...Microsoft has an astonishing amount of information collected from Windows Update users (none of it personally identifiable, of course).
I highly suspect Wal-Mart didn't get into the position it's in of being the largest retailer by being stupid, at least business-wise. This is the sort of project that allows them to stock a 120,000 square-foot big box store from JIT shipments every night, and why every Wal-Mart in a region looks the same. Though I would be interested to read more on the pop-tart to hurricane correlation...
Ending at 6000 Variel Ave 91367, Los Angeles Total Cost: $2.50 Estimated Travel Time: 20 Minutes
Seems to me you're missing 60 minutes somewhere in there.. (cue CBS joke) I've tried reading your post over and over and over, yet I can't find where the extra hour is coming into play. Perhaps I need to be a Slashdot subscriber to see it.
Oh, as far as live close to your office: I'd love to, but houses in Irving are $200k (unless you live south of 183, in which case they're $20k, but you get what you pay for), and my house 25 minutes away was $120k. Big difference in price there.
If you are just starting out in life, yes, you can live on $11k/year. I cannot undo the choices I have made. The house can be sold, true, but divorcing my wife and putting my kid up for adoption just because the "faceless megacorp"(tm) decides their CEO wants even more annual income? Bullshit, and I refuse to sit idly by and let myself be rolled over in the name of almighty greed.
No, I'm not unemployable. I'm employed right now, and I fully intend to stay that way. That still doesn't prevent me from squawking about the inequities in life.
My actual mortgage is $803/month. Property taxes, property insurance (both paid via escrow) and private mortgage insurance add up to make the grand total $1276/month. If I had no escrow account, my mortgage would be $856 including PMI.
The previous post did not make a distinction about moving to India or not. I said that, based on the choices I have made in this country, a salary of $11,000 per year is completely unworkable, especially if a family is calculated in.
I have made the choice to live in a 3/2 house that is considered "average" for my market. My mortgage, including all required taxes and insurance, is $1,276 per month. I make my spouse work, and we both earn the $11,000 per year which is not taxed because of our exemptions and the deduction for our one child. That is $22,000 per year.
The mortgage costs $15,312 per year, leaving us a grand total of $6,688 per year, or $557.33 per month, to spend on groceries ($250 per month if we eat ramen), energy ($160 per month to keep the house moderately heated, gas furnace), day care for the offspring since we both work ($500 per month) and money for public transportation ($80 per month for 2 full-month passes) since we obviously can't own vehicles.
That still leaves us $432.67 in the hole. If we have a grandparent watch the 4 year old every day, we are left with $67.33 each month with which to save for emergencies, potentially have a night out, buy clothing or other "nice things," etc.
Sure, it's doable, but at what true cost? That leaves no room for any of the "fun" things we theoretically go to work for. I fail to see why I should have to sacrifice being able to pay for a life above the bare necessities (note I did NOT include phone, Internet, cable/satellite television, etc) simply because I didn't make a "valid argument" for denying opportunity to others.
Your figures are WAY off, I'm terribly sorry to admit. First, we'll assume that you get to take home that entire $11k with no taxes because it's below the income witholding limit. I can knock your entire math right off the level with this one figure:
Mortgage -
$127,006 financed at 6.5% after 3% down for 30 years fixed. Property taxes (currently $3900/yr) and property insurance (currently $1019/yr) included. FHA-required mortgage insurance ($53/month) included.
Monthly: $1276 Annual: $15,312
Checking account balance: -$4132
And that's for a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in an inexpensive suburb of Dallas.
For those of us who have a family to support, and have made the "mistake" of buying into the so-called American Dream, $11,000 per year is nowhere near enough.
So Italian courts do not have the concept of precedent, where the rulings of a prior court are used as justification when a similar issue comes up again? (I.e. Person A is found not guilty in regards to modchips, but Person B can be tried again the next day and concievably be found guilty)
I'm dying to know what ISP routes a/24 across a dial-up link (no, really!). I have a couple clients for which that would be incredibly useful. Care to provide a pointer to the ISP?
I called them and they just told me "you should send a dispute letter to {address I sent it to}". I have a dated copy of the letter, which I showed several people before sending, although sadly I did not get delivery confirmation (it was to a PO Box, also).
Send it again. Also, you might take note of the following section of the "Billing Rights" portion of your credit card terms: (Emphasis mine, source)
"We must acknowledge your letter within 30 days, unless we have corrected the error by then. Within 90 days, we must either correct the error or explain why we believe the bill was correct....
After we receive your letter, we cannot try to collect any amount you question, or report you as delinquent....
If you fail to pay the amount that we think you owe, we may report you as delinquent. However, if our explanation does not satisfy you and you write to us within ten days telling us that you still refuse to pay, we must tell anyone we report you to that you have a question about your bill. And, we must tell you the name of anyone we reported you to....
If we don't follow these rules, we can't collect the first $50 of the questioned amount, even if your bill was correct."
Make their life hell tossing these requirements at them. They are part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as I recall, and must be
included with all credit card terms. Sooner or later you will either wear them down and they admit defeat, or you can take them to small claims court for your time and trouble in enforcing their duties under the law. (good luck)
Some history on Dallas TV stations, if you're truly bored or interested:
Channel 27 is owned by the same group that owns KDFW, and they re-run "Fox 4 News" at 10:30. KPXD has a deal going with channel 5, so they re-show KXAS' news at some point ("5 on PAX"). Regarding KDAF, there's some controversy over what that should have been. Common rumour has it being "K-Dallas And Fort worth."
KLDT used to be owned by televangelist Robert Tilton, and has its transmitter in Lewisville. Common reasons for its callsign are "K-Lewisville-Dallas-Television" or "K-Lake-Dallas-Television" (after the lake cities town of the same name).
KFWD used to be the Telemundo affiliate, before they switched to 39. I believe Hispanic Broadcasting now owns them.
KSTR was Home Shopping Network's entry into the broadcast "shop at home" idea, which flopped miserably. They bounced between one satellite feed or another of some teleshopping network, before Univision bought them, too. For some reason they run Dallas Stars, I guess none of the major stations wanted to pick up the license.
I would just like to say that KXTX used to be a lot better. They would do re-runs of a lot of old shows, and even some first-runs. I remember watching first-runs of Knight Rider, as well as re-runs of A-Team on that channel. For the Star Trek buffs, KTXA has always been the station that ran Star Trek for Dallas. I knew their "Star Trek manager," the guy who was in charge of everything related, and he was a fanatic about making sure station management picked up the syndex rights for every episode.
It's for Bar None (1-800-BARN-ONE, heh), a tote-the-note auto loan company. They say they've given the puppet a second chance, just like everyone "deserves a second chance on credit."
You know, I've always wondered why people never name names when they write these long treatises on how life sucks near where they live? Your story would be a lot more credible if you'd have said "I happen to live near such a city (name of city and state) -..." Instead, I'm left wondering where you're talking about and not being able to read up on it further.
Anyone remember when you could get those "Introduction to CompuServe" books off of GO BOOKS for free? They even came with a coupon for a $10 service credit in the back. I think I racked up about $250 in credits, because they didn't place a limit on how many books you could order (just one at a time, but unlimited numbers of orders).
CompUSA started to carry OEM products awhile back, funny to see those white boxed oem products on sale at a retail store.
So you mean they're returning to what they used to do. I doubt many other people do, but I remember the day when CompUSA was actually "Soft Warehouse," and was on Belt Line and Josey in Carrollton, Texas. There was also the original store in Addison down near the Tollway, but anyway.. (You do know that CompUSA, before being bought out by Groupo Sancho (I believe) is/was based in Dallas, right? Corporate HQ is at Beltline and Dallas Pkwy)
Soft Warehouse, and later CompUSA, used to be great for buying all kinds of OEM/whitebox parts, kind of like what Fry's is these days (but with generally better quality). Between CompUSA and MSC Computers (a local shop), I could find everything I needed for a custom-built machine.
Thank you! Among the people in my section of product support, it's a well-known fact that I use and administer Linux on the side. This does not cause my co-workers to label me a "heretic" or turn against me. In fact, many of them come to me when a support issue involves a flavor of Unix because of the knowledge I have.
Even my boss notices this, and compliments me on my ability to figure out particularly difficult issues that bring in several different (non-Windows) platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
Small world, ain't it? :)
...Microsoft has an astonishing amount of information collected from Windows Update users (none of it personally identifiable, of course).
I highly suspect Wal-Mart didn't get into the position it's in of being the largest retailer by being stupid, at least business-wise. This is the sort of project that allows them to stock a 120,000 square-foot big box store from JIT shipments every night, and why every Wal-Mart in a region looks the same. Though I would be interested to read more on the pop-tart to hurricane correlation...
Completely off-topic: Have you had anyone sign up for your referral thingy in your signature yet?
http://wyvern.org/images/lj/redeem.png
Of course, the filename that the image is in contains the word "promo," so it's possible ad-block software nukes it.
Just for reference, your own link says:
Ending at 6000 Variel Ave 91367, Los Angeles
Total Cost: $2.50
Estimated Travel Time: 20 Minutes
Seems to me you're missing 60 minutes somewhere in there.. (cue CBS joke) I've tried reading your post over and over and over, yet I can't find where the extra hour is coming into play. Perhaps I need to be a Slashdot subscriber to see it.
Oh, as far as live close to your office: I'd love to, but houses in Irving are $200k (unless you live south of 183, in which case they're $20k, but you get what you pay for), and my house 25 minutes away was $120k. Big difference in price there.
If you are just starting out in life, yes, you can live on $11k/year. I cannot undo the choices I have made. The house can be sold, true, but divorcing my wife and putting my kid up for adoption just because the "faceless megacorp"(tm) decides their CEO wants even more annual income? Bullshit, and I refuse to sit idly by and let myself be rolled over in the name of almighty greed.
No, I'm not unemployable. I'm employed right now, and I fully intend to stay that way. That still doesn't prevent me from squawking about the inequities in life.
My actual mortgage is $803/month. Property taxes, property insurance (both paid via escrow) and private mortgage insurance add up to make the grand total $1276/month. If I had no escrow account, my mortgage would be $856 including PMI.
The previous post did not make a distinction about moving to India or not. I said that, based on the choices I have made in this country, a salary of $11,000 per year is completely unworkable, especially if a family is calculated in.
FYI ..
36000
x 22
=======
792000
So that's $792,000, not $792,000,000. Still, that's more than enough zeroes for me.
OK, so let's test your theory as well.
I have made the choice to live in a 3/2 house that is considered "average" for my market. My mortgage, including all required taxes and insurance, is $1,276 per month. I make my spouse work, and we both earn the $11,000 per year which is not taxed because of our exemptions and the deduction for our one child. That is $22,000 per year.
The mortgage costs $15,312 per year, leaving us a grand total of $6,688 per year, or $557.33 per month, to spend on groceries ($250 per month if we eat ramen), energy ($160 per month to keep the house moderately heated, gas furnace), day care for the offspring since we both work ($500 per month) and money for public transportation ($80 per month for 2 full-month passes) since we obviously can't own vehicles.
That still leaves us $432.67 in the hole. If we have a grandparent watch the 4 year old every day, we are left with $67.33 each month with which to save for emergencies, potentially have a night out, buy clothing or other "nice things," etc.
Sure, it's doable, but at what true cost? That leaves no room for any of the "fun" things we theoretically go to work for. I fail to see why I should have to sacrifice being able to pay for a life above the bare necessities (note I did NOT include phone, Internet, cable/satellite television, etc) simply because I didn't make a "valid argument" for denying opportunity to others.
Your figures are WAY off, I'm terribly sorry to admit. First, we'll assume that you get to take home that entire $11k with no taxes because it's below the income witholding limit. I can knock your entire math right off the level with this one figure:
Mortgage -
$127,006 financed at 6.5% after 3% down for 30 years fixed. Property taxes (currently $3900/yr) and property insurance (currently $1019/yr) included. FHA-required mortgage insurance ($53/month) included.
Monthly: $1276
Annual: $15,312
Checking account balance: -$4132
And that's for a modest 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in an inexpensive suburb of Dallas.
For those of us who have a family to support, and have made the "mistake" of buying into the so-called American Dream, $11,000 per year is nowhere near enough.
So Italian courts do not have the concept of precedent, where the rulings of a prior court are used as justification when a similar issue comes up again? (I.e. Person A is found not guilty in regards to modchips, but Person B can be tried again the next day and concievably be found guilty)
I'm dying to know what ISP routes a /24 across a dial-up link (no, really!). I have a couple clients for which that would be incredibly useful. Care to provide a pointer to the ISP?
Thanks,
Wes
Move over for the old farts...
Caller Line Identification
aka. Caller ID
Send it again. Also, you might take note of the following section of the "Billing Rights" portion of your credit card terms: (Emphasis mine, source)
"We must acknowledge your letter within 30 days, unless we have corrected the error by then. Within 90 days, we must either correct the error or explain why we believe the bill was correct. ...
After we receive your letter, we cannot try to collect any amount you question, or report you as delinquent. ...
If you fail to pay the amount that we think you owe, we may report you as delinquent. However, if our explanation does not satisfy you and you write to us within ten days telling us that you still refuse to pay, we must tell anyone we report you to that you have a question about your bill. And, we must tell you the name of anyone we reported you to. ...
If we don't follow these rules, we can't collect the first $50 of the questioned amount, even if your bill was correct."
Make their life hell tossing these requirements at them. They are part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, as I recall, and must be included with all credit card terms. Sooner or later you will either wear them down and they admit defeat, or you can take them to small claims court for your time and trouble in enforcing their duties under the law. (good luck)
Some history on Dallas TV stations, if you're truly bored or interested:
Channel 27 is owned by the same group that owns KDFW, and they re-run "Fox 4 News" at 10:30. KPXD has a deal going with channel 5, so they re-show KXAS' news at some point ("5 on PAX"). Regarding KDAF, there's some controversy over what that should have been. Common rumour has it being "K-Dallas And Fort worth."
KLDT used to be owned by televangelist Robert Tilton, and has its transmitter in Lewisville. Common reasons for its callsign are "K-Lewisville-Dallas-Television" or "K-Lake-Dallas-Television" (after the lake cities town of the same name).
KFWD used to be the Telemundo affiliate, before they switched to 39. I believe Hispanic Broadcasting now owns them.
KSTR was Home Shopping Network's entry into the broadcast "shop at home" idea, which flopped miserably. They bounced between one satellite feed or another of some teleshopping network, before Univision bought them, too. For some reason they run Dallas Stars, I guess none of the major stations wanted to pick up the license.
I would just like to say that KXTX used to be a lot better. They would do re-runs of a lot of old shows, and even some first-runs. I remember watching first-runs of Knight Rider, as well as re-runs of A-Team on that channel. For the Star Trek buffs, KTXA has always been the station that ran Star Trek for Dallas. I knew their "Star Trek manager," the guy who was in charge of everything related, and he was a fanatic about making sure station management picked up the syndex rights for every episode.
It's for Bar None (1-800-BARN-ONE, heh), a tote-the-note auto loan company. They say they've given the puppet a second chance, just like everyone "deserves a second chance on credit."
23280 is associated with the following:
TIME-LIFE CUSTOMER SERVICE VA
NOT ACCEPTABLE-USE RICHMOND
Wes, from Lewisville TX.
http://www.wyvern.org/mirrors/embed/
for more: http://www.wyvern.org/mirrors.html
I think the previous poster means, do you have an SRX/Z number you'd care to share? (Some posters on Slashdot *ahem* work for Microsoft support)
Anyone remember when you could get those "Introduction to CompuServe" books off of GO BOOKS for free? They even came with a coupon for a $10 service credit in the back. I think I racked up about $250 in credits, because they didn't place a limit on how many books you could order (just one at a time, but unlimited numbers of orders).
WinCIM rocked, but nothing beats the ! prompt.
So you mean they're returning to what they used to do. I doubt many other people do, but I remember the day when CompUSA was actually "Soft Warehouse," and was on Belt Line and Josey in Carrollton, Texas. There was also the original store in Addison down near the Tollway, but anyway .. (You do know that CompUSA, before being bought out by Groupo Sancho (I believe) is/was based in Dallas, right? Corporate HQ is at Beltline and Dallas Pkwy)
Soft Warehouse, and later CompUSA, used to be great for buying all kinds of OEM/whitebox parts, kind of like what Fry's is these days (but with generally better quality). Between CompUSA and MSC Computers (a local shop), I could find everything I needed for a custom-built machine.
Even my boss notices this, and compliments me on my ability to figure out particularly difficult issues that bring in several different (non-Windows) platforms.