Go to www.docboard.org and enter your doctor's name and state. You can see if the doctor has ever been in trouble or been sued for malpractice. I found out one of the most popular Lasik doctors in my state had been banned from performing the procedure for a while because he messed it up too many times. I went to another doctor and got a great result (20/20 both eyes.)
I got my CISSP, an information security cert, last year. My employer thought it was important enough to pay for my exam fees, and bring in a $2500-per-person trainer to help me and my coworkers cram. It's a difficult cert; I hear there's only a 30% success rate. My organization's business is information security, so our peoples' success rate is more like 95%.
My employer uses it as bragging rights to prospective customers (i.e., "75% of our engineers have a CISSP"). So it definitely isn't meaningless in that context.
I haven't yet seen any direct benefits from having it, but then again, I haven't been looking for another job.
Imagine the feeling of a hand gripping your hair and pulling your head back. Imagine a dull, rusty knife sawing its way through the skin, tendon, and bone of your neck. Imagine your agonizing screams suddenly cut off as the blade penetrates your larynx. Imagine no longer being able to scream, but the agony continuing as the Muslim fanatic hacks off your head. Imagine your last sight being the video camera they're using to film your murder.
Imagine that stuff, and realize it could very well happen to you. If you're cool with that risk, then go.
I replaced all my incandescents with fluorescents a few months ago. Also got a programmable thermostat for my A/C unit -- turns it off automatically when I'm at work. I live in Arizona where A/C bills can be tremendous, and the savings have been between $50-$70/mo. compared to the same months last year. In only 2 months, the bulbs and programmable thermostat paid for themselves.
I'd recommend everyone to look into these technologies. That is, if your home is unoccupied during the day, and you can tolerate the light fluorescents put out (I actually like it.)
It's fairly common for companies to have 'accidental death and dismemberment' insurance for the employees. In my case, if I lose an eye or a hand or whatever, I collect 6x my yearly salary. I pay $2 a month for this benefit.
Not sure if I collect the money if I just lose a finger though. I doubt it, since many people would consider trading a finger for half a million bucks.
Well, I'm sure someone would notice almost immediately if the ground station were destroyed by terrorists. The satellite could then be shut off manually by someone else -- in one of several other secure locations. It could even be automated so that when the secure backup locations stop receiving a 'status ping' from the ground station, they send the shut off signal to the satellite.
(I realize that sceneario isn't perfect, but it's probably impossible to completely mitigate any risk that involves malicious human behavior.)
Alternatively, you could deploy Mr. Burns' sun blocker over the ground station so people could get in.
0. Leave your alarm clock on the other side of the bedroom, where you can't reach it from your bed. Get an AM/FM alarm you can tune to the local Christian fundamentalist radio station. Turn the volume control all the way up. You'll be sprinting out of bed in the morning to turn that shit off.
The DPRK has software development expertise that is "competent, if not world class," according to Hayes.
Sure, but they probably shoot the developers in the head execution-style if they don't turn out a certain number of lines of code per hour. I'd say that's an incentive to perform. No North Korean coders wasting time on Slashdot, that's for sure.
Go to the pet store/animal shelter and pick out two or three of the most spastic, rambunctious cats you can find. Give them free rein in your house. Clean up the pest carcasses.:)
I've used Ebay for about a year (90 or so transactions, a roughly equal number of sales and purchases.) I've never gotten a negative feedback, but I have had to leave them for others. Here are the usual problems I've encountered:
Buyer wins the auction and doesn't pay. (By far the most common.)
Buyer wins auction despite stated conditions that invalide him/her as a buyer. (Ex: I don't allow international buyers, or payments with personal checks, etc.)
Seller acceps payment but item is never delivered.
Seller misrepresents the conditions or features of the item in the auction description.
Communication problems (invalid email address, other party sends abusive emails, etc.)
Why not replace the current free-form feedback system with these list of choices? (I've surely left some out.) Some options could be non-selectable until a certain time period has passed.
I would also like to see a feature that automatically rejects bids from people below a certain threshold of negative feedback.
At my work I am required to hold a Secret-level DOD security clearance, and part of the background check is a credit check. The reason I was given for the necessity of the credit check was pretty simple. A person who has lots of debt is more vulnerable to bring bribed to reveal classified/proprietary information to foreign governments or industry competitors.
Every telemarketer should be legally required to anally insert a stun baton before beginning to make their daily calls. Then, if you are annoyed by their call, you can press a button on your phone to deliver 75,000 volts of pain right up their ass.
Try running Linux in a VMWare virtual machine on top of Windows XP. You can get them used to Linux with an easy way to switch back to Windows. You're probably going to have to keep Windows around anyway for the kids' games. http://www.vmware.com
Just go to the bank you do business with and get a $20,000 loan. If you have a decent credit rating, it should be no problem at all. You could also take out a loan against your 401(k), or even a home equity loan. Rates are great right now. The point is, there's no reason to involve a third party who has an interest in your invention, just to get the funds to patent it.
I had LASIK 2 years ago. I researched the procedure thoroughly and went to a top notch doctor (Barnett-Delaney in Phoenix). The procedure cost $4400, of which $3000 was paid for by my employer.
The procedure itself is a bit alarming but completely painless. The first week after the surgery, you feel like you've got a bit of sand in your eye. It's uncomfortable, but not painful. For the first week, you wear goggles when sleeping to avoid rubbing your eyes, which can reopen the incision in your cornea.
For the first couple of months after the procedure, I noticed a 'halo' effect around bright lights at night. Also for the first month, it was a bit difficult to get my eyes to focus for long periods on CRTs or books. For the first 6 months, my eyes were noticeably drier than usual. All issues resolved themselves completely. I now see 20/20 from both eyes with a small amount of astigmatism in the left eye. My optimal glasses-corrected vision is 20/10, so 20/20 actually took some getting used to! In other words, if I had had a completely optimal surgery, I would be seeing 20/10 right now instead of 20/20.
I'm still a software developer, and I still spend 10+ hours a day at CRTs and LCDs without any negative side effects.
The bottom line about LASIK is that it's not a sure thing. The vast majority of people get driving-quality vision (20/40) or better. If you need only a mild correction, your chances for 20/20 are even better. But things CAN and DO go wrong in a very small minority. The worst case scenario is getting an eye infection after the surgery (can blind you). You use antibiotic eyedrops for one week after the surgery to avoid infection. And of course there is always the risk of getting worse vision than you had when you started.
I had LASIK 2 years ago and have no night vision problems. For the first couple months, there was a slight 'ghosting' effect around bright lights at night. That has completely disappeared. My night vision before the surgery was excellent and it continues to be so.
Please... Your car has 90 frigging horsepower @ 3750 rpm. My 2002 Jetta 1.8T (gasoline powered) has twice the horsepower (180@5500rpm). The strength of your car is its great gas mileage, but don't be putting on airs of superior performance to gasoline-powered cars.
I recently uncovered a cache of cassette tapes that my family had recorded together 24 years ago. They all played in an old Sony Walkman I borrowed from a friend. I ripped them all to 32kbps MP3's, and they sound OK. So it's reasonable that audio tape can survive almost 30 years, not 10 years like someone was saying.
Slashdot Mirror
Go to www.docboard.org and enter your doctor's name and state. You can see if the doctor has ever been in trouble or been sued for malpractice. I found out one of the most popular Lasik doctors in my state had been banned from performing the procedure for a while because he messed it up too many times. I went to another doctor and got a great result (20/20 both eyes.)
Lots of Radeon 9800 Pro's, $200 or less
My employer uses it as bragging rights to prospective customers (i.e., "75% of our engineers have a CISSP"). So it definitely isn't meaningless in that context.
I haven't yet seen any direct benefits from having it, but then again, I haven't been looking for another job.
Imagine the feeling of a hand gripping your hair and pulling your head back. Imagine a dull, rusty knife sawing its way through the skin, tendon, and bone of your neck. Imagine your agonizing screams suddenly cut off as the blade penetrates your larynx. Imagine no longer being able to scream, but the agony continuing as the Muslim fanatic hacks off your head. Imagine your last sight being the video camera they're using to film your murder.
Imagine that stuff, and realize it could very well happen to you. If you're cool with that risk, then go.
I replaced all my incandescents with fluorescents a few months ago. Also got a programmable thermostat for my A/C unit -- turns it off automatically when I'm at work. I live in Arizona where A/C bills can be tremendous, and the savings have been between $50-$70/mo. compared to the same months last year. In only 2 months, the bulbs and programmable thermostat paid for themselves.
I'd recommend everyone to look into these technologies. That is, if your home is unoccupied during the day, and you can tolerate the light fluorescents put out (I actually like it.)
It's fairly common for companies to have 'accidental death and dismemberment' insurance for the employees. In my case, if I lose an eye or a hand or whatever, I collect 6x my yearly salary. I pay $2 a month for this benefit.
Not sure if I collect the money if I just lose a finger though. I doubt it, since many people would consider trading a finger for half a million bucks.
Well, I'm sure someone would notice almost immediately if the ground station were destroyed by terrorists. The satellite could then be shut off manually by someone else -- in one of several other secure locations. It could even be automated so that when the secure backup locations stop receiving a 'status ping' from the ground station, they send the shut off signal to the satellite.
(I realize that sceneario isn't perfect, but it's probably impossible to completely mitigate any risk that involves malicious human behavior.)
Alternatively, you could deploy Mr. Burns' sun blocker over the ground station so people could get in.
Seriously, that is what I do.
1. Clone a gecko.
2. Peel the skin off his feet and throw the rest away.
3. Repeat as desired.
The DPRK has software development expertise that is "competent, if not world class," according to Hayes.
Sure, but they probably shoot the developers in the head execution-style if they don't turn out a certain number of lines of code per hour. I'd say that's an incentive to perform. No North Korean coders wasting time on Slashdot, that's for sure.
Go to the pet store/animal shelter and pick out two or three of the most spastic, rambunctious cats you can find. Give them free rein in your house. Clean up the pest carcasses. :)
- Buyer wins the auction and doesn't pay. (By far the most common.)
- Buyer wins auction despite stated conditions that invalide him/her as a buyer. (Ex: I don't allow international buyers, or payments with personal checks, etc.)
- Seller acceps payment but item is never delivered.
- Seller misrepresents the conditions or features of the item in the auction description.
- Communication problems (invalid email address, other party sends abusive emails, etc.)
Why not replace the current free-form feedback system with these list of choices? (I've surely left some out.) Some options could be non-selectable until a certain time period has passed. I would also like to see a feature that automatically rejects bids from people below a certain threshold of negative feedback.I personally hope the world is turned to gray goo by nanotech before I ever see that in my inbox.
Someone's unemployed.
I can't backup stuff to my PC? Fuck it.
So? Eat a snow leopard's ass with whipped cream.
Cayce is pronounced 'Kay-See'
Makes perfect sense to me.
Every telemarketer should be legally required to anally insert a stun baton before beginning to make their daily calls. Then, if you are annoyed by their call, you can press a button on your phone to deliver 75,000 volts of pain right up their ass.
;)
Aluminum siding? BZZZZZZZZ!!!
Credit card? AAAAIIIIEEEEE!!!
Rip-off charity? ZAAAPPPPP!!
Valuable stress relief, I think... gives new meaning to the word TeleZapper, anyway...
Try running Linux in a VMWare virtual machine on top of Windows XP. You can get them used to Linux with an easy way to switch back to Windows. You're probably going to have to keep Windows around anyway for the kids' games. http://www.vmware.com
Just go to the bank you do business with and get a $20,000 loan. If you have a decent credit rating, it should be no problem at all. You could also take out a loan against your 401(k), or even a home equity loan. Rates are great right now. The point is, there's no reason to involve a third party who has an interest in your invention, just to get the funds to patent it.
I had LASIK 2 years ago. I researched the procedure thoroughly and went to a top notch doctor (Barnett-Delaney in Phoenix). The procedure cost $4400, of which $3000 was paid for by my employer.
The procedure itself is a bit alarming but completely painless. The first week after the surgery, you feel like you've got a bit of sand in your eye. It's uncomfortable, but not painful. For the first week, you wear goggles when sleeping to avoid rubbing your eyes, which can reopen the incision in your cornea.
For the first couple of months after the procedure, I noticed a 'halo' effect around bright lights at night. Also for the first month, it was a bit difficult to get my eyes to focus for long periods on CRTs or books. For the first 6 months, my eyes were noticeably drier than usual. All issues resolved themselves completely. I now see 20/20 from both eyes with a small amount of astigmatism in the left eye. My optimal glasses-corrected vision is 20/10, so 20/20 actually took some getting used to! In other words, if I had had a completely optimal surgery, I would be seeing 20/10 right now instead of 20/20.
I'm still a software developer, and I still spend 10+ hours a day at CRTs and LCDs without any negative side effects.
The bottom line about LASIK is that it's not a sure thing. The vast majority of people get driving-quality vision (20/40) or better. If you need only a mild correction, your chances for 20/20 are even better. But things CAN and DO go wrong in a very small minority. The worst case scenario is getting an eye infection after the surgery (can blind you). You use antibiotic eyedrops for one week after the surgery to avoid infection. And of course there is always the risk of getting worse vision than you had when you started.
I had LASIK 2 years ago and have no night vision problems. For the first couple months, there was a slight 'ghosting' effect around bright lights at night. That has completely disappeared. My night vision before the surgery was excellent and it continues to be so.
Please... Your car has 90 frigging horsepower @ 3750 rpm. My 2002 Jetta 1.8T (gasoline powered) has twice the horsepower (180@5500rpm). The strength of your car is its great gas mileage, but don't be putting on airs of superior performance to gasoline-powered cars.
I recently uncovered a cache of cassette tapes that my family had recorded together 24 years ago. They all played in an old Sony Walkman I borrowed from a friend. I ripped them all to 32kbps MP3's, and they sound OK. So it's reasonable that audio tape can survive almost 30 years, not 10 years like someone was saying.