# Causes excessive sweating and vomiting
# A major component of acid rain # Can cause severe burns in the gaseous state # Accidental inhalation can kill you # Primary contributor to erosion # Decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes # Has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients # May dissolve metal ions especially in the presence of road salt
What kind of person would do this? Is such a person safe to be walking the streets?
Yes, person would be perfectly safe *walking the streets* because the crime is committed behind closed doors on a PC. Take away their PC access and what do you have, another jack ass salesperson. They are not a danger to themselves or others; they are just stupid jack asses selling bulk advertising. They are criminally annoying but not a threat.
Jail, fine, community service? YES Equal to murder, rape, and assault? NO
There is actually nothing wrong with trying to get rich quick. The problem is getting rich quick at someone else's expence. Nine years is harsh, it is what I would expect for a violent crime.
I hate spammers as much as the next guy, but I can not agree that the punishment should be equal to crimes of violence such as rape, murder, and assault. I would submit that the nature of the crime of spamming is to make a profit that the primary punishment should be a fine. In the case of successful drug convictions the dealer can loose their house, car, boat, and everything they used to traffic and store the drugs. While I don't wholly agree with many aspects of the war on drugs, I fully agree that profits made from illegal activities should be funneled back into crime prevention, education, and generally improving the quality of life.
There was/is a company called Tri-gem. Some years ago they had a pretty decent plan to sell their pentium based PCs in retail stores. At GoodGuys they offered commissions somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 dollars per PC sold. This was amazing because not only was this the cheapest PC they offered, but the commission Tri-Gem was roughly half of what they were selling the PC for. Needless to say the salespeople ate this up as an opportunity not only to sell the cheapest PC to everyone that walked into the store, but saw it a chance to push their extended warranties. "Now, you're going to want the extended warranty on this. This may be a cheap PC but parts are expensive." This seemed like a marriage made in heaven...
...until Tri-gem stopped making the proprietary motherboards in favor of making microATX ones for E-machines and GoodGuys had to honor the extended warrantees by giving the clients new PCs. And boy did they break! This is good evidence of karma.
Trust me, when you are paying by the minute like I was on CIS, GEnie and Delphi, you WANTED the snappy response of a text based service, vs waiting for the screen to redraw with pretty graphics.
IIRC CIS charged $6.00/hour for 300 baud, $12/hour for 1200/2400 baud, and $24/hour for 9600 baud. I can't remember when they stopped charging such outlandish rates. At 300 baud, screen refreshes were not snapy at all. 2400 seemed to be where it was at.
I don't remember when I ditched CIS, it was sometime after they offered telnet in access and internet e-mail.
Because the rebate is from the manufacturer, not Best Buy.
This is not always true. You have manufacturer mail in rebates and you have store mail in rebates. Sometimes you have both. I have wondered if it's legal for them to charge tax the full price when they plan on giving you a kick back for buying.
2.) People are too impatient to wait for something to be shipped, the draw of "have it now" is simply too strong.
There is a third reason. Because Gateway established a point of presence in a number of states they are required to charge tax on their product. Assuming 8.8% tax, their Home & Home office systems which cost between $500 and $1200 increase in cost by $40 and $105.60. Shipping I see on their site is $99.00 for a complete system. On a base system that's 28.6% above the advertised price. You could go to any retail store and only pay the price + tax which is typically below 10%.
Even looking at shipping @ $99 on a $500 system that's 19%. This is horrible.
Have a look at your neighborhood shopping cart. Those chrome plated wire mesh suckers with a weld at every joint. Take the time to sit in one and roll around. I don't know what they are rated for but they can support the weight of two adults easily (don't ask). These suckers are not cheap, think $500/$1000 a unit easily. They don't look like much but alot of work goes into that shopping cart.
I've been known to buy at futureshop under two conditions: {price / return policy
I have to admit, once and a while they had semi-decent prices. And I must admit I had no problem returning goods there, in fact I returned them very often. I always ended up with open boxes with broken products, wrong products, or incomplete products.
But because the chain retail stores offer price matching I could pick any store I want and get whatever at the advertised price. Saying "They have it for less but i'd rather buy it from you" really puts the sales people in a good mood.
Best Buy has learned that some people are cheap, and not worth it to them as customers.
Cheap people suck. But whether a contractor, retail store, or even running a garage sale you set prices for goods and services. It's not the consumer's job to make sure you keep your head above water. You can't advertise prices and refuse to honor them just because you were a dumb ass. I have no empathy for Best Buy. It's their job to design a business model that works.
The question here is are they using their right to deny service to anyone for any reason or are they refusing to honor their advertised prices?
Very hard to do when they offer multiple rebates on products. If I remember correctly BB gives you multiple receipts for the various rebates they offer.
I remember someone who bought one of those Office Depot Compaq deals. My numbers are not going to be accurate, but after the rebates the price was like $425 or so, before the rebates it was closer to $725 or so. IIRC $100 back on the computer, $50 back on the printer, $50 back on the monitor, and another $100 back on buying the special package. While my numbers are not 100% accurate, I'm sure you get the picture, 4 separate rebates which totaled about $300 or so.
The person in question was so confused by the instructions that they took all the boxes back to the store and asked them to help her fill out the paper work. After all, they didn't want to make a mistake and miss out on $300 in checks. This process took required the help of 3 people, and took 1.5 hours.
On the one hand, I would be most annoyed having to help this person fill out their own paper work. On the other hand I have no empathy for the store who not only sold equipment with rebates, but threw in their own rebate just to make it more confusing. If they are going to go out of their way to make buying more complex, then they should feel the pain of people coming back and asking for help with a slew of paperwork.
On the Canadian side, FutureShop is exactly like that : Best price policy, overpriced stuff... and they "labeled" me a devil, for sure
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the only reason people still shop at FutureShop is because it was at one point Canadian owned? I always found it shocking that FutureShop managed to continue business despite their deplorable business practices.
Clerk: Your phone number Me: That is the number I use for voice communications Clerk: No, your telephone number Me: I don't use 20th century technology, get with the times.
See the electoral college map. See how many blue states are along the coasts. Melting the polar ice caps will put those states under water. The Bush Administration favors policies that will cause global warming which in turn melts the ice caps. Coincidence,...;)
You understand that Flordia is barely above sea level don't you? It has a couple of hills, i've seen them. Britton Hill is just 345 feet above sea level and is the highest point in Flordia. Orlando's elevation is about 100 ft, Tampa is about 48ft, Miami and Jacksonville is 11/12ft. So if Bush supports global warming, Flordia would be the first to flood.
Remember when Radio Shack always demanded your name?..... They quit asking for some reason.
I remember sometime after they started giving away CueCats that they stopped asking for your name. I can not be sure, but I strongly suspect that Radio Shack got into major trouble asking kids their addresses which resulted in Digital Convergence harassing them. I know one of my nephews, a minor, was harassed by DC's lawyers, which lead to an exchange of letters with the head office.
I live in Brazil, and although I do not know much about the Kyoto Protocol, I do know taht my country had quite some work to do in order to comply. We are "polluting less", but I can't give you more details on this (I'd have to research).
What is the status of alcohol fueled cars in Brazil? I read back in the early 90s that they were producing massive amounts of alcohol from the sugar beat and sugar cane for use in cars. It seemed that such a country might have the ability to a renewable energy superpower at some point.
Man - I haven't used a 200W power supply in years! With every PC I've built, I get nothing less than 400W - and I'm not even a gamer! I can only imagine what "true" gamers need for power...
The only reason I have not used a 200W power supply in years is the fact that anything I owned 200W or so was from an IBM AT case. Nice suckers that were required to power those 5.25 inch full height MFM drives. My last motherboard that took AT power was given away last year.
While I'm willing to believe that due to higher consumption CPUs, higher RPM drives, and energy hungry video cards that over all wattage may have actually gone up, I also know that modern power supplies suck, and the watt rating is pretty meaningless.
There is a huge difference also in international support by fighting an attack war or a defensive war.
Agreed, Iraq was an attack war. A pre-emptive attack war so we were told, but an attack on a sovereign nation that presented no clear and present danger.
But having Europe attacking the US, there is no way, even if the US was unable to defend itself. Despite all the shoutings and problems, no western European even would get the idea, to attack the "brothers" in the US, although the younger brother currently has a big problem:-).
Would your feelings change on the subject if the US decided Iran is attacked? What about Syria? After all why stop at Iraq, don't need to worry about re-election so what the hell.
Yes, you did... but you also forget that no country (except perhaps China) is capable of even inflicting a tiny scratch to the fortress America. It is too far away, it would cost too much money and you will certainly die while trying. And don't come with "since 9/11 everything has changed". It hasn't: invading a country requires an organized army of thousands of men. Terrorism can't organize that without going undetected. Terrorists are like those annoying mosquitos. Yeah, they sting real hard, but in the end they are pretty much harmless. (this is a comparision: don't bring in malaria and what not of tropical illnesses)
The fortress that is America does not exist. If a single nation decided to declare flat out war, they would do more then make a dent.
The world wide left? How about the world wide non-mentally handicapped? Clinton gets a BJ in office and they try to impeach him. At worst, an intern got a lifelong stigma. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of US Soldiers and innocent Iraqis and he gets re-elected?
It wasn't about the BJ, it was about taking an oath on a bible and saying "I never had sex with that woman". In principle I agree with you, but keep in mind that Kerry lost because of Christian morals. In other words, don't dare lie about a BJ on a bible in America or you'll get burned like a witch.
Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of US Soldiers and innocent Iraqis and he gets re-elected?
Again in principle I agree with you. Imagine trying to find some equipment buried in a place the size of Texas. While I believe Bush flat out lied to the world about the whole Iraq situation it's such a lie that would be difficult to prove either way. These are the best lies as by the time you find out the truth you someone else is in office. So far they have not found any WMDs, but they have found a few 747s. This has got to be a fun job.
Yeah, sure.... the Canadians and Mexicans were just waiting for you to lower your defenses in order to conquer, plunder and rape defenseless Americans... Americans who are unarmed by definition, after all they don't have right to bear arms to form militia.
Think 1942 when Japan decimated our Pacific fleet. It was a common belief that a direct assault on our western shore would not only be successful, it would be so successful that they'd be drinking sake in Omaha. Now think 2005 and think two coasts with less in the way of defenses, but with the added bonus of free nuclear weapons to any invader.
It isn't about Canada and Mexico getting the urge to expand; it's about keeping our nation safe from invasion. You have to assume that a strike on either nation or by either nation would put America at risk. This way a bunch of poor kids from the ghetto can play solder for 4 years and get an earn money for school.
If terrorism presents a clear and present danger, it's only common since that we have the means of defending our selves.
The two large coasts? You need an industrialized nation in order to attack those (airplanes/warships). China could *perhaps* do that. Europe is out of the question: we barely have enough military to defend ourself if anyone would like to invade us.
I would never want to piss off China. Their military budget is equal to Wal-Mart's gross at last estimates and as a multi billion population. We've been at odds before (see Korea and Vietnam), but never has the jolly green giant and the dragon come directly to blows. But you know, under Dubya's leadership we have managed to piss off the world. We have become the terrorists. We invade sovereign nations and justify our selves by saying we are spreading the seeds of christian freedom. We have declared a jihad on the Middle East and are a clear and present danger to the free world. Wars have been started for less.
the US under attack would immediately recall all troups in Iraq
Months before a counter strike. It's stupid to piss off the world and to have your assets desert commando without having the most basic of defense in place.
Slashdot Mirror
---ban dihydrogenoxide
What kind of person would do this? Is such a person safe to be walking the streets?
Yes, person would be perfectly safe *walking the streets* because the crime is committed behind closed doors on a PC. Take away their PC access and what do you have, another jack ass salesperson. They are not a danger to themselves or others; they are just stupid jack asses selling bulk advertising. They are criminally annoying but not a threat.
Jail, fine, community service? YES
Equal to murder, rape, and assault? NO
I hate spammers as much as the next guy, but I can not agree that the punishment should be equal to crimes of violence such as rape, murder, and assault. I would submit that the nature of the crime of spamming is to make a profit that the primary punishment should be a fine. In the case of successful drug convictions the dealer can loose their house, car, boat, and everything they used to traffic and store the drugs. While I don't wholly agree with many aspects of the war on drugs, I fully agree that profits made from illegal activities should be funneled back into crime prevention, education, and generally improving the quality of life.
Since it'll probably end up being default start-up page in IE, lots.
Fortunately IE has enough in the way of exploits so the default start-up page gets hijacked often enough.
There was/is a company called Tri-gem. Some years ago they had a pretty decent plan to sell their pentium based PCs in retail stores. At GoodGuys they offered commissions somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 dollars per PC sold. This was amazing because not only was this the cheapest PC they offered, but the commission Tri-Gem was roughly half of what they were selling the PC for. Needless to say the salespeople ate this up as an opportunity not only to sell the cheapest PC to everyone that walked into the store, but saw it a chance to push their extended warranties. "Now, you're going to want the extended warranty on this. This may be a cheap PC but parts are expensive." This seemed like a marriage made in heaven...
...until Tri-gem stopped making the proprietary motherboards in favor of making microATX ones for E-machines and GoodGuys had to honor the extended warrantees by giving the clients new PCs. And boy did they break! This is good evidence of karma.
Trust me, when you are paying by the minute like I was on CIS, GEnie and Delphi, you WANTED the snappy response of a text based service, vs waiting for the screen to redraw with pretty graphics.
IIRC CIS charged $6.00/hour for 300 baud, $12/hour for 1200/2400 baud, and $24/hour for 9600 baud. I can't remember when they stopped charging such outlandish rates. At 300 baud, screen refreshes were not snapy at all. 2400 seemed to be where it was at.
I don't remember when I ditched CIS, it was sometime after they offered telnet in access and internet e-mail.
Because the rebate is from the manufacturer, not Best Buy.
This is not always true. You have manufacturer mail in rebates and you have store mail in rebates. Sometimes you have both. I have wondered if it's legal for them to charge tax the full price when they plan on giving you a kick back for buying.
This concept cannot work for two reasons:
1.) It kills the impulse buy.
2.) People are too impatient to wait for something to be shipped, the draw of "have it now" is simply too strong.
There is a third reason. Because Gateway established a point of presence in a number of states they are required to charge tax on their product. Assuming 8.8% tax, their Home & Home office systems which cost between $500 and $1200 increase in cost by $40 and $105.60. Shipping I see on their site is $99.00 for a complete system. On a base system that's 28.6% above the advertised price. You could go to any retail store and only pay the price + tax which is typically below 10%.
Even looking at shipping @ $99 on a $500 system that's 19%. This is horrible.
shopping carts cost $100???
Have a look at your neighborhood shopping cart. Those chrome plated wire mesh suckers with a weld at every joint. Take the time to sit in one and roll around. I don't know what they are rated for but they can support the weight of two adults easily (don't ask). These suckers are not cheap, think $500/$1000 a unit easily. They don't look like much but alot of work goes into that shopping cart.
I've been known to buy at futureshop under two conditions: {price / return policy
I have to admit, once and a while they had semi-decent prices. And I must admit I had no problem returning goods there, in fact I returned them very often. I always ended up with open boxes with broken products, wrong products, or incomplete products.
But because the chain retail stores offer price matching I could pick any store I want and get whatever at the advertised price. Saying "They have it for less but i'd rather buy it from you" really puts the sales people in a good mood.
Best Buy has learned that some people are cheap, and not worth it to them as customers.
Cheap people suck. But whether a contractor, retail store, or even running a garage sale you set prices for goods and services. It's not the consumer's job to make sure you keep your head above water. You can't advertise prices and refuse to honor them just because you were a dumb ass. I have no empathy for Best Buy. It's their job to design a business model that works.
The question here is are they using their right to deny service to anyone for any reason or are they refusing to honor their advertised prices?
Very hard to do when they offer multiple rebates on products. If I remember correctly BB gives you multiple receipts for the various rebates they offer.
I remember someone who bought one of those Office Depot Compaq deals. My numbers are not going to be accurate, but after the rebates the price was like $425 or so, before the rebates it was closer to $725 or so. IIRC $100 back on the computer, $50 back on the printer, $50 back on the monitor, and another $100 back on buying the special package. While my numbers are not 100% accurate, I'm sure you get the picture, 4 separate rebates which totaled about $300 or so.
The person in question was so confused by the instructions that they took all the boxes back to the store and asked them to help her fill out the paper work. After all, they didn't want to make a mistake and miss out on $300 in checks. This process took required the help of 3 people, and took 1.5 hours.
On the one hand, I would be most annoyed having to help this person fill out their own paper work. On the other hand I have no empathy for the store who not only sold equipment with rebates, but threw in their own rebate just to make it more confusing. If they are going to go out of their way to make buying more complex, then they should feel the pain of people coming back and asking for help with a slew of paperwork.
On the Canadian side, FutureShop is exactly like that : Best price policy, overpriced stuff... and they "labeled" me a devil, for sure
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is the only reason people still shop at FutureShop is because it was at one point Canadian owned? I always found it shocking that FutureShop managed to continue business despite their deplorable business practices.
"Give me your phone number, starting with the area code first."
You: 662-352-0151
I've also given 66 dot 35 dot 250 dot 151
Clerk: Your phone number
Me: That is the number I use for voice communications
Clerk: No, your telephone number
Me: I don't use 20th century technology, get with the times.
Nuclear design and theory has come a long way since the 50s.
Agreed, but waste management has not. Even if the reactor 100% reliable and would never pose a threat to the environment, the waste produced does.
It's clear that oil isn't "running out" anytime soon but it will only get more expensive.
See China. See China become more industrialized. See reserves run dry.
See the electoral college map. See how many blue states are along the coasts. Melting the polar ice caps will put those states under water. The Bush Administration favors policies that will cause global warming which in turn melts the ice caps. Coincidence, ... ;)
You understand that Flordia is barely above sea level don't you? It has a couple of hills, i've seen them. Britton Hill is just 345 feet above sea level and is the highest point in Flordia. Orlando's elevation is about 100 ft, Tampa is about 48ft, Miami and Jacksonville is 11/12ft. So if Bush supports global warming, Flordia would be the first to flood.
Remember when Radio Shack always demanded your name? ..... They quit asking for some reason.
I remember sometime after they started giving away CueCats that they stopped asking for your name. I can not be sure, but I strongly suspect that Radio Shack got into major trouble asking kids their addresses which resulted in Digital Convergence harassing them. I know one of my nephews, a minor, was harassed by DC's lawyers, which lead to an exchange of letters with the head office.
I live in Brazil, and although I do not know much about the Kyoto Protocol, I do know taht my country had quite some work to do in order to comply. We are "polluting less", but I can't give you more details on this (I'd have to research).
What is the status of alcohol fueled cars in Brazil? I read back in the early 90s that they were producing massive amounts of alcohol from the sugar beat and sugar cane for use in cars. It seemed that such a country might have the ability to a renewable energy superpower at some point.
Man - I haven't used a 200W power supply in years! With every PC I've built, I get nothing less than 400W - and I'm not even a gamer! I can only imagine what "true" gamers need for power...
The only reason I have not used a 200W power supply in years is the fact that anything I owned 200W or so was from an IBM AT case. Nice suckers that were required to power those 5.25 inch full height MFM drives. My last motherboard that took AT power was given away last year.
While I'm willing to believe that due to higher consumption CPUs, higher RPM drives, and energy hungry video cards that over all wattage may have actually gone up, I also know that modern power supplies suck, and the watt rating is pretty meaningless.
There is a huge difference also in international support by fighting an attack war or a defensive war.
Agreed, Iraq was an attack war. A pre-emptive attack war so we were told, but an attack on a sovereign nation that presented no clear and present danger.
But having Europe attacking the US, there is no way, even if the US was unable to defend itself. Despite all the shoutings and problems, no western European even would get the idea, to attack the "brothers" in the US, although the younger brother currently has a big problem :-) .
Would your feelings change on the subject if the US decided Iran is attacked? What about Syria? After all why stop at Iraq, don't need to worry about re-election so what the hell.
But Clinton didn't have sex with that woman - he just cummed in her throat.
Really? I thought he just cummed on her dress.
Yes, you did... but you also forget that no country (except perhaps China) is capable of even inflicting a tiny scratch to the fortress America. It is too far away, it would cost too much money and you will certainly die while trying.
And don't come with "since 9/11 everything has changed". It hasn't: invading a country requires an organized army of thousands of men. Terrorism can't organize that without going undetected. Terrorists are like those annoying mosquitos. Yeah, they sting real hard, but in the end they are pretty much harmless. (this is a comparision: don't bring in malaria and what not of tropical illnesses)
The fortress that is America does not exist. If a single nation decided to declare flat out war, they would do more then make a dent.
The world wide left? How about the world wide non-mentally handicapped? Clinton gets a BJ in office and they try to impeach him. At worst, an intern got a lifelong stigma. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of US Soldiers and innocent Iraqis and he gets re-elected?
It wasn't about the BJ, it was about taking an oath on a bible and saying "I never had sex with that woman". In principle I agree with you, but keep in mind that Kerry lost because of Christian morals. In other words, don't dare lie about a BJ on a bible in America or you'll get burned like a witch.
Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq, leading to the deaths of thousands of US Soldiers and innocent Iraqis and he gets re-elected?
Again in principle I agree with you. Imagine trying to find some equipment buried in a place the size of Texas. While I believe Bush flat out lied to the world about the whole Iraq situation it's such a lie that would be difficult to prove either way. These are the best lies as by the time you find out the truth you someone else is in office. So far they have not found any WMDs, but they have found a few 747s. This has got to be a fun job.
Yeah, sure.... the Canadians and Mexicans were just waiting for you to lower your defenses in order to conquer, plunder and rape defenseless Americans... Americans who are unarmed by definition, after all they don't have right to bear arms to form militia.
Think 1942 when Japan decimated our Pacific fleet. It was a common belief that a direct assault on our western shore would not only be successful, it would be so successful that they'd be drinking sake in Omaha. Now think 2005 and think two coasts with less in the way of defenses, but with the added bonus of free nuclear weapons to any invader.
It isn't about Canada and Mexico getting the urge to expand; it's about keeping our nation safe from invasion. You have to assume that a strike on either nation or by either nation would put America at risk. This way a bunch of poor kids from the ghetto can play solder for 4 years and get an earn money for school.
If terrorism presents a clear and present danger, it's only common since that we have the means of defending our selves.
The two large coasts? You need an industrialized nation in order to attack those (airplanes/warships). China could *perhaps* do that. Europe is out of the question: we barely have enough military to defend ourself if anyone would like to invade us.
I would never want to piss off China. Their military budget is equal to Wal-Mart's gross at last estimates and as a multi billion population. We've been at odds before (see Korea and Vietnam), but never has the jolly green giant and the dragon come directly to blows. But you know, under Dubya's leadership we have managed to piss off the world. We have become the terrorists. We invade sovereign nations and justify our selves by saying we are spreading the seeds of christian freedom. We have declared a jihad on the Middle East and are a clear and present danger to the free world. Wars have been started for less.
the US under attack would immediately recall all troups in Iraq
Months before a counter strike. It's stupid to piss off the world and to have your assets desert commando without having the most basic of defense in place.