In many cases it seems that immigrants have all the same bad habits of locals, and you can end up with excellent contributions from either side. Heck, one of the most revered and well-known scientists to-date wasn't from the US (E=MC^2).
However, the issue is not with the immigrants themselves, but with the companies who abuse both the local populace and the remote workers. Sure, it seems like a nice ride for now, but in the future they'll be happy to drop Indian/Thai/Chinese/etc labour just as quickly as those in the US when it becomes cheaper to move elsewhere. It might take a long time, but it will happen.
No, prices are dependent on the particular conditions of each market. That's all. They certainly are not "absolute truths" -- if that makes them "relative" then I'm comfortable with that term.
Seems to me a problem is that big corps get to pick and choose which markets they want to play in, and then artificially restrict the general public from doing the same.
So, you put your production lines in a company where labour laws are virtually non-existent, and production is cheap. Then, you outsource your IT etc divisions to another country where wages are equally low. Then you add DRM and regionalization, or other restrictions so that local citizens can only by the product you sell in the local market which is 10-100x the price.
So there is no *market*. There are many markets, and a global market, but corps artificially get to pick-and-choose which ones they play in while restricting almost everyone else from doing so.
Do you have hobbies that don't involve computers, those might be a good place to start. Of course, I do know of people who met women through their non-computing hobbies as well (WOW dating, who would'a though).
A lot of it depends on you. Your age, your interests, your taste in women, and of course your attitude. If you just want to meet people, you could try Plenty of Fish. I've found that since it doesn't charge, there's less interest in nickel-and-diming you and it's easier to meet people. Meeting people, of course, being an important prequisite to dating. Now saying so might sound like an "oh duh" thing, but in reality way too many people hit the scene or the net looking for a partner when they haven't even hit the friendship stage. In that case, you pretty much end up being in the "desperate" category, and meet people who are much the same. It's not always a bad thing, but not always the best place to start either. It's amazing how easy it is to "just meet somebody" when you've got a schedule full of friends (who may have friends who are interested in you). For more of a dating scene than a meeting scene, you could perhaps try Geek to Geek
Moving away from the online scene and back to common interests, how about things like book groups, sci-fi cons, anime cons, or whatever else along those lines may float your boat.
And of course, as a final possibility, there's always an age-old suggestion from IRC. As a good portion of my friends are foreigners, and my SO is from China, I'd say that suggestion works for me. I also have a few friends who have gone to Japan, etc and apparently "white guys" (which is an assumption on my part, but most slashdotters seem to be SWM's) are a pretty hot commodity over there, and body-type isn't even a huge fact in that (if my friends are any basis to go by).
Whatever his reasons, I'm not sure that it helps to have somebody being investigated for such material as a supporter of change. If he gets convicted then it becomes a case of "see, only pedophiles and perverts would oppose this law!"
Having dealt with Vonage's crappy customer service, particular when cancelling a "no contract plan", I'd have to say that the Telcos had little to worry about. I thought that the local telco was the worst it could get *until* I tried Vonage.
Did you know that they don't have a phone number for their disputes department, and then you must send them a letter to some address in nowhere USA within X (I believe 14) days of the issue/cancellation? A *phone* company that doesn't have a number for a major department... imagine that.
I haven't read through the whole transcript, and I'm certainly not a lawyer, but as a technical person I wonder about this point:
"The evidence clearly pointed to her machine, even correctly identifying the MAC address of both her cable modem and her computer's Ethernet port
How the heck would they have gotten the MAC of the modem and/or her computer, unless such details were provided by the ISP or sniffed by some form of internally invasive software? A MAC should only be available to a machine within the same network segment, so - assumedly - her modem could ready the MAC on her PC, and I suppose the ISP's next upstream router could read the MAC of the modem, but without the ISP's assistance I realyl don't see any other way this information could have been attained. Even then - depending on configuration - you'd need some pretty stiff logging to tie continual traffic from a given IP to a MAC.
That being said, the common username was a fairly damaging point aside from this all.
The ARS article pretty much repeats these same tidbits without fleshing out the how. Any answers?
Then she's equally as crazy. I'm sorry, as much as I'd love to "stick it to big media" and/or fight against the RIAA, I'm not willing to settle for blowing a case in order to incur potentially life-ruining expenses. While it's just my personal opinion, it goes beyond "gutsy" to the realm of "crazy"
No, that's already been shot down. Harper and Ingatieff have been bunked down in "discussions" and it's basically been agreed that there won't be any confidence vote or new election. The Cons made some concessions, among which include the opportunity for a confidence vote later this year (Sept I believe), but there's nothing coming anytime soon.
Of course, step 2 will expand on this. Not only that, but I'd imagine that it's not entirely unlikely that we may end up with "Criminal Copyright Infringement" being at some point investigated by the police on behalf of the media companies. So then not only can they get the info of the aforementioned criminals, but all those dirty commie filesharers as well...
Since I previously worked in a company that's primary business was in running (and selling advertising on) web-forums, I suppose I'd be as qualified as anyone to answer this:
a) The default behaviour of the software is to record IP addresses. It's not like most companies are building their own, they're using something like vBulletin, IPB, or possibly PHPBB. I'm not even sure if this is a feature that could be disabled without a plugin/hack
b) Basic security is tied to IP. Just as does slashdot, so do other forums get their share of trolls. You actually don't see it a lot here, but penis-enlargement, pr0n, scams and spam are also fairly common. The IP address is your only semi-reliable link to a real person, in which case you can block certain IP's or netblocks that become an issue, track down users with multiple accounts. I do say semi-reliably as IPs can be routed through proxies etc, but many boards actually have RBL's for known proxies
c) Advertising, which for many boards is the chief (or only) source of revenue, often ties to IP address. Most programs collect statistics by IP, and also other fun stuff like geo-targetting, rotation (so you don't see the same ad a gazillion times in a row), etc
d) User related to locality can be fairly well-determined by IP. If you've got issues where all your users in the Eastern US connect slowly/poorly, or possibly where you have many users in Western Europe but they have a shit connection, then it may lead you to consider adding services (local server, cache, or whatever) in those areas.
e) The last thing I can think of off the top of my head is statistics, which are also very important to many web-boards to see where they're growing and where they need improvement.
And yes, these work fairly well for 95% of the John-Doe users. Most people, even those who consider themselves clever, don't make much use of proxies or other such things to post secretly on boards, which allows the wheat to be filtered from the chaff fairly well based on IP. Until a better method comes along, it's probably the best way.
p.s. Don't use my own board as an example of something spam-proof. It's using different software than I used at work, gets very little time dedicated to it, and the spam-collection is actually something of interest while I try to come up with fun methods of dealing with the spammers.
Actually, don't most companies set that by dialing 9-1-1 on many phones, you *allow* signal triangulation (not necessarily GPS) so that emergency crews can locate the caller if needed?
Seems to me that a lot of other phones do implement a sort of 9-1-1 signal-boost. On the few times I've had to call 9-1-1 on a cell (witnessed a car accident, drunk drivers, etc) the phone went into a special mode in which the signal did seem to be boosted.
Not sure how that works if it didn't have a signal to begin with though, and it's not something one could easily test.
The patent included the additions of "disabling other functionality to save battery" and adding extra "emergency #'s". I don't know any phones with non-911 emergency #'s, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "disable other functionality" already exists because I seem to remember my phone being limited until I canceled the "emergency mode" it was in.
I do wonder if they're starting to loosen up "a bit" though. Recently I saw a few films coming out that were advertised as:
"Now available on DVD and blu-ray disc. Digital copy included"
Now overlooking the obvious point that both of the above are already digital formats, does this mean that an AVI or something of the sort is included for those that want to watch on an alternate device. If so, I wonder what restrictions are on those files.
The last movie I seem to remember seeing an ad like this for was "Gran Torino", if anyone has a copy they can check.
There are plenty of things without a cure. Severe allergies (although these often wax/wane with time), diabetes, various forms of epilepsy, and many other conditions. Knowing the issue allows you to address the issue in a manner that can be life-saving or at the very least life-extending/improving.
If you have epilepsy, it might not be curable but the medication can help prevent seizures which means you don't die twitching on the floor, and in many cases can even drive a vehicle etc (which you'd otherwise be unable to do).
Knowing one's allergies allows you to carry medication such as an epi-pen if they're severe, or know to take allergy meds when symptoms that are often very similar to other conditions crop up (one thing I personally know a lot about, allergies can cause skin, stomach, breathing, flu-syptoms or many other issues ).
Diabetes: knowing one is diabetic, and thus monitoring+adjusting one's blood-glucose can save you from an early death and other nasty side-effects
Yes, a cure is the optimal solution. But after 8 years of painful symptoms, I'm assuming that being able to suppress said symptoms over a long term is still a whole lot better than "no good" and "nothing she can do about it". It's not just peace of mind.
One might think so, but the question I would have then is where did the sample *she* used come from. According to TFA:
"she was looking under the microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue -- slides her pathologist had said were completely normal"
Assumedly she hadn't performed a self-biopsy for the samples and had actually received them from the pathologist. I believe the error might have been a bit more easily forgiven if they had biopsied and not gotten a sample indicating the disease (fairly common, my grandfather's lungs, though riddled with cancer, took multiple biopsies to find an afflicted sample). However, this was in from their own sample, which from the article had already been "passed" as normal.
As mentioned in many of the above. Good luck to those on the fringe who can't get a good signal, or with portables that can't use a DTV tuner, etc etc.
I could be wrong, but I think that one of the issues with the GameCube was storage-space. Sure those little discs were cute, and (if they had put them in like-sized cases) easier to store. But in terms of how much information you could cram onto a disk, the PS2 and XBox came out ahead with DVD's.
Would it even be considered "in custody" until the police took it though? Cases where a guy's PC was held by his landlord (after he abandoned a place for several months) and then later given to police for evidence have - I believe - passed through, even though the computer was in the hands of an unknown for several months.
And a landlord who's been shafted on rent might actually have reason to want the suspect nailed...
Well, it seems to me that the solution would be in this case to charge the guy with the illegal pictures for possession, and charge the tech with some form of trespass or electronic B&E charge.
That should dissuade computer repair guys from rifling through people's computers, but it still allows for the concept that a private citizen is allowed to report things in that manner.
Seems strange that the "fruit of the tainted vine" only applies to cops though, how far is one allowed to go in digging up evidence, and how about if it were submitted anonymously. I remember a case where a judge was nailed on an anonymous tip for having KP. The problem being that the tip was from a guy who "traced and hacked into his computer." So really, it could have been a legit tip, or it could have been a setup on the part of the hacker on what is now essentially a compromised system. Same could apply if your Wal-Mart or Best Buy tech has a grudge against somebody. Not hard to roll back the date on a computer and plant a trail of "evidence".
I recently caught something online that stated that they had pulled "2 girls and 1 cup" from their site because it was mandated as "Legally Obscene." I assume that means it's not legal to distribute and/or possibly possess
So what happens when the tech catches 2G1C on your desktop (other than the inevitable retching if he watches past the first 5 seconds or so)?
There are plenty of things that might be unexpectedly illegal, or at least apparently so.
Alternatively, make a point of going for a walk around each of the departments you support EVERY day,
First of all, very subjective to the size of the company, and type of the company. In some cases doing this is going to be disruptive to others and just generally annoying. Rather than being that weird antisocial guy, you'll often end up seeming like the annoying drop-in overly social type, and/or disrupting others' work.
I've found that it tends to work out better if you just make sure to put in visible appearances when fixing issues. Sure, it's easier and faster to pop into the server, fix the issue, and fire off an email. But from a social standpoint it makes more sense to do the fix and drop in with the user to make sure everything worked properly (with the added bonus that if you didn't understand the issue quite right and it's still broken, you can fix it and not seem like a clueless dork).
If you have lunch with them, then you'll know them personally, and they'll feel a little more comfortable about talking to you about little IT problems, which have been annoying them.
Right, and you'll be lucky if you ever finish your lunch without being asked a gazillion IT related (and often enough not work related but rather "my home computer is doing X" questions).
Again, moderation is key. Grab your coworkers on a "going out to sushi day" or whatever, but daily lunches aren't necessarily as necessary or productive.
usually users will be bitching to each other about something being 'a bit flakey' long before it gets to IT as a critical fault
Usually if you're friendly enough, the users will feel free to ask about an issue in these cases. One of the big things I've found is that when addressing issues, be sure to provide feedback. Even if it's not a local issue (e.g. a website outside the company is down), a quick "hey, I checked into X and it looks like the issue is that the server on their end is down" is better than no response.
I seem to remember quite a few cases cropping up after a (recently sold) railway starting sending bills to landowners for crossing into their property. Basically the railway abutted the property, and made it impossible to access without crossing the railway. As the existing crossings were owned by the new rail company, they decided to bill the landowners tens of thousands ($) each in order to be able to access their own land in the same manner they had been doing for decades.
There are many things that would greatly benefit from being public, and transportation - when done correctly - is definitely one of them. I say "when done correctly" because greedy government managers are no better than greedy private owners.
For example, see the issues with ICBC (insurance corporation of British Columbia, the monopoly vehicle insurance branch of the government) in the westernmost province. ICBC absolutely loves to screw people in accidents, because it gives them an excuse to raise premiums and take away "safe driver" discounts. Without competition, people in accidents are forced into lengthy court battles, often after being injured and while slowly burning through their own savings while unable to work. Even being found 5% at-fault is enough excuse to yank away a few years of accumulated safe-driver discounts, so they'll try to nail you for being rear-ended by a tailgater, while stopped, or equally ludicrous such things.
I'm not really sure what the answer is to that, other than perhaps a truly publicly owned corporation. Maybe if all citizens had a share (and a say) they could at least have enough power to address some of those issues, but then again when less than 50% of people even show up to vote, who knows.
Slashdot Mirror
In many cases it seems that immigrants have all the same bad habits of locals, and you can end up with excellent contributions from either side. Heck, one of the most revered and well-known scientists to-date wasn't from the US (E=MC^2).
However, the issue is not with the immigrants themselves, but with the companies who abuse both the local populace and the remote workers. Sure, it seems like a nice ride for now, but in the future they'll be happy to drop Indian/Thai/Chinese/etc labour just as quickly as those in the US when it becomes cheaper to move elsewhere. It might take a long time, but it will happen.
No, prices are dependent on the particular conditions of each market. That's all. They certainly are not "absolute truths" -- if that makes them "relative" then I'm comfortable with that term.
Seems to me a problem is that big corps get to pick and choose which markets they want to play in, and then artificially restrict the general public from doing the same.
So, you put your production lines in a company where labour laws are virtually non-existent, and production is cheap. Then, you outsource your IT etc divisions to another country where wages are equally low. Then you add DRM and regionalization, or other restrictions so that local citizens can only by the product you sell in the local market which is 10-100x the price.
So there is no *market*. There are many markets, and a global market, but corps artificially get to pick-and-choose which ones they play in while restricting almost everyone else from doing so.
Do you have hobbies that don't involve computers, those might be a good place to start. Of course, I do know of people who met women through their non-computing hobbies as well (WOW dating, who would'a though).
A lot of it depends on you. Your age, your interests, your taste in women, and of course your attitude. If you just want to meet people, you could try Plenty of Fish. I've found that since it doesn't charge, there's less interest in nickel-and-diming you and it's easier to meet people. Meeting people, of course, being an important prequisite to dating. Now saying so might sound like an "oh duh" thing, but in reality way too many people hit the scene or the net looking for a partner when they haven't even hit the friendship stage. In that case, you pretty much end up being in the "desperate" category, and meet people who are much the same. It's not always a bad thing, but not always the best place to start either. It's amazing how easy it is to "just meet somebody" when you've got a schedule full of friends (who may have friends who are interested in you). For more of a dating scene than a meeting scene, you could perhaps try Geek to Geek
Moving away from the online scene and back to common interests, how about things like book groups, sci-fi cons, anime cons, or whatever else along those lines may float your boat.
And of course, as a final possibility, there's always an age-old suggestion from IRC. As a good portion of my friends are foreigners, and my SO is from China, I'd say that suggestion works for me. I also have a few friends who have gone to Japan, etc and apparently "white guys" (which is an assumption on my part, but most slashdotters seem to be SWM's) are a pretty hot commodity over there, and body-type isn't even a huge fact in that (if my friends are any basis to go by).
Whatever his reasons, I'm not sure that it helps to have somebody being investigated for such material as a supporter of change. If he gets convicted then it becomes a case of "see, only pedophiles and perverts would oppose this law!"
Having dealt with Vonage's crappy customer service, particular when cancelling a "no contract plan", I'd have to say that the Telcos had little to worry about. I thought that the local telco was the worst it could get *until* I tried Vonage.
Did you know that they don't have a phone number for their disputes department, and then you must send them a letter to some address in nowhere USA within X (I believe 14) days of the issue/cancellation? A *phone* company that doesn't have a number for a major department... imagine that.
I haven't read through the whole transcript, and I'm certainly not a lawyer, but as a technical person I wonder about this point:
"The evidence clearly pointed to her machine, even correctly identifying the MAC address of both her cable modem and her computer's Ethernet port
How the heck would they have gotten the MAC of the modem and/or her computer, unless such details were provided by the ISP or sniffed by some form of internally invasive software? A MAC should only be available to a machine within the same network segment, so - assumedly - her modem could ready the MAC on her PC, and I suppose the ISP's next upstream router could read the MAC of the modem, but without the ISP's assistance I realyl don't see any other way this information could have been attained. Even then - depending on configuration - you'd need some pretty stiff logging to tie continual traffic from a given IP to a MAC.
That being said, the common username was a fairly damaging point aside from this all.
The ARS article pretty much repeats these same tidbits without fleshing out the how. Any answers?
Then she's equally as crazy. I'm sorry, as much as I'd love to "stick it to big media" and/or fight against the RIAA, I'm not willing to settle for blowing a case in order to incur potentially life-ruining expenses. While it's just my personal opinion, it goes beyond "gutsy" to the realm of "crazy"
And all I can think was:
$1.9 million dollars for a few mp3's... inconceivable!
No, that's already been shot down. Harper and Ingatieff have been bunked down in "discussions" and it's basically been agreed that there won't be any confidence vote or new election. The Cons made some concessions, among which include the opportunity for a confidence vote later this year (Sept I believe), but there's nothing coming anytime soon.
Of course, step 2 will expand on this. Not only that, but I'd imagine that it's not entirely unlikely that we may end up with "Criminal Copyright Infringement" being at some point investigated by the police on behalf of the media companies. So then not only can they get the info of the aforementioned criminals, but all those dirty commie filesharers as well...
Perhaps they might have benefited from this?
Since I previously worked in a company that's primary business was in running (and selling advertising on) web-forums, I suppose I'd be as qualified as anyone to answer this:
a) The default behaviour of the software is to record IP addresses. It's not like most companies are building their own, they're using something like vBulletin, IPB, or possibly PHPBB. I'm not even sure if this is a feature that could be disabled without a plugin/hack
b) Basic security is tied to IP. Just as does slashdot, so do other forums get their share of trolls. You actually don't see it a lot here, but penis-enlargement, pr0n, scams and spam are also fairly common. The IP address is your only semi-reliable link to a real person, in which case you can block certain IP's or netblocks that become an issue, track down users with multiple accounts. I do say semi-reliably as IPs can be routed through proxies etc, but many boards actually have RBL's for known proxies
c) Advertising, which for many boards is the chief (or only) source of revenue, often ties to IP address. Most programs collect statistics by IP, and also other fun stuff like geo-targetting, rotation (so you don't see the same ad a gazillion times in a row), etc
d) User related to locality can be fairly well-determined by IP. If you've got issues where all your users in the Eastern US connect slowly/poorly, or possibly where you have many users in Western Europe but they have a shit connection, then it may lead you to consider adding services (local server, cache, or whatever) in those areas.
e) The last thing I can think of off the top of my head is statistics, which are also very important to many web-boards to see where they're growing and where they need improvement.
And yes, these work fairly well for 95% of the John-Doe users. Most people, even those who consider themselves clever, don't make much use of proxies or other such things to post secretly on boards, which allows the wheat to be filtered from the chaff fairly well based on IP. Until a better method comes along, it's probably the best way.
p.s. Don't use my own board as an example of something spam-proof. It's using different software than I used at work, gets very little time dedicated to it, and the spam-collection is actually something of interest while I try to come up with fun methods of dealing with the spammers.
Actually, don't most companies set that by dialing 9-1-1 on many phones, you *allow* signal triangulation (not necessarily GPS) so that emergency crews can locate the caller if needed?
Seems to me that a lot of other phones do implement a sort of 9-1-1 signal-boost. On the few times I've had to call 9-1-1 on a cell (witnessed a car accident, drunk drivers, etc) the phone went into a special mode in which the signal did seem to be boosted.
Not sure how that works if it didn't have a signal to begin with though, and it's not something one could easily test.
The patent included the additions of "disabling other functionality to save battery" and adding extra "emergency #'s". I don't know any phones with non-911 emergency #'s, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "disable other functionality" already exists because I seem to remember my phone being limited until I canceled the "emergency mode" it was in.
I do wonder if they're starting to loosen up "a bit" though. Recently I saw a few films coming out that were advertised as:
"Now available on DVD and blu-ray disc. Digital copy included"
Now overlooking the obvious point that both of the above are already digital formats, does this mean that an AVI or something of the sort is included for those that want to watch on an alternate device. If so, I wonder what restrictions are on those files.
The last movie I seem to remember seeing an ad like this for was "Gran Torino", if anyone has a copy they can check.
There are plenty of things without a cure. Severe allergies (although these often wax/wane with time), diabetes, various forms of epilepsy, and many other conditions. Knowing the issue allows you to address the issue in a manner that can be life-saving or at the very least life-extending/improving.
If you have epilepsy, it might not be curable but the medication can help prevent seizures which means you don't die twitching on the floor, and in many cases can even drive a vehicle etc (which you'd otherwise be unable to do).
Knowing one's allergies allows you to carry medication such as an epi-pen if they're severe, or know to take allergy meds when symptoms that are often very similar to other conditions crop up (one thing I personally know a lot about, allergies can cause skin, stomach, breathing, flu-syptoms or many other issues ).
Diabetes: knowing one is diabetic, and thus monitoring+adjusting one's blood-glucose can save you from an early death and other nasty side-effects
Yes, a cure is the optimal solution. But after 8 years of painful symptoms, I'm assuming that being able to suppress said symptoms over a long term is still a whole lot better than "no good" and "nothing she can do about it". It's not just peace of mind.
One might think so, but the question I would have then is where did the sample *she* used come from. According to TFA:
"she was looking under the microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue -- slides her pathologist had said were completely normal"
Assumedly she hadn't performed a self-biopsy for the samples and had actually received them from the pathologist. I believe the error might have been a bit more easily forgiven if they had biopsied and not gotten a sample indicating the disease (fairly common, my grandfather's lungs, though riddled with cancer, took multiple biopsies to find an afflicted sample). However, this was in from their own sample, which from the article had already been "passed" as normal.
As mentioned in many of the above. Good luck to those on the fringe who can't get a good signal, or with portables that can't use a DTV tuner, etc etc.
I could be wrong, but I think that one of the issues with the GameCube was storage-space. Sure those little discs were cute, and (if they had put them in like-sized cases) easier to store. But in terms of how much information you could cram onto a disk, the PS2 and XBox came out ahead with DVD's.
Would it even be considered "in custody" until the police took it though? Cases where a guy's PC was held by his landlord (after he abandoned a place for several months) and then later given to police for evidence have - I believe - passed through, even though the computer was in the hands of an unknown for several months.
And a landlord who's been shafted on rent might actually have reason to want the suspect nailed...
Well, it seems to me that the solution would be in this case to charge the guy with the illegal pictures for possession, and charge the tech with some form of trespass or electronic B&E charge.
That should dissuade computer repair guys from rifling through people's computers, but it still allows for the concept that a private citizen is allowed to report things in that manner.
Seems strange that the "fruit of the tainted vine" only applies to cops though, how far is one allowed to go in digging up evidence, and how about if it were submitted anonymously. I remember a case where a judge was nailed on an anonymous tip for having KP. The problem being that the tip was from a guy who "traced and hacked into his computer." So really, it could have been a legit tip, or it could have been a setup on the part of the hacker on what is now essentially a compromised system. Same could apply if your Wal-Mart or Best Buy tech has a grudge against somebody. Not hard to roll back the date on a computer and plant a trail of "evidence".
I recently caught something online that stated that they had pulled "2 girls and 1 cup" from their site because it was mandated as "Legally Obscene." I assume that means it's not legal to distribute and/or possibly possess
So what happens when the tech catches 2G1C on your desktop (other than the inevitable retching if he watches past the first 5 seconds or so)?
There are plenty of things that might be unexpectedly illegal, or at least apparently so.
Alternatively, make a point of going for a walk around each of the departments you support EVERY day,
First of all, very subjective to the size of the company, and type of the company. In some cases doing this is going to be disruptive to others and just generally annoying. Rather than being that weird antisocial guy, you'll often end up seeming like the annoying drop-in overly social type, and/or disrupting others' work.
I've found that it tends to work out better if you just make sure to put in visible appearances when fixing issues. Sure, it's easier and faster to pop into the server, fix the issue, and fire off an email. But from a social standpoint it makes more sense to do the fix and drop in with the user to make sure everything worked properly (with the added bonus that if you didn't understand the issue quite right and it's still broken, you can fix it and not seem like a clueless dork).
If you have lunch with them, then you'll know them personally, and they'll feel a little more comfortable about talking to you about little IT problems, which have been annoying them.
Right, and you'll be lucky if you ever finish your lunch without being asked a gazillion IT related (and often enough not work related but rather "my home computer is doing X" questions).
Again, moderation is key. Grab your coworkers on a "going out to sushi day" or whatever, but daily lunches aren't necessarily as necessary or productive.
usually users will be bitching to each other about something being 'a bit flakey' long before it gets to IT as a critical fault
Usually if you're friendly enough, the users will feel free to ask about an issue in these cases. One of the big things I've found is that when addressing issues, be sure to provide feedback. Even if it's not a local issue (e.g. a website outside the company is down), a quick "hey, I checked into X and it looks like the issue is that the server on their end is down" is better than no response.
Maybe I read this wrong, but I could see that as being several smaller payments throughout the month, totalling up to roughly $50 per user in a month.
So if you paid around, say, $1.60/day you'd end up around that mark but each payment is in itself rather small.
I seem to remember quite a few cases cropping up after a (recently sold) railway starting sending bills to landowners for crossing into their property. Basically the railway abutted the property, and made it impossible to access without crossing the railway. As the existing crossings were owned by the new rail company, they decided to bill the landowners tens of thousands ($) each in order to be able to access their own land in the same manner they had been doing for decades.
There are many things that would greatly benefit from being public, and transportation - when done correctly - is definitely one of them. I say "when done correctly" because greedy government managers are no better than greedy private owners.
For example, see the issues with ICBC (insurance corporation of British Columbia, the monopoly vehicle insurance branch of the government) in the westernmost province. ICBC absolutely loves to screw people in accidents, because it gives them an excuse to raise premiums and take away "safe driver" discounts. Without competition, people in accidents are forced into lengthy court battles, often after being injured and while slowly burning through their own savings while unable to work. Even being found 5% at-fault is enough excuse to yank away a few years of accumulated safe-driver discounts, so they'll try to nail you for being rear-ended by a tailgater, while stopped, or equally ludicrous such things.
I'm not really sure what the answer is to that, other than perhaps a truly publicly owned corporation. Maybe if all citizens had a share (and a say) they could at least have enough power to address some of those issues, but then again when less than 50% of people even show up to vote, who knows.