Check out his oppenent in the current election, Pete Ashdown. Pete is the founder of XMission, the first Internet Service Provider in Utah. He has all the tech savvy you could want and is intelligent on other issues as well. His campaign could use your support in these final days, by clicking here.
Its a shame geeks nation-and world)wide have not risen up to get one of their kind elected to the U.S. Senate, and in the process depose one the people who has done more to harm the tech industry than anyone else.
Check out the Press section of Pete's page, you will find articles in Wired and videos of debates....he is the real thing, get behind him.
...we fix the speed/traffic laws we have first? How bout we fix the road systems so the speed limits are relavant?
Living in southern California, this would go over really well (hi sarcasm!), considering the average speed on our interstates here is about 10 over posted, with a significant portion of drivers as much as 20 over the posted limit (posted in most areas is 65, traffic moves at 75 to 80 in most areas of the 5, 15 and 8, except when they are overly congested).
Personally Ive wondered for a long time why cars dont have some sort of login mechanism, maybe a swipe of your license or something...that a police officer could then access when seeing you in traffic. Why? So that we could have skill based enforcement/graduated limits. A good driver who have X experience and scores X rating on a test at the dmv should be able to drive faster than a driver with a history of accidents/problems...use of lanes could be restricted accordingly, with the far left lane reserved for the highest rated drivers...at least selective enforcement would follow some logic, as it is now, Ive been ticketed twice in the last 3 years for going the same speed (or slower) as every car around me. One of the incidents the officer passed me on the left, then slowed to pace my speed....what the hell is that?
Additional factors for license ratings...the vehicle...a big ass suv should not be permited to travel the same maximum speed as a sports car or even a compact car...you say those big suv's are safe at 65, i say ok, but my car is safe at 90, with the same (or shorter) stopping distance as your escalade from 65.
So if you are a top level driver in a top level car, you get the highest limit, though that speed should be restricted to the far left lane (or multiple left lanes on wider freeways), weaving and other unsafe behavior would still be a violation and should be punished/enforced seriously.
anyway...lets fix whats already broken before we spend money on other crap that has huge potential to invade the privacy of good citizens.
The problem I found with notetaking pre-laptop was that they lacked proper sequence because the presentation was out of sequence or contained anecdotes that sidetracked from the main story but were important information. Couple that with bad handwriting and faster typing than writing ability, and my ability to learn is much higher post-laptop in the classroom.
The additional benefits are staggering, digitally searchable notes for exam prep/paper writing, real time editing in peer-review sessions, ability to count school days as telecommuting workdays =D, access to digital course materials while in the classrooms (pdf documents distributed online instead of paper formats to cut costs), realtime searching for when a discussion leads to a question even the professor doesn't have an answer to..and in some cases the ability to purchase a pdf of the course texts (at greatly reduced price) instead of heavy paper versions. Some people have asked me how I can carry a 7.5lbs laptop every school day, well its easy when I eliminated 3 500+ page text books from what I have to carry, the ogio metro backpack doesnt hurt.
Ive been taking the scenic route to my degree, time off to work/travel/etc and in that time ive gone from being the only student with a laptop in every class to one of 3-5 in each class now. Attending a state university with 30-40 students in each class makes that a pretty low percentage of students. I am mindful of distracting others, I take a seat on the wall somewhere, preferably near an outlet with no students behind me.
I have seen the effect of a student in the front row playing cards on her laptop mid lecture, 3-4 students were highly distracted throughout the lecture.
I believe it is my right to use whatever tools are available to me to insure I get the best education, which may include me doing things other than taking notes on the class I'm presently in. Some lectures are redundant and useless to one or more students, how does it detract from the rest of the class if im reading my email? chatting in irc?
It is the teachers responsiblity to engage the class and present material of quality in terms of both presentation and substance. There is nothing worse in college than a teacher that no longer cares about educating their students, only about executing a syllabus semester after semester.
If another student were to object to my use of the laptop (which has happened) I tell them to change classes or petition the university to draft rules prohibiting the use of laptops in classrooms. Be assured I'd be leading the opposition of such a rule.
your false assumption is that the wealthy pay according to their progressive tax "bracket"...the flat tax plans typically eradicate the numerous deductions and loopholes currently part of irs code. amazing that people can have the % required of their income to fall by 3x and end up paying more in taxes. In the mid-90's the magic number was something like 17.5%, if you exclude everyone under 20k/year.
all that aside, there are other problems with such a plan. hundreds of thousands of displaced government jobs, and a million or more private sector jobs....just disappear. Suddenly there is no need for tax accountants, a couple hundred people could do all the work of the irs...no need for tax evasion enforcement, monitoring, etc...legal and educational jobs disappear.
Someday, a creative person will come up with a plan that convinces the nation this is the right thing to do and the IRS tax code books will be used to heat the planet for a week or 3.
Even so, you shouldn't be communicating to your students that you're "unenthused" because you have a tiny budget.
Now this sentence is just a load of crap. If people don't speak up, how do things change? Reminds me a lot of things Bush says about those that criticize the war. Hurting the troops with your dissention and what not.
Please tell me you arent suggesting that a teacher could improve their classroom budget by complaining to their students...
There is NO PLACE for politics in a class room, especially in class rooms of students who lack the level of sophistication and wisdom to understand those politics. If a teacher starts using their grade school classroom to try overthrow the budget overlords they should be cut from the budget immediately.
Teachers have unions, fairly strong ones, which they utilize to aquire many things, including class room resources, but most often personal benefits. Teachers have staff meetings, district staff meetings, and the option of petitioning the board of education directly. They have parent-teacher confrences, the pta, and of course news/media outlets. Many better ways of improving the conditions in their classrooms that dont include preaching their discontents to children.
Now dont mistake me for anti-teacher or anti-education. I believe education is the silver bullet, more money should be in classrooms, teachers should be paid far more than they are. But that is decided by taxpayers. Any new or increased tax is typically voted down on many school districts. Varsity sports teams can get new equipment, fields even stadiums without much fuss, but to get a levy for new school textbooks the schools have to spend a fortune campaigning...which of course is counterproductive.
Ive had teachers politicize their classrooms, in grade school right up through university level, its always left me sour with the teacher. It is a horrible abuse of power and often a great display of ignorance on their part, or worse intentional deceitful manipulation. Few teachers understand the system they work in, where the money comes from or how it is distributed. They lack an understanding of bid processes, liabilities, etc etc...and they have no need to know about these things, they need to know how to teach. They should be paid more, they should have more access to resources for their classrooms, better textbooks, computers, and other learning tools. Eliminating the districts purchasing personnel isnt going to do it. Changing how Americans think about education and taxes...thats where it begins.
Of course if your purchasing personnel is a) corrupt or b) a moron...then yes, by all means get them out of the picture and use their salary to buy some xerox paper and a new whiteboard or 6.
Its not so much outplayed as it is fooled...all the democrats had to do to win the last Presidential was show up and shut up. If Bush & co were the only ones talking, they'd have fallen off the stage on their own. But the Dems (on many levels, candidates, media, congress/senate, friends/family, etc) jumped at every bit of bait tossed out there and did their damndest to give the election away.
Maybe its a side effect of the new "big media" world , but it seemed to me the media was very soft on dubbya last go round, and fairly soft on him throughout his 2nd term. Though they have been fairly harsh over the past few days re: Katrina...too little too late.
Back to the original topic...while liberals may be disappointed a republican has the opportunity to replace rheinquist, the reality is whoever replaces him will likely be far LESS conservative than he was. How effective will the highest court in the land be when it is full of moderates?
Many of the reviews missed out on some issues that have already gotten many longtime madden players frustrated. Not so much the lack of new features/improvments, but the removal of ones we have come to expect.
One such feature is the custom playbook and create a play functionality...with which you can script your own plays, and put together a playbook of your own liking. Yes this feature is still in the game...but only available in offline exhibition mode. Which means if you want to build a playbook to play your buddys with in your living room its cool, but if you want to be the "man" in franchise mode...you cant. You have to use someone elses playbooks with prefab plays lacking some of the real plays that teams/players are known for. This feature is also absent in online exhibition play.
I dont expect madden (or nba live, mlb...whatever) to be a revolutionary improvement every year, but i do expect evolutionary improvements without significant loses from prior versions. Do I think the fall off in 06 is the result of the "monopoly power" of EA? no. i think its the result of a fanbase that has consistently purchesed the product without questioning the quality. like many others i just bought it because it was out, i didnt consult reviews or play test it. Im as guilty as anyone else in this regard. EA may have done this strategically, focusing more effort in ncaa2006, or the upcoming xbox360/ps3 versions of madden and such, there really isnt much means of the players knowing their true internal strategy. but it wouldnt shock me to find out they believe they can wow us back into buying the products for 360 and p3 no matter how dissappointed we are with madden 06...
if you were only considering 2 possible sources of shrink, your statement is viable, but one doesnt need to have >50% to be the largest source when more than two possibilities are considered.
additionally, having worked in retail and been part of both inventory and loss prevention i will tell you that 50% is very conservative, in many cases "shoplifting" is team effort, where one or more employees aid one or more non-employees in theft. often the non-employees are caught but the employees are not. these employees may be acting passively just providing information and strategy, or they may be the guy the returns counter processing returns he knows to be bogus and splitting the profits later...maybe its an employee intentionally distracting the loss prevention team, direct cameras to other locations, etc etc...
from what i saw, in the store i worked in, more than 70% of loss had employee involvement (this includes when a dumbass drops a microwave or cuts through a dvd case opening a box...)
theres dozens of quotes on this that go roughly like this:
Teenagers are horny, they are going to think about sex no matter what images you show them, they dont need instructions or inspiration to lead them to sex.
While I say censorship is bad, any and all. Decency and common sense should prevail when considering what is put into the prime development zone of many 5-12 year olds.
The Network broadcasters used to respect informal rules to not broadcast innappropriate material until after 10pm, slowly they have chiseled down the starting times, and pushed the limits of how far they could go in terms of langauge, gore/violence and sexual behavior. I for one have no need to see Andy Sipowitz's(sp?) ass on tv. I dont mind tv sitcoms written with much cleanier and less abrasive langauge than is experienced in daily life.
This shouldnt be regulated, it should be standard practice in the name of quality and decency. Let the more risque presentations be pushed out on cable. And dont pass laws to restrict what they can and cant show/say.
Of course the problem is really the people. Average Joe who votes with his remote control, his tivo or some "ratings" system, AJ is voting for sex, violence, and the raciest of programing, trashy (un)reality tv, generally the worst quality programing. Let the race to the bottom continue!
Whatever your perceptions and complaints may be, take reducing customer service/staffing off the list, most best buy stores are currently in the process of increasing staffing 150-200%.
To the other poster who intimated that managers are on commission, its somewhat true, its actually a bonus system for those that meet or excede goals.
If you havent been in a best buy recently and there is a NEW store near you somewhere, go inside and see the difference.
heres the problem with your "if i need help ill ask for it"... the employees cant tell you are technosavy, there isnt a sign floating over your head that says "Slashdot Reader"
So we (yes, im a tech at a bestbuy) must assume you are among our more common customers, those who are less than knowledgable about the products they are looking at. There are still people who dont know what google is, how to play an mp3, or even what usb is. just because you know more than the average person on these subjects doesnt give you the right to be a prick to the underpaid sales staff.
keep this in mind...they arent on commission, many are just trying to make bestbuy into a career, to do that they have to get noticed as excelling at thier bottom of the ladder job. say you arent interested, tell them you dont need any help at the moment but you will find them if you do, tell them thanks but you are fine...no need to be a prick, its hard enough to deal with the pricks who DONT know what the hell they are talking about.
does bestbuy (overly) push services? yes. why? its one of the biggest slices of profit. selling computers is damn close to a losing proposition, no money made there.
also, that mile long reciept has a survey on it, if you dont like how things are, take the survey and help change them.
so you are saying that if theres a big fight and a guy and his buddies leave their wives behind for the night, drive into the city, go to the fight, and crash at a hotel nearby rather than drive home drunk, they committed a crime?
yes, it is a bad thing to spend all your time away from your spouse, especially if that time is spent doing things like drinking, carousing, etc, but you need a reality check here. you cannot make a blanket law like that, you would make criminals of a great deal of good husbands/wives. for that matter, why must it be a sexist law in the first place, is it ok for someone to be out all night with the girls in your ultra-right wing world? assuming of course there is no flirting.
you cannot criminalize thoughts and such, you cannot legislate how people will live thier lives, that is criminal.
i for one think marraige has become a joke, something that people need 3 tries to get right, without much regard for kids/family/property disrupted along the way. forever has become more like "till death do us part...or after 3-5 years when i can no longer tolerate they way he drives/leaves the seat up/etc...i do" heh
now, should marraiges be unbreakable? no i dont think so, should they require fair cause for termination yes. abuse, neglect, REAL criminal actions, adultery, etc should all be just cause to end a marraige.
as for adultry being a crime, well...it may be a crime against marraige, but i hardly think putting people in jail for it will solve any problems, aside from the problems of enforcing such a law...and of course, to you arrest both parties, or only the married ones? ie if its a married woman and the single pool boy, did he commit a crime boinking her? what if its someone who doesnt know the other is married? good luck with that law. =P
get back to reality and remember that america is supposed to be the land of the (mostly) free.
gg with the ac post too, really shows your support of such a position.
20-25% is considered a good to very good margin % for retail, with goals being 25-35%. now in computers, most hardware has very little margin, typically 2 to 12% rarely higher. this applies to computers (desktops and laptops), lcds, monitors, printers (Though some of these actually do have nice margins, especially new and unique technologies), hard drives, cdroms, etc. retailers make money off computers by attaching things to them, such as cables, service plans/warranties, isp commissions, service labor, and other accessories, but this is just a minor part of the road to profit/margin. the bigger part is that if you buy your computer at store A, you are very likely to buy your software at store A, and have your computer serviced at store A, and of course shop for other things at store A.
If you are happy with your computer purchase, and a month later need to get a new fridge, where do you go? yah, Store A...margin on a fridge? upwards of 25% typically, as much as 50, sometimes even higher.
I work as a service technician at a best buy store. i see so many products come back from service with 20-80% of the original cost of the unit in parts and labor charges, but $0 cost for the customer because its covered under psp, its amazing. Ive actually seen a laptop get the mother board, cpu, memory, harddrive, lcd and keyboard replaced on one service ticket, 0 cost to the customer, itemized billing = nearly 90% the original cost of the unit, 18 months after purchase. basically the customer got a new laptop with their old case, floppy and cdrom drives. the hd was larger than original and the cpu was a click faster (i think a 1.3ghz instead of a 1.2).
then again, ive had to deal with so many upset customers who say "ive only had it 13 months and it doesnt work anymore!"... all i can say is "sir, we can fix it, but it will cost more than its worth to replace". should have bought the psp.
As for the rebates thing...if you send them in, you will get your money (at least on best buy rebates), but you would not believe how many people dont take the time to send in those 100 and 150$ rebates...
i do not speak on behalf of best buy, the thoughts above are mine and mine alone.
Ive always been a huge pilot pen fan (i grew up in the town they call home). i used to use the precise series pens, but i have shifted to the g-2 07...less bleed through, yet still i nice heavy ink. as a bonus they are availble at costco.
...after working in school systems for 3 years as a net admin, you must not act with a heavy hand without the backing of the district/administration, its very different than the business world. the key is that much of the activity is illegal and prohibiting educational usage.
If your school does not have an Acceptable Use Policy, congratulations, you dont have anyones prior fuckups to hinder you, build one from scratch. be sure to compare AUP's from other schools in your region, and from completely different school systems, take the good from them and eliminate the bad. less rules = better, efficient and complete will be much more effective.
the more complicated it is, the harder it will be to be accepted by the schools and enforced.
If you act with the heavy hand and just start blocking things, the staff and students will both hate you, and make you life a living hell, your goal is to make your life easier and the network work better, if you go the block it/kill it route, they will try anything to get around it and cause you even more problems. if you do these things, you better have the administration behind you.
i would highly recommend the formation of a "power users group", with both students and teachers, who will be become your messengers, they will best understand the rules and will convey them to their students/peers. In the process they will learn and could create content for the network (local web, etc).
If your school system is actively getting support from local businesses, seek advice from their tech admins. if the school isnt actively being supported by local businesses, question that, get some support ($$), its your students that will power their companies.
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Check out his oppenent in the current election, Pete Ashdown. Pete is the founder of XMission, the first Internet Service Provider in Utah. He has all the tech savvy you could want and is intelligent on other issues as well. His campaign could use your support in these final days, by clicking here.
Its a shame geeks nation-and world)wide have not risen up to get one of their kind elected to the U.S. Senate, and in the process depose one the people who has done more to harm the tech industry than anyone else.
Check out the Press section of Pete's page, you will find articles in Wired and videos of debates....he is the real thing, get behind him.
...we fix the speed/traffic laws we have first? How bout we fix the road systems so the speed limits are relavant?
Living in southern California, this would go over really well (hi sarcasm!), considering the average speed on our interstates here is about 10 over posted, with a significant portion of drivers as much as 20 over the posted limit (posted in most areas is 65, traffic moves at 75 to 80 in most areas of the 5, 15 and 8, except when they are overly congested).
Personally Ive wondered for a long time why cars dont have some sort of login mechanism, maybe a swipe of your license or something...that a police officer could then access when seeing you in traffic. Why? So that we could have skill based enforcement/graduated limits. A good driver who have X experience and scores X rating on a test at the dmv should be able to drive faster than a driver with a history of accidents/problems...use of lanes could be restricted accordingly, with the far left lane reserved for the highest rated drivers...at least selective enforcement would follow some logic, as it is now, Ive been ticketed twice in the last 3 years for going the same speed (or slower) as every car around me. One of the incidents the officer passed me on the left, then slowed to pace my speed....what the hell is that?
Additional factors for license ratings...the vehicle...a big ass suv should not be permited to travel the same maximum speed as a sports car or even a compact car...you say those big suv's are safe at 65, i say ok, but my car is safe at 90, with the same (or shorter) stopping distance as your escalade from 65.
So if you are a top level driver in a top level car, you get the highest limit, though that speed should be restricted to the far left lane (or multiple left lanes on wider freeways), weaving and other unsafe behavior would still be a violation and should be punished/enforced seriously.
anyway...lets fix whats already broken before we spend money on other crap that has huge potential to invade the privacy of good citizens.
The problem I found with notetaking pre-laptop was that they lacked proper sequence because the presentation was out of sequence or contained anecdotes that sidetracked from the main story but were important information. Couple that with bad handwriting and faster typing than writing ability, and my ability to learn is much higher post-laptop in the classroom.
The additional benefits are staggering, digitally searchable notes for exam prep/paper writing, real time editing in peer-review sessions, ability to count school days as telecommuting workdays =D, access to digital course materials while in the classrooms (pdf documents distributed online instead of paper formats to cut costs), realtime searching for when a discussion leads to a question even the professor doesn't have an answer to..and in some cases the ability to purchase a pdf of the course texts (at greatly reduced price) instead of heavy paper versions. Some people have asked me how I can carry a 7.5lbs laptop every school day, well its easy when I eliminated 3 500+ page text books from what I have to carry, the ogio metro backpack doesnt hurt.
Ive been taking the scenic route to my degree, time off to work/travel/etc and in that time ive gone from being the only student with a laptop in every class to one of 3-5 in each class now. Attending a state university with 30-40 students in each class makes that a pretty low percentage of students. I am mindful of distracting others, I take a seat on the wall somewhere, preferably near an outlet with no students behind me.
I have seen the effect of a student in the front row playing cards on her laptop mid lecture, 3-4 students were highly distracted throughout the lecture.
I believe it is my right to use whatever tools are available to me to insure I get the best education, which may include me doing things other than taking notes on the class I'm presently in. Some lectures are redundant and useless to one or more students, how does it detract from the rest of the class if im reading my email? chatting in irc?
It is the teachers responsiblity to engage the class and present material of quality in terms of both presentation and substance. There is nothing worse in college than a teacher that no longer cares about educating their students, only about executing a syllabus semester after semester.
If another student were to object to my use of the laptop (which has happened) I tell them to change classes or petition the university to draft rules prohibiting the use of laptops in classrooms. Be assured I'd be leading the opposition of such a rule.
your false assumption is that the wealthy pay according to their progressive tax "bracket"...the flat tax plans typically eradicate the numerous deductions and loopholes currently part of irs code. amazing that people can have the % required of their income to fall by 3x and end up paying more in taxes. In the mid-90's the magic number was something like 17.5%, if you exclude everyone under 20k/year.
all that aside, there are other problems with such a plan. hundreds of thousands of displaced government jobs, and a million or more private sector jobs....just disappear. Suddenly there is no need for tax accountants, a couple hundred people could do all the work of the irs...no need for tax evasion enforcement, monitoring, etc...legal and educational jobs disappear.
Someday, a creative person will come up with a plan that convinces the nation this is the right thing to do and the IRS tax code books will be used to heat the planet for a week or 3.
Even so, you shouldn't be communicating to your students that you're "unenthused" because you have a tiny budget.
Now this sentence is just a load of crap. If people don't speak up, how do things change? Reminds me a lot of things Bush says about those that criticize the war. Hurting the troops with your dissention and what not.
Please tell me you arent suggesting that a teacher could improve their classroom budget by complaining to their students...
There is NO PLACE for politics in a class room, especially in class rooms of students who lack the level of sophistication and wisdom to understand those politics. If a teacher starts using their grade school classroom to try overthrow the budget overlords they should be cut from the budget immediately.
Teachers have unions, fairly strong ones, which they utilize to aquire many things, including class room resources, but most often personal benefits. Teachers have staff meetings, district staff meetings, and the option of petitioning the board of education directly. They have parent-teacher confrences, the pta, and of course news/media outlets. Many better ways of improving the conditions in their classrooms that dont include preaching their discontents to children.
Now dont mistake me for anti-teacher or anti-education. I believe education is the silver bullet, more money should be in classrooms, teachers should be paid far more than they are. But that is decided by taxpayers. Any new or increased tax is typically voted down on many school districts. Varsity sports teams can get new equipment, fields even stadiums without much fuss, but to get a levy for new school textbooks the schools have to spend a fortune campaigning...which of course is counterproductive.
Ive had teachers politicize their classrooms, in grade school right up through university level, its always left me sour with the teacher. It is a horrible abuse of power and often a great display of ignorance on their part, or worse intentional deceitful manipulation. Few teachers understand the system they work in, where the money comes from or how it is distributed. They lack an understanding of bid processes, liabilities, etc etc...and they have no need to know about these things, they need to know how to teach. They should be paid more, they should have more access to resources for their classrooms, better textbooks, computers, and other learning tools. Eliminating the districts purchasing personnel isnt going to do it. Changing how Americans think about education and taxes...thats where it begins.
Of course if your purchasing personnel is a) corrupt or b) a moron...then yes, by all means get them out of the picture and use their salary to buy some xerox paper and a new whiteboard or 6.
Its not so much outplayed as it is fooled...all the democrats had to do to win the last Presidential was show up and shut up. If Bush & co were the only ones talking, they'd have fallen off the stage on their own. But the Dems (on many levels, candidates, media, congress/senate, friends/family, etc) jumped at every bit of bait tossed out there and did their damndest to give the election away.
Maybe its a side effect of the new "big media" world , but it seemed to me the media was very soft on dubbya last go round, and fairly soft on him throughout his 2nd term. Though they have been fairly harsh over the past few days re: Katrina...too little too late.
Back to the original topic...while liberals may be disappointed a republican has the opportunity to replace rheinquist, the reality is whoever replaces him will likely be far LESS conservative than he was. How effective will the highest court in the land be when it is full of moderates?
Many of the reviews missed out on some issues that have already gotten many longtime madden players frustrated. Not so much the lack of new features/improvments, but the removal of ones we have come to expect.
One such feature is the custom playbook and create a play functionality...with which you can script your own plays, and put together a playbook of your own liking. Yes this feature is still in the game...but only available in offline exhibition mode. Which means if you want to build a playbook to play your buddys with in your living room its cool, but if you want to be the "man" in franchise mode...you cant. You have to use someone elses playbooks with prefab plays lacking some of the real plays that teams/players are known for. This feature is also absent in online exhibition play.
I dont expect madden (or nba live, mlb...whatever) to be a revolutionary improvement every year, but i do expect evolutionary improvements without significant loses from prior versions. Do I think the fall off in 06 is the result of the "monopoly power" of EA? no. i think its the result of a fanbase that has consistently purchesed the product without questioning the quality. like many others i just bought it because it was out, i didnt consult reviews or play test it. Im as guilty as anyone else in this regard. EA may have done this strategically, focusing more effort in ncaa2006, or the upcoming xbox360/ps3 versions of madden and such, there really isnt much means of the players knowing their true internal strategy. but it wouldnt shock me to find out they believe they can wow us back into buying the products for 360 and p3 no matter how dissappointed we are with madden 06...
if you were only considering 2 possible sources of shrink, your statement is viable, but one doesnt need to have >50% to be the largest source when more than two possibilities are considered. additionally, having worked in retail and been part of both inventory and loss prevention i will tell you that 50% is very conservative, in many cases "shoplifting" is team effort, where one or more employees aid one or more non-employees in theft. often the non-employees are caught but the employees are not. these employees may be acting passively just providing information and strategy, or they may be the guy the returns counter processing returns he knows to be bogus and splitting the profits later...maybe its an employee intentionally distracting the loss prevention team, direct cameras to other locations, etc etc... from what i saw, in the store i worked in, more than 70% of loss had employee involvement (this includes when a dumbass drops a microwave or cuts through a dvd case opening a box...)
theres dozens of quotes on this that go roughly like this:
Teenagers are horny, they are going to think about sex no matter what images you show them, they dont need instructions or inspiration to lead them to sex.
While I say censorship is bad, any and all. Decency and common sense should prevail when considering what is put into the prime development zone of many 5-12 year olds.
The Network broadcasters used to respect informal rules to not broadcast innappropriate material until after 10pm, slowly they have chiseled down the starting times, and pushed the limits of how far they could go in terms of langauge, gore/violence and sexual behavior. I for one have no need to see Andy Sipowitz's(sp?) ass on tv. I dont mind tv sitcoms written with much cleanier and less abrasive langauge than is experienced in daily life.
This shouldnt be regulated, it should be standard practice in the name of quality and decency. Let the more risque presentations be pushed out on cable. And dont pass laws to restrict what they can and cant show/say.
Of course the problem is really the people. Average Joe who votes with his remote control, his tivo or some "ratings" system, AJ is voting for sex, violence, and the raciest of programing, trashy (un)reality tv, generally the worst quality programing. Let the race to the bottom continue!
Whatever your perceptions and complaints may be, take reducing customer service/staffing off the list, most best buy stores are currently in the process of increasing staffing 150-200%. To the other poster who intimated that managers are on commission, its somewhat true, its actually a bonus system for those that meet or excede goals. If you havent been in a best buy recently and there is a NEW store near you somewhere, go inside and see the difference.
heres the problem with your "if i need help ill ask for it"... the employees cant tell you are technosavy, there isnt a sign floating over your head that says "Slashdot Reader"
So we (yes, im a tech at a bestbuy) must assume you are among our more common customers, those who are less than knowledgable about the products they are looking at. There are still people who dont know what google is, how to play an mp3, or even what usb is. just because you know more than the average person on these subjects doesnt give you the right to be a prick to the underpaid sales staff.
keep this in mind...they arent on commission, many are just trying to make bestbuy into a career, to do that they have to get noticed as excelling at thier bottom of the ladder job. say you arent interested, tell them you dont need any help at the moment but you will find them if you do, tell them thanks but you are fine...no need to be a prick, its hard enough to deal with the pricks who DONT know what the hell they are talking about.
does bestbuy (overly) push services? yes. why? its one of the biggest slices of profit. selling computers is damn close to a losing proposition, no money made there.
also, that mile long reciept has a survey on it, if you dont like how things are, take the survey and help change them.
whoa there tonto.
staying out all night with the guys is a crime?
so you are saying that if theres a big fight and a guy and his buddies leave their wives behind for the night, drive into the city, go to the fight, and crash at a hotel nearby rather than drive home drunk, they committed a crime?
yes, it is a bad thing to spend all your time away from your spouse, especially if that time is spent doing things like drinking, carousing, etc, but you need a reality check here. you cannot make a blanket law like that, you would make criminals of a great deal of good husbands/wives. for that matter, why must it be a sexist law in the first place, is it ok for someone to be out all night with the girls in your ultra-right wing world? assuming of course there is no flirting.
you cannot criminalize thoughts and such, you cannot legislate how people will live thier lives, that is criminal.
i for one think marraige has become a joke, something that people need 3 tries to get right, without much regard for kids/family/property disrupted along the way. forever has become more like "till death do us part...or after 3-5 years when i can no longer tolerate they way he drives/leaves the seat up/etc...i do" heh
now, should marraiges be unbreakable? no i dont think so, should they require fair cause for termination yes. abuse, neglect, REAL criminal actions, adultery, etc should all be just cause to end a marraige.
as for adultry being a crime, well...it may be a crime against marraige, but i hardly think putting people in jail for it will solve any problems, aside from the problems of enforcing such a law...and of course, to you arrest both parties, or only the married ones? ie if its a married woman and the single pool boy, did he commit a crime boinking her? what if its someone who doesnt know the other is married? good luck with that law. =P
get back to reality and remember that america is supposed to be the land of the (mostly) free.
gg with the ac post too, really shows your support of such a position.
interesting...when i typed it there were distinct paragraphs...several of them...
oh well.
20-25% is considered a good to very good margin % for retail, with goals being 25-35%. now in computers, most hardware has very little margin, typically 2 to 12% rarely higher. this applies to computers (desktops and laptops), lcds, monitors, printers (Though some of these actually do have nice margins, especially new and unique technologies), hard drives, cdroms, etc. retailers make money off computers by attaching things to them, such as cables, service plans/warranties, isp commissions, service labor, and other accessories, but this is just a minor part of the road to profit/margin. the bigger part is that if you buy your computer at store A, you are very likely to buy your software at store A, and have your computer serviced at store A, and of course shop for other things at store A. If you are happy with your computer purchase, and a month later need to get a new fridge, where do you go? yah, Store A...margin on a fridge? upwards of 25% typically, as much as 50, sometimes even higher. I work as a service technician at a best buy store. i see so many products come back from service with 20-80% of the original cost of the unit in parts and labor charges, but $0 cost for the customer because its covered under psp, its amazing. Ive actually seen a laptop get the mother board, cpu, memory, harddrive, lcd and keyboard replaced on one service ticket, 0 cost to the customer, itemized billing = nearly 90% the original cost of the unit, 18 months after purchase. basically the customer got a new laptop with their old case, floppy and cdrom drives. the hd was larger than original and the cpu was a click faster (i think a 1.3ghz instead of a 1.2). then again, ive had to deal with so many upset customers who say "ive only had it 13 months and it doesnt work anymore!"... all i can say is "sir, we can fix it, but it will cost more than its worth to replace". should have bought the psp. As for the rebates thing...if you send them in, you will get your money (at least on best buy rebates), but you would not believe how many people dont take the time to send in those 100 and 150$ rebates... i do not speak on behalf of best buy, the thoughts above are mine and mine alone.
Ive always been a huge pilot pen fan (i grew up in the town they call home). i used to use the precise series pens, but i have shifted to the g-2 07...less bleed through, yet still i nice heavy ink. as a bonus they are availble at costco.
as a bonus, no cap to lose and they are quite durable.
http://www.pilotpen.us/detail.asp?PenID=7
...after working in school systems for 3 years as a net admin, you must not act with a heavy hand without the backing of the district/administration, its very different than the business world. the key is that much of the activity is illegal and prohibiting educational usage.
If your school does not have an Acceptable Use Policy, congratulations, you dont have anyones prior fuckups to hinder you, build one from scratch. be sure to compare AUP's from other schools in your region, and from completely different school systems, take the good from them and eliminate the bad. less rules = better, efficient and complete will be much more effective.
the more complicated it is, the harder it will be to be accepted by the schools and enforced.
If you act with the heavy hand and just start blocking things, the staff and students will both hate you, and make you life a living hell, your goal is to make your life easier and the network work better, if you go the block it/kill it route, they will try anything to get around it and cause you even more problems. if you do these things, you better have the administration behind you.
i would highly recommend the formation of a "power users group", with both students and teachers, who will be become your messengers, they will best understand the rules and will convey them to their students/peers. In the process they will learn and could create content for the network (local web, etc).
If your school system is actively getting support from local businesses, seek advice from their tech admins. if the school isnt actively being supported by local businesses, question that, get some support ($$), its your students that will power their companies.
sm