And to be fair, the reason I said the UK seemed to be becoming the creepiest democratic country was because the USA is #1, baby!
I do hope that with the new government, a lot of this stuff gets scaled back. Too many of us Americans are sick of all the crap going on here - we sure as hell don't want companionship.
This, CCTV, the police taking away trampolines from people's yards because they're dangerous, draconian ID proposals, so on and so forth. Every few days it seems there's something new. There's a very nannying tilt in the current government there and I don't think that's even debatable. And it's not as if it's your fault, or Britain's fault, or even Labour's fault; this is something that happens whenever one party is in control for long enough. They feel like they accomplished everything they wanted to accomplish (or could accomplish without putting in too much effort and maybe rocking themselves out of the boat) so then they try to make themselves useful in order to justify their continued existence. (To Americans: A good sign of this is when your city council installs red light cameras and passes no-spitting ordinances:))
And, unlike Columbine, there was no huge push for gun control after what happened in Virginia Tech - there didn't need to be. The smug pro-gun groups had to keep quiet because it happened in Appalachia, where there's guns EVERYWHERE.
Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, hasn't the UK passed laws very similar to, if not identical to, the laws that allow for indefinite detention of "terrorists" here in the US? To your government's credit, they haven't been (knowingly) used.
And Britney's getting divorced? Oh no, WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?!
Is quite quickly becoming the creepiest democratic country in the world. At least here in America we try to blame our arbitrary government interference on security concerns. The UK just appears to be doing all this out of boredom at this point.
I don't follow British politics closely enough - once the Liberal Democratic Party supplants Labour, are they going to be doing more of this, or less? Any Brits out there wanna educate me?
Oops. Yeah, you're right - if you do ask a police officer your rights, if I recall correctly they can't lie about those. Something important to remember if they're being rather lazy about that whole "one phone call" thing.
The only point at which a cop cannot lie about anything is at trial.
Cops most certainly lie all the time ("Your fingerprints were all over the place!") and undercover cops lie every day about everything they do. If you were about to sell fifty kilos of cocaine to someone, and you asked them if they were a cop, and they responded with "Well, that's neither here nor there. Hey, did you catch What Not to Wear last night?!?!", how effective do you think undercover patrolling would be?
Ever been to court? The impassioned little guy doing what's right doesn't exist. Or, more appropriately, he could not be detected. In a court, passion doesn't exist. Court is fucking boring.
I'll never forget sitting in on a civil case where the impassioned wide-eyed rookie lawyer got up from behind his desk and starting waving his hands in the air like it was Law and Order, asking a question angrily. The bailiff put his hand on his pistol and the judge told him to sit the hell down.
The really good lawyers are the ones that remember precedent arising from decisions written in 1952 that was really about whether, I dunno, one brand of chicken wire infringed on the patent out on competing chicken wire, but hey, maybe that case applies here.
This will (rightly) be considered redundant but it bears repeating twice lest someone tries this:
This is the exact definition of insurance fraud. Buying a policy with the explicit and premeditated goal of causing damage in order to collect on the policy is exactly what insurance fraud is.
Better how? I wish that when I updated an appointment in my calendar, Outlook would automatically send an update request to all other participants (does it already? I don't think it does). Other than that, I honestly can't think of anything else I'd want that isn't already in there or that can be put in as an add-on. Outlook is one of the few things Microsoft got right.
"I don't know how we got to the point where the only measure of the quality of a computer interface is how easily a complete idiot "gets it" on the first sit down"
Yeah, but I have to email these "complete idiots", send them meeting requests, reserve resources for those meetings and then have shared folders so people can access archives of data in order to prepare for those meetings. And, right next to those emails and requests, I need to be able to watch my calendar and the calendars of the recipients update. Even worse, they have to do the same for me! Furthermore, I need to be able to see all of that happen from my cell phone and through my company's website. In real time.
And I don't know what else would possibly do that other than Outlook/Exchange. Never tried Evolution, and I don't feel like reserving a conference room for just me.
Pardon? If someone giving you a contract misrepresents the purpose of the contract, it's null and void, and at least in my state (Wisconsin), criminal charges can be brought. End of story.
And I like it. It's thick and it's the color of poop, but it has a radio (with decent reception, no less!) and a bigger screen for video.
Their DRM system probably sucks. I don't buy music off the internet, though, and most people don't buy (much) music off the internet, so it's never been an issue for me. As for the wireless functionality, like I said, I'm the only person in the world who owns a Zune, so I have no idea if I like that or not:)
Unless you use iTunes to buy music, the Zune actually isn't bad.
My theory has always been that employers have drug tests not to ensure that you don't do drugs, but to ensure that you have the ability to stop using drugs long enough to have clean urine for urinalysis. I also notice that many employers, including my current one, have discovered it's much less expensive to say you'll drug test everyone than to actually do it.
"This is also why requirements for security clearances ask you questions about drug-use going back 10+ years. It's not relevant to your job that you smoked a little dope back in college, and no longer do. What is significant is that everybody knows about it and nobody else can use that knowledge to compromise you and thus your employer."
Hooray, someone that knows what they're talking about!
Think that's bad? Have you ever been bitched at for calling yourself an American? Not only is it wholly accurate to say, there is no other word used to address someone from the US (other than "yankee piece of shit" but that's longer to type).
When someone becomes a fall guy, it's usually quite apparent to EVERYONE that that's what's happening. And trust me, colleagues (as in, people that are on the same "level" hierarchically as you) will be grateful as hell about it. Expect glowing peer recommendations.
Hmm...maybe it's advantageous to try to become a fall guy...
Slashdot Mirror
And who the fuck do you think you are?
I do hope that with the new government, a lot of this stuff gets scaled back. Too many of us Americans are sick of all the crap going on here - we sure as hell don't want companionship.
And, unlike Columbine, there was no huge push for gun control after what happened in Virginia Tech - there didn't need to be. The smug pro-gun groups had to keep quiet because it happened in Appalachia, where there's guns EVERYWHERE.
Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, hasn't the UK passed laws very similar to, if not identical to, the laws that allow for indefinite detention of "terrorists" here in the US? To your government's credit, they haven't been (knowingly) used.
And Britney's getting divorced? Oh no, WHAT ABOUT THE BABY?!
Is quite quickly becoming the creepiest democratic country in the world. At least here in America we try to blame our arbitrary government interference on security concerns. The UK just appears to be doing all this out of boredom at this point.
I don't follow British politics closely enough - once the Liberal Democratic Party supplants Labour, are they going to be doing more of this, or less? Any Brits out there wanna educate me?
Oops. Yeah, you're right - if you do ask a police officer your rights, if I recall correctly they can't lie about those. Something important to remember if they're being rather lazy about that whole "one phone call" thing.
Haha, okay, fine. The only point at which a cop cannot lie about things that have been videotaped is at trial.
Oh, don't you know? Copyright and trademark are the same thing!
The only point at which a cop cannot lie about anything is at trial.
Cops most certainly lie all the time ("Your fingerprints were all over the place!") and undercover cops lie every day about everything they do. If you were about to sell fifty kilos of cocaine to someone, and you asked them if they were a cop, and they responded with "Well, that's neither here nor there. Hey, did you catch What Not to Wear last night?!?!", how effective do you think undercover patrolling would be?
I did? I thought I was just clueless about an existing lame Slashdot inside joke. Now I'm clueless about my own lame Slashdot joke? Dammit.
You wouldn't be doing the work of a private investigator though. I think you're confusing "being a private investigator" and "finding stuff out".
Just to let you know, there's no such thing as a male cow. See, we people from Wisconsin aren't so useless!
Great, so I spend two consecutive days at work actually doing work and I miss some sort of horsecock Slashdot inside joke? My timing blows horsecock.
Ever been to court? The impassioned little guy doing what's right doesn't exist. Or, more appropriately, he could not be detected. In a court, passion doesn't exist. Court is fucking boring.
I'll never forget sitting in on a civil case where the impassioned wide-eyed rookie lawyer got up from behind his desk and starting waving his hands in the air like it was Law and Order, asking a question angrily. The bailiff put his hand on his pistol and the judge told him to sit the hell down.
The really good lawyers are the ones that remember precedent arising from decisions written in 1952 that was really about whether, I dunno, one brand of chicken wire infringed on the patent out on competing chicken wire, but hey, maybe that case applies here.
Guess which pay scale the latter lawyer is in.
Hang the jury? It's civil court.
This is the exact definition of insurance fraud. Buying a policy with the explicit and premeditated goal of causing damage in order to collect on the policy is exactly what insurance fraud is.
Better how? I wish that when I updated an appointment in my calendar, Outlook would automatically send an update request to all other participants (does it already? I don't think it does). Other than that, I honestly can't think of anything else I'd want that isn't already in there or that can be put in as an add-on. Outlook is one of the few things Microsoft got right.
"I don't know how we got to the point where the only measure of the quality of a computer interface is how easily a complete idiot "gets it" on the first sit down"
Yeah, but I have to email these "complete idiots", send them meeting requests, reserve resources for those meetings and then have shared folders so people can access archives of data in order to prepare for those meetings. And, right next to those emails and requests, I need to be able to watch my calendar and the calendars of the recipients update. Even worse, they have to do the same for me! Furthermore, I need to be able to see all of that happen from my cell phone and through my company's website. In real time.
And I don't know what else would possibly do that other than Outlook/Exchange. Never tried Evolution, and I don't feel like reserving a conference room for just me.
Pardon? If someone giving you a contract misrepresents the purpose of the contract, it's null and void, and at least in my state (Wisconsin), criminal charges can be brought. End of story.
Bunch of damn hypocrites...
Their DRM system probably sucks. I don't buy music off the internet, though, and most people don't buy (much) music off the internet, so it's never been an issue for me. As for the wireless functionality, like I said, I'm the only person in the world who owns a Zune, so I have no idea if I like that or not :)
Unless you use iTunes to buy music, the Zune actually isn't bad.
"This is also why requirements for security clearances ask you questions about drug-use going back 10+ years. It's not relevant to your job that you smoked a little dope back in college, and no longer do. What is significant is that everybody knows about it and nobody else can use that knowledge to compromise you and thus your employer."
Hooray, someone that knows what they're talking about!
Common drug tests do test for alcohol. They don't have much of a lookback period, but they catch people who currently have alcohol in their system.
Think that's bad? Have you ever been bitched at for calling yourself an American? Not only is it wholly accurate to say, there is no other word used to address someone from the US (other than "yankee piece of shit" but that's longer to type).
Hmm...maybe it's advantageous to try to become a fall guy...
Amen, brother. Two years ago I was working fast food. Everyone starts somewhere.