When it is written using a canned package which only requires you to set up the screens and the package does the rest. Just to keep things nice and anonymous I won't say more specifically. The upgraded package, btw, is not compatible with the previous releases.
With their package you do not need classes, functions (at least they are not called functions), don't have to worry about the data structure, and there are hardly any algorithms to write. Further, the program doesn't need a lot of stuff added to the basic, read, write, edit, and delete record holding mechanism.
Think of Foxbase+ on steroids and you have a fairly good idea of how this thing worked. Then throw out most of the coding because the program takes care of all of that. You just select your icon, give the package what you want the icon to do (like retrieve a record) and it uses the fields (taken from the database and drag'n dropped onto the screen which automatically does all of the tests for the type of field, length, etc...) and uses them to automagically pull up a record from the database which matches your criteria. And that's just some of what this package can do. Very nice package. But it is not like programming where you have to define everything and then use it. Most (if not all) of the functions you'd normally write are already written. The only time you have to write anything is to handle special cases. Even then, sometimes, it is just one or two lines of code to help the package know where to go to get the things it needs and how to cross reference the fields.
The only drawback to the entire thing is - it doesn't handle HTML, XML, JavaScript, or any other web based language. Which is where I came in. It started out small and grew into a nightmare very quickly for both sides. We still talk and there has been some talk about trying it again. Only if I do go back - this time we are going to sit down and lay everything out properly, create a timeline, and try for a more realistic outlook. I also will pull in some other friends of mine to help out as their needs are a bit more than one person can handle. Just creating the screens - by themselves - is a full time job. Let alone getting all of the screens to adhere to the standards they want.
I had a friend. He had a job. "Just a few screens," he said. I said "Ok! I'll do it."
Then came the meetings. Then came the time. "About a month and a half in man hours." I said. "About a month and a half," is what they heard.
"Five screens only," said they. "Five screens," said I.
But wait! There's more. Next week there were four more! Four more screens and reports to go. Four more screens - but a month and a half still to do them in.
But then came next week and lo and behold! Sixteen other screens had to be made you know. Because the ones from before required these screens or else they would not operate. So now we were at twenty-five. But a month and a half - no more.
So off I went and checked them out and who should be hidding but twenty-five snouts. Yes! Twenty-five more screens hidden under buttons and some even had twenty-five cousins. So now I was up to seventy-five. "Seventy-five screens!" Says I. "But only a month and a half to do them in," says they. "Preposterous!" Says I. "Not so!" says they. "You can do it - you're a wizard today."
"Fat chance!" says I. "Look at the reports! One for each is seventy-five reports! Whatever happened to the five? Where did these all come from?! I'm working night and day but these screens are falling like bullets from a machine gun!" "But you said you could do this!" they quipped. "Yes, but it will take seventy-five years at the rate you are going!" I said.
And so the dust flew and we squawked and we chattered and finally decided the fate of the matter. There just was no way to do the screens in the time alloted. I gave them the five and then bravely departed. The extra fifteen I threw in when they paid me some more, but I've stopped work on them and they leave me alone.
I talked with my friend again the other day. Now there's an upgrade and the other members of the company say: "There's only five screens we want you to do. They are simple - they are few." And now my friend must face them and say "You're full of S*** - just go away!"
(Taken from a true story. The company has well over 150 screens, has nothing in writing about what they do or how they do it, all of the screens are interconnected and require all of them to be created before anything will work. Even after it became obvious that there were hundreds of screens and we tried to talk about it the company would not sit down, print out copies of all of the screens, and even tell me how they worked. It became a nightmare which we (thankfully) stopped after almost three months had gone by. Although the screens were being made I would be told each screen should operate in one way only to have someone else say it should operate in another. No cohesion, standards, nothing. But a nice program still.:-/)
Re:Ayn Rand strikes again
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Free Culture
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· Score: 1
My only reply to this would be that you may say that about some companies but I do not believe it is a valid opinion about the larger, multinational corporations.
And as for "not forcing" - where have you been these past few years? Microsoft trial? A little thing about them forcing outlets to sign contracts? Or maybe you'd like to read up on Oracle? Or how about First Data? And what they have been up to.
No company is pristine. But some are worse than others.
Ayn Rand strikes again
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Free Culture
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· Score: 1
When I read Mr. Lessig's talks Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" comes to mind. Big business rewriting our laws to suit themselves. As I've said in the past - monopolies and big business are nothing more than kingdoms and everyone else are the serfs.
Kingdoms are monopolies. Do as the king says or else. It used to be the church which ran kingdoms from behind the throne. (Do it or be excommunicated.) Now it is big business. (Do it or we will change the laws to force you to do it.)
The secret is - laws are just so many words on pieces of paper. Some words are just but many are not. Some governments are just - but many are not. Why else do you think that third world countries continue to have so many problems? And why do we?
I tell you what! I just had an idea! Why don't we have a national black-out day? One where no one gets on the net for 24 hours! Nobody answers the phone. Nobody goes to work. Noone goes out to eat. Talk about scare big business. That would speak a lot louder than any speech given by anyone.
But who made the masses stupid in the first place? And is watching American Gladiators really an unconscious effort on the part of the viewers to express their outrage at the status quo?
Since when did you think you had any privacy left?
Let's see.... 1. The water company knows how much water you use. 2. The light company knows how much electricity you use. 3. The cable company what shows you watched. 4. The local tax people know how much you paid in school taxes, et al. 5. The feds know income taxes. 6. Your credit card company knows everything you've bought. 7. The grocery stores know what you eat. 8. The gas companies know where you've been. 9. Your bank knows everything you've been buying. 10. Surfing the net is traced by your ISP because they have to relay your request to the other hosts. 11. Why do you think cookie monsters track what you do on the net?
What privacy? Other than we still wear clothes we might as well walk around nude and go moo.
It isn't so much that the masses are so stupid as those who direct the product think we are stupid and film for the lowest common denominator. Thus, we drag everyone down to the lowest level rather than lift everyone up to the highest.
Anyone remember their Bible studies? Revelations and all that stuff. 1/3 of all of the animals will die, 1/3 of the fish, 1/3 of the plants, death, doom, destruction. You die, he dies, we all die - that kind of stuff. Must be the work of Sauron...er I mean Satan! (I knew it was one of those "S" words!)
And I say unto thee: Lo! The time is near! Ahhhhhh! Hide thee lest thy life be forfeit!
Hmmmmmm....yeah - where's my PlayStation2? I've got to get one last game in before the world perishes!
Yes, that is why I said small buisnesses. As an example I recall something about Winnie the Pooh and Epcot Center. Both from the same company who applied extreme pressure to have the government to pass this law. My suggestion is to allow small businesses who would otherwise not have to pay royalties to these companies to produce Mickey Mouse T-Shirts, Donald Duck T-Shirts, cups, mugs, hats, pants, and the like sit and create the laws. Because then they would not only be considering their own needs but the needs of those who can not pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make something to sell.
You see, the copyrights are monopolies and monopolies are an aberration to how the U.S. is set up to run. That is why they were severely limited in the first place. So succeeding generations would not owe, in coin, their predecessors. But they would have to acknowledge them. Now, we are slaves. Shackled by invisible bonds which make us all criminals if we even sing the "Happy Birthday" song. We are sinking into the haves and have-nots with the haves gaining more power faster than the have-nots can ever hope to overcome. That is wrong. We do our best when everyone can build upon what went before without fear of reprisal.
As for the "living longer" - just type in '+copyright +"people living longer"' and you will be amazed at the results.
Medicine, better living conditions, and more awareness about hygiene in general have helped to extend the lives of many people who would have otherwise died in the first twenty years of their life. But it still doesn't guarantee them to live until they are over 200 years old.:-/
Sadly, even with all of the strides mankind has made in the past six or seven centuries - we still kill ourselves off faster than we can heal the hurts. Drugs, guns, crime, and invaders from other countries all take their toll on how long someone lives.
Still, the universe is rather large. Maybe we could give one planet to each person? But then would we find happiness or loneliness? And if we did - whom would we tell?
1. That I believed that Congress was mandated not to establish kingdoms, monarchies, or any other set up where one person, group, or organization could control things for long periods of time unless it was a government run entity. 275 years is a long time. I know I will be dead, my sons dead, their sons dead, and so on for up to fifteen generations.
2. That each generation (ie: 20 years) is supposed to be given the chance to build upon the work of the previous generation without having to worry about owing the previous generation anything (like royalties). See the rules about The Patent Office for more information. Current copyright rules have destroyed this balance.
3. I am in favor of: 3a. Copyrights. 3b. Of the author being paid for their works. 3c. Of extending copyrights to the life of the author so long as the author is being paid for his/her work. 3d. Of the author being able to lease his copyrights.
4. I am not in favor of copyrights being bought or sold but that is just because I believe it muddies the water over how long a copyright should last. The person or entity who buys the copyright wants to make as much money as they can on what they paid out money for. As such, they have a vested interest in extending the copyright.
5. I am also in favor of having a group of small businesses get together,reviewing, and rewriting the copyright laws from the standpoint of those who are most affected by the changes in the DMCA. It would be interesting to have non-multibillion dollar companies present their views on what Congress did.
As as side note: I have heard (and someone please correct me if I am wrong) that one of the reasons for the extension was because people were living longer. My rebuttal to this is that whomever said this was not lying but they were not speaking the truth either. That is because the length of time people are living to be is still the same but the number of people living to that age is increasing. So the number is only increasing because there are more people living in the world and not because they are living a greater number of years.
To back the above up I refer people to Plato's "The Republic". In the section on when should men and women be allowed to procreate, Socrates replies that men between the ages of 25 and 55 may have children and women between 20 and 40. Now, ask yourself - if men lived to be 55 (and older) centuries before Christ came along, how can someone say we are living longer in terms of years?
First, the blind use audio devices already or enhanced monitors for those who are not truly blind but have such bad vision they require special equipment. For such people an audio statement could be included which says "If you are visually impaired please select the link which reads 'Links for the blind'." Or some such. A program could still be written to automatically detect this - but then are they not already working on how to get around the visual key? My bet would be on the "Yes they are" answer.
People who are mute are not necessarily blind but let us say they are for the moment. Such people already also have equipment which helps them overcome this problem. Again, they will either have Braille finger pads, or hearing enhancements.
"What if they don't have this?" you ask? "How did they get there in the first place?" I'd say back. Common sense says that they had to have some method to navigate the internet in the first place. That means that those methods can be used to do this as well.
Yes. I could agree with or accept that it is supposed to be a Representative Republic. The good of the many versus the good of the few and all that jazz.
No. I do not. But then I also never said the people in control of Iraq were doing the right thing either.
The question is whether or not we have the right to force other countries to act like we do. Not that our system is totally bad (one extreme) or that it is totally good (another extreme). It is just that we do not own the world.
First, we have to agree that governments, no matter what, are populated with people. Agreed? Agreed. Second, we have to agree that those people have definite directions they would like the government to go in. Agreed? Agreed. (These are, after all, common sense things.)
Capitalism, as defined by Webster's on-line dictionary is said to be ": an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market." So first notice that there is nothing said about people. Capitalism talks instead about companies and corporations.
Democracy, as defined by Webster's on-line dictionary is "1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections." Notice that a Democracy is of, by, and for the people and has nothing to do with companies or corporations. Or in other words - what I said in the first paragraph.
They are NOT mutually exclusive in that people have to run both of them. But they ARE mutually exclusive in their orientation towards their goals. In Capitalism it is the companies who rule and the people are the slaves. In a Democracy the people rule and the companies are the slaves. The distinction is in who rules and who doesn't. Not in the fact that both of them have people in them.
And while we are on the subject - FEUDALISM is closer to Capitalism than Democracy. As defined you-know-where, feudalism is "1 : the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal with all land held in fee and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under arms and in court, wardship, and forfeiture." In Capitalism you give your loyalty and support to a company, in feudalism you give it to a king. But you are still a vassal no matter what in either system! There can be only one king and there can be only on president or CEO of a company. Same thing - just different titles.
IRAQ: All I can say is "Show me the weapons!" You can't! They didn't have any! They were in compliance! Watch CNN, read stories from OUTSIDE OF THE US! Get other people's input before you say they did anything wrong. The only thing is - the US is the big bully on the block and we didn't like what Iraq was doing. So we went over there and killed people, invaded a country, created another Afghanistan! Wow! Wasn't that wonderful? This huge superpower went over and wiped out a government in another country which wasn't even as big as our largest state, had no weapons of mass destruction that we can find(!), and wiped out their economy. Wow! I'm impressed! Not.
And I realize you have your way of looking at it and I have mine. So I tell you what I'll do. I'll look at the dead bodies and weep. You can look at the elected officals and cheer.
One World: WIPO is the organization which has helped to push copyrights so they will last for 175 years. WIPO isn't made up of politicans. It is made up of corporate CEOs and other higher management personnel. They are the ones who got the US (and now other countries) to extend copyrights which were originally set to be 14 years with a single extension of 14 years to last over 100 years past the death of the copyright holder. Why? It can't be because the copyright owner needs the money. So come on - let's hear it - it benefits the corporations and companies of the world. Ah - there we go - taking the "We the people" out of things again. You can look around for others
I didn't have any problem reading your message. I guess Lord Greystroke hasn't left the jungle yet.
From where I sit (ie: Unemployed but looking) there are several problems with the way in which things are going now-a-days.
First, America is converting from a Democracy to a Capitalistic state. The difference between the two is in a Democracy the government is of, by, and for the people. In a Capitalistic state the government is out to make as much money as it can, however it can. Even if it has to trample over all of your rights.
Second, in an international economy (the One World economy bs) you do not matter at all so long as everything is evenly divided up among all of the countries around the world. Thus, it is no longer what is good for America is good enough for the world - it becomes what country X says is what everyone has to do. Look at Iraq to see what happens when you don't do what you are told.
We in America are also moving towards a police state. If you don't believe me just look at the Patriot Act. Congress has become nothing more than a yes man to the wants of the president. Here in my own state (the president's home state) all of the democratic reps left the state because of what the republicans were doing. How long before others join in in doing this? Further, Congress is now granting immunity to prosecution under the law. How outrageous is this? It is not only immoral, illegal, and unethical, but it just plain sucks. We are guaranteed that no one is above the law yet Congress is now saying otherwise. Isn't this what used to be called treason? Didn't we fight several wars to ensure this would not happen? But it is.
Justice is blind but Americans are bound hand and foot by arbitrary laws put in place by companies, corporations, and international interests so they can profit and we, the people, can lose. Before the multi-billion dollar corporations were around things were sane, balanced, and easy to understand. Now they are not. We, the people, haven't changed in our needs but those who want to make money anyway they can have. They have figured out how to camouflage their true intents. To divert people's attention from their true actions. And how to befuddle, buy, or remove those impediments to their goals.
Monopolies are bad. Our country was not built on monopolies. It was built by small companies who came up with great ideas. If you go back and look you will find that so long as the original founder was alive the company worked to help people and that it was not until after that person or set of people were gone that the companies began acting in ways which worked against the people. There is no heart or soul in monopolies - only greed. Phone service got better when the phone company was split up. Now that they are getting back together again I foresee worse service.
Until the people stand up and say enough this will continue and it will get worse over time. Sleep if you will, but the time for sleep is past. Hide if you will, but you will be found. Aren't you done with being afraid? Quiet? Complacent? No one can cart you off for simply speaking out. So leave your fear behind, get involved, and help straighten out this mess we've allowed to flourish.
It is my hope that the zillion and one add-ons for the browser are thrown out and that a graphical browser is built from the ground up which uses a Perl type of interpreter that has been extended to include graphics (2D & 3D) and which can compile the programs. This would allow the creation of a new JavaScript, Perl, PHP, et al programs who's underlying code is executable on all platforms.
Unlike Java, which uses a VM, this would run more like Borland's original Turbo Pascal. And yes, it would allow people to take advantage of a system's commands. However, instead of allowing the program to run amok - why not make all operations only execute on a sub-directory below where the browser itself resides or one which the user selects. This would restrict such things as "rm -rf *" from wiping out the entire system to only wiping out a particular directory. Further, each site's software could be restricted to work only (again) on one particular directory (like c:/http//...) instead of willie-nillie allow full access to the entire hard drive.
In any event, browsers were never originally intended to handle graphics. They were tacked on afterwards. They were never intended to execute programs (being meant more to just display static pages) - so that was tacked on afterwards also. In fact, everything is just tacked on to the browser. This means that a normal browser now has to handle hundreds of different things using tacked on add-ins rather than just being able to handle it in a more efficient method. That being compile the program and let it execute.
Also, as things have progressed things have become more complicated as more and more capabilities have been tacked onto the basic browser. I thought the whole idea of the browser and HTML was to make it easy for people to do things. Have you looked at the vector graphics stuff? Easy? I don't think so. It is getting to where you have to have a degree in web programming just to be able to do something simple.
And that is great - if that is what you wanted to do in the first place. But what was wanted was an easy way for mom and pop to set up web pages. Only - they almost can't now-a-days because it has gotten that complicated. And hey! I'm a programmer too and that means job security for me. But it makes me pause. For it always seems to be this way. We start out simple and then instead of keeping to the KISS principle - we instead seem to gain great pleasure from making it as hard as possible for someone to do anything with anything.
So what I'm saying is is that it is all good and fine for you to have an IQ of 1000 - but can you make it work for someone with an IQ of 100? or 50? Remember that kids don't have an IQ of 1000 either. You want them interested in programming? Then make it so they can use it first - and that means making it simple and easy to use and having a standardized base code to work from.
Actually, the lawsuit ( and here) was over overlapping windows. The technology (now Patented by others - lawyers I think) was the main gripe in Apple's original lawsuit. The problem with the lawsuit was that it was based mainly on "Look and Feel" which began with Atari's Pacman/Centipede games versus Bally's arcade games (or whoever it was at the time). Anyway, Apple Computer and Microsoft came to an agreement. Microsoft got the entire set of source code listings for the MacOS (or as much as they needed in order to have a fully functional OS) and Apple got to have MS-Word and Excel for the Mac. Further, Apple also got an agreement from Microsoft not to release Excel for the IBM PC until a given time (I think it was 1990 and if you will remember - the IBM PC didn't have Excel for quite a while).
The lawsuit and all of the crossed T's and dotted I's was on-line at one time but I can't find it now otherwise I'd post a link directly to it. It was very interesting reading. Apple basically rolled over IMHO. I also remember reading some time back that Bill Gates considered that lawsuit one of the pivotal lawsuits which gave them full monopoly power over the Macintosh as not only could they create an OS based upon the MacOS but they also were allowed to sell it to whomever they wanted. Which is why, in the later lawsuit, Apple lost so badly. They (Apple) basically signed away all of their rights to Microsoft.
Ya know - if Apple were a human being they would be dead by now from all of the times they've shot themselves in the foot, arm, head, torso, etc.... Not that I don't like them (I've got several Macs as well as IBM PCs) - but they've always seemed like an idiot savant.
This was a similar problem/solution I had thought up. But then I'm not dealing with millions of transactions a day. However, here are some thoughts I had:
1. Computers have been getting faster and faster. Credit card fees though are still near to what they were over ten years ago. (Which - granted - is a good thing.) If machines have been getting faster then the cost per transaction must necessarily have dropped. After all, a machine which runs at 100mhz can not possibly handle as many transactions as one running at 2Ghz. (Unless you happen to still be using 1960's transaction handling programs or an OS which really slows things down.) Thus, $0.25 per transaction is only in place because either:
A. The major credit card companies are still using outdated machines and/or software (unlikely). B. They are artifically holding prices high for whatever reason they might have (like the stock holders are making them).
2. Credit card companies already have records on anyone who has ever used a credit card. Thus, they could easily handle micropayments - they just don't. Again for reasons A or B.
3. There are probably hundreds of ways in which the credit card companies could handle this problem but the method I like the best would be this one:
A. Opt-in method for handling micropayments. B. One time entry fee of $20.00 set-up fees. C. Monthly fee of $10.00 to maintain micropayment information.
1) The payment goes into the micropayment account. If it is not used then $5.00 is subtracted for maintenance of the account. D. Payments are only made to vendors when they reach a certain amount. Like a minimum of $1.00.
1) This amount is adjustable by the customer up to a maximum of $10.00. E. Vendors do not pay the merchant fee - the customer does. (We do it already so just take the vendor out of it.)
1) This is why there will be a trend to set the payment amount to $10.00 instead of a $1.00. F. All transactions $1.00 or more must be closed out at the end of each month. No matter how the customer sets their minimum.
1) This is to ensure that all vendors are paid each month if possible. G. You can not exceed the amount you have in your account. H. You can close your account at any time. However, anyone who has less than a $1.00 is paid a $1.00 at closing. (Penalty) I. At the end of each quarter (ie:90 days), if a vendor hasn't been paid because their transaction amount is less than the user's minimum and the length of time since the purchase is greater than sixty days, it is automatically paid and closed out. Costs which are less than $1.00 round up to $1.00.
1)Date scaling (ie: moving the last date of purchase) is done to show when the last purchase was made.
A) In other words: You buy something in February for $0.0001. In March you buy another something which costs $0.0001. The last date is in March and when April rolls around the vendor doesn't get a $1.00. He gets nothing but your account says you owe him $0.0002. Only if you do not buy anything else from him will you owe him $1.00 in July.
B) Granted you could torque this around by always buying something for $0.0001 - but at some point either you will reach a chargeable amount or maybe the vendor will raise his prices a bit.
This is a win-win situation for credit card companies. Not only do they get to hold your money (and interest) but you also wind-up paying them $5.00 a month at the minimum but more probably the percentage fee for each transaction. Since these are micropayments, $10.00 or $20.00 in an account should not kill someone. Vendors get paid at the end of each month or at the end of each quarter. Section I is the only gamble part. You are gambling that within 90 days you will not purchase enough items to equal a dollar.
Yes. 2.5mg is the norm followed by 5mg. 8mg is above what the normal person takes. 10mg is a lot. My body is still trying to store vitamin K. If I forget to take my meds then in three days my leg begins to hurt followed by swelling.
Last month the pharmacy decided to try putting me on Warfarin. It is supposedly the same as Coumadin but is a generic. By the end of the 30 day period my leg had begun to swell up. One day after getting and taking Coumadin the leg began to return to normal and two days afterwards it was back to normal. So I have to be careful even of that.
I have Phlebitis. I got it in 1986. Also called Thrombo-Phlebitis it is where blood clots form in your arteries or veins. Mine is in my left ankle and is the size of a half dollar. My body has built additional small veins to go around the problem. Here is how I got it:
In 1986 I had started working on a database called Nomad for NASA as a subcontractor. I worked at Unisys and was working fourteen to sixteen hours a day. I jogged one to two miles in the morning and one to two miles in the evening. I weighed a little less than my ideal weight (225lbs at 6'5"). I ate lots of leafy green veges, yogurt, nuts, a little red meat, mostly chicken and fish.
One of the major problems I had was that the chair I sat in had a hard ridge running around the front of the chair. I liked to rock back and dangle my legs from the chair. Since I was into Yoga a lot at the time (less so now) I was used to sitting in one position for long (like hours) periods of time.
My first indication that I was having problems was when my left leg began to feel stiff and my feet would act as if they had gone to sleep. When I realized this I'd get up, walk around for a while and then come back. But sometimes I'd just shake my feet to wake them back up and go back to coding.
My second indication was when my leg began to hurt. I thought I'd pulled a muscle running or from my working out. It is funny how you make things up to fit the picture when really you are in need of medical help. But as I've posted here - I don't really trust doctors a lot because of the way my dad died. So I didn't do anything about it.
My last indication that I was in trouble was when my leg began to swell up. I went to Personnel and asked them for the name of the doctor who had examined me when I started to work at Unisys. I had already gone to another doctor but the guy was a wimp so I knew I had to find someone more capable. I did. I was put in the hospital immediately.
When the nurse came to draw blood they found out that they couldn't draw blood. My coagulation factor was so high that the blood dried in the needle and couldn't be made to go into the glass tube. "You should be dead." is what the nurse told me. They had to give me injections of Heparin so the blood would uncoagulate and then they'd give me the real dose of Heparin. Every day they upped the amount of medicine to give to me. 10cc, 20cc, 30cc, 40cc, 50cc, then Coumadin was given to me because they feared I'd bleed to death from the Heparin. 10mg, 20mg, 30mg, 40mg, 50mg and then it happened. My blood went from thick as ketchup to almost nothing but water. I was put on 24 hour watch and told not to move at all. I was lucky - I didn't bleed to death. After a few days my blood was thicker so they began trying to steady me out. I'm presently on 10mg of Coumadin a day - about two to three times what is normally given to someone.
Somehow, eating so many green leafy vegetables, and so much "healthy" food I'd managed to make my body over produce vitamin K. Vitamin K, for those of you who don't know what it is, is what is given to pregnant ladies before birth. It is the coagulation vitamin. Watch out for it. You get it by eating the dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and the like. You can also get it in vitamins. Men should never take it. Like iron - it can kill you. It can take up to five days for vitamin K to remove itself from your body (under normal circumstances). So make sure when you buy vitamins that you are not taking vitamin K.
I have been on Coumadin since 1986. Every day I have to take the medicine. I can still walk but jogging is now in the past. I still exercise but Coumadin makes you feel weak, exhausted. My feel swell up so I have to take a dieuretic. Whatever you do - be very careful about what kind of dieuretic they give you. hydrochlorothiazide or HCT is very dangerous if you happen to have a reaction to it. It took over ten years for me to have one but I had a very severe reaction to it. It damaged my kidneys and the doctors are now saying I've become diabetic. It also affects your heart, liver, and gives you sinus problems. I went off of it last May and onto a holistic dieuretic. I feel a 1000 times better.
The guy is right. Every hour on the hour you should get up and walk around a bit. Failure to do so could kill you. I was lucky - my blood clot didn't break off of where it formed and lodge itself in my brain, lungs, or heart. You may not be so lucky. So do yourself a favor - get a cheap alarm clock or set your watch up so it reminds you to do this. Either way - do it. It's better than having to take medicine for the rest of your life.
Oh yeah - and one more thing. If you get this it never goes away. You can reduce it's effects to where you won't have to take the medicine again only if you catch it in time. But it will never go away. It's just hiding. Waiting for you to foolishly do the same things again. Most people don't catch it in time. Know what you get if you don't catch it? Or if you don't keep taking your medicine? You get to lose your feet and eventually - your legs. That's why I work out. To keep from having that happen. And that's why I always take my meds.
According to the West Legal Dictionary, in the US, US law generally views monopolies as harmful and points out that generally speaking - monopolies are illegal.
There are only a few times when monopolies are granted, two of those times are when Patents and Copyrights are granted (which is why the big fight in the Supreme Court was so important and why it was so very important for the Supreme Court judges to knock down the extensions Congress put into place). Other times are when someone owns the rights to a single thing (like an oil well), or holds the patent on a process (like making Apple Computers).
Abusing your monopolistic power is not only illegal, but it is sometimes very hard to prove. So there you are right. However, Apple has abused their monopoly in the past. It is just that they got burned several times in court battles and since then they have become more sensitive to acting in non-monopolistic ways. Not that this won't change in the future but at least for now they are acting quite decently for a monopolistic company.
I'd vote for Jobs. He's not my #1 pick, but I think he might be better than what we have already. Not that GWB is horrible or anything but his grim determination to invade Iraq no matter what just doesn't sit right with me. It is like he has lost focus of the fact the UN guys are not finding any kind of a smoking gun (and yeah I know - they hid them. But with all of the technology we have shouldn't we be able to track down where everything is located? I mean, look at how well satellites can see underground rivers. If we can see that why can't they just locate suspicious underground areas? They used satellites to locate cities also. So what's the deal?
And they wonder why there are riots, unrest, protests, marches, and the like. It is, at it's worst, a government of, by, and for those who have enough money to buy whatever they want.
Make your own laws? They say? I've heard that kind of remark before. "Let them eat cake," so said another of high ranking authority who also distained the common man's plight.
Make our own laws? But who will get them passed in Congress? It is like a peasant fighting a knight, on horse back, with a broadsword, shield, and expert training. When you are up against a company which makes well over a billion dollars a year, can buy and sell lawyers, corporations, and even Congressmen - what hope does someone have of getting a law passed that does for the common man what it removes from the common corporation? The answer is none.
Like kingdoms of old we now have kings to whom we give our allegiance. They are known as CEOs, CFOs, and the board of dictators - sorry - directors. The writings of the forefathers of the USA warned us of this happening. Of the influence which the wealthy can have over those of lesser men. They told us we would become slaves if we were not always vigilant. But we have slept and we find that, in the silence of the night, we have been shackled by invisible chains. We are told that, like errant children, we must be punished for wanting what our forefathers had.
"It is a new world," they say. "The same old laws no longer apply." The laws were good laws I say. They kept tyranny, despotism, conspiracy, and slavery at bay. Now, we have no protections. Like Orwell's 1984 we now have people who are disappearing never to return. Towers of minitruth, minilove, and minipeace. For spin doctors have found a way to twist the truth so that you or I might just simply vanish. No proof is needed any longer. Just a word - that's all.
"And how does this hurt us?", you ask? It used to be that you could expect to be able to use something within a generation or two. Now you will die before these things are free. Your children will die and your grandchildren will die. And even then they may not be free. It is not so much that Congress has the right to extend the "limited time" clause but that they do so to the exclusion of the needs of the American people. That is to say - the balance has not only be overweighed by Congress' rash actions but the balance can't even be located any longer. Congress has done away with it. So who cares if Mickey Mouse is saved so the Walt Disney company can make money? The idea is change. We have stagnation. Inertia at its best. And oh! Don't touch that scared cow - it might produce better milk if treated right but we will make due with what little trickles from it's udders.
Here is a prophesy for you: When people begin refusing to pay money to the corporations, the corporations will attempt to force everyone to pay them willingly or not.
Anyone for DRM? Secure Internet? It's only for your own good you know. Oh! You want your freedom? Silly person! You really just want this new CD right? Or maybe this game? Just give us your mind, body, and soul and we will give you just about anything you want. See? Now you can be happy!
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When it is written using a canned package which only requires you to set up the screens and the package does the rest. Just to keep things nice and anonymous I won't say more specifically. The upgraded package, btw, is not compatible with the previous releases.
With their package you do not need classes, functions (at least they are not called functions), don't have to worry about the data structure, and there are hardly any algorithms to write. Further, the program doesn't need a lot of stuff added to the basic, read, write, edit, and delete record holding mechanism.
Think of Foxbase+ on steroids and you have a fairly good idea of how this thing worked. Then throw out most of the coding because the program takes care of all of that. You just select your icon, give the package what you want the icon to do (like retrieve a record) and it uses the fields (taken from the database and drag'n dropped onto the screen which automatically does all of the tests for the type of field, length, etc...) and uses them to automagically pull up a record from the database which matches your criteria. And that's just some of what this package can do. Very nice package. But it is not like programming where you have to define everything and then use it. Most (if not all) of the functions you'd normally write are already written. The only time you have to write anything is to handle special cases. Even then, sometimes, it is just one or two lines of code to help the package know where to go to get the things it needs and how to cross reference the fields.
The only drawback to the entire thing is - it doesn't handle HTML, XML, JavaScript, or any other web based language. Which is where I came in. It started out small and grew into a nightmare very quickly for both sides. We still talk and there has been some talk about trying it again. Only if I do go back - this time we are going to sit down and lay everything out properly, create a timeline, and try for a more realistic outlook. I also will pull in some other friends of mine to help out as their needs are a bit more than one person can handle. Just creating the screens - by themselves - is a full time job. Let alone getting all of the screens to adhere to the standards they want.
Later!
I had a friend. He had a job. "Just a few screens," he said. I said "Ok! I'll do it."
:-/)
Then came the meetings. Then came the time. "About a month and a half in man hours." I said. "About a month and a half," is what they heard.
"Five screens only," said they. "Five screens," said I.
But wait! There's more. Next week there were four more! Four more screens and reports to go. Four more screens - but a month and a half still to do them in.
But then came next week and lo and behold! Sixteen other screens had to be made you know. Because the ones from before required these screens or else they would not operate. So now we were at twenty-five. But a month and a half - no more.
So off I went and checked them out and who should be hidding but twenty-five snouts. Yes! Twenty-five more screens hidden under buttons and some even had twenty-five cousins. So now I was up to seventy-five. "Seventy-five screens!" Says I. "But only a month and a half to do them in," says they. "Preposterous!" Says I. "Not so!" says they. "You can do it - you're a wizard today."
"Fat chance!" says I. "Look at the reports! One for each is seventy-five reports! Whatever happened to the five? Where did these all come from?! I'm working night and day but these screens are falling like bullets from a machine gun!" "But you said you could do this!" they quipped. "Yes, but it will take seventy-five years at the rate you are going!" I said.
And so the dust flew and we squawked and we chattered and finally decided the fate of the matter. There just was no way to do the screens in the time alloted. I gave them the five and then bravely departed. The extra fifteen I threw in when they paid me some more, but I've stopped work on them and they leave me alone.
I talked with my friend again the other day. Now there's an upgrade and the other members of the company say: "There's only five screens we want you to do. They are simple - they are few." And now my friend must face them and say "You're full of S*** - just go away!"
(Taken from a true story. The company has well over 150 screens, has nothing in writing about what they do or how they do it, all of the screens are interconnected and require all of them to be created before anything will work. Even after it became obvious that there were hundreds of screens and we tried to talk about it the company would not sit down, print out copies of all of the screens, and even tell me how they worked. It became a nightmare which we (thankfully) stopped after almost three months had gone by. Although the screens were being made I would be told each screen should operate in one way only to have someone else say it should operate in another. No cohesion, standards, nothing. But a nice program still.
And as for "not forcing" - where have you been these past few years? Microsoft trial? A little thing about them forcing outlets to sign contracts? Or maybe you'd like to read up on Oracle? Or how about First Data? And what they have been up to.
No company is pristine. But some are worse than others.
When I read Mr. Lessig's talks Ayn Rand's book "Atlas Shrugged" comes to mind. Big business rewriting our laws to suit themselves. As I've said in the past - monopolies and big business are nothing more than kingdoms and everyone else are the serfs.
Kingdoms are monopolies. Do as the king says or else. It used to be the church which ran kingdoms from behind the throne. (Do it or be excommunicated.) Now it is big business. (Do it or we will change the laws to force you to do it.)
The secret is - laws are just so many words on pieces of paper. Some words are just but many are not. Some governments are just - but many are not. Why else do you think that third world countries continue to have so many problems? And why do we?
I tell you what! I just had an idea! Why don't we have a national black-out day? One where no one gets on the net for 24 hours! Nobody answers the phone. Nobody goes to work. Noone goes out to eat. Talk about scare big business. That would speak a lot louder than any speech given by anyone.
--
Since when did you think you had any privacy left?
Let's see....
1. The water company knows how much water you use.
2. The light company knows how much electricity you use.
3. The cable company what shows you watched.
4. The local tax people know how much you paid in school taxes, et al.
5. The feds know income taxes.
6. Your credit card company knows everything you've bought.
7. The grocery stores know what you eat.
8. The gas companies know where you've been.
9. Your bank knows everything you've been buying.
10. Surfing the net is traced by your ISP because they have to relay your request to the other hosts.
11. Why do you think cookie monsters track what you do on the net?
What privacy? Other than we still wear clothes we might as well walk around nude and go moo.
It isn't so much that the masses are so stupid as those who direct the product think we are stupid and film for the lowest common denominator. Thus, we drag everyone down to the lowest level rather than lift everyone up to the highest.
Anyone remember their Bible studies? Revelations and all that stuff. 1/3 of all of the animals will die, 1/3 of the fish, 1/3 of the plants, death, doom, destruction. You die, he dies, we all die - that kind of stuff. Must be the work of Sauron...er I mean Satan! (I knew it was one of those "S" words!)
And I say unto thee: Lo! The time is near! Ahhhhhh! Hide thee lest thy life be forfeit!
Hmmmmmm....yeah - where's my PlayStation2? I've got to get one last game in before the world perishes!
Yes, that is why I said small buisnesses. As an example I recall something about Winnie the Pooh and Epcot Center. Both from the same company who applied extreme pressure to have the government to pass this law. My suggestion is to allow small businesses who would otherwise not have to pay royalties to these companies to produce Mickey Mouse T-Shirts, Donald Duck T-Shirts, cups, mugs, hats, pants, and the like sit and create the laws. Because then they would not only be considering their own needs but the needs of those who can not pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make something to sell.
You see, the copyrights are monopolies and monopolies are an aberration to how the U.S. is set up to run. That is why they were severely limited in the first place. So succeeding generations would not owe, in coin, their predecessors. But they would have to acknowledge them. Now, we are slaves. Shackled by invisible bonds which make us all criminals if we even sing the "Happy Birthday" song. We are sinking into the haves and have-nots with the haves gaining more power faster than the have-nots can ever hope to overcome. That is wrong. We do our best when everyone can build upon what went before without fear of reprisal.
As for the "living longer" - just type in '+copyright +"people living longer"' and you will be amazed at the results.
Gotta run!
Yes! (I love the part about soap!) :-)
:-/
Medicine, better living conditions, and more awareness about hygiene in general have helped to extend the lives of many people who would have otherwise died in the first twenty years of their life. But it still doesn't guarantee them to live until they are over 200 years old.
Sadly, even with all of the strides mankind has made in the past six or seven centuries - we still kill ourselves off faster than we can heal the hurts. Drugs, guns, crime, and invaders from other countries all take their toll on how long someone lives.
Still, the universe is rather large. Maybe we could give one planet to each person? But then would we find happiness or loneliness? And if we did - whom would we tell?
My take on copyrights is:
1. That I believed that Congress was mandated not to establish kingdoms, monarchies, or any other set up where one person, group, or organization could control things for long periods of time unless it was a government run entity. 275 years is a long time. I know I will be dead, my sons dead, their sons dead, and so on for up to fifteen generations.
2. That each generation (ie: 20 years) is supposed to be given the chance to build upon the work of the previous generation without having to worry about owing the previous generation anything (like royalties). See the rules about The Patent Office for more information. Current copyright rules have destroyed this balance.
3. I am in favor of:
3a. Copyrights.
3b. Of the author being paid for their works.
3c. Of extending copyrights to the life of the author so long as the author is being paid for his/her work.
3d. Of the author being able to lease his copyrights.
4. I am not in favor of copyrights being bought or sold but that is just because I believe it muddies the water over how long a copyright should last. The person or entity who buys the copyright wants to make as much money as they can on what they paid out money for. As such, they have a vested interest in extending the copyright.
5. I am also in favor of having a group of small businesses get together,reviewing, and rewriting the copyright laws from the standpoint of those who are most affected by the changes in the DMCA. It would be interesting to have non-multibillion dollar companies present their views on what Congress did.
As as side note: I have heard (and someone please correct me if I am wrong) that one of the reasons for the extension was because people were living longer. My rebuttal to this is that whomever said this was not lying but they were not speaking the truth either. That is because the length of time people are living to be is still the same but the number of people living to that age is increasing. So the number is only increasing because there are more people living in the world and not because they are living a greater number of years.
To back the above up I refer people to Plato's "The Republic". In the section on when should men and women be allowed to procreate, Socrates replies that men between the ages of 25 and 55 may have children and women between 20 and 40. Now, ask yourself - if men lived to be 55 (and older) centuries before Christ came along, how can someone say we are living longer in terms of years?
People who are mute are not necessarily blind but let us say they are for the moment. Such people already also have equipment which helps them overcome this problem. Again, they will either have Braille finger pads, or hearing enhancements.
"What if they don't have this?" you ask? "How did they get there in the first place?" I'd say back. Common sense says that they had to have some method to navigate the internet in the first place. That means that those methods can be used to do this as well.
Yes. I could agree with or accept that it is supposed to be a Representative Republic. The good of the many versus the good of the few and all that jazz.
The question is whether or not we have the right to force other countries to act like we do. Not that our system is totally bad (one extreme) or that it is totally good (another extreme). It is just that we do not own the world.
First, we have to agree that governments, no matter what, are populated with people. Agreed? Agreed. Second, we have to agree that those people have definite directions they would like the government to go in. Agreed? Agreed. (These are, after all, common sense things.)
Capitalism, as defined by Webster's on-line dictionary is said to be ": an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market." So first notice that there is nothing said about people. Capitalism talks instead about companies and corporations.
Democracy, as defined by Webster's on-line dictionary is "1 a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections." Notice that a Democracy is of, by, and for the people and has nothing to do with companies or corporations. Or in other words - what I said in the first paragraph.
They are NOT mutually exclusive in that people have to run both of them. But they ARE mutually exclusive in their orientation towards their goals. In Capitalism it is the companies who rule and the people are the slaves. In a Democracy the people rule and the companies are the slaves. The distinction is in who rules and who doesn't. Not in the fact that both of them have people in them.
And while we are on the subject - FEUDALISM is closer to Capitalism than Democracy. As defined you-know-where, feudalism is "1 : the system of political organization prevailing in Europe from the 9th to about the 15th centuries having as its basis the relation of lord to vassal with all land held in fee and as chief characteristics homage, the service of tenants under arms and in court, wardship, and forfeiture." In Capitalism you give your loyalty and support to a company, in feudalism you give it to a king. But you are still a vassal no matter what in either system! There can be only one king and there can be only on president or CEO of a company. Same thing - just different titles.
IRAQ: All I can say is "Show me the weapons!" You can't! They didn't have any! They were in compliance! Watch CNN, read stories from OUTSIDE OF THE US! Get other people's input before you say they did anything wrong. The only thing is - the US is the big bully on the block and we didn't like what Iraq was doing. So we went over there and killed people, invaded a country, created another Afghanistan! Wow! Wasn't that wonderful? This huge superpower went over and wiped out a government in another country which wasn't even as big as our largest state, had no weapons of mass destruction that we can find(!), and wiped out their economy. Wow! I'm impressed! Not.
And I realize you have your way of looking at it and I have mine. So I tell you what I'll do. I'll look at the dead bodies and weep. You can look at the elected officals and cheer.
One World: WIPO is the organization which has helped to push copyrights so they will last for 175 years. WIPO isn't made up of politicans. It is made up of corporate CEOs and other higher management personnel. They are the ones who got the US (and now other countries) to extend copyrights which were originally set to be 14 years with a single extension of 14 years to last over 100 years past the death of the copyright holder. Why? It can't be because the copyright owner needs the money. So come on - let's hear it - it benefits the corporations and companies of the world. Ah - there we go - taking the "We the people" out of things again. You can look around for others
I didn't have any problem reading your message. I guess Lord Greystroke hasn't left the jungle yet.
From where I sit (ie: Unemployed but looking) there are several problems with the way in which things are going now-a-days.
First, America is converting from a Democracy to a Capitalistic state. The difference between the two is in a Democracy the government is of, by, and for the people. In a Capitalistic state the government is out to make as much money as it can, however it can. Even if it has to trample over all of your rights.
Second, in an international economy (the One World economy bs) you do not matter at all so long as everything is evenly divided up among all of the countries around the world. Thus, it is no longer what is good for America is good enough for the world - it becomes what country X says is what everyone has to do. Look at Iraq to see what happens when you don't do what you are told.
We in America are also moving towards a police state. If you don't believe me just look at the Patriot Act. Congress has become nothing more than a yes man to the wants of the president. Here in my own state (the president's home state) all of the democratic reps left the state because of what the republicans were doing. How long before others join in in doing this? Further, Congress is now granting immunity to prosecution under the law. How outrageous is this? It is not only immoral, illegal, and unethical, but it just plain sucks. We are guaranteed that no one is above the law yet Congress is now saying otherwise. Isn't this what used to be called treason? Didn't we fight several wars to ensure this would not happen? But it is.
Justice is blind but Americans are bound hand and foot by arbitrary laws put in place by companies, corporations, and international interests so they can profit and we, the people, can lose. Before the multi-billion dollar corporations were around things were sane, balanced, and easy to understand. Now they are not. We, the people, haven't changed in our needs but those who want to make money anyway they can have. They have figured out how to camouflage their true intents. To divert people's attention from their true actions. And how to befuddle, buy, or remove those impediments to their goals.
Monopolies are bad. Our country was not built on monopolies. It was built by small companies who came up with great ideas. If you go back and look you will find that so long as the original founder was alive the company worked to help people and that it was not until after that person or set of people were gone that the companies began acting in ways which worked against the people. There is no heart or soul in monopolies - only greed. Phone service got better when the phone company was split up. Now that they are getting back together again I foresee worse service.
Until the people stand up and say enough this will continue and it will get worse over time. Sleep if you will, but the time for sleep is past. Hide if you will, but you will be found. Aren't you done with being afraid? Quiet? Complacent? No one can cart you off for simply speaking out. So leave your fear behind, get involved, and help straighten out this mess we've allowed to flourish.
Why does the SCO logo look like the world covered on one side by Mickey Mouse's head?
It is my hope that the zillion and one add-ons for the browser are thrown out and that a graphical browser is built from the ground up which uses a Perl type of interpreter that has been extended to include graphics (2D & 3D) and which can compile the programs. This would allow the creation of a new JavaScript, Perl, PHP, et al programs who's underlying code is executable on all platforms.
Unlike Java, which uses a VM, this would run more like Borland's original Turbo Pascal. And yes, it would allow people to take advantage of a system's commands. However, instead of allowing the program to run amok - why not make all operations only execute on a sub-directory below where the browser itself resides or one which the user selects. This would restrict such things as "rm -rf *" from wiping out the entire system to only wiping out a particular directory. Further, each site's software could be restricted to work only (again) on one particular directory (like c:/http//...) instead of willie-nillie allow full access to the entire hard drive.
In any event, browsers were never originally intended to handle graphics. They were tacked on afterwards. They were never intended to execute programs (being meant more to just display static pages) - so that was tacked on afterwards also. In fact, everything is just tacked on to the browser. This means that a normal browser now has to handle hundreds of different things using tacked on add-ins rather than just being able to handle it in a more efficient method. That being compile the program and let it execute.
Also, as things have progressed things have become more complicated as more and more capabilities have been tacked onto the basic browser. I thought the whole idea of the browser and HTML was to make it easy for people to do things. Have you looked at the vector graphics stuff? Easy? I don't think so. It is getting to where you have to have a degree in web programming just to be able to do something simple.
And that is great - if that is what you wanted to do in the first place. But what was wanted was an easy way for mom and pop to set up web pages. Only - they almost can't now-a-days because it has gotten that complicated. And hey! I'm a programmer too and that means job security for me. But it makes me pause. For it always seems to be this way. We start out simple and then instead of keeping to the KISS principle - we instead seem to gain great pleasure from making it as hard as possible for someone to do anything with anything.
So what I'm saying is is that it is all good and fine for you to have an IQ of 1000 - but can you make it work for someone with an IQ of 100? or 50? Remember that kids don't have an IQ of 1000 either. You want them interested in programming? Then make it so they can use it first - and that means making it simple and easy to use and having a standardized base code to work from.
Actually, the lawsuit ( and here) was over overlapping windows. The technology (now Patented by others - lawyers I think) was the main gripe in Apple's original lawsuit. The problem with the lawsuit was that it was based mainly on "Look and Feel" which began with Atari's Pacman/Centipede games versus Bally's arcade games (or whoever it was at the time). Anyway, Apple Computer and Microsoft came to an agreement. Microsoft got the entire set of source code listings for the MacOS (or as much as they needed in order to have a fully functional OS) and Apple got to have MS-Word and Excel for the Mac. Further, Apple also got an agreement from Microsoft not to release Excel for the IBM PC until a given time (I think it was 1990 and if you will remember - the IBM PC didn't have Excel for quite a while).
The lawsuit and all of the crossed T's and dotted I's was on-line at one time but I can't find it now otherwise I'd post a link directly to it. It was very interesting reading. Apple basically rolled over IMHO. I also remember reading some time back that Bill Gates considered that lawsuit one of the pivotal lawsuits which gave them full monopoly power over the Macintosh as not only could they create an OS based upon the MacOS but they also were allowed to sell it to whomever they wanted. Which is why, in the later lawsuit, Apple lost so badly. They (Apple) basically signed away all of their rights to Microsoft.
Ya know - if Apple were a human being they would be dead by now from all of the times they've shot themselves in the foot, arm, head, torso, etc.... Not that I don't like them (I've got several Macs as well as IBM PCs) - but they've always seemed like an idiot savant.
This was a similar problem/solution I had thought up. But then I'm not dealing with millions of transactions a day. However, here are some thoughts I had:
1. Computers have been getting faster and faster. Credit card fees though are still near to what they were over ten years ago. (Which - granted - is a good thing.) If machines have been getting faster then the cost per transaction must necessarily have dropped. After all, a machine which runs at 100mhz can not possibly handle as many transactions as one running at 2Ghz. (Unless you happen to still be using 1960's transaction handling programs or an OS which really slows things down.) Thus, $0.25 per transaction is only in place because either:
A. The major credit card companies are still using outdated machines and/or software (unlikely).
B. They are artifically holding prices high for whatever reason they might have (like the stock holders are making them).
2. Credit card companies already have records on anyone who has ever used a credit card. Thus, they could easily handle micropayments - they just don't. Again for reasons A or B.
3. There are probably hundreds of ways in which the credit card companies could handle this problem but the method I like the best would be this one:
A. Opt-in method for handling micropayments.
B. One time entry fee of $20.00 set-up fees.
C. Monthly fee of $10.00 to maintain micropayment information.
1) The payment goes into the micropayment account. If it is not used then $5.00 is subtracted for maintenance of the account.
D. Payments are only made to vendors when they reach a certain amount. Like a minimum of $1.00.
1) This amount is adjustable by the customer up to a maximum of $10.00.
E. Vendors do not pay the merchant fee - the customer does. (We do it already so just take the vendor out of it.)
1) This is why there will be a trend to set the payment amount to $10.00 instead of a $1.00.
F. All transactions $1.00 or more must be closed out at the end of each month. No matter how the customer sets their minimum.
1) This is to ensure that all vendors are paid each month if possible.
G. You can not exceed the amount you have in your account.
H. You can close your account at any time. However, anyone who has less than a $1.00 is paid a $1.00 at closing. (Penalty)
I. At the end of each quarter (ie:90 days), if a vendor hasn't been paid because their transaction amount is less than the user's minimum and the length of time since the purchase is greater than sixty days, it is automatically paid and closed out. Costs which are less than $1.00 round up to $1.00.
1)Date scaling (ie: moving the last date of purchase) is done to show when the last purchase was made.
A) In other words: You buy something in February for $0.0001. In March you buy another something which costs $0.0001. The last date is in March and when April rolls around the vendor doesn't get a $1.00. He gets nothing but your account says you owe him $0.0002. Only if you do not buy anything else from him will you owe him $1.00 in July.
B) Granted you could torque this around by always buying something for $0.0001 - but at some point either you will reach a chargeable amount or maybe the vendor will raise his prices a bit.
This is a win-win situation for credit card companies. Not only do they get to hold your money (and interest) but you also wind-up paying them $5.00 a month at the minimum but more probably the percentage fee for each transaction. Since these are micropayments, $10.00 or $20.00 in an account should not kill someone. Vendors get paid at the end of each month or at the end of each quarter. Section I is the only gamble part. You are gambling that within 90 days you will not purchase enough items to equal a dollar.
Yes. 2.5mg is the norm followed by 5mg. 8mg is above what the normal person takes. 10mg is a lot. My body is still trying to store vitamin K. If I forget to take my meds then in three days my leg begins to hurt followed by swelling.
Last month the pharmacy decided to try putting me on Warfarin. It is supposedly the same as Coumadin but is a generic. By the end of the 30 day period my leg had begun to swell up. One day after getting and taking Coumadin the leg began to return to normal and two days afterwards it was back to normal. So I have to be careful even of that.
I have Phlebitis. I got it in 1986. Also called Thrombo-Phlebitis it is where blood clots form in your arteries or veins. Mine is in my left ankle and is the size of a half dollar. My body has built additional small veins to go around the problem. Here is how I got it:
In 1986 I had started working on a database called Nomad for NASA as a subcontractor. I worked at Unisys and was working fourteen to sixteen hours a day. I jogged one to two miles in the morning and one to two miles in the evening. I weighed a little less than my ideal weight (225lbs at 6'5"). I ate lots of leafy green veges, yogurt, nuts, a little red meat, mostly chicken and fish.
One of the major problems I had was that the chair I sat in had a hard ridge running around the front of the chair. I liked to rock back and dangle my legs from the chair. Since I was into Yoga a lot at the time (less so now) I was used to sitting in one position for long (like hours) periods of time.
My first indication that I was having problems was when my left leg began to feel stiff and my feet would act as if they had gone to sleep. When I realized this I'd get up, walk around for a while and then come back. But sometimes I'd just shake my feet to wake them back up and go back to coding.
My second indication was when my leg began to hurt. I thought I'd pulled a muscle running or from my working out. It is funny how you make things up to fit the picture when really you are in need of medical help. But as I've posted here - I don't really trust doctors a lot because of the way my dad died. So I didn't do anything about it.
My last indication that I was in trouble was when my leg began to swell up. I went to Personnel and asked them for the name of the doctor who had examined me when I started to work at Unisys. I had already gone to another doctor but the guy was a wimp so I knew I had to find someone more capable. I did. I was put in the hospital immediately.
When the nurse came to draw blood they found out that they couldn't draw blood. My coagulation factor was so high that the blood dried in the needle and couldn't be made to go into the glass tube. "You should be dead." is what the nurse told me. They had to give me injections of Heparin so the blood would uncoagulate and then they'd give me the real dose of Heparin. Every day they upped the amount of medicine to give to me. 10cc, 20cc, 30cc, 40cc, 50cc, then Coumadin was given to me because they feared I'd bleed to death from the Heparin. 10mg, 20mg, 30mg, 40mg, 50mg and then it happened. My blood went from thick as ketchup to almost nothing but water. I was put on 24 hour watch and told not to move at all. I was lucky - I didn't bleed to death. After a few days my blood was thicker so they began trying to steady me out. I'm presently on 10mg of Coumadin a day - about two to three times what is normally given to someone.
Somehow, eating so many green leafy vegetables, and so much "healthy" food I'd managed to make my body over produce vitamin K. Vitamin K, for those of you who don't know what it is, is what is given to pregnant ladies before birth. It is the coagulation vitamin. Watch out for it. You get it by eating the dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and the like. You can also get it in vitamins. Men should never take it. Like iron - it can kill you. It can take up to five days for vitamin K to remove itself from your body (under normal circumstances). So make sure when you buy vitamins that you are not taking vitamin K.
I have been on Coumadin since 1986. Every day I have to take the medicine. I can still walk but jogging is now in the past. I still exercise but Coumadin makes you feel weak, exhausted. My feel swell up so I have to take a dieuretic. Whatever you do - be very careful about what kind of dieuretic they give you. hydrochlorothiazide or HCT is very dangerous if you happen to have a reaction to it. It took over ten years for me to have one but I had a very severe reaction to it. It damaged my kidneys and the doctors are now saying I've become diabetic. It also affects your heart, liver, and gives you sinus problems. I went off of it last May and onto a holistic dieuretic. I feel a 1000 times better.
The guy is right. Every hour on the hour you should get up and walk around a bit. Failure to do so could kill you. I was lucky - my blood clot didn't break off of where it formed and lodge itself in my brain, lungs, or heart. You may not be so lucky. So do yourself a favor - get a cheap alarm clock or set your watch up so it reminds you to do this. Either way - do it. It's better than having to take medicine for the rest of your life.
Oh yeah - and one more thing. If you get this it never goes away. You can reduce it's effects to where you won't have to take the medicine again only if you catch it in time. But it will never go away. It's just hiding. Waiting for you to foolishly do the same things again. Most people don't catch it in time. Know what you get if you don't catch it? Or if you don't keep taking your medicine? You get to lose your feet and eventually - your legs. That's why I work out. To keep from having that happen. And that's why I always take my meds.
Stay safe. Stay healthy.
...microfiche it? You can get a lot of pictures of the CD-ROMs that way. ;-P
(I have a photograph...preserve your memories...)
According to the West Legal Dictionary, in the US, US law generally views monopolies as harmful and points out that generally speaking - monopolies are illegal.
There are only a few times when monopolies are granted, two of those times are when Patents and Copyrights are granted (which is why the big fight in the Supreme Court was so important and why it was so very important for the Supreme Court judges to knock down the extensions Congress put into place). Other times are when someone owns the rights to a single thing (like an oil well), or holds the patent on a process (like making Apple Computers).
Abusing your monopolistic power is not only illegal, but it is sometimes very hard to prove. So there you are right. However, Apple has abused their monopoly in the past. It is just that they got burned several times in court battles and since then they have become more sensitive to acting in non-monopolistic ways. Not that this won't change in the future but at least for now they are acting quite decently for a monopolistic company.
I'd vote for Jobs. He's not my #1 pick, but I think he might be better than what we have already. Not that GWB is horrible or anything but his grim determination to invade Iraq no matter what just doesn't sit right with me. It is like he has lost focus of the fact the UN guys are not finding any kind of a smoking gun (and yeah I know - they hid them. But with all of the technology we have shouldn't we be able to track down where everything is located? I mean, look at how well satellites can see underground rivers. If we can see that why can't they just locate suspicious underground areas? They used satellites to locate cities also. So what's the deal?
(I know - off topic. Sorry - got into a rant.)
And they wonder why there are riots, unrest, protests, marches, and the like. It is, at it's worst, a government of, by, and for those who have enough money to buy whatever they want.
Make your own laws? They say? I've heard that kind of remark before. "Let them eat cake," so said another of high ranking authority who also distained the common man's plight.
Make our own laws? But who will get them passed in Congress? It is like a peasant fighting a knight, on horse back, with a broadsword, shield, and expert training. When you are up against a company which makes well over a billion dollars a year, can buy and sell lawyers, corporations, and even Congressmen - what hope does someone have of getting a law passed that does for the common man what it removes from the common corporation? The answer is none.
Like kingdoms of old we now have kings to whom we give our allegiance. They are known as CEOs, CFOs, and the board of dictators - sorry - directors. The writings of the forefathers of the USA warned us of this happening. Of the influence which the wealthy can have over those of lesser men. They told us we would become slaves if we were not always vigilant. But we have slept and we find that, in the silence of the night, we have been shackled by invisible chains. We are told that, like errant children, we must be punished for wanting what our forefathers had.
"It is a new world," they say. "The same old laws no longer apply." The laws were good laws I say. They kept tyranny, despotism, conspiracy, and slavery at bay. Now, we have no protections. Like Orwell's 1984 we now have people who are disappearing never to return. Towers of minitruth, minilove, and minipeace. For spin doctors have found a way to twist the truth so that you or I might just simply vanish. No proof is needed any longer. Just a word - that's all.
"And how does this hurt us?", you ask? It used to be that you could expect to be able to use something within a generation or two. Now you will die before these things are free. Your children will die and your grandchildren will die. And even then they may not be free. It is not so much that Congress has the right to extend the "limited time" clause but that they do so to the exclusion of the needs of the American people. That is to say - the balance has not only be overweighed by Congress' rash actions but the balance can't even be located any longer. Congress has done away with it. So who cares if Mickey Mouse is saved so the Walt Disney company can make money? The idea is change. We have stagnation. Inertia at its best. And oh! Don't touch that scared cow - it might produce better milk if treated right but we will make due with what little trickles from it's udders.
Here is a prophesy for you: When people begin refusing to pay money to the corporations, the corporations will attempt to force everyone to pay them willingly or not.
Anyone for DRM? Secure Internet? It's only for your own good you know. Oh! You want your freedom? Silly person! You really just want this new CD right? Or maybe this game? Just give us your mind, body, and soul and we will give you just about anything you want. See? Now you can be happy!
Personally? I think it all sucks.