To be fair, they did hand out a fuckload of tshirts at e3 one year. A friend and I also hassled their developers about their "so I buy a $800 console, pay you $40 a month and get some crappy games, at which point I can buy other games for more than they cost for other consoles, download the dvd sized images and a letter from my isp for excess bandwidth usage and I don't even get a damn box" business model. That was fun.
I'm pretty sure that the labour party hasn't been the only one passing stupid laws in the past 20 years, but yeah, some of the labour mps (especially the knife ban ones) are fucking whiny idiots.
GP here and I do recognize that a bit of investigation may be warranted in a clearance case (blackmail and all that), but with the current situation and backlog for clearances, a felony arrest will essentially disqualify you (at least 4 the ext 5 years or so)
BMW had (has?) a toolkit in the lid of every trunk that contained pretty much everything necessary for general maintenance. Found that was incredibly helpful if you needed to do something instead of hunting down the goddamn tools.
Ahh, yes, but you see, Part IV ('Dispersal of groups etc') of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives the police powers to disperse groups of two or more persons in any public place if their presence "has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed".
("God save the king" not necessary) The sheep in the uk will just go along with it though.
Plus lets me honest here, the UK police force right now has bigger issues. They shot a guy in the head 8 times for "being a terrorist", when he was totally innocent and now they're getting done on Healthy and safety instead of murder charges they deserve.
Don't forget about the massive coverup that they threw up, which slowly crumbled until it was shown that basically evey wiord they said about the case in the two weeks or so was a lie. Or that they apparantly took 30 seconds to fire 11 shots...
But hell over with Mr Blair's favourite friend in Washington people are being sent to a "camp" which is beyond the juristriction of all law and can come from much less evidential grounds than the ASBOs and people are trying to avoid basic decency provisions such as the Geneva convention.
The USA has the exact same thing - even being arrested for a crime (not convicted, and even if your record is expunged) can/will prevent you from sitting as a juror. Being arrested will get you your very own FBI file. Being arrested for a felony will cause tons of problems if you decide to try and get secret or top secret clearance down the line. Seizures of "drug money" (cars, houses, etc) without trial are an everyday occurence.
Well, you sat by and did nothing when they took your guns, while at the same time arming their police officers with MP5's and posting snipers on the rooftops of public buildings. You sat by and let your government introduce internment without trial You let your government suspend the use of jury trials when they feel like it. You let your government has post video cameras on every corner and said nothing when they staffed them with perverts. Your government lets the police get away with murder even when they engage in a massive cover-up / criminal conspiracy (take you pick) - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5186050.stm (pats of) Your government wants to pass a law that punishes carrying anything for self defense (for example - a swiss army knife) with a mandatory 5 years in prison and a good portion of your fellow countrymen think that it is a good idea. So, really, this isn't the thing that should be getting you upset. And, given your history, it shouldn't surprising that your government is using asbos in an arbitrary fashion either.
What I don't understand is why all the big computer makers don't say "Up yours, Microsoft" and just start throwing a nice RedHat or Ubuntu installation on their new machines. It would even make the customers' purchase price lower because they don't have to tack on the $100 license fee.
Because, with vista, they stand to make a killing in selling new machines to people who, quite frankly, don't need to (and wouldn't) replace their 2 year old 1.6ghz box with something that is a wee bit faster and has a fancier video card. Moreover, the release will create a seller's market for quite some time and profit margins will be much better for Dell and the larger oems.
I'm really begining to believe that the release of Vista is primarily to drive the sales of new hardware and make a few folks some money on the stock market. I know that is really cynical and smacks of conspiracy theories, but I would not be surprised that if we took a look back in a year, that MS made more in investments than it stands to profit from sales to the general public. Still, 80 billion is a damn steep hole to get yourself out of. It boggles the mind that they spent that much on it.
There have been dozens of third party apps that do the translucency - it hasn't caught on because it is, quite frankly, annoying and hard to read / tell the difference between a greyed out menu item and one that is not greyed out.
Quite simply, massive fraud on the part of the clearing houses. They will decline your rebate, even if it completely valid. I had logitech do this to me - I sent in 2 rebates for 2 webcams at the same time - both had the same terms and conditions and I mailed both off at the same time. Unsurprisingly, one was rejected as being sent in too late and it took me 6 months to get that $20, even with the receipt from the postal service stating when it was sent in and the delivery confirmation. Also, woe be to the person who doesn't pay $4 to send a rebate in with delivery confirmation.
Biggest problem is that there really hasn't been any punitive damages awarded against these companies. CompUSA got hit, but the vast majority of companies get away with these sort of practices, or receive minor fines that still allow them to clear a significant profit (i.e. you defrauded customers out of $90,000, we are going to fine you $10,000). I'd have no problem with a $100 fine, btw, if in the judgement was something like, "if we see you in court again, your fine will be multiplied by 100."
Actually, Staples easy rebates are really good, and compusa has shaped up a fair bit after that whole ftc thing they went through a while back. Best Buy? Still gives out freaking gift cards instead of cheques and they are about as reliable as TigerDirect in terms of rebates. Not saying that you won't get a rebate cheque from them, but you probably will have to call several times...
Actually, there has been a rash of fake sandisk cards showing up on ebay in the last few weeks. Google around. Despicable. Of course, ebay knows about the problem and yet does nothing except continue to take their 10% fee on the sale of counterfeit items... Doubt Sandisk will sue like tiffany's, although this could be a pr problem for them if it doesn't stop soon.
Approx 10% of your sale goes to ebay in terms of listing fees, closing fees or paypal fees. 10% (and it has been growing for some time with no end in sight) is a damn good incentive to switch. Start off with free auctions and free payments for a couple months. People will head over in droves - not sure if you've seen how much stuff gets listed when google offers free listings for 24 hours, but it is significantly more than average. Pretty sure that google could make a "list this ebay auction number on google auctions" applet pretty easily too. Or a "search google auctions, yahoo auctions and ebay" box. Or a "only sellers in my area" button.
If they incorporated froogle into it (oh, look ma, this seller on ebay wants more than office depot) that would be quite interesting. I'm sure that google could eliminate those who charge exorbant shipping fees too. eBay has grown arrogant and stagnant, a kick in the ass might be a good thing for them.
You'll probably be a bit depressed to learn that NASA no longer gives out car passes for launches or landings. Not sure where exactly you were, but I do recall the experience being very impressive, when I was young.
Maybe if you buy stock in UPS or FEDEX, because they look like they are making a killing. $19 to ship a saw blade? Are you fucking kidding me? (and yup, that's from a power seller)
Before the apologists chime in saying "OMG GAS IS SOO MUCH AND I HAVE TO PAY FOR PACKING MATERIAL AND THAT IS WHY SHIPPING IS $12 FOR SOMETHING THAT WEIGHS 1 POUND" - USPS will provide (and even deliver) free boxes, packing material, tape (ok, no tape anymore, people sort of abused it, but then again, they did send you 24 rolls at a time) and will pick up your packages from your doorstep if you ship priority mail. A one rate envelope ships cross country for under 4 bucks. You can't defend abusive shipping or handling costs. I'm surprised that ebay hasn't made a serious effort to get rid of these sellers, but that's probably because they make enough on paypal fees to make up for what they don't get in listing and closing fees.
Slashdot Mirror
To be fair, they did hand out a fuckload of tshirts at e3 one year. A friend and I also hassled their developers about their "so I buy a $800 console, pay you $40 a month and get some crappy games, at which point I can buy other games for more than they cost for other consoles, download the dvd sized images and a letter from my isp for excess bandwidth usage and I don't even get a damn box" business model. That was fun.
I'm pretty sure that the labour party hasn't been the only one passing stupid laws in the past 20 years, but yeah, some of the labour mps (especially the knife ban ones) are fucking whiny idiots.
*for the next* dammit, broken hand...
GP here and I do recognize that a bit of investigation may be warranted in a clearance case (blackmail and all that), but with the current situation and backlog for clearances, a felony arrest will essentially disqualify you (at least 4 the ext 5 years or so)
BMW had (has?) a toolkit in the lid of every trunk that contained pretty much everything necessary for general maintenance. Found that was incredibly helpful if you needed to do something instead of hunting down the goddamn tools.
Article about the incident in question
Ahh, yes, but you see, Part IV ('Dispersal of groups etc') of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gives the police powers to disperse groups of two or more persons in any public place if their presence "has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed".
("God save the king" not necessary)
The sheep in the uk will just go along with it though.
Plus lets me honest here, the UK police force right now has bigger issues. They shot a guy in the head 8 times for "being a terrorist", when he was totally innocent and now they're getting done on Healthy and safety instead of murder charges they deserve.
Don't forget about the massive coverup that they threw up, which slowly crumbled until it was shown that basically evey wiord they said about the case in the two weeks or so was a lie.
Or that they apparantly took 30 seconds to fire 11 shots...
But hell over with Mr Blair's favourite friend in Washington people are being sent to a "camp" which is beyond the juristriction of all law and can come from much less evidential grounds than the ASBOs and people are trying to avoid basic decency provisions such as the Geneva convention.
Please, your government had internment without trial for a number of years and they suspend the use of jury trials when they feel like it.
They're only imposed on people where it's quite obvious that they are behaving anti-socially
Riight.. They have never, ever, been abused. They'd never, for instance be used for fare dodgers, suicidal women or for a fucking cat.
Are there pink unicorns where you live or are you just an apologist cunt?
The USA has the exact same thing - even being arrested for a crime (not convicted, and even if your record is expunged) can/will prevent you from sitting as a juror.
Being arrested will get you your very own FBI file.
Being arrested for a felony will cause tons of problems if you decide to try and get secret or top secret clearance down the line.
Seizures of "drug money" (cars, houses, etc) without trial are an everyday occurence.
They have had their equivalent of tea parties, several times in fact. It's just been a while.
Well, you sat by and did nothing when they took your guns, while at the same time arming their police officers with MP5's and posting snipers on the rooftops of public buildings.
You sat by and let your government introduce internment without trial
You let your government suspend the use of jury trials when they feel like it.
You let your government has post video cameras on every corner and said nothing when they staffed them with perverts.
Your government lets the police get away with murder even when they engage in a massive cover-up / criminal conspiracy (take you pick) - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5186050.stm
(pats of) Your government wants to pass a law that punishes carrying anything for self defense (for example - a swiss army knife) with a mandatory 5 years in prison and a good portion of your fellow countrymen think that it is a good idea.
So, really, this isn't the thing that should be getting you upset.
And, given your history, it shouldn't surprising that your government is using asbos in an arbitrary fashion either.
What I don't understand is why all the big computer makers don't say "Up yours, Microsoft" and just start throwing a nice RedHat or Ubuntu installation on their new machines. It would even make the customers' purchase price lower because they don't have to tack on the $100 license fee.
Because, with vista, they stand to make a killing in selling new machines to people who, quite frankly, don't need to (and wouldn't) replace their 2 year old 1.6ghz box with something that is a wee bit faster and has a fancier video card. Moreover, the release will create a seller's market for quite some time and profit margins will be much better for Dell and the larger oems.
I'm really begining to believe that the release of Vista is primarily to drive the sales of new hardware and make a few folks some money on the stock market. I know that is really cynical and smacks of conspiracy theories, but I would not be surprised that if we took a look back in a year, that MS made more in investments than it stands to profit from sales to the general public.
Still, 80 billion is a damn steep hole to get yourself out of. It boggles the mind that they spent that much on it.
Alt tab with cool little pictures of the apps has been a powertoy for quite some time (2002 iirc). So, no, not completely new.r toys/xppowertoys.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powe
There have been dozens of third party apps that do the translucency - it hasn't caught on because it is, quite frankly, annoying and hard to read / tell the difference between a greyed out menu item and one that is not greyed out.
Quite simply, massive fraud on the part of the clearing houses. They will decline your rebate, even if it completely valid. I had logitech do this to me - I sent in 2 rebates for 2 webcams at the same time - both had the same terms and conditions and I mailed both off at the same time. Unsurprisingly, one was rejected as being sent in too late and it took me 6 months to get that $20, even with the receipt from the postal service stating when it was sent in and the delivery confirmation.
Also, woe be to the person who doesn't pay $4 to send a rebate in with delivery confirmation.
Biggest problem is that there really hasn't been any punitive damages awarded against these companies. CompUSA got hit, but the vast majority of companies get away with these sort of practices, or receive minor fines that still allow them to clear a significant profit (i.e. you defrauded customers out of $90,000, we are going to fine you $10,000). I'd have no problem with a $100 fine, btw, if in the judgement was something like, "if we see you in court again, your fine will be multiplied by 100."
Actually, Staples easy rebates are really good, and compusa has shaped up a fair bit after that whole ftc thing they went through a while back.
Best Buy? Still gives out freaking gift cards instead of cheques and they are about as reliable as TigerDirect in terms of rebates. Not saying that you won't get a rebate cheque from them, but you probably will have to call several times...
Tiger Direct, $50 rebate
Well, there's your problem right there.
Actually, there has been a rash of fake sandisk cards showing up on ebay in the last few weeks. Google around. Despicable.
Of course, ebay knows about the problem and yet does nothing except continue to take their 10% fee on the sale of counterfeit items...
Doubt Sandisk will sue like tiffany's, although this could be a pr problem for them if it doesn't stop soon.
Approx 10% of your sale goes to ebay in terms of listing fees, closing fees or paypal fees.
10% (and it has been growing for some time with no end in sight) is a damn good incentive to switch. Start off with free auctions and free payments for a couple months. People will head over in droves - not sure if you've seen how much stuff gets listed when google offers free listings for 24 hours, but it is significantly more than average.
Pretty sure that google could make a "list this ebay auction number on google auctions" applet pretty easily too.
Or a "search google auctions, yahoo auctions and ebay" box.
Or a "only sellers in my area" button.
If they incorporated froogle into it (oh, look ma, this seller on ebay wants more than office depot) that would be quite interesting. I'm sure that google could eliminate those who charge exorbant shipping fees too.
eBay has grown arrogant and stagnant, a kick in the ass might be a good thing for them.
Surely fenceBay could jack it's fees to 20% before people would start leaving...
You'll probably be a bit depressed to learn that NASA no longer gives out car passes for launches or landings. Not sure where exactly you were, but I do recall the experience being very impressive, when I was young.
:(
Link
Who says the accounts are closed? I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings?
Maybe if you buy stock in UPS or FEDEX, because they look like they are making a killing.
$19 to ship a saw blade? Are you fucking kidding me? (and yup, that's from a power seller)
Before the apologists chime in saying "OMG GAS IS SOO MUCH AND I HAVE TO PAY FOR PACKING MATERIAL AND THAT IS WHY SHIPPING IS $12 FOR SOMETHING THAT WEIGHS 1 POUND" - USPS will provide (and even deliver) free boxes, packing material, tape (ok, no tape anymore, people sort of abused it, but then again, they did send you 24 rolls at a time) and will pick up your packages from your doorstep if you ship priority mail. A one rate envelope ships cross country for under 4 bucks.
You can't defend abusive shipping or handling costs. I'm surprised that ebay hasn't made a serious effort to get rid of these sellers, but that's probably because they make enough on paypal fees to make up for what they don't get in listing and closing fees.
And if the seller has a fraudulent auction, the buyer basically has no chance of ever seeing their money again, regardless of what eBay claims.
I think I see a pattern emerging here...