"We desperately need a new system for PO's, RA's, and inventory/cost/depreciation tracking desperately. Does anyone have any advice?"
Uh-huh, never use the same word in the same sentence twice.
It may take time - but our society in America has made more progress towards what the *people* want than any other nation in history. You tellin' me that the peoples of China are represented fairly by their government?
Grant it I don't agree with every politician in our government here in the USA but if the majority of the public here doesn't like what they've done, out they go!
100% of those 10% surveyed are probably not accustomed to the normal daily freedoms we have as Americans. If you survey 10% of people in China who are used to being oppressed by their government I'm more than certain they'll be more accepting to this idea than 10% of Americans.
I hate one-sided/slanted polls because not everyone can think for themselves & there are those who are prone to take a poll for gospel.
You mean "skim" some off the top of some other industries' hard work. I don't see how your legislation generates ANYTHING other than pissed off people.
What rock have you been living under? (To the article submitter.) Game companies have been doing this for MANY years. I can remember buying "The Sims Online" long ago & immediately after installing it it commanded a 26MB patch download. Every day after that for many months it seemed as though they had a new 10-20MB patch to be downloaded each time I connected. I remember they marketed the game to both broadband & dial up users, as broadband was NOT the norm then. I wonder what the hell the dial users did???
Now let's talk Xbox 360. Every game I own for this thing (including the famous Call of Duty 2) has required an immediate patch download. I knew the instant broadband connectivity was paired up with a console with a Hard Drive installed it would spell then end of users actually being able to buy a complete game in the stores. There was a day when you could walk into a store with confidence & know they had to finish the damn thing before selling it because once they pressed out millions of copies onto CD/DVD, people WOULD NOT accept a piece of crap.
The forums for Call of Duty 2 are filled with people pissed off about lag, disconnect, glitch issues, & lack of basic features such as voting to change the map, kick a player, etc. However the Call of Duty folk have simply ignored their user base & took their time answering people & patching the game.
Just goes to show once they have your $$ they don't care much about what you think.
On a note to your first comment about jobs being harder to find these days.
Apparently you haven't heard that Mr. Bush & other liberal idiots have decided that stocking grocery shelves is one of those jobs "Most Americans Refuse to Do."
Next time you see someone touting their great flag of Mexico around, maybe you should think about the job market.
It's funny this article should come up today. I just built a new computer this week & was looking to keep the same version iTunes I had on my old one. OldVersion.com immediately came to mind - however when I went to their site I found it awfully strange that there isn't ONE, not a single ONE version of iTunes there. Only thing on the itunes page is, "iTunes is currently unavailable."
Pretty fishy if you ask me. See for yourself: http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=itunes iTunes-Page
This is exactly why for years now I have used a fake name on all my subscriptions. When someone signs up for one of these, there's nothing stopping someone from falsifying your name onto the little postcard for a free trial & check marking "BILL ME LATER."
The above scenario is why they will never be able to hold you responsible for a magazine sub that you may or may not have asked for. The risk of sending you a few magazines ahead of time without payment is something they as a company must take to try & get your business. It does NOT give them the right to assume this is a debt owed. However I have recently noticed more magazine companies doing what happened in this/. article. I myself have one that comes in on a monthly basis for PC World. They threaten that they've fairly noticed me 2 times now - that I owe $29.99 & my sub will continue once it is paid in full. Here's the clear difference. If it was a debt owed, there would be no continuation of my magazine sub - because I would hypothetically be paying for something already sent/used in the past.
In the end, the only reason I use a fake name is for 2 reasons. #1 - when I no longer want the magazine, I don't have to deal with this headache... I can simply tear up every single threat that comes in laughing at it - it's a nice chuckle in my mailbox montly.
#2 - When they sell my name & address to some other marketing company & I get the inevitable junk mail, I can still laugh at it & tear it up - yet more chuckles knowing they sold a fake persons' info to some marketing company.
Both ways it makes your junk mail easier to identify.
Yeah - like I said - not sure the guy knew exactly what he was talking about - but at least I got the number & sequence down so we can have direct access to checking via phone.
Just got off the phone with a Verizon Fios customer service representative. According to him Verizon Fios (pronounced "F-I-OH's") is only currently available in "PARTS" of San Diego.
Not sure if he really knows what he's talking about when it comes to their build out plan but apparently Verizon Fios is supposed to be available EVERYWHERE by October of 2005. (Don't hold your breath.)
In case you'd like to verify whether or not it's availble to you - you can call: 1-888-662-8275 and press 3, & then 3 again to go directly to the Verizon Fios department (ordering).
A bit off topic - but close enough... there used to be a website somewhere out there where you could pay a fee up front and have your "last words" sent to your loved ones after you were gone. I've tried briefly to google for it - but no luck. Anyone?
"Your marketing drones didn't have to spend a penny to get that concept into the minds of your potential customers"
This is not true. In fact, I don't believe they actually registered "Walkie-Talkie." But to say they haven't spent money to market the "Walkie-Talkie" is foolish. Just 5 years ago if you'd told most people you were going to offer them a walkie-talkie in a cell phone they'd look at you like you were crazy and would assume the cell phone wasn't actually a cell phone.
Whatever the complete list of terms registered... it doesn't matter. What matters is that the US Patent and Trademark office approved it. If it was ludicrous they would have been rejected. Again, I say I'm not certain they registered "Walkie-Talkie."
Direct Connect is NOT a two way radio. It works nothing like a two way radio. It only appears to work that way to the end user. Please don't state things you have no clue about. Direct Connect is a packet data communication that uses 6:1 interleving onto the network. Regular interconnect calls (phone calls) use 3:1 interleving and are as a result a much higher voice quality. Because Direct Connect (or Walkie Talkie) uses 6:1 interleving and is a half-duplex like connection it uses little to no network resources. The result is instantaneous conversation/connection with a very low cost without bogging the network down and thus allowing regular interconnect calls to go through without a hitch. For reference, anything wireless (data) you do on your Nextel phone is using 12:1 interleving. Sometime this year Nextel is releasing 6:1 interleving interconnect (normal phone) abilities. Even though it's 6:1 there will be no loss of voice quality due to a new vocoder chip (new algorithm) in the newer Nextel phones. The result of this is Nextel will instantaneously double its network capacity.
So no, Direct Connect (PTT) is NOT like a two way radio. It still goes over the network as if it were a normal phone call, it's just interleaved onto the T1 frame at a much lower rate. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about in the term interleaving... it's refering to how and when and on what frames within the T1 the data is placed on. A Direct Connect (PTT) call gets chopped up into data packets and is placed on the T1 every 6th frame. Regular interconnect calls are placed on the T1 every 3rd frame (soon to be every 6th with no loss of quality) and data services (Packet Data, aka: PCH) is placed on the T1 every 12th frame.
This is correct. I wasn't aware of the difference between a TM and a SM. Nextel certainly isn't going to go after CB & HAM operators using "PTT" or "Push to Talk" to describe their products. I imagine it would only be regarding other companies looking to piggy back on Nextel's success with PTT. If Nextel didn't register these terms, they'd be allowing a free ride for all the other cell companies on the work Nextel has done to build up the PTT service for years. By registering the terms, Nextel is protecting themselves from having consumers confusing their Direct Connect (PTT) service with whatever other garbage is served up by other cell companies. If I am a new customer to PTT and try it first at Verizon and it really sucks (and Verizon was allowed to call it a similar PTT) I may make the assumption as a consumer to never try it again with another company because it would be the same crap. Verizon needs to quit wasting money stomping their feet in anger and work on getting their product up to par. From what I understand they have a very good network (quality and such), now they need to be working on implementing other services that consumers demand. Why do companies have to do crap like this? I just don't understand it? The only people who ever really benefit from shit like this are the blood sucking lawyers. For them, it's a win whether or not the company they are representing wins. Must be nice to have the money to throw out the window Verizon!
I can tell you first hand that Nextel would never do such a thing as this. I finished taking a company required moral ethics class via the net (class has been a requirement for employees for years now) that deals with instances EXACTLY as this one.
Sure, an individual employee may have gained unauthorized access at some point, but Nextel would have fired the guy immediately and turned over any information/equipment, etc. to Verizon. There's not a chance in hell they would have used it to gain an advantage. As stated by another/.'er, they have no reason to do this; Their Direct Connect/Walkie Talkie has been perfected over 11 years and it now works from coast to coast (soon to be international as well).
So what's the reason for Verizon filing suit? They probably heard a Nextel company executive at some point say that they believe Verizon's PTT like service will not live up to Nextel's.
But here's the real reason: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030620/205239_1.html
You see, on June 20th, Nextel had multiple trademarks approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The following trade marks (TM) belong to Nextel: PTT, Push To Talk, Push Power, and Nationwide Walkie Talkie (there may be others I'm not aware of).
Now this is a REAL PROBLEM for Verizon who needs to describe their "walkie-talkie" like service somehow. They need a name for it, and a catchy one at that. Nextel had a hell of a time getting consumers to understand what "Direct Connect" is. It wasn't until switching to using the term "Walkie-Talkie" that they found it clicked immediately what the service was. Everyone knows what a walkie-talkie is.
So it is my opinion that Verizon filed suit over some bogus claim in retaliation to Nextel having their trademarks approved. If Verizon doesn't find a good name for their product and can't any decent terms to describe it (must sum up the meaning in one to three words to catch people's attention) their service will have an extremely difficult time launching. How are you going to convice consumers they should add another charge/service to their phones if you can't adequately explain what it is/does without calling it a walkie talkie, ptt or push to talk service?
Let me tell you as a RF technician for a national wireless cellular company that there is NO WAY that 200lbs. comes EVEN CLOSE to what you need for equipment. A minimum of 1k lbs. will have to be up there. Also, not to mention that the picture that that company shows with the plane supposedly transmitting down to that entire city would have to carry an assload of frequencies. Need for more frequencies = Need for more equipment. There's no way that plane could carry enough cellular site radios to transmit/receive to/from all the users a city the size depicted in that picture! Not even close. Floating planes transmitting to customers is no where even close to becoming a reality.
Then there's one last problem. The problem of risk. The risk of having a cellular shelter go up in flames is extremely low. The risk of having a high tech plane fall out of the sky for whatever reason (wind shear, fuel out, human error) and damaging your $13,000 a piece cellular radios is extremely high... (compared to that of traditional methods of transmission). This cost is only that of the actual radios. There's much more cost and weight associated with a cell site.
If you were the CEO of a cellular company, you'd have to be a complete friggin' moron to think this has any chance of becoming real anytime relatively soon.
Funny this topic came up; I just purchased a Roomba last night at Target for $199.99. It charged all night and as I type it is making it's way around my hallway.
It doesn't seem to all too efficient, but hey, my carpet still gets cleaned without me having to worry about it, and not to mention the barel of laughs I get when the vaccuum suddenly turns directions and heads for one of my two cats!
This stuff is a long way off from being anywhere near perfect. I don't think I'm going to keep the Roomba, but at least it was amusing for awhile!
No, she's DEFINETELY NOT hot. She's not much fun to be around and she nags all the time... sort of like a mother. Trust me, you want to keep looking, even if it's not serious.
You know, I've now been married for over 5 years. Luckily I was blessed to have a wife who isn't CRAZY about jewelry. I can't remember, but I believe we spent $800-$900 for our wedding set. Now I am sitting here about two days away from serving her divorce papers. Even $200 per ring is too much. It's a ROCK for gods sake! It merely *supposedly* has value because it is a rare mineral. Well if it's so *RARE* how come everyone's got one?
If I ever get married again... I'm dead serious that I'm going to http://www.bigassdiamonds.com/ like someone on here mentioned. If my wife can't be happy with even a simple not-so-flashy ring and wants to make a big stink about it... then she's not the right woman for me. I want someone who ultimately cares for me... not the rock on her finger. If I were you, I'd push this subject on her and tell her you're definetely getting a cubic zirconia (even if you aren't) and get a reaction. Use this to gauge what she REALLY thinks about you. If she loves you, it won't matter. If she gets pissed and throws a big stink... move along, there are much better people out there for you.
Yep, this is just like LONG RANTING EULA's that make people not really want to take the time to read them... every company knows that the end user (to which the EULA directly is supposed to address) is just going to click "I AGREE" to get the damn thing working/running.
Another funny situation I saw... two days ago a bus went by me on the street. I had this HUGE ADD on the side of it in 3 foot letters for AT&T long distance. It said something about how you could sign up for unlimited long distance at some low cost... $25 a month or something. The statement had a * at the end. I tried to read the fine print at the bottom for the details... guess how small they were??? About as small as the print in the NEWSPAPER. Try reading that as a bus passes you buy with an advertisement!
It's dirty. I FRIKIN HATE these people and their cheap tactics. They're no better than the Enron execs and should all be SHOT to be removed from this earth on INSTANT.
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Big rolling fire balls in the parking lot - right next to the hazmat area. Fuckin' dumb ass.
Aren't you sharp - or are you? Do you think it could have been an intentional play on his sentence???
"We desperately need a new system for PO's, RA's, and inventory/cost/depreciation tracking desperately. Does anyone have any advice?" Uh-huh, never use the same word in the same sentence twice.
It may take time - but our society in America has made more progress towards what the *people* want than any other nation in history. You tellin' me that the peoples of China are represented fairly by their government?
Grant it I don't agree with every politician in our government here in the USA but if the majority of the public here doesn't like what they've done, out they go!
100% of those 10% surveyed are probably not accustomed to the normal daily freedoms we have as Americans. If you survey 10% of people in China who are used to being oppressed by their government I'm more than certain they'll be more accepting to this idea than 10% of Americans. I hate one-sided/slanted polls because not everyone can think for themselves & there are those who are prone to take a poll for gospel.
You mean "skim" some off the top of some other industries' hard work. I don't see how your legislation generates ANYTHING other than pissed off people.
What rock have you been living under? (To the article submitter.) Game companies have been doing this for MANY years. I can remember buying "The Sims Online" long ago & immediately after installing it it commanded a 26MB patch download. Every day after that for many months it seemed as though they had a new 10-20MB patch to be downloaded each time I connected. I remember they marketed the game to both broadband & dial up users, as broadband was NOT the norm then. I wonder what the hell the dial users did???
Now let's talk Xbox 360. Every game I own for this thing (including the famous Call of Duty 2) has required an immediate patch download. I knew the instant broadband connectivity was paired up with a console with a Hard Drive installed it would spell then end of users actually being able to buy a complete game in the stores. There was a day when you could walk into a store with confidence & know they had to finish the damn thing before selling it because once they pressed out millions of copies onto CD/DVD, people WOULD NOT accept a piece of crap.
The forums for Call of Duty 2 are filled with people pissed off about lag, disconnect, glitch issues, & lack of basic features such as voting to change the map, kick a player, etc. However the Call of Duty folk have simply ignored their user base & took their time answering people & patching the game.
Just goes to show once they have your $$ they don't care much about what you think.
On a note to your first comment about jobs being harder to find these days.
Apparently you haven't heard that Mr. Bush & other liberal idiots have decided that stocking grocery shelves is one of those jobs "Most Americans Refuse to Do."
Next time you see someone touting their great flag of Mexico around, maybe you should think about the job market.
It's funny this article should come up today. I just built a new computer this week & was looking to keep the same version iTunes I had on my old one. OldVersion.com immediately came to mind - however when I went to their site I found it awfully strange that there isn't ONE, not a single ONE version of iTunes there. Only thing on the itunes page is, "iTunes is currently unavailable." Pretty fishy if you ask me. See for yourself: http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=itunes iTunes-Page
I plotted the approximate location of the german sub at the time they transmitted the message & were following the "enemy." (Based on information from the translated original enigma text.) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=51.33+N,+4 1.35+W&ll=51.289406,-41.308594&spn=52.133005,175.7 8125
Kind of neat to look at.
This is exactly why for years now I have used a fake name on all my subscriptions. When someone signs up for one of these, there's nothing stopping someone from falsifying your name onto the little postcard for a free trial & check marking "BILL ME LATER."
/. article. I myself have one that comes in on a monthly basis for PC World. They threaten that they've fairly noticed me 2 times now - that I owe $29.99 & my sub will continue once it is paid in full. Here's the clear difference. If it was a debt owed, there would be no continuation of my magazine sub - because I would hypothetically be paying for something already sent/used in the past.
The above scenario is why they will never be able to hold you responsible for a magazine sub that you may or may not have asked for. The risk of sending you a few magazines ahead of time without payment is something they as a company must take to try & get your business. It does NOT give them the right to assume this is a debt owed. However I have recently noticed more magazine companies doing what happened in this
In the end, the only reason I use a fake name is for 2 reasons. #1 - when I no longer want the magazine, I don't have to deal with this headache... I can simply tear up every single threat that comes in laughing at it - it's a nice chuckle in my mailbox montly.
#2 - When they sell my name & address to some other marketing company & I get the inevitable junk mail, I can still laugh at it & tear it up - yet more chuckles knowing they sold a fake persons' info to some marketing company.
Both ways it makes your junk mail easier to identify.
Yeah - like I said - not sure the guy knew exactly what he was talking about - but at least I got the number & sequence down so we can have direct access to checking via phone.
Just got off the phone with a Verizon Fios customer service representative. According to him Verizon Fios (pronounced "F-I-OH's") is only currently available in "PARTS" of San Diego. Not sure if he really knows what he's talking about when it comes to their build out plan but apparently Verizon Fios is supposed to be available EVERYWHERE by October of 2005. (Don't hold your breath.) In case you'd like to verify whether or not it's availble to you - you can call: 1-888-662-8275 and press 3, & then 3 again to go directly to the Verizon Fios department (ordering).
Do they always post all of the popular science magazine articles in here? This was in this months issue. Just curious.
A bit off topic - but close enough... there used to be a website somewhere out there where you could pay a fee up front and have your "last words" sent to your loved ones after you were gone. I've tried briefly to google for it - but no luck. Anyone?
"Your marketing drones didn't have to spend a penny to get that concept into the minds of your potential customers" This is not true. In fact, I don't believe they actually registered "Walkie-Talkie." But to say they haven't spent money to market the "Walkie-Talkie" is foolish. Just 5 years ago if you'd told most people you were going to offer them a walkie-talkie in a cell phone they'd look at you like you were crazy and would assume the cell phone wasn't actually a cell phone. Whatever the complete list of terms registered... it doesn't matter. What matters is that the US Patent and Trademark office approved it. If it was ludicrous they would have been rejected. Again, I say I'm not certain they registered "Walkie-Talkie."
Direct Connect is NOT a two way radio. It works nothing like a two way radio. It only appears to work that way to the end user. Please don't state things you have no clue about. Direct Connect is a packet data communication that uses 6:1 interleving onto the network. Regular interconnect calls (phone calls) use 3:1 interleving and are as a result a much higher voice quality. Because Direct Connect (or Walkie Talkie) uses 6:1 interleving and is a half-duplex like connection it uses little to no network resources. The result is instantaneous conversation/connection with a very low cost without bogging the network down and thus allowing regular interconnect calls to go through without a hitch. For reference, anything wireless (data) you do on your Nextel phone is using 12:1 interleving. Sometime this year Nextel is releasing 6:1 interleving interconnect (normal phone) abilities. Even though it's 6:1 there will be no loss of voice quality due to a new vocoder chip (new algorithm) in the newer Nextel phones. The result of this is Nextel will instantaneously double its network capacity. So no, Direct Connect (PTT) is NOT like a two way radio. It still goes over the network as if it were a normal phone call, it's just interleaved onto the T1 frame at a much lower rate. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about in the term interleaving... it's refering to how and when and on what frames within the T1 the data is placed on. A Direct Connect (PTT) call gets chopped up into data packets and is placed on the T1 every 6th frame. Regular interconnect calls are placed on the T1 every 3rd frame (soon to be every 6th with no loss of quality) and data services (Packet Data, aka: PCH) is placed on the T1 every 12th frame.
This is correct. I wasn't aware of the difference between a TM and a SM. Nextel certainly isn't going to go after CB & HAM operators using "PTT" or "Push to Talk" to describe their products. I imagine it would only be regarding other companies looking to piggy back on Nextel's success with PTT. If Nextel didn't register these terms, they'd be allowing a free ride for all the other cell companies on the work Nextel has done to build up the PTT service for years. By registering the terms, Nextel is protecting themselves from having consumers confusing their Direct Connect (PTT) service with whatever other garbage is served up by other cell companies. If I am a new customer to PTT and try it first at Verizon and it really sucks (and Verizon was allowed to call it a similar PTT) I may make the assumption as a consumer to never try it again with another company because it would be the same crap. Verizon needs to quit wasting money stomping their feet in anger and work on getting their product up to par. From what I understand they have a very good network (quality and such), now they need to be working on implementing other services that consumers demand. Why do companies have to do crap like this? I just don't understand it? The only people who ever really benefit from shit like this are the blood sucking lawyers. For them, it's a win whether or not the company they are representing wins. Must be nice to have the money to throw out the window Verizon!
I can tell you first hand that Nextel would never do such a thing as this. I finished taking a company required moral ethics class via the net (class has been a requirement for employees for years now) that deals with instances EXACTLY as this one. Sure, an individual employee may have gained unauthorized access at some point, but Nextel would have fired the guy immediately and turned over any information/equipment, etc. to Verizon. There's not a chance in hell they would have used it to gain an advantage. As stated by another /.'er, they have no reason to do this; Their Direct Connect/Walkie Talkie has been perfected over 11 years and it now works from coast to coast (soon to be international as well).
So what's the reason for Verizon filing suit? They probably heard a Nextel company executive at some point say that they believe Verizon's PTT like service will not live up to Nextel's.
But here's the real reason: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030620/205239_1.html
You see, on June 20th, Nextel had multiple trademarks approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The following trade marks (TM) belong to Nextel: PTT, Push To Talk, Push Power, and Nationwide Walkie Talkie (there may be others I'm not aware of).
Now this is a REAL PROBLEM for Verizon who needs to describe their "walkie-talkie" like service somehow. They need a name for it, and a catchy one at that. Nextel had a hell of a time getting consumers to understand what "Direct Connect" is. It wasn't until switching to using the term "Walkie-Talkie" that they found it clicked immediately what the service was. Everyone knows what a walkie-talkie is.
So it is my opinion that Verizon filed suit over some bogus claim in retaliation to Nextel having their trademarks approved. If Verizon doesn't find a good name for their product and can't any decent terms to describe it (must sum up the meaning in one to three words to catch people's attention) their service will have an extremely difficult time launching. How are you going to convice consumers they should add another charge/service to their phones if you can't adequately explain what it is/does without calling it a walkie talkie, ptt or push to talk service?
Let me tell you as a RF technician for a national wireless cellular company that there is NO WAY that 200lbs. comes EVEN CLOSE to what you need for equipment. A minimum of 1k lbs. will have to be up there. Also, not to mention that the picture that that company shows with the plane supposedly transmitting down to that entire city would have to carry an assload of frequencies. Need for more frequencies = Need for more equipment. There's no way that plane could carry enough cellular site radios to transmit/receive to/from all the users a city the size depicted in that picture! Not even close. Floating planes transmitting to customers is no where even close to becoming a reality.
Then there's one last problem. The problem of risk. The risk of having a cellular shelter go up in flames is extremely low. The risk of having a high tech plane fall out of the sky for whatever reason (wind shear, fuel out, human error) and damaging your $13,000 a piece cellular radios is extremely high... (compared to that of traditional methods of transmission). This cost is only that of the actual radios. There's much more cost and weight associated with a cell site.
If you were the CEO of a cellular company, you'd have to be a complete friggin' moron to think this has any chance of becoming real anytime relatively soon.
Funny this topic came up; I just purchased a Roomba last night at Target for $199.99. It charged all night and as I type it is making it's way around my hallway. It doesn't seem to all too efficient, but hey, my carpet still gets cleaned without me having to worry about it, and not to mention the barel of laughs I get when the vaccuum suddenly turns directions and heads for one of my two cats! This stuff is a long way off from being anywhere near perfect. I don't think I'm going to keep the Roomba, but at least it was amusing for awhile!
No, she's DEFINETELY NOT hot. She's not much fun to be around and she nags all the time... sort of like a mother. Trust me, you want to keep looking, even if it's not serious.
You know, I've now been married for over 5 years. Luckily I was blessed to have a wife who isn't CRAZY about jewelry. I can't remember, but I believe we spent $800-$900 for our wedding set. Now I am sitting here about two days away from serving her divorce papers. Even $200 per ring is too much. It's a ROCK for gods sake! It merely *supposedly* has value because it is a rare mineral. Well if it's so *RARE* how come everyone's got one? If I ever get married again... I'm dead serious that I'm going to http://www.bigassdiamonds.com/ like someone on here mentioned. If my wife can't be happy with even a simple not-so-flashy ring and wants to make a big stink about it... then she's not the right woman for me. I want someone who ultimately cares for me... not the rock on her finger. If I were you, I'd push this subject on her and tell her you're definetely getting a cubic zirconia (even if you aren't) and get a reaction. Use this to gauge what she REALLY thinks about you. If she loves you, it won't matter. If she gets pissed and throws a big stink... move along, there are much better people out there for you.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/in dex.html
Yep, this is just like LONG RANTING EULA's that make people not really want to take the time to read them... every company knows that the end user (to which the EULA directly is supposed to address) is just going to click "I AGREE" to get the damn thing working/running.
Another funny situation I saw... two days ago a bus went by me on the street. I had this HUGE ADD on the side of it in 3 foot letters for AT&T long distance. It said something about how you could sign up for unlimited long distance at some low cost... $25 a month or something. The statement had a * at the end. I tried to read the fine print at the bottom for the details... guess how small they were??? About as small as the print in the NEWSPAPER. Try reading that as a bus passes you buy with an advertisement!
It's dirty. I FRIKIN HATE these people and their cheap tactics. They're no better than the Enron execs and should all be SHOT to be removed from this earth on INSTANT.