Thanks for your informative post, countries like England scare the shit out of me. Police state indeed, sounds like the whole country is one giant prison.
Well, it's the same logic as the "waging the war on terror" is taken to mean toppling a dictorial regime that's strongly anti-religious so that the religious fundamentalists like al-queda can begin to flourish there:)
We didn't bring terror in every conversation, President Bush did. But, to be fair he says "terrah" and that could also me terra, or mother earth. He is an environmentalist!
I worked in San Jose a few years ago and some joker took some pictures of himself with a bunch of guns and ammo and dropped them off at the local drug store for processing. An alert employee thought there was something wrong and reported the photos to the police.
And this is why I wouldn't send photos to printing anymore. Employee would probably mistake a halloween party for a satanic ritual.
I wouldn't have though anything is wrong with guns and ammo (look at the guns and ammo magazines out there) unless the guy was holding someone hostage in the photos or something.
Guns, explosives, pipe bombs, etc. Plans to kill people at his community college were found in his home.
Link please? This sound sensationalist but possible.
I think Columbine was preventable because they were not normal kids by the time they snapped. The were picked on the "in" people and were so out of the mainstream socially, that their parents should have picked up on it. I'm not blaming them though, but now that Columbine happened people should be concerned.
But the wrong thing is to go into the other extreme and make every kid a criminal for committing childish acts. It reminds me about the push against drugs in my area - a 16 year old girl was expelled from highschool for giving her friend aspirin around here.
You don't make the world safer by making straw man criminals, find out that their "crime" is insignificant and then punish the shit out of them for raising your suspicions in the first place.
"The First Amendment protection of free speech does not extend to certain types of speech, including threats of violence. The Second Circuit has observed that First Amendment protection is forfeited where "the threat on its face and in the circumstances in which it is made is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific as to the person threatened, as to convey a gravity of purpose and imminent prospect of execution.
If this were true, why is the death penalty then legal? Are we not discussing the threat of violence (execution) to someone even if sanctioned by the state?
BTW, I'm not against the death penalty necessarily, just that that comment about what the 1st amendment does and doesn't protect considering the revolution that allowed our government to exist and the 2nd amendment which exists solely to keep the government in check because of a perceived threat of force its citizen could enact against it (well, theoretically 200 years back).
Yeah, really. Something like Ubuntu is good enough for most users with broadband (I don't know about Linux dial-up internet providers....) and so is OpenOffice for a lot of things.
I understand if you absolutely have to use Windows for work, but even at home you can dual-boot. Before people trot out the games argument - yes, I know, but it really depends where your priorities are at. Games aren't my prioritiy, I might buy a Wii for that.
But instead, people will bitch and complain endlessly and keep using Windows...
Seems like more and more news-sources are releasing videos instead of articles (or transcripts). Is it that much cheaper to produce?
It brings in more revenue because it's harder to quote (bloggers love to copy and paste entire sections, just as/.ers do but would they type it out? Not most.) and gives incentive for people to go to that site and sit through their ads. Plus, they actually show commercials, not just banners or animated gifs, I had to sit through a minute long Lemmings commercial just to watch the interview.
You could always just hold two blank videotapes under the counter, perhaps in a cheap VCR to satisfy the criminal. It'd be a good way to hold on to the real tapes in the back room if the guy ever gets real cameras too. Petty criminals aren't the smartest people around....
Well, my comment was partly tongue-in-cheek and I was hoping you take it as such:)
Someone earlier made the point that Best Buy is charging too much for what someone competent in the family could do. I partially agree (hey, it's like that in most industries - most contractors charge "too much" compared to what someone in competent in the family could do, assuming you had someone competetent) but with what I know of "Best Buy", it's almost better to steer you father to an independent shop in the area. Or he may go away with $200 worth of extra-extended 5-year warranties on his 3 year old, $400 original purchase price computer:D And that independents tend to do a better job.
You've never seen a backhoe hit a buried distribution line?....Much worse than driving into a pole...
No, I've never seen a backhoe hit a buried distribution line, I live in rural America - buried distribution lines are rare here.
But my best friend from highschool died by driving into a pole. Not drunk, but going 60mph in the rain on 45mph street. Without the pole, he would have probably come to a halt and only had a damaged car. He was mangled against it.
I imagine the backhoe could bring death too in certain circumstances but being worse? (Yes, I am aware electricity can be a total bitch. Saw a lineman on TV who took off his rubber gloves to wife the sweat off his brow, caught a dangling line with his bare hands, and now only has stumps for hands).
But there are various factors like how it is buried, with PVC pipe or other sheathing, and how well it is marked.
In fact, I bet I could pick some random card off the shelf, walk up to Linus Torvalds himself, and ask "does this work with linux?" and he wouldn't know, and would probably blow me off with the same sort of answer.
In fact, I bet I could pick some random card off the shelf, walk up to Linus Torvalds himself, and ask "does this work with Windows?" and he wouldn't know, and would probably blow me off with the same sort of answer.
And either way, that comparison would be a complete non-sequitor, as Linus doesn't purport to sell hardware. There was a time when minimal knowledge of the product you were selling was a good thing.
This is why I run only Open-Source software currently in my business. Buying software is too much of a risk, because that act makes me a potential criminal.
people more clueless than themselves. Maybe they should go to Apple's Genius Bar to get actual help with their PC:)
Actually, I suspect, based on your summary, that they find it cheaper to contract out to you guys than having knowleable people on their staff. Best Buy just charges the customer anyway (a premium) so it's not like it's coming out of their pocket. If they knew what was wrong with it in the first place, like a faulty harddrive, wouldn't they just replace it themselves? It's not like they don't have the parts.
In many countries in Europe, they have it below ground, except for may long stretches in rural areas where they use those giant steel tower things.
Let's face it, it looks a lot nicer than having cable everywhere. And two, it's safer. No poles to drive into. No reason why the poles will just crack or any other reason where the lines end up dangling free.
The cost up front is higher, but considering that they could have used the same trenches to bundle other things (like fiber), I believe it would have been the same in the long run. And you end up with a much nicer scenery.
If your business model can't survive, get the government to legislates mandatory taxes that get passed onto you. I believe this concept is called either Communism (or similiar controlled economy) or Welfare. I don't know which.
I would have people make copies of my photos/minor_software_project/whatever on CD-R and then sue the Spanish RIAA if they don't send me my portion of payments. It's really odd that they represent ALL copyright holders. Like they represent ALL musicians, even the ones not signed up with RIAA companies. This RIAA racket has to be taken on and bought down in flames like the Hindenburg one day.
If you were talking about shoplifting in a store, I could see that as being a factor but this is a service industry argument.
And this guy's petty cons don't amount to much - a drink doesn't cost the company much and neither does the popcorn (a tiny fraction of retail). If it were a big deal, then guess what, free refills would be done away with and those items would be charged for every serving (in fact, none of my theatres give free refills for anything. even a spilled drink).
I wish I could have more pity for theatres losing money, but they are losing money because of the real shitty movies lately (I think there is only 1 semi-worthwhile movie out these days every two months) along with their cash grabs. Food is too expensive and the ads in the beginning ridiculously long. If they slashed their prices in half (or more in some very ridiculous cases), they probably could more than make up for it in volume (my theatre charges $5.00 for a small popcorn and $3.00 for a drink, funny I know that as I haven't bought a damn thing in years). I can buy DVDs without the ads for less.
Theatres are harming themselves by taking their audience for granted. Not the few petty con artists taking advantage of the system.*
*The biggest "con" I pull in a theatre is walk out of a shitty movie halfway and walk into another in order to find a decent film. But, as I go to Yahoo movies to see what crap fests I'm going to ahead of time, even that happens less - the net result is that I just don't go to the theatre in the first place as I'm too depressed over what's being offered. But then, I'm one of those idiots who believes I should get some quality for my money.
However, you say "they can certainly decide who to give money to" but isn't this specific decision a bit retroactive? Now, I'm sure there are clauses in all that paperwork, but it's not deciding who to give money to, but controlling them afterwards as I'm sure this specific rule was not in play before. Afterall, once a student agrees to a scholarship, they restrict their options in some ways and are ceding control to the universities and the students have to trust the schools to play fair and not be completely arbitrary.
I think it's a ridiculous policy, but it's theirs to make.
And in the end, they have to answer to the students (and state?), if the students decide to leverage their power. The ones who hold the purse strings hold the power.
Not to mention people pay to attend University (well, maybe not some athletes). It's not like the Army where you get paid and benefits in exchange for temporarily signing over your constitutional rights.
I hope the students speak out, because it they who have the power and their presence lets the University run.
A better analogy would be business already charging you to use the roads (current internet situation) but threatening to close exit ramps unless businesses in that region paid the extortion fee. Even though you as a driver already paid to use that road.
The strongest Christians are those who are able to hear what others believe, accept what those people feel without belittling them, and somehow manage to still find their faith to be a rock-solid foundation.
Of course, anyone could respond with snarky comments about religion, but that would miss the point. The parallel is what is important here. Mr. Coward is promoting the same sort of head-in-the-sand thinking that so many of my fellow Christians unknowingly endorse -- "a contrary opinion must be stupid, don't even entertain the thought!"
So, the strongest Christians are those that hold onto their faith (and are not swayed from it) no matter what they hear? Isn't that also head-in-the-sand thinking?
I'm sorry, I don't mean to attack you, but I always had this extraordinary fascination with people who thought holding onto faith was the most important thing and that faith itself was the most sanctimonius and unassailable of emotions (enough tyrants also have complete faith in themselves or their value systems). I mean that assumes so many things, like that the religion they happened to grow up with (in most cases) is the correct one. As opposed to the myriad of others out there.
But wouldn't the strongest Christians be open to new ideas just as they were open to their parents (presumably) faith and that it may actually sway their stance because they personally find more truth in it (it resonates with them more)? What is so magical about the first version of religion they hear that they shouldn't contemplate others?
I'm sorry, I just have to ask as I find blind faith as a version of head in the sand thinking and I have to ask as someone who has some (converted) gnostic friends.
Slashdot Mirror
An invite only beta?
Sort of like Gmail? Very exclusive indeed.
In Soviet Russia they might:)
Thanks for your informative post, countries like England scare the shit out of me. Police state indeed, sounds like the whole country is one giant prison.
Well, it's the same logic as the "waging the war on terror" is taken to mean toppling a dictorial regime that's strongly anti-religious so that the religious fundamentalists like al-queda can begin to flourish there:)
We didn't bring terror in every conversation, President Bush did. But, to be fair he says "terrah" and that could also me terra, or mother earth. He is an environmentalist!
And this is why I wouldn't send photos to printing anymore. Employee would probably mistake a halloween party for a satanic ritual.
I wouldn't have though anything is wrong with guns and ammo (look at the guns and ammo magazines out there) unless the guy was holding someone hostage in the photos or something.
Link please? This sound sensationalist but possible.
I think Columbine was preventable because they were not normal kids by the time they snapped. The were picked on the "in" people and were so out of the mainstream socially, that their parents should have picked up on it. I'm not blaming them though, but now that Columbine happened people should be concerned.
But the wrong thing is to go into the other extreme and make every kid a criminal for committing childish acts. It reminds me about the push against drugs in my area - a 16 year old girl was expelled from highschool for giving her friend aspirin around here.
You don't make the world safer by making straw man criminals, find out that their "crime" is insignificant and then punish the shit out of them for raising your suspicions in the first place.
If this were true, why is the death penalty then legal? Are we not discussing the threat of violence (execution) to someone even if sanctioned by the state?
BTW, I'm not against the death penalty necessarily, just that that comment about what the 1st amendment does and doesn't protect considering the revolution that allowed our government to exist and the 2nd amendment which exists solely to keep the government in check because of a perceived threat of force its citizen could enact against it (well, theoretically 200 years back).
Yeah, really. Something like Ubuntu is good enough for most users with broadband (I don't know about Linux dial-up internet providers....) and so is OpenOffice for a lot of things.
I understand if you absolutely have to use Windows for work, but even at home you can dual-boot. Before people trot out the games argument - yes, I know, but it really depends where your priorities are at. Games aren't my prioritiy, I might buy a Wii for that.
But instead, people will bitch and complain endlessly and keep using Windows...
If you go down a little bit, Carmack made another post that elaborated on the first quite well:
5 698
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=25551&cid=277
It brings in more revenue because it's harder to quote (bloggers love to copy and paste entire sections, just as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XNU
You could always just hold two blank videotapes under the counter, perhaps in a cheap VCR to satisfy the criminal. It'd be a good way to hold on to the real tapes in the back room if the guy ever gets real cameras too. Petty criminals aren't the smartest people around....
Well, my comment was partly tongue-in-cheek and I was hoping you take it as such:)
Someone earlier made the point that Best Buy is charging too much for what someone competent in the family could do. I partially agree (hey, it's like that in most industries - most contractors charge "too much" compared to what someone in competent in the family could do, assuming you had someone competetent) but with what I know of "Best Buy", it's almost better to steer you father to an independent shop in the area. Or he may go away with $200 worth of extra-extended 5-year warranties on his 3 year old, $400 original purchase price computer:D And that independents tend to do a better job.
No, I've never seen a backhoe hit a buried distribution line, I live in rural America - buried distribution lines are rare here.
But my best friend from highschool died by driving into a pole. Not drunk, but going 60mph in the rain on 45mph street. Without the pole, he would have probably come to a halt and only had a damaged car. He was mangled against it.
I imagine the backhoe could bring death too in certain circumstances but being worse? (Yes, I am aware electricity can be a total bitch. Saw a lineman on TV who took off his rubber gloves to wife the sweat off his brow, caught a dangling line with his bare hands, and now only has stumps for hands).
But there are various factors like how it is buried, with PVC pipe or other sheathing, and how well it is marked.
Maybe he could ship the computer (just the tower, thanks) or notebook to you? They fit in a nice little box without oxygen holes....
In fact, I bet I could pick some random card off the shelf, walk up to Linus Torvalds himself, and ask "does this work with Windows?" and he wouldn't know, and would probably blow me off with the same sort of answer.
And either way, that comparison would be a complete non-sequitor, as Linus doesn't purport to sell hardware. There was a time when minimal knowledge of the product you were selling was a good thing.
This is why I run only Open-Source software currently in my business. Buying software is too much of a risk, because that act makes me a potential criminal.
people more clueless than themselves. Maybe they should go to Apple's Genius Bar to get actual help with their PC:)
Actually, I suspect, based on your summary, that they find it cheaper to contract out to you guys than having knowleable people on their staff. Best Buy just charges the customer anyway (a premium) so it's not like it's coming out of their pocket. If they knew what was wrong with it in the first place, like a faulty harddrive, wouldn't they just replace it themselves? It's not like they don't have the parts.
In many countries in Europe, they have it below ground, except for may long stretches in rural areas where they use those giant steel tower things.
Let's face it, it looks a lot nicer than having cable everywhere. And two, it's safer. No poles to drive into. No reason why the poles will just crack or any other reason where the lines end up dangling free.
The cost up front is higher, but considering that they could have used the same trenches to bundle other things (like fiber), I believe it would have been the same in the long run. And you end up with a much nicer scenery.
If your business model can't survive, get the government to legislates mandatory taxes that get passed onto you. I believe this concept is called either Communism (or similiar controlled economy) or Welfare. I don't know which.
I would have people make copies of my photos/minor_software_project/whatever on CD-R and then sue the Spanish RIAA if they don't send me my portion of payments. It's really odd that they represent ALL copyright holders. Like they represent ALL musicians, even the ones not signed up with RIAA companies. This RIAA racket has to be taken on and bought down in flames like the Hindenburg one day.
If you were talking about shoplifting in a store, I could see that as being a factor but this is a service industry argument.
And this guy's petty cons don't amount to much - a drink doesn't cost the company much and neither does the popcorn (a tiny fraction of retail). If it were a big deal, then guess what, free refills would be done away with and those items would be charged for every serving (in fact, none of my theatres give free refills for anything. even a spilled drink).
I wish I could have more pity for theatres losing money, but they are losing money because of the real shitty movies lately (I think there is only 1 semi-worthwhile movie out these days every two months) along with their cash grabs. Food is too expensive and the ads in the beginning ridiculously long. If they slashed their prices in half (or more in some very ridiculous cases), they probably could more than make up for it in volume (my theatre charges $5.00 for a small popcorn and $3.00 for a drink, funny I know that as I haven't bought a damn thing in years). I can buy DVDs without the ads for less.
Theatres are harming themselves by taking their audience for granted. Not the few petty con artists taking advantage of the system.*
*The biggest "con" I pull in a theatre is walk out of a shitty movie halfway and walk into another in order to find a decent film. But, as I go to Yahoo movies to see what crap fests I'm going to ahead of time, even that happens less - the net result is that I just don't go to the theatre in the first place as I'm too depressed over what's being offered. But then, I'm one of those idiots who believes I should get some quality for my money.
And in the end, they have to answer to the students (and state?), if the students decide to leverage their power. The ones who hold the purse strings hold the power.
Not to mention people pay to attend University (well, maybe not some athletes). It's not like the Army where you get paid and benefits in exchange for temporarily signing over your constitutional rights.
I hope the students speak out, because it they who have the power and their presence lets the University run.
A better analogy would be business already charging you to use the roads (current internet situation) but threatening to close exit ramps unless businesses in that region paid the extortion fee. Even though you as a driver already paid to use that road.
So, the strongest Christians are those that hold onto their faith (and are not swayed from it) no matter what they hear? Isn't that also head-in-the-sand thinking?
I'm sorry, I don't mean to attack you, but I always had this extraordinary fascination with people who thought holding onto faith was the most important thing and that faith itself was the most sanctimonius and unassailable of emotions (enough tyrants also have complete faith in themselves or their value systems). I mean that assumes so many things, like that the religion they happened to grow up with (in most cases) is the correct one. As opposed to the myriad of others out there.
But wouldn't the strongest Christians be open to new ideas just as they were open to their parents (presumably) faith and that it may actually sway their stance because they personally find more truth in it (it resonates with them more)? What is so magical about the first version of religion they hear that they shouldn't contemplate others?
I'm sorry, I just have to ask as I find blind faith as a version of head in the sand thinking and I have to ask as someone who has some (converted) gnostic friends.
I don't mean to insult or offend:)