"Most people have an EZ-pass equivalent in their car."
Really? Where did you get this idea? I've never had one...never really have ever needed one.
I only recently (past year or so) ran into the system at all...when after Katrina I had to live on the northshore side of Lake Pontchartrain. They have that EZ pass thing for crossing the bridge. I was only living over there for a year, and didn't want one...so I just paid in cash. Hell, I can write it off on my company taxes..so, no big deal.
I get the feeling lots of the roads up in the NE of the US must be toll roads or something, but, away from there, at least down south and where I've lived in the west, I never ran into toll roads really.
True, but there are some states right now, TX and another one (Montana?) that are constructing laws to challenge this...something along the lines of handguns manufactured, stamped 'for in state sale/use only' or something, and defying any Federal gun regulations on the manufacture or sale of them. Should prove an interesting challenge.
"In other words, you're a total dick. Do you also shit where you eat?"
Nice, well thought out retort.
Actually I don't think I"m being a dick. That's just the way I have lived and most people around me seem to live...frankly until I started reading on/. about people not only recycling everything in the world, but getting uptight about those that didn't, I'd never heard of such behavior.
I'm still amazed at the number of people that post that their communities actually have laws saying what you can and cannot throw in the garbage to be picked up. Really a foreign concept to me...never lived anywhere where they did that , or were so uptight about what you threw away where.
"So why are we already spending tons on health care? he average is at 4K per american right now. Higher than the supposedly expensive Canadian healthcare (which is at around 3K a person). You can't cut it both ways. You either accept that those with no insurance will be turn away and left to fend for them selves or you give basic coverage and reduce the paperwork and control the price inflation of health care."
Well, from everything I'm seeing and hearing now...this current govt. healthcare thing will cost aobut $1Trillion additional money, and still leave about 35 million people uncovered.
How about just starting with regulating that insurance companies can't deny you for pre-existing conditions. How about broadening the HSA (Health Savings Account) to be more flexible and allow more citizens to save MORE of their own money pre-tax for their routine health needs, and only need insurance for catastrophic needs?
I did that for awhile and it was great. Why should people not budget for routine health needs like they budget for other things in life (food, shelter, etc)? Hell, when I was doing that and told Dr. and labs I had work (even an MRI) I was paying on my own, they gave me at least a 15% discount right on the spot.
I found that I could shop around for Dr. and what all for best price and service. That puts true competition back into the system...that would lower costs, it also cuts out the bean counters and other middlemen.
Trouble is...that wouldn't allow the govt. to have a heavy hand in the midst of it all, and with the current govt...that isn't a goal of their apparently.
"In Grand Junction, Colorado it is illegal to simply dump your electronics in the trash. You're required to pay a $50 processing fee for all old electronics. This includes computers, televisions, and basically anything larger than an iPod. $5-10 to dipose of your electronics with this other company is not a bad deal at all."
How the hell do they know what you throw away?
Do your garbage men actually stop and take the time at each house to go through every person's can(s) full of trash to pick out the 'not allowed' things? How they hell do they ever finish a run if they do that??
I've seen them go through my neighborhood (mind you I've never lived anywhere with rules on what you can/can't throw away in the trash)...they are going fast as they can, jump off the truck and 2-3 three guys are just grabbing cans and dumping them as they go along...
"The accumulated deficit will be between $20 Trillion and $25 Trillion by 2016 - everyone agrees it's not sustainable, and that taxes will have to rise."
Well, they could stop spending. They could start to consider that this massive govt. run healthcare (regardless of your views on it) is something we absolutely cannot afford right now. They could stop with the pork in bills.
Why can't the govt. do what a 'sane' normal household does when it is having budget problems. The first thing is to cut spending!!
"Also, they DO consume a portion of your state's resources every time they ship something to or through your state. Extra pollution, wear and tear on the highways, and disposal costs for the packaging and ultimately the product itself when it breaks/wears out/becomes obsolete."
Err..that isn't Amazon's fault. I would have to think that the companies that actually do the shipping do pay fuel and other taxes to the state in question when they travel across it and deliver said packages. Isn't that what fuel taxes are for...paying for road maintenance?
It isn't that bad actually....except for now in the summer. It has been HOT down here in New Orleans, with very little rain. We finally had a storm come through yesterday that helped cool things off.
This morning, was the first time in at least 2-3 weeks where my downstairs AC unit had actually shut off due to it reaching the temp on the thermostat.
I'm on levelized billing, but, that was from previous owners...I'm sure it will go up a little, but, I'm only hitting about $220 or so a month on power. Back in an older place with just window units, I easily hit $335 or so a month just trying to keep it cool (and not on levelized billing). During the winters tho...my bill was like $60/mo.
So, with AC bills....the computers, tv and other electronics are pretty much incidental.
"...the only Amazon.com affiliates left will be in The Amazon."
That's really no big deal for me. I pretty much ONLY buy stuff that Amazon sells itself, so I can get the 'free shipping' with orders over $25..and of course, no sales tax.
I generally trust Amazon more than I do the small fry sites they 'affiliate' with.
"So it is a convenient bad habit!:)
Isn't that true for many bad habits?"
Ok...what exactly makes keeping a bunch of tabs open a bad habit?
Until I started reading this thread, I never had heard of this practice as being remotely a negative thing. Hell, I thought it was probably the norm (if I had in fact ever thought to think about it).
"why don't you just add rss feeds to your bookmarks toolbar? assuming at least half of the sites you keep open have rss enabled, you could severely decrease your need to have an insane number of tabs open at once."
While I've heard of RSS feeds, never actually tried using them much. What exactly do they do for you?
"I tend to agree with this assessment. I consider myself a power user when it comes to tabs, and I only rarely have more than 20 tabs open (and that's when I haven't checked Slashdot for 2 days and need to read every article/summary/comment I've missed), and then only for a short time. Do a lot of people really leave the browser running _all_ the time with dozens and dozens of tabs open? I can't really imagine that being the norm..."
I'd have to say on average, I generally have 9-10 tabs open all the time when using FF.
I also tend to keep all my computers at work/home on 24/7, and yes, the browser is always up. I usually have 5-6 computers up at home that I hit depending on what room I'm in. That doesn't include the servers I have going.
I just dispose of it the old fashioned way, I chunk it in the trash can by the curb for the garbagemen pick it up and haul it away.
That being said, my experience for the past decade or so in New Orleans, if you set anything like that on top of the can(s), it will 'disappear' overnight before the trash truck comes.
I think of it as human nature taking over the recycling. I've rarely had anything that appeared of value not get picked up by someone who wanted it.
Wow...that is just something I've never run into before. What part of the country are you working in? I'm really curious as to what companies do this? I've honestly NEVER run into this type scenario before.
"You make a pretty glaring assumption. If they pay for his cell phone, why would they want to pay for an additional land line? It's a lot easier to have just one number to contact someone no matter where they are."
Just going from my experience, I've never worked in an office/cube that didn't come with a private landline phone.
Even on contracting gigs...they give phones in my experience.
I've always figured, why use my minutes (not to mention often cells can get bad reception, and you end up shouting in them where everyone else can hear your conversations).
"I'm in Canada and opted to pay the $3/month, considering I listen to it all day at work. Depending on your listening habits, you might want to consider subscribing."
Does your employer not have a policy against streaming content at the worksite?
Most every place I have worked at, have pretty strict policies against streaming content both for legal and bandwidth reasons. Hell most places I've been at, won't even let you IM on work computers.
Slashdot Mirror
Really? Where did you get this idea? I've never had one...never really have ever needed one.
I only recently (past year or so) ran into the system at all...when after Katrina I had to live on the northshore side of Lake Pontchartrain. They have that EZ pass thing for crossing the bridge. I was only living over there for a year, and didn't want one...so I just paid in cash. Hell, I can write it off on my company taxes..so, no big deal.
I get the feeling lots of the roads up in the NE of the US must be toll roads or something, but, away from there, at least down south and where I've lived in the west, I never ran into toll roads really.
But, doesn't this ruling mean that ANYONE running a USENET server is now in jeopardy legally?
Someone HAS to upload those file my friend. That content doesn't just magically appear there by itself.
True, but there are some states right now, TX and another one (Montana?) that are constructing laws to challenge this...something along the lines of handguns manufactured, stamped 'for in state sale/use only' or something, and defying any Federal gun regulations on the manufacture or sale of them. Should prove an interesting challenge.
I mean, if it is only raised and sold INTRA-state, the feds shouldn't have anything to say about it, eh?
Perhaps this could go along with the states trying to settle this federal intrusion thing with intra-state guns without checks?
Guns and beef...feds STAY AWAY, eh?
Nice, well thought out retort.
Actually I don't think I"m being a dick. That's just the way I have lived and most people around me seem to live...frankly until I started reading on /. about people not only recycling everything in the world, but getting uptight about those that didn't, I'd never heard of such behavior.
I'm still amazed at the number of people that post that their communities actually have laws saying what you can and cannot throw in the garbage to be picked up. Really a foreign concept to me...never lived anywhere where they did that , or were so uptight about what you threw away where.
Who the hell pays THAT much??
Maybe a private policy on a high risk person, but, at work..never paid much more than like $40-$6/mo for full coverage....
ONLY should that even be considered, if they FIRST drop the income taxes. No need for both of them!!!
I always get the free shipping thing myself...and deliveries don't take all 'that' long for me. I don't live in an Amazon occupied state.
Well, from everything I'm seeing and hearing now...this current govt. healthcare thing will cost aobut $1Trillion additional money, and still leave about 35 million people uncovered.
How about just starting with regulating that insurance companies can't deny you for pre-existing conditions. How about broadening the HSA (Health Savings Account) to be more flexible and allow more citizens to save MORE of their own money pre-tax for their routine health needs, and only need insurance for catastrophic needs?
I did that for awhile and it was great. Why should people not budget for routine health needs like they budget for other things in life (food, shelter, etc)? Hell, when I was doing that and told Dr. and labs I had work (even an MRI) I was paying on my own, they gave me at least a 15% discount right on the spot.
I found that I could shop around for Dr. and what all for best price and service. That puts true competition back into the system...that would lower costs, it also cuts out the bean counters and other middlemen.
Trouble is...that wouldn't allow the govt. to have a heavy hand in the midst of it all, and with the current govt...that isn't a goal of their apparently.
Err...don't people already do that?
My trash bill is part of my sewerage and water bill every month or so...
How the hell do they know what you throw away?
Do your garbage men actually stop and take the time at each house to go through every person's can(s) full of trash to pick out the 'not allowed' things? How they hell do they ever finish a run if they do that??
I've seen them go through my neighborhood (mind you I've never lived anywhere with rules on what you can/can't throw away in the trash)...they are going fast as they can, jump off the truck and 2-3 three guys are just grabbing cans and dumping them as they go along...
I've used WinSCP before, and it seemed to be a good product.
Well, they could stop spending. They could start to consider that this massive govt. run healthcare (regardless of your views on it) is something we absolutely cannot afford right now. They could stop with the pork in bills.
Why can't the govt. do what a 'sane' normal household does when it is having budget problems. The first thing is to cut spending!!
Err..that isn't Amazon's fault. I would have to think that the companies that actually do the shipping do pay fuel and other taxes to the state in question when they travel across it and deliver said packages. Isn't that what fuel taxes are for...paying for road maintenance?
It isn't that bad actually....except for now in the summer. It has been HOT down here in New Orleans, with very little rain. We finally had a storm come through yesterday that helped cool things off.
This morning, was the first time in at least 2-3 weeks where my downstairs AC unit had actually shut off due to it reaching the temp on the thermostat.
I'm on levelized billing, but, that was from previous owners...I'm sure it will go up a little, but, I'm only hitting about $220 or so a month on power. Back in an older place with just window units, I easily hit $335 or so a month just trying to keep it cool (and not on levelized billing). During the winters tho...my bill was like $60/mo.
So, with AC bills....the computers, tv and other electronics are pretty much incidental.
That's really no big deal for me. I pretty much ONLY buy stuff that Amazon sells itself, so I can get the 'free shipping' with orders over $25..and of course, no sales tax.
I generally trust Amazon more than I do the small fry sites they 'affiliate' with.
Ok...what exactly makes keeping a bunch of tabs open a bad habit?
Until I started reading this thread, I never had heard of this practice as being remotely a negative thing. Hell, I thought it was probably the norm (if I had in fact ever thought to think about it).
While I've heard of RSS feeds, never actually tried using them much. What exactly do they do for you?
I'd have to say on average, I generally have 9-10 tabs open all the time when using FF.
I also tend to keep all my computers at work/home on 24/7, and yes, the browser is always up. I usually have 5-6 computers up at home that I hit depending on what room I'm in. That doesn't include the servers I have going.
That being said, my experience for the past decade or so in New Orleans, if you set anything like that on top of the can(s), it will 'disappear' overnight before the trash truck comes.
I think of it as human nature taking over the recycling. I've rarely had anything that appeared of value not get picked up by someone who wanted it.
Wow...that is just something I've never run into before. What part of the country are you working in? I'm really curious as to what companies do this? I've honestly NEVER run into this type scenario before.
Just going from my experience, I've never worked in an office/cube that didn't come with a private landline phone.
Even on contracting gigs...they give phones in my experience.
I've always figured, why use my minutes (not to mention often cells can get bad reception, and you end up shouting in them where everyone else can hear your conversations).
Why not just use the landline they provide you at work at your desk?
Does your employer not have a policy against streaming content at the worksite?
Most every place I have worked at, have pretty strict policies against streaming content both for legal and bandwidth reasons. Hell most places I've been at, won't even let you IM on work computers.