Are you going to paste this comment onto every post from one of these individuals? Despite the fact that you keep getting modded down for it? You must be really obsessed or really, really dense. Give it a rest already - or at least say something new.
I have mod points and could just smack you into oblivion, but decided to post instead and let others do the smacking.
I used to draw patterns like that while suffering through triple Maths - draw a circle, mark off every 10 degrees (or 5 if it looked like being really boring today), then join every point to every other point. Mindless, yet strangely satisfying.
And what kind of nerd site doesn't let you use a degree symbol?
It is regrettable that you got yourself into such a deep hole, but your situation is in no way common
That's hilarious. So that's why I owe less than the UK average.
and you shouldn't blame the credit card company for "suckering you" into a credit limit.
I blame myself, actually. But what else is this business about, if it isn't about maximising the amount of interest they can charge? I know far more about this stuff than pretty much everyone I meet, always have - so if I can get into such a mess, what do you think Joe Average is going to do when he sees "Credit limit: £9,000"? "Ooh, free money!" And they'll keep upping that limit every time he gets near it, up, up, up, till he can't afford the minimum repayment. Do you think that's ethical? I sure as hell don't.
Yes, he shouldn't have been so stupid (and nor should I). Yes, people should understand what they're agreeing to before they sign, but they don't, and these companies are growing fat off of it. That, to me, is exactly the sort of thing a government is there to prevent. There should be legislation in place:
Forcing companies to do a proper assessment before setting a credit limit, based on ability to pay from regular income, not on the company's ability to repossess, and with a hard upper limit of x% of declared annual income, where x is a small number
Preventing automatic credit limit increases, replacing these with an offer of an increase and requiring acceptance in writing, with the customer being required to acknowledge the increase in their personal risk in clear, unambiguous language
Requiring companies to include in statements, at least six-monthly, calculations of how long the debt will take to be cleared and how much interest will be charged, if only the minimum payment is made, and for appropriate amounts over the minimum
Banning, outright, increases in the interest charged on existing balances (ever had your rate jacked up by 4% overnight?), except for termination of limited-time promotional rates
On top of that, people should be getting taught about how these things work, in high school - and again in their first year at university, before they start racking up those massive debts. Hell, even if the tabloid rags plastered "SCAM" across their pages and explained it in tabloid terms, some people would learn from it.
Credit cards have their place, and people need to wise up, but you can't tell me that the industry doesn't thrive on ignorance.
My other "free-money card" has just about reached it's maximum limit, so it's about time I start looking for a new one.
"Free money". Don't even think it.
Please tell me you want a new one with a better interest rate so that you can transfer everything off the existing card and close it down. And that you'll have the willpower to actually do the transfer once that nice shiny new card arrives, because it won't work unless you do it immediately and shred the cards, both of them. I tried that a couple of times, and I didn't have the willpower - I'd maxed out five cards by the time I got out of uni, and was taking cash out on one to pay the next. I'm still clearing up the mess over five years later.
Really. Don't go there.
I did apply for another card recently, but as soon as the acceptance letter arrived (i.e., before I even had the plastic) I called them up, reduced the credit limit to a mere GBP100, and set up a direct debit to clear the balance every month - that's my "order stuff online" card. I cost them money. They deserve it, for trying to sucker me with over nine grand in credit just for filling in a bit of paper.
I've chopped up all my other cards (surprisingly cathartic!) and paid off all but two of them, and one of those will be gone by Christmas. The other one's going to take a couple of years, but I managed to get it down from 18.5% to 5%. Things are going in the right direction now, but not before I found myself deciding whether to skip the country or kill myself.
Really, no matter how badly you may want to support the causes, or how cute the penguin is, don't do this unless you know exactly what you're getting into. And if they offer you a ridiculously high credit limit, for heaven's sake call them and have it lowered - don't leave it "just in case I need it" because you will "need" it. And then they'll up it. And you'll "need" that. Then they'll jack up the interest rate. Believe me, I know.
That's exactly my point. Since it's so easy, why couldn't the person writing the article do it, instead of comparing inches and millimetres to centimetres and making everyone else convert? Some readers, after all, may not possess such a truly dizzying intellect as yours.
And what if you think in inches? Convert that instantly.
Honestly, this place gets more like Myspace every day.
Had my "caregiver" typed my post for me, she would have noticed that the " symbols went AWOL during the cut and paste. Oops.
My point, you blithering idiot, was that - in fact, no, it's too complicated for you. I don't want to hurt your poor little brain, especially after you've so recently converted from mm to cm.
And, just for the record, I'm stark bollock naked, with only a laptop protecting my modesty. And I managed to put it there all by myself! So don't give me any of that crap about not being able to dress myself properly, either...
Slashdot Mirror
The typical Facebookers are what you'd get if YouTube and Flickr went halves on a baby.
A plateful of bones?
"Without my rifle, I am nothing." GI Joe stopped being a hero the day he surrendered his rifle to airport security.
Are you going to paste this comment onto every post from one of these individuals? Despite the fact that you keep getting modded down for it? You must be really obsessed or really, really dense. Give it a rest already - or at least say something new.
I have mod points and could just smack you into oblivion, but decided to post instead and let others do the smacking.
Yay, nuke the rich people!
"this video has your 72 virgins in it!"
The promise of 72 virgins is a powerful motivator, but nowhere does it say they won't all be male Slashdotters.
What kind of nerd site doesn't let you use a pi symbol? :)
Cool diagram.
I used to draw patterns like that while suffering through triple Maths - draw a circle, mark off every 10 degrees (or 5 if it looked like being really boring today), then join every point to every other point. Mindless, yet strangely satisfying.
And what kind of nerd site doesn't let you use a degree symbol?
Whoa whoa whoa, wait... Indian Head? Are you saying, Microsoft outsourced Bill Gates?
Ah, the old Denial of Sunlight thing... of course...
Ah, but if it's in alpha test it "isn't even out of beta yet"... ;)
TFA is taking an age to load. Either it's slashdotted, or the sun went in...
these silly names are hurting Ubuntu
I doubt we can prove that one way or the other, but "Edgy Eft" really left me going, "Huh?"
One meaning of "edgy" is "on edge, unstable" - not the kind of thing you want associated with your OS!
And as for "eft", well, WTF? I had to look it up.
It would have been more obvious had you replied to the comment to which you were referring, don't you think?
It's not my system - I'm not an American, and I'm certainly not in a position to affect their system of government.
You aren't the sharpest tool in the box, are you? Still a tool, though.
tacked it onto a port security bill
What kind of fucked-up system allows this to happen?
Seriously.
...can we set them up to arm-wrestle each other? Then we could gamble on which one goes up in a cloud of smoke.
Two machines enter - one machine leaves!
Heh. What if I buy the explosives on my Visa card, do I get extra irony points? :)
That's hilarious. So that's why I owe less than the UK average.
I blame myself, actually. But what else is this business about, if it isn't about maximising the amount of interest they can charge? I know far more about this stuff than pretty much everyone I meet, always have - so if I can get into such a mess, what do you think Joe Average is going to do when he sees "Credit limit: £9,000"? "Ooh, free money!" And they'll keep upping that limit every time he gets near it, up, up, up, till he can't afford the minimum repayment. Do you think that's ethical? I sure as hell don't.
Yes, he shouldn't have been so stupid (and nor should I). Yes, people should understand what they're agreeing to before they sign, but they don't, and these companies are growing fat off of it. That, to me, is exactly the sort of thing a government is there to prevent. There should be legislation in place:
- Forcing companies to do a proper assessment before setting a credit limit, based on ability to pay from regular income, not on the company's ability to repossess, and with a hard upper limit of x% of declared annual income, where x is a small number
- Preventing automatic credit limit increases, replacing these with an offer of an increase and requiring acceptance in writing, with the customer being required to acknowledge the increase in their personal risk in clear, unambiguous language
- Requiring companies to include in statements, at least six-monthly, calculations of how long the debt will take to be cleared and how much interest will be charged, if only the minimum payment is made, and for appropriate amounts over the minimum
- Banning, outright, increases in the interest charged on existing balances (ever had your rate jacked up by 4% overnight?), except for termination of limited-time promotional rates
On top of that, people should be getting taught about how these things work, in high school - and again in their first year at university, before they start racking up those massive debts. Hell, even if the tabloid rags plastered "SCAM" across their pages and explained it in tabloid terms, some people would learn from it.Credit cards have their place, and people need to wise up, but you can't tell me that the industry doesn't thrive on ignorance.
"Free money". Don't even think it.
Please tell me you want a new one with a better interest rate so that you can transfer everything off the existing card and close it down. And that you'll have the willpower to actually do the transfer once that nice shiny new card arrives, because it won't work unless you do it immediately and shred the cards, both of them. I tried that a couple of times, and I didn't have the willpower - I'd maxed out five cards by the time I got out of uni, and was taking cash out on one to pay the next. I'm still clearing up the mess over five years later.
Really. Don't go there.
I did apply for another card recently, but as soon as the acceptance letter arrived (i.e., before I even had the plastic) I called them up, reduced the credit limit to a mere GBP100, and set up a direct debit to clear the balance every month - that's my "order stuff online" card. I cost them money. They deserve it, for trying to sucker me with over nine grand in credit just for filling in a bit of paper.
I've chopped up all my other cards (surprisingly cathartic!) and paid off all but two of them, and one of those will be gone by Christmas. The other one's going to take a couple of years, but I managed to get it down from 18.5% to 5%. Things are going in the right direction now, but not before I found myself deciding whether to skip the country or kill myself.
Really, no matter how badly you may want to support the causes, or how cute the penguin is, don't do this unless you know exactly what you're getting into. And if they offer you a ridiculously high credit limit, for heaven's sake call them and have it lowered - don't leave it "just in case I need it" because you will "need" it. And then they'll up it. And you'll "need" that. Then they'll jack up the interest rate. Believe me, I know.
Say what you will, but it's one hell of an acronym!
Might want to get a proof-reader to that page. Eek.
Damned cool, though.
Wow, another smartass.
That's exactly my point. Since it's so easy, why couldn't the person writing the article do it, instead of comparing inches and millimetres to centimetres and making everyone else convert? Some readers, after all, may not possess such a truly dizzying intellect as yours.
And what if you think in inches? Convert that instantly.
Honestly, this place gets more like Myspace every day.
Had my "caregiver" typed my post for me, she would have noticed that the " symbols went AWOL during the cut and paste. Oops.
My point, you blithering idiot, was that - in fact, no, it's too complicated for you. I don't want to hurt your poor little brain, especially after you've so recently converted from mm to cm.
And, just for the record, I'm stark bollock naked, with only a laptop protecting my modesty. And I managed to put it there all by myself! So don't give me any of that crap about not being able to dress myself properly, either...
From TFA: A full-sized ATX motherboard is 12 x 9.6 (305mm x 244mm) and Mini-ITX is 17cm x 17xcm
That's nice and clear, don't you think?