If I'm being paid for something, I wait until I have the payment notice and then I immediately have that money transferred to my bank account.
Yeah, that works great until Paypal immediately freezes the transaction as soon as it occurs, leaving the money in limbo, neither in your account nor the buyer's, while PayPal "investigates" it as "possibly fraudulent" since the buyer asked to have the package shipped instead to his shop address in the same town as his "confirmed" home address. The money remains in this state for up to 10 days, while you and the buyer call PayPal time after time again only to be told something different each time. Finally after a week, if you're lucky, you or the buyer will finally contact someone who explains to you the correct procedure for clearing this up: the buyer needs to fax to PayPal copies of his credit card statement proving that he is in fact the owner of the account. At this point you wait until PayPal gets good and ready to look over the information and complete the "investigation."
I agree completely. I do not take notes in class because I do much better if I just sit there and listen and think about what the professor is saying. The teachers back in grade school used to get pissed about me not taking notes, so I'd just pretend to be writing stuff down to placate them.
So I'm guessing that if all the speed limit signs in your area were changed to 5 MPH one day, you'd follow them without complaint just because that's what the sign told you to do? Sheep.
It is entirely possible to drive, for years, without getting a single ticket. I've done it.
So did I, at least when I drove a beat up white Chevy truck. Then I bought a red Mustang GT, and within two months I had something like 10 speeding tickets. Was I driving like a maniac now that I got a Mustang? Nope, just driving like I always did--5 over, 10 over, the same way that everybody else drives around here. The cops are looking for people to write tickets, and guess who gets targeted? Those driving flashy, fast, or otherwise noticeable cars. Now my Mustang is off the road while I am building a hot rod out of it, and I'm back to driving a fairly nice but plain blue Chevy truck. I bought it months ago and have been driving around on the previous owner's Indiana tag for months, and haven't bothered to purchase insurance either. Haven't been pulled over once.
When you have a product like Open Office it's being developed by people who are working more for their affinity for the software rather than a paycheck. The result here is that unneeded features are left out of the core application and once there is a solid interface and feature set they start turning towards making the product more stable and more efficient.
How is this interesting? Just the same tired, flawed arguments being repeated ad nauseam.
"The media likes to call it "Domestic Spying" but the truth is that the authority only covers calls where one party is outside the US. In that case, calling it a "Domestic Spy Program" is deceptive."
How is it deceptive? There are large numbers of US citizens who place calls outside the US on a regular basis. I just called a business in Canada this morning, and thus placed myself at the risk of being spied upon.
"Americans understand (even if the eggheads in the media do not) that the US is at war. And during war time the US policy needs to be nimble enough to combat a faceless enemy. In a world where terrorist cells operate almost completely autonomous, you can't say "Well we can't listen to this conversation because we don't have a warrant. We'll get a warrant for the next one." There may not be a next one."...... and that's why FISA allows government agencies to get a warrant AFTER a line has already been tapped, and HAS allowed that since long before 2001. If the government agencies can't justify their actions, then FUCK NO they should not be tapping phone calls. The police don't (or shouldn't) arrest people "just in case" they're criminals, so why should government agencies spy on citizens "just in case" they're terrorists?
"As far as abuses of the patriot act go, you really need to look at this in a historical context. In WW2, Roosevelt interned 120K Japanese-Americans out of fear that they might try to sabotage US efforts against Japan. In June 1942, 8 German saboteurs were caught trying to enter the US to sabotage the US efforts against Germany. By July 8th, All eight were sentenced to death by a military tribunal. By August they all smelled a little too much like burnt toast. Lincoln is famous for his rape of the constitution. After the civil war, 2nd amendment rights in the south were abbreviated, Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus, etc."
"Well all those OTHER people were speeding, Officer, so why are you writing ME a ticket?"
"So you see, this is the nature of war. I will be more concerned about these programs if they exist long after American boots have left the middle east. In the meantime, I want my uncle and brother to be as safe as possible over there."
How is turning the US into a police state going to keep your uncle and brother safe on the other side of the world?
.. but not mine, which comes out of my own private well far from any potential sources of pollution, filtered and cleaned by 70' of bedrock. Best tasting water you can find anywhere, and much healthier too.
... it is unlikely that they are likely gamma ray burst sources...... the metal levels is too high to have a high unlikelihood of GRB's...
Hello, I'm Leonard Nimoy. This tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. They're all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that what matters? The answer is: no.
I'm not sure of the specifics, or who exactly these people are. This is just information I overheard and picked up while hanging around in the FOB's comm center over a couple weeks. I heard the platoon leader saying something about Czechs, and when I asked about it he said there are some Czech militants working/fighting with the Taliban. I'm guessing they are supplying the Taliban with arms. Not sure if it's rebels, government forces, or what. I am pretty sure he said there were Uzbeks as well but I can't be certain of it.
But that's like saying that the advent of the automobile was very bad for the people who made horse-drawn wagons, carriages and such,
Actually, most of the traditional coach-builders simply transitioned over to the automobile trade. They brought along their existing skills and expertise in coach-building and applied them in new and interesting ways. The first automobile designs were much like traditional coaches, just with a few design changes to accommodate an engine, steering, braking, etc. As engine designs became more advanced and powerful, the coach builders were even able to advance their art by adding extra features and weight that they couldn't add before when the coach had to be pulled by a reasonably-sized team of horses. They also had to update their designs to work better at the ever-increasing speeds enabled by more powerful engines and better roads, and so advanced their art even further.
The coach builders who did not like the idea of horseless carriages and dismissed the whole thing as a fad, sooner or later found themselves outdated, irrelevant, and jobless. The coach builders who embraced change and looked for ways to adapt to it, succeeded and prospered.
The country is actually very beautiful. It has a wide variety of climates and terrain; mountains, forests, valleys, rivers, deserts, hot, cold, humid, dry, and everywhere in between. It's a geologist's dream, and I bet botanists and anthropologists would love the place too. The people are extremely poor, but they have the right attitude, and with the help of the ISAF, USAID, etc (despite the efforts of the Taliban) are improving themselves and their society step by step. I probably sound like a broken record or a propagandist, but I always have to chime in whenever there is a story about Afghanistan, as I have been there to see it firsthand, and I can't over-emphasize the great things that are happening there. The way things look right now I think Afghanistan has a bright future ahead of it, and I hope the U.S. and other major players fulfill their commitments to make sure that happens.
IMHO, the real problem is that teachers are horribly undervalued
No, the real problem is this: every time one of these stories come up, I mention that in the rural South if you are an ass or disrespectful to your teacher, one of the football coaches drags your ass out in the hallway and gives you a few licks with the paddle. Then I usually get 2-3 pussies who reply back horrified about the idea of corporal punishment. That's the real: today's wishy-washy society with their pathetic "OMG VIOLENCE DUSNT SOLVE N-E-THING!!!11" attitude.
In the big cities like Atlanta you might have a bunch of spoilt ass kids who get away with doing whatever the hell they please, but in Gadsden, AL you sit your ass down and listen to the teacher and you damn sure don't get away with being a disrespectful little POS. This is the environment from elementary school onwards, and you know what? Paddlings are really not very common, especially in high school, since most kids have learned to behave themselves reasonably well by then. Problem easily solved--and the solution doesn't involve ANY lawsuits.
I know you were being funny, but I thought I should add this. It's not like the ISAF would have no idea when attacks are coming without citizens phoning in tips. Last year I spent some quality time at a forward base that would be attacked very frequently, as often as every day, usually no less than every 2-3 days. These guys knew when attacks were coming cause half the time the Taliban forces and their buddies (Uzbeks, Czechs, etc) would come over the radio and SAY SO. Not only do they use unencrypted radio to communicate with each other during attacks, but they like to get on the air and talk to our translators. The translators and the Taliban swap taunts and brag to each other and it's actually quite funny.
Oh, and another clue when there's about to be an attack: all the locals close up shop and head home at 2 PM, or whatever. Or you see a village that looks like a ghost town when normally at that time of day/night it would be pretty busy. You know there is an attack coming because the Taliban has warned the populace.
There practically isn't anything land-based in Afghanistan. Most everything is cell phone or satellite. The country is so damn rugged and mountainous that it would be prohibitively expensive to deploy anything else.
When I was in grade school I used to make bootable diskettes with commands in the autoexec.bat to format the C: drive. I'd write on the label in large print that it was some sort of game and tell the user to put it in the floppy drive and reboot. When it booted up it would say something like "Please wait, installing game.." and you'd see the format.exe "x percent complete" counting away, so nobody ever realized what was going on until it was too late. I'd leave these disks laying around in the computer lab and other places where curious people would find them and try them out (often on the lab computers.)
I also used to do the same thing at wal-mart back years ago when they had computers set up to try out. As I recall this was in the Windows 98 days. They'd have some sort of lame protection system set up that was ridiculously easy to bypass. I'd leave the hard drive formatting with a nice note saying their protection software sucks!
The B-2 Bomber fleet is over twenty years old. Not the technology, but the entire fleet. We (congress) authorized the purchase and maintenance of these vehicles, but at some point they will need to be replaced.
The B-52 fleet is over 50 years old. The last one was manufactured in 1962.
Why does this clown keep getting modded up insightful?
Google'ing up a few temperature features does not a convincing argument make. I'm guessing you took Physics 101 and are now an expert in thermodynamics, far more knowledgeable in your armchair than the people out in the field who do this shit for a living. I'm guessing you also believe that the World Trade Center collapse was "PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!11" because "THE FIRES DIDNT GET HOT ENUF 4 THE STEEL TO MELT LOL!!!!!11" The fact is you don't know shit about this satellite's design or probably anything at all about satellite design in general, other than a few snippets you've heard here and there. The fact that you are ARGUING about this is topic when you are clearly clueless is simply pathetic. Please, spare us, thx anyway. Mods, WTF?
Even the summary contains a dubious suggestion, "Changing the gas mixture on your car's carburetor". Perhaps the author is unaware of the vast numbers of motorcycles and small engines sold each year that incorporate carburetors?
Not to mention the vast number of people in the first world building, working on, and driving old cars, drag racing (where carburetors are used almost exclusively), etc?
What about other countries like China where automobiles with carburetors are abundant?
There are arguably more carburetors in service today than there ever has been at any time in the past. Just because the author and all his friends drive late model fuel injected vehicles does not mean that tuning a carburetor is an obsolete skill.
[quote]I saw equipment at Recognition Equipment Inc. in 1982 or 1983 ago that did exactly that--scan checks and store the images. How can they have issued a patent on this.[/quote]
I used to work in the banking industry doing data conversions for check imaging systems, so I am somewhat familiar with the way this works, although far from an expert.
This is not the same thing as what you're talking about. Similar, but not the same.
Banks have long had systems to scan checks and store the images to optical platters for easy reference. However, they ALSO had to keep the physical copies for seven years, by law. Also banks would physically transport checks back and forth to each other as the check image was [i]not[/i] a legal replacement for the check.
The Check 21 Act, passed in 2003, basically says that a digital image of the front and back sides of the check can serve as a legal replacement. Banks can then destroy the physical checks instead of having to store them in huge warehouses and such. They can also transmit these checks electronically over secure networks to other banks and to clearinghouses instead of having to send the physical check, greatly reducing the cost and time required to process a check.
Another benefit of this system is it allows retailers to do what's called "remote capture." Say you write a check at Wal-Mart; now, Wal-Mart scans and images the check right there on the spot and instead of sending the check anywhere, simply initiates an ACH (automated clearinghouse) debit to your bank account. (It's the same system used when your paycheck is direct-deposited into your account, or you use your routing and bank account number to make a credit card payment, for example.) This greatly reduces cost for the retailer.
So anyway, while some of my details may not be 100% correct or somewhat vague, you see now that Check 21 really is a whole new way of doing things.
I imagine a strong basis for correlation would be "target is a member of armed forces engaged in hostile occupation of foreign country invaded on false pretences for strategic reasons." E.g. America in Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan,
Why is Afghanistan included on this list..and what "false pretenses" are you referring to? There's nothing false about the bridges, schools, hospitals, factories, etc being built every day in Afghanistan under watch of the ISAF.
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If I'm being paid for something, I wait until I have the payment notice and then I immediately have that money transferred to my bank account.
Yeah, that works great until Paypal immediately freezes the transaction as soon as it occurs, leaving the money in limbo, neither in your account nor the buyer's, while PayPal "investigates" it as "possibly fraudulent" since the buyer asked to have the package shipped instead to his shop address in the same town as his "confirmed" home address. The money remains in this state for up to 10 days, while you and the buyer call PayPal time after time again only to be told something different each time. Finally after a week, if you're lucky, you or the buyer will finally contact someone who explains to you the correct procedure for clearing this up: the buyer needs to fax to PayPal copies of his credit card statement proving that he is in fact the owner of the account. At this point you wait until PayPal gets good and ready to look over the information and complete the "investigation."
I've got a Massey Ferguson full-sized tractor with a three-cylinder diesel, and it would beg to differ with you.
I agree completely. I do not take notes in class because I do much better if I just sit there and listen and think about what the professor is saying. The teachers back in grade school used to get pissed about me not taking notes, so I'd just pretend to be writing stuff down to placate them.
So I'm guessing that if all the speed limit signs in your area were changed to 5 MPH one day, you'd follow them without complaint just because that's what the sign told you to do? Sheep.
It is entirely possible to drive, for years, without getting a single ticket. I've done it.
So did I, at least when I drove a beat up white Chevy truck. Then I bought a red Mustang GT, and within two months I had something like 10 speeding tickets. Was I driving like a maniac now that I got a Mustang? Nope, just driving like I always did--5 over, 10 over, the same way that everybody else drives around here. The cops are looking for people to write tickets, and guess who gets targeted? Those driving flashy, fast, or otherwise noticeable cars. Now my Mustang is off the road while I am building a hot rod out of it, and I'm back to driving a fairly nice but plain blue Chevy truck. I bought it months ago and have been driving around on the previous owner's Indiana tag for months, and haven't bothered to purchase insurance either. Haven't been pulled over once.
fail
When you have a product like Open Office it's being developed by people who are working more for their affinity for the software rather than a paycheck. The result here is that unneeded features are left out of the core application and once there is a solid interface and feature set they start turning towards making the product more stable and more efficient.
... so that explains Emacs!
Ah
How is this interesting? Just the same tired, flawed arguments being repeated ad nauseam.
...... and that's why FISA allows government agencies to get a warrant AFTER a line has already been tapped, and HAS allowed that since long before 2001. If the government agencies can't justify their actions, then FUCK NO they should not be tapping phone calls. The police don't (or shouldn't) arrest people "just in case" they're criminals, so why should government agencies spy on citizens "just in case" they're terrorists?
"The media likes to call it "Domestic Spying" but the truth is that the authority only covers calls where one party is outside the US. In that case, calling it a "Domestic Spy Program" is deceptive."
How is it deceptive? There are large numbers of US citizens who place calls outside the US on a regular basis. I just called a business in Canada this morning, and thus placed myself at the risk of being spied upon.
"Americans understand (even if the eggheads in the media do not) that the US is at war. And during war time the US policy needs to be nimble enough to combat a faceless enemy. In a world where terrorist cells operate almost completely autonomous, you can't say "Well we can't listen to this conversation because we don't have a warrant. We'll get a warrant for the next one." There may not be a next one."
"As far as abuses of the patriot act go, you really need to look at this in a historical context. In WW2, Roosevelt interned 120K Japanese-Americans out of fear that they might try to sabotage US efforts against Japan. In June 1942, 8 German saboteurs were caught trying to enter the US to sabotage the US efforts against Germany. By July 8th, All eight were sentenced to death by a military tribunal. By August they all smelled a little too much like burnt toast. Lincoln is famous for his rape of the constitution. After the civil war, 2nd amendment rights in the south were abbreviated, Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus, etc."
"Well all those OTHER people were speeding, Officer, so why are you writing ME a ticket?"
"So you see, this is the nature of war. I will be more concerned about these programs if they exist long after American boots have left the middle east. In the meantime, I want my uncle and brother to be as safe as possible over there."
How is turning the US into a police state going to keep your uncle and brother safe on the other side of the world?
.... and suddenly find that it takes the cops about thirty minutes to get to your house.
So what else is new?
.. but not mine, which comes out of my own private well far from any potential sources of pollution, filtered and cleaned by 70' of bedrock. Best tasting water you can find anywhere, and much healthier too.
... it is unlikely that they are likely gamma ray burst sources ... ... the metal levels is too high to have a high unlikelihood of GRB's ...
Hello, I'm Leonard Nimoy. This tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. They're all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that what matters? The answer is: no.
I'm not sure of the specifics, or who exactly these people are. This is just information I overheard and picked up while hanging around in the FOB's comm center over a couple weeks. I heard the platoon leader saying something about Czechs, and when I asked about it he said there are some Czech militants working/fighting with the Taliban. I'm guessing they are supplying the Taliban with arms. Not sure if it's rebels, government forces, or what. I am pretty sure he said there were Uzbeks as well but I can't be certain of it.
But that's like saying that the advent of the automobile was very bad for the people who made horse-drawn wagons, carriages and such,
Actually, most of the traditional coach-builders simply transitioned over to the automobile trade. They brought along their existing skills and expertise in coach-building and applied them in new and interesting ways. The first automobile designs were much like traditional coaches, just with a few design changes to accommodate an engine, steering, braking, etc. As engine designs became more advanced and powerful, the coach builders were even able to advance their art by adding extra features and weight that they couldn't add before when the coach had to be pulled by a reasonably-sized team of horses. They also had to update their designs to work better at the ever-increasing speeds enabled by more powerful engines and better roads, and so advanced their art even further.
The coach builders who did not like the idea of horseless carriages and dismissed the whole thing as a fad, sooner or later found themselves outdated, irrelevant, and jobless. The coach builders who embraced change and looked for ways to adapt to it, succeeded and prospered.
The country is actually very beautiful. It has a wide variety of climates and terrain; mountains, forests, valleys, rivers, deserts, hot, cold, humid, dry, and everywhere in between. It's a geologist's dream, and I bet botanists and anthropologists would love the place too. The people are extremely poor, but they have the right attitude, and with the help of the ISAF, USAID, etc (despite the efforts of the Taliban) are improving themselves and their society step by step. I probably sound like a broken record or a propagandist, but I always have to chime in whenever there is a story about Afghanistan, as I have been there to see it firsthand, and I can't over-emphasize the great things that are happening there. The way things look right now I think Afghanistan has a bright future ahead of it, and I hope the U.S. and other major players fulfill their commitments to make sure that happens.
IMHO, the real problem is that teachers are horribly undervalued
No, the real problem is this: every time one of these stories come up, I mention that in the rural South if you are an ass or disrespectful to your teacher, one of the football coaches drags your ass out in the hallway and gives you a few licks with the paddle. Then I usually get 2-3 pussies who reply back horrified about the idea of corporal punishment. That's the real: today's wishy-washy society with their pathetic "OMG VIOLENCE DUSNT SOLVE N-E-THING!!!11" attitude.
In the big cities like Atlanta you might have a bunch of spoilt ass kids who get away with doing whatever the hell they please, but in Gadsden, AL you sit your ass down and listen to the teacher and you damn sure don't get away with being a disrespectful little POS. This is the environment from elementary school onwards, and you know what? Paddlings are really not very common, especially in high school, since most kids have learned to behave themselves reasonably well by then. Problem easily solved--and the solution doesn't involve ANY lawsuits.
I know you were being funny, but I thought I should add this. It's not like the ISAF would have no idea when attacks are coming without citizens phoning in tips. Last year I spent some quality time at a forward base that would be attacked very frequently, as often as every day, usually no less than every 2-3 days. These guys knew when attacks were coming cause half the time the Taliban forces and their buddies (Uzbeks, Czechs, etc) would come over the radio and SAY SO. Not only do they use unencrypted radio to communicate with each other during attacks, but they like to get on the air and talk to our translators. The translators and the Taliban swap taunts and brag to each other and it's actually quite funny.
Oh, and another clue when there's about to be an attack: all the locals close up shop and head home at 2 PM, or whatever. Or you see a village that looks like a ghost town when normally at that time of day/night it would be pretty busy. You know there is an attack coming because the Taliban has warned the populace.
There practically isn't anything land-based in Afghanistan. Most everything is cell phone or satellite. The country is so damn rugged and mountainous that it would be prohibitively expensive to deploy anything else.
When I was in grade school I used to make bootable diskettes with commands in the autoexec.bat to format the C: drive. I'd write on the label in large print that it was some sort of game and tell the user to put it in the floppy drive and reboot. When it booted up it would say something like "Please wait, installing game.." and you'd see the format.exe "x percent complete" counting away, so nobody ever realized what was going on until it was too late. I'd leave these disks laying around in the computer lab and other places where curious people would find them and try them out (often on the lab computers.)
I also used to do the same thing at wal-mart back years ago when they had computers set up to try out. As I recall this was in the Windows 98 days. They'd have some sort of lame protection system set up that was ridiculously easy to bypass. I'd leave the hard drive formatting with a nice note saying their protection software sucks!
The B-2 Bomber fleet is over twenty years old. Not the technology, but the entire fleet. We (congress) authorized the purchase and maintenance of these vehicles, but at some point they will need to be replaced.
The B-52 fleet is over 50 years old. The last one was manufactured in 1962.
Why does this clown keep getting modded up insightful?
Google'ing up a few temperature features does not a convincing argument make. I'm guessing you took Physics 101 and are now an expert in thermodynamics, far more knowledgeable in your armchair than the people out in the field who do this shit for a living. I'm guessing you also believe that the World Trade Center collapse was "PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!11" because "THE FIRES DIDNT GET HOT ENUF 4 THE STEEL TO MELT LOL!!!!!11" The fact is you don't know shit about this satellite's design or probably anything at all about satellite design in general, other than a few snippets you've heard here and there. The fact that you are ARGUING about this is topic when you are clearly clueless is simply pathetic. Please, spare us, thx anyway. Mods, WTF?
Even the summary contains a dubious suggestion, "Changing the gas mixture on your car's carburetor". Perhaps the author is unaware of the vast numbers of motorcycles and small engines sold each year that incorporate carburetors?
Not to mention the vast number of people in the first world building, working on, and driving old cars, drag racing (where carburetors are used almost exclusively), etc?
What about other countries like China where automobiles with carburetors are abundant?
There are arguably more carburetors in service today than there ever has been at any time in the past. Just because the author and all his friends drive late model fuel injected vehicles does not mean that tuning a carburetor is an obsolete skill.
Crushing a Mastadon with a bolder
spelling
[quote]I saw equipment at Recognition Equipment Inc. in 1982 or 1983 ago that did exactly that--scan checks and store the images. How can they have issued a patent on this.[/quote]
I used to work in the banking industry doing data conversions for check imaging systems, so I am somewhat familiar with the way this works, although far from an expert.
This is not the same thing as what you're talking about. Similar, but not the same.
Banks have long had systems to scan checks and store the images to optical platters for easy reference. However, they ALSO had to keep the physical copies for seven years, by law. Also banks would physically transport checks back and forth to each other as the check image was [i]not[/i] a legal replacement for the check.
The Check 21 Act, passed in 2003, basically says that a digital image of the front and back sides of the check can serve as a legal replacement. Banks can then destroy the physical checks instead of having to store them in huge warehouses and such. They can also transmit these checks electronically over secure networks to other banks and to clearinghouses instead of having to send the physical check, greatly reducing the cost and time required to process a check.
Another benefit of this system is it allows retailers to do what's called "remote capture." Say you write a check at Wal-Mart; now, Wal-Mart scans and images the check right there on the spot and instead of sending the check anywhere, simply initiates an ACH (automated clearinghouse) debit to your bank account. (It's the same system used when your paycheck is direct-deposited into your account, or you use your routing and bank account number to make a credit card payment, for example.) This greatly reduces cost for the retailer.
So anyway, while some of my details may not be 100% correct or somewhat vague, you see now that Check 21 really is a whole new way of doing things.
You can find more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_21
I imagine a strong basis for correlation would be "target is a member of armed forces engaged in hostile occupation of foreign country invaded on false pretences for strategic reasons." E.g. America in Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan,
Why is Afghanistan included on this list..and what "false pretenses" are you referring to? There's nothing false about the bridges, schools, hospitals, factories, etc being built every day in Afghanistan under watch of the ISAF.
Tough shit; you'll just have to adapt.
That's what they tell us lefties all the time anyways; nice to be able to turn it around and send it the other way.