Well, this is news to me. We pay 1.5% commission to Amex. In fact, of the major cards, they are the lowest commission rate, with Visa/MC charging 2.5%. Restaurants can pay upwards of 4.5% but that's as high as it gets.
Mods, please, downgrade the parent to over-rated. The AC has no idea what he is talking about. None.
Not to mention, and I'm speaking from experience here, it can take up to a *month* to get a Comcast tech out to your house. Consider the extra money for a T1 insurance.
My mistake. It's not a federal law (I went back over the merchangt agreement). However, it *is* against the regulations of the card issuers. Both Visa and MasterCard expressly forbid minimum purchase policies and while Amex doesn't prohibit them, they do discourage their use. Also, if the merchant does not require a minimum for a non-Amex card, the rules state that they cannot require one for Amex.
While it's not a law (merely a requirement), try to keep one thing in mind. A credit card transaction does cost the merchant. In addition to a percentage on the sale (typically around 2-3% for non-restaurants), there is a transaction fee of anywhere between 10 - 35 cents. Not a big deal to a large store, but to a small mom-and-pop place, it can make a difference, especially on a pack of gum (my earlier example). Markup on a 25 cent pack of chewing gum is about 11 cents. So, they can actually lose money on the deal.
Yes, it's Commerce. $100 minimum balance, no fee checking, and none of that bullcrap about charging you for using other banks' ATMs. That whole concept is a fraud to begin with as there is no net cost to processing an in-bound ATM request when it's balanced against the bank's cost of having a teller process the same transaction.
It's amazing, really. The whole purpose of the ATM was to reduce operating costs to banks. ATM usage fees are just one more example of corporate welfare. At least you have a choice of whether to pay it or not. I choose not to and, therefore, bank with one of the best in the business (IMHO). When you consider that a bank pays you, if anything, 1% to 2% interest on your deposits and loans that money out at up to 9% (depending on the loan type and borrower's rating and intended usage of the funds), they are making a considerable profit. And that's just on the loan income - just one small part of their overall income structure. While I don't shun interacting with the general populace, I have found a lot of tellers at other banks to be lacking in what I would call "charm." Charging you $8 a month for the "luxury" of dealing with some pear-shaped, foul-attitude toting, miserable, customer-service-shackled troll is nothing more than consumer rape. Besides, on the whole, the tellers at Commerce are nicer and a hell of a lot better looking than any I have seen at Fleet.:)
Customer service at Commerce is also above anyone else that I have ever dealt with, both at the consumer and commercial levels (can you tell I'm a fan?). A very good friend of mine used to work for First Union. He used to say that their attitude towards their customers was summed up by their initials.
Other than inertia, what keeps you at First Union (now Wachovia)?
There are plenty of banks (at least here in the NY/NJ/PA area) that offer free checking with $0-$100 minumum balances. My bank is even open 7 days a week.:)
As for ATMs, another poster already told you of the virtue of using your card for debit purchases. Here's another tip that will save you from buying a couple of cases of soda. Federal law mandates that a merchant may not impose a minimum limit on credit card purchases. I know this as I own a retail store. Go to any grocery store, buy a pack of 25 cent gum (e.g. juicy fruit), and get cash back. Most places will allow you a minimum of $30 back. Even if you throw out the gum, it's still cheaper than the ATM fees that you're paying.
One final thing. On my way into work each morning, I stop at my local convenience store and get a cup of coffee for the drive. The ATM here is free and requires no purchases. The chain is named "WaWa" and they're all over this part of the state.
The point is, if you know where to look, you should never have to pay an ATM fee again.
Now, if you really want something to get pissed off about, consider that not only do some banks charge you for using the ATM (yours and someone elses), some banks even charge you for using their tellers. I believe Fleet or FirstUnion used to do this. How's that for chutzpah?
Re:Sad state of affairs...
on
Stealth Inflation
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Point being, they weren't doing anything illegal...
Unfortunately, the AC that posted the parent, slamming Ripplet and accusing him of neglecting his children, will probably never be seen in its proper context due to filtering.
Clearly, however, the AC does not have any children. Otherwise s/he would know just how frustrating the mandatory commercials are to a parent whose toddler is running around in tears, screaming at the top of her lungs "NEMO!! NEMO!! NEMO!!! NEMO!!" while you frantically try to speed up the dvd player to skip past the NEMO!!commericals, wait for the opening menu NEMO!!animation to stop, navigate NEMO!!the menu, hit the back button NEMO!!because you chose the wrong menu NEMO!!option, sit through NEMO!!the FBI warnings (AGAIN), wade NEMO!!through the studio vanity markers, hear about other NEMO!!exciting offers that will NEMO!! be presented at the end of the movie, listen to NEMO!! the THX trailer (which just freaks the kid out even more - at least it stops them from yelling NEMO!! for a few seconds), stare dumbfounded at the MPAA rating screen (wtf?), and finally get to the first scene with that friggin' fish! NEMO!! NEMO!! NEMO!!
Seriously, the forced commercials are getting out of hand. I don't even have patience with the FBI warning and, seriously, what the hell do I care about Interpol? Some of the manufactures are getting downright abusive, injecting over 5 minutes of ad-crap to sit through. Hell, Disney is even worse. Some of their tapes start off with up to ELEVEN minutes of ads. At least with Disney, you can skip the commercials (so far). Universal won't even let you do that much.
Because some of us find this interesting. "News for Geeks" and all that. Many of us have very fond memories of the C64 (see here) and are appreciative of this article. Besides, sludging my arse back into work after a 4-day weekend, this news actually brightened my morning a bit and gave me a new toy to look forward to.
As far as complaining about how the tremendous amount of work that would have to go into volunteer projects as impressive as these is useless simply because it could not effectively reproduce the feeling one gets while on Space Mountain, the mere thought of stimulating the poster with lowlevel electrical shocks brings a smile to my face. =)
Good lord...by the time that this thing actually hits the streets in 2025, I'll be old enough to need the wheelchair model...
In other news, BMW today introduced the BMW Aladdin Series, its revolutionary flying car. A representative of BMW says that they expect everyone to be zipping around in one of these cool babies by the year 3100.
Well, yes, of course, this makes sense. Given the rate at which all companies are 100% compliant with their licensing for the software that runs on their machines, I'm sure that they will just run right out to support the trusted computing initiative.
Sorry, but I have worked at way too many companies all sharing the same installation of Windows/Office/etc to believe that they are going to increase their IT budget 10-fold to support DRM. BSA or no.
Let Phoenix go ahead and introduce DRM into the BIOS. There are plenty of other BIOS manufactures that will be more than happy to step up in their place. OpenBIOS, anyone?
They tried that in the beginning. Google ran on a combination of Linux and NT boxes. IIRC, they had to employ someone to, on a full-time basis, walk around and continuously cycle the NT servers.
This isn't so far fetched... Remember that Microsoft made a sizeable investment in SCO a little while back. With a server farm the size of Google's, this could cause considerable harm to their operations. Consider what an injuction against Google during litigation might do. If they can't use their servers, they're out of business.
My question is this, tho: Whatever happened to barratry? In particular, what of the laws regarding making threat of litigation and not following through?
I think Google should call their bluff and get this taken care of once and for all. However, the threat of a lawsuit, and even filing one, is not much to get concerned over. Google probably gets threats all of the time (see: Scientology and Xenu).
>> Did it cost a coder a job here? Not really we're hiring
You can't possibly be serious. How many people worked on the project in India? How many people were employed in the analysis, design, development, documentation, management processes in India? So you're hiring a coder or two to handle the maintenance and production support phase of the project. That's no consolation to the tens or hundreds (depending on the size of the project) who lost their jobs or couldn't get the jobs in the first place.
I'm very happy that your project worked out for you. Now, please be so kind as to tell us what company you work for so those of us with a conscience can avoid your products/services.
Oh, and before someone mods me as a Troll, consider this: outsourcing has nothing to do with the quality of the job performed but with the (mythical) cost savings involved. The decision to outsource overseas is a short-sided financial one that is doing harm to the local economy and will eventually come back to bite the outsourcer in the ass. For if you don't pay people to work, they can't afford to buy your product. This, of course, forces further cost cutting measures, which only hurtles the company into a death spiral. Hilarity ensues.
This has nothing to do with isolationalism, either. Notice that I have made no mention of my home country, as this is happening in many countries. The simple fact is that these decisions are being driven by short-sided, amateurish stockholders who have no comprehension of base economics and lack the ability to look beyond the figures for Next Quarter.
I wish I could remember where I read the article , Robert Kiyosaki maybe, but one of the major problems with the current economy (US, EU, whereever) is that stockholders don't care to look at a company's 3 or 5 or 7 year plan anymore. It's all about Next Quarter. It's this pressure that is causing outsourcing, as well as the unusual barrage of accounting scandels.
Until investors and corporate shareholders return to a sensible economic approach to investing in business, this trend will only continue to increase.
This is only for their business lines of computers, not for the consumer level, and has nothing to do with accents. They were getting a lot of flak from their corporate clients for outsourcing. Dell simply does not want to alienate their corporate (read: where the real money is) customers.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, this is news to me. We pay 1.5% commission to Amex. In fact, of the major cards, they are the lowest commission rate, with Visa/MC charging 2.5%. Restaurants can pay upwards of 4.5% but that's as high as it gets.
Mods, please, downgrade the parent to over-rated. The AC has no idea what he is talking about. None.
"Can you hear me now? Good. Can you hear me now? Good." doesn't count as redundancy. ;)
Not to mention, and I'm speaking from experience here, it can take up to a *month* to get a Comcast tech out to your house. Consider the extra money for a T1 insurance.
My mistake. It's not a federal law (I went back over the merchangt agreement). However, it *is* against the regulations of the card issuers. Both Visa and MasterCard expressly forbid minimum purchase policies and while Amex doesn't prohibit them, they do discourage their use. Also, if the merchant does not require a minimum for a non-Amex card, the rules state that they cannot require one for Amex.
While it's not a law (merely a requirement), try to keep one thing in mind. A credit card transaction does cost the merchant. In addition to a percentage on the sale (typically around 2-3% for non-restaurants), there is a transaction fee of anywhere between 10 - 35 cents. Not a big deal to a large store, but to a small mom-and-pop place, it can make a difference, especially on a pack of gum (my earlier example). Markup on a 25 cent pack of chewing gum is about 11 cents. So, they can actually lose money on the deal.
Yes, it's Commerce. $100 minimum balance, no fee checking, and none of that bullcrap about charging you for using other banks' ATMs. That whole concept is a fraud to begin with as there is no net cost to processing an in-bound ATM request when it's balanced against the bank's cost of having a teller process the same transaction.
:)
It's amazing, really. The whole purpose of the ATM was to reduce operating costs to banks. ATM usage fees are just one more example of corporate welfare. At least you have a choice of whether to pay it or not. I choose not to and, therefore, bank with one of the best in the business (IMHO).
When you consider that a bank pays you, if anything, 1% to 2% interest on your deposits and loans that money out at up to 9% (depending on the loan type and borrower's rating and intended usage of the funds), they are making a considerable profit. And that's just on the loan income - just one small part of their overall income structure. While I don't shun interacting with the general populace, I have found a lot of tellers at other banks to be lacking in what I would call "charm." Charging you $8 a month for the "luxury" of dealing with some pear-shaped, foul-attitude toting, miserable, customer-service-shackled troll is nothing more than consumer rape. Besides, on the whole, the tellers at Commerce are nicer and a hell of a lot better looking than any I have seen at Fleet.
Customer service at Commerce is also above anyone else that I have ever dealt with, both at the consumer and commercial levels (can you tell I'm a fan?). A very good friend of mine used to work for First Union. He used to say that their attitude towards their customers was summed up by their initials.
Other than inertia, what keeps you at First Union (now Wachovia)?
There are plenty of banks (at least here in the NY/NJ/PA area) that offer free checking with $0-$100 minumum balances. My bank is even open 7 days a week. :)
As for ATMs, another poster already told you of the virtue of using your card for debit purchases. Here's another tip that will save you from buying a couple of cases of soda. Federal law mandates that a merchant may not impose a minimum limit on credit card purchases. I know this as I own a retail store. Go to any grocery store, buy a pack of 25 cent gum (e.g. juicy fruit), and get cash back. Most places will allow you a minimum of $30 back. Even if you throw out the gum, it's still cheaper than the ATM fees that you're paying.
One final thing. On my way into work each morning, I stop at my local convenience store and get a cup of coffee for the drive. The ATM here is free and requires no purchases. The chain is named "WaWa" and they're all over this part of the state.
The point is, if you know where to look, you should never have to pay an ATM fee again.
Now, if you really want something to get pissed off about, consider that not only do some banks charge you for using the ATM (yours and someone elses), some banks even charge you for using their tellers. I believe Fleet or FirstUnion used to do this. How's that for chutzpah?
"File trading is killing the Entertainment industry."
Unfortunately, the AC that posted the parent, slamming Ripplet and accusing him of neglecting his children, will probably never be seen in its proper context due to filtering.
Clearly, however, the AC does not have any children. Otherwise s/he would know just how frustrating the mandatory commercials are to a parent whose toddler is running around in tears, screaming at the top of her lungs "NEMO!! NEMO!! NEMO!!! NEMO!!" while you frantically try to speed up the dvd player to skip past the NEMO!!commericals, wait for the opening menu NEMO!!animation to stop, navigate NEMO!!the menu, hit the back button NEMO!!because you chose the wrong menu NEMO!!option, sit through NEMO!!the FBI warnings (AGAIN), wade NEMO!!through the studio vanity markers, hear about other NEMO!!exciting offers that will NEMO!! be presented at the end of the movie, listen to NEMO!! the THX trailer (which just freaks the kid out even more - at least it stops them from yelling NEMO!! for a few seconds), stare dumbfounded at the MPAA rating screen (wtf?), and finally get to the first scene with that friggin' fish! NEMO!! NEMO!! NEMO!!
Seriously, the forced commercials are getting out of hand. I don't even have patience with the FBI warning and, seriously, what the hell do I care about Interpol? Some of the manufactures are getting downright abusive, injecting over 5 minutes of ad-crap to sit through. Hell, Disney is even worse. Some of their tapes start off with up to ELEVEN minutes of ads. At least with Disney, you can skip the commercials (so far). Universal won't even let you do that much.
Just a tad. =) It was originally released as a cartridge-based game for the Vic-20 in 1982 and the C64 in 1983.
Some Google Goodness
>>So why post this?
Because some of us find this interesting. "News for Geeks" and all that. Many of us have very fond memories of the C64 (see here) and are appreciative of this article.
Besides, sludging my arse back into work after a 4-day weekend, this news actually brightened my morning a bit and gave me a new toy to look forward to.
I think you're referring to "Impossible Mission". Another classic!
Paradroid was by far my favorite game on the C64. I had forgotten all about Forbidden Forest..Thanks for the memories.
I would add to the list:
Temple of Apshai
Space Taxi
The Pharoah's Curse
Probably one of the most addictive games for me was also one of the simplist: Gridrunner. I can't wait to get this running on my Clie!
As far as complaining about how the tremendous amount of work that would have to go into volunteer projects as impressive as these is useless simply because it could not effectively reproduce the feeling one gets while on Space Mountain, the mere thought of stimulating the poster with lowlevel electrical shocks brings a smile to my face. =)
Good lord...by the time that this thing actually hits the streets in 2025, I'll be old enough to need the wheelchair model...
In other news, BMW today introduced the BMW Aladdin Series, its revolutionary flying car. A representative of BMW says that they expect everyone to be zipping around in one of these cool babies by the year 3100.
Well, yes, of course, this makes sense. Given the rate at which all companies are 100% compliant with their licensing for the software that runs on their machines, I'm sure that they will just run right out to support the trusted computing initiative.
Sorry, but I have worked at way too many companies all sharing the same installation of Windows/Office/etc to believe that they are going to increase their IT budget 10-fold to support DRM. BSA or no.
Let Phoenix go ahead and introduce DRM into the BIOS. There are plenty of other BIOS manufactures that will be more than happy to step up in their place. OpenBIOS, anyone?
Thank you, spiritraveller, for your response. If I had the mod points, I'd give them all to you.
That would be a great idea were it not for the fact that your credit report does not reveal your bank accounts, much less their balances.
They tried that in the beginning. Google ran on a combination of Linux and NT boxes. IIRC, they had to employ someone to, on a full-time basis, walk around and continuously cycle the NT servers.
This isn't so far fetched... Remember that Microsoft made a sizeable investment in SCO a little while back. With a server farm the size of Google's, this could cause considerable harm to their operations. Consider what an injuction against Google during litigation might do. If they can't use their servers, they're out of business.
My question is this, tho: Whatever happened to barratry? In particular, what of the laws regarding making threat of litigation and not following through?
I think Google should call their bluff and get this taken care of once and for all. However, the threat of a lawsuit, and even filing one, is not much to get concerned over. Google probably gets threats all of the time (see: Scientology and Xenu).
Now, a verdict, on the other hand....
And, after all, isn't that what we all want: To feel unique and special?
>>From what I gather, the RIAA is afraid to put dvd audio discs out, after watching what happened to their twins at the MPAA
I don't suppose it would have anything to do with the fact that DVD audio discs are going for $20-25 while thier CD counterparts are going for $10-14?
>> I already watched the screeners, why should i go pay 10 bucks?
Thank you for proving the MPAA's point.
Now, please, go ahead and tell me about how you're entitled to free movies and are not a thief.
>> Did it cost a coder a job here? Not really we're hiring
You can't possibly be serious. How many people worked on the project in India? How many people were employed in the analysis, design, development, documentation, management processes in India? So you're hiring a coder or two to handle the maintenance and production support phase of the project. That's no consolation to the tens or hundreds (depending on the size of the project) who lost their jobs or couldn't get the jobs in the first place.
I'm very happy that your project worked out for you. Now, please be so kind as to tell us what company you work for so those of us with a conscience can avoid your products/services.
Oh, and before someone mods me as a Troll, consider this: outsourcing has nothing to do with the quality of the job performed but with the (mythical) cost savings involved. The decision to outsource overseas is a short-sided financial one that is doing harm to the local economy and will eventually come back to bite the outsourcer in the ass. For if you don't pay people to work, they can't afford to buy your product. This, of course, forces further cost cutting measures, which only hurtles the company into a death spiral. Hilarity ensues.
This has nothing to do with isolationalism, either. Notice that I have made no mention of my home country, as this is happening in many countries. The simple fact is that these decisions are being driven by short-sided, amateurish stockholders who have no comprehension of base economics and lack the ability to look beyond the figures for Next Quarter.
I wish I could remember where I read the article , Robert Kiyosaki maybe, but one of the major problems with the current economy (US, EU, whereever) is that stockholders don't care to look at a company's 3 or 5 or 7 year plan anymore. It's all about Next Quarter. It's this pressure that is causing outsourcing, as well as the unusual barrage of accounting scandels.
Until investors and corporate shareholders return to a sensible economic approach to investing in business, this trend will only continue to increase.
This is only for their business lines of computers, not for the consumer level, and has nothing to do with accents. They were getting a lot of flak from their corporate clients for outsourcing. Dell simply does not want to alienate their corporate (read: where the real money is) customers.