For six years I worked for an insurance company who based their entire pricing structure on the fact that credit scores are great indicators of future behavior. In a large (200K+) population of customers, the ones with higher credit scores made fewer claims. Period. They went so far as to separate people into 12 different levels of risk based on credit alone! Clear patterns only emerge in LARGE groups of people, not in individual isolated cases. Consumers and legislators hate it, but insurance companies LOVE credit scores because they are dead accurate in classifying large populations.
The key here is that credit scores only become a useful indicator as the population grows. If this employer is small then they are wasting their time. But, if they hire hundreds of people a year then it makes perfect sense to screen with credit. In this particular case the credit check had the unexpected benefit of clearly identifying the poster as self-important "director-level" whiner. Who would want to hire someone who pulls a stunt like this right out of the gate?
What a wonderfully non-informative website. Nowhere does it tell you how to obtain the product, how much it costs, what kind of bulk distribution is available, what platforms it's compatible with, etc. Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that you have to contact them to find out how to buy it? Maybe I've secretly come to LOVE the multiple PayPal and credit card pop-ups seem to be everywhere...
I'm glad that I live in a country were someone wouldn't be charged with a felony if he raped me, but that he will be shipped off to the Pen if he dares to steal bandwidth from the cable company.
Insurance companies could care less about where you drive, but they are definitely be interested in knowing when you are on the road and for how long. The more time you spend unparked increases your odds of having an accident. That's why they rate older drivers better, because their 25' Buicks spend most of the time parked. Driving at night significantly increases your risk of having an accident. It astronomically increases your risk of having an accident with (or as) a drunk driver. How do I know this? I used to be an underwriter for an auto insurance company...
Apparently one cannot even speculate about modern weaponry without falling victim to TMFA (Too Many Fucking Acronyms). I've often debated over who's TMFA was worse: Micro$oft or the guv'ment. Perdo here is really making a strong case for the latter.
I decided to check up on Moby's assertion that he is being swapped more than Pink by P2P. After filtering out things like Pink Floyd and Moby Grape I actually found MORE copies of Pink songs than Moby's on Gnutella. My horizon was ~20 Terabytes and I averaged ~200 Moby files as opposed to over 300 Pink files. How many more albums does Moby vs. Pink anyway? 5x? 10x? God I hate whiners!!!
For a contract to be binding it must include 3 elements:
1) Consideration. Something of value has to be exchanged.
2) Competent parties. Everyone involved has to meet the legal definition of "competent". This excludes children and lunatics (i.e. most of Microsoft's customers).
3) Legal Purpose. No aspect of the contract can break the law. Mafia contract killings are an example of contracts that fail this test. A virus contract would also fail this test.
It would be more fun to waste the BSA's legal and investigative resources by "snitching" on completely legit companies. Wrongfully hassling honest folks would be extremely embarassing and expensive. If enough of this happened it would definitely make them more cautious about using strong-arm tactics. Most of their investigations originate from disgruntled ex-employees in the first place, so its already a messy affair.
Targeted advertising has been used now for decades. Mass mailers can't afford to mail their crap to EVERYONE (it just seems like they do). Instead, they target based on Zip code, houshold income, if you have a phone or not, etc. Dominoes Pizza, for instance, does everything it can to avoid mailing coupons to housing projects and "bad" neighborhoods!!:o)
The main difference here is that you have an opportunity to mess with their demographic data. I made up all kinds of wierd crap for the Neilson Ratings bastards. They think I have 4 radios going at once all tuned to NPR.
DON'T PASS UP THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SCREW WITH THEM!!!
Old Navy's child labor practices are horrible. The Gap is more expensive, but doesn't use child labor at all. I prefer clothing made by adults, personally.
Insurance companies have to file their rates with each states' department of insurance. They have to be able to justify from loss experience why they charge more for certain risk characteristics than for others. Unfortunately, they can't just charge more because MicroSoft is of the devil.
What is interesting about this is that MS will definitely respond if they feel they are losing marketshare because of this. They will pressure the states AND the insurance companies to rethink this "discrimination". I would hazard to guess that ALL of the major insurance companies run MS exclusively (the one I work for does).
Here is a great site that has the algorithm and info necessary to validate any type of credit card. This is VERY useful info!
http://www.beachnet.com/~hstiles/cardtype.html
Credit card companies will limit your out-of-pocket liability to $50 for a string of related charges. Your homeowners/renters insurance policy will cover this $50 portion without a deductible, so if you claim it you won't pay a dime. I work for an insurance company ( Travelers ) that offers a policy that covers ANY expenses related to identity theft. They will pay for the cost of ordering your credit reports, hiring a lawyer, etc. if someone steals your CC info or assumes your identity to obtain credit.
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Dude, that wasn't an orchestra you were hearing... it was the acid.
For six years I worked for an insurance company who based their entire pricing structure on the fact that credit scores are great indicators of future behavior. In a large (200K+) population of customers, the ones with higher credit scores made fewer claims. Period. They went so far as to separate people into 12 different levels of risk based on credit alone! Clear patterns only emerge in LARGE groups of people, not in individual isolated cases. Consumers and legislators hate it, but insurance companies LOVE credit scores because they are dead accurate in classifying large populations.
The key here is that credit scores only become a useful indicator as the population grows. If this employer is small then they are wasting their time. But, if they hire hundreds of people a year then it makes perfect sense to screen with credit. In this particular case the credit check had the unexpected benefit of clearly identifying the poster as self-important "director-level" whiner. Who would want to hire someone who pulls a stunt like this right out of the gate?
What a wonderfully non-informative website. Nowhere does it tell you how to obtain the product, how much it costs, what kind of bulk distribution is available, what platforms it's compatible with, etc. Doesn't it strike anyone else as odd that you have to contact them to find out how to buy it? Maybe I've secretly come to LOVE the multiple PayPal and credit card pop-ups seem to be everywhere...
I'm glad that I live in a country were someone wouldn't be charged with a felony if he raped me, but that he will be shipped off to the Pen if he dares to steal bandwidth from the cable company.
Here is a 22 foot long monster. Sorry if I exagerated a bit, but I was pretty close...
Insurance companies could care less about where you drive, but they are definitely be interested in knowing when you are on the road and for how long. The more time you spend unparked increases your odds of having an accident. That's why they rate older drivers better, because their 25' Buicks spend most of the time parked. Driving at night significantly increases your risk of having an accident. It astronomically increases your risk of having an accident with (or as) a drunk driver. How do I know this? I used to be an underwriter for an auto insurance company...
Apparently one cannot even speculate about modern weaponry without falling victim to TMFA (Too Many Fucking Acronyms). I've often debated over who's TMFA was worse: Micro$oft or the guv'ment. Perdo here is really making a strong case for the latter.
I decided to check up on Moby's assertion that he is being swapped more than Pink by P2P. After filtering out things like Pink Floyd and Moby Grape I actually found MORE copies of Pink songs than Moby's on Gnutella. My horizon was ~20 Terabytes and I averaged ~200 Moby files as opposed to over 300 Pink files. How many more albums does Moby vs. Pink anyway? 5x? 10x? God I hate whiners!!!
For a contract to be binding it must include 3 elements: 1) Consideration. Something of value has to be exchanged. 2) Competent parties. Everyone involved has to meet the legal definition of "competent". This excludes children and lunatics (i.e. most of Microsoft's customers). 3) Legal Purpose. No aspect of the contract can break the law. Mafia contract killings are an example of contracts that fail this test. A virus contract would also fail this test.
It would be more fun to waste the BSA's legal and investigative resources by "snitching" on completely legit companies. Wrongfully hassling honest folks would be extremely embarassing and expensive. If enough of this happened it would definitely make them more cautious about using strong-arm tactics. Most of their investigations originate from disgruntled ex-employees in the first place, so its already a messy affair.
Targeted advertising has been used now for decades. Mass mailers can't afford to mail their crap to EVERYONE (it just seems like they do). Instead, they target based on Zip code, houshold income, if you have a phone or not, etc. Dominoes Pizza, for instance, does everything it can to avoid mailing coupons to housing projects and "bad" neighborhoods!! :o)
The main difference here is that you have an opportunity to mess with their demographic data. I made up all kinds of wierd crap for the Neilson Ratings bastards. They think I have 4 radios going at once all tuned to NPR.
DON'T PASS UP THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SCREW WITH THEM!!!
Old Navy's child labor practices are horrible. The Gap is more expensive, but doesn't use child labor at all. I prefer clothing made by adults, personally.
Insurance companies have to file their rates with each states' department of insurance. They have to be able to justify from loss experience why they charge more for certain risk characteristics than for others. Unfortunately, they can't just charge more because MicroSoft is of the devil. What is interesting about this is that MS will definitely respond if they feel they are losing marketshare because of this. They will pressure the states AND the insurance companies to rethink this "discrimination". I would hazard to guess that ALL of the major insurance companies run MS exclusively (the one I work for does).
Here is a great site that has the algorithm and info necessary to validate any type of credit card. This is VERY useful info! http://www.beachnet.com/~hstiles/cardtype.html
Credit card companies will limit your out-of-pocket liability to $50 for a string of related charges. Your homeowners/renters insurance policy will cover this $50 portion without a deductible, so if you claim it you won't pay a dime. I work for an insurance company ( Travelers ) that offers a policy that covers ANY expenses related to identity theft. They will pay for the cost of ordering your credit reports, hiring a lawyer, etc. if someone steals your CC info or assumes your identity to obtain credit.