Lucent contracted with DSL networks to provide DSL lines for their employees that were tunneled directly into the Lucent firewall. Covad de-activated all of these lines since DSL networks was one of the companies behind in paying them.
If I were Lucent, I would be pissed that Covad never contacted them before disconnecting these lines. This is not a way to treat a large corporate customer if you want repeat business.
I've done tech. support and required tech. support for products like these, and I can only recommend that you not compromise by single-sourcing your products when there are better alternatives for individual components.
If you understand exactly how you are using each of these components, it will generally be self evident which one is to blame for any particular problem. Convincing the vendor can be another problem, but if you come armed with clear facts about the situation, it shouldn't be that bad.
Know your system, and how it interacts with each product. Convincing the correct support department that it's their issue isn't as bad as people would have you believe, as long as you are insistent and persistent.
I would recommend an occupation that doesn't require much in the way of either math skills or common sense.
First of all, it is impossible to generate infinite values from finite numbers without using an infinite series, and the only situation in which it makes sense to use an infinite series when you are calculating change over a finite time period is when you are using it to calculate a value that approaches a steady state and can only be approximated by other means.
Therefore, your model was not just quantitatively flawed, but qualitatively mathematically impossible.
Secondly, your statement about a faster than exponential rate of growth for humans is inherently flawed. Exponential grows is any case where change over times can be expressed as x^y, and you can dramatically change the curve by increasing y, but it is still exponential. In order to have a "higher than exponential" rate of growth you would have to have a function where y consistently increased, which is only possible if you have a consistent trend towards higher birth rates or lower death rates. Lower death rates have been achieved through medical/technological/nutritional/educational means, but this is a trend that is clearly limiting since a death rate can not go below zero, and has in fact been matched by a corresponding slowdown in birth rate in countries that have a sufficiently developed medical/technological/nutritional/educational base.
They did charge tax on taxable items, but since they are focusing on groceries right now, most of them items are not taxable within the state of California, and I'd have to pay the same tax if I went to a grocery store, so not an issue. They are competing against grocery stores right now, not against other forms of Internet e-commerce.
I live in Berkeley which is conveniently close to their home base. I ordered a bunch of groceries which seemed very comparable in price to the cheaper local grocery stores. Delivery was free since the order was over $50, and I was able to schedule delivery for a 1/2 hour window of my choice on the next day(Saturday). I got a call about 45 minutes before expected delivery time saying that they were running about 15 minutes late, making sure that it wouldn't inconvenience me. The delivery man arrived right on the revised schedule with color coded plastic bins that he offered to either help me unpack, or that I could hang onto for a $3 deposit until my next delivery. Overall, a very satisfying experience. They seem to have a pretty good selection, though right now a number of items are listed as "available soon". For the high tech employee in particular where time is a much scarcer resource than money or just about anything else, this is wonderful.
Every employer(in California and Texas at least, and I think in other states) is already required to send this information to a state agency for calculation and verification of unemployment benefits, not taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
no you don't
I vote for gfree with a silent g.
-Tupshin
We need to supplement the ADA with a MSA(mandatory smiley act) for the humor impaired.
Lucent contracted with DSL networks to provide DSL lines for their employees that were tunneled directly into the Lucent firewall. Covad de-activated all of these lines since DSL networks was one of the companies behind in paying them.
If I were Lucent, I would be pissed that Covad never contacted them before disconnecting these lines. This is not a way to treat a large corporate customer if you want repeat business.
I've done tech. support and required tech. support for products like these, and I can only recommend that you not compromise by single-sourcing your products when there are better alternatives for individual components.
If you understand exactly how you are using each of these components, it will generally be self evident which one is to blame for any particular problem. Convincing the vendor can be another problem, but if you come armed with clear facts about the situation, it shouldn't be that bad.
Know your system, and how it interacts with each product. Convincing the correct support department that it's their issue isn't as bad as people would have you believe, as long as you are insistent and persistent.
I would recommend an occupation that doesn't require much in the way of either math skills or common sense.
First of all, it is impossible to generate infinite values from finite numbers without using an infinite series, and the only situation in which it makes sense to use an infinite series when you are calculating change over a finite time period is when you are using it to calculate a value that approaches a steady state and can only be approximated by other means.
Therefore, your model was not just quantitatively flawed, but qualitatively mathematically impossible.
Secondly, your statement about a faster than exponential rate of growth for humans is inherently flawed. Exponential grows is any case where change over times can be expressed as x^y, and you can dramatically change the curve by increasing y, but it is still exponential. In order to have a "higher than exponential" rate of growth you would have to have a function where y consistently increased, which is only possible if you have a consistent trend towards higher birth rates or lower death rates. Lower death rates have been achieved through medical/technological/nutritional/educational means, but this is a trend that is clearly limiting since a death rate can not go below zero, and has in fact been matched by a corresponding slowdown in birth rate in countries that have a sufficiently developed medical/technological/nutritional/educational base.
Fire the math teacher.
Yes, but note that they have a "cached" link which succesfully retrieves a version of that file before it was moved or deleted.
They did charge tax on taxable items, but since they are focusing on groceries right now, most of them items are not taxable within the state of California, and I'd have to pay the same tax if I went to a grocery store, so not an issue.
They are competing against grocery stores right now, not against other forms of Internet e-commerce.
I live in Berkeley which is conveniently close to their home base. I ordered a bunch of groceries which seemed very comparable in price to the cheaper local grocery stores. Delivery was free since the order was over $50, and I was able to schedule delivery for a 1/2 hour window of my choice on the next day(Saturday).
I got a call about 45 minutes before expected delivery time saying that they were running about 15 minutes late, making sure that it wouldn't inconvenience me.
The delivery man arrived right on the revised schedule with color coded plastic bins that he offered to either help me unpack, or that I could hang onto for a $3 deposit until my next delivery.
Overall, a very satisfying experience. They seem to have a pretty good selection, though right now a number of items are listed as "available soon".
For the high tech employee in particular where time is a much scarcer resource than money or just about anything else, this is wonderful.
Every employer(in California and Texas at least, and I think in other states) is already required to send this information to a state agency for calculation and verification of unemployment benefits, not taxes.