Actually (having not seen the movie) I thought they were going to do the plot where one of Peter's girlfriends gets killed during a Spiderman rescue from the Green Goblin.
It could've been powerfully done and made a good jumping off point for the whole power/responsibility thing.
Keep in mind that high volume customers get other perks from the telcos, e.g., minimum call lengths where if the call is less than 15 seconds, there's no charge.
Calls from Canada to the US are quite cheap (on the long distance scale) -- starting at C$0.05 per minute for consumers and high volume customers get much better rates (down to somwhere around the C$0.03 per minute I believe).
FYI -- when my income was greater (and my family smaller) I used to have my taxes prepared professionally. The best way to go IMHO if you're short on time and want to avoid the weird pitfalls and aggravations that go with less straightforward tax situations.
It was roughly $70 a person if I remember right... YMMV of course.
Like the rest of you I got tired of this Intuit crap and started looking for the alternatives last year.
TaxWiz: Used it for my 2001 filing for my family (5 adults). Lousy interface and printing is a royal PITA, but overall did the job. Uh oh, bought by Intuit.
CanTax: Used to sell personal versions for consumers, but now concentrates on tax professionals. Tried out the demo and decided to use it this year. Assumes at least better than novice tax prep knowledge. Pricey ($79 for 15 returns) compared to the consumer level stuff but seems solid.
Dr Tax: Like CanTax, targeted towards the professional tax prep people. Tried the demo -- seems solid enough but too much work if you're not a tax geek.
Anyway, hopefully the field doesn't narrow too much next year!
Normally I'd just pass you off as a troll but I see this crap repeated in the mainstream media as well.
Probably like most places, getting responsive, timely care is a factor of:
1. Who you know, i.e., which doctors you have. 2. How much noise you can make about your full condition without pissing people off. 3. Local competition for resources.
The priority ordering for the above list varies according to the individual circumstance, of course.
For example, in my own case, I have a severely herniated disc. However, I was able to see doctors (and surgeons) right away for diagnosis and have been on the proper, standard of care since. Final surgery will happen at the end of this month, just shortly after the usual waiting period for conservative treatment to end.
Luck? At least some. But most of it is persistence with the questioning, plus keeping the doctors updated on my symptoms (and in their minds).
The trade off is effort on your own behalf versus paying your way through. I've paid no more than the next poor guy, but the extra time and attention I've put into getting good care has put me through the system in the minimal amount of time.
Answering your question the roundabout way.... I've spent some time analyzing the most successful (and cutthroat) of the IT industries: game development.
There's no other sector of IT that lives and dies by user experiences. Good game ideas routinely go down the crapper when the UI is clumsy, the ideas poorly presented, or the learning curve too steep.
A lot of the ideas you've brought up are used in game design: think of complex software similar to the universe of a similarly immersive game.
Graduated levels of play; tutorials; useful manuals and online help agents; user interfaces that don't require you to have twelve fingers and a prehensile tail.
We (programmers outside of game development) could learn alot...
... there's an obvious button that will walk the luser through what it USED to look like and what it did back then, THEN it goes on to the "new and improved" version. At least that would give the luser a point of familiar reference for each feature change that occurred.
Is it any wonder that even highly technical end users like my father (PhD in Chem Eng) hate computers and their software, and give the geeks (like me) a hard time about them?
Speaking of home insurance, I just received my annual assessment and the new clauses explicitly exclude any damages due to "cyber attacks", i.e., hacking or net downtime, etc.
My preference would be if he kept is relative frail demeanor but used the Force to, say, pick up Obi-Wan's and Anakin's light sabres and carve Dooku up like a ham.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
What about Erlang and Ericsson?
You should be reading this thread.
You're obviously missing the point -- what use is civilization if my Galaxians high score isn't around for all to ponder?
Nothing worse that 10,000 nerds carrying a grudge for the rest of your life. You might as well just drop out of society completely.
At least you'll have 10,000 people to keep you company.
about the demand for virgin sacrifices in front if statues of Mr McBride.
/. keels over laughing and the other half chokes on its own bile.
I believe that's covered when half of
Once you've filled all of the jars full of urine, you just gotta show somebody!
Perhaps you need to spread the word more -- use mass mailings, tying your website to popular lifestyle products, etc.
Actually (having not seen the movie) I thought they were going to do the plot where one of Peter's girlfriends gets killed during a Spiderman rescue from the Green Goblin.
It could've been powerfully done and made a good jumping off point for the whole power/responsibility thing.
Keep in mind that high volume customers get other perks from the telcos, e.g., minimum call lengths where if the call is less than 15 seconds, there's no charge.
Calls from Canada to the US are quite cheap (on the long distance scale) -- starting at C$0.05 per minute for consumers and high volume customers get much better rates (down to somwhere around the C$0.03 per minute I believe).
FYI -- when my income was greater (and my family smaller) I used to have my taxes prepared professionally. The best way to go IMHO if you're short on time and want to avoid the weird pitfalls and aggravations that go with less straightforward tax situations.
... YMMV of course.
It was roughly $70 a person if I remember right
Not quite a monopoly -- my previous post.
For us Canucks out here ...
Like the rest of you I got tired of this Intuit crap and started looking for the alternatives last year.
TaxWiz : Used it for my 2001 filing for my family (5 adults). Lousy interface and printing is a royal PITA, but overall did the job. Uh oh, bought by Intuit.
CanTax : Used to sell personal versions for consumers, but now concentrates on tax professionals. Tried out the demo and decided to use it this year. Assumes at least better than novice tax prep knowledge. Pricey ($79 for 15 returns) compared to the consumer level stuff but seems solid.
Dr Tax : Like CanTax, targeted towards the professional tax prep people. Tried the demo -- seems solid enough but too much work if you're not a tax geek.
Anyway, hopefully the field doesn't narrow too much next year!
You don't know what you're talking about.
Normally I'd just pass you off as a troll but I see this crap repeated in the mainstream media as well.
Probably like most places, getting responsive, timely care is a factor of:
1. Who you know, i.e., which doctors you have.
2. How much noise you can make about your full condition without pissing people off.
3. Local competition for resources.
The priority ordering for the above list varies according to the individual circumstance, of course.
For example, in my own case, I have a severely herniated disc. However, I was able to see doctors (and surgeons) right away for diagnosis and have been on the proper, standard of care since. Final surgery will happen at the end of this month, just shortly after the usual waiting period for conservative treatment to end.
Luck? At least some. But most of it is persistence with the questioning, plus keeping the doctors updated on my symptoms (and in their minds).
The trade off is effort on your own behalf versus paying your way through. I've paid no more than the next poor guy, but the extra time and attention I've put into getting good care has put me through the system in the minimal amount of time.
Answering your question the roundabout way .... I've spent some time analyzing the most successful (and cutthroat) of the IT industries: game development.
...
There's no other sector of IT that lives and dies by user experiences. Good game ideas routinely go down the crapper when the UI is clumsy, the ideas poorly presented, or the learning curve too steep.
A lot of the ideas you've brought up are used in game design: think of complex software similar to the universe of a similarly immersive game.
Graduated levels of play; tutorials; useful manuals and online help agents; user interfaces that don't require you to have twelve fingers and a prehensile tail.
We (programmers outside of game development) could learn alot
... there's an obvious button that will walk the luser through what it USED to look like and what it did back then, THEN it goes on to the "new and improved" version. At least that would give the luser a point of familiar reference for each feature change that occurred.
Is it any wonder that even highly technical end users like my father (PhD in Chem Eng) hate computers and their software, and give the geeks (like me) a hard time about them?
... one of my favourite short gags is:
Homer agreeing with Stephen Hawking
Larry Flynt is right!
To the extreme, it's like patenting Oxygen because I discovered it.
;-)
Enjoy your last breath as I release the hounds(lawyers).
At least you're employing the only group that has no need to pay you royalties.
Speaking of home insurance, I just received my annual assessment and the new clauses explicitly exclude any damages due to "cyber attacks", i.e., hacking or net downtime, etc.
*sniff!*
.... and it's so beautiful ...
After decades of waiting, the promise of hi tech that not only stores recipes but actually does something with them has been met!
The Future is here
This way, you stop spam, make the dog happy and well fed, and dispose of evidence all in one fell swoop.
...
;-)
Until four hours later
Or did you mean "one fell scoop"?
Whoa, cowboy, are you sure you want to jump right into a pre-story? Maybe we should have a another story to prepare us?
"You think you're funny but you're not."
Wally to Dilbert about the "pre-meeting prep meeting"
.... but an ineffective opposition is great PR for an industry group trying to win hearts and minds of the public.
Is anyone working on OGG in silicon? Or even mods to popular MP3 devices?
My preference would be if he kept is relative frail demeanor but used the Force to, say, pick up Obi-Wan's and Anakin's light sabres and carve Dooku up like a ham. ;-)