Any of those places (4 out of 5 of my examples) use the number for credit checks, and therefore a fake number is not likely to work.
As far as DMV, it is true that you might be able to get away with it. However, after sept 11 there has been a big crackdown on fraudulously issued driver's licenses - especially in the state I live in (PA) since there was a huge scandal about middle eastern men getting them illegally around where I live. So I wouldn't risk that either...
Yes, I am on an HMO right now, I have not had a problem with them, but then again I have not needed any (semi) exotic treatment of any kind. But I think the stories out there I have heard about HMOs (some of these stories from close friends) are pretty scary. There is no denying that - best case scenario, you're up for quite a battle, possibly in court.
As far as the medication, I hate to tell you, but you're wrong. We have the exact same medications available in Europe (and some other that are not legal in the US - yet, if ever) and they cost a fraction of the price. Why? Government control. Quite frankly, the price of prescription is way out control in the US, and there really is no justification for it, other than pure corporate greed. Government control is neccessary in the US, and in my opinion, innevitable - it's just matter of time really.
You're right about Canada, I did hear bad things about that system as well. But I don't know much more than that about it...
Almost every apartment complex is this country will want to do a credit check on you before giving you the lease, which will require a SS# among other things. I am sure there are some exception, but not a whole geographical area's (New England) worth of exceptions.
As far as utilities, they might give you service without a SS#, but you'll have to put down a deposit. Phone service is doubtful as it is not a neccessity (unless you can give medical proof that it is a neccessity) and therefore they have the right to refuse service if you don't give them the info they want.
The point you are missing, is that nobody can "require" a SS#, however, nobody is "required" to provide you service either (with some exceptions). That's the big loophole around the law.
Taxes are high in europe, there is no doubt about that. But it wouldn't be fair to blame it all on socialized medicine. There are lots of other services provided by these socialist governments. More services does means higher taxes, there is no way around that.
I would suggest that most countries that did create some sort of federal healthcare system have succeeded very well at it. As a european that has experienced this type of system first hand (I am in the US now, and now the other system as well), I can tell you pretty much the only one that has a really bad rep is the one in England... (I am sure there are others, the point is, they're in the minority rather than the majority)
The point of federal healthcare is not as much for those that can afford it but for the large majority of the people that would not have it otherwise. And by the way, for most people that can afford it (and THAT is becoming harder and harder in the US) it's mostly HMOs which is probably similar (if not worse) than most of the federal systems which you claim are so bad.
Function full well without a SSN? Not even close. The only thing you may be able to do is live in a cabin in the woods in Montana, without electricity.
You need a SS# for the following (and this is no way a complete listing):
1. work 2. get a driver's licence (in my state anyway) 3. rent an apartment/house (or get a mortgage to buy one) 4. open bank account or credit card accounts 5. get electrical/phone/gas/etc service
So, when you say "full well", maybe this needs to be qualified a bit...
The drivers are and have always been plentiful. But not always very reliable. In fact, that used to be MSFT's own defense for the Blue Screen of Death: third party drivers crapping out windows. So their solution? The whole MSFT certified drivers program, which is fine, but if I had to rely only on MSFT certified drivers I wouldn't be able to use my current video card, printer and network card (all from well known manufacturers). So, the moral of the story: MSFT can claim to have wider support for consummer hardware (not that it matters that much in the server market) but "reliability" that's another story all together...
Correct, you cannot determine a cellphone from a landline using the area code (in ANY state). You can however, tell from the exchange (first 3 digits) - I am sure there are databases out there that will tell you which exchanges are cell phone exchanges.
Sure... But we're not talking about quitting here. Just productivity. If my company does not make a reasonable attempt at keeping me somewhat happy (or at least not get out of their way to piss me off), then I am not as likely to give my 100% or do anything above and beyond.
Hmmm. No. Productivity sinks when your employees are unhappy. It's all about finding the right balance. You do want to ban MP3 servers on your lans because you don't want to be sued out of existence by the RIAA & co. but banning (or making it technically impossible) the use of the work computer for a reasonably small amount of non-business related activity is simply stupid.
I agree that a design needs to be worked out ahead of time, either in the programmer's head or on the paper (based on the complexity and requirements of the project). On the other hand, I think to write code of any other way than incrementally is stupid. I guess maybe the original poster was talking about designing incrementally as the code gets written or something, I am not too sure how that'd work anyway.
As far as UML, I don't know much about it. It seems to be kind of a rather new invention, and not being a comp sci by training (I am an EE) I am not familiar with all the buzzwords of the trade, I rely on the good old comments in the code and possibly some flow chart for documentation. Seems to work just fine. If a programmer can't enhance/maintenance of a program unless he's given UML documentation (or any documentation, really), I'd suggest he's not much of a programmer to begin with.
I guess the bottom line is that I disagree with the whole thread about what makes a good programmer. As far a testing/interviewing a programmer, I think give him a problem, and see if he can work out a design for a solution and explain it to the interviewers (possibly with the use of markers) and that should do the trick.
not at all. They've just reduced the discount for owning a cable modem to $3 (a reduction that reflects the fact the cable modems are much cheaper now than they were before) along with raising the base price for EVERYONE. Cable modem owners still pay $3 less than those that use the company-provided modem? What's wrong with that?
They're not charging extra for people NOT using the company-provided modem, they're just discounting LESS than they were before ($3 instead of $10), resulting in an increase on the bill.
I agree with you that just like RoadRunner, AT&T has no obligation to discount anything at all for those that don't use the provided modem. So the bottom line is that cable modem owners should still be happy that they now get $3 discount.
I am a paying member of RHN, just for those reason. And thanks for bringing that up, that brings me to another complaint I forgot to mantion. So, RH7.3 came out and I thought, "great! I'll get to use that RHN subscription I paid for". So I go on RHN, sure enough the ISOs are there, but not only I can't seem to use a download manager (such as getright) to get the ISOs, and it's not any faster than any of the mirrors I ended up trying. I got my ISOs from mirrors.
They don't have the $30 version anymore. It looks like the cheapest they have now is $60!! I used to buy every version of RH in the store when it was $30. I don't need the support or the manual but I just could not bother with having to download several ~600Mb files to burn my own CDs. I was willing to fork $30 for that (and along the way help out a great company), but not $60. So now they've lost a sale. I downloaded the last two versions from the net.
RH: if you're listening, consider selling a $30 version with no manuals and no support. It's better to make $30 than nothing.
Worked for me. Although I did not keep my modem uncapped (I just don't do uploads often enough to make it worth the risk of getting caught) I did keep it long enough to verify that the "hack" worked.
There was a widely reported study (in the US anyway) about radiations of various cellphone and their possible connection to brain cancer. This report was also broadcasted on 60 minutes or 20/20 or Dateline (one of those news magazine, forgot which).
And essentially, it came out that the Motorolla Startacs were the best because the the flip design - the antenna is at an angle, farthest from your head, and partially shielded by the part of the cellphone that flipped up (I don't think Motorolla designed this phone thinking about brain cancer, they just got lucky). The worse were the Nokias where the antenna is straight up on top of the phone and so when you talk on the phone is close (if not touching your head).
I guess what I am getting at is that the original poster definetely has a point. If you make the whole casing of the cell phone the antenna, wouldn't that potentially be bad? It's one think to have radio wave all over the air, it's another to stick your head on the emitter.
Of course they won't. I said that much in my post. And they don't have to do anything, I am merely stating what I would need them to do if I were to buy a Tivo: either provide the data at a reasonable rate ($1/week) or let the machine get its data from some source of my choice and find a better business model.
It's all about what people are willing to pay for this "service". A few millions subscribers obviously are willing to pay $13/month for guide data, but me and millions of other people apparently are not. I think stuff like that should be provided by the cable (or satellite) providers - and I think most would if they could.
I am not claiming that the guide info should be free, merely that unlike what the previous poster claims, Tivo users are paying $13/month for the guide info.
Now, since you brought it up, let's discuss what guide information should cost. Or rather, what I would be willing to pay for it: maybe a buck per week. If Tivo can't provide that for that price, they should make their software in such a way that I could retreive from other willing services for less or free (i.e. the cable companies already broadcast guide info where I live - I have digital cable). But of course, they're never gonna do that because that would be killing their (potential) cash cow.
Sorry to tell you, but yes, you're paying $13 just for guide data. Everything is else is just software that already exists on your Tivo that gets magically enabled because you're paying. It's like having the "Search" feature built in MS Windows disabled (greyed out) because I am not paying $xx/month for it.
as far as the software downloads, they fit in two categories in my book: 1. bug fixes, which should be free 2. new features, which if you really really want, you should just pay a one time upgrade fee (think of it as buying a windows upgrade) and not having to pay a flat (but sometimes encreasing, apparently) fee to get them.
Just my $0.02 - if paying $13/month for guide data is acceptable to you, great for you and great for TiVo! It's certainly their right to do this, but I will not take any part of it...
In my opinion, the future - and the way it has been evolving in Europe, is shorter work weeks, more free time. Like you said, no more "work-80h-a-week-til-death stereotype", but also no more 40 hrs weeks. 32 hours week. And when we reach a point when we need even less workers to support our society, it will be 24 hours week.
If there is less work, there is no reason that those that work should support all of those that don't (and surely they would have to, unless you want to see some serious crime hikes). Instead everyone should have to work less and enjoy life a little bit more - whatever that means to you: more walks in the park, more travel, more watching TV, more reading (or writing).
Another possibility would be even earlier retirement, but of course for the US that would assume better retirement plans. A new system.
But I agree with you that it might be an interesting transition.
Actually, if you replace the definition of "dumb people" with "dumber people" your argument (at least the first paragraph) works very well. There are very wide range of IQs out there - some people of lesser IQ are just not meant to be advanced in Math, Physics or whatever. Those people are the ones that tend to have the menial, soon to be eliminated jobs (I know this is a bit generalized - poor dicisions or lack of financial means also come into play).
So, if we are evolving into a society were there just are no more jobs for the less gifted of us, how are those people going to live without some radical changes in our society?
Yes, you do have the right to make a copy of the content onto CDs. Just make sure you keep the casettes (even unusable) as the proof that you bought the content (in case, for whatever freak reason, it becomes an issue).
Unless the stores make a change to their policies (as posted on the walls) they will have to give a refund. You see, most store refund policies read as such: "xx days refund, except for open software and CDs" (or something along these lines).
So. You'll be able a to tell them: "This is not a CD! See no logo! Therefore you have to give me a full unconditional refund as per your policy!"
But the reverse is true as well. Where I work (big fortune 500) I often receive documents in proprietary formats (Word, Excel, etc) from a SUPLIER. I often turn around and tell them to resend as text document.
So, I am the customer and I get to dictate what they do. If you are on the other end of the deal, well, yes, you better have Word installed just for them.
Slashdot Mirror
Any of those places (4 out of 5 of my examples) use the number for credit checks, and therefore a fake number is not likely to work.
As far as DMV, it is true that you might be able to get away with it. However, after sept 11 there has been a big crackdown on fraudulously issued driver's licenses - especially in the state I live in (PA) since there was a huge scandal about middle eastern men getting them illegally around where I live. So I wouldn't risk that either...
Yes, I am on an HMO right now, I have not had a problem with them, but then again I have not needed any (semi) exotic treatment of any kind. But I think the stories out there I have heard about HMOs (some of these stories from close friends) are pretty scary. There is no denying that - best case scenario, you're up for quite a battle, possibly in court.
As far as the medication, I hate to tell you, but you're wrong. We have the exact same medications available in Europe (and some other that are not legal in the US - yet, if ever) and they cost a fraction of the price. Why? Government control. Quite frankly, the price of prescription is way out control in the US, and there really is no justification for it, other than pure corporate greed. Government control is neccessary in the US, and in my opinion, innevitable - it's just matter of time really.
You're right about Canada, I did hear bad things about that system as well. But I don't know much more than that about it...
Almost every apartment complex is this country will want to do a credit check on you before giving you the lease, which will require a SS# among other things. I am sure there are some exception, but not a whole geographical area's (New England) worth of exceptions.
As far as utilities, they might give you service without a SS#, but you'll have to put down a deposit. Phone service is doubtful as it is not a neccessity (unless you can give medical proof that it is a neccessity) and therefore they have the right to refuse service if you don't give them the info they want.
The point you are missing, is that nobody can "require" a SS#, however, nobody is "required" to provide you service either (with some exceptions). That's the big loophole around the law.
Taxes are high in europe, there is no doubt about that. But it wouldn't be fair to blame it all on socialized medicine. There are lots of other services provided by these socialist governments. More services does means higher taxes, there is no way around that.
I would suggest that most countries that did create some sort of federal healthcare system have succeeded very well at it. As a european that has experienced this type of system first hand (I am in the US now, and now the other system as well), I can tell you pretty much the only one that has a really bad rep is the one in England... (I am sure there are others, the point is, they're in the minority rather than the majority)
The point of federal healthcare is not as much for those that can afford it but for the large majority of the people that would not have it otherwise. And by the way, for most people that can afford it (and THAT is becoming harder and harder in the US) it's mostly HMOs which is probably similar (if not worse) than most of the federal systems which you claim are so bad.
Function full well without a SSN? Not even close. The only thing you may be able to do is live in a cabin in the woods in Montana, without electricity.
You need a SS# for the following (and this is no way a complete listing):
1. work
2. get a driver's licence (in my state anyway)
3. rent an apartment/house (or get a mortgage to buy one)
4. open bank account or credit card accounts
5. get electrical/phone/gas/etc service
So, when you say "full well", maybe this needs to be qualified a bit...
The drivers are and have always been plentiful. But not always very reliable. In fact, that used to be MSFT's own defense for the Blue Screen of Death: third party drivers crapping out windows. So their solution? The whole MSFT certified drivers program, which is fine, but if I had to rely only on MSFT certified drivers I wouldn't be able to use my current video card, printer and network card (all from well known manufacturers). So, the moral of the story: MSFT can claim to have wider support for consummer hardware (not that it matters that much in the server market) but "reliability" that's another story all together...
Correct, you cannot determine a cellphone from a landline using the area code (in ANY state). You can however, tell from the exchange (first 3 digits) - I am sure there are databases out there that will tell you which exchanges are cell phone exchanges.
Sure... But we're not talking about quitting here. Just productivity. If my company does not make a reasonable attempt at keeping me somewhat happy (or at least not get out of their way to piss me off), then I am not as likely to give my 100% or do anything above and beyond.
Hmmm. No. Productivity sinks when your employees are unhappy. It's all about finding the right balance. You do want to ban MP3 servers on your lans because you don't want to be sued out of existence by the RIAA & co. but banning (or making it technically impossible) the use of the work computer for a reasonably small amount of non-business related activity is simply stupid.
I agree that a design needs to be worked out ahead of time, either in the programmer's head or on the paper (based on the complexity and requirements of the project). On the other hand, I think to write code of any other way than incrementally is stupid. I guess maybe the original poster was talking about designing incrementally as the code gets written or something, I am not too sure how that'd work anyway.
As far as UML, I don't know much about it. It seems to be kind of a rather new invention, and not being a comp sci by training (I am an EE) I am not familiar with all the buzzwords of the trade, I rely on the good old comments in the code and possibly some flow chart for documentation. Seems to work just fine. If a programmer can't enhance/maintenance of a program unless he's given UML documentation (or any documentation, really), I'd suggest he's not much of a programmer to begin with.
I guess the bottom line is that I disagree with the whole thread about what makes a good programmer. As far a testing/interviewing a programmer, I think give him a problem, and see if he can work out a design for a solution and explain it to the interviewers (possibly with the use of markers) and that should do the trick.
not at all. They've just reduced the discount for owning a cable modem to $3 (a reduction that reflects the fact the cable modems are much cheaper now than they were before) along with raising the base price for EVERYONE. Cable modem owners still pay $3 less than those that use the company-provided modem? What's wrong with that?
They're not charging extra for people NOT using the company-provided modem, they're just discounting LESS than they were before ($3 instead of $10), resulting in an increase on the bill.
I agree with you that just like RoadRunner, AT&T has no obligation to discount anything at all for those that don't use the provided modem. So the bottom line is that cable modem owners should still be happy that they now get $3 discount.
I am a paying member of RHN, just for those reason. And thanks for bringing that up, that brings me to another complaint I forgot to mantion. So, RH7.3 came out and I thought, "great! I'll get to use that RHN subscription I paid for". So I go on RHN, sure enough the ISOs are there, but not only I can't seem to use a download manager (such as getright) to get the ISOs, and it's not any faster than any of the mirrors I ended up trying. I got my ISOs from mirrors.
They don't have the $30 version anymore. It looks like the cheapest they have now is $60!! I used to buy every version of RH in the store when it was $30. I don't need the support or the manual but I just could not bother with having to download several ~600Mb files to burn my own CDs. I was willing to fork $30 for that (and along the way help out a great company), but not $60. So now they've lost a sale. I downloaded the last two versions from the net.
RH: if you're listening, consider selling a $30 version with no manuals and no support. It's better to make $30 than nothing.
Worked for me. Although I did not keep my modem uncapped (I just don't do uploads often enough to make it worth the risk of getting caught) I did keep it long enough to verify that the "hack" worked.
There was a widely reported study (in the US anyway) about radiations of various cellphone and their possible connection to brain cancer. This report was also broadcasted on 60 minutes or 20/20 or Dateline (one of those news magazine, forgot which).
And essentially, it came out that the Motorolla Startacs were the best because the the flip design - the antenna is at an angle, farthest from your head, and partially shielded by the part of the cellphone that flipped up (I don't think Motorolla designed this phone thinking about brain cancer, they just got lucky). The worse were the Nokias where the antenna is straight up on top of the phone and so when you talk on the phone is close (if not touching your head).
I guess what I am getting at is that the original poster definetely has a point. If you make the whole casing of the cell phone the antenna, wouldn't that potentially be bad? It's one think to have radio wave all over the air, it's another to stick your head on the emitter.
Of course they won't. I said that much in my post. And they don't have to do anything, I am merely stating what I would need them to do if I were to buy a Tivo: either provide the data at a reasonable rate ($1/week) or let the machine get its data from some source of my choice and find a better business model.
It's all about what people are willing to pay for this "service". A few millions subscribers obviously are willing to pay $13/month for guide data, but me and millions of other people apparently are not. I think stuff like that should be provided by the cable (or satellite) providers - and I think most would if they could.
I am not claiming that the guide info should be free, merely that unlike what the previous poster claims, Tivo users are paying $13/month for the guide info.
Now, since you brought it up, let's discuss what guide information should cost. Or rather, what I would be willing to pay for it: maybe a buck per week. If Tivo can't provide that for that price, they should make their software in such a way that I could retreive from other willing services for less or free (i.e. the cable companies already broadcast guide info where I live - I have digital cable). But of course, they're never gonna do that because that would be killing their (potential) cash cow.
Sorry to tell you, but yes, you're paying $13 just for guide data. Everything is else is just software that already exists on your Tivo that gets magically enabled because you're paying. It's like having the "Search" feature built in MS Windows disabled (greyed out) because I am not paying $xx/month for it.
as far as the software downloads, they fit in two categories in my book:
1. bug fixes, which should be free
2. new features, which if you really really want, you should just pay a one time upgrade fee (think of it as buying a windows upgrade) and not having to pay a flat (but sometimes encreasing, apparently) fee to get them.
Just my $0.02 - if paying $13/month for guide data is acceptable to you, great for you and great for TiVo! It's certainly their right to do this, but I will not take any part of it...
In my opinion, the future - and the way it has been evolving in Europe, is shorter work weeks, more free time. Like you said, no more "work-80h-a-week-til-death stereotype", but also no more 40 hrs weeks. 32 hours week. And when we reach a point when we need even less workers to support our society, it will be 24 hours week.
If there is less work, there is no reason that those that work should support all of those that don't (and surely they would have to, unless you want to see some serious crime hikes). Instead everyone should have to work less and enjoy life a little bit more - whatever that means to you: more walks in the park, more travel, more watching TV, more reading (or writing).
Another possibility would be even earlier retirement, but of course for the US that would assume better retirement plans. A new system.
But I agree with you that it might be an interesting transition.
Actually, if you replace the definition of "dumb people" with "dumber people" your argument (at least the first paragraph) works very well. There are very wide range of IQs out there - some people of lesser IQ are just not meant to be advanced in Math, Physics or whatever. Those people are the ones that tend to have the menial, soon to be eliminated jobs (I know this is a bit generalized - poor dicisions or lack of financial means also come into play).
So, if we are evolving into a society were there just are no more jobs for the less gifted of us, how are those people going to live without some radical changes in our society?
Yes, you do have the right to make a copy of the content onto CDs. Just make sure you keep the casettes (even unusable) as the proof that you bought the content (in case, for whatever freak reason, it becomes an issue).
Actually, it is the other way around.
Unless the stores make a change to their policies (as posted on the walls) they will have to give a refund. You see, most store refund policies read as such: "xx days refund, except for open software and CDs" (or something along these lines).
So. You'll be able a to tell them: "This is not a CD! See no logo! Therefore you have to give me a full unconditional refund as per your policy!"
True.
But the reverse is true as well. Where I work (big fortune 500) I often receive documents in proprietary formats (Word, Excel, etc) from a SUPLIER. I often turn around and tell them to resend as text document.
So, I am the customer and I get to dictate what they do. If you are on the other end of the deal, well, yes, you better have Word installed just for them.