So, actually, we should keep mines open as pseudo-scholarship mills so 'poorly educated kids' can ruin their health and possibly die horribly. Good logic there.
Yes, it isn't being covered very well by the 'respectable media', but the truth is that the Superbowl isn't exactly over.
As we speak, both conferences are putting together teams of 'counters', who will pore over the field looking for dimples to indicate where other scoring opportunities might have occurred that weren't counted.
I, too, am conscripted to the hellish hordes known as ISP tech support, and I've had 100 calls or more today from people whining that they can't get to...good grief.
Everyone knows that the first 'killer application' using this technology is going to be porno movies on DVD that'll let you move the 'camera angle' to anywhere you want.
I wonder at the volume of complaints vis-a-vis the issue with Earthlink blocking port 25 to anyone but someone on their own network.
Unless I'm mis-understanding the issue here, the only issue is with sending unrestricted emails through someone else's server. What's the problem here?
I was about to post on this thread, but you said word for word what I was going to. I wonder why this concept would be so hard? The problem with the last US election was not the end result so much as it was the PROCESS. If we could streamline the process, it would make things much better. Having an electronic touchscreen based voting procedure, which would result in a printed paper ballot, would be ideal. You would have a process that would be simple for people to utilize, and you'd have an output that would be easily machine-readable. Covers all sides of the issue, if you ask me (which nobody did)
"You can lean towards Service to Others, or Service to Self. (And despite your protesting, it sounds to me as though you have a leaning toward 'Service to Others' behavior. Sorry, but I think of that as a 'good guy' trait.)"
The only real problem I see with this outlook is that it only takes one of those "All for me!" kinda people to bollix up the whole thing. If a person sees someone else benefitting from this 'good guy' action, and doesn't pass it on, it is human nature to lessen, and even eliminate, one's own 'positive' actions towards others.
I think a far superior situation would be one in which people concentrated on their own well-being, in order to make it unnecessary for others to 'help them' do anything. If people took a more self-centric view, and ensured that their own needs were taken care of by themselves, then everyone would be better off.
If there were people who needed genuine help, then people would be in a position to help them if they chose, and their own situations wouldn't be lessened by the assistance they gave.
A good example of this would be a person who had $100 to their name, and rather than using it to buy food, clothing, etc., they gave it to someone else because they perceived a greater 'need' in the other person. Does this action render null their own need for food, clothing, etc.? No, it just requires them to depend on the 'charity' of someone else, thereby lengthening the cycle unnecessarily.
Like I've told people before, it doesn't make sense for you to give up your last piece of bread to someone else, only to have to turn around and hold your hand out for someone else to give you their piece of bread. If you concentrate on your own realistic needs, you will have bread for yourself, and if you choose to give away a piece, you can do so.
I've read through all the horror stories on this thread, and while I understand them and sympathize with them, let me give everybody an alternative version of this 'credit hell' that has been described.
First, I probably fit everyone's ideal of a terrible credit risk. I've got $12,000 in student loans outstanding, and I'm currently +60 on the payment. I just wrote a check for a triple payment, so granted that one is fixed.
I also have a repossession on my credit report, dating about four years ago. I bought a Camaro for $7,000, on a co-sign from my father, and I was making the payments no problem. Unfortunately, my father had to file for bankruptcy about a year into the contract, and since he'd co-signed me, the lending agency called the entire loan due immediately (about $5,500). Of course, I had to give them the car back.
I also have a defaulted credit card on my record, which dates about the same time. I had a Discover card with a $2,500 limit, and I had to let the whole thing go bad because I didn't work for a year (no sob stories, just bad decisions). I haven't yet addressed that issue, but I will when I can. It's gotten so old now that credit agencies don't even bother dealing with it.
Besides that, I have one of those dreaded ChexSystems marks against me because of an incident with a checking account I had six years ago. Basically, I wrote two checks two days after I'd deposited a check, and the bank still bounced one of the checks. I disputed it, and in the end I just closed the account and told them to stuff the remainder of their fee (about $30).
Whew! After all that, let me tell you something: I currently have a no-fee checking account with a check card, I have a car loan, I have a good job, a place to live, and I have two credit cards with a total of $1,500 in credit lines? Why? I haven't the foggiest idea! I wouldn't lend me money, but no one seems to care. When I got my checking account, they initially nixed the check card, but after I spent four months proving I wasn't a loser, they gave me one anyway. I don't expect I'd get a mortgage loan anytime soon, without a 50% down payment, but it doesn't bother me to live in apartments and let someone else do the maintenance.
Like I said, I feel sorry for those who've had bad situations, but I don't know that I see why they're having them. Maybe I'm lucky, and I know I've been irresponsible, and I AM going to solve all those outstanding problems, but it hasn't negatively affected my life in any way. Maybe that's a bad message to relate, but that's the way it is.
"Everyone knows that mail-order CD/comic warehouses try to rip you off. If you were stupid or greedy enough to think you could get 12 CDs for $1 or whatever and never be obligated for more, you deserve the hassle (especially since artists generally don't get royalties for CDs sold at a discount like that)."
Oh brother, I used to screw out those discount CD houses AND delivery book services (my favorites were BMG and Book Of The Month Club). Here was my method:
1.) Sign up and get free stuff
2.) When free stuff comes, buy whatever is necessary (1 CD for BMG, nothing for BOMC), then get the rest of your free stuff (BMG).
3.) In same transaction, sign up AGAIN under a new name (same address) to get both free stuff for new signup and free stuff for referring person.
4.) When last free stuff arrives from first transaction, CANCEL.
5.) Repeat ad nauseaum.
I figure I probably got at least 140 CDs and at least 100 books that way, and I figure I averaged out about $2.50 per CD and maybe $3 per book. This still works, and they certainly never managed to screw ME.
"some - who find a P90 adequate for word processing and net access and have no strong desire for anything more powerful."
This won't be the case for long, but I've got over a dozen computers, and here's examples of the MOST powerful ones:
PC - Intel P200
Mac - PM 7200/75
Sparc - Sparc 2
I've never run into bottlenecks, even though I run Win95, 98, 98SE, NT 4 Workstation, NT 4 Server, Mac OS 7.5, RH Linux 6.2, Solaris 7, and OpenStep 4.2 on them. I do, however, find that my machines aren't adequate for BeOS, Win2000, Whistler, etc., namely anything new since about 1999. Considering how cheap hardware is, though, I'll have that problem solved soon.
As far as you can take it...LONG LIVE OLD HARDWARE!
Dude...this posting is so true I could just cry. If you figure out how to overcome the 'We like good guys, but we prefer to screw bad boys' mindset that most women have, post it here, because that would truly be news that matters for geeks.
"I'm willing to give all the help in the world to someone who's interested on how to use his/her head to solve a problem. However, "the consumer" doesn't even want to learn where the control panel is YET wants me to provide FREE software and FREE tech support."
Preach it, brother. I work ISP tech support, and your first sentence IS my working philosophy. When I get someone on the phone that says "What's wrong with your service? NO! Don't tell me anything, just fix it!", is when that person gets put on perpetual hold. And, no, it isn't because I'm a bad tech support person or customer service person, it's just that I don't 'need' to enlighten idiots.
I'm slowly building a Beowulf cluster made up of Sparcs. I've got two Sparc 2s, and I'm going to add maybe four or five more of these, along with a Sparc 10 or 20 'master' system. Seems to be a good route to take...especially because I saw one just like it for sale on Ebay, and I know I can build it cheaper than I can buy it.
"I doubt Bill Gates regularily spends 10% of his income on charities"
No, his Bill Gates Foundation is currently worth $22 billion...roughly 40% of his net worth. Top that.
Should have, would have, could have. The point is that whether or not someone has money depends entirely on their effort on behalf of themselves. Do I think people should starve or freeze to death? No. Do I think it is anyone's obligation to help them? No. Does this make me a bad person? No, it just makes me a rational, self-sufficient one.
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So, actually, we should keep mines open as pseudo-scholarship mills so 'poorly educated kids' can ruin their health and possibly die horribly. Good logic there.
Um, you can break a diamond with a hammer very easily. Just because they're hard doesn't mean they're indestructible.
Oh, please.
Anybody want to take bets on how long it takes an article writer to put up this headline:
"Global Access Wireless Databases. Is it GAWD-awful?"
The possibilities of puns on this acronym are truly endless.
Yes, it isn't being covered very well by the 'respectable media', but the truth is that the Superbowl isn't exactly over.
As we speak, both conferences are putting together teams of 'counters', who will pore over the field looking for dimples to indicate where other scoring opportunities might have occurred that weren't counted.
The results are expected by March 12th.
This set won't be worth a minuscule fraction of what he's asking since they aren't in the boxes.
I think homeboy is dreaming.
Amen, brother/sister
...good grief.
I, too, am conscripted to the hellish hordes known as ISP tech support, and I've had 100 calls or more today from people whining that they can't get to
Oh hell yeah!
Everyone knows that the first 'killer application' using this technology is going to be porno movies on DVD that'll let you move the 'camera angle' to anywhere you want.
Maybe I ought to patent that!
I wonder at the volume of complaints vis-a-vis the issue with Earthlink blocking port 25 to anyone but someone on their own network.
Unless I'm mis-understanding the issue here, the only issue is with sending unrestricted emails through someone else's server. What's the problem here?
"In England fanny is slang for the vagina."
Is that right? In the US (as I'm sure you're aware), fanny is slang for buttocks/ass/whatever. Why the hell would you call a pussy a fanny?
Useless post, but Yar's Revenge was the best console game ever...in my humble opinion. Nothing like whacking that damn fireball thing.
"reproduce in the stupidest way possible."
I dunno...I can't think of too many stupid ways to reproduce. Nearly all the ways I can think of are pretty fun.
I was about to post on this thread, but you said word for word what I was going to. I wonder why this concept would be so hard? The problem with the last US election was not the end result so much as it was the PROCESS. If we could streamline the process, it would make things much better. Having an electronic touchscreen based voting procedure, which would result in a printed paper ballot, would be ideal. You would have a process that would be simple for people to utilize, and you'd have an output that would be easily machine-readable. Covers all sides of the issue, if you ask me (which nobody did)
I think John Galt is that guy who invented 'IT'. Really.
"You can lean towards Service to Others, or Service to Self. (And despite your protesting, it sounds to me as though you have a leaning toward 'Service to Others' behavior. Sorry, but I think of that as a 'good guy' trait.)"
The only real problem I see with this outlook is that it only takes one of those "All for me!" kinda people to bollix up the whole thing. If a person sees someone else benefitting from this 'good guy' action, and doesn't pass it on, it is human nature to lessen, and even eliminate, one's own 'positive' actions towards others.
I think a far superior situation would be one in which people concentrated on their own well-being, in order to make it unnecessary for others to 'help them' do anything. If people took a more self-centric view, and ensured that their own needs were taken care of by themselves, then everyone would be better off.
If there were people who needed genuine help, then people would be in a position to help them if they chose, and their own situations wouldn't be lessened by the assistance they gave.
A good example of this would be a person who had $100 to their name, and rather than using it to buy food, clothing, etc., they gave it to someone else because they perceived a greater 'need' in the other person. Does this action render null their own need for food, clothing, etc.? No, it just requires them to depend on the 'charity' of someone else, thereby lengthening the cycle unnecessarily.
Like I've told people before, it doesn't make sense for you to give up your last piece of bread to someone else, only to have to turn around and hold your hand out for someone else to give you their piece of bread. If you concentrate on your own realistic needs, you will have bread for yourself, and if you choose to give away a piece, you can do so.
I've read through all the horror stories on this thread, and while I understand them and sympathize with them, let me give everybody an alternative version of this 'credit hell' that has been described.
First, I probably fit everyone's ideal of a terrible credit risk. I've got $12,000 in student loans outstanding, and I'm currently +60 on the payment. I just wrote a check for a triple payment, so granted that one is fixed.
I also have a repossession on my credit report, dating about four years ago. I bought a Camaro for $7,000, on a co-sign from my father, and I was making the payments no problem. Unfortunately, my father had to file for bankruptcy about a year into the contract, and since he'd co-signed me, the lending agency called the entire loan due immediately (about $5,500). Of course, I had to give them the car back.
I also have a defaulted credit card on my record, which dates about the same time. I had a Discover card with a $2,500 limit, and I had to let the whole thing go bad because I didn't work for a year (no sob stories, just bad decisions). I haven't yet addressed that issue, but I will when I can. It's gotten so old now that credit agencies don't even bother dealing with it.
Besides that, I have one of those dreaded ChexSystems marks against me because of an incident with a checking account I had six years ago. Basically, I wrote two checks two days after I'd deposited a check, and the bank still bounced one of the checks. I disputed it, and in the end I just closed the account and told them to stuff the remainder of their fee (about $30).
Whew! After all that, let me tell you something: I currently have a no-fee checking account with a check card, I have a car loan, I have a good job, a place to live, and I have two credit cards with a total of $1,500 in credit lines? Why? I haven't the foggiest idea! I wouldn't lend me money, but no one seems to care. When I got my checking account, they initially nixed the check card, but after I spent four months proving I wasn't a loser, they gave me one anyway. I don't expect I'd get a mortgage loan anytime soon, without a 50% down payment, but it doesn't bother me to live in apartments and let someone else do the maintenance.
Like I said, I feel sorry for those who've had bad situations, but I don't know that I see why they're having them. Maybe I'm lucky, and I know I've been irresponsible, and I AM going to solve all those outstanding problems, but it hasn't negatively affected my life in any way. Maybe that's a bad message to relate, but that's the way it is.
"Everyone knows that mail-order CD/comic warehouses try to rip you off. If you were stupid or greedy enough to think you could get 12 CDs for $1 or whatever and never be obligated for more, you deserve the hassle (especially since artists generally don't get royalties for CDs sold at a discount like that)."
Oh brother, I used to screw out those discount CD houses AND delivery book services (my favorites were BMG and Book Of The Month Club). Here was my method:
1.) Sign up and get free stuff
2.) When free stuff comes, buy whatever is necessary (1 CD for BMG, nothing for BOMC), then get the rest of your free stuff (BMG).
3.) In same transaction, sign up AGAIN under a new name (same address) to get both free stuff for new signup and free stuff for referring person.
4.) When last free stuff arrives from first transaction, CANCEL.
5.) Repeat ad nauseaum.
I figure I probably got at least 140 CDs and at least 100 books that way, and I figure I averaged out about $2.50 per CD and maybe $3 per book. This still works, and they certainly never managed to screw ME.
Ah, the tech support worker's anthem...;-)
"some - who find a P90 adequate for word processing and net access and have no strong desire for anything more powerful."
This won't be the case for long, but I've got over a dozen computers, and here's examples of the MOST powerful ones:
PC - Intel P200
Mac - PM 7200/75
Sparc - Sparc 2
I've never run into bottlenecks, even though I run Win95, 98, 98SE, NT 4 Workstation, NT 4 Server, Mac OS 7.5, RH Linux 6.2, Solaris 7, and OpenStep 4.2 on them. I do, however, find that my machines aren't adequate for BeOS, Win2000, Whistler, etc., namely anything new since about 1999. Considering how cheap hardware is, though, I'll have that problem solved soon.
As far as you can take it...LONG LIVE OLD HARDWARE!
Dude...this posting is so true I could just cry. If you figure out how to overcome the 'We like good guys, but we prefer to screw bad boys' mindset that most women have, post it here, because that would truly be news that matters for geeks.
MENSA's pretty over-rated. I got in just so I could say I did, but then all they did was watch subtitled movies and play trivia games.
"I'm willing to give all the help in the world to someone who's interested on how to use his/her head to solve a problem. However, "the consumer" doesn't even want to learn where the control panel is YET wants me to provide FREE software and FREE tech support." Preach it, brother. I work ISP tech support, and your first sentence IS my working philosophy. When I get someone on the phone that says "What's wrong with your service? NO! Don't tell me anything, just fix it!", is when that person gets put on perpetual hold. And, no, it isn't because I'm a bad tech support person or customer service person, it's just that I don't 'need' to enlighten idiots.
That is a great idea...wonder why none of the distro companies have figured that one out?
I'm slowly building a Beowulf cluster made up of Sparcs. I've got two Sparc 2s, and I'm going to add maybe four or five more of these, along with a Sparc 10 or 20 'master' system. Seems to be a good route to take...especially because I saw one just like it for sale on Ebay, and I know I can build it cheaper than I can buy it.
"I doubt Bill Gates regularily spends 10% of his income on charities" No, his Bill Gates Foundation is currently worth $22 billion...roughly 40% of his net worth. Top that.
Should have, would have, could have. The point is that whether or not someone has money depends entirely on their effort on behalf of themselves. Do I think people should starve or freeze to death? No. Do I think it is anyone's obligation to help them? No. Does this make me a bad person? No, it just makes me a rational, self-sufficient one.