In the US which has had them for decades they have become de facto national ID cards, everyone has them and as a result you are asked for ID all the time. I have to carry may passport everywhere I go (since I don't have a US drivers licence) or I wouldn't be able to do anything.
In the 15 years I've had a drivers license in the US, I've only been asked for it in these circumstances:
when I got stopped by the police for speeding
when I was just a little older than the legal drinking age and trying to buy alcohol
a few times when using my credit card (but I have no idea what they would have done if I refused to show ID)
when I needed to prove that I was legally allowed to work in the U.S. as part of the job hiring process (and the license was only one of the multiple ways I could have identified myself)
It sounds like you were asked to show ID more often than that; what were the circumstances?
And what's with all the high-end tv with speakers?
Not to mention tuners. Don't they realize that we all use TiVo now? I just want to buy a tube in an attractive box. I'll allow it to have a power switch and an IR sensor for power. And I wouldn't complain too loudly if it had multiple inputs that could be switched via IR. But that's it.
But I guess they wouldn't sell enough of them to make it worthwhile...
You have to wonder why they don't just put them behind the counter, as with cigarettes.
My electric razor just broke, so while I'm waiting for a new one to arrive, I bought some manual ones. Had the expensive blades been with the cigarettes and the cheap ones been on the shelf where I was looking, I would have just bought the cheap ones.
But since they were all together on one shelf... welll, ok, I bought the cheap ones anyway. But I did at least look at the expensive ones.
why dont you first put his political persuasion on the homepage. is he a democrat? republican? fuck if i can tell. [...] although his plee for gay marriages would im sure make for some good 'out of context' soundbites.
So you noticed the same-sex marraige item on the candidate's page and you think there's a chance that he's a Republican?
Another convention is to use lots of [...] apostraphes (T'Den, Q'Sung).
Oh, I'm so sick of apostrophes in character names. So damn sick. My goal in life is to make the most popular RPGs so I can design them so that all characters with apostrophes in their names immediately get eaten by the biggest dragon ever conceived.
Consider the ordinary building sprinkler system. There's a reason you can't put up a new public building without one: they're damned effective. But they're also expensive. I don't think I've ever heard of them in a single-family structure.
I have seen new apartments and new single-family houses with sprinklers installed.
If you ask, I'd recommend keeping it short. Don't go on and on about how great you are, and don't bring up all kinds of comparisons with other people in your company or in other companies.
Maybe it's because I'm British; but 'baroque' and 'broke' sound quite different
In American English, the "roque" and "roke" of "baroque" and "broke" are pronounced identically. And obviously, the "b" is pronounced the same. The "a" is pronounced like "uh".
So they sound the same in English except for the addition of the "uh" in "baroque".
I imagine that in British English, "baroque" is pronounced "buh-rahk", sort of rhyming with "Bach" or "clock"?
You have to pay up front for a number of minutes, if you don't use your minutes, they're gone!
You don't have to. You can get plans with very few or no minutes included and then pay per minute. If you end up using your phone a lot though, it becomes more economical to buy big chunks upfront. (The phone company has of course set the rate plans to make the fixed-fee plans more economical.)
I have read that for whatever reason, Americans like flat fee services. You can rent unlimited DVDs from the store or through the mail for a recurring monthly fee ($20). You can get unlimited local and long distance calling on your landline phone for a single monthly fee (~$50). I don't know why these types of plans would be more popular in one country than in others, but that's what the article's author was suggesting.
I pay the $50 for the unlimited phone service, but I rent DVDs one at a time. And I don't care whether I pay for my cell phone usage per minute or per month; all I care about is that I pay as little as possible. So if the rates in Europe are cheaper than the rates in the US, then I'd say Europe's system is better.
As to long distance, I'd rather pay for each long distance call as I don't call long distance:)
You don't have to get a plan with long distance included. (But of course, the distance that your call travels doesn't affect the phone company at all, so there really shouldn't be such thing as "long distance" anymore anyway.)
Americans still use personal checks.
I don't. I haven't used checks for years.
Going into a bank to get some service is like spending a day at an old Soviet Supermarket, hours in line.
I don't know what bank you were in, but I don't think I've had to wait in line at any bank for more than 5 minutes in the 15 years that I've had a bank account.
no-one's going to sent 10,000 spam texts for a 0.1% return at 20c a go!
How does the sender pay if they are not sending from a mobile phone? (For example, if they are sending it from a computer.) Or do all SMS messages have to come from a phone?
I still find it hard to accept that in the US people actually put up with paying to RECIEVE calls.
I think of it as paying to use the phone, not paying to make or receive calls. Plus, many plans have the first incoming minute free, so if you don't want to pay for the call you have a minute to hang up.
I was in Scotland recently and I called someone that I didn't personally know and left a message asking them to call my cell phone. Only after I hung up did I realize that I was making them pay a lot of money to call me back. I would have much preferred to pay for the call myself.
However, I can think of situations where I'd much rather make the caller pay.
(And you can get cell phone plans here in the US where all the incoming calls are free, so nobody pays.)
Here in the US, you can get a mobile phone plan that includes free incoming SMS messages but you have to pay for outgoing mesages. There are also plans where you pay for both. There are plans where you pay for neither. And there are plans that don't have any SMS.
We have lots of choice here. (Though it does seem more expensive than in other parts of the world. I'm guessing there are two reasons: first, it's expensive to run a mobile phone network in such a huge country, and second, the mobile phone companies here are evil bastards.)
A hamburger is constructed from physical materials which cost energy to produce. The cost of me downloading a song is entirely covered by me. So that kind of invalidates your simplistic comparison, doesn't it?
A song is constructed from physical materials too: computers, instruments, speakers, CDs. Studio time costs thousands of dollars an hour. So does good musical equipment. CDs, jewel cases, inserts -- all cost money. More importantly, the time of the hundreds of people involved in the process costs money. Not to mention the people putting up the money in the first place on a very risky investment. So just because music isn't made of atoms doesn't mean it's free.
So why not do society a favor and stop mindlessly repeating some mantra you picked up on your local McNews channel and start using your head.
So if I disagree with you, then I'm mindlessly repeating some mantra? It can't be my own opinion?
Please think before you reply.
I did. Seems I got a modded to 3 while you only got modded to 1. Perhaps you should be the one thinking.
(And note how I refrained from trying to put you down or make fun of you or call you names, like you did in your message. You might learn something from that.)
Why should I feel bad about taking a miniscule portion of some conglomerate's profits which for years has been selling me inferior music (thanks to ridiculous contractual obligations) on inferior media (originally, to save money; now to fuck me in the ass) for huge profits which go straight into the backpockets of knobs like Jack Valenti and almost none of which end up in the artists' hands?
Why should I feel bad about taking a miniscule portion of some restaurant conglomerate's profits which for years has been selling me inferior food in inferior buildings for huge profits which go straight into the back pockets of knobs like Jim Cantalupo and almost none of which end up in the farmers' and ranchers' hands?
Because taking things that have value, whether they are hamburgers or songs, against the wishes of the owner (or copyright owner) is unfair to the owner and is also against the law. It doesn't matter if you don't like the company or its practices, it's still wrong.
Isn't this pretty much what everyone wants? If someone stabs someone else to death with a knife, you don't go after the knife maker (P2P software) you go after the murderer (copyright violator).
So what are you saying? That all copyright violators are equated with muderers?!!??!? You liberal pinko commie feminazis and/or fat religious right rich boys are all the same!
(it's just an analogy, so save your breath... I'm not at all suggesting that copyright violators are equated with murderers and you know it)
Oh, so now you're flip-flopping?!?!? You're no better than that greedy Clinton and/or Bush, changing your position so that you can line your pockets with money from the unions and/or oil cartels!
Instead of filtering out email completely, we just add [spam] to the begining on anything that is potentially spam, have it forwarded to a folder, and go through it once a week.
I got 25 spams in the last 2 hours. I get hundreds per day. Scanning through hundreds of messages in my spam folder every day really sucks.
I guess my only solution is get rid of the email address I've had for the past 10 years, which means I won't be getting email from people I've known in the past.
Some people (like me) find some piercings to be revolting. Some people (like me) also find the smell of cigarette smoke revolting (it makes me phyiscally nauseous). [OT rant: hey smokers, we're not out to take away your right to smoke. We just want to stop you from making us smell that crap and to stop you from giving us cancer. Smoke at home and in your car, and for god's sake, wash your clothes (including your jackets) often. Oh, and stop throwing your butts on the streets!]
If I have you in for a job interview and you have some crazy big holes in your ears, or spikes through your cheeks, or smell like smoke and make me feel like puking, then there's little chance that I'll hire you even if you are otherwise qualified.
There will always be someone just as qualified who doesn't make me sick.
However, a couple earrings or some tattoos or purple hair wouldn't hurt.
If you don't mind going the Mac route, a G3 (CRT-based) iMac might be a good choice. A later model, like the 700 MHz one, runs Mac OS X well enough. Plus there's no fan, so the only noise is the HD (which can be spun down after a few minutes of inactivity). It also has a built-in monitor (which can power off after a few minutes of inactivity).
The gray ("Graphite"), blue ("Indigo") and white ("snow") models look nice and fit into most decors. They were selling new for about $800 until recently. Used ones should be in the $500 range.
Note that the G4-based flat panel iMacs and the G4-based CRT eMacs have CPU fans.
Too much fructose
may be bad for you
too. (Many sodas and other foods are sweetened with fructose in the form of "high fructose corn syrup". Maybe that's just in countries that produce a lot of corn, like the USA.)
Slashdot Mirror
As of a couple years ago, I get every single one of my bills delivered online.
The USPS won't go out of business until junk mail is completely replaced by spam. That's where they make their money.
In the 15 years I've had a drivers license in the US, I've only been asked for it in these circumstances:
- when I got stopped by the police for speeding
- when I was just a little older than the legal drinking age and trying to buy alcohol
- a few times when using my credit card (but I have no idea what they would have done if I refused to show ID)
- when I needed to prove that I was legally allowed to work in the U.S. as part of the job hiring process (and the license was only one of the multiple ways I could have identified myself)
It sounds like you were asked to show ID more often than that; what were the circumstances?Not to mention tuners. Don't they realize that we all use TiVo now? I just want to buy a tube in an attractive box. I'll allow it to have a power switch and an IR sensor for power. And I wouldn't complain too loudly if it had multiple inputs that could be switched via IR. But that's it.
But I guess they wouldn't sell enough of them to make it worthwhile...
More than half of the Sony devices I've had have been complete crap. But the other half have been pretty darn good. Very strange.
And judging from the spelling here, half of the /. users are under age 12...
My electric razor just broke, so while I'm waiting for a new one to arrive, I bought some manual ones. Had the expensive blades been with the cigarettes and the cheap ones been on the shelf where I was looking, I would have just bought the cheap ones.
But since they were all together on one shelf... welll, ok, I bought the cheap ones anyway. But I did at least look at the expensive ones.
So you noticed the same-sex marraige item on the candidate's page and you think there's a chance that he's a Republican?
Oh, I'm so sick of apostrophes in character names. So damn sick. My goal in life is to make the most popular RPGs so I can design them so that all characters with apostrophes in their names immediately get eaten by the biggest dragon ever conceived.
I have seen new apartments and new single-family houses with sprinklers installed.
If you ask, I'd recommend keeping it short. Don't go on and on about how great you are, and don't bring up all kinds of comparisons with other people in your company or in other companies.
I'd aim for a 10 second pitch.
In American English, the "roque" and "roke" of "baroque" and "broke" are pronounced identically. And obviously, the "b" is pronounced the same. The "a" is pronounced like "uh".
So they sound the same in English except for the addition of the "uh" in "baroque".
I imagine that in British English, "baroque" is pronounced "buh-rahk", sort of rhyming with "Bach" or "clock"?
You don't have to. You can get plans with very few or no minutes included and then pay per minute. If you end up using your phone a lot though, it becomes more economical to buy big chunks upfront. (The phone company has of course set the rate plans to make the fixed-fee plans more economical.)
I have read that for whatever reason, Americans like flat fee services. You can rent unlimited DVDs from the store or through the mail for a recurring monthly fee ($20). You can get unlimited local and long distance calling on your landline phone for a single monthly fee (~$50). I don't know why these types of plans would be more popular in one country than in others, but that's what the article's author was suggesting.
I pay the $50 for the unlimited phone service, but I rent DVDs one at a time. And I don't care whether I pay for my cell phone usage per minute or per month; all I care about is that I pay as little as possible. So if the rates in Europe are cheaper than the rates in the US, then I'd say Europe's system is better.
As to long distance, I'd rather pay for each long distance call as I don't call long distance :)
You don't have to get a plan with long distance included. (But of course, the distance that your call travels doesn't affect the phone company at all, so there really shouldn't be such thing as "long distance" anymore anyway.)
Americans still use personal checks.
I don't. I haven't used checks for years.
Going into a bank to get some service is like spending a day at an old Soviet Supermarket, hours in line.
I don't know what bank you were in, but I don't think I've had to wait in line at any bank for more than 5 minutes in the 15 years that I've had a bank account.
How does the sender pay if they are not sending from a mobile phone? (For example, if they are sending it from a computer.) Or do all SMS messages have to come from a phone?
I think of it as paying to use the phone, not paying to make or receive calls. Plus, many plans have the first incoming minute free, so if you don't want to pay for the call you have a minute to hang up.
I was in Scotland recently and I called someone that I didn't personally know and left a message asking them to call my cell phone. Only after I hung up did I realize that I was making them pay a lot of money to call me back. I would have much preferred to pay for the call myself.
However, I can think of situations where I'd much rather make the caller pay.
(And you can get cell phone plans here in the US where all the incoming calls are free, so nobody pays.)
Here in the US, you can get a mobile phone plan that includes free incoming SMS messages but you have to pay for outgoing mesages. There are also plans where you pay for both. There are plans where you pay for neither. And there are plans that don't have any SMS.
We have lots of choice here. (Though it does seem more expensive than in other parts of the world. I'm guessing there are two reasons: first, it's expensive to run a mobile phone network in such a huge country, and second, the mobile phone companies here are evil bastards.)
I think the SliMP3 option would be more attractive if the SliMP3 were, well, more attractive. The display is just ugly looking.
ObHomer: Mmmm... donots....
A song is constructed from physical materials too: computers, instruments, speakers, CDs. Studio time costs thousands of dollars an hour. So does good musical equipment. CDs, jewel cases, inserts -- all cost money. More importantly, the time of the hundreds of people involved in the process costs money. Not to mention the people putting up the money in the first place on a very risky investment. So just because music isn't made of atoms doesn't mean it's free.
So why not do society a favor and stop mindlessly repeating some mantra you picked up on your local McNews channel and start using your head.
So if I disagree with you, then I'm mindlessly repeating some mantra? It can't be my own opinion?
Please think before you reply.
I did. Seems I got a modded to 3 while you only got modded to 1. Perhaps you should be the one thinking.
(And note how I refrained from trying to put you down or make fun of you or call you names, like you did in your message. You might learn something from that.)
Why should I feel bad about taking a miniscule portion of some restaurant conglomerate's profits which for years has been selling me inferior food in inferior buildings for huge profits which go straight into the back pockets of knobs like Jim Cantalupo and almost none of which end up in the farmers' and ranchers' hands?
Because taking things that have value, whether they are hamburgers or songs, against the wishes of the owner (or copyright owner) is unfair to the owner and is also against the law. It doesn't matter if you don't like the company or its practices, it's still wrong.
So what are you saying? That all copyright violators are equated with muderers?!!??!? You liberal pinko commie feminazis and/or fat religious right rich boys are all the same!
(it's just an analogy, so save your breath... I'm not at all suggesting that copyright violators are equated with murderers and you know it)
Oh, so now you're flip-flopping?!?!? You're no better than that greedy Clinton and/or Bush, changing your position so that you can line your pockets with money from the unions and/or oil cartels!
I got 25 spams in the last 2 hours. I get hundreds per day. Scanning through hundreds of messages in my spam folder every day really sucks.
I guess my only solution is get rid of the email address I've had for the past 10 years, which means I won't be getting email from people I've known in the past.
All thanks to the fuckhead spammers.
If I have you in for a job interview and you have some crazy big holes in your ears, or spikes through your cheeks, or smell like smoke and make me feel like puking, then there's little chance that I'll hire you even if you are otherwise qualified.
There will always be someone just as qualified who doesn't make me sick.
However, a couple earrings or some tattoos or purple hair wouldn't hurt.
The gray ("Graphite"), blue ("Indigo") and white ("snow") models look nice and fit into most decors. They were selling new for about $800 until recently. Used ones should be in the $500 range.
Note that the G4-based flat panel iMacs and the G4-based CRT eMacs have CPU fans.
Too much fructose may be bad for you too. (Many sodas and other foods are sweetened with fructose in the form of "high fructose corn syrup". Maybe that's just in countries that produce a lot of corn, like the USA.)
I suspect the idea came from truckers' lobbyists. They would certainly benefit since they buy a lot of gas and they use a lot of gas per mile.