Somebody needs to write an open letter on the evils of 'pump and dump' for Darl and co.
How the US Health Insurance Industry Works
on
Stealth Inflation
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· Score: 1
Actually, I think that's how the Health Insurance industry in the US makes most of its money. Any time a family member or I have needed some medical procedure, inevitably there are mistakes with billing, which can only be cleared up via hours of waiting on hold and talking to customer service. No doubt many people either miss the goofs and do nothing about them, or maybe they give up eventually. If this happens to enough people (and, like I said, it was not a one-time isolated event in my experience) the extra revenue could sure add up.
There is a pretty good rule that says don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, but on the other hand I wonder how companies displaying such staggering levels of incompetence can stay afloat. If, conveniently, the incompetence works in their favor, I guess it's shareholder gold.
Eh, I've had to go to the Recovery Console numerous times with WinXP. Also had to re-install XP early on. That gave me a couple months of hassle free, stable fun, but recently it got all hosed up again, and I had to do the recovery console business, uninstall a couple things, and it seems to work for now. Joy. Every couple of days it prompts me to put on some new security patches, so I just know it's secure anyhow.
No doubt, I'd say grandparent was the most vapid thing ever to get modded as insightful, but I'm sure within minutes of posting that somebody will say something even stupider that will get modded up because it's a) lengthy and b) has something approaching proper use of grammar.
Yeah, it's neat how that issue of Wired has: "Bill Joy on Why Linux Sucks" on the cover.
Then you read the Bill Joy article, and actually what he says is Linux doesn't interest him, it's not groundbreaking, but it's great for people who want to learn - a decidedly moderate and non-inflammatory statement. Later in the same article there's a reference to a meditation wall he's building, using Linux of all things.
Then there was this LOTR article, where Linux is never really mentioned, but you suspect they (WETA) were using it, and the parent post confirms it.
I'm not saying Wired is out to get Linux, actually they did a nice Linus cover recently. Just pointing out a stupid magazine publishing trick, I suppose.
Amen to that. Also, the question of acceptance criteria comes into play. Difficult sometimes to get exactly what one client wants, now imagine trying to satisfy every joker who kicked in his lunch money to your project. How/when would a project funded like this be considered done?
With these Gnome bounties, it seems doable because you have a relatively small and focused group making these calls.
A university had an entrance exam for students. They were shown a stove with a pot full of water and told to boil the water. If they did anything other than light the stove and boil the water, they were sent to the humanities department.
Everybody else came back for part two. Now the pot is empty and they're asked to boil a pot of water. If the student fills the pot, places it on the stove, and lights it, the student goes to the engineering department.
If the student fills the pot, places it on the stove, and says 'I have now reduced this problem to the problem I solved yesterday', and stops, the student goes to mathematics department.
When I hear people whining about requirements like that, I always think 'wow, you mean there are places where they actually figure out all the requirements and write em up before they get the programmers involved? Where is this mythical land?'
They had a bumper after the musical number saying 'we changed a lyric', but didn't say which one. I guessed that was the one, it really wasn't hard to figure out...
Pretty effective, though. Coca-Cola uses the same trick for marketing purposes. Hey kids, let's do an experiment to see how much sugar is in Coca-Cola! Now let's do an experiment to see if Coke really does 'add life'. Wow! It brought the sea monkeys to life...well, they WERE living. QED!
Well, Kazaa etc are well and good, but get burned enough times because you thought you were downloading a track by Herbalizer only to find out it was actually some Don Henley Sept. 11 tragedy cash-in, or have partial copies of songs start piling up, and you start to think, well, maybe my time is worth something.
It's nice to click and download something from iTunes and get the complete song and know it's the song I wanted. Worth a buck to me anyway, if I like the song.
I thought it sounded fake. Word is Fox execs realized from the get-go that suing Al Franken was a stupid idea, but went along with it to appease O'Reilly's swollen ego, because he was having one of those childish fits of his. Had the Simpsons attacked O'Reilly directly I would have believed the story, though...
I am aware of that. The money MS is paying them is chump change by MS standards. If it turns out to be in MS's interests to turn around and smite them, they'll do it. Besides, it would make for a nice clean-up plan once everyone's raked in the cash from the pump-n-dump. It's not like SCO is going to actually start doing actual non-litigious, business type things once the dust settles.
Most artists don't make money, it's like with investing, venture capitalists fund a lot of losers hoping to find a few big winners in the bunch.
A really sucky (but high-selling) artist like Britney Spears brings in money that keeps the record company in business so they can put out the latest (worthy artist) release.
So, the profoundly sucky (musically) but successful (financially) artists have their place.
Of course, Indie labels and independent music distribution help cut out the middlemen, both the record labels and the sucky artists that keep them alive. But the reality is there's not going to be an overnight power-to-the-people shift.
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Fittingly, he does not believe teachers should be paid for there (sic) work either.
SELL! SELL! SELL!
Somebody needs to write an open letter on the evils of 'pump and dump' for Darl and co.
There is a pretty good rule that says don't attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, but on the other hand I wonder how companies displaying such staggering levels of incompetence can stay afloat. If, conveniently, the incompetence works in their favor, I guess it's shareholder gold.
Eh, I've had to go to the Recovery Console numerous times with WinXP. Also had to re-install XP early on. That gave me a couple months of hassle free, stable fun, but recently it got all hosed up again, and I had to do the recovery console business, uninstall a couple things, and it seems to work for now. Joy. Every couple of days it prompts me to put on some new security patches, so I just know it's secure anyhow.
No doubt, I'd say grandparent was the most vapid thing ever to get modded as insightful, but I'm sure within minutes of posting that somebody will say something even stupider that will get modded up because it's a) lengthy and b) has something approaching proper use of grammar.
Yeah, I saw that and I thought: when did Microsoft hire Professor Griff to do their PR?
Then you read the Bill Joy article, and actually what he says is Linux doesn't interest him, it's not groundbreaking, but it's great for people who want to learn - a decidedly moderate and non-inflammatory statement. Later in the same article there's a reference to a meditation wall he's building, using Linux of all things.
Then there was this LOTR article, where Linux is never really mentioned, but you suspect they (WETA) were using it, and the parent post confirms it.
I'm not saying Wired is out to get Linux, actually they did a nice Linus cover recently. Just pointing out a stupid magazine publishing trick, I suppose.
With these Gnome bounties, it seems doable because you have a relatively small and focused group making these calls.
A university had an entrance exam for students. They were shown a stove with a pot full of water and told to boil the water. If they did anything other than light the stove and boil the water, they were sent to the humanities department.
Everybody else came back for part two. Now the pot is empty and they're asked to boil a pot of water. If the student fills the pot, places it on the stove, and lights it, the student goes to the engineering department.
If the student fills the pot, places it on the stove, and says 'I have now reduced this problem to the problem I solved yesterday', and stops, the student goes to mathematics department.
sdcharle, distracted, puts the ball right over the plate. lucifuge31337 gets all of it...it might be, it might be, it is!
When I hear people whining about requirements like that, I always think 'wow, you mean there are places where they actually figure out all the requirements and write em up before they get the programmers involved? Where is this mythical land?'
They had a bumper after the musical number saying 'we changed a lyric', but didn't say which one. I guessed that was the one, it really wasn't hard to figure out...
Next on slashdot, there was a WAR in IRAQ!
Speak for yourself, a friend's grandma disowned him because the lack of rollover images on the menu of his PWS 'disgraced the family'.
He won the award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Excellence.
Pretty effective, though. Coca-Cola uses the same trick for marketing purposes. Hey kids, let's do an experiment to see how much sugar is in Coca-Cola! Now let's do an experiment to see if Coke really does 'add life'. Wow! It brought the sea monkeys to life...well, they WERE living. QED!
It's nice to click and download something from iTunes and get the complete song and know it's the song I wanted. Worth a buck to me anyway, if I like the song.
I thought it sounded fake. Word is Fox execs realized from the get-go that suing Al Franken was a stupid idea, but went along with it to appease O'Reilly's swollen ego, because he was having one of those childish fits of his. Had the Simpsons attacked O'Reilly directly I would have believed the story, though...
I am aware of that. The money MS is paying them is chump change by MS standards. If it turns out to be in MS's interests to turn around and smite them, they'll do it. Besides, it would make for a nice clean-up plan once everyone's raked in the cash from the pump-n-dump. It's not like SCO is going to actually start doing actual non-litigious, business type things once the dust settles.
Shouldn't it be a brother project in this case?
Score: 5, Predictable
It could be bad, if they try to convert all of Google to Windows.
Naw, I quit working for the record company a few years ago, and buy all my stuff from iTunes or an independent record store. Down with 'the man'!
A really sucky (but high-selling) artist like Britney Spears brings in money that keeps the record company in business so they can put out the latest (worthy artist) release.
So, the profoundly sucky (musically) but successful (financially) artists have their place.
Of course, Indie labels and independent music distribution help cut out the middlemen, both the record labels and the sucky artists that keep them alive. But the reality is there's not going to be an overnight power-to-the-people shift.