Indeed, I've seen issues with coders on either end.
A lot of people who are very book-savvy (CS degree etc) are terrible at creative thinking or at dealing with a "server on fire" issue. What they're good at is formal coding that follows fairly established principals, and - and people often understate this - formatting. In most cases one predominant advantage to somebody who is formally taught is that their code is fairly readable to somebody who is knowledgeable in the field (depending on where they studied, it may even be a bit verbose).
Now the self-taught guys/gals... they're good at thinking on-the-fly and learning stuff for themselves, because that's how they learned in the first place. They tend to be more driven by curiosity and willing to experiment as well (which can be good or bad). These are often great people to have when it comes to unusual issues which require out-of-the-box solutions, unfortunately it also tends to give you code with shit variables like
$a = $z += ($x * $b)
or in other cases... well, no cases (a lot of IF/ELSE statements instead of a case/switch).
Honestly, if I could *find* a decent belt-clip for my phone (currently a galaxy S4) I would be in heaven. However, most of what I find are things that look nice but are fumbly as hell, or easily broken. Cheap plastic clips that tend to snag and snap also abound. So the phone's in my pocket, where it mingles with my keys, often gets snagged inconveniently when I've got an important call, and may slightly affecting my fertility (not necessarily due to radiation, but heat generation is also a factor). If anyone can recommend a decent, durable case for Samsung phones I'd be happy. Hell, I might consider upgrading if it's for a decent phone other than the one I currently have (no iDevices though, please).
Honestly, it's not really about the price. The problem is mainly one of schedule. Where I used to live, it was actually pretty decent. My wife took the bus regularly, and I was within walking distance to work (or driving when the weather sucked). Unfortunately we were also in a Strata with ever-increasing rules, fees, and a number of council members suffering from cranial-rectal inversion (I was on the council, and some members were often just plain hostile).
So I moved to a house. It's bigger, the neighbourhood is peaceful with less crime, and it's still not that far from downtown/work. It is up a hill that makes biking a lesser alternative to driving though. The bus service, however, is shyte. Once hourly, plus transfers to get uptown where the shopping is, and it ends at hours that aren't particularly helpful for anyone who doesn't work regular hours between 8am and 7pm. Additionally for myself, I have on-call after-hours shifts where I need to be able to get to the office if there's an emergency, be it 3pm or 3am. Waiting on the hourly bus (plus transfer) isn't so helpful, and there's no late service.
It doesn't really matter how much the bus costs, if it doesn't work on the hours I do, it's not useful. Many people I know *would* prefer the bus over the costs of the car they can barely afford (the one that needs regular repairs, leaks oil, and isn't all that reliable in itself), but when they're working split/random shifts, need to pick up the kids within 15 minutes of finishing work, need to get bags full of groceries home, etc... well that doesn't work so well either.
Now, if we move on from busses and talk about (reliable) high-speed transport like LRT or subways, I'm game. When I lived in a bigger city, I *loved* the LRT. Even if it took me a bit longer to get to work, I could usually get on a bit earlier and rest/nap while enroute. I did still have a car for my forays out-of-city or for when I was picking up a trunkload of groceries/building-materials, but I didn't tend to drive it overly regularly (so still paying for insurance, but the lesser "not for work" amount as well as reduced emissions etc). I often wonder what the pay-off might be for a simple system in the smaller cities: something that runs straight from one end of town to another, and - even if it doesn't replace cars - at least swaps part of the drive for a group-parking lot and a quick rail trip.
Even better, here (Canada) they have often discussed - and dismissed - something like a high-speed-rail route between major western cities. Something like a bullet train from Calgary to Vancouver (10h by car). Yes, it would be expensive, and the usual objection are the amount of work, time and cost involved. Yes, they would have to burrow through or around mountains. However, I was in Korea and Japan and the rail system was great (better in Korea). The trip is quick, fairly comfortable, as well as affordable and convenient. Again, I do recognise that the populations in Korea or Japan squeeze a lot more into a small area, but consider this: one of the bigger programs in Canada (and I believe N America in general) is that there's a lot of "space" but not so many people in the less-urban areas. Domestic populations are dropping, and immigration is basically keeping things afloat, but immigrants don't generally *WANT* to live in the smaller cities. Also, many professionals (doctors, lawyers, and yes even politicians) prefer the larger centres.
But what if all those people could get to the "big city" in 25% or less of the time it takes by car. What if it took about the same time to travel there that it currently does to do a grocery run? Suddenly, you can live in the smaller city in a decent-sized house/yard, with less smog, less crowding, and a nice view. You've got a 2000sqft house instead of a 500sqft shoebox to live in. If you want to go shopping, you can hit some of the local shops for your basic stuff, or take a train-trip and grab those electronics/clothes/food that aren't even available in your hometown, and still
Indeed, earlier on in the first movie, it's apparent that droids aren't particularly welcome in many places of the Star Wars universe, even in places which are otherwise "a hive of scum and villainy" like Mos Eisley
For all we know, maybe they have something to do with volcanic activity. Now *that* would fit the model in interesting ways (not good ways for us though).
I've never heard of somebody *heating* a drive to recover a stuck head, but I've done the opposite.
Many a drive has been recovered by a day or two's stint in the freezer in deflated ziplock bag. I'd imagine the principle is the same. With cooling, you do have to watch out for condensation build-up as the drive defrosts. With the heating I'd worry about damaging the data on the disk (magnets in general do not like heat, so I'd imagine magnetic storage would similarly be a gamble).
A cybersquatter is generally somebody who knowingly buys a domain reflecting somebody else's business. In this case - unless he also owns a time machine - he couldn't have done so (the Trademark did not exist for this business when the domain was registered).
A company I used to work at had a *lot* of high-value TLD's that they did use in their primary LOB. However, these domains were often bought from people who picked them up long ago because it was a useful name, and they were generic names (for example, a name like "razors.com" or "shaving.com" rather than corporate "gillette.com", etc).
I don't really see the big deal with this. He picked up a piece of online presence which happens to be a valuable piece of virtual real-estate, and has been paying the fees for re-registration for FIFTEEN YEARS.
Now it's valuable to somebody... and the first thing they try to do is illegally transfer the property to their name (but oh, oops it was a "mistake"). If it were physical property then Office Space Solutions would have had somebody going to jail for this...
I think the females-in-leadership thing is often a regional/occupational issue. In many jobs I've had, middle to upper management has been at worst a 50/50 split, and many of my direct reports were female.
In fact, my better bosses have often been female, but again there seems to be some tie-in between the role and female participation. Often, is the role interesting to a predominantly male or female crowd. Trying to make all roles/positions equally gender-interesting is kinda like trying to get rock musicians interested in becoming climatologists.
This doesn't apply to all cases of course, in some cases the "ol' boys club" is in full effect (and more than just women are getting shut out there).
Just like that damn car rental company I used the other week. I totally paid for that rental car for the week I rented, so I should get to keep it or at least get my money back after I wasn't using it anymore, right!? Or those video rental places. Why shouldn't I get my $5 back. I returned the video after all.
Wow, somebody is a little butt-hurt.
The problem is not with rentals, but with the ever-increasing high price of rentals - or purchases, as the article indicates the two are related - which contribute to a debt on the lower-income portion of society. Lower-income rental housing often tends to suffer issues like poor maintenance etc.
What's your alternative? Should the owner just "rent" out the place for free? That doesn't sound like a particularly good idea for him, and many owners aren't exactly rich fat-cats themselves.
This issue can be partially addressed by subsidized "affordable housing", and also some controls on absentee landlords (and taxation).
For real landlords, rentals can be a lot of work. Many tenants aren't exactly "gentle" to the premises, so it involves regular maintenance (both an expense and a time-consumer). When renters move on, the landlord has to fix things up, clean, and interview new perspective renters. Sometimes it's just a little carpet cleaning and some windex. Other times it's patching holes in drywall, replacing flooring that's stained, and other more major stuff.
Generally, the landlord is also the one that has to ensure the functional maintenance of the dwelling and major appliances. If a pipe leaks, a stove dies, or the AC konks out etc, that's the landlord's responsibility.
Note that I am saying landlord. There are also people who are essentially slum-lords. They do a shitty job of maintenance and often ignore tenants pleas. Nobody likes slum-lords, just like nobody likes crappy tenants who wreck the place and often don't pay the rent properly (and are often very hard to get rid of, like the one gal who quit her job to stay home and play online games for a month).
So here's the thing. You're not paying "for my kid to go to college", that's just what I may choose to do with the portion of rent that's left after maintenance and taxes. You're paying for a maintained dwelling and no mortgage, a place where you're not responsible for a $20k bill if the roof needs repair (like the owner), major appliance repairs. You're not paying the property tax, strata fees, special assessments. You're not paying a 5-yr+ mortgage with huge penalties if you have to move and cancel early. That's all on the landlord. If you're poor, well maybe that's not your fault, but as a responsible landlord it's sure as f*** not my fault either.
Absolutely true! This isn't just for personal residences either. I've seen business spaces that have been empty for years (usually with an out-of-town number to contact for "leasing/buying opportunities). Hell, there's a restaurant in my old neighbourhood that has been empty for a decade. The old appliances are still in there.
With all those places, the rents are still high, because they'd rather fix the market at a high rate than rent out the empty space. This is stupid because un-used buildings inevitably suffer from age-related maintenance issues, and become a lot harder to sell/lease/rent the longer they're unused without a price-cut.
No, pay for his kids' college was what the OP said, and it's accurate. Income is income, and rent is rent.
Note that *he is charging roughly 74% of rent of the neighbours. So if he's not renting, what then? Well likely those tenants have to find a place somewhere else and pay more. They're not paying for nothing, they're paying for a place to live in and whatever the required maintenance is.
I (well, the bank does) own my place. I have renters myself, but we share the common areas of the house so it's a little different than a whole-house rent (and includes pretty much everything including groceries). Laws here actually make it easier to get rid of bad renters in my situation (shared living space rather than a whole house), but generally I've gotten along very well with my renters to the point where most who've moved still stop by for coffee or stay over and visit if they're in town. In my previous experience (as a renter), some of the better places I've been were most the "homestay" rental variety where you get to interact more with the owner/host on a personal level.
However, a number of my friends/family-members still rent, so I see a lot of terrible landlords and situations such as: a) Poor maintenance: Appliances that break down (fridge,stove,heating/cooling) and take a long time to get fixed. Loose fixtures. Water/mould issues b) Intrusion: Landlord "pops in" to the suite or rental to check on things (this is actually illegal except in emergencies - i.e. broken water pipe - but many don't follow the law) c) Illegal evictions: When somebody has complained to the landlord about (a) or (b), or the landlord just wants to jack the rent d) Harassment: Quite often following along with (b) e) Illegal suites: Poorly cobbled together, and lacking proper separation of utilities (separate power and hot water, etc) f) Poor behaviour: Nothing like having a landlord that likes to light up a bit fat joint on the patio and let the smoke drift down into your unit, or watch loud TV until 1:00 after having a screaming match with the wife.
When I was looking for a place to buy, the *worst* were in the areas common to rentals, especially those near the university etc. Poor maintenance, rowdy neighbours, and high prices. Some places I just wanted to laugh in the face of the sellers. It was obvious they'd rented to students and done as little as possible on upkeep... the only selling feature was that the location near amenities (and/or attractive to renters because of such).
The worst rentals tend to be: * University/College areas, because there's usually a plentiful supply of students willing to put up with crappy conditions in order to be close to school and/or save $50 in rent. * Distant landlords * Old single landlords (generally in the market to make ends meet, so little money for professional repairs and not physically capable of doing them) * masculine used for the sake of simplicity
This is worse than even just tracking cookie injection. A tracking cookie may be used to trace traffic back to a particular user, but there's generally nothing overly special about the cookie data.
In this case, the Telco is not only providing the ability to track you to the third party, but giving away your phone #. As if people don't get enough calls from phone scams and malvertisors already.
Amazon has for a long time tracked what pages you've read up to on eBooks. This means that when I read a book on a Kindle, and then later forget it at home and use a tablet etc then it's automatically on the same page as the Kindle (provided the Kindle was connected to update the reading progress).
I'm not sure that Amazon knowing "you've read up to page 51 on book X" is more more of a privacy concern than "You purchased book X".
Slashdot Mirror
Indeed, I've seen issues with coders on either end.
A lot of people who are very book-savvy (CS degree etc) are terrible at creative thinking or at dealing with a "server on fire" issue. What they're good at is formal coding that follows fairly established principals, and - and people often understate this - formatting. In most cases one predominant advantage to somebody who is formally taught is that their code is fairly readable to somebody who is knowledgeable in the field (depending on where they studied, it may even be a bit verbose).
Now the self-taught guys/gals... they're good at thinking on-the-fly and learning stuff for themselves, because that's how they learned in the first place. They tend to be more driven by curiosity and willing to experiment as well (which can be good or bad). These are often great people to have when it comes to unusual issues which require out-of-the-box solutions, unfortunately it also tends to give you code with shit variables like
$a = $z += ($x * $b)
or in other cases... well, no cases (a lot of IF/ELSE statements instead of a case/switch).
When my wife was out-of-country for 2 months, she asked a friend to keep an eye on me. The response was
"What, make sure he's not seeing other women"
My wife's answer
"No, I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried that he'll be up late every night playing video games!"
So I guess I'm trusted... at least with women if not the gaming! :-)
Looks a bit phallic...
Yeah, that one got me too. By banning rules requiring "X" information be posted, we're ensuring that people stay more informed.
WTF.
Honestly, if I could *find* a decent belt-clip for my phone (currently a galaxy S4) I would be in heaven. However, most of what I find are things that look nice but are fumbly as hell, or easily broken. Cheap plastic clips that tend to snag and snap also abound.
So the phone's in my pocket, where it mingles with my keys, often gets snagged inconveniently when I've got an important call, and may slightly affecting my fertility (not necessarily due to radiation, but heat generation is also a factor).
If anyone can recommend a decent, durable case for Samsung phones I'd be happy. Hell, I might consider upgrading if it's for a decent phone other than the one I currently have (no iDevices though, please).
Honestly, it's not really about the price. The problem is mainly one of schedule. Where I used to live, it was actually pretty decent. My wife took the bus regularly, and I was within walking distance to work (or driving when the weather sucked). Unfortunately we were also in a Strata with ever-increasing rules, fees, and a number of council members suffering from cranial-rectal inversion (I was on the council, and some members were often just plain hostile).
So I moved to a house. It's bigger, the neighbourhood is peaceful with less crime, and it's still not that far from downtown/work. It is up a hill that makes biking a lesser alternative to driving though. The bus service, however, is shyte. Once hourly, plus transfers to get uptown where the shopping is, and it ends at hours that aren't particularly helpful for anyone who doesn't work regular hours between 8am and 7pm.
Additionally for myself, I have on-call after-hours shifts where I need to be able to get to the office if there's an emergency, be it 3pm or 3am. Waiting on the hourly bus (plus transfer) isn't so helpful, and there's no late service.
It doesn't really matter how much the bus costs, if it doesn't work on the hours I do, it's not useful. Many people I know *would* prefer the bus over the costs of the car they can barely afford (the one that needs regular repairs, leaks oil, and isn't all that reliable in itself), but when they're working split/random shifts, need to pick up the kids within 15 minutes of finishing work, need to get bags full of groceries home, etc... well that doesn't work so well either.
Now, if we move on from busses and talk about (reliable) high-speed transport like LRT or subways, I'm game. When I lived in a bigger city, I *loved* the LRT. Even if it took me a bit longer to get to work, I could usually get on a bit earlier and rest/nap while enroute. I did still have a car for my forays out-of-city or for when I was picking up a trunkload of groceries/building-materials, but I didn't tend to drive it overly regularly (so still paying for insurance, but the lesser "not for work" amount as well as reduced emissions etc). I often wonder what the pay-off might be for a simple system in the smaller cities: something that runs straight from one end of town to another, and - even if it doesn't replace cars - at least swaps part of the drive for a group-parking lot and a quick rail trip.
Even better, here (Canada) they have often discussed - and dismissed - something like a high-speed-rail route between major western cities. Something like a bullet train from Calgary to Vancouver (10h by car). Yes, it would be expensive, and the usual objection are the amount of work, time and cost involved. Yes, they would have to burrow through or around mountains.
However, I was in Korea and Japan and the rail system was great (better in Korea). The trip is quick, fairly comfortable, as well as affordable and convenient. Again, I do recognise that the populations in Korea or Japan squeeze a lot more into a small area, but consider this: one of the bigger programs in Canada (and I believe N America in general) is that there's a lot of "space" but not so many people in the less-urban areas. Domestic populations are dropping, and immigration is basically keeping things afloat, but immigrants don't generally *WANT* to live in the smaller cities. Also, many professionals (doctors, lawyers, and yes even politicians) prefer the larger centres.
But what if all those people could get to the "big city" in 25% or less of the time it takes by car. What if it took about the same time to travel there that it currently does to do a grocery run? Suddenly, you can live in the smaller city in a decent-sized house/yard, with less smog, less crowding, and a nice view. You've got a 2000sqft house instead of a 500sqft shoebox to live in. If you want to go shopping, you can hit some of the local shops for your basic stuff, or take a train-trip and grab those electronics/clothes/food that aren't even available in your hometown, and still
"We don't serve their kind here"
Indeed, earlier on in the first movie, it's apparent that droids aren't particularly welcome in many places of the Star Wars universe, even in places which are otherwise "a hive of scum and villainy" like Mos Eisley
For all we know, maybe they have something to do with volcanic activity. Now *that* would fit the model in interesting ways (not good ways for us though).
I think we know what nVidia is using to to power it
I thought the plot seemed familiar but I recall seeing it in colour.
Sure enough, there was a remake in 2003.
Is there any old movie that HASN'T been remade? Maybe some Chaplin films?
It's because those "local moms" are already "making $8000/mo working from home"
Or at least that's what most of the ads tell me.
"just as someone will die of natural causes from watching a VR game"
And how are you going to be sure they died of a heart attack due to fright and now due to an diet of excessive pizza, chips, and Redbull?
I've never heard of somebody *heating* a drive to recover a stuck head, but I've done the opposite.
Many a drive has been recovered by a day or two's stint in the freezer in deflated ziplock bag. I'd imagine the principle is the same.
With cooling, you do have to watch out for condensation build-up as the drive defrosts. With the heating I'd worry about damaging the data on the disk (magnets in general do not like heat, so I'd imagine magnetic storage would similarly be a gamble).
You think Family Guy is bad for that... I'm amazed that the Simpsons is still going!
You told him why he got a crappy review.
Did you post in the review that he owned up and (presumably) made good on fixing the issue?
A cybersquatter is generally somebody who knowingly buys a domain reflecting somebody else's business. In this case - unless he also owns a time machine - he couldn't have done so (the Trademark did not exist for this business when the domain was registered).
A company I used to work at had a *lot* of high-value TLD's that they did use in their primary LOB. However, these domains were often bought from people who picked them up long ago because it was a useful name, and they were generic names (for example, a name like "razors.com" or "shaving.com" rather than corporate "gillette.com", etc).
I don't really see the big deal with this. He picked up a piece of online presence which happens to be a valuable piece of virtual real-estate, and has been paying the fees for re-registration for FIFTEEN YEARS.
Now it's valuable to somebody... and the first thing they try to do is illegally transfer the property to their name (but oh, oops it was a "mistake"). If it were physical property then Office Space Solutions would have had somebody going to jail for this...
I think the females-in-leadership thing is often a regional/occupational issue. In many jobs I've had, middle to upper management has been at worst a 50/50 split, and many of my direct reports were female.
In fact, my better bosses have often been female, but again there seems to be some tie-in between the role and female participation. Often, is the role interesting to a predominantly male or female crowd. Trying to make all roles/positions equally gender-interesting is kinda like trying to get rock musicians interested in becoming climatologists.
This doesn't apply to all cases of course, in some cases the "ol' boys club" is in full effect (and more than just women are getting shut out there).
You mean, kinda like how the article linked off the words "Force Touch" in the blurb does?
For those not familiar with Force Touch, it detects how hard a user presses down on the screen giving an additional type of input
Just like that damn car rental company I used the other week. I totally paid for that rental car for the week I rented, so I should get to keep it or at least get my money back after I wasn't using it anymore, right!? Or those video rental places. Why shouldn't I get my $5 back. I returned the video after all.
Wow, somebody is a little butt-hurt.
The problem is not with rentals, but with the ever-increasing high price of rentals - or purchases, as the article indicates the two are related - which contribute to a debt on the lower-income portion of society. Lower-income rental housing often tends to suffer issues like poor maintenance etc.
What's your alternative? Should the owner just "rent" out the place for free? That doesn't sound like a particularly good idea for him, and many owners aren't exactly rich fat-cats themselves.
This issue can be partially addressed by subsidized "affordable housing", and also some controls on absentee landlords (and taxation).
For real landlords, rentals can be a lot of work. Many tenants aren't exactly "gentle" to the premises, so it involves regular maintenance (both an expense and a time-consumer). When renters move on, the landlord has to fix things up, clean, and interview new perspective renters. Sometimes it's just a little carpet cleaning and some windex. Other times it's patching holes in drywall, replacing flooring that's stained, and other more major stuff.
Generally, the landlord is also the one that has to ensure the functional maintenance of the dwelling and major appliances. If a pipe leaks, a stove dies, or the AC konks out etc, that's the landlord's responsibility.
Note that I am saying landlord. There are also people who are essentially slum-lords. They do a shitty job of maintenance and often ignore tenants pleas. Nobody likes slum-lords, just like nobody likes crappy tenants who wreck the place and often don't pay the rent properly (and are often very hard to get rid of, like the one gal who quit her job to stay home and play online games for a month).
So here's the thing. You're not paying "for my kid to go to college", that's just what I may choose to do with the portion of rent that's left after maintenance and taxes. You're paying for a maintained dwelling and no mortgage, a place where you're not responsible for a $20k bill if the roof needs repair (like the owner), major appliance repairs. You're not paying the property tax, strata fees, special assessments. You're not paying a 5-yr+ mortgage with huge penalties if you have to move and cancel early. That's all on the landlord. If you're poor, well maybe that's not your fault, but as a responsible landlord it's sure as f*** not my fault either.
I don't know about an address, but I've talked to people from Paypal and eBay by phone, and know those who have done so with Steam.
Absolutely true! This isn't just for personal residences either. I've seen business spaces that have been empty for years (usually with an out-of-town number to contact for "leasing/buying opportunities). Hell, there's a restaurant in my old neighbourhood that has been empty for a decade. The old appliances are still in there.
With all those places, the rents are still high, because they'd rather fix the market at a high rate than rent out the empty space. This is stupid because un-used buildings inevitably suffer from age-related maintenance issues, and become a lot harder to sell/lease/rent the longer they're unused without a price-cut.
No, pay for his kids' college was what the OP said, and it's accurate. Income is income, and rent is rent.
Note that *he is charging roughly 74% of rent of the neighbours. So if he's not renting, what then? Well likely those tenants have to find a place somewhere else and pay more. They're not paying for nothing, they're paying for a place to live in and whatever the required maintenance is.
I (well, the bank does) own my place. I have renters myself, but we share the common areas of the house so it's a little different than a whole-house rent (and includes pretty much everything including groceries). Laws here actually make it easier to get rid of bad renters in my situation (shared living space rather than a whole house), but generally I've gotten along very well with my renters to the point where most who've moved still stop by for coffee or stay over and visit if they're in town. In my previous experience (as a renter), some of the better places I've been were most the "homestay" rental variety where you get to interact more with the owner/host on a personal level.
However, a number of my friends/family-members still rent, so I see a lot of terrible landlords and situations such as:
a) Poor maintenance: Appliances that break down (fridge,stove,heating/cooling) and take a long time to get fixed. Loose fixtures. Water/mould issues
b) Intrusion: Landlord "pops in" to the suite or rental to check on things (this is actually illegal except in emergencies - i.e. broken water pipe - but many don't follow the law)
c) Illegal evictions: When somebody has complained to the landlord about (a) or (b), or the landlord just wants to jack the rent
d) Harassment: Quite often following along with (b)
e) Illegal suites: Poorly cobbled together, and lacking proper separation of utilities (separate power and hot water, etc)
f) Poor behaviour: Nothing like having a landlord that likes to light up a bit fat joint on the patio and let the smoke drift down into your unit, or watch loud TV until 1:00 after having a screaming match with the wife.
When I was looking for a place to buy, the *worst* were in the areas common to rentals, especially those near the university etc. Poor maintenance, rowdy neighbours, and high prices. Some places I just wanted to laugh in the face of the sellers. It was obvious they'd rented to students and done as little as possible on upkeep... the only selling feature was that the location near amenities (and/or attractive to renters because of such).
The worst rentals tend to be:
* University/College areas, because there's usually a plentiful supply of students willing to put up with crappy conditions in order to be close to school and/or save $50 in rent.
* Distant landlords
* Old single landlords (generally in the market to make ends meet, so little money for professional repairs and not physically capable of doing them)
* masculine used for the sake of simplicity
This is worse than even just tracking cookie injection. A tracking cookie may be used to trace traffic back to a particular user, but there's generally nothing overly special about the cookie data.
In this case, the Telco is not only providing the ability to track you to the third party, but giving away your phone #. As if people don't get enough calls from phone scams and malvertisors already.
I bet Lisa Simpson is great at binary math!
Amazon has for a long time tracked what pages you've read up to on eBooks. This means that when I read a book on a Kindle, and then later forget it at home and use a tablet etc then it's automatically on the same page as the Kindle (provided the Kindle was connected to update the reading progress).
I'm not sure that Amazon knowing "you've read up to page 51 on book X" is more more of a privacy concern than "You purchased book X".