It's a hearing to determine the penalty for Microsoft now that they have been found guilty.
Actually, it isn't a penalty; it's a remedy. The judge isn't supposed to punish Microsoft for breaking anti-trust law; she's supposed to impose a remedy that will "undo" the damage that has been done.
That doesn't mean minors are prohibited from acquiring credit cards; it means credit card companies are prohibited from compelling minors to pay the bill when it comes due.
My resume is so big, people are actually starting to doubt that I really have actual working experience to back up that huge list of tools.
You should tailor your résumé to your audience. For example, an all-Microsoft shop will have less interest in your Unix experience. If they think something is light, you can mention it during the interview. I've also gotten into the habit of omitting anything I didn't enjoy. For example, I have a fair amount of FoxPro experience, but unless it comes down to work or poverty, no prospective employer will ever find out about it.
I can't believe I'm about to get into an argument about some silly eye candy, but...
And if you had eyes you'll notice before that they pulled a bug out of his chest with a mechanical device... "Jesus! that thing's real?..." think about that for a second... why would they need such a proceedure for a "virtual" bug?
The agents can't be everywhere at once. At this point in the movie, the only reason they show any interest in Neo at all is because they're after Morpheus, and Morpheus seems to be interested in Neo. Remember: Morpheus' plugged-in life was as a hacker, and he continues to operate in that fashion. The agents are like the Matrix's sysadmins. The set up a "packet sniffer" to monitor the next likely point of attack (that's why Switch holds a gun on Neo; she's afraid whatever agent is monitoring the bug will jump into his body). Also, Neo doesn't understand about the Matrix at this point, so take any claim he makes about reality with a grain of salt. If you watch the two previous scenes, things are set up to appear to Neo that the whole bug incident was a nightmare. He's understandably surprised to find that it wasn't. Since the Matrix is illusory (I was surprised no one in the movie used the VR metaphor; it must not be the "in" term), some things are metaphorical, the bug being the most obvious. I took the mechanical doo-dad used by Trinity to be another metaphor for some kind of hacker tool.
Furhtermore, why would they be in the same room with him using equipment when *their* actual location is on the ship along with the would-be equipment doing the job?
I can't give much of a response to this; some of the virtual equipment doesn't even appear to get used! They mention some babble about how the pill helps them find his physical location by modifying his physiology. Maybe (and I'll admit this is a stretch) they need to compare his reactions between the simulated version at a known "location" to his real version at an unknown location to find a match.
Plus being hurt in the Matrix causes real injury? What are they running this on? A Mac? Talk about WYSIWYG?
WYSIWYG, indeed. I guess that's just a way to explain how people in the Matrix (absent any rebels) can die of anything other than old age. Car accidents, disease, etc.; they went with the old stand-by that perception is reality.
Personally, I don't understand why you need a telephone to "log off", and why only certain ones are valid. Surely they aren't transferring their consciousness out of their body every time they enter the Matrix?
I mean besides making its priests more dangerous by denying them normal sexual outlets.
Please point me to a study suggesting that celibacy leads to pedophilia. I'm fairly confident no such thing exists, but I'll give you the opportunity to correct me.
As a proprietary software provider, I would be forced to open my protocols.
As a software customer, I can add whatever terms and conditions to the sale I want: "I want the software I purchase to have open protocols." If your software doesn't meet those conditions, I go somewhere else and find software that does. I haven't forced you to do anything, except look elsewhere for a customer.
Mere production of software does not entitle you to my business nor that of the Peruvian government.
Interestingly, there has been a story (on NPR?) today mentioning how credit card companies have been quietly updating the terms in their credit card contracts. Supposedly, buried in there is an agreement that if the credit card user has a dispute with the credit card company, he may no longer sue them outright and instead agrees to use binding arbitration.
You (or perhaps NPR) have odd definitions for the words "quietly" and "buried". In addition to the little legalese-filled pamphlet (labelled "Important Amendment to Your Cardmember Agreement Regarding Binding Arbitration"), my statement had a sentence right under the balance reading, "Please read the enclosed amendment to your cardmember agreement; it contains important information about binding arbitration." In addition, the statement I received just yesterday had a sentence under the balance reading, "You should have received an amendment to your cardmember agreement with last month's statement regarding binding arbitration; if you did not, please call our customer service center to have a copy sent to you."
I have five credit cards, and they are all absolutely shouting about binding arbitration.
My congratulations to you; that's a rare thing anymore, it seems. I'm curious: How long did it take you to pay off so much money? I figure that if I put 30% of my gross monthly income into debt payment, I'll be pretty much in the clear in another four to five years (one credit card paid off last month; another one within the next two months!). I probably have some more fat I can trim from the budget, but I'm just not noticing it, or something like that (living alone, I don't have an outside viewpoint).
What kind of leverage did you use to renegotiate? Far as I can see now, they simply don't have too change your interest. Any advice?
In my case, all I did was ask. The first one I called was high interest, high balance. They must've figured their income was relatively safe, because they didn't hesitate to accommodate me.
The next one was high interest, low balance (but high limit). They agreed to lower my permanent rate if I did a balance transfer, too. I decided this was a reasonable trade.
It looks like that as long as you make payments on time and don't exceed your limit, they tend to be rather reasonable. I guess it also helps if you've been with them for a long time. They seemed to like the fact I'd had the same account for 7+ years.
> it _does_ put a mark on your credit for 7 >years, much like bankruptcy.
Baloney. It puts a mark on your credit record exactly like a loan. Which is exactly what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.
True. But the important thing to consider is that interpreting a credit report is still somewhat subjective, and many creditors are apt to see a consolidation loan as a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. In that light, a consolidation loan might work against you.
BTW, anyone who is earning that kind of wage and still living from paycheck to paycheck is, well, a fscking idiot.
I resent that. Yes, I was an idiot (back in college), racking up a lot of credit card debt. I now find myself paying off all of that, plus a hefty student loan to boot. I do quite well for myself (not $60K, to be sure), but quite frankly, the minimum monthly payments on my outstanding debts swallow just about every penny I take home (well, that which isn't taken by rent, utilities, etc.).
Your advice is definitely sound, and I'm working on building up my rainy-day fund, but it's going to take a while, and meantime, I'm vulnerable.
All I'm trying to say is, some of us are no longer idiots, but still manage to find ourselves in this position.
Yeah, I remember that article! Penn's articles were always amusing, but I never understood why he was writing for a computer magazine. My personal favorite was the spell-checker article.
Thats why race can play a card in some IQ test questions, and highly-functional autistic people can learn how to get high IQ scores if they learn exceptionally well.
That's really more a function of "teaching the test." A lot of states have instituted standardized tests to try and create a uniform level of education, but the end-result is more frequently that curriculum becomes a preparation for the test. I can pass any test, given sufficient advance knowledge of the content. And IIRC, the original purpose of IQ test (wa-a-ay back in the day) was to identify people with learning disabilities. In other words, only the low-end scores were of any importance.
The most misunderstood concept in our scociety is the measure of our scocietal awarness, I find it slightly amusing.
Interesting. Perhaps everyone assumes the knowledge to be implicit. Oh, and not to nitpick, but there is only one C in "society."
Strategy games are a different calibur, and I don't even want to think how much time I've spent playing Civ, Civ2, Masters of Orion, and the like. But they have very different requirements in terms of hardware (although most of the RTS's are now getting high system requirements like FPS's do).
Holy cow! You're comparing Return to Castle Wolfenstein to the original Civilization? Yeah, I think the system requirements will be a tad different, seeing as the one is ten years old (IIRC: DOS 2.11 on an 8088 or better, EGA or better graphics, 640K RAM, 3MB HD (optional), mouse (optional), sound card (optional)).
Assuming IQ means anything at all, it measures ones potential for learning, not one's current knowledge. Thus, crumbz' statement is potentially valid so long as geography affects public education, which is does, though indirectly.
Pornographic pictures of children creates a market for..pornographic pictures of children.
That doesn't make any sense. How can a market spawn itself?
The reason a market exists for the real stuff is that there are people out there who demand it. Besides, as the Court pointed out in its opinion, the only reason the government can make the real stuff illegal w/o running afoul of the 1st amendment is that a separate crime has to be committed in order for it to be created (i.e., sexual exploitation of children). Absent this predicate crime, the whole argument falls apart.
I usually stop playing such a game when vision of said game appear in my sleep
See me and just about anyone else with a 386 and the original Civilization. Wow, I want to sue to get my 4th year of University back!:)
Bah! You want to talk about wasted time? I played Civ on an 8088 w/o a hard drive. It took an hour just to randomly generate the world map. I, too, lost entire weekends, etc., but only got to play a third as many games.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a hearing to determine the penalty for Microsoft now that they have been found guilty.
Actually, it isn't a penalty; it's a remedy. The judge isn't supposed to punish Microsoft for breaking anti-trust law; she's supposed to impose a remedy that will "undo" the damage that has been done.
That doesn't mean minors are prohibited from acquiring credit cards; it means credit card companies are prohibited from compelling minors to pay the bill when it comes due.
Like with masturbation -- you can go blind if you do it too much.
I hope you're being Facetious.
My resume is so big, people are actually starting to doubt that I really have actual working experience to back up that huge list of tools.
You should tailor your résumé to your audience. For example, an all-Microsoft shop will have less interest in your Unix experience. If they think something is light, you can mention it during the interview. I've also gotten into the habit of omitting anything I didn't enjoy. For example, I have a fair amount of FoxPro experience, but unless it comes down to work or poverty, no prospective employer will ever find out about it.
Nah. Environmental activists will the process tied up in courts for at least three centuries.
Actually, it's until proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
I can't believe I'm about to get into an argument about some silly eye candy, but...
And if you had eyes you'll notice before that they pulled a bug out of his chest with a mechanical device... "Jesus! that thing's real?..." think about that for a second... why would they need such a proceedure for a "virtual" bug?
The agents can't be everywhere at once. At this point in the movie, the only reason they show any interest in Neo at all is because they're after Morpheus, and Morpheus seems to be interested in Neo. Remember: Morpheus' plugged-in life was as a hacker, and he continues to operate in that fashion. The agents are like the Matrix's sysadmins. The set up a "packet sniffer" to monitor the next likely point of attack (that's why Switch holds a gun on Neo; she's afraid whatever agent is monitoring the bug will jump into his body). Also, Neo doesn't understand about the Matrix at this point, so take any claim he makes about reality with a grain of salt. If you watch the two previous scenes, things are set up to appear to Neo that the whole bug incident was a nightmare. He's understandably surprised to find that it wasn't. Since the Matrix is illusory (I was surprised no one in the movie used the VR metaphor; it must not be the "in" term), some things are metaphorical, the bug being the most obvious. I took the mechanical doo-dad used by Trinity to be another metaphor for some kind of hacker tool.
Furhtermore, why would they be in the same room with him using equipment when *their* actual location is on the ship along with the would-be equipment doing the job?
I can't give much of a response to this; some of the virtual equipment doesn't even appear to get used! They mention some babble about how the pill helps them find his physical location by modifying his physiology. Maybe (and I'll admit this is a stretch) they need to compare his reactions between the simulated version at a known "location" to his real version at an unknown location to find a match.
Plus being hurt in the Matrix causes real injury? What are they running this on? A Mac? Talk about WYSIWYG?
WYSIWYG, indeed. I guess that's just a way to explain how people in the Matrix (absent any rebels) can die of anything other than old age. Car accidents, disease, etc.; they went with the old stand-by that perception is reality.
Personally, I don't understand why you need a telephone to "log off", and why only certain ones are valid. Surely they aren't transferring their consciousness out of their body every time they enter the Matrix?
*Sigh* I need to get a life.
Of course not: we can't be discriminating against topologists, now can we? ;-)
I mean besides making its priests more dangerous by denying them normal sexual outlets.
Please point me to a study suggesting that celibacy leads to pedophilia. I'm fairly confident no such thing exists, but I'll give you the opportunity to correct me.
As a proprietary software provider, I would be forced to open my protocols.
As a software customer, I can add whatever terms and conditions to the sale I want: "I want the software I purchase to have open protocols." If your software doesn't meet those conditions, I go somewhere else and find software that does. I haven't forced you to do anything, except look elsewhere for a customer.
Mere production of software does not entitle you to my business nor that of the Peruvian government.
Interestingly, there has been a story (on NPR?) today mentioning how credit card companies have been quietly updating the terms in their credit card contracts. Supposedly, buried in there is an agreement that if the credit card user has a dispute with the credit card company, he may no longer sue them outright and instead agrees to use binding arbitration.
You (or perhaps NPR) have odd definitions for the words "quietly" and "buried". In addition to the little legalese-filled pamphlet (labelled "Important Amendment to Your Cardmember Agreement Regarding Binding Arbitration"), my statement had a sentence right under the balance reading, "Please read the enclosed amendment to your cardmember agreement; it contains important information about binding arbitration." In addition, the statement I received just yesterday had a sentence under the balance reading, "You should have received an amendment to your cardmember agreement with last month's statement regarding binding arbitration; if you did not, please call our customer service center to have a copy sent to you."
I have five credit cards, and they are all absolutely shouting about binding arbitration.
I'm now debt free.
My congratulations to you; that's a rare thing anymore, it seems. I'm curious: How long did it take you to pay off so much money? I figure that if I put 30% of my gross monthly income into debt payment, I'll be pretty much in the clear in another four to five years (one credit card paid off last month; another one within the next two months!). I probably have some more fat I can trim from the budget, but I'm just not noticing it, or something like that (living alone, I don't have an outside viewpoint).
What kind of leverage did you use to renegotiate? Far as I can see now, they simply don't have too change your interest. Any advice?
In my case, all I did was ask. The first one I called was high interest, high balance. They must've figured their income was relatively safe, because they didn't hesitate to accommodate me.
The next one was high interest, low balance (but high limit). They agreed to lower my permanent rate if I did a balance transfer, too. I decided this was a reasonable trade.
It looks like that as long as you make payments on time and don't exceed your limit, they tend to be rather reasonable. I guess it also helps if you've been with them for a long time. They seemed to like the fact I'd had the same account for 7+ years.
> it _does_ put a mark on your credit for 7
>years, much like bankruptcy.
Baloney. It puts a mark on your credit record exactly like a loan. Which is exactly what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.
True. But the important thing to consider is that interpreting a credit report is still somewhat subjective, and many creditors are apt to see a consolidation loan as a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. In that light, a consolidation loan might work against you.
BTW, anyone who is earning that kind of wage and still living from paycheck to paycheck is, well, a fscking idiot.
I resent that. Yes, I was an idiot (back in college), racking up a lot of credit card debt. I now find myself paying off all of that, plus a hefty student loan to boot. I do quite well for myself (not $60K, to be sure), but quite frankly, the minimum monthly payments on my outstanding debts swallow just about every penny I take home (well, that which isn't taken by rent, utilities, etc.).
Your advice is definitely sound, and I'm working on building up my rainy-day fund, but it's going to take a while, and meantime, I'm vulnerable.
All I'm trying to say is, some of us are no longer idiots, but still manage to find ourselves in this position.
Toledo, Ohio charges 0.75% sales tax to pay for public transit.
Perhaps this is more to your liking?
Yeah, I remember that article! Penn's articles were always amusing, but I never understood why he was writing for a computer magazine. My personal favorite was the spell-checker article.
Thats why race can play a card in some IQ test questions, and highly-functional autistic people can learn how to get high IQ scores if they learn exceptionally well.
That's really more a function of "teaching the test." A lot of states have instituted standardized tests to try and create a uniform level of education, but the end-result is more frequently that curriculum becomes a preparation for the test. I can pass any test, given sufficient advance knowledge of the content. And IIRC, the original purpose of IQ test (wa-a-ay back in the day) was to identify people with learning disabilities. In other words, only the low-end scores were of any importance.
The most misunderstood concept in our scociety is the measure of our scocietal awarness, I find it slightly amusing.
Interesting. Perhaps everyone assumes the knowledge to be implicit. Oh, and not to nitpick, but there is only one C in "society."
Strategy games are a different calibur, and I don't even want to think how much time I've spent playing Civ, Civ2, Masters of Orion, and the like. But they have very different requirements in terms of hardware (although most of the RTS's are now getting high system requirements like FPS's do).
Holy cow! You're comparing Return to Castle Wolfenstein to the original Civilization? Yeah, I think the system requirements will be a tad different, seeing as the one is ten years old (IIRC: DOS 2.11 on an 8088 or better, EGA or better graphics, 640K RAM, 3MB HD (optional), mouse (optional), sound card (optional)).
Assuming IQ means anything at all, it measures ones potential for learning, not one's current knowledge. Thus, crumbz' statement is potentially valid so long as geography affects public education, which is does, though indirectly.
Pornographic pictures of children creates a market for..pornographic pictures of children.
That doesn't make any sense. How can a market spawn itself?
The reason a market exists for the real stuff is that there are people out there who demand it. Besides, as the Court pointed out in its opinion, the only reason the government can make the real stuff illegal w/o running afoul of the 1st amendment is that a separate crime has to be committed in order for it to be created (i.e., sexual exploitation of children). Absent this predicate crime, the whole argument falls apart.
More and more I see that the core of the OSS community is made up of fucking morons.
I would like to issue two polite challenges to this statement:
Lynch's version RaWkEd,...
That's an interesting view, considering even Lynch hated the way it turned out. To each their own, I suppose.
I usually stop playing such a game when vision of said game appear in my sleep
See me and just about anyone else with a 386 and the original Civilization. Wow, I want to sue to get my 4th year of University back! :)
Bah! You want to talk about wasted time? I played Civ on an 8088 w/o a hard drive. It took an hour just to randomly generate the world map. I, too, lost entire weekends, etc., but only got to play a third as many games.