The manufacturers have to keep coming up with some differentiator in order to entice people to buy their new products... I get that. But it does seem kind of pointless from the point of view of the typical consumer.
Of course, I realize what they’re really doing is pandering to those people who think “typical consumer” is a derogatory phrase - those folks who are convinced other people care about what television they own.
If the merchant makes incurring the obligation contingent on the form of payment, then I suspect the merchant is legally in the clear.
I don’t see how that holds up as any sort of principle. It’s not as if I can discriminate based on some arbitrary trait, and as long as I make it clear to potential customers that I’m in the clear.
To me the worst part of the whole thing is not that the person received something they did not want - it's that someone meaning to buy them something they did want was tricked into buying something they did not.:-(
Yeah, I've been wanting to talk to you about that case of Metamucil I gave you as a wedding present...
No, I understand - but it doesn’t sound like the “gambling” aspect is really what they’re concerned about here. From the summary:
”I think it is in fact time for the FTC to investigate these mechanisms to ensure that children are being adequately protected and to educate parents about potential addiction or other negative impacts of these games”
The addictive nature of the games and the mechanisms the game makers use to keep both kids and adults playing is the issue - whether it’s the promise of possible extra goodies, or the lure of that next level being almost just in reach if you just had one more life.
If the individual parts don't have any environmental impact, neither does the whole.
Well, no. "No environmental impact" really just means "an acceptably low degree of environmental impact".
One cow grazing in a ten-acre field is sustainable, in terms of plant life; but that doesn't mean you can put ten thousand cows on the field without destroying the biosystem.
You can drill one hole in a rafter and it'll still support the roof just fine - that doesn't mean you can drill a thousand holes in that rafter.
I dunno... nowadays with the internet and the web, we generally know pretty much every detail of every product, even prior to production (and often prior to the company announcing it). So what purpose does attending these trade shows accomplish any more?
That’s an oddly vague qualifier. Are insurance companies also “customers who have the key”? What about credit agencies or banks? What about advertisers?
If my doctor is the only one who’d have access, I’d expect a much clearer statement of that fact. I’m guessing there’s a reason they were so vague.
State pension plans are better, but in the US there's probably going to be a large wave of benefits-reduction as deficits get too large to sustain, and a smaller wave of straight-up state defaults.
Most states are required by their constitutions to run balanced budgets, meaning they can't run deficits. That does not eliminate the possibility of defaults, of course.
When it comes to employee retirement, the solution my state (Washington) came up with about 20 years ago was to split the classified staff pension - half goes to a traditional government pension where you'll eventually get some fraction of your max salary for each year worked, and the other half is put into into a stock-driven fund which doesn't have a guaranteed benefit. Positions considered "professional staff" have a pension more like a traditional 401K - the money is split between stocks and bonds, with the employee having some control over the split if he/she wants it. These individual funds are managed by a private firm, Fidelity, not the state. With professional staff, the state matches the employees contributions into their fund each month. So for me, being over 50, 10% of my pre-tax salary goes into that pension, twice a month, with the state paying in that same amount.
Social Security isn't designed like a pension system - what you put in is only loosely correlated with what you should expect to get back out.
What you're putting in right now is to support the people who are drawing Social Security checks right now plus (at least originally) some additional amount that was supposed to allow the program to better accommodate changing demographics.
You'd think the AI would have figured out no one has a 5-foot-tall head?
If it's that primitive, what's to stop Chinese citizens to walk around with photographs of Mao Zedong hanging in front of their faces? It might be amusing to see the reputation score of the late, great Chairman sinking into the toilet.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't hugging believe this...
The manufacturers have to keep coming up with some differentiator in order to entice people to buy their new products... I get that. But it does seem kind of pointless from the point of view of the typical consumer.
Of course, I realize what they’re really doing is pandering to those people who think “typical consumer” is a derogatory phrase - those folks who are convinced other people care about what television they own.
While the submission didn’t use the phrase “tired light”, it basically seems to be trotting out that tired old argument.
These shocking maps... Number 7 will blow your mind!
If anyone wants to vote the bums out you'll get your chance in 2011.
Man, I wish I'd seen your post sooner! Now it's too late...
Because I want my clock to be accurate.
It's a security feature. It allows you to require krb5_deltat < .000000000000000001
If the merchant makes incurring the obligation contingent on the form of payment, then I suspect the merchant is legally in the clear.
I don’t see how that holds up as any sort of principle. It’s not as if I can discriminate based on some arbitrary trait, and as long as I make it clear to potential customers that I’m in the clear.
Unsupervised millenials again.
Bezos sets the tone for his company, and he's nowhere near "millennial".
To me the worst part of the whole thing is not that the person received something they did not want - it's that someone meaning to buy them something they did want was tricked into buying something they did not. :-(
Yeah, I've been wanting to talk to you about that case of Metamucil I gave you as a wedding present...
No, I understand - but it doesn’t sound like the “gambling” aspect is really what they’re concerned about here. From the summary:
”I think it is in fact time for the FTC to investigate these mechanisms to ensure that children are being adequately protected and to educate parents about potential addiction or other negative impacts of these games”
The addictive nature of the games and the mechanisms the game makers use to keep both kids and adults playing is the issue - whether it’s the promise of possible extra goodies, or the lure of that next level being almost just in reach if you just had one more life.
”The Materials + Technology research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environment of the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Engineering”
Well, that’s a name that just rolls off the tongue...
If the individual parts don't have any environmental impact, neither does the whole.
Well, no. "No environmental impact" really just means "an acceptably low degree of environmental impact".
One cow grazing in a ten-acre field is sustainable, in terms of plant life; but that doesn't mean you can put ten thousand cows on the field without destroying the biosystem.
You can drill one hole in a rafter and it'll still support the roof just fine - that doesn't mean you can drill a thousand holes in that rafter.
Maybe while they're at it they can investigate all the cash mom and dad are busy spending on in-app purchases in Candy Crush.
I dunno... nowadays with the internet and the web, we generally know pretty much every detail of every product, even prior to production (and often prior to the company announcing it). So what purpose does attending these trade shows accomplish any more?
That’s an oddly vague qualifier. Are insurance companies also “customers who have the key”? What about credit agencies or banks? What about advertisers?
If my doctor is the only one who’d have access, I’d expect a much clearer statement of that fact. I’m guessing there’s a reason they were so vague.
State pension plans are better, but in the US there's probably going to be a large wave of benefits-reduction as deficits get too large to sustain, and a smaller wave of straight-up state defaults.
Most states are required by their constitutions to run balanced budgets, meaning they can't run deficits. That does not eliminate the possibility of defaults, of course.
When it comes to employee retirement, the solution my state (Washington) came up with about 20 years ago was to split the classified staff pension - half goes to a traditional government pension where you'll eventually get some fraction of your max salary for each year worked, and the other half is put into into a stock-driven fund which doesn't have a guaranteed benefit. Positions considered "professional staff" have a pension more like a traditional 401K - the money is split between stocks and bonds, with the employee having some control over the split if he/she wants it. These individual funds are managed by a private firm, Fidelity, not the state. With professional staff, the state matches the employees contributions into their fund each month. So for me, being over 50, 10% of my pre-tax salary goes into that pension, twice a month, with the state paying in that same amount.
Social Security isn't designed like a pension system - what you put in is only loosely correlated with what you should expect to get back out.
What you're putting in right now is to support the people who are drawing Social Security checks right now plus (at least originally) some additional amount that was supposed to allow the program to better accommodate changing demographics.
Harry Goz is dead.
I wanted to see all the red and blue states...
Um, first link seems to be wrong?
Careful! Now they're trying to locate YOU!
They brought in the massage parlor to ensure the project has a happy ending.
If they follow the Prime model, the "masseuse" will only take you about 1/3 of the way and then charge extra if you want to finish.
Nah, I could write a script which separate any matches in a list of surnames without too much difficulty.
The GNU Foundation plans to release Taler alongside Hurd 1.0.
You'd think the AI would have figured out no one has a 5-foot-tall head?
If it's that primitive, what's to stop Chinese citizens to walk around with photographs of Mao Zedong hanging in front of their faces? It might be amusing to see the reputation score of the late, great Chairman sinking into the toilet.
Yeah, it was unfortunate, but understandable, that the Founding Fathers initially went with CVS - despite John Quincy Adams’ strong advocacy for SVN.
Regardless, it’s good to see that the city of DC, at least, has upgraded to git.