plenty of bandwidth on my cable connection at home!
Slashdot Mirror
Just as an argument on the air-conditioner side of things-- this device can't generate energy unless there's a temperature difference between the wearer's body temp and the outside temp. If you were in an environment where it's hot enough for an air conditioner to be worthwhile, chances are the temp difference between yourself and the outside world won't be enough to make any sort of air conditioner run. If the outside temperature is equal to your body temperature, the device is incapable of generating power. If the temperature outside is greater than that of your body, you have to be able to *absorb* more heat into your body in order to generate the power to run an air conditioner, which would make you pretty damn hot.
Heh, a world trade law... I'm sure the US will find some way of ensuring that foreign-origin spam can't enter the country, but they'll force other countries to accept domestic-origin spam.
What power do Visa and Mastercard have over eBay? eBay's not a vendor, after all. eBay's credit card transactions aren't fraudulent in any way-- eBay only has their auction fees, and eBay's not actively defrauding people-- the frauds are individuals.
What the heck? That's the first I've ever heard about that. Back when I was working retail, one of the lessons in the RadioShack Canada's Store Operating Manual is that we have to be *excruciatingly* careful how we deal with suspected shoplifters. Bottom line is that the people exiting the store do NOT have to stop for you, and if you make a citizen's arrest without actually witnessing the suspect attempting to steal something (ie, without concrete proof), the suspect can sue your store/company. One of our competitors was successfully sued for $75000 in the 1980s for stopping a guy they thought was shoplifting-- they stopped the guy, called the police, and when the police arrived and searched the guy (the store's employees were adamant that he was a thief), they found that he hadn't stolen a thing. Then came lawsuit time, and the guy won a large settlement. The Radio Shack that I worked for never ever ever ever called the police for suspected shoplifters-- my boss would confront would-be thieves *inside* the store (as they were leaving, so no theft had actually taken place yet), and simply asked that they return the merchandise, which they always did. No unwanted lawsuits against us, and not much inventory shrinkage. The inventory shrinkage that existed was a tax write-off anyhow, so it wasn't an overburdening cost.
Now, if we'd tried to strip search *anybody*, even people we were absolutely convinced were shoplifters, we'd be in a whole world of trouble-- only the police can perform strip searches, and only in special circumstances-- not every suspect can be strip searched, and in some cases, the police can't even pat-down a suspect.
Next year UBC will start charging for bandwidth for laptop users in libraries-- apparently they're unhappy with the people in the dorms who're using Napster, so the people who connect in the libraries (me) get to pay for bandwidth for checking email. They haven't set the fees yet.
It's a good thing I have plenty of bandwidth on my cable connection at home!