And the money the user would have left over after paying for their operating system.
By the time product reaches retail shelves the OEM price of Windows is effectively $0. Economies of scale and all that. Walmart with its enormous purchasing power could never make the Linux PC competitive --- and it wasn't for lack of trying.
It's interesting that the average price donated is inversely proportional to the number of games available on that platform.
It is not altogether unfair to say that the Humble Bundle is beginning to look a little stale and predictable.
The typical Humble Bundle game had a long run on the Windows platform --- and often sells at a discount. If it is the budget price that interests you most, there is Gog.com and other resources for the Windows gamer.
What is more telling is that less than a quarter of the payments are coming from the Linux gamer whose contributions averages $5 more than the Windows contributor and $2 more than the Mac.
That does not make a compelling case for the Linux port when the promotion ends and you return - as you must - to the retail market.
Many readers have submitted stories about a new $35 tablet computer released today in India. The Aakash (meaning sky) has been handed out to 500 students for an initial trial run
India has been trying to make this idea work for the past decade at least --- and nothing much ever seems to come of it. Simputer
WinRT is a new set of APIs that have the following properties:
It implements the new Metro look.
Has a simple UI programming model for Windows developers (You do not need to learn Win32, what an HDC, WndProc or LPARAM is).
It exposes the WPF/Silverlight XAML UI model to developers.
The APIs are all designed to be asynchronous.
It is a sandboxed API, designed for creating self-contained, AppStore-ready applications. You wont get everything you want to create for example Backup Software or Hard Disk Partitioning software. WinRT wraps both the new UI system as well as old Win32 APIs and it happens that this implementation is based on top of COM.
Some developers are confused as to whether.NET is there or not in the first place, as not all of the.NET APIs are present (File I/O, Sockets), many were moved and others were introduced to integrate with WinRT.
When you use C# and VB, you are using the full.NET framework. But they have chosen to expose a smaller subset of the API to developers to push the new vision for Windows 8.
And this new vision includes safety/sandboxed systems and asynchronous programming. This is why you do not get direct file system access or socket access and why synchronous APIs that you were used to consuming are not exposed.
Now, you notice that I said "exposed" and not "gone".
What they did was that they only exposed to the compiler a set of APIs when you target the Metro profile.
You might be thinking that you can use some trick (referencing the GAC library instead of the compiler reference or using reflection to get to private APIs, or P/Invoking into Win32). But all of those uses will be caught by AppStore review application and you wont be able to publish your app through Microsoft's store.
You can still do whatever ugly hack you please on your system. It just wont be possible to publish that through the AppStore.
I've seen many comments in favor of copyright and in favor of Microsoft get modded to +5. It is just rarer, perhaps because the people who typically make those comments do not share the same values as the slashdot community, or because they're just assholes.
So what are the values of the Slashdot community?
--- and what makes the poster of a pro copyright or Microsoft post an asshole? Other than the fact that he is expressing a contrarian opinion?
All the artists and craftspersons that are actually required should of course get by. If copying was legal, art would probably increasingly be crowd-funded before creation, but a meager living wage for everyone would really let artist just about not starve and enable passionate people to keep doing their art.
Art is traditionally funded by the state, the church or the mechant prince --- each with its own agenda.
What they bring to the table is organization, money, talent and material resources of every sort. Institutonal memory. Long-term commitments.
There is passion, yes, but more importantly there is focus, clear vision. They know where they want to be, they now how to get there --- and they know that the best doesn't come cheap.
Case in point: Jobs and Pixar.
Not a word, not a whisper, posted to Slashdot about the latest Humble Indie Bundle.
The crowd is fickle. The crowd drifts away.
It wants to see something tangible. It wants to see the home run.
How many times does a gamer have to be burned before he stops pre-ordering games like DNF and RAGE based on the rep of the title or developer?
If he can't trust the pro to deliver the goods, how much faith can he have in the amateur?
How much will he be willing to gamble?
The returns on the "Humble Bundle" suggests no more than $5.
They also looked at the fine print on this 'pro-copyright' contest, and discovered that in entering, you agreed to give up your copyright.
My god, what a surprise.
This has been the rule in print and broadcast media for generations --- ask your great-grandad about the bike he won in a cub scout photo contest sponsored by "Boy's Life."
The sponsors demand this because they don't want to negotiate rights with amateurs. The kid gets his prize. The promotion stays on track and on budget. The End.
A link to an article about windows without any pictures.
As a homeowner, I need to know how much light this will block, how much heat this will block. I need to know how the color and "texture" of the light will change.
Upholstery is expensive.
Flooring and carpeting are expensive. Wall coverings and window treatments are expensive.
Is the transparency good enough not to significantly impair a view for which I have paid a great deal of money?
Re:What he took away is more precious than given
on
Steve Jobs Dead At 56
·
· Score: 1
but what he did with locking in his customers, limiting their freedoms and then making enormous profits over these, has caused almost all other companies to follow the same style
The essence of the thing is that Jobs wasn't producing a product for the geek --- but ordinary people whose needs and desires define "freedom" in a very different way.
Who's heart's bleeding? The Faunhofer Institute, isn't that the bunch of goons that burn government money and then want money for the stuff they come up with?
Applied research demands money and talent that does not come free.
You need a budget of about 1.65 billion euros each year to function at this level.
The Fraunhofer Society earns ca. 70% of its income through contracts with industry or specific government projects. The other 30% of the budget is sourced in the proportion 9:1 from federal and state (Land) government grants and is used to support preparatory research.
Thus the size of the society's budget depends largely on its success in maximizing revenue from commissions. This funding model applies not just to the central society itself but also to the individual institutes. This serves both to drive the realisation of the Fraunhofer Society's strategic direction of becoming a leader in applied research...
The Fraunhofer Society currently operates 60 institutes. The organisation has seven centers in the United States, under the name 'Fraunhofer USA', and three in Asia. In October 2010, Fraunhofer announced that it would open its first research center in South America.
These are Fraunhofer Institutes for:
Algorithms and Scientific Computing -- SCAI Applied Information Technology -- FIT Applied and Integrated Security -- AISEC Applied Optics and Precision Engineering -- IOF Applied Polymer Research --IAP Applied Solid State Physics â" IAF Biomedical Engineering -- IBMT Building Physics -- IBP Ceramic Technologies and Systems -- IKTS Chemical Technology -- ICT Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics -- FKIE Communication Systems -- ESK
Computer Architecture and Software Technology -- FIRST Computer Graphics Research -- IGD Digital Media Technology -- IDMT Electron and Plasma Technology -- FEP e-Government -- Fraunhofer eGovernment Center Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology -- UMSICHT Experimental Software Engineering -- IESE Factory Operation and Automation -- IFF High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques -- FHR High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut -- EMI Industrial Engineering -- IAO Industrial Mathematics -- ITWM Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation -- IOSB Information Center for Regional Planning and Building Construction -- IRB Integrated Circuits -- IIS Integrated Systems and Device Technology -- IISB>br>Integrated Publication and Information Systems -- IPSI Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems -- IAIS Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology -- IGB Laser Technology -- ILT Machine Tools and Forming Technology -- IWU Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research -- IFAM Manufacturing Engineering and Automation -- IPA Material and Beam Technology -- IWS Material Flow and Logistics -- IML Mechanics of Materials -- IWM Medical Image Computing -- MEVIS Microelectronic Circuits and Systems -- IMS Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology -- IME Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut -- HHI Non-Destructive Testing -- IZFP Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation -- IOSB Open Communication Systems -- FOKUS Patent Center for German Research -- PST Photonic Microsystems -- IPMS Physical Measurement Techniques -- IPM Process Engineering and Packaging -- IVV Production Systems and Design Technology -- IPK Production Technology -- IPT Reliability and Microintegration -- IZM Secure Information Technology -- SIT Silicate Research -- ISC Silicon Technology -- ISIT Smart Systems Integration by using Micro and Nano Technologies -- ENAS Software and Systems Technology -- ISST Solar Energy Systems -- ISE Structural Durability and System Reliability -- LBF Systems and Innovation Research -- ISI Technological Trend Analysis -- INT Technology Development Group -- TEG
The OSS put a lot of time and thought into keeping its agents safe.
It was among the first to use small hand held and battery powered VHF FM transceivers.
Communication was with a high altitude aircraft flying directly overhead. The system was infinitely safer than the suitcase sized shortwave sets you are likely to have seen in the movies.
Late in the war, the OSS felt confident enough in its methods to begin placing agents inside Germany itself.
One interesting oddity is that I can now see ultraviolet light â" it seems that there are a few people who have photoreceptors sensitive below 400nm into the UV spectrum.
In World War II the OSS recruited elderly cataract patients as coastwatchers --- able to read Morse sent over UV light.
Stanley Lovell's "Of Spies & Stratagems" can be found quite cheaply in paperback and as a legit free download on the web. It's well worth a read.
Lovell was the head of R&D for the OSS, their "Professor Moriarity," and it is here you will learn why.
When I did jury duty, the plaintiff attorney was quite worried that two of us were engineers. It's much harder to convince us of guilt based on sketchy evidence, confused testimony, and irrelevant but nice-sounding rhetoric.
Your use of the word "plaintiff" implies a civil case.
There is no such thing as a verdict of innocent or guilty in a civil case, proof beyond reasonable doubt.
There is only a decison to be made for the plaintiff or the defendant based on the weight of evidence laid before you.
The courtroom is not a lecture hall.
The courtroom is not a laboratory demonstration.
If you are looking for the perfection of a mathematical formula, you are not going to find it.
Legalized extortion is what this is. Patent reform is needed, and needed sooner rather than later.
These are grown-ups signing licensing agreements with Microsoft. Companies like General Dynamics, the sixth largest defense contractor in the world.
Samsung with revenues of $172 billion and with 276,000 employees. 50 years experience in consumer electronics. Manufactuer of 800 million mobile phones. Samsung
So tell me what you know about these patents that Samsung's engineers, legal counsel, management and financial advisors do not.
A smooth English accent makes the speaker sound smarter and more attractive.
There is no such thing as a "Received Pronunciation" in American English.
But it is true that radio, the movies, televison helped to define a kind of national voice intelligible across all regional, racial, ethnic and class divisions.
It is also true that the drive towards standardization often comes from below. From the immigrant or minority population itself. Because it translates into better jobs and upward mobility.
So if it's good enough for Berkeley or Harvard, why is it not good enough for an elementary school in Phoenix?
Because the university student is eighteen to twenty years old and the third grade student nine?
The call center workers' job consists of nothing but talking to people on the phone, all day. Of course it's a bigger deal for them to have neutral accents.
What do you think the grade school teacher is doing all day?
Why would "0" be on the bottom? Probably because the dialing mechanism was pulse, not tone. Since they couldn't do zero pulses for 0, they did ten pulses, and hence put the 0 at the end.
Dialing "0" connected you to an operator.
Two decades before the dial phone became common, kids were taught how to call the operator in an emergency. Dialing "0" was always a bit special, like placing an expensive long distance call.
Something worth thinking about before you commit to it and something you might want to make a little bit more difficult to avoid wasting the operator's time.
At some point, someone will challenge the legality of this practice of blocking legal recourse.
The Federal Arbitration Act dates back to 1925.
A number of Supreme Court cases have dealt with the preemption of state laws by the Federal Arbitration Act:
Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984) - Established the applicability of the FAA to contracts under state law of California) Perry v. Thomas, 482 U.S. 483 (1987) Volt Info. Sciences, Inc.. v. Stanford Univ., 489 U.S. 468 (1989) Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos. v. Dobson, 513 U.S. 265 (1995) Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc., 514 U.S. 52 (1995) Doctor's Assocs., Inc. v. Casarotto, 517 U.S. 681 (1996) Buckeye Check Cashing Inc. v. Cardegna, 546 U.S. 440 (2006) - Arbitrators must first hear challenge to legality of contract
Preston v. Ferrer, 128 S.Ct. 978 (2008) - Act requires arbitration first even when state law provides for administrative dispute resolution
AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (2011) - Despite California state law and lower court rulings that contracts barring class actions are unconscionable, the Court ruled 5-4 that consumers are bound by that aspect of arbitration clauses
While the geek rages on... arbritration moves quickly.
You will not be in and out of court fot years with all the expenses and stress that implies. The award will arrive in the form of a check, not a discount coupon, a symbolic victory only.
Albuterol works a lot better, sure, but sometimes - when you need an inhaler and you need it NOW - its nice to know the good old Primatine Mist is available over the counter at the nearest drugstore.
The puffer is something an asthmatic carries with him all the time. You can't depend on the store being open when you need it.
Slashdot Mirror
Ubuntu has given up on its users, and is turning into an interface for the elderly, the disabled and netbook people.
In plain English:
The default Ubuntu install targets the user and not the developer.
Linux needs users:
Linux, on the desktop, has all but flatlined.
Windows 7 overtakes XP - finally
While Linux in mobile is being defined by Google.
Whatever Android and Chrome may become, they are not going to look like a traditional community-oriented Linux distribution.
When it is the Linux developer casually disparages "the elderly, the disabled and netbook people," it becomes pretty clear how we got into this fix.
Contempt for the user runs far deeper, I think, than contempt for the user-oreinted UI.
Hmm, I like the "Pages" part, but I don't like the "ads" part. Lets compromise: No pages, no ads. Great!
No Deposit, No Return.
Someone has to pay the bills.
And the money the user would have left over after paying for their operating system.
By the time product reaches retail shelves the OEM price of Windows is effectively $0. Economies of scale and all that. Walmart with its enormous purchasing power could never make the Linux PC competitive --- and it wasn't for lack of trying.
It's interesting that the average price donated is inversely proportional to the number of games available on that platform.
It is not altogether unfair to say that the Humble Bundle is beginning to look a little stale and predictable.
The typical Humble Bundle game had a long run on the Windows platform --- and often sells at a discount. If it is the budget price that interests you most, there is Gog.com and other resources for the Windows gamer.
What is more telling is that less than a quarter of the payments are coming from the Linux gamer whose contributions averages $5 more than the Windows contributor and $2 more than the Mac.
That does not make a compelling case for the Linux port when the promotion ends and you return - as you must - to the retail market.
Many readers have submitted stories about a new $35 tablet computer released today in India. The Aakash (meaning sky) has been handed out to 500 students for an initial trial run
India has been trying to make this idea work for the past decade at least --- and nothing much ever seems to come of it. Simputer
Why in your right mind would be using any of these?
Because .NET helps you to be productive in programming for the OS with 90% of market?
Because the app store, sandboxed apps and a rigorously defined touch-oriented UI makes perfect sense for mobile devices?
--- and may make perfect sense for the mass market touch screen desktop or touch controller? Tech which isn't that far away.
Microsoft Touch Mouse
But now I do. Thank you for telling me, the consumer, where I can buy DC.
Provided, of course, that the customer reads Slashdot.
WinRT is the new Windows 8 runtime, which will be accessible by C++, C# and any .Net language.
WinRT demystified [Miguel de Icaza]
WinRT is a new set of APIs that have the following properties:
It implements the new Metro look.
Has a simple UI programming model for Windows developers (You do not need to learn Win32, what an HDC, WndProc or LPARAM is).
It exposes the WPF/Silverlight XAML UI model to developers.
The APIs are all designed to be asynchronous.
It is a sandboxed API, designed for creating self-contained, AppStore-ready applications. You wont get everything you want to create for example Backup Software or Hard Disk Partitioning software.
WinRT wraps both the new UI system as well as old Win32 APIs and it happens that this implementation is based on top of COM.
Some developers are confused as to whether .NET is there or not in the first place, as not all of the .NET APIs are present (File I/O, Sockets), many were moved and others were introduced to integrate with WinRT.
When you use C# and VB, you are using the full .NET framework. But they have chosen to expose a smaller subset of the API to developers to push the new vision for Windows 8.
And this new vision includes safety/sandboxed systems and asynchronous programming. This is why you do not get direct file system access or socket access and why synchronous APIs that you were used to consuming are not exposed.
Now, you notice that I said "exposed" and not "gone".
What they did was that they only exposed to the compiler a set of APIs when you target the Metro profile.
You might be thinking that you can use some trick (referencing the GAC library instead of the compiler reference or using reflection to get to private APIs, or P/Invoking into Win32). But all of those uses will be caught by AppStore review application and you wont be able to publish your app through Microsoft's store.
You can still do whatever ugly hack you please on your system. It just wont be possible to publish that through the AppStore.
I've seen many comments in favor of copyright and in favor of Microsoft get modded to +5. It is just rarer, perhaps because the people who typically make those comments do not share the same values as the slashdot community, or because they're just assholes.
So what are the values of the Slashdot community?
--- and what makes the poster of a pro copyright or Microsoft post an asshole? Other than the fact that he is expressing a contrarian opinion?
All the artists and craftspersons that are actually required should of course get by. If copying was legal, art would probably increasingly be crowd-funded before creation, but a meager living wage for everyone would really let artist just about not starve and enable passionate people to keep doing their art.
Art is traditionally funded by the state, the church or the mechant prince --- each with its own agenda.
What they bring to the table is organization, money, talent and material resources of every sort. Institutonal memory. Long-term commitments.
There is passion, yes, but more importantly there is focus, clear vision. They know where they want to be, they now how to get there --- and they know that the best doesn't come cheap.
Case in point: Jobs and Pixar.
Not a word, not a whisper, posted to Slashdot about the latest Humble Indie Bundle.
The crowd is fickle. The crowd drifts away.
It wants to see something tangible. It wants to see the home run.
How many times does a gamer have to be burned before he stops pre-ordering games like DNF and RAGE based on the rep of the title or developer?
If he can't trust the pro to deliver the goods, how much faith can he have in the amateur?
How much will he be willing to gamble?
The returns on the "Humble Bundle" suggests no more than $5.
They also looked at the fine print on this 'pro-copyright' contest, and discovered that in entering, you agreed to give up your copyright.
My god, what a surprise.
This has been the rule in print and broadcast media for generations --- ask your great-grandad about the bike he won in a cub scout photo contest sponsored by "Boy's Life."
The sponsors demand this because they don't want to negotiate rights with amateurs. The kid gets his prize. The promotion stays on track and on budget. The End.
So.
A link to an article about windows without any pictures.
As a homeowner, I need to know how much light this will block, how much heat this will block. I need to know how the color and "texture" of the light will change.
Upholstery is expensive.
Flooring and carpeting are expensive. Wall coverings and window treatments are expensive.
Is the transparency good enough not to significantly impair a view for which I have paid a great deal of money?
but what he did with locking in his customers, limiting their freedoms and then making enormous profits over these, has caused almost all other companies to follow the same style
The essence of the thing is that Jobs wasn't producing a product for the geek --- but ordinary people whose needs and desires define "freedom" in a very different way.
Who's heart's bleeding? The Faunhofer Institute, isn't that the bunch of goons that burn government money and then want money for the stuff they come up with?
Applied research demands money and talent that does not come free.
You need a budget of about 1.65 billion euros each year to function at this level.
The Fraunhofer Society earns ca. 70% of its income through contracts with industry or specific government projects. The other 30% of the budget is sourced in the proportion 9:1 from federal and state (Land) government grants and is used to support preparatory research.
Thus the size of the society's budget depends largely on its success in maximizing revenue from commissions. This funding model applies not just to the central society itself but also to the individual institutes. This serves both to drive the realisation of the Fraunhofer Society's strategic direction of becoming a leader in applied research...
The Fraunhofer Society currently operates 60 institutes. The organisation has seven centers in the United States, under the name 'Fraunhofer USA', and three in Asia. In October 2010, Fraunhofer announced that it would open its first research center in South America.
These are Fraunhofer Institutes for:
Algorithms and Scientific Computing -- SCAI
Applied Information Technology -- FIT
Applied and Integrated Security -- AISEC
Applied Optics and Precision Engineering -- IOF
Applied Polymer Research --IAP
Applied Solid State Physics â" IAF
Biomedical Engineering -- IBMT
Building Physics -- IBP
Ceramic Technologies and Systems -- IKTS
Chemical Technology -- ICT
Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics -- FKIE
Communication Systems -- ESK Computer Architecture and Software Technology -- FIRST
Computer Graphics Research -- IGD
Digital Media Technology -- IDMT
Electron and Plasma Technology -- FEP
e-Government -- Fraunhofer eGovernment Center
Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology -- UMSICHT
Experimental Software Engineering -- IESE
Factory Operation and Automation -- IFF
High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques -- FHR
High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut -- EMI
Industrial Engineering -- IAO
Industrial Mathematics -- ITWM
Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation -- IOSB
Information Center for Regional Planning and Building Construction -- IRB
Integrated Circuits -- IIS
Integrated Systems and Device Technology -- IISB>br>Integrated Publication and Information Systems -- IPSI
Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems -- IAIS
Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology -- IGB
Laser Technology -- ILT
Machine Tools and Forming Technology -- IWU
Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research -- IFAM
Manufacturing Engineering and Automation -- IPA
Material and Beam Technology -- IWS
Material Flow and Logistics -- IML
Mechanics of Materials -- IWM
Medical Image Computing -- MEVIS
Microelectronic Circuits and Systems -- IMS
Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology -- IME
Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut -- HHI
Non-Destructive Testing -- IZFP
Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation -- IOSB
Open Communication Systems -- FOKUS
Patent Center for German Research -- PST
Photonic Microsystems -- IPMS
Physical Measurement Techniques -- IPM
Process Engineering and Packaging -- IVV
Production Systems and Design Technology -- IPK
Production Technology -- IPT
Reliability and Microintegration -- IZM
Secure Information Technology -- SIT
Silicate Research -- ISC
Silicon Technology -- ISIT
Smart Systems Integration by using Micro and Nano Technologies -- ENAS
Software and Systems Technology -- ISST
Solar Energy Systems -- ISE
Structural Durability and System Reliability -- LBF
Systems and Innovation Research -- ISI
Technological Trend Analysis -- INT
Technology Development Group -- TEG
The OSS put a lot of time and thought into keeping its agents safe.
It was among the first to use small hand held and battery powered VHF FM transceivers.
Communication was with a high altitude aircraft flying directly overhead. The system was infinitely safer than the suitcase sized shortwave sets you are likely to have seen in the movies.
Late in the war, the OSS felt confident enough in its methods to begin placing agents inside Germany itself.
One interesting oddity is that I can now see ultraviolet light â" it seems that there are a few people who have photoreceptors sensitive below 400nm into the UV spectrum.
In World War II the OSS recruited elderly cataract patients as coastwatchers --- able to read Morse sent over UV light.
Stanley Lovell's "Of Spies & Stratagems" can be found quite cheaply in paperback and as a legit free download on the web. It's well worth a read.
Lovell was the head of R&D for the OSS, their "Professor Moriarity," and it is here you will learn why.
I'm surprised the shareholders of Google haven't done more to urge Google to spend their profits on supporting Samsung.
Samsung is a global industrial cartel with $172 billion in revenues in 2009.
Samsung can fight its own battles.
After installing Windows on a hard drive, it becomes worthless.
Citatation needed. Just for laughs. When the topic is Windows, the mod up to +5 doesn't require any proof here.
When I did jury duty, the plaintiff attorney was quite worried that two of us were engineers. It's much harder to convince us of guilt based on sketchy evidence, confused testimony, and irrelevant but nice-sounding rhetoric.
Your use of the word "plaintiff" implies a civil case.
There is no such thing as a verdict of innocent or guilty in a civil case, proof beyond reasonable doubt.
There is only a decison to be made for the plaintiff or the defendant based on the weight of evidence laid before you.
The courtroom is not a lecture hall.
The courtroom is not a laboratory demonstration.
If you are looking for the perfection of a mathematical formula, you are not going to find it.
Legalized extortion is what this is. Patent reform is needed, and needed sooner rather than later.
These are grown-ups signing licensing agreements with Microsoft. Companies like General Dynamics, the sixth largest defense contractor in the world.
Samsung with revenues of $172 billion and with 276,000 employees. 50 years experience in consumer electronics. Manufactuer of 800 million mobile phones. Samsung
So tell me what you know about these patents that Samsung's engineers, legal counsel, management and financial advisors do not.
A smooth English accent makes the speaker sound smarter and more attractive.
There is no such thing as a "Received Pronunciation" in American English.
But it is true that radio, the movies, televison helped to define a kind of national voice intelligible across all regional, racial, ethnic and class divisions.
It is also true that the drive towards standardization often comes from below. From the immigrant or minority population itself. Because it translates into better jobs and upward mobility.
So if it's good enough for Berkeley or Harvard, why is it not good enough for an elementary school in Phoenix?
Because the university student is eighteen to twenty years old and the third grade student nine?
The call center workers' job consists of nothing but talking to people on the phone, all day. Of course it's a bigger deal for them to have neutral accents.
What do you think the grade school teacher is doing all day?
Why would "0" be on the bottom? Probably because the dialing mechanism was pulse, not tone. Since they couldn't do zero pulses for 0, they did ten pulses, and hence put the 0 at the end.
Dialing "0" connected you to an operator.
Two decades before the dial phone became common, kids were taught how to call the operator in an emergency. Dialing "0" was always a bit special, like placing an expensive long distance call.
Something worth thinking about before you commit to it and something you might want to make a little bit more difficult to avoid wasting the operator's time.
At some point, someone will challenge the legality of this practice of blocking legal recourse.
The Federal Arbitration Act dates back to 1925.
A number of Supreme Court cases have dealt with the preemption of state laws by the Federal Arbitration Act:
Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984) - Established the applicability of the FAA to contracts under state law of California)
Perry v. Thomas, 482 U.S. 483 (1987)
Volt Info. Sciences, Inc.. v. Stanford Univ., 489 U.S. 468 (1989)
Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos. v. Dobson, 513 U.S. 265 (1995)
Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc., 514 U.S. 52 (1995)
Doctor's Assocs., Inc. v. Casarotto, 517 U.S. 681 (1996)
Buckeye Check Cashing Inc. v. Cardegna, 546 U.S. 440 (2006) - Arbitrators must first hear challenge to legality of contract
Preston v. Ferrer, 128 S.Ct. 978 (2008) - Act requires arbitration first even when state law provides for administrative dispute resolution
AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (2011) - Despite California state law and lower court rulings that contracts barring class actions are unconscionable, the Court ruled 5-4 that consumers are bound by that aspect of arbitration clauses
While the geek rages on... arbritration moves quickly.
You will not be in and out of court fot years with all the expenses and stress that implies. The award will arrive in the form of a check, not a discount coupon, a symbolic victory only.
Federal Arbritration Act
You can continue to sue EA --- and EA can continue to sue you --- in small claims court.
The definition of "small" varies by state and locality --- claims ranging from up to five thousand to $25,000 can be heard here.
Albuterol works a lot better, sure, but sometimes - when you need an inhaler and you need it NOW - its nice to know the good old Primatine Mist is available over the counter at the nearest drugstore.
The puffer is something an asthmatic carries with him all the time. You can't depend on the store being open when you need it.