The following is the most painless way to cancel America Online service:
Compose the following letter:
Your name
Your address
Your city, State and ZIP code
xx/xx/xxxx
Dear America Online-
I wish to cancel my America Online account, effective immediately. My screen name is: screenname.
Please confirm in writing that you have cancelled my account, as set forth in section 7 of the America Online Member Agreement.
Sincerely,
Your name
Insert letter in an envelope and seal.
Place first class postage stamp on envelope
Send it via US Mail to
America Online, Inc.
PO Box 17100
Jacksonville, FL 32245-7100
Alternatively, you may FAX the letter to
(904) 232-4879
Sure, it costs you the price of a postage stamp or a 1 minute long-distance call, but if you place any value on your time at all, you will come out way ahead using this method.
I've canceled AOL probably 3 or 4 times (thanks for all the free trials! I'm sorry it takes me so many attempts to do a thorough evaluation. It's pure coincidence that my evaluations happen at a time when I have use for a temporary, free dialup internet connection.) and I have never had a retention guy attempt that with me.
If this represents the type of retention practices that are going on, it's little wonder that state attorneys general are getting involved in the matter.
Old people find it utterly incomprehensible that their grandkids can send them a letter through the computer, free of charge, and instantaneously. Is it such a stretch that someone from Nigeria is offering to send them money through the computer? Not if you're already floored by e-mail to begin with. As far as they're concerned, that box on their desk nothing short of pure magic.
To someone who's grown up with computers, e-mail is boring, old technology. That someone from Nigeria wants to send you money is laughable, and because you aren't amazed by email to begin with, you can see the scammers for what they are.
I bet many people who respond to 419'ers through email would junk the very same message if it came through postal mail.
My understanding is that your right not to testify against yourself in a criminal proceeding against you does not give you the right to prevent the police from collecting evidence. Since your blood alcohol content is evidence, they may collect.
Indeed in some states, the police are permitted by law to physically restrain you and obtain a blood sample by force to be used as evidence against you. In other states (such as VA), we have "implied consent" laws where the police are not permitted to collect a blood sample through the use of force; rather, they make it a crime to refuse to provide evidence of your BAC and that crime carries a similar punishment to a DUI.
As a practical matter, after you layer on technicality after technicality, we are left with a system that presumes your guilt and it is left up to you to prove your innocence. In most jurisdictions, a police accusation is sufficient evidence to convict, anyhow. The brethalyzer just lends some credibility to the situation.
Actually, for some interesting reading, you should google for just how wildly inaccurate brethalyzer machines are when used outside of a laboratory environment on people who are not of average size and build. It's amazing we let breath tests administered on the side of some highway on people of all sizes pass as evidence of BAC.
The sex scene could have been in the original spec. Then someone caught wind of it right before it was time to submit the game for rating and asked that the sex scene be removed so the game wouldn't be rated AO.
Now you've got some production-ready fully-tested code on your hands and you're asked to remove a scene from the game. Now I don't work for Rockstar and I have never seen the code, but maybe removing it would touch too many modules and necessitate a huge retesting effort?
I have definitely been in a situation where there was production-tested code and someone needed a feature removed. Do you remove the feature and all its supporting code from the entire application? Or do you just disable it on the UI? You're goddamn right you disable it on the UI and remove the code on the branch for the next release. You sure as hell don't go touching that much production code just to kill a feature!
So that's what Rockstar did. They disabled the scene by making it completely inaccessable through game play. I would have done the exact same thing.
Would you have been the one who said, "We need to re-QA the entire game."?
The reality of the situation is that people, in general, are morons when it comes to money.
Sure, workers have 401ks that follow them from job to job and IRAs that aren't tied to any company. This is a great thing for workers, given the latest trends against lifetime employment at a single company.
Unfortunately, people are morons. They see their 401k contributions being removed from their paychecks along with taxes and think, "Hey. I can stop contributing to my 401k and get a new bigscreen!" And they do. Next it's a new SUV. Then a new truck.
Instead of funding their retirements that will happen in the distant future, they fund their current insatiable appetites for toys. I'm not saying 401ks are bad. I definitely prefer my 401k to a pension, personally. When I worked at a company I maxed out my 401k contribuation and when I started my own company, I was able to roll over my 401k into a SEP-IRA with my new company and now I max out my contribution to my SEP. Under the pension model, I would have been out that 401k money when I left my job to go out on my own.
I'm just saying that there is bad with the new system because people are no longer forced to contribute. They roll the dice with their retirements and the dirty little secret is that most baby boomers have little or no savings for retirement. When I was in high school I was required to take courses on English literature, but I was never required to take a class on personal finance (or even math at all!). This is a big mistake. To this day only a few states actually require such a course.
I live in Virginia, and I was speaking about Virginia law from a practical perspective.
Max Penalty for DUI (1st offense): $2500, 1 year in jail, and loss of driver's license for 1 year.
Max Penalty for Refusal (1st offense): 1 year in jail, loss of driver's license for 3 years.
So as a practical matter (i.e. what is going to happen to you), refusal to take a breath test is more or less equivalent to a DUI conviction. My guess is that this is not accidental.
Some traffic courts are good about respecting your rights, while others are kangaroo courts. There are definitely courts where it doesn't matter what you say or do or what evidence you present. The judge is simply going to find you guilty.
Regarding presumption of guilt, try looking at DUI laws some time. For instance, if you are accused of DUI, you have the right not to submit to a brethalyzer. If you exercise this right, you are automatically guilty. There is no defense at that point. You can't even change your mind once they tell you you're now automatically guilty. You can thank MADD for that miscarriage of justice.
Never bet on the cop not showing up, since they have court days in their monthly schedule and they'll make sure your citation is marked for one of those.
True, never just bet on the cop not showing up. First, you need to reschedule your hearing because you need to be out of town for work that day.
Then, you show up to court and hope the cop does not show up. He is much less likely to drag his ass into court for just one ticket.
I found the Spanish people to be particularly friendly and social. It's a friendly and laid-back country, and I really enjoyed it there. But why would Spanish people approach me, only to refuse to speak anything other than Spanish out of spite? That makes no sense.
Spaniards will speak with you in any language you want--as long as it's Spanish.
I've talked to a police officer who said he would often let a speeder go if the perp was sufficiently alert to notice him and if the conditions really were not all that dangerous (as in this case, virtually no traffic, good weather, and a controlled access road). He was much more concerned about drivers who were driving much slower but were not alert.
I had that happen to me. I was driving like 90mph at 2am in a 65 mph zone. I saw a cop drive by me oncoming and I jammed the brakes and got down to 60 and set the cruise.
By the time the cop turned around and caught up with me (he thought I was still doing 90) he had to jam on the breaks. Pulled me over anyway to tell me to slow the hell down, but just gave me a written warning in the end.
Guess he accomplished his goal 'cuz he scared me into driving 65 the rest of the way.
Now, instead of running my lights in the afternoon, I can run my central air conditioner, which uses much less energy than a fricking light bulb. </sarcasm>
Actually, if you would have Read The Fine Article, you would have known that the author does not advocate capital punishment for hackers at all. You fell victim to the usual practice on slashdot of sensationalizing the headline so it no longer represents is actually in the article.
The article actually suggests that hackers should be forced to work a help desk for computer novices for 16 hours a day and use Windows 95 for the rest of their lives. Compare that with 25 years in Federal prison, dumbass.
I see you have posted something other than expletives and name-calling. That is good.
Second, I am a relatively new teacher, having only 5 years in the classroom.
Hmm. You seem to have demoted yourself a bit from "expert" status. That's fine. Honesty is a good thing.
1. Parents are passing the buck. I spend an hour a day with your kids. 5 classes, one hour each. The time parents spend with their kids is FAR more valuable, yet where is the outrage about changing the "parental system".
Do you have any children? No? WELL DON'T FUCKING CRITICIZE PARENTS THEN UNTIL YOU FUCKING GODDAMNFUCKING KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IT FUCKING MEANS TO FUCKING RAISE KIDS!!!!111
Sorry, couldn't resist that. At any rate, my wife and I are expecting our first in December, and it turns out children do not come with instruction manuals. I wish they did.
2. NO MORE STANDARDIZED TESTS. Kids are not well suited for the pressure, nor do they succeed or fail based on their skill at taking these tests. Yet we are asking them to do just that.
You know, I never found standardized tests to be high-pressure situations. I'm not sure why others do.
3. Vocational options.
I couldn't agree more.
4. Genuine consequences for continuous failure by the students. Make the consequences SERIOUS, and make them stick. And make some for the parents too. The way you learn is by doing, and failing repeatedly just teaches you how to do it.
I couldn't agree less.
Children are not little robots just waiting to be trained. They are human beings and should be given the opportunity to screw up, but not too badly. Do you really think your chronically-failing students would respond well to genuine consequences that stick, whatever those might be? Do you have any idea how hard I laughed as a child when a teacher said such-and-such "would go on my permanent record?"
People make mistakes, and I believe they should be given the opportunity to change, especially children.
5. Merit pay. Unions hate it, I don't I'm good at what I do, so pay me more.
I find myself doubting that you are good at what you do. I can only hope that any child of mine does not have such an arrogant, foul-mouthed, cynical, and unintelligent teacher as you. Perhaps a little more experience will teach you some humility and give you a little more expertise.
I love when all the idiots line up to tell me how badly I'm doing my job.
You're probably doing your job just fine. It's the system as a whole that's messed up. But you seem to be aware of that:
The major problem with education today is the assumption that non-educator school board members and groups of parents think they have useful input.
So quit taking things so personally. When I was in school, my school was a piece of shit, but I always knew why it was a piece of shit. It was the bureaucrats in the district office that were mismanaging personnel and resources. They wasted tens of thousands on dollars on computers nobody ordered and TVs nobody wanted. A TV in every classroom? What the fuck for?
The problem is not lousy teachers, although there are many. I had an art teacher whose room always reeked of cheap booze. Daily, in a drunken stupor, she'd bark at students that they were "acting like Aborigines". Perfect example of a personnel problem. Why was she not fired like she would have been in industry? I have no idea. If I walked into an operating room and the surgeon was obviously inebriated, you're goddamn right I would offer up some criticism; I bet you would, as well.
Do you know, for example, that students with severe special needs take the same tests as everyone else?
A teacher friend of mine revealed the solution to this one. Apparently students are only tested at certain grade levels. Also, with special-ed students, the school can assign them to any grade level.
Take a wild guess if the special-ed students are ever assigned to a grade level that gets tested.
Slashdot Mirror
- Compose the following letter:
-
Insert letter in an envelope and seal.
- Place first class postage stamp on envelope
- Send it via US Mail to
- Alternatively, you may FAX the letter to
Sure, it costs you the price of a postage stamp or a 1 minute long-distance call, but if you place any value on your time at all, you will come out way ahead using this method.Your name
Your address
Your city, State and ZIP code
xx/xx/xxxx
Dear America Online-
I wish to cancel my America Online account, effective immediately. My screen name is: screenname.
Please confirm in writing that you have cancelled my account, as set forth in section 7 of the America Online Member Agreement.
Sincerely,
Your name
America Online, Inc.
PO Box 17100
Jacksonville, FL 32245-7100
(904) 232-4879
If this represents the type of retention practices that are going on, it's little wonder that state attorneys general are getting involved in the matter.
To someone who's grown up with computers, e-mail is boring, old technology. That someone from Nigeria wants to send you money is laughable, and because you aren't amazed by email to begin with, you can see the scammers for what they are.
I bet many people who respond to 419'ers through email would junk the very same message if it came through postal mail.
How many extra IT workers does it take to update zone files which are automatically updated?
have no children.
Daylight Saving Time is in the summer when there is plenty of daylight to make it home in time already.
Indeed in some states, the police are permitted by law to physically restrain you and obtain a blood sample by force to be used as evidence against you. In other states (such as VA), we have "implied consent" laws where the police are not permitted to collect a blood sample through the use of force; rather, they make it a crime to refuse to provide evidence of your BAC and that crime carries a similar punishment to a DUI.
As a practical matter, after you layer on technicality after technicality, we are left with a system that presumes your guilt and it is left up to you to prove your innocence. In most jurisdictions, a police accusation is sufficient evidence to convict, anyhow. The brethalyzer just lends some credibility to the situation.
Actually, for some interesting reading, you should google for just how wildly inaccurate brethalyzer machines are when used outside of a laboratory environment on people who are not of average size and build. It's amazing we let breath tests administered on the side of some highway on people of all sizes pass as evidence of BAC.
Now you've got some production-ready fully-tested code on your hands and you're asked to remove a scene from the game. Now I don't work for Rockstar and I have never seen the code, but maybe removing it would touch too many modules and necessitate a huge retesting effort?
I have definitely been in a situation where there was production-tested code and someone needed a feature removed. Do you remove the feature and all its supporting code from the entire application? Or do you just disable it on the UI? You're goddamn right you disable it on the UI and remove the code on the branch for the next release. You sure as hell don't go touching that much production code just to kill a feature!
So that's what Rockstar did. They disabled the scene by making it completely inaccessable through game play. I would have done the exact same thing.
Would you have been the one who said, "We need to re-QA the entire game."?
Sure, workers have 401ks that follow them from job to job and IRAs that aren't tied to any company. This is a great thing for workers, given the latest trends against lifetime employment at a single company.
Unfortunately, people are morons. They see their 401k contributions being removed from their paychecks along with taxes and think, "Hey. I can stop contributing to my 401k and get a new bigscreen!" And they do. Next it's a new SUV. Then a new truck.
Instead of funding their retirements that will happen in the distant future, they fund their current insatiable appetites for toys. I'm not saying 401ks are bad. I definitely prefer my 401k to a pension, personally. When I worked at a company I maxed out my 401k contribuation and when I started my own company, I was able to roll over my 401k into a SEP-IRA with my new company and now I max out my contribution to my SEP. Under the pension model, I would have been out that 401k money when I left my job to go out on my own.
I'm just saying that there is bad with the new system because people are no longer forced to contribute. They roll the dice with their retirements and the dirty little secret is that most baby boomers have little or no savings for retirement. When I was in high school I was required to take courses on English literature, but I was never required to take a class on personal finance (or even math at all!). This is a big mistake. To this day only a few states actually require such a course.
Max Penalty for DUI (1st offense): $2500, 1 year in jail, and loss of driver's license for 1 year.
Max Penalty for Refusal (1st offense): 1 year in jail, loss of driver's license for 3 years.
So as a practical matter (i.e. what is going to happen to you), refusal to take a breath test is more or less equivalent to a DUI conviction. My guess is that this is not accidental.
Regarding presumption of guilt, try looking at DUI laws some time. For instance, if you are accused of DUI, you have the right not to submit to a brethalyzer. If you exercise this right, you are automatically guilty. There is no defense at that point. You can't even change your mind once they tell you you're now automatically guilty. You can thank MADD for that miscarriage of justice.
Then, you show up to court and hope the cop does not show up. He is much less likely to drag his ass into court for just one ticket.
Spaniards will speak with you in any language you want--as long as it's Spanish.
People make fun of Americans for speaking only one language. Well, these people have never met a Spaniard.
By the time the cop turned around and caught up with me (he thought I was still doing 90) he had to jam on the breaks. Pulled me over anyway to tell me to slow the hell down, but just gave me a written warning in the end.
Guess he accomplished his goal 'cuz he scared me into driving 65 the rest of the way.
At any rate, if you still want to know where the National Air and Space Museum is, I can tell you that it is available here... it's the building that says "National Air and Space Museum" right on it in big bold letters.
If you come to see it, take the Metro to the Smithsonian stop.
Now, instead of running my lights in the afternoon, I can run my central air conditioner, which uses much less energy than a fricking light bulb.
</sarcasm>
The article actually suggests that hackers should be forced to work a help desk for computer novices for 16 hours a day and use Windows 95 for the rest of their lives. Compare that with 25 years in Federal prison, dumbass.
That's way the hell more than Mitnick got.
Sorry, couldn't resist that. At any rate, my wife and I are expecting our first in December, and it turns out children do not come with instruction manuals. I wish they did.
You know, I never found standardized tests to be high-pressure situations. I'm not sure why others do. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree less.Children are not little robots just waiting to be trained. They are human beings and should be given the opportunity to screw up, but not too badly. Do you really think your chronically-failing students would respond well to genuine consequences that stick, whatever those might be? Do you have any idea how hard I laughed as a child when a teacher said such-and-such "would go on my permanent record?"
People make mistakes, and I believe they should be given the opportunity to change, especially children.
I find myself doubting that you are good at what you do. I can only hope that any child of mine does not have such an arrogant, foul-mouthed, cynical, and unintelligent teacher as you. Perhaps a little more experience will teach you some humility and give you a little more expertise.I really hope you see the hypocrisy of you, ifwm, calling someone else "arrogant".
The problem is not lousy teachers, although there are many. I had an art teacher whose room always reeked of cheap booze. Daily, in a drunken stupor, she'd bark at students that they were "acting like Aborigines". Perfect example of a personnel problem. Why was she not fired like she would have been in industry? I have no idea. If I walked into an operating room and the surgeon was obviously inebriated, you're goddamn right I would offer up some criticism; I bet you would, as well.
The problem is with the schools themselves.
Take a wild guess if the special-ed students are ever assigned to a grade level that gets tested.