I never remember amazon innovating in any way. They only beat the many other auction websites because they were the biggest and no-one wants to use the second best. They grabbed a natural monopoly by chance, not by skill.
From what I've seen they have pissed off, and I mean seriously pissed off by stealing or attempting to steal money, about a quarter to a third of their customer base. That's based on a small sample size but it can't be too far off.
Maybe you just got lucky. Maybe you will continue to be lucky and maybe you won't. Or then again maybe you work for Paypal.
PayPal offers a great service, despite the circlejerk to the contrary.
Great for themselves maybe. They have a very long history of freezing accounts for the slightest excuse and keeping the money. They have done far worse things to a lot of people including myself. The only good thing about paypal was the debt collectors they set on me. I found them to be quite reasonable after I gave them full evidence proving paypal was lying and after I politely invited them to settle the matter in court.
So you work for paypal then do you Anonymous Coward?
In my experience they are not evil, they are just thevies who will keep the money unless you make one hell of a fuss and even then they might just keep it anyway. They don't eat babies or anything but they do have a very long history of stealing other peoples money.
That fax number charges 10p a minute, I think there is a rule that says you have to state that when you post it. The London local rate number appears to be +4420 8605 3001. (verify by entering PayPal's registration number which is 226056.) That's from http://www.paypalsucks.com/faqs.shtml.
I pretty much agree with you that he used the wrong word but feel the need to point out rape isn't always a sexual crime.
From dictionary.com: noun 1. the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. 2. any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person. 3. statutory rape. 4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside. 5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force. verb (used with object) 6. to force to have sexual intercourse. 7. to plunder (a place); despoil. 8. to seize, take, or carry off by force.
What paypal do is plunder, abuse, and seize, but not violently.
I transferred a good bit of money to my wife in Paris in 2007. It had worked twice previously. On the third time, Paypal "froze" the funds,
Paypal steal money, it's their business model.
But.. What the hell were you doing? Paypal isn't an international transfer service. You would be killed on fees and conversion charges by using them. A normal bank transfer would get the job done or even better a transfer service like xetrade.com charges about 2% off mid market rates. Even western union would be better than paypal for sending money abroad.
Let's face it, if Paypal was subject to regular bank regulations, the kind that make it pretty hard for them to pull off stunts like this, they would be a much better service.
This is an example of an industry that just needs some good old fashioned regulation.
Paypal does not need 'regulation'. What paypal needs is criminal theft charges against everyone above middle management.
After all these years and all these warnings I can't believe paypal still has any customers.
Paypal take other peoples money and keep it, that always was their business model. Deal with them only if you want to lose your money. Deal with them only if you want them to empty all linked accounts too.
Baxter has a basic knowledge of how to perform a wide range of basic manufacturing operations such as loading and unloading, counting, reorienting, and light assembly.
Ah. Those things that robots are already doing quite efficiently. What else?
Quite efficiently but not cheaply. I've no idea about Baxter but Rooney Brooks has come up with funky stuff. Roombas, bomb disposal robots, and a whole load of academic papers.
I have no idea what certivity is, but I'm sure the basic income the parent post mentioned would be in dollars, which certainly would pay your bills (unless your bills are too high), as well as enable you to buy food for you and your cats.
Which won't work when the people who make human and cat food don't have to do their jobs to get paid.
Jobs should not be the ultimate goal. We must challenge the idea that jobs are the only way to contribute. Let us free people from the necessity of making a living by doing what a boss tells them, and let them instead pursue their own creative interests. Give everyone the option of a basic income, and have lots of challenges by business and government to stimulate the natural curiosity and scientific spirit that most of us are born with. Knowledge and technology will advance, which is what confers survival fitness by better enabling us to predict and adapt to sudden catastrophic change.
Sorry to break it to you but communism didn't work. Your plan would just create a whole load of lazy people.
They used to predict in the 50s that in the future a man would be able to easily support himself while only working two days a week.
Funny thing is, they were actually correct. It's easy to live on two days of work a week... if you restrict yourself to living at a medium level of prosperity by 1950s standards.
I remember the daydreams about how robots would do all the work and people would lead lives of leisure. Instead we work harder to try and keep up with the machines we built. Those daydreams were still going into the 80's.
Where I live plenty of people live on zero days of work a week though. The state seems to have accepted that some people don't need, or just won't, work.
Electrical service is much more reliable in the US compared to China/India.
I can personally testify that electricity in most of India is amazingly bad. There are regular brownouts or blackouts and the voltage wonders all over the place. It's hard to run even simple kit without some kind of filtering. I'll take your word on China. I've never been there.
But the electricity in the US is also pretty poor compared to Europe. Outside US cities it can be a total mess. Maybe the lower delivery voltage has something to do with it. Maybe not.
Any decent manufacturing outfit will have at a minimum power filters and more likely battery and generator backups. The costs of shipping things by boat is pretty low compared to the costs involved in employing people.
I highly recommend getting a fritz box. The amount of stuff they can do is really cool. The model I have is a NAS server, Media server for my blu-ray player, a PBX for cheap SIP calls, an answering machine for SIP or land line calls, a DECT phone base station, A print server for my USB printer, a VDSL modem, and a 4 port gigabit switch. All that in a small low power box.
Also you can update the firmware fairly easily although it does trash all your settings.
Why do you even need a gym? Or wait for the weekends? Instead of standing around the water cooler, do as many pushups as you can when you have 30 seconds. Do the same before every urination break (you'll work really hard really fast). You will spend literally minutes a day, yet be in better shape than the 99%.
I really want to do that but I work in an office and doing push-ups or whatever at work will just cause everyone who notices to talk to me about it. I don't even care that they think I'm weird, I care that they will use it as an excuse to waste my time with more pointless conversations so I get even less work done.
Don't be an idiot that starts or otherwise gets into fights for stupid reasons.
Right
Avoid situations where fighting might happen.
Right
Convince the other guy not to fight.
Right
Have pepper spray or similar deterrent.
That could get you jailed for carrying an offensive weapon where I live.
Be able to find law enforcement before the other guy can attack you.
That's impossible or at best impractical.
Be able to run faster and/or longer than the other guy.
Right
Be able to hide.
Better than fighting. OK.
Give the other guy what he wants, memorize his face, license plate number, etc., and let the police handle it.
I'm with you up to 'police', in my experience they don't help. They turn up later and threaten the victims, or do nothing at all. My friend was mugged and hit around the head with a baseball bat because he wouldn't hand over some tiny amount of cash. He had a fractured skull, was bleeding from one ear. The police turned up, checked his car wasn't stolen, and left him to stagger to a payphone to call his own ambulance.
A few times police have threatened to beat me up, now I just laugh it off like I do any pointless treat of violence. When I was a child I remember two of them 'promising' to break my arm. I did nothing to offend them. Great way to treat a scared and utterly innocent child there. Great way to alienate the people they depend on.
I've thought about this and the only way I would ever get involved with the police is if my actions have a very strong chance of bringing a serial killer or serial rapist to justice. Anything less than that and I'm not dealing with them, if I lose some blood or property because of that so be it.
All that fails, then physical self defense would be worth it.
I'd adapt your list to exclude the police, but it's on the right track.
I don't know if they're *actually* doing "good" aikido, or just full of shit... but Aikido, among the martial arts, seems to have a disproportionate number of self-anointed "badass" adherents who love nothing more than to talk about how hard they are and how they'll fuck someone up for looking the wrong way at them.
I've noticed the same with Aikido but also with other martial arts. My guess is that martial arts appeal strongly to those that desire power over others. But I won't dismiss the possibility that having supposed power over other people turns decent people into jerks.
Slashdot Mirror
I never remember amazon innovating in any way. They only beat the many other auction websites because they were the biggest and no-one wants to use the second best. They grabbed a natural monopoly by chance, not by skill.
Here is the first one I read.
http://conferencesburnedbypaypal.tumblr.com/post/9341558088/a-major-open-source-conference-in-paris
That guy doesn't seem very dumb to me.
'I still do use their services from time to time'.
What he means is he loves the abuse. I'm not sure if that counts as being dumb or not.
From what I've seen they have pissed off, and I mean seriously pissed off by stealing or attempting to steal money, about a quarter to a third of their customer base. That's based on a small sample size but it can't be too far off.
Maybe you just got lucky. Maybe you will continue to be lucky and maybe you won't. Or then again maybe you work for Paypal.
PayPal offers a great service, despite the circlejerk to the contrary.
Great for themselves maybe. They have a very long history of freezing accounts for the slightest excuse and keeping the money. They have done far worse things to a lot of people including myself. The only good thing about paypal was the debt collectors they set on me. I found them to be quite reasonable after I gave them full evidence proving paypal was lying and after I politely invited them to settle the matter in court.
So you work for paypal then do you Anonymous Coward?
In my experience they are not evil, they are just thevies who will keep the money unless you make one hell of a fuss and even then they might just keep it anyway. They don't eat babies or anything but they do have a very long history of stealing other peoples money.
That fax number charges 10p a minute, I think there is a rule that says you have to state that when you post it. The London local rate number appears to be +4420 8605 3001. (verify by entering PayPal's registration number which is 226056.) That's from http://www.paypalsucks.com/faqs.shtml.
I pretty much agree with you that he used the wrong word but feel the need to point out rape isn't always a sexual crime.
From dictionary.com:
noun
1. the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse.
2. any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.
3. statutory rape.
4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.
5. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
verb (used with object)
6. to force to have sexual intercourse.
7. to plunder (a place); despoil.
8. to seize, take, or carry off by force.
What paypal do is plunder, abuse, and seize, but not violently.
What's the name of that company? I'm going to order some cigars from them.
Screwing legitimate users on regular basis is not a good way of doing business. eBay/PayPal.
You would think not but paypal have been doing it for years. There are always more mugs willing to give away their money.
I transferred a good bit of money to my wife in Paris in 2007. It had worked twice previously. On the third time, Paypal "froze" the funds,
Paypal steal money, it's their business model.
But.. What the hell were you doing? Paypal isn't an international transfer service. You would be killed on fees and conversion charges by using them. A normal bank transfer would get the job done or even better a transfer service like xetrade.com charges about 2% off mid market rates. Even western union would be better than paypal for sending money abroad.
They have been known to empty connected bank accounts and credit cards too. They tried both with me but luckily failed.
They also did a nice line in forced currency conversions in order to increase pretend debts they made up into bigger pretend debts.
Let's face it, if Paypal was subject to regular bank regulations, the kind that make it pretty hard for them to pull off stunts like this, they would be a much better service.
This is an example of an industry that just needs some good old fashioned regulation.
Paypal does not need 'regulation'. What paypal needs is criminal theft charges against everyone above middle management.
When i stopped using paypal, i also had to stop using ebay.
It was hard, but thank god for craigslist!
Other than cars I don't really see the point of buying second hand stuff at all. If I want it I'll buy new or I won't buy it at all.
Everything I want in life is cheap enough.
After all these years and all these warnings I can't believe paypal still has any customers.
Paypal take other peoples money and keep it, that always was their business model. Deal with them only if you want to lose your money. Deal with them only if you want them to empty all linked accounts too.
Baxter has a basic knowledge of how to perform a wide range of basic manufacturing operations such as loading and unloading, counting, reorienting, and light assembly.
Ah. Those things that robots are already doing quite efficiently. What else?
Quite efficiently but not cheaply. I've no idea about Baxter but Rooney Brooks has come up with funky stuff. Roombas, bomb disposal robots, and a whole load of academic papers.
I have no idea what certivity is, but I'm sure the basic income the parent post mentioned would be in dollars, which certainly would pay your bills (unless your bills are too high), as well as enable you to buy food for you and your cats.
Which won't work when the people who make human and cat food don't have to do their jobs to get paid.
Jobs should not be the ultimate goal. We must challenge the idea that jobs are the only way to contribute. Let us free people from the necessity of making a living by doing what a boss tells them, and let them instead pursue their own creative interests. Give everyone the option of a basic income, and have lots of challenges by business and government to stimulate the natural curiosity and scientific spirit that most of us are born with. Knowledge and technology will advance, which is what confers survival fitness by better enabling us to predict and adapt to sudden catastrophic change.
Sorry to break it to you but communism didn't work. Your plan would just create a whole load of lazy people.
They used to predict in the 50s that in the future a man would be able to easily support himself while only working two days a week.
Funny thing is, they were actually correct. It's easy to live on two days of work a week... if you restrict yourself to living at a medium level of prosperity by 1950s standards.
I remember the daydreams about how robots would do all the work and people would lead lives of leisure. Instead we work harder to try and keep up with the machines we built. Those daydreams were still going into the 80's.
Where I live plenty of people live on zero days of work a week though. The state seems to have accepted that some people don't need, or just won't, work.
Electrical service is much more reliable in the US compared to China/India.
I can personally testify that electricity in most of India is amazingly bad. There are regular brownouts or blackouts and the voltage wonders all over the place. It's hard to run even simple kit without some kind of filtering. I'll take your word on China. I've never been there.
But the electricity in the US is also pretty poor compared to Europe. Outside US cities it can be a total mess. Maybe the lower delivery voltage has something to do with it. Maybe not.
Any decent manufacturing outfit will have at a minimum power filters and more likely battery and generator backups. The costs of shipping things by boat is pretty low compared to the costs involved in employing people.
I highly recommend getting a fritz box. The amount of stuff they can do is really cool.
The model I have is a NAS server, Media server for my blu-ray player, a PBX for cheap SIP calls, an answering machine for SIP or land line calls, a DECT phone base station, A print server for my USB printer, a VDSL modem, and a 4 port gigabit switch. All that in a small low power box.
Also you can update the firmware fairly easily although it does trash all your settings.
No I don't work for them.
Adrenaline is a prescription drug around here.
It's WAY more fun to make your own.
Why do you even need a gym?
Exactly! For example: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Your-Own-Gym/dp/0345528581/.
I have that book. It's brilliant.
Why do you even need a gym? Or wait for the weekends? Instead of standing around the water cooler, do as many pushups as you can when you have 30 seconds. Do the same before every urination break (you'll work really hard really fast). You will spend literally minutes a day, yet be in better shape than the 99%.
I really want to do that but I work in an office and doing push-ups or whatever at work will just cause everyone who notices to talk to me about it. I don't even care that they think I'm weird, I care that they will use it as an excuse to waste my time with more pointless conversations so I get even less work done.
Now if I could work from home..
Really? When was the last time someone conquered China or Japan?
Japan was conquered in WW2.
As far as I know China has not been conquered since it became one country.
What's this got to do with anything?
Don't be an idiot that starts or otherwise gets into fights for stupid reasons.
Right
Avoid situations where fighting might happen.
Right
Convince the other guy not to fight.
Right
Have pepper spray or similar deterrent.
That could get you jailed for carrying an offensive weapon where I live.
Be able to find law enforcement before the other guy can attack you.
That's impossible or at best impractical.
Be able to run faster and/or longer than the other guy.
Right
Be able to hide.
Better than fighting. OK.
Give the other guy what he wants, memorize his face, license plate number, etc., and let the police handle it.
I'm with you up to 'police', in my experience they don't help. They turn up later and threaten the victims, or do nothing at all. My friend was mugged and hit around the head with a baseball bat because he wouldn't hand over some tiny amount of cash. He had a fractured skull, was bleeding from one ear. The police turned up, checked his car wasn't stolen, and left him to stagger to a payphone to call his own ambulance.
A few times police have threatened to beat me up, now I just laugh it off like I do any pointless treat of violence. When I was a child I remember two of them 'promising' to break my arm. I did nothing to offend them. Great way to treat a scared and utterly innocent child there. Great way to alienate the people they depend on.
I've thought about this and the only way I would ever get involved with the police is if my actions have a very strong chance of bringing a serial killer or serial rapist to justice. Anything less than that and I'm not dealing with them, if I lose some blood or property because of that so be it.
All that fails, then physical self defense would be worth it.
I'd adapt your list to exclude the police, but it's on the right track.
I don't know if they're *actually* doing "good" aikido, or just full of shit... but Aikido, among the martial arts, seems to have a disproportionate number of self-anointed "badass" adherents who love nothing more than to talk about how hard they are and how they'll fuck someone up for looking the wrong way at them.
I've noticed the same with Aikido but also with other martial arts. My guess is that martial arts appeal strongly to those that desire power over others. But I won't dismiss the possibility that having supposed power over other people turns decent people into jerks.