What's unfair? The buyer determines a maximum price that they're willing to pay. What's the difference if your competition is a phantom bid or a real one? There's plenty of crap for sale out there and if you pay more than you think it's worth, just to win an auction, you deserve what you got.
It's not a game, it's business. Welcome to the real world.
No, they're a service company and they make it quite clear that the sales are not under their control. They simply put interested buyers in communication with corresponding sellers. Unfortunately, because eBay makes money from the sellers there is no real incentive for them to protect buyers. However, the vast majority of scams are pulled on greedy people who are trying to get something for nothing. As long as those people exist (and they're willing to accept the business model) eBay will have no incentive to change.
Their rating system isn't perfect, but it's decent. I've sold some stuff on Ebay and bought a couple things. I got screwed once by a seller, but I've been screwed by brick-and-mortar places, too. Such is life.
Exercise some common sense...
on
Generation Wrecked
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Buried in college and credit card debt, a lot of them won't be able to catch up as they approach their prime spending years.
This sounds more like an excuse. Running up credit card debit is careless and stupid in any economy. If the NASDAQ and Dow are way up, you're still capable of screwing yourself.
snipers should theorectically be able to deduce the most favorable target locations
Unless the sniper is choosing targets first and locations second.
I would tend to agree the sniper is choosing the locations first (i.e. the guy who had just walked out of the store) but that still leaves millions of possibilities. Personally, I think his residence is centered somewhere inside the initial five shootings and he has slowly spiraled out around the DC area since the heightened media coverage.
I also think that most people are overestimating the sniper's education. After all, I became proficient firing a.22 in Boy Scouts (and several higher calibers later in my teens) without the need for a high-power scope. Go an hour north or west of Montgomery County and you're in a typically more rural area where shotgun/rifle proficiency isn't so unusual.
You'll have to excuse me, since I'm just in one of those moods. From a technical standpoint, a mile is a mile, regardless if you're a human or an ant. However, if you meant the lesser known unit of measure, the ant-mile-per-hour, you would be correct that it would appear to be going 100 amph.
At least they decided to use 4 different frequencies. With 2 brothers, I can't tell you how many times we fought about who got to use their car at that time. It made for frustrating races when an annoyed benchwarmer would turn on his controller and flick the controls.
I pulled that kind of crap with a couple telemarketers. The last one had the unfortunate timing and got me hours after I had been laid-off.
After trying to sell me on the benefits of his company's credit card, for which any question was easily solved by a flowchart, which was quite obviously sitting in front of him. Then I asked him what color the card was. I guarantee that this information is not on the flowchart. After a short silence, I explained that in my vast array of credit cards, I had covered most of the primary and secondary colors, along with several metallic cards. When he suggested that he believed it was a translucent card, I feigned enthusiasm and asked him to estimate the opacity. He, quite literally, spent 10 minutes trying to hunt down someone who could confirm this. Needless to say, he was disappointed to find out that I remebered a a building passkey was significantly translucent and I was no longer interested.
These people generally do not have the ability to end the call (or initiate it, for that matter) and will stay on the line as long as the person doesn't hang up. Have some fun with it and then inform them that you want to be removed from their list.
Until we decide to actually give some police organization real authority to prosecute these people
Around here, the Fraternal Order of Police is one of the worst organizations for telemarketing (second only to Citibank). They not only call, but repeatedly call until they get someone to solicit donations from.
Perhpas you didn't actually read my post. The simple fact is that people forget to charge things. Having a cordless mouse doesn't offer me any benefit because (you're exactly right) I don't carry it around with me.
I like the optical mice. I like the idea of cordless devices, especially rechargeable ones. However, I'm the first to admit that my Palm m505 is dead a couple times a month because I forget to charge it. I'm willing to live with that because its default location is my wallet, not my desk.
Frankly, I'm going to get sick of that occurring with a computer mouse, whose immediate and successful operation is considered [bold]absolutely necessary[/bold] when compared to my PDA. The blame for a dead battery is immaterial.
The trade-off for a cordless device that never strays more than 6" from its primary location is one I rank as extremely unappealing.
Let's say it isn't unreasonable. Let's assume that it's perfectly legitimate for a company to be upset and feel entitled to the space...
What makes them so sure that their ad was up during that particular segment of time? If I remember correctly, Spiderman is a fairly old comic book and maybe the current ads wouldn't make sense if placed in that time. Sure, the movie seems to be set in the present, but where do you draw the line?
My last thought is the compensation. Obviously the CG billboards weren't auto-magically created, so someone spent time and effort on it. Therefore, it's not unreasonable to expect a fee associated with the space. If the companies feel so greatly about their stake, they should pay for it. I suggest making it a several hundred year contract. After all, if they stop paying for the real-life space, they should at least continue to pay for their Spiderman space. People won't see their physical billboard, but people will continue to watch the movie.
(I was on the fence about putting this out as someone may start doing it, but...)
I received a phone call a few months ago. The call rang once and ended before I could pick it up. When I checked the Caller ID (never go home without it) it had a number outside of my area code with a label, "Prize Claim Dept" attached.
When I checked the area code it was somewhere in the Carribean. I have seen more than a few jobs listed in the classifieds that had similar numbers, charging $20 a minute (legally) without warning.
This was pretty crafty, though. First, they get you to initiate the call, making it much easier for them to get your money. Second, if there ever was a problem, they could easily argue that they dialed the wrong number, realized it, then hung up. They didn't expect you to call them.
While I agree with most of your arguement, the vast majority of irritating software is designed for Windows because that's what 90% of their target audience is running. I like and use Linux, too, but frankly it's not as popular and widespread as Windows.
Give it time. When Linux becomes mainstream, the same programmers that made crappy Windows software will begin to make crappy Linux software. Some of it will disturb/disable other programs, take up resources, and open security holes.
The arguement is really not an issue for most people. The people who know they can change a file extension asociation, will. The people who want a different program to open it, will learn. Last, the people who don't know, don't care.
My greater gripe is programs that change extensions be required to display a "warning, proceed?" message during installation (much like a security grant for Java or ActiveX) if the extension is already associated with a different program. It burns me every time I install some software and it becomes my cd and mp3 player. Yes, I know how to change it, but it's still irritating.
I never considered the extensions menu particularly difficult to find or use. Not everything can be in the Start menu.
The FastTrack network designates (perhaps automatically) certain peers - more powerful computers with high-bandwidth connections - as "supernodes." [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how supernodes are designated].
I would love to see them suddenly understand how the supernodes work and the FastTrack developers sue for an incredible amount. It would be nice to see Slashdot's favorite law get used to help the little guy once.
You mean like hitting "Play" makes any device play? Then anytime you hit "Play" your television plays, your cd plays, your dvd plays, your vcr plays...
Unless you decide that "Play" will be a unique code for all different types of devices. Then anytime you hit "VCR Play" your multiple VCR setup (for copying, of course) plays both the source and recording vcr.
So you make the codes unique for all devices and brands which gets you back to the situation we're currently in.
It sucks, but unfortunately we can't have our cake and eat it without a bit of work on our part. Currently the best way is a learning remote. Ideally, the type that will allow you to hit "learn" and "play" while hitting the appropriate button on the old remote to truly learn it.
Incidentally, if you have a multiple VCR setup with identical brand and model you're screwed when it comes to using a remote. I've seen it happen and it's quite funny when the owner finally smacks their forehead.
When did I see in the Constitution that I had a right to make illegal copies of other peoples' work?
I listen to mp3s. The vast majority of which I don't own the cd for. I realize it's wrong and I can rationalize that "nobody loses money because I wouldn't have bought the cd anyway" all day. That doesn't mean it's legal, let alone a right (there's a huge potential for educating people that legal does not equal a right).
The DMCA opens a very broad door that I don't think should be open the way it currently is. However, assuming that because you disagree with a law and you feel it can be used against you in unfair ways means you get to ignore. If you're making legitimate copies of cds for fair use, you're part of a small minority and I feel for you.
Yes, I realize there are innocent people killed by drunks, too, but I'll assume they're listed under your extremely vague statistics for car accidents.
At the risk of sounding callous, what part of this did you not understand? The innocent people weren't drinking so they weren't killed by in a way that was attributed directly to drinking. That would be attributed to an irresponsible, guilty person who's weapon happened to be that he was drinking and driving.
I've lost several friends to a drunk driver, so an emotional, name-calling rant won't change my opinion that it was the asshole driving the car, not the alcohol.
Read the whole post and start posting at something other than AC or few people will read or care.
Slashdot Mirror
What's unfair? The buyer determines a maximum price that they're willing to pay. What's the difference if your competition is a phantom bid or a real one? There's plenty of crap for sale out there and if you pay more than you think it's worth, just to win an auction, you deserve what you got.
It's not a game, it's business. Welcome to the real world.
Ebay is a vendor, just like any other store...
No, they're a service company and they make it quite clear that the sales are not under their control. They simply put interested buyers in communication with corresponding sellers. Unfortunately, because eBay makes money from the sellers there is no real incentive for them to protect buyers. However, the vast majority of scams are pulled on greedy people who are trying to get something for nothing. As long as those people exist (and they're willing to accept the business model) eBay will have no incentive to change.
Their rating system isn't perfect, but it's decent. I've sold some stuff on Ebay and bought a couple things. I got screwed once by a seller, but I've been screwed by brick-and-mortar places, too. Such is life.
Buried in college and credit card debt, a lot of them won't be able to catch up as they approach their prime spending years.
This sounds more like an excuse. Running up credit card debit is careless and stupid in any economy. If the NASDAQ and Dow are way up, you're still capable of screwing yourself.
snipers should theorectically be able to deduce the most favorable target locations
.22 in Boy Scouts (and several higher calibers later in my teens) without the need for a high-power scope. Go an hour north or west of Montgomery County and you're in a typically more rural area where shotgun/rifle proficiency isn't so unusual.
Unless the sniper is choosing targets first and locations second.
I would tend to agree the sniper is choosing the locations first (i.e. the guy who had just walked out of the store) but that still leaves millions of possibilities. Personally, I think his residence is centered somewhere inside the initial five shootings and he has slowly spiraled out around the DC area since the heightened media coverage.
I also think that most people are overestimating the sniper's education. After all, I became proficient firing a
Team leader Chris Melhuish told New Scientist magazine said that although the new MCFs run on sugar cubes, the team aims to move on to carrot power.
Great... no matter what color car I buy, it will eventually turn orange.
If any of this was mean-spirited I would have pointed out that
The freaking thing is about the size Schlong (thats not saying much)
is also considered relative.
to a freaking ANT the thing is going like 100 mph
You'll have to excuse me, since I'm just in one of those moods. From a technical standpoint, a mile is a mile, regardless if you're a human or an ant. However, if you meant the lesser known unit of measure, the ant-mile-per-hour, you would be correct that it would appear to be going 100 amph.
Figures. My youngest brother is 21 now, but I can still see us beating the crap out of each other to determine who gets to race.
At least they decided to use 4 different frequencies. With 2 brothers, I can't tell you how many times we fought about who got to use their car at that time. It made for frustrating races when an annoyed benchwarmer would turn on his controller and flick the controls.
I pulled that kind of crap with a couple telemarketers. The last one had the unfortunate timing and got me hours after I had been laid-off.
After trying to sell me on the benefits of his company's credit card, for which any question was easily solved by a flowchart, which was quite obviously sitting in front of him. Then I asked him what color the card was. I guarantee that this information is not on the flowchart. After a short silence, I explained that in my vast array of credit cards, I had covered most of the primary and secondary colors, along with several metallic cards. When he suggested that he believed it was a translucent card, I feigned enthusiasm and asked him to estimate the opacity. He, quite literally, spent 10 minutes trying to hunt down someone who could confirm this. Needless to say, he was disappointed to find out that I remebered a a building passkey was significantly translucent and I was no longer interested.
These people generally do not have the ability to end the call (or initiate it, for that matter) and will stay on the line as long as the person doesn't hang up. Have some fun with it and then inform them that you want to be removed from their list.
Until we decide to actually give some police organization real authority to prosecute these people
Around here, the Fraternal Order of Police is one of the worst organizations for telemarketing (second only to Citibank). They not only call, but repeatedly call until they get someone to solicit donations from.
Although, you may be able to find it if you look for "EmTeeVee" instead.
And run the risk of yelling the wrong name?
Perhpas you didn't actually read my post. The simple fact is that people forget to charge things. Having a cordless mouse doesn't offer me any benefit because (you're exactly right) I don't carry it around with me.
I like the optical mice. I like the idea of cordless devices, especially rechargeable ones. However, I'm the first to admit that my Palm m505 is dead a couple times a month because I forget to charge it. I'm willing to live with that because its default location is my wallet, not my desk.
Frankly, I'm going to get sick of that occurring with a computer mouse, whose immediate and successful operation is considered [bold]absolutely necessary[/bold] when compared to my PDA. The blame for a dead battery is immaterial.
The trade-off for a cordless device that never strays more than 6" from its primary location is one I rank as extremely unappealing.
Let's say it isn't unreasonable. Let's assume that it's perfectly legitimate for a company to be upset and feel entitled to the space...
What makes them so sure that their ad was up during that particular segment of time? If I remember correctly, Spiderman is a fairly old comic book and maybe the current ads wouldn't make sense if placed in that time. Sure, the movie seems to be set in the present, but where do you draw the line?
My last thought is the compensation. Obviously the CG billboards weren't auto-magically created, so someone spent time and effort on it. Therefore, it's not unreasonable to expect a fee associated with the space. If the companies feel so greatly about their stake, they should pay for it. I suggest making it a several hundred year contract. After all, if they stop paying for the real-life space, they should at least continue to pay for their Spiderman space. People won't see their physical billboard, but people will continue to watch the movie.
(I was on the fence about putting this out as someone may start doing it, but...)
I received a phone call a few months ago. The call rang once and ended before I could pick it up. When I checked the Caller ID (never go home without it) it had a number outside of my area code with a label, "Prize Claim Dept" attached.
When I checked the area code it was somewhere in the Carribean. I have seen more than a few jobs listed in the classifieds that had similar numbers, charging $20 a minute (legally) without warning.
This was pretty crafty, though. First, they get you to initiate the call, making it much easier for them to get your money. Second, if there ever was a problem, they could easily argue that they dialed the wrong number, realized it, then hung up. They didn't expect you to call them.
Ethically lacking, but pretty crafty.
While I agree with most of your arguement, the vast majority of irritating software is designed for Windows because that's what 90% of their target audience is running. I like and use Linux, too, but frankly it's not as popular and widespread as Windows.
Give it time. When Linux becomes mainstream, the same programmers that made crappy Windows software will begin to make crappy Linux software. Some of it will disturb/disable other programs, take up resources, and open security holes.
The arguement is really not an issue for most people. The people who know they can change a file extension asociation, will. The people who want a different program to open it, will learn. Last, the people who don't know, don't care.
My greater gripe is programs that change extensions be required to display a "warning, proceed?" message during installation (much like a security grant for Java or ActiveX) if the extension is already associated with a different program. It burns me every time I install some software and it becomes my cd and mp3 player. Yes, I know how to change it, but it's still irritating.
I never considered the extensions menu particularly difficult to find or use. Not everything can be in the Start menu.
when I'm trying to dial a number while driving.
From the RIAA lawyers' memo on FuckedCompany:
The FastTrack network designates (perhaps automatically) certain peers - more powerful computers with high-bandwidth connections - as "supernodes." [because of the system's encrypted communication, we are unable to determine how supernodes are designated].
I would love to see them suddenly understand how the supernodes work and the FastTrack developers sue for an incredible amount. It would be nice to see Slashdot's favorite law get used to help the little guy once.
You mean like hitting "Play" makes any device play? Then anytime you hit "Play" your television plays, your cd plays, your dvd plays, your vcr plays...
Unless you decide that "Play" will be a unique code for all different types of devices. Then anytime you hit "VCR Play" your multiple VCR setup (for copying, of course) plays both the source and recording vcr.
So you make the codes unique for all devices and brands which gets you back to the situation we're currently in.
It sucks, but unfortunately we can't have our cake and eat it without a bit of work on our part. Currently the best way is a learning remote. Ideally, the type that will allow you to hit "learn" and "play" while hitting the appropriate button on the old remote to truly learn it.
Incidentally, if you have a multiple VCR setup with identical brand and model you're screwed when it comes to using a remote. I've seen it happen and it's quite funny when the owner finally smacks their forehead.
They take away our rights using technology
When did I see in the Constitution that I had a right to make illegal copies of other peoples' work?
I listen to mp3s. The vast majority of which I don't own the cd for. I realize it's wrong and I can rationalize that "nobody loses money because I wouldn't have bought the cd anyway" all day. That doesn't mean it's legal, let alone a right (there's a huge potential for educating people that legal does not equal a right).
The DMCA opens a very broad door that I don't think should be open the way it currently is. However, assuming that because you disagree with a law and you feel it can be used against you in unfair ways means you get to ignore. If you're making legitimate copies of cds for fair use, you're part of a small minority and I feel for you.
Most of us aren't.
then Windows 2000 must be absolutely fantastic.
Yes, I realize there are innocent people killed by drunks, too, but I'll assume they're listed under your extremely vague statistics for car accidents.
At the risk of sounding callous, what part of this did you not understand? The innocent people weren't drinking so they weren't killed by in a way that was attributed directly to drinking. That would be attributed to an irresponsible, guilty person who's weapon happened to be that he was drinking and driving.
I've lost several friends to a drunk driver, so an emotional, name-calling rant won't change my opinion that it was the asshole driving the car, not the alcohol.
Read the whole post and start posting at something other than AC or few people will read or care.