Many hospitals will try to bill in triple if possible. My boss has been billed in triple several times, and each time he has called the hospital, asked them for prices on their procedures, and stated he would only pay the noted price. Even after that, the hospitals would submit the triple billing to his insurance company in hopes they would pay the difference. The problem with the hospital system in the US is the greed on many levels, whether it be from the malpractice lawyers right up to the doctors that will sometimes give unnecessary procedures in order to get more money. The US is one of the only, if not the only, countries in western civilized society that treats medical care like car repair.
This sounds like a bit of a drum-circle bongo argument, but to treat health care like a commodity instead of a basic human right in the western civilized world is morally wrong.
Parents have choice over the content their children view; children do not. It is part of the parenting process; this is just a tool for such, like the V-chip. Different parents hold different values, and children mature at different rates, so such tools are not really that bad, given that once somebody becomes of legal age, such restrictions are gone. For example: I've been able to watch R rated movies since the age of 5, yet in the early 90's when we first got a computer and the internet, my old man kept draconian enforcement over it; it really wasn't a big deal in the long run and I never grew up deprived as a result.
I actually support a nationalized ID. Currently, we have 50 states with 50 different ID systems. A state issued ID is already required to fly in most cases, and some sort of ID or drivers license is required to execute many government services. If somebody wants to live in a hermit hole and be paranoid, that's their choice, however unifying the ID system in the US will cut down on infrastructure in the long run because every state will use the same system.
People are worried about needing to publicly present their ID when asked by the cops, and while it is still your right in some areas not to present it, prepare to get a hard time by the cops if you do in those cases. In my opinion, the people opposing a unified ID system are, for the most part, conspiracy whackos.
Blimps don't need to make economic sense because they are fun. Also, if we don't have zeppelins, then how am I supposed to fulfill my dream of throwing somebody off of one and then saying "No ticket"?
It was due to general incompetence and cutting corners, and the lack of security on the entire OAKS project, which was virtually nonexistant. A shared drive was left open during project development, and it had been discovered many times that people who weren't involved in the project could log in download personal info. My cousin in law interviewed various employees and wrote a good article for the Cleveland Free times: http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/28/system-failure .
I bought a few DVD's that have the uninterruptible previews at the beginning. One of them was so bad, that even the stop button was locked out. I did the right thing, and after calling universal pictures up and bitching at one of their interns for a few minutes over the phone, I went online and ordered a cheapo slave labor dvd player from china. It ignores the flags that prevent me from skipping previews. I never entered into any agreement to watch the previews, so I shouldn't have to.
Most new DVD's don't seem to lock you out of previews anymore. I guess too many angry calls and letters from people. Some DVD's now even allow you to press menu to get past the FBI warning.
I don't mean to sound like an advertising whore or anything, but I've used earthlink's broadband service for years, the connection is over time warner's cable lines, however earthlink supplies the badwidth. I haven't really had the problems that I hear time warner customers having over the years, and earthlink is somewhat better about packet shaping policies, especially when you consider old news about them and file sharing. The speed is capped slower than RR's lines (I've only gotten a max of 450 kilobytes down and 40 kilobytes up) but for $10/mo less than RR, who cares.
The college part of educating engineers boils down to quickly teaching basics and cram assloads of math, both which are needed. The training and specialization happens on the job in usually an apprentice like manner. In many cases, co-ops or internships are very similar to apprenticeships, and in my case, I had 2 years experience working on electronics under an engineer before I got serious and started college. My boss taught me many practical things, however to learn everything that college could have taught me under my boss would've taken a million bajillion years.
If the education part of it does need to be changed slightly, then I'd require engineers to take a course or work alongside the construction workers or assembly line workers or machinists for a short period of time.
His toys were very controversial, however I'm pretty sure they were safe. Take one of his most popular toys, a bag of medical waste, which he called "Johnny Doctor," or the hand gun, "Johnny Street Gang (no ammo included)" that he tried to sell. Of course, there was also the bag of broken glass he marketed as "Bag of Broken glass," however I assert that the light refraction off of the glass shards made that toy educational; it taught kids the science of colors and light.
A while back, some people on the somethingawful forums created the futuristic sex robots and released an album under the creative commons. Their songs rap about WOW, crusing in a DeLorean, and the way things were back in the day; their most popular track is "Fuck the MPAA." They also sound a heck of a lot better than some of the artists listed above.
As far as compression goes, most high quality high bitrate audio compression has very transparent loss. Sure, a few songs occasionally have a pop or chirp from bad compression, but just think of it as a pop on a record; after all, audiophiles assert records sound better anyway. I would assert that it would not be worth your time to try and pick out the differences in sound quality and that some individuals are lying.
Be wary of buying "high end" audio equipment. Most of it is not worth the money and the high cost far outweighs whatever baloney benefits the salesman tries to push on you. A salesman at Best Buy was trying to sell me an SACD player a while back, claiming incredible "sonic-integrity," whatever the crap that means, because of a 128 KHz frequency spectrum. Sure, it might have more bulk to it's audio signal, but the human ear tops out at about 22 KHz, and as you age, you lose much of that. My old man has a nice, single speaker bose station that interfaces with his IPod, and, even at higher volumes, compressed audio still sounds very good.
Tangentively: as males age, they lose their highs, and females, their lows. Females get higher pitched voices as they age, and males lower as a result. Evolution's cool like that.
The only real thing you should be worried about when buying an audio system is the amplifier. And even then, you don't need some mumbo-jumbo audiophile who pays $60 for a 4-foot stretch of monster cable to give you advice. He/She probably could, though. There's a reason most electronics stores have displays set up where you can test out audio equipment; If it sounds good, and you like it, that's all that matters. Don't let so called "sound engineers" tell you that listening on something that costs less than a new Mercedes Benz is heretical. You want to listen to the music for the sake of the music itself, not for the equipment.
Sure, the games this guy listed were pretty bad, but they've got nothing on Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde for the NES. This game was so terrible, that it exceeds all known synonyms for terrible.
Obligitory George Carlin Quote
on
School Bans 'Tag'
·
· Score: 2, Funny
It's not even a new idea; I first saw it in old newsreels from the 1930s, but it was hard to understand, because the narration was in German.
When I was a kid, I was pretty into video games; but if grades slipped for anybody in the house, then my old man came in with a box and unhooked everything.
I wouldn't say the worry with many people is about video games as much as the fact that the way kids physically interact with their toys has changed. Even in the early 90's, when we were beginning to see the adolescense of the video game industry explode, many of my toys did not have transistors. Granted the gameboy I got for christmas was snuck onto the school playground even after the teachers banned such things to avoid theft and fights, that was about it... well, that and a decaying teddy ruxpin doll from the mid 80's.
Time studying or doing homework isn't that much of an issue, given kids who don't want to do homework have historically found ways and excuses to get around it. The worry lies in "the good old days of running or bicycle riding" or something equally nostalgic for old people, however video games are also moving to deeper levels of physical interaction, take a look at the necessity to pantomime gestures with the Wii or exert high impact aerobic routines with dance dance revolution.
The same study has probably been performed in the past about kids who watch too much TV and probably wielded similar results. This is nothing new, and as the OP stated, moderation and parental ivolvement are the key to raising a child who one day takes over the world and gives mommy and daddy control of some country in europe as a way of saying thanks.
People were trying to get XP to run on their new Macs. There was even a monetary prize for doing so. Apple probably just saw that, and rather than try to hinder or cripple people's ability do to so, which would make them look bad, released their own bootloader and put a "Oh using windows will make them switch to OSX" spin on it for a few PR points.
Universal is very bad about locking viewers out of the ability to press menu, fast forward, or skip to get past the initial previews on their dvds. On several Universal DVD's I own, I cannot even press stop after inserting the disc to stop the previews. It has angered me so much that they are forcing me to watch previews on their dvd's that I try to stay away from buying universal DVD's alltogether.
I can almost understand DRM for online movies provided it's flexible, but if they get so controlling over the distribution that whatever media player used is locked out of skipping past the previews, then they won't see one fucking dime of my money.
It's not really a stretch from now. I'm 22 and I got carded for buying GT: San Andreas.
"But oh noes! Teh law is doing the parenting for the parents!"
Well, it's been doing that for years. Take curfews for minors as an example.
This is hardly a freedom issue, as the law does not ban minors from playing the games, just buying them. A parent who feels his/her child is more than responsible will allow them to play. And if they can't play, then, well, they will have to put up with the pain my older sister's friends felt when their moms, who did not like the fact that Ultramagnus said "Dammit," did not take them to see TF:TM in 86.
I know that it may sound harsh to all you kiddies out there, but not being allowed to do/get something is part of growing up. Besides, being underage and still obtaining that mature game/case of beer/porno mag/bag of mushrooms and hiding it from parents/authorities is (was for me, at least) hella fun at that age.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh great, that's all we need: another damn external hard drive a dancing around wearing a fig leaf.
Many hospitals will try to bill in triple if possible. My boss has been billed in triple several times, and each time he has called the hospital, asked them for prices on their procedures, and stated he would only pay the noted price. Even after that, the hospitals would submit the triple billing to his insurance company in hopes they would pay the difference. The problem with the hospital system in the US is the greed on many levels, whether it be from the malpractice lawyers right up to the doctors that will sometimes give unnecessary procedures in order to get more money. The US is one of the only, if not the only, countries in western civilized society that treats medical care like car repair. This sounds like a bit of a drum-circle bongo argument, but to treat health care like a commodity instead of a basic human right in the western civilized world is morally wrong.
Parents have choice over the content their children view; children do not. It is part of the parenting process; this is just a tool for such, like the V-chip. Different parents hold different values, and children mature at different rates, so such tools are not really that bad, given that once somebody becomes of legal age, such restrictions are gone. For example: I've been able to watch R rated movies since the age of 5, yet in the early 90's when we first got a computer and the internet, my old man kept draconian enforcement over it; it really wasn't a big deal in the long run and I never grew up deprived as a result.
I actually support a nationalized ID. Currently, we have 50 states with 50 different ID systems. A state issued ID is already required to fly in most cases, and some sort of ID or drivers license is required to execute many government services. If somebody wants to live in a hermit hole and be paranoid, that's their choice, however unifying the ID system in the US will cut down on infrastructure in the long run because every state will use the same system. People are worried about needing to publicly present their ID when asked by the cops, and while it is still your right in some areas not to present it, prepare to get a hard time by the cops if you do in those cases. In my opinion, the people opposing a unified ID system are, for the most part, conspiracy whackos.
Blimps don't need to make economic sense because they are fun. Also, if we don't have zeppelins, then how am I supposed to fulfill my dream of throwing somebody off of one and then saying "No ticket"?
It was due to general incompetence and cutting corners, and the lack of security on the entire OAKS project, which was virtually nonexistant. A shared drive was left open during project development, and it had been discovered many times that people who weren't involved in the project could log in download personal info. My cousin in law interviewed various employees and wrote a good article for the Cleveland Free times: http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/28/system-failure .
That's not a flaw, it's a feature.
April Fools in december? Oh shi-
I bought a few DVD's that have the uninterruptible previews at the beginning. One of them was so bad, that even the stop button was locked out. I did the right thing, and after calling universal pictures up and bitching at one of their interns for a few minutes over the phone, I went online and ordered a cheapo slave labor dvd player from china. It ignores the flags that prevent me from skipping previews. I never entered into any agreement to watch the previews, so I shouldn't have to. Most new DVD's don't seem to lock you out of previews anymore. I guess too many angry calls and letters from people. Some DVD's now even allow you to press menu to get past the FBI warning.
I don't mean to sound like an advertising whore or anything, but I've used earthlink's broadband service for years, the connection is over time warner's cable lines, however earthlink supplies the badwidth. I haven't really had the problems that I hear time warner customers having over the years, and earthlink is somewhat better about packet shaping policies, especially when you consider old news about them and file sharing. The speed is capped slower than RR's lines (I've only gotten a max of 450 kilobytes down and 40 kilobytes up) but for $10/mo less than RR, who cares.
The college part of educating engineers boils down to quickly teaching basics and cram assloads of math, both which are needed. The training and specialization happens on the job in usually an apprentice like manner. In many cases, co-ops or internships are very similar to apprenticeships, and in my case, I had 2 years experience working on electronics under an engineer before I got serious and started college. My boss taught me many practical things, however to learn everything that college could have taught me under my boss would've taken a million bajillion years. If the education part of it does need to be changed slightly, then I'd require engineers to take a course or work alongside the construction workers or assembly line workers or machinists for a short period of time.
His toys were very controversial, however I'm pretty sure they were safe. Take one of his most popular toys, a bag of medical waste, which he called "Johnny Doctor," or the hand gun, "Johnny Street Gang (no ammo included)" that he tried to sell. Of course, there was also the bag of broken glass he marketed as "Bag of Broken glass," however I assert that the light refraction off of the glass shards made that toy educational; it taught kids the science of colors and light.
A while back, some people on the somethingawful forums created the futuristic sex robots and released an album under the creative commons. Their songs rap about WOW, crusing in a DeLorean, and the way things were back in the day; their most popular track is "Fuck the MPAA." They also sound a heck of a lot better than some of the artists listed above.
Be wary of buying "high end" audio equipment. Most of it is not worth the money and the high cost far outweighs whatever baloney benefits the salesman tries to push on you. A salesman at Best Buy was trying to sell me an SACD player a while back, claiming incredible "sonic-integrity," whatever the crap that means, because of a 128 KHz frequency spectrum. Sure, it might have more bulk to it's audio signal, but the human ear tops out at about 22 KHz, and as you age, you lose much of that. My old man has a nice, single speaker bose station that interfaces with his IPod, and, even at higher volumes, compressed audio still sounds very good.
Tangentively: as males age, they lose their highs, and females, their lows. Females get higher pitched voices as they age, and males lower as a result. Evolution's cool like that.
The only real thing you should be worried about when buying an audio system is the amplifier. And even then, you don't need some mumbo-jumbo audiophile who pays $60 for a 4-foot stretch of monster cable to give you advice. He/She probably could, though. There's a reason most electronics stores have displays set up where you can test out audio equipment; If it sounds good, and you like it, that's all that matters. Don't let so called "sound engineers" tell you that listening on something that costs less than a new Mercedes Benz is heretical. You want to listen to the music for the sake of the music itself, not for the equipment.
Stephen Colbert promised a red balloon drop if the republicans won. Now those two children he brought on his show are going to be heartbroken :(
Sure, the games this guy listed were pretty bad, but they've got nothing on Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde for the NES. This game was so terrible, that it exceeds all known synonyms for terrible.
It's not even a new idea; I first saw it in old newsreels from the 1930s, but it was hard to understand, because the narration was in German.
When I was a kid, I was pretty into video games; but if grades slipped for anybody in the house, then my old man came in with a box and unhooked everything.
I wouldn't say the worry with many people is about video games as much as the fact that the way kids physically interact with their toys has changed. Even in the early 90's, when we were beginning to see the adolescense of the video game industry explode, many of my toys did not have transistors. Granted the gameboy I got for christmas was snuck onto the school playground even after the teachers banned such things to avoid theft and fights, that was about it... well, that and a decaying teddy ruxpin doll from the mid 80's.
Time studying or doing homework isn't that much of an issue, given kids who don't want to do homework have historically found ways and excuses to get around it. The worry lies in "the good old days of running or bicycle riding" or something equally nostalgic for old people, however video games are also moving to deeper levels of physical interaction, take a look at the necessity to pantomime gestures with the Wii or exert high impact aerobic routines with dance dance revolution.
The same study has probably been performed in the past about kids who watch too much TV and probably wielded similar results. This is nothing new, and as the OP stated, moderation and parental ivolvement are the key to raising a child who one day takes over the world and gives mommy and daddy control of some country in europe as a way of saying thanks.
Now Purple Tentacle is free to use his evil mutant powers to take over the world, and ENSLAVE ALL HUMANITY!
People were trying to get XP to run on their new Macs. There was even a monetary prize for doing so. Apple probably just saw that, and rather than try to hinder or cripple people's ability do to so, which would make them look bad, released their own bootloader and put a "Oh using windows will make them switch to OSX" spin on it for a few PR points.
Let me introduce yourself to Nolan Bushnell's brand new prehipheral of the 80's .
Universal is very bad about locking viewers out of the ability to press menu, fast forward, or skip to get past the initial previews on their dvds. On several Universal DVD's I own, I cannot even press stop after inserting the disc to stop the previews. It has angered me so much that they are forcing me to watch previews on their dvd's that I try to stay away from buying universal DVD's alltogether. I can almost understand DRM for online movies provided it's flexible, but if they get so controlling over the distribution that whatever media player used is locked out of skipping past the previews, then they won't see one fucking dime of my money.
by using the traditional Nintendo technique of not having any :P
It's not really a stretch from now. I'm 22 and I got carded for buying GT: San Andreas.
"But oh noes! Teh law is doing the parenting for the parents!"
Well, it's been doing that for years. Take curfews for minors as an example.
This is hardly a freedom issue, as the law does not ban minors from playing the games, just buying them. A parent who feels his/her child is more than responsible will allow them to play. And if they can't play, then, well, they will have to put up with the pain my older sister's friends felt when their moms, who did not like the fact that Ultramagnus said "Dammit," did not take them to see TF:TM in 86.
I know that it may sound harsh to all you kiddies out there, but not being allowed to do/get something is part of growing up. Besides, being underage and still obtaining that mature game/case of beer/porno mag/bag of mushrooms and hiding it from parents/authorities is (was for me, at least) hella fun at that age.
Given this ride's reliability, that would mean that the system log has a total of 3 entries.