Isn't this the natural result of the socio-econic situation of said racial group in the US, the high cost of college in the US, and the fact that most employers in said industry want a college degree?
Nonsense. I'm in Canada and the High School I went to was full of lower class people living in bad apartments and rooming houses. The people who moved on and did something with their lives were the ones who showed motivation and determination; nothing to do with skin colour.
Man do I ever get tired of hearing these stories about how the poor blacks can't afford college because society is holding them down. I went to school with Blacks (African and West Indies alike), Whites, Asians, Indians (both from India and the Native Canadian variety), Sri Lankens, Pakistanis, Europeans and a whole host of every other "ini" and "ean" you can imagine. Some had their parents paying their way but most were there through part time work, savings, grants, scholarships, loans and student lines of credit. I don't care where you're from or what your background - if you want something you work for it. If you don't, sit around and complain about how unfair life is.
But hey, let's make sure to placate "visible minorities" by giving them specialized scholarships! Or, if you're not dark enough but you have the right set of genitalia you could always apply for a scholarship for women! When did scholarship money become about what a person looks like rather than their drive, ambition and abilities anyways??!
The current state of the economy has many people living paycheck to paycheck.
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on the crux of your argument. Yes, a lot of people are living pay cheque to pay cheque, but that's because in most cases they're attempting to live beyond their means and they're ignorant of the state of their own financial affairs.
I've spoken with hundreds of people in financial crisis and the number of people who understand how to save and/or understand how their credit score is calculated and how their actions affect it is appallingly low.
For what it's worth, my means include automatic savings vessels that come off of each and every pay cheque before I even get a chance to touch it. The money I have to pay my bills and for entertainment comes after. No exceptions. I never use my credit cards for luxury purchases unless I have the money on hand in a liquid form to pay for them immediately. I only do it this way to collect reward points and use my credit card company's money interest free for a couple weeks. My credit cards are short term, daily expense tools only and are paid in full every two weeks on pay day. Period, again, no exceptions.
I don't use credit cards or lines of credit for solutions to short term problems, preferring instead to use my savings and/or investments when the need arises. Also, I've never in the past, nor will I ever in the future use one of those short term credit / cheque cashing establishments. I will not pay a penalty on my hard-earned money just for the privilege of holding it my hands. For the sake of this discussion, we'll just call that "Stupid Tax".
Why do you think all these scammy payday-loan sharks keep multiplying like tribbles ? Do you really think people enjoy getting screwed with 60% interest ?
People don't know any better and use these sources because they don't understand that there are better ways. How many people are living in homes they can't afford? Why? Why can't they rent an apartment or even a room? My grandparents raised my father and uncle in a one room (bachelor) apartment for years. They paid off their home in 5. They've bought every single car they've ever owned with cash. Why do people need 2-3 bedroom houses for themselves nowadays? Why do people need brand-new cars? High-end consumer electronics? How many people do you know living hand to mouth who have PlayStation 3's connected to flat panel televisions and surround sound systems? How many of these people have a savings plan in place? RRSPs/IRAs? I have quite a few friends and family members in these situations and I can find several ways they could easily reduce their spending and start saving but they're too proud or stubborn to do so. "I have equity in my home! Why would I give it up?" My standard answer to that is "So you have the pride of selling it before the bank takes it away from you."
you jest, but seriously Even In a Recession People Need To Eat. why do you think most of the small independent millionaire/billionaires founded their own regional food chain. consider, for instance, Wendy's founder Dave Thomas. Do you know ANY Other Way for a HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT to become a billionaire? do you really? really? I'd like to know, because I have one year of college, and I'd like to be e billionaire too...
Well, it takes a university dropout to enter the software field so I suppose high school dropout and food were inevitable?
As is the radio. I'll never understand why people think Television should have killed off the radio. Radio is still around for one major reason: It's hard (and usually illegal) to watch TV while driving. If anything is going to kill radio, it's the advent of the podcast, which in a lot of ways is close enough to the function of radio to be a real threat.
Close, but no cigar. Podcasts are active, radio is passive. I have a dozen pre-set radio stations in my car. If I don't like what's playing on one I only have to wander my hand from my shifter up to my radio and click, click, click until I like what's on. With podcasts I have to determine ahead of time what I want to listen to and make a decided effort to transfer it to a device and then connect same to my vehicle. Boooooooooring. I just want to point and click when I drive, thanks.
Those who buy a WAP and leave its default settings probably couldn't care less if someone was using their connection to surf or get their email. They wouldn't even know it unless the stranger uses a significant portion of the available bandwidth for a large fraction of time.
Back in the dark ages when I worked as a contract technician primarily out of a computer shop I used to sell my services to anybody purchasing WiFi gear. All I had to do was talk to them. It's shockingly simple to do, too. Just ask them if they're familiar with WEP and if they understand how to properly implement it. If no, just explain to them about the paedophiles who drive around sending out child pornography and spam through open wireless connections and how they can be arrested for doing it because it's their connection. You'd be amazed how quickly the wallet opens!
Don't even need to do that much. It could be secure with some simple password like 'password' for all of them. The basically makes the router "door" is closed but not locked with good "key".
To take your idea one step further, perhaps manufacturers should start implementing the serial number of the unit as its default password. In theory that should provide enough differentiation among brands and routers to avoid confusion. It's also a unique identifier and easy to track and store for the owner (flip the unit upside down and there's the default password).
don't broadcast an SSID I'm not sure that your average consumer-grade WAP supports the ability to disable SSID broadcasting. Can you substantiate that?
Moreover, if a wireless router doesn't support basic WiFi security mechanisms, if anything the manufacturers should be held to task, not the laptop owning consumers who stumble upon them.
Personal responsibility: The onus is on the owner of the equipment to RTFM. TFM will tell the user to enable WEP or WPA-PSK.
Or Personal responsibility: The onus is on the owner of the equipment to [lock his car]. TFM [for the car] will tell the user [how to lock and unlock the car].
Hmm... nope. The onus is on YOU to respect other people's properties and services.
Try telling that to your insurance company if you leave your car unlocked with the keys dangling. An owner is responsible to make atleast minimal reasonable attempts to prevent theft of their property otherwise they won't be compensated for same. eg; if you don't lock your car and/or if you leave the keys in the car you will not be compensated for its loss or that of its contents.
I will grant you that the person who takes the vehicle is criminally responsible but that is a separate issue. This isn't a case of either or - it's a case of both. Yes, it's wrong to (knowingly) use somebody else's Internet connection, but by the same token the owner of said connection is responsible for leaving the connection open in the first place. The manufacturers are responsible for selling devices that are unsecured (or open by default) without clear instructions not only how, but why this should be changed.
I'd also like to clarify how and why I said "knowingly" in the above; when I installed a wireless card in a computer in my home I was greeted with no less than six (6!) open, unsecured WiFi networks in operating range that all had the same SSID - "linksys". Now, were I the proud owner of a brand-new LinkSys wireless Internet router how am I to know which one I'm connected to?
Of course I know what I'm doing so my SSID has been changed, is not broadcast, and I'm using the highest grade of encryption available to me. But imagine a random sampling of average consumers - people who go to big box stores and buy "Wireless Network In A Box" (or several boxes - you get the idea). Do they know what an SSID is? What WEP stands for? WPA? Channel 6? How are these people expected to know what wireless network they're connected to, especially since the dominant consumer OS will merely inform them that they are "Connected to wireless network 'xxxxxx' - Signal Strength Excellent!"?!? They open a web browser and the Internet appears. Just because it's your Internet...
My belief is the responsibility should be on the manufacturers of the devices to educate their consumers and also on the consumers themselves. If you're going to broadcast a freely available, unsecured Internet connection as far as the radios will take it you can't really be upset when somebody takes advantage now, can you? A little personal responsibility in this world would go a long way.
This is what people don't understand: sales *is* hard. If it
were easier, you'd get paid more.
Selling refridgerators to Esquimos takes work. Selling gasoline to
an SUV owner takes nothing more than physical presence.
Most products fall between those two, but if you believe "sales" really
takes hard work, you most likely don't really care about serving
your customers' needs, just closing the sale - Which means I would
neither work for/with you nor buy from you.
That's a bit of a contradiction. Taking care of your customers and being attentive to their needs is hard work. Simply selling them something then forgetting their name and not caring about their future needs/problems after the sale is ridiculously easy.
Suppose the babysitter or a neighbor turns out to be a pedophile or something and the child sees them naked in a non sexual way but they go behind the curtain and become sexual with themselves. Suppose this lead to the molestation of your child.
Can you see, or draw a parallel between repressed sexuality and the advance of paedophilia and other sexual dysfunction?
What value-add is there for obscenities to be aired? Why do I need to hear a detective on Law and Order call a suspect a "dick" instead of an "idiot" or even an "asshole"?
When the detective thinks the suspect is a dick, of course.
That's high school talk; that isn't adult. Using that show as an example, are you trying to relive your high school years? Does it give you a rush to hear "dick" instead? Or maybe hearing it makes you feel like more of a man?
Law & Order does now, and always has dealt with some very controversial topics, and as such you're going to find examples of heightened emotions and when there are emotions present you're going to get emotional (re)actions from the characters.
n.b. Expletives are so prevalent in high school because it makes the students feel more like the adults they're impersonating.
One last thing I'll ask about is at what level would you stop wanting to see/hear obscenities on TV? Would you stop at seeing simulated homosexual acts?
Well, if one is homophobic, I suppose this would disturb them. But then again if someone is racist I'd posit they object to seeing blacks depicted in roles other than Toby or Uncle Tom.
It's interesting that you equate homosexuality, murder, bestiality and incest together. Incidentally; do you consider male/male or female/female incest more, or less damaging?
the word f*ck said every 2 words like a school locker room?
Or a Quentin Terrentino movie?
At what point will *you* start imposing your morals and standards on someone else who has even lower standards and morals than yourself?
I can't speak for the OP, but I don't ever plan on imposing my morals on anybody. But I guess that makes you and I different, doesn't it?
In an ideal world, these features would speed up the connection a bit. In reality, low-end routers barf on things they don't recognize, and block you off from the IIS 7 running section of the Internet. This has been going on since the beta versions of Vista, so it's a bit strange that a patch would re-trigger this behaviour. In any case, I'll bet a firmware update to your router would fix it just as well, as a properly functioning router should handle packets larger than the MTU of the WAN line without trouble.
In an ideal world, well hell, I could go on all day.
In reality however we don't control our router (which is not a low end model, FWIW) as it's part of our corporate WAN and is configured so each site can inter-connect with the other segments of our VPN properly. I'd love to update it, but heaven forbid a lowly neophyte such as myself muck things up.:) (The fact that I understand PMTU Discovery and our WAN tech does not is another matter entirely).
The problem is though that if these "esoteric features" don't work, they should have some capability to revert to known working behaviour. In this case, Microsoft has decided that larger packets are a Good Thing. On our LAN over the past couple years we've had a mix of Windows 98SE, 2000, XP, Vista as well as a couple flavours of Linux and they've all worked perfectly well across the great Internet without fail. The notion that Vista is so advanced that half the WWW stops working is, well, sorry, patently ridiculous.
I applied one of the updates (KB944533) and it killed http. Internet explorer would not open up web pages, but would give the "server could not be reached" error. I was able to ping just fine, and I could reach the page from another computer on the same network. The kicker was that the patch not only knocked out IE, but Firefox as well. Things worked fine after uninstalling the patch. Of course, the patch got re-installed the very next day.
On our small company LAN I encountered a similar problem but with a stock install of Vista on about 3 newly purchased laptops. The problem turned out to be the fact that our LAN uses a firewall/router and connects to ADSL which requires a lower MTU, and Vista has the MTU fixed at 1500. Lowering it to 1492 (manually - via the command line no less!) on the laptops made the difference.
Now, we could browse some sites but not others. The amazing thing was most of the Microsoft sites (like msn.com, Hotmail, etc.) wouldn't work but competing services would. Strange brew.:)
I didn't "accuse" him of anything. It is a fact that he used the term "Chinamen", and it is a fact that the term is considered to be offensive. Seinfeld made the same mistake - it's not exactly common knowledge unless you know some Asians, mostly because the term is rarely used anymore.
If you know some old Asians, that is. I know several late-20s and 30-something Asians who freely refer to themselves and others as Chinamen.
This doesn't contradict the "ravages of piracy" at all. Instead, the MPAA will say, "See, look! We cracked down on pirates and had a record year! CRACK DOWN HARDER!", as a justification for their future activities.
I'm listening to Leonard Cohen as I read your comment, and he just informed me that The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. Thats how it goes. Everybody knows.
They are saying box office revenues increased. Piracy most likely hurts DVD sales and rentals more than going to a theater. There is a big difference between a movie theater and a DIVX movie on you 17 inch LCD monitor, or if you are more crafty, a bigger TV. Its the equivalent of saying "box office revenues went up despite the rampant use of recordable media in the home". From my experience, a movie you go and spend $10 on plus refreshments, and gas (plus potentially someone else's ticket and refreshments) is not something you would download instead.
Well I don't know where you get your downloaded movies, but I can get 720p movies compressed with H.264 accompanied by Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and enjoy it on my rather nice home theatre system viewed on my 60" Sony HD television set. Oh, and I can watch it on my schedule and serve whatever refreshments suit my own fancy. If I want chicken tika masala, by god I'll have it! And I'll wash it down with a crisp lager, thankyouverymuch.
I change tables fairly regularly if a new dealer comes in I don't like. Granted, I'm not winning lots of money, but I won't stay at a table with a dealer who's a jackass or just has no personality.
Oh god, our company held a Monte Cristo night for the employees; open bar, fake money with which to gamble and at the end of the night exchange for tickets entered into a raffle to win prizes. Lots of booze, lots of laughs, no big deal. The Blackjack table we were at had three dealers who alternated. One was good, one was really awesome, really nice - gave us 'swag' for getting a blackjack, allowed us to bend the rules, split hands that were kinda sorta but not quite - you know what I mean.
Then there was the Russian Gulag guard. "No! You can't split that!" "No more bets!", "You can't double down on that!", "No touching the cards!!", "No sharing chips!". Moreover, the "money" we were given was almost like Monopoly money printed in denominations of either $50, $100, or $1000. A few of us asked about this and were told hey, each bill is worth 10 chips. Play and have fun. No no no! Ms. Gulag insisted that the $50 bills were only worth 5 chips whereas the $100 were worth 10! No, she couldn't answer if the $1000 bills were worth 100 chips. So instead she'd give 10 chips for the $1000 bill.
Dealers are just like anybody else I guess. Some are good, some are real jackasses. If I were playing with real money I'd have complained to the pit boss about her long ago.
I just a few weeks ago read in a copy of Asian Week how these smart AMERICAN Asians figured out a card counting method and raked in the coin from one or more casinos. Now, we've got hollyweird picking up on this and whitewashing the cast. Amazing the shit hollyweird does to calculate to obtain the best studio ticket intake.
Actually, I'm straining to think of it at the moment but having just seen a preview for that movie I immediately harkened back to a movie I saw some years ago about a 'crew' from one of the major American universities of white students being instructed on how to count cards by a professor who'd been banned from the casinos for doing that very thing.
When the Coke machine says "exact change only", I'll go to the Pepsi machine and put in a dollar and hit the coin return button. Some machines will return the bill (nothing lost) while others will return four quarters. If you get the quarters, you can go over to the Coke machine and get your Coke with exact change. I've not seen too many Coke machines do it, but about one out of ever 3 Pepsi machines will.
I still don't get this; in the context of the discussion it sounds as if you guys are talking about somehow gaming the vending machines with a combination of bills and coin (change). But if a machine gives you four quarters rather than your dollar bill back, what have you gained/lost other than the opportunity to consume a Coke product rather than Pepsi?!
I love those becasue my first name is legally C. (it's a long story). I love getting junk mail addressed to C.
I've had a few customers with legal first names that are only a single letter and I'm curious to know what's the story behind that? I have a suspicion, but I'd like to hear it more direct before I open my fool mouth.:)
I was passed a file for a customer whose legal first name was 'T' and there was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning because I didn't quite know what to call her and Mrs. Long Last Name I'd Probably Mispronounce didn't seem appropriate.
"Act now! You could get a check made out to C. today!"
Ugh. I don't have such a first name but those mailings drive me up the wall. "Pay to the order of: My Full Name."
They are often in the form of "pre-qualification" (note: not pre-approvals) for loans of varying amounts and I can imagine there are fumb ducks out there who'll follow instructions and go to the office to get instructions on how to deposit the money into their bank accounts.
FWIW, the company sending them out, Wells Fargo Financial Retail Services, used to handle the accounts for Future Shop around here but lost out to HSBC. So as soon as my 0% finance term is paid to completion I'll be cancelling the card and in every way possible formally revoking their permission to contact me and/or 'soft' query my credit bureau.
Topically, no, it's not "advertisements" in the strictest sense, but the creepiness factor, followed by the annoyed factor alone is enough to show how I'd feel if random web pages started using my personal information, name or otherwise, in adverts.
I understand, but that's a terribly finite attitude. One day you will want to be able to look back on images of yourself. I avoided photos for a while years back. And now there is a big gap in my history where I don't know what I looked like, and can't remember how I felt. Photographs are memories. Don't eschew them just because of Facebook.
I have memories, but until people can learn to respect others' wishes and not publish photos without express consent I'd sooner have none taken at all. I've never been a particular fan of people shoving cameras in my face but have accepted that some photographs are timely and even a good thing to have. However with Facebook and with people's lackadaisical attitude regarding privacy I'm just not interested in broadcasting my life to anybody with an account.
See, I've been able to readily access the photo albums of friends-of-friends with whom I have no association whatsoever. By extension that means friends-of-my-friends and family have access to their photo albums. Memories are private things and I absolutely detest the public nature of Facebook. Ask yourself how many of your photographs you'd want published on a park bench or a billboard and you'll see why I have the attitude I have.
Indeed, the amount of "paper MSCE" employees grows daily, while the amount of people that actually know what they're doing seems to diwndle at nearly the same rate.
I actually left IT because I couldn't compete with the number of letters people waved around all the time. While they were off in their diploma mill classroom environments I was working for a living, gaining critical knowledge and problem solving skills. By the time I got around to college to formalize my education I was in possession of more knowledge than most of my professors. The courses were pure review. I dropped out a year into the program. My cohort moved on primarily to help desk and other menial IT positions. About 5% wound up with skilled IT jobs.
Prior to my college fiasco however I was in a shop that specialized in consumer and small business IT needs. I really enjoyed how my high school dropout boss who taught me more about IT than all my professors combined used to treat these paper MCSEs who'd walk through the door. I'll never forget the guy who came in right out of the clear blue and proclaimed that he would accept a position at a salary of $100k/year. My boss asked him what experience and/or qualifications he had, he responded "I've just completed my MCSE certification."
My boss said something about toilet paper and I was already in tears. My ears stopped working I was laughing so hard. I wonder if he found his dream job.:)
Then there's the guy who phoned in to the store asking for clarification of Windows 98's routing capabilities as he was constructing a network consisting of roughly a dozen computers, two NICs apiece running CAT-5 crossover cables between each computer to form some kind of, well, I guess modern token-ring setup of some kind. My boss offered to sell him a switch but was told that was excessive hardware purchase (as if the extra dozen NICs were just included with the PCs or something) and that he was an MCSE and he knows what he is doing! Now will you help me or not?
Yep. Told the guy he should become a garbage man because he's too damned stupid to work on computers. The guy came down to the store to continue the conversation in person. My boss apologized; said he was out of line. Said he was too stupid to be a garbage man. Never heard from Mr. MCSE again. Never did sell him that switch.
Don't post incriminating photos or activities, and you'll be fine.
Then your friends and family members go and post whatever photos they have lying around and all your diligence is for naught. I request of all my friends and family members that they not take pictures of me specifically because I don't want my life broadcast on Facebook outside of my control.
It's one thing if I want to create a photo album and publish it with specific pictures. It's another entirely for someone to periodically dump their memory card to their profile and start merrily tagging away.
Ditech commercials that open with, "People are smart." Really? Is Ditech marketing their services because they think people are smart? Because my thought is that if people were smart, less of them would have a use for debt-consolidation services in the first place.
Sad fact is there are a lot of stupid people out there, and the best subversive way to tell someone they're stupid is to tell them how smart they are. Yes, these ads do target the uneducated or the ill-informed members of our society. By the way; you don't have to be stupid to be bad at financial management. I've dealt with more than my fair share of very smart people in credit crisis.
Any health-related product that claims it is "clinically proven to help". To help? How much? Who does it apply to?
This would be an awareness ad. "Ask your doctor" is often included in them somewhere along with a list of side effects (give me a few minutes and I'll get you the Jeff Foxworthy clip).
Car commercials that focus entirely on emotions. A car is an emotional purchase? Really? That's an awful lot of money to be spending on emotions.
Ayup, it is.
Give a customer a perfectly factual presentation of a car's features, controls, options, economy and safety equipment/ratings and you'll get a blank stare and a brochure request. Show the person how this car will make them look (vanity), feel (happiness), and protect what's important to them (love) and you've got yourself a sale. As the old saying goes, "The feel of the wheel will seal the deal."
The percentage of people who buy purely based on factual data? Probably hovers somewhere in the 1-2% range.
Do you buy your vehicles based on technical data or do you look it around first, spend some time driving (feeling) it out? Do you buy a home based on measurements and number and dimension of windows, or do you look around and envision yourself in the space and get a feeling or vibe about it?
Our emotions are a major, if not the major cause of most of our decisions in life. Show me someone who's never done or specifically avoided something because of a gut feeling and I'll show you a liar.
I'm not going to bother responding to the rest of your post since it's just a rant about how you want the damn kids off your lawn.
Oh I'm sorry, did I offend you? As an under-30 who's worked for everything I have in life and compensated everybody I've ever received goods and services from I can understand why you'd be so flip.
Sucks when what you consider "freedom" is considered by others to be freeloading, doesn't it? The truth is a tough pill to swallow, and I know I'll be modded to hell for it because of the infamous groupthink around here, but what the hell; I can sleep at night with a clear conscience.
Oh, and my karma is fully intact; I have mod points as I type this, so I'm not worried about a little downmodding or accusations of being a troll. Hit me with everything you've got you bunch of leeches and parasites.
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Isn't this the natural result of the socio-econic situation of said racial group in the US, the high cost of college in the US, and the fact that most employers in said industry want a college degree?
Nonsense. I'm in Canada and the High School I went to was full of lower class people living in bad apartments and rooming houses. The people who moved on and did something with their lives were the ones who showed motivation and determination; nothing to do with skin colour.
Man do I ever get tired of hearing these stories about how the poor blacks can't afford college because society is holding them down. I went to school with Blacks (African and West Indies alike), Whites, Asians, Indians (both from India and the Native Canadian variety), Sri Lankens, Pakistanis, Europeans and a whole host of every other "ini" and "ean" you can imagine. Some had their parents paying their way but most were there through part time work, savings, grants, scholarships, loans and student lines of credit. I don't care where you're from or what your background - if you want something you work for it. If you don't, sit around and complain about how unfair life is.
But hey, let's make sure to placate "visible minorities" by giving them specialized scholarships! Or, if you're not dark enough but you have the right set of genitalia you could always apply for a scholarship for women! When did scholarship money become about what a person looks like rather than their drive, ambition and abilities anyways??!
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you on the crux of your argument. Yes, a lot of people are living pay cheque to pay cheque, but that's because in most cases they're attempting to live beyond their means and they're ignorant of the state of their own financial affairs.
I've spoken with hundreds of people in financial crisis and the number of people who understand how to save and/or understand how their credit score is calculated and how their actions affect it is appallingly low.
For what it's worth, my means include automatic savings vessels that come off of each and every pay cheque before I even get a chance to touch it. The money I have to pay my bills and for entertainment comes after. No exceptions. I never use my credit cards for luxury purchases unless I have the money on hand in a liquid form to pay for them immediately. I only do it this way to collect reward points and use my credit card company's money interest free for a couple weeks. My credit cards are short term, daily expense tools only and are paid in full every two weeks on pay day. Period, again, no exceptions.
I don't use credit cards or lines of credit for solutions to short term problems, preferring instead to use my savings and/or investments when the need arises. Also, I've never in the past, nor will I ever in the future use one of those short term credit / cheque cashing establishments. I will not pay a penalty on my hard-earned money just for the privilege of holding it my hands. For the sake of this discussion, we'll just call that "Stupid Tax".
Why do you think all these scammy payday-loan sharks keep multiplying like tribbles ? Do you really think people enjoy getting screwed with 60% interest ?People don't know any better and use these sources because they don't understand that there are better ways. How many people are living in homes they can't afford? Why? Why can't they rent an apartment or even a room? My grandparents raised my father and uncle in a one room (bachelor) apartment for years. They paid off their home in 5. They've bought every single car they've ever owned with cash. Why do people need 2-3 bedroom houses for themselves nowadays? Why do people need brand-new cars? High-end consumer electronics? How many people do you know living hand to mouth who have PlayStation 3's connected to flat panel televisions and surround sound systems? How many of these people have a savings plan in place? RRSPs/IRAs? I have quite a few friends and family members in these situations and I can find several ways they could easily reduce their spending and start saving but they're too proud or stubborn to do so. "I have equity in my home! Why would I give it up?" My standard answer to that is "So you have the pride of selling it before the bank takes it away from you."
Well, it takes a university dropout to enter the software field so I suppose high school dropout and food were inevitable?
Close, but no cigar. Podcasts are active, radio is passive. I have a dozen pre-set radio stations in my car. If I don't like what's playing on one I only have to wander my hand from my shifter up to my radio and click, click, click until I like what's on. With podcasts I have to determine ahead of time what I want to listen to and make a decided effort to transfer it to a device and then connect same to my vehicle. Boooooooooring. I just want to point and click when I drive, thanks.
Back in the dark ages when I worked as a contract technician primarily out of a computer shop I used to sell my services to anybody purchasing WiFi gear. All I had to do was talk to them. It's shockingly simple to do, too. Just ask them if they're familiar with WEP and if they understand how to properly implement it. If no, just explain to them about the paedophiles who drive around sending out child pornography and spam through open wireless connections and how they can be arrested for doing it because it's their connection. You'd be amazed how quickly the wallet opens!
To take your idea one step further, perhaps manufacturers should start implementing the serial number of the unit as its default password. In theory that should provide enough differentiation among brands and routers to avoid confusion. It's also a unique identifier and easy to track and store for the owner (flip the unit upside down and there's the default password).
Substantiated and confirmed by an owner.
Moreover, if a wireless router doesn't support basic WiFi security mechanisms, if anything the manufacturers should be held to task, not the laptop owning consumers who stumble upon them.
Or Personal responsibility: The onus is on the owner of the equipment to [lock his car]. TFM [for the car] will tell the user [how to lock and unlock the car].
Hmm... nope. The onus is on YOU to respect other people's properties and services.
Try telling that to your insurance company if you leave your car unlocked with the keys dangling. An owner is responsible to make atleast minimal reasonable attempts to prevent theft of their property otherwise they won't be compensated for same. eg; if you don't lock your car and/or if you leave the keys in the car you will not be compensated for its loss or that of its contents.
I will grant you that the person who takes the vehicle is criminally responsible but that is a separate issue. This isn't a case of either or - it's a case of both. Yes, it's wrong to (knowingly) use somebody else's Internet connection, but by the same token the owner of said connection is responsible for leaving the connection open in the first place. The manufacturers are responsible for selling devices that are unsecured (or open by default) without clear instructions not only how, but why this should be changed.
I'd also like to clarify how and why I said "knowingly" in the above; when I installed a wireless card in a computer in my home I was greeted with no less than six (6!) open, unsecured WiFi networks in operating range that all had the same SSID - "linksys". Now, were I the proud owner of a brand-new LinkSys wireless Internet router how am I to know which one I'm connected to?
Of course I know what I'm doing so my SSID has been changed, is not broadcast, and I'm using the highest grade of encryption available to me. But imagine a random sampling of average consumers - people who go to big box stores and buy "Wireless Network In A Box" (or several boxes - you get the idea). Do they know what an SSID is? What WEP stands for? WPA? Channel 6? How are these people expected to know what wireless network they're connected to, especially since the dominant consumer OS will merely inform them that they are "Connected to wireless network 'xxxxxx' - Signal Strength Excellent!"?!? They open a web browser and the Internet appears. Just because it's your Internet ...
My belief is the responsibility should be on the manufacturers of the devices to educate their consumers and also on the consumers themselves. If you're going to broadcast a freely available, unsecured Internet connection as far as the radios will take it you can't really be upset when somebody takes advantage now, can you? A little personal responsibility in this world would go a long way.
Selling refridgerators to Esquimos takes work. Selling gasoline to an SUV owner takes nothing more than physical presence.
Most products fall between those two, but if you believe "sales" really takes hard work, you most likely don't really care about serving your customers' needs, just closing the sale - Which means I would neither work for/with you nor buy from you.
That's a bit of a contradiction. Taking care of your customers and being attentive to their needs is hard work. Simply selling them something then forgetting their name and not caring about their future needs/problems after the sale is ridiculously easy.
Can you see, or draw a parallel between repressed sexuality and the advance of paedophilia and other sexual dysfunction?
When the detective thinks the suspect is a dick, of course.
That's high school talk; that isn't adult. Using that show as an example, are you trying to relive your high school years? Does it give you a rush to hear "dick" instead? Or maybe hearing it makes you feel like more of a man?Law & Order does now, and always has dealt with some very controversial topics, and as such you're going to find examples of heightened emotions and when there are emotions present you're going to get emotional (re)actions from the characters.
n.b. Expletives are so prevalent in high school because it makes the students feel more like the adults they're impersonating.
One last thing I'll ask about is at what level would you stop wanting to see/hear obscenities on TV? Would you stop at seeing simulated homosexual acts?Well, if one is homophobic, I suppose this would disturb them. But then again if someone is racist I'd posit they object to seeing blacks depicted in roles other than Toby or Uncle Tom.
live murders?Evening news is damn close enough.
simulated bestiality? simulated male/female incest?It's interesting that you equate homosexuality, murder, bestiality and incest together. Incidentally; do you consider male/male or female/female incest more, or less damaging?
the word f*ck said every 2 words like a school locker room?Or a Quentin Terrentino movie?
At what point will *you* start imposing your morals and standards on someone else who has even lower standards and morals than yourself?I can't speak for the OP, but I don't ever plan on imposing my morals on anybody. But I guess that makes you and I different, doesn't it?
In an ideal world, well hell, I could go on all day.
In reality however we don't control our router (which is not a low end model, FWIW) as it's part of our corporate WAN and is configured so each site can inter-connect with the other segments of our VPN properly. I'd love to update it, but heaven forbid a lowly neophyte such as myself muck things up. :) (The fact that I understand PMTU Discovery and our WAN tech does not is another matter entirely).
The problem is though that if these "esoteric features" don't work, they should have some capability to revert to known working behaviour. In this case, Microsoft has decided that larger packets are a Good Thing. On our LAN over the past couple years we've had a mix of Windows 98SE, 2000, XP, Vista as well as a couple flavours of Linux and they've all worked perfectly well across the great Internet without fail. The notion that Vista is so advanced that half the WWW stops working is, well, sorry, patently ridiculous.
On our small company LAN I encountered a similar problem but with a stock install of Vista on about 3 newly purchased laptops. The problem turned out to be the fact that our LAN uses a firewall/router and connects to ADSL which requires a lower MTU, and Vista has the MTU fixed at 1500. Lowering it to 1492 (manually - via the command line no less!) on the laptops made the difference.
Now, we could browse some sites but not others. The amazing thing was most of the Microsoft sites (like msn.com, Hotmail, etc.) wouldn't work but competing services would. Strange brew. :)
If you know some old Asians, that is. I know several late-20s and 30-something Asians who freely refer to themselves and others as Chinamen.
I'm listening to Leonard Cohen as I read your comment, and he just informed me that The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. Thats how it goes. Everybody knows.
Prophetic, that man.
Well I don't know where you get your downloaded movies, but I can get 720p movies compressed with H.264 accompanied by Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and enjoy it on my rather nice home theatre system viewed on my 60" Sony HD television set. Oh, and I can watch it on my schedule and serve whatever refreshments suit my own fancy. If I want chicken tika masala, by god I'll have it! And I'll wash it down with a crisp lager, thankyouverymuch.
Oh god, our company held a Monte Cristo night for the employees; open bar, fake money with which to gamble and at the end of the night exchange for tickets entered into a raffle to win prizes. Lots of booze, lots of laughs, no big deal. The Blackjack table we were at had three dealers who alternated. One was good, one was really awesome, really nice - gave us 'swag' for getting a blackjack, allowed us to bend the rules, split hands that were kinda sorta but not quite - you know what I mean.
Then there was the Russian Gulag guard. "No! You can't split that!" "No more bets!", "You can't double down on that!", "No touching the cards!!", "No sharing chips!". Moreover, the "money" we were given was almost like Monopoly money printed in denominations of either $50, $100, or $1000. A few of us asked about this and were told hey, each bill is worth 10 chips. Play and have fun. No no no! Ms. Gulag insisted that the $50 bills were only worth 5 chips whereas the $100 were worth 10! No, she couldn't answer if the $1000 bills were worth 100 chips. So instead she'd give 10 chips for the $1000 bill.
Dealers are just like anybody else I guess. Some are good, some are real jackasses. If I were playing with real money I'd have complained to the pit boss about her long ago.
Actually, I'm straining to think of it at the moment but having just seen a preview for that movie I immediately harkened back to a movie I saw some years ago about a 'crew' from one of the major American universities of white students being instructed on how to count cards by a professor who'd been banned from the casinos for doing that very thing.
I still don't get this; in the context of the discussion it sounds as if you guys are talking about somehow gaming the vending machines with a combination of bills and coin (change). But if a machine gives you four quarters rather than your dollar bill back, what have you gained/lost other than the opportunity to consume a Coke product rather than Pepsi?!
I've had a few customers with legal first names that are only a single letter and I'm curious to know what's the story behind that? I have a suspicion, but I'd like to hear it more direct before I open my fool mouth. :)
I was passed a file for a customer whose legal first name was 'T' and there was a bit of awkwardness in the beginning because I didn't quite know what to call her and Mrs. Long Last Name I'd Probably Mispronounce didn't seem appropriate.
"Act now! You could get a check made out to C. today!"Ugh. I don't have such a first name but those mailings drive me up the wall. "Pay to the order of: My Full Name."
They are often in the form of "pre-qualification" (note: not pre-approvals) for loans of varying amounts and I can imagine there are fumb ducks out there who'll follow instructions and go to the office to get instructions on how to deposit the money into their bank accounts.
FWIW, the company sending them out, Wells Fargo Financial Retail Services, used to handle the accounts for Future Shop around here but lost out to HSBC. So as soon as my 0% finance term is paid to completion I'll be cancelling the card and in every way possible formally revoking their permission to contact me and/or 'soft' query my credit bureau.
Topically, no, it's not "advertisements" in the strictest sense, but the creepiness factor, followed by the annoyed factor alone is enough to show how I'd feel if random web pages started using my personal information, name or otherwise, in adverts.
I have memories, but until people can learn to respect others' wishes and not publish photos without express consent I'd sooner have none taken at all. I've never been a particular fan of people shoving cameras in my face but have accepted that some photographs are timely and even a good thing to have. However with Facebook and with people's lackadaisical attitude regarding privacy I'm just not interested in broadcasting my life to anybody with an account.
See, I've been able to readily access the photo albums of friends-of-friends with whom I have no association whatsoever. By extension that means friends-of-my-friends and family have access to their photo albums. Memories are private things and I absolutely detest the public nature of Facebook. Ask yourself how many of your photographs you'd want published on a park bench or a billboard and you'll see why I have the attitude I have.
I actually left IT because I couldn't compete with the number of letters people waved around all the time. While they were off in their diploma mill classroom environments I was working for a living, gaining critical knowledge and problem solving skills. By the time I got around to college to formalize my education I was in possession of more knowledge than most of my professors. The courses were pure review. I dropped out a year into the program. My cohort moved on primarily to help desk and other menial IT positions. About 5% wound up with skilled IT jobs.
Prior to my college fiasco however I was in a shop that specialized in consumer and small business IT needs. I really enjoyed how my high school dropout boss who taught me more about IT than all my professors combined used to treat these paper MCSEs who'd walk through the door. I'll never forget the guy who came in right out of the clear blue and proclaimed that he would accept a position at a salary of $100k/year. My boss asked him what experience and/or qualifications he had, he responded "I've just completed my MCSE certification."
My boss said something about toilet paper and I was already in tears. My ears stopped working I was laughing so hard. I wonder if he found his dream job. :)
Then there's the guy who phoned in to the store asking for clarification of Windows 98's routing capabilities as he was constructing a network consisting of roughly a dozen computers, two NICs apiece running CAT-5 crossover cables between each computer to form some kind of, well, I guess modern token-ring setup of some kind. My boss offered to sell him a switch but was told that was excessive hardware purchase (as if the extra dozen NICs were just included with the PCs or something) and that he was an MCSE and he knows what he is doing! Now will you help me or not?
Yep. Told the guy he should become a garbage man because he's too damned stupid to work on computers. The guy came down to the store to continue the conversation in person. My boss apologized; said he was out of line. Said he was too stupid to be a garbage man. Never heard from Mr. MCSE again. Never did sell him that switch.
Then your friends and family members go and post whatever photos they have lying around and all your diligence is for naught. I request of all my friends and family members that they not take pictures of me specifically because I don't want my life broadcast on Facebook outside of my control.
It's one thing if I want to create a photo album and publish it with specific pictures. It's another entirely for someone to periodically dump their memory card to their profile and start merrily tagging away.
Sad fact is there are a lot of stupid people out there, and the best subversive way to tell someone they're stupid is to tell them how smart they are. Yes, these ads do target the uneducated or the ill-informed members of our society. By the way; you don't have to be stupid to be bad at financial management. I've dealt with more than my fair share of very smart people in credit crisis.
Any health-related product that claims it is "clinically proven to help". To help? How much? Who does it apply to?This would be an awareness ad. "Ask your doctor" is often included in them somewhere along with a list of side effects (give me a few minutes and I'll get you the Jeff Foxworthy clip).
Car commercials that focus entirely on emotions. A car is an emotional purchase? Really? That's an awful lot of money to be spending on emotions.Ayup, it is.
Give a customer a perfectly factual presentation of a car's features, controls, options, economy and safety equipment/ratings and you'll get a blank stare and a brochure request. Show the person how this car will make them look (vanity), feel (happiness), and protect what's important to them (love) and you've got yourself a sale. As the old saying goes, "The feel of the wheel will seal the deal."
The percentage of people who buy purely based on factual data? Probably hovers somewhere in the 1-2% range.
Do you buy your vehicles based on technical data or do you look it around first, spend some time driving (feeling) it out? Do you buy a home based on measurements and number and dimension of windows, or do you look around and envision yourself in the space and get a feeling or vibe about it?
Our emotions are a major, if not the major cause of most of our decisions in life. Show me someone who's never done or specifically avoided something because of a gut feeling and I'll show you a liar.
Oh I'm sorry, did I offend you? As an under-30 who's worked for everything I have in life and compensated everybody I've ever received goods and services from I can understand why you'd be so flip.
Sucks when what you consider "freedom" is considered by others to be freeloading, doesn't it? The truth is a tough pill to swallow, and I know I'll be modded to hell for it because of the infamous groupthink around here, but what the hell; I can sleep at night with a clear conscience.
Oh, and my karma is fully intact; I have mod points as I type this, so I'm not worried about a little downmodding or accusations of being a troll. Hit me with everything you've got you bunch of leeches and parasites.