Why is is people don't understand how this works? The record companies won't get anything at that point. The repayment from the artist is long over at 50 years (hopefully). The money goes to the artist. The only reason it goes to the record companies at first is because the artists take what amounts to a loan from their record company. They have to pay it back which they do with their royalties and their live performances.
At 50 years, they're likely paid up. That money will go back to them. Is it really that hard to understand or are minds so closed they can't accept the truth over their distorted perception?
Do you think we can get some sarcasm tags going here? It's hard to tell if the "he invented it" comments are trolling or being funny. I'm really glad I don't have any mod points right now. This stuff makes a moderator's job really difficult. But of course, now that I've posted here, I'll get another set, and since I've posted here, I won't be able to mod this thread, so problem solved. =-)
Where might I find these?
on
Planet Simpson
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· Score: 4, Funny
As a member of a generation raised on Saturday Morning cartoons, a person who grew up watching The Simpsons and who now regularly visits websites like Fark, Metafilter and Slashdot where Simpsons references run thick...
I for one would like to welcome our new cartoon overlords so they might tell me where I could find one of these Simpsons references on Slashdot.
You're incorrectly assuming there's a way for a lot of these people to submit their cue sheets electronically. True, the radio stations have it all set up and can do it pretty much by pressing a button. However, there are other problems. If I wrote some music which was used on a TV program, say America's Most Wanted, then, the engineers, at the end of the week scramble to get the show on the satellite, through closed captioning, and finally on the air. Monday morning comes and the cue sheets for the show just aired are submitted. It takes several hours to get them done for the several hundred cues used in that show. If you consider each segment takes between 5 and 50 cues (yes, some are just a single cue), and they have to provide all the information on the track and the composer(s) for each cue, you begin to realize how much time this takes. Then it gets submitted to the network, and passed up the chain from there. Eventually, it gets back down to me. Now, with the cue sheets in hand, I can look over my account at BMI. After a few months, the processing from the various entities who do the show ratings come up with a number representing how many people they believe watched the show. That information is taken in, processed, and I'm finally paid based on the number of people who saw/heard the show, how many cues were used of mine, and the duration of each of those cues. So, you can see, the song I wrote called "Generic Car Chase 148" or "Gunfight at the Not So OK Corral" is compared to all the other composers with such an inventive naming scheme, and it's finally attributed to me, hopefully. If not, I have to tell them there's an error. Eventually, usually about 9 months after the episode airs, I get my compensation. This is, depending on the situation, in addition to the compensation I got for the drop fee on the synchronization license. Synch licenses are a completely different beast. I'd recommend googling for it or just reading the section about it from the book I mentioned in an earlier post.
Responding to an AC is not my favorite thing to do, but I suppose I'll take the bait...
Your understanding of the way things work is woefully inaccurate. I'm happy to give up part of my share to BMI and whomever else out there who helps me to track the usage of my music, collect payment, and send me a check. (This is not licesne for anyone to go out and do it then demand a portion.) They also offer a lot more: like the opportunity to have health insurance, purchasing agreements to get things I, as a composer might need, at a nice discount, a sort of credit/debit card I can use at many retailers to get equipment I need, backed by my earnings, and a lot more. Check out the BMI web site to see what they offer. It's quite impressive all the things they do for the artists.
So which is it again? I got a little confused there.
Apparently so did I. =-)
Being paid for doing it is why I *can* do it as a living. I do love doing it, and being able to earn a living at it is a bonus. I guess it's sort of like being a porn star but with less heavy breathing and voluntary loss of bodily fluids. It often seems you get fscked as frequently.
Honestly, the thought is extremely clear in my head. I seem to still have some trouble expressing it. Maybe I can write a song about it. =-)
This is a very poor comparison. Google's spiders do the work. For musicians to be paid, the engineers at the post production facilities have to submit their cue sheets, and the PDs at the radio stations have to submit their playlists once confirmed by the DJs. The facilities (restaurants, nightclubs, bars, etc.) have to submit their playlists as well. This is a human problem. Once these have been done, then they can start to determine who gets how much of the pie. My portion of the pie may be only.000001% this month since I got only 300 plays. Next month could be better or worse even if I got 3000 plays. It all depends on the number of plays, duration of the play (they don't always play the whole song), the size of the audience, and probably a few other factors I can't remember. There's a lot to do, and a lot of coordination from human sources. I'm happy they get it to me as quickly as they do and haven't slowed down over the years with the increasing number of people out there producing and releasing works. The body of works gets larger. Not many of the works fall out of publishing control.
There's a lot to the business side of the music world most people have absolutely no idea about. I'd recommend checking out "The Business of Music" (an extremely dry read but very informative...better than sleeping pills) from your local library. You could learn a lot about the different organizations, what they do, and in some cases, how they do it. Maybe contact BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC (in the US), and the RIAA and other industry organizations, then find out how they actually go about earning their keep. You may be surprised to learn it isn't at all like what many/most of the slashdotters spew.
As an artist who is a BMI member, I can assure you they do work to make sure I get paid for my work. After a broadcast, it usually takes about 9 months for the money to get to me, but given the number of songs being played on all the media outlets out there, it actually seems kind of fast. I don't produce/write/perform my music so much for the love of it, as I do for the fact I can earn a living doing it. I have music all over television, films, and on record store shelves. My hard labor went into the production of that music. DRM helps to protect my hard work and ensure I get paid for it.
Yes, I love what I do. Being paid for it is a bonus. I don't need to go work in an office pushing papers around and running spreadsheets of numbers. Personally, I would find that sort of things boring. The current business model allows me to earn a living doing what I like instead of what I have to do to make ends meet. If I weren't a little talented, it wouldn't work out, and I'd be forced to give away my music in hopes of being noticed by a few people who might fork over whatever few pennies they could spare. I don't do busking any more as that was one of the worst weeks of my life.
When your product is such a pile of crap, you have to give it away, the only income you'll get from it is pity money. I can now understand why it's called a pittance.
Did the owner of the card authorize someone to initiate that sale?...you sign a declaration that states neither you nor anyone authorized by you initiated that sale.
You just made my point. The owner of the card can give it to someone who may use it. Posession of the card itself implies authorization. If there was no "real" authorization, then there is the possibility of fraud. However, that's a problem for the courts to deal with.
You really should check with your LP department to get a better understanding of these concepts. They'll help you to understand exactly what I'm talking about.
I can understand your willingness to go along with letting the merchant check the signature, as it's a step in absolving your company from paying out. Most CC companies will charge the vendor/merchant in those cases. The merchant loses money because their cashier tried to be a handwriting/signature analyst, and failed.
Again, it's a bearer instrument, so it's not required. If you wouldn't ask for an ID from someone using cash, you shouldn't for someone using a Visa or MasterCard.
Checking IDs and signatures absolutely does protect merchants against claims of fraud. I have seen this protection work -- I have seen merchants have proceeds from sales given back to them after a chargeback, because they were able to provide a copy of a matching customer signature.
In this case, you likely have a card owner attempting to commit fraud. This is a completely different problem from a card being stolen and being used by an unauthorized person. The card owner however may have a signature which is relatively easy to duplicate, and with an example on the back of their card, the thief's job is half way done. This makes things more difficult for the investigator, as there then is a need for someone who is a real handwiting and signature analyst (as opposed to the WalMart cashier trying to pretend to be one).
It's a company card. Everyone above a certain level has them. The company makes great use of the extra features, and apparently the extra money is worth it. You can really pile on the miles when you fly to Thailand, Kenya, South Africa, and other really long (and expensive last minute) flights (from the US) on a fairly regular basis.
A few years ago, my personal AMEX was eligible for an upgrade. I asked them how much it would cost. It was free for the first year, and they usually would waive the fee for the following years if you were a good customer (read: spend beaucoup bucks on the card). Apparently you can get airline miles at something like triple the rate of the regular card. I was tempted, but eventually just switched most of my personal purchases to my Visa Check Card so it would come directly from my bank account. Lucky for me, I typically have enough in there to buy what I need, when I need it. If not, then I use the AMEX when I can pay it off by the end of the month. The last resort is the MasterCard with a stupidly high interest rate. The real last resort is to just do without. =-)
Nevertheless, yes, I have a Platinum AMEX. No, I don't have to pay the bill or the yearly fee.
I didn't realize they had graduated to that level. 15 or so years ago when I worked in the Economic Crimes Division of my state's AG office, things were a little different. Now, with the flagging systems being so well done, it makes perfect sense. I'm glad to know my platinum AMEX will be safe. However, for AMEX, I'm less unhappy to show ID. When I use my Visa or MC, I get pissed.
For those of you who are afriad of someone stealing your card and making unauthorized purchases, you can rest easy. The credit card companies have been able to detect fraud at the time of purchase for quite a while now. Ever since they felt comfortable enough to offer everyone "zero liability".
First off, the cashier at your local WalMart isn't a handwriting and signature analysis expert or an identity expert. They aren't expected to be. The credit card companies realized this a long time ago. Strangely enough, if your card is stolen and the clerk compared the signature, the store becomes liable for the fraudulent purchases.
A Visa or MasterCard is what's called a bearer instrument. It's the same as having cash. If I handed you a $20 bill to pay for something, you wouldn't ask for ID. The same rule applies to Visa and MasterCard. They're all three bearer instruments.
On the other hand, AMEX is an owner instrument. Only the owner of the card is allowed to use it. IIRC, Diners' Club is the same way. You must be the owner of the card. If you have an AMEX, and your spouse is on the same account, you will each have your own card with your own name on it, and IIRC a different number assigned to the same account.
Using an owner instrument is a little more tricky. In that case, the cashier should make a cursory check to see if the signatures match, and may ask for ID, however, much more than that is placing liability back on the store instead of the Loss Prevention department of the bank or credit card company.
A few years ago, I was sitting at home and got a call from Nike Online. Within about 10-15 seconds of that call, I had a call from Visa Loss Prevention on call waiting. Someone had stolen my Visa number and attempted to use it to buy a lot of Nike stuff from the online store. Both Nike and Visa caught the fraudulent purchase at the time of sale. They were able to get in touch with me, the local police department, and set up a sting to get the thief. I wasn't charged anything, and had only a minor problem while I waited for my new card to arrive since they had to kill the old number (which sucked as I had just memorized it and the code on the back).
Checking IDs is just as bad as airline security. It does nothing to actually prevent crime. It just gives the underinformed a (false) sense of security.
They'll want to verify your ID before charging the card though, so show them some other photo ID other than a DL. Most clerks are pretty lazy about verifying that the cardholder is legit, but in my experience, not in the rental car/hotel/travel game
Why would they need to "verify your ID" at all? Unless you're using AMEX (or I think Diners Club), the credit card is a bearer instrument, just like cash. If you're in posession of it, you're considered to be authorized to use it.
All this "veryfy your ID" crap is worthless time wasting. It's not the clerk's responsibility to be a document expert or professional handwriting and signature analyst. If they were, they'd be making a hell of a lot better living than they do at the counter of your local Target, K-mart, Bloomingdale's, Hertz, JetBlue, or whatever. If they do check your ID, submit the transaction, and it's fraudulent, they place their employer and themselves in danger of being liable.
Check with your credit card company, you'll find there's a zero liability policy if your card is lost or stolen. Of course there are caveats that you report it in a reasonable amount of time and things like that, but nevertheless, you're not liable, and the vendor is not liable (as long as they don't do something stupid like check the ID).
My girlfriend always shows her ID, and the clerk never looks to see if the picture on it matches the person handing it to her. The clerk simply checks to see if the name is the same. Usually, they're so busy they don't have time to look away from the register and the merchandise.
Let's put it like this: Would you be pissed if someone asked you for an ID when you use cash to buy some innocuous item at your local department store? It's the same thing. Cash is a bearer instrument. Visa and MasterCard are bearer instruments.
Would you consider this a date movie? If so, which Linux distro does your date prefer? =-)
Strangely enough, my girlfriend (real live person; not a blow-up doll) likes H2G2 enough to sit through the movie. She also prefers Windows although the virus that infected her computer the other day might change that perception.
This is part of the realism. True, you don't melt tires in a few laps, but, part of racing is tire choice. You have something like 6 different compounds of slicks to choose from. Depending on your course, you might like having a harder compound. It may also depend on the car.
I was racing the Mercedes DTA car for a little while and found it was just barely losing races. I had the medium slicks on there. Then, I switched to hard, was able to run an entire race on a single set, and took the lead usually around lap 5 when everyone had gone in to put on a fresh set of rubber. They'd usually pass me (the ones who went in on 3 or 4 laps) again around lap 7, but I'd be far ahead after their next pit stop. So, although I couldn't hold the turns nearly as well as they could, I burned through the tires more slowly and spent less time on pit road.
If you watch a Formula 1 race, you'll hear the announcers talking about the pit strategy of the different crews. The amount of time you spend in the pit can make or break your race. Taking this strategy and condensing it to a 10 lap race (instead of 60-75 laps) simply adds to the realism. At first, I was willing to up the ultra-soft slicks on the cars I was racing. Then, when I found out they'd burn through in 2 laps, I started developing my pit strategy for the different cars.
When this URL gets passed to Safari from Mail, the funny-URL is noticed but not translated and the page won't display. If the attempt comes by mail, it looks like Safari users may be safe.
What kind of card was this? Do you realize Visa and MasterCard are bearer instruments? (AMEX is an owner instrument.) I can give you my card (bearer instrument type) and you can use it until there's no credit left. If I don't report it to the credit card company, nobody should stop you. Unless the credit card company stops the transaction, the clerk shouldn't ask for any ID or even verify the signature.
A tangent of this; you should sign your own name since signing mine would be forgery.
Strangely enough, if they do look at the signature line, compare it with the signature on the slip, and it's fraudulent, they can be held liable. It's insane to think every store clerk in the world where the accept credit cards is a handwriting/signature expert.
In fact, if you look at the vendor agreement, you'll see where such practices are prohibited, and the store could be fined by the credit card company.
The Loss Prevention Departments of Visa and MasterCard, along with the individual banks are extremely good at identifying questionable purchases.
A few years ago, I got a call from Nike Online Loss Prevention, and literally at the same time from Visa Loss Prevention (on my mobile phone) about a suspeced fraudulent purchase. They denied the charge, and 20 minutes later, the county police department was dispatched to the person's house. They were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted.
When a clerk at a store tells me, "It's just for your protection," I laugh, and then start to get angry. It's ignorance, pure and simple.
Most states have another name for this type of thing. in NC, it's called False Pretense. It's a felony regardless of the amount. Other states put it under the statute for theft and give it a specific moniker. NC and many other states use the False Pretense statute.
Eye theenk there spealling adn grammer whirr beter bak wen thay starrted.
Seriously, the timeline seems to really start to degrade around the early 90s. The quality of the posts, even the flames, was quite good back in the early days. Nowadays, you'd think the people posting were the monkeys Spaff was writing about.
I looked up my company and saw we were 100% WinXP. That's a load of crap.
I look around at the machines I'm supporting. I see mostly OS X machines, and the few Windows machines are Win2K. I just opened two laptop boxes which came pre-installed with XP, but they're not even on the network, yet.
The stats on this site are severely skewed. I don't know where they get their data, but it's very wrong.
I wanted to moderate in this thread, but I had to respond to this.
I lived in a blissfully ignorant state with reference to the whole who/whom thing, until I moved back to Germany when I was 19. Then, I started learning German and in 6 months, became fluent.
At this point, I began to realize all my errors in English. This was appalling since my mother and grandmother were both English majors in college and both taught English.
Having learned German from people who actually care about the language, I had a good comprehension of the use of wer and wem. Once I started thinking in German, the English usage of who and whom became easy.
My girlfriend tries to use who and whom correctly, and gets it right about 90% of the time. At a US university, that's still an "A". I still cringe when she does it.
She gets an "F" on the "couldn't care less" thing. She consistently says, "could care less," and it drives me batty. If that's the only problem we ever have, I will consider myself lucky. We just passed our first year together and I haven't pitched her for this minor infraction. =-)
Why exactly is "triple double-you" any less lazy than "dub-dub-dub"?
The reference was to using all the syllables. I don't say "trip dub" or anything like that. I actually pronounce all the syllables. Saying, "dub-dub-dub" is lazy as it drops the last two syllables from a three syllable word, three times. At least when I shorten it, it sounds like I have an education.
I'm completely baffled as to how laziness in speech is often a good thing. I can see a few situations where enough of an utterance to get the point across is acceptable, like when you're drowning and the person on the shore is too stupid to comprehend that from viewing the situation. Please, oh learned Anonymous Coward, enlighten us with your great wisdom.
Have you noticed that people have already ceased using www. on most advertisements? At least my domain the www is optional, as most other websites have adopted this too.
A lot of this drop has to do with the language. In Germany, I still hear "vay vay vay punkt irgendwas punkt day eh" where in the US, it takes about three weeks to stumble through "double-you double-you double-you dot something dot com". It's mostly because the professional speakers hate to pronounce the "w" incorrectly and sound like an uneducated backwoods hick.
I've been saying "triple double-you" for years, and I occasionally hear it on ads. I often hear students saying "dub dub dub", and it drives me crazy. It's laziness in speech mostly.
With a little practice, you can say each "w" completely. Most of us have been speaking English for decades. Something as simple as a single letter of the alphabet, the same letter you sing correctly in that inane song, shouldn't be that difficult.
I also notice the mispronunciation more in the southern states. How is it the southern dialect can drop complete syllables from some words and add syllables to others? It's like the old joke about why the pregnancy rate is so high in the south. (It's because it takes the girls so long to say "kuh-wheeeee-uuuuht.")
I guess it comes down to, "Just because the President can't say the letter right, doesn't mean you shouldn't."
It was interesting to read the article as I started off my UNIX Systems Administrator career in the broadcast arena. Back then, all graphics were done on SGIs. I learned "UNIX" by reading the SGI manual.
However, the article completely failed to acknowledge the stronghold SGI has in scientific 3D molecular visualization and crystallography. Most of those apps are being rewritten for Linux and *BSD, but if you go somewhere like NIH, you'll find a very large population of SGIs. I'd guess the support contracts from the various NIH institutes keep SGI alive, not to mention the sales to the CIA, NSA, and other government agencies.
Hopefully there will be a part two to this article where they explore this realm. They can interview me if they want. I'd be happy to talk about the use of SGIs in science.
Slashdot Mirror
Why is is people don't understand how this works? The record companies won't get anything at that point. The repayment from the artist is long over at 50 years (hopefully). The money goes to the artist. The only reason it goes to the record companies at first is because the artists take what amounts to a loan from their record company. They have to pay it back which they do with their royalties and their live performances.
At 50 years, they're likely paid up. That money will go back to them. Is it really that hard to understand or are minds so closed they can't accept the truth over their distorted perception?
Do you think we can get some sarcasm tags going here? It's hard to tell if the "he invented it" comments are trolling or being funny. I'm really glad I don't have any mod points right now. This stuff makes a moderator's job really difficult. But of course, now that I've posted here, I'll get another set, and since I've posted here, I won't be able to mod this thread, so problem solved. =-)
I for one would like to welcome our new cartoon overlords so they might tell me where I could find one of these Simpsons references on Slashdot.
You're incorrectly assuming there's a way for a lot of these people to submit their cue sheets electronically. True, the radio stations have it all set up and can do it pretty much by pressing a button. However, there are other problems. If I wrote some music which was used on a TV program, say America's Most Wanted, then, the engineers, at the end of the week scramble to get the show on the satellite, through closed captioning, and finally on the air. Monday morning comes and the cue sheets for the show just aired are submitted. It takes several hours to get them done for the several hundred cues used in that show. If you consider each segment takes between 5 and 50 cues (yes, some are just a single cue), and they have to provide all the information on the track and the composer(s) for each cue, you begin to realize how much time this takes. Then it gets submitted to the network, and passed up the chain from there. Eventually, it gets back down to me. Now, with the cue sheets in hand, I can look over my account at BMI. After a few months, the processing from the various entities who do the show ratings come up with a number representing how many people they believe watched the show. That information is taken in, processed, and I'm finally paid based on the number of people who saw/heard the show, how many cues were used of mine, and the duration of each of those cues. So, you can see, the song I wrote called "Generic Car Chase 148" or "Gunfight at the Not So OK Corral" is compared to all the other composers with such an inventive naming scheme, and it's finally attributed to me, hopefully. If not, I have to tell them there's an error. Eventually, usually about 9 months after the episode airs, I get my compensation. This is, depending on the situation, in addition to the compensation I got for the drop fee on the synchronization license. Synch licenses are a completely different beast. I'd recommend googling for it or just reading the section about it from the book I mentioned in an earlier post.
Responding to an AC is not my favorite thing to do, but I suppose I'll take the bait...
Your understanding of the way things work is woefully inaccurate. I'm happy to give up part of my share to BMI and whomever else out there who helps me to track the usage of my music, collect payment, and send me a check. (This is not licesne for anyone to go out and do it then demand a portion.) They also offer a lot more: like the opportunity to have health insurance, purchasing agreements to get things I, as a composer might need, at a nice discount, a sort of credit/debit card I can use at many retailers to get equipment I need, backed by my earnings, and a lot more. Check out the BMI web site to see what they offer. It's quite impressive all the things they do for the artists.
Apparently so did I. =-)
Being paid for doing it is why I *can* do it as a living. I do love doing it, and being able to earn a living at it is a bonus. I guess it's sort of like being a porn star but with less heavy breathing and voluntary loss of bodily fluids. It often seems you get fscked as frequently.
Honestly, the thought is extremely clear in my head. I seem to still have some trouble expressing it. Maybe I can write a song about it. =-)
This is a very poor comparison. Google's spiders do the work. For musicians to be paid, the engineers at the post production facilities have to submit their cue sheets, and the PDs at the radio stations have to submit their playlists once confirmed by the DJs. The facilities (restaurants, nightclubs, bars, etc.) have to submit their playlists as well. This is a human problem. Once these have been done, then they can start to determine who gets how much of the pie. My portion of the pie may be only .000001% this month since I got only 300 plays. Next month could be better or worse even if I got 3000 plays. It all depends on the number of plays, duration of the play (they don't always play the whole song), the size of the audience, and probably a few other factors I can't remember. There's a lot to do, and a lot of coordination from human sources. I'm happy they get it to me as quickly as they do and haven't slowed down over the years with the increasing number of people out there producing and releasing works. The body of works gets larger. Not many of the works fall out of publishing control.
There's a lot to the business side of the music world most people have absolutely no idea about. I'd recommend checking out "The Business of Music" (an extremely dry read but very informative...better than sleeping pills) from your local library. You could learn a lot about the different organizations, what they do, and in some cases, how they do it. Maybe contact BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC (in the US), and the RIAA and other industry organizations, then find out how they actually go about earning their keep. You may be surprised to learn it isn't at all like what many/most of the slashdotters spew.
As an artist who is a BMI member, I can assure you they do work to make sure I get paid for my work. After a broadcast, it usually takes about 9 months for the money to get to me, but given the number of songs being played on all the media outlets out there, it actually seems kind of fast. I don't produce/write/perform my music so much for the love of it, as I do for the fact I can earn a living doing it. I have music all over television, films, and on record store shelves. My hard labor went into the production of that music. DRM helps to protect my hard work and ensure I get paid for it.
Yes, I love what I do. Being paid for it is a bonus. I don't need to go work in an office pushing papers around and running spreadsheets of numbers. Personally, I would find that sort of things boring. The current business model allows me to earn a living doing what I like instead of what I have to do to make ends meet. If I weren't a little talented, it wouldn't work out, and I'd be forced to give away my music in hopes of being noticed by a few people who might fork over whatever few pennies they could spare. I don't do busking any more as that was one of the worst weeks of my life.
When your product is such a pile of crap, you have to give it away, the only income you'll get from it is pity money. I can now understand why it's called a pittance.
You just made my point. The owner of the card can give it to someone who may use it. Posession of the card itself implies authorization. If there was no "real" authorization, then there is the possibility of fraud. However, that's a problem for the courts to deal with.
You really should check with your LP department to get a better understanding of these concepts. They'll help you to understand exactly what I'm talking about.
I can understand your willingness to go along with letting the merchant check the signature, as it's a step in absolving your company from paying out. Most CC companies will charge the vendor/merchant in those cases. The merchant loses money because their cashier tried to be a handwriting/signature analyst, and failed.
Again, it's a bearer instrument, so it's not required. If you wouldn't ask for an ID from someone using cash, you shouldn't for someone using a Visa or MasterCard.
In this case, you likely have a card owner attempting to commit fraud. This is a completely different problem from a card being stolen and being used by an unauthorized person. The card owner however may have a signature which is relatively easy to duplicate, and with an example on the back of their card, the thief's job is half way done. This makes things more difficult for the investigator, as there then is a need for someone who is a real handwiting and signature analyst (as opposed to the WalMart cashier trying to pretend to be one).
It's a company card. Everyone above a certain level has them. The company makes great use of the extra features, and apparently the extra money is worth it. You can really pile on the miles when you fly to Thailand, Kenya, South Africa, and other really long (and expensive last minute) flights (from the US) on a fairly regular basis.
A few years ago, my personal AMEX was eligible for an upgrade. I asked them how much it would cost. It was free for the first year, and they usually would waive the fee for the following years if you were a good customer (read: spend beaucoup bucks on the card). Apparently you can get airline miles at something like triple the rate of the regular card. I was tempted, but eventually just switched most of my personal purchases to my Visa Check Card so it would come directly from my bank account. Lucky for me, I typically have enough in there to buy what I need, when I need it. If not, then I use the AMEX when I can pay it off by the end of the month. The last resort is the MasterCard with a stupidly high interest rate. The real last resort is to just do without. =-)
Nevertheless, yes, I have a Platinum AMEX. No, I don't have to pay the bill or the yearly fee.
I didn't realize they had graduated to that level. 15 or so years ago when I worked in the Economic Crimes Division of my state's AG office, things were a little different. Now, with the flagging systems being so well done, it makes perfect sense. I'm glad to know my platinum AMEX will be safe. However, for AMEX, I'm less unhappy to show ID. When I use my Visa or MC, I get pissed.
For those of you who are afriad of someone stealing your card and making unauthorized purchases, you can rest easy. The credit card companies have been able to detect fraud at the time of purchase for quite a while now. Ever since they felt comfortable enough to offer everyone "zero liability".
First off, the cashier at your local WalMart isn't a handwriting and signature analysis expert or an identity expert. They aren't expected to be. The credit card companies realized this a long time ago. Strangely enough, if your card is stolen and the clerk compared the signature, the store becomes liable for the fraudulent purchases.
A Visa or MasterCard is what's called a bearer instrument. It's the same as having cash. If I handed you a $20 bill to pay for something, you wouldn't ask for ID. The same rule applies to Visa and MasterCard. They're all three bearer instruments.
On the other hand, AMEX is an owner instrument. Only the owner of the card is allowed to use it. IIRC, Diners' Club is the same way. You must be the owner of the card. If you have an AMEX, and your spouse is on the same account, you will each have your own card with your own name on it, and IIRC a different number assigned to the same account.
Using an owner instrument is a little more tricky. In that case, the cashier should make a cursory check to see if the signatures match, and may ask for ID, however, much more than that is placing liability back on the store instead of the Loss Prevention department of the bank or credit card company.
A few years ago, I was sitting at home and got a call from Nike Online. Within about 10-15 seconds of that call, I had a call from Visa Loss Prevention on call waiting. Someone had stolen my Visa number and attempted to use it to buy a lot of Nike stuff from the online store. Both Nike and Visa caught the fraudulent purchase at the time of sale. They were able to get in touch with me, the local police department, and set up a sting to get the thief. I wasn't charged anything, and had only a minor problem while I waited for my new card to arrive since they had to kill the old number (which sucked as I had just memorized it and the code on the back).
Checking IDs is just as bad as airline security. It does nothing to actually prevent crime. It just gives the underinformed a (false) sense of security.
They'll want to verify your ID before charging the card though, so show them some other photo ID other than a DL. Most clerks are pretty lazy about verifying that the cardholder is legit, but in my experience, not in the rental car/hotel/travel game
Why would they need to "verify your ID" at all? Unless you're using AMEX (or I think Diners Club), the credit card is a bearer instrument, just like cash. If you're in posession of it, you're considered to be authorized to use it.
All this "veryfy your ID" crap is worthless time wasting. It's not the clerk's responsibility to be a document expert or professional handwriting and signature analyst. If they were, they'd be making a hell of a lot better living than they do at the counter of your local Target, K-mart, Bloomingdale's, Hertz, JetBlue, or whatever. If they do check your ID, submit the transaction, and it's fraudulent, they place their employer and themselves in danger of being liable.
Check with your credit card company, you'll find there's a zero liability policy if your card is lost or stolen. Of course there are caveats that you report it in a reasonable amount of time and things like that, but nevertheless, you're not liable, and the vendor is not liable (as long as they don't do something stupid like check the ID).
My girlfriend always shows her ID, and the clerk never looks to see if the picture on it matches the person handing it to her. The clerk simply checks to see if the name is the same. Usually, they're so busy they don't have time to look away from the register and the merchandise.
Let's put it like this: Would you be pissed if someone asked you for an ID when you use cash to buy some innocuous item at your local department store? It's the same thing. Cash is a bearer instrument. Visa and MasterCard are bearer instruments.
Would you consider this a date movie? If so, which Linux distro does your date prefer? =-)
Strangely enough, my girlfriend (real live person; not a blow-up doll) likes H2G2 enough to sit through the movie. She also prefers Windows although the virus that infected her computer the other day might change that perception.
This is part of the realism. True, you don't melt tires in a few laps, but, part of racing is tire choice. You have something like 6 different compounds of slicks to choose from. Depending on your course, you might like having a harder compound. It may also depend on the car.
I was racing the Mercedes DTA car for a little while and found it was just barely losing races. I had the medium slicks on there. Then, I switched to hard, was able to run an entire race on a single set, and took the lead usually around lap 5 when everyone had gone in to put on a fresh set of rubber. They'd usually pass me (the ones who went in on 3 or 4 laps) again around lap 7, but I'd be far ahead after their next pit stop. So, although I couldn't hold the turns nearly as well as they could, I burned through the tires more slowly and spent less time on pit road.
If you watch a Formula 1 race, you'll hear the announcers talking about the pit strategy of the different crews. The amount of time you spend in the pit can make or break your race. Taking this strategy and condensing it to a 10 lap race (instead of 60-75 laps) simply adds to the realism. At first, I was willing to up the ultra-soft slicks on the cars I was racing. Then, when I found out they'd burn through in 2 laps, I started developing my pit strategy for the different cars.
It's just good design.
When this URL gets passed to Safari from Mail, the funny-URL is noticed but not translated and the page won't display. If the attempt comes by mail, it looks like Safari users may be safe.
What kind of card was this? Do you realize Visa and MasterCard are bearer instruments? (AMEX is an owner instrument.) I can give you my card (bearer instrument type) and you can use it until there's no credit left. If I don't report it to the credit card company, nobody should stop you. Unless the credit card company stops the transaction, the clerk shouldn't ask for any ID or even verify the signature.
A tangent of this; you should sign your own name since signing mine would be forgery.
Strangely enough, if they do look at the signature line, compare it with the signature on the slip, and it's fraudulent, they can be held liable. It's insane to think every store clerk in the world where the accept credit cards is a handwriting/signature expert.
In fact, if you look at the vendor agreement, you'll see where such practices are prohibited, and the store could be fined by the credit card company.
The Loss Prevention Departments of Visa and MasterCard, along with the individual banks are extremely good at identifying questionable purchases.
A few years ago, I got a call from Nike Online Loss Prevention, and literally at the same time from Visa Loss Prevention (on my mobile phone) about a suspeced fraudulent purchase. They denied the charge, and 20 minutes later, the county police department was dispatched to the person's house. They were arrested, charged, tried, and convicted.
When a clerk at a store tells me, "It's just for your protection," I laugh, and then start to get angry. It's ignorance, pure and simple.
Most states have another name for this type of thing. in NC, it's called False Pretense. It's a felony regardless of the amount. Other states put it under the statute for theft and give it a specific moniker. NC and many other states use the False Pretense statute.
D'oh!!
I could claim I was doing that on purpose, but I must come clean and take it like a man. =-)
The worst thing about it is I've corrected other people on that same mistake.
Eye theenk there spealling adn grammer whirr beter bak wen thay starrted.
Seriously, the timeline seems to really start to degrade around the early 90s. The quality of the posts, even the flames, was quite good back in the early days. Nowadays, you'd think the people posting were the monkeys Spaff was writing about.
I looked up my company and saw we were 100% WinXP. That's a load of crap.
I look around at the machines I'm supporting. I see mostly OS X machines, and the few Windows machines are Win2K. I just opened two laptop boxes which came pre-installed with XP, but they're not even on the network, yet.
The stats on this site are severely skewed. I don't know where they get their data, but it's very wrong.
I wanted to moderate in this thread, but I had to respond to this.
I lived in a blissfully ignorant state with reference to the whole who/whom thing, until I moved back to Germany when I was 19. Then, I started learning German and in 6 months, became fluent.
At this point, I began to realize all my errors in English. This was appalling since my mother and grandmother were both English majors in college and both taught English.
Having learned German from people who actually care about the language, I had a good comprehension of the use of wer and wem. Once I started thinking in German, the English usage of who and whom became easy.
My girlfriend tries to use who and whom correctly, and gets it right about 90% of the time. At a US university, that's still an "A". I still cringe when she does it.
She gets an "F" on the "couldn't care less" thing. She consistently says, "could care less," and it drives me batty. If that's the only problem we ever have, I will consider myself lucky. We just passed our first year together and I haven't pitched her for this minor infraction. =-)
****Must...not...reply...to...troll...aaaaaaaaaa aaaargh!
The reference was to using all the syllables. I don't say "trip dub" or anything like that. I actually pronounce all the syllables. Saying, "dub-dub-dub" is lazy as it drops the last two syllables from a three syllable word, three times. At least when I shorten it, it sounds like I have an education.
I'm completely baffled as to how laziness in speech is often a good thing. I can see a few situations where enough of an utterance to get the point across is acceptable, like when you're drowning and the person on the shore is too stupid to comprehend that from viewing the situation. Please, oh learned Anonymous Coward, enlighten us with your great wisdom.
A lot of this drop has to do with the language. In Germany, I still hear "vay vay vay punkt irgendwas punkt day eh" where in the US, it takes about three weeks to stumble through "double-you double-you double-you dot something dot com". It's mostly because the professional speakers hate to pronounce the "w" incorrectly and sound like an uneducated backwoods hick.
I've been saying "triple double-you" for years, and I occasionally hear it on ads. I often hear students saying "dub dub dub", and it drives me crazy. It's laziness in speech mostly.
With a little practice, you can say each "w" completely. Most of us have been speaking English for decades. Something as simple as a single letter of the alphabet, the same letter you sing correctly in that inane song, shouldn't be that difficult.
I also notice the mispronunciation more in the southern states. How is it the southern dialect can drop complete syllables from some words and add syllables to others? It's like the old joke about why the pregnancy rate is so high in the south. (It's because it takes the girls so long to say "kuh-wheeeee-uuuuht.")
I guess it comes down to, "Just because the President can't say the letter right, doesn't mean you shouldn't."
It was interesting to read the article as I started off my UNIX Systems Administrator career in the broadcast arena. Back then, all graphics were done on SGIs. I learned "UNIX" by reading the SGI manual.
However, the article completely failed to acknowledge the stronghold SGI has in scientific 3D molecular visualization and crystallography. Most of those apps are being rewritten for Linux and *BSD, but if you go somewhere like NIH, you'll find a very large population of SGIs. I'd guess the support contracts from the various NIH institutes keep SGI alive, not to mention the sales to the CIA, NSA, and other government agencies.
Hopefully there will be a part two to this article where they explore this realm. They can interview me if they want. I'd be happy to talk about the use of SGIs in science.