"The point is that, assuming we've got a guy following around Verizon trucks and pretending to be a tech, he's probably gone to the trouble of printing up some random ID card and laminating it."
eh, not necessarily. Printing and laminating ID cards takes equipment or money and exposure ("Hi Kinkos can you laminate this fake Verizon badge for me?") something no one wants. It's like breaking into cars, how often do you hear about someone trying a slim jim vs just busting a window? It's very easy to just follow the van, wait for him to do his bit outside and leave, then go to the front door. If they ask for ID, just say "I forgot it at the office, I'll have to come back tomorrow if you really need to see it" and leave.
"This was just a poor attempt at getting something out the door to fit the job, rather than doing another shoot with fresh models."
probably happens hundreds of times a day and we don't even notice.
Honestly I don't see the big deal here. Poland thought it'd be better to have a white guy in there than a black guy. If Poland had some photos we were going to use, you know damn well we'd be photoshopping in a black guy. There's no news here, it's just marketing to your demographics. Only reason us Americans give a crap is because white America has a guilty conscience about black people. We don't care about the Native Americans we slaughtered for hundreds of years or the Asians we put in internment camps in WWII. Nope. But photoshop out a black guy and it's on/. and fark.
er, don't know about dead, and I wouldn't say "long live windows 7", but I will admit the battery power options are very impressive on Windows 7. Not only can you change the obvious like cpu speed, but you can go all the way down and adjust how long the CPU fan should be on if you're on battery, and it can change according to which battery profile you choose. It has more options than I've ever seen on any program, even more than NHC.
" like a patent troll, Gordon wasn't trying to eliminate spam, he was trying to profit off laws against spam that might allow him to sue--a professional litigant."
whoa whoa, comparing him to a patent troll is going a bit far. He's the good guy trying to stop the spammers, where trolls are trying to make a quick buck off of inventing nothing and by patenting the obvious to steal money from real creators. If anything the spammer is the patent troll and he's the legit company.
I say anyone fighting spammers is OK in my book, and you can do anything you want to known spammers, including murder.
"Sorry bitch, but the court ruled that Google was required to hand over your information, no matter how stupid said ruling may have been. It was legally required of them, and to not comply would have put them in a lot of hot water. To fight it would have been very expensive on their dime. Why exactly should they have done so? Shut your whore mouth, Port. They complied with the law."
Sure they complied with the law but they're google, they fight the law when it's convenient for them, and this is kinda important, wouldn't want every website just handing over your info every time a judge gets a hair up his ass and wants to shit on the constitution. The judge is the pimp and made google it's little bitch, saying "LOOK BITCH GIVE ME THE $#%@%$@ NAME!" and smacked little bitch google. Little bitch google whimpered the bloggers name without even backtalking.
Like her lawyer said, the constitution was written with pseudonyms, and besides this woman was a public figure, she's a "model" (although she hasn't done a magazine in 15 years) for god's sake, if someone wants to call her a skank on a blog they should be allowed.
What's next, I can't say Paris Hilton's a slut? Judge gonna lay the smackdown on/.?
"Apparently Timothy doesn't understand how to use Google [google.com], "
If you're going to tell someone they don't know how to use google and then you link it, at least have the link go to the finished search, because with just the link going to google.com it looks like you don't know how to google either.
"Penny Arcade covered this. PlayOn will give you Hulu and Netflix access on your PS3."
This is what I use my PS3 for primarily, watching Hulu through PlayOn. It works incredibly well but you do need to have a fairly decent PC to stream from. PlayOn wants a 3ghz or dual core processor to stream real-time. I have a 2.6ghz Celeron Dell just for Playon and I have to let it stream a few seconds before playing. I was a bit worried about wifi not being fast enough but it's been streaming fine. I've found tons of shows I didn't even know existed, I even "cut the cord", haven't had cable TV in over a year.
"PS3 really isn't "standard def. TV friendly".... My experience with using a PS3 in standard def resolution was eye-strain inducing, trying to read many of the text fonts the games would display."
I use a ps3 on a 5 yr old reasonably-sized SDTV and you couldn't be more correct. It is a HUGE pain to try to play any games with small print. PixelJunk Monsters is almost not playable because your character is too small to see, and you can forget trying to read any subtitles or instructions. I keep looking for a way to increase text size or change the screen size but it seems everything is set-up properly to display in SD, it's just the way the games display.
I'll probably get a HDTV within the next year so it's not a huge deal, I really bought the ps3 to play one particular game and that works well, and lately I've been using it for Hulu and the seemingly endless supply of free game demos so I'm satisfied.
"If Sony restored backward compatibility with PS2 games. "
I thought the same thing when I got my PS3 but realized that the PS2 is selling so cheaply used that there's really no reason I should sell it. Besides, we all know there's no such thing as "100% compatible".
The only people that 100% compatible should matter to are those that don't own a PS2 already (are there any?) or if you're trying to install the PS3 in your vehicle or other area with very limited space.
"Rather than a good deal, I'd say it's finally priced the way it should be. I will also be getting one at this price."
Agreed. I finally broke down and bought a PS3 earlier this year when the price dropped to $200 on ebay. Ended up with the 40gb basic model with one controller but it works fine, does a great job streaming Hulu through PlayOn.
"WHo is in the picture? The tech or the allegdely attacked customer?"
That's what I was wondering. I'm looking at that photo thinking "why is that photo there? He can't be the tech, he looks mean as hell, like he just got out on parole, is that the customer?" Then I click to read the article and sure enough, that photo is the technician. If he showed up and said "I'm a Verizon Technician" I think I would have asked for ID too.
"Benjamin was arrested and charged with assault"
That's good. But FTFA....
"But prosecutors offered to dismiss the case if Benjamin agreed to stay out of trouble for six months -- despite assuring Isakson there would be no deal, Isakson alleged. "According to what I was told, there was an error by the DA's staff," Isakson said. "They're giving this guy carte blanche to do this every six months."'
Employee snaps and starts beating customers and gets a free pass? Wow, that's just wrong. And this is worse:
"Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company has "zero tolerance for any sort of unethical or illegal behavior" and noted Benjamin was not convicted of any crime. "In the months since this incident, his conduct has been blameless. As a result, we will not take further action," Young said."
W....T....F....? "Well he hasn't beat any other customers so we're not going to do anything" Verizon said. Are you frickin' kidding me? Not only did this guy get no jail or even a fine, but he kept his job?
Hey Verizon, are you hiring? Cuz apparently I have to kill at least 2 or more customers before I'd be fired.
"Fuck you Joe. I hope you burn in hell you d-bag. (*waves bye to his karma*)"
I know nothing about Joe, but after reading this article I wished I lived in Arizona: "In 1993, vowing that no troublemakers would be released on his watch because of overcrowding, he created the Tent City jail. His popularity grew. He banned cigarettes from his jails. Skin magazines. Movies. Coffee. Salt and pepper. He put inmates in black-and-white striped uniforms and created chain gangs. Later, he decreed that all his inmates must wear pink underwear, socks, and flip-flops. Tells about the thousands of lawsuits and legal claims of abuse filed against Arpaioâ(TM)s department."
"I'm looking forward to getting something like the Gecko Edubook [laptopshop.co.uk] which can run on cheap AA batteries instead of an expensive custom Li-Ion battery."
that is amazing, but it looks like their wonderful intro video was filmed in a hotel room which doesn't exactly give me much faith in the company or the product. Looks like a cheap chinese laptop, wonder if they're just a reseller because I don't think they're developing laptops in hotel rooms.
Regardless I really like the AA battery idea. I can always have a fresh set charging and replacing all 8 NiMH batteries is less than $20 vs $100+ for a regular laptop with the same battery life, and I'm sure in a pinch it'll run on regular AA batteries. Would be great for students, law enforcement, the military... practically anyone on the go.
Wonder if it reads the battery life properly? AA's don't have all the sophisticated battery monitoring hardware that is built into laptop batteries.
"I can say this with experience that most of the grunts I have worked with have a reading / writing level of less an 8th grade student. "
I served, and I think you're full of it. "Most" is a rather definite word, that's a majority, more than half, and from my experience I would strongly disagree with that assessment. They weren't all wonderful writers like your average programmer (lol) but they could write up a patrol report that made sense.
And what was the point of your little soldier bashing post? That they shouldn't have a wiki because they suck at writing? That those that want to write shouldn't be allowed, that only the technical writers should have the ability and the grunts should just shut up and get shot at? I'm even more pissed mods marked it Score:5, Insightful. Shame I used all my mod points up yesterday, I had mod points good until tomorrow.
I think a wiki is a fantastic idea and I'm shocked the Army would even consider it, very un-Army like, to give the grunts a voice. This is not the Army I remember, only good can come of this, and developing the wiki and similar programs should be encouraged.
Sure, but RTFA: "Most of the $500 million the Social Security Administration has agreed to pay in back benefits will go to 80,000 recipients whose payments have been suspended or denied since Jan. 1, 2007."
=$6250 per person. For 32 months of unpaid benefits? ~$195 a month.
I've had a Core 2 Duo E4300 running at 3.0 ghz for almost three years now and I haven't found a reason to upgrade. Friends with quad core report no increase in speed or performance, and the only thing that would encourage me to upgrade is a more smp friendly OS but the offerings from Microsoft (Vista and Windows 7) have been pretty poor lately.
So are we done with the mhz battle? Is ~3ghz the breaking point? We've had Xeon 3.0GHz cpus for over 5 years now. That's a long time to not see a jump in speed, what happened to "doubling every 18 months"? We should be around 24ghz by now.
"If you RTFA instead of the summary you'd see it was a very poor and biased summary. The actual article did not advocate any such position."
Exactly. While the article is correct that the University of Pittsburgh pdf does say:
"In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements."
Which sounds awful, it goes on to say: "How long can international students work in the United States with their student visa?
F-1 students are eligible for curricular practical training before completing their studies, as well as an additional 12 months of optional practical training, either before or following graduation, or a combination of the two. However, if they work full-time for one year or more of curricular practical training, they are not eligible for Optional Practical Training. Students with a J-1 visa are usually eligible to work up to 18 months following graduation. They may also be eligible to work part-time during their program of study. The Responsible Officer (RO) or Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO) will evaluate each studentâ(TM)s situation to determine the length of time for which they are eligible to work."
Unless they're hiring McD's employees, no one wants to hire someone that is guaranteed to leave in 18 months. If you hire someone and trained them two weeks you have thousands of dollars wrapped up in them already, with the cost of their salary and the salary of their trainer, plus any additional training expenses, even after that it'll take many weeks before they catch up with the rest of the team and they'll take co-workers away from their work to answer questions, which is more money lost.
That is why it has always shocked me at how easily a single manager can decide to fire someone because they got a hair up their ass because it's equivalent to stealing many thousands of dollars from the company. If you're going to fire them do it in the first month, don't do it 6 months after they're hired, when all that time and money has been invested in them. Every job should be a 1 to 3 month "contract to hire" position with weekly evaluations, so you can sit down with the employee every week and say "Gee, I have seen you do that lately. At XYZ, we do not do that, we do this" and have them sign it and keep it so they understand they need to improve and if they don't shape up, fire them next week. Oh, and have a open door policy that employees know exist (hang it in the bathroom or something), so if an employee feels a manager is targeting them unfairly there's someone to talk to because I think we've all seen managers going after people for the wrong reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
"The point is that, assuming we've got a guy following around Verizon trucks and pretending to be a tech, he's probably gone to the trouble of printing up some random ID card and laminating it."
eh, not necessarily. Printing and laminating ID cards takes equipment or money and exposure ("Hi Kinkos can you laminate this fake Verizon badge for me?") something no one wants. It's like breaking into cars, how often do you hear about someone trying a slim jim vs just busting a window? It's very easy to just follow the van, wait for him to do his bit outside and leave, then go to the front door. If they ask for ID, just say "I forgot it at the office, I'll have to come back tomorrow if you really need to see it" and leave.
"This was just a poor attempt at getting something out the door to fit the job, rather than doing another shoot with fresh models."
/. and fark.
probably happens hundreds of times a day and we don't even notice.
Honestly I don't see the big deal here. Poland thought it'd be better to have a white guy in there than a black guy. If Poland had some photos we were going to use, you know damn well we'd be photoshopping in a black guy. There's no news here, it's just marketing to your demographics. Only reason us Americans give a crap is because white America has a guilty conscience about black people. We don't care about the Native Americans we slaughtered for hundreds of years or the Asians we put in internment camps in WWII. Nope. But photoshop out a black guy and it's on
Our white American guilty conscience has gone so far as to skew google search results, which returns only slavery in America since 1600 when you google "history of slavery", instead of the entire history since the Babylons and Romans.
"Linux is dead, long live Windows 7!"
er, don't know about dead, and I wouldn't say "long live windows 7", but I will admit the battery power options are very impressive on Windows 7. Not only can you change the obvious like cpu speed, but you can go all the way down and adjust how long the CPU fan should be on if you're on battery, and it can change according to which battery profile you choose. It has more options than I've ever seen on any program, even more than NHC.
" like a patent troll, Gordon wasn't trying to eliminate spam, he was trying to profit off laws against spam that might allow him to sue--a professional litigant."
whoa whoa, comparing him to a patent troll is going a bit far. He's the good guy trying to stop the spammers, where trolls are trying to make a quick buck off of inventing nothing and by patenting the obvious to steal money from real creators. If anything the spammer is the patent troll and he's the legit company.
I say anyone fighting spammers is OK in my book, and you can do anything you want to known spammers, including murder.
"Sorry bitch, but the court ruled that Google was required to hand over your information, no matter how stupid said ruling may have been. It was legally required of them, and to not comply would have put them in a lot of hot water. To fight it would have been very expensive on their dime. Why exactly should they have done so? Shut your whore mouth, Port. They complied with the law."
/.?
Sure they complied with the law but they're google, they fight the law when it's convenient for them, and this is kinda important, wouldn't want every website just handing over your info every time a judge gets a hair up his ass and wants to shit on the constitution. The judge is the pimp and made google it's little bitch, saying "LOOK BITCH GIVE ME THE $#%@%$@ NAME!" and smacked little bitch google. Little bitch google whimpered the bloggers name without even backtalking.
Like her lawyer said, the constitution was written with pseudonyms, and besides this woman was a public figure, she's a "model" (although she hasn't done a magazine in 15 years) for god's sake, if someone wants to call her a skank on a blog they should be allowed.
What's next, I can't say Paris Hilton's a slut? Judge gonna lay the smackdown on
P.S. Liskula Cohen is fugly (see bottom of the page)
"they didn't tell us how many times it *dropped* the cellphone."
Actually I'd rather it catch an egg and not break it. *That* would be impressive.
"Does this wake the system up every time that 2GB has filled up then?"
yes, that's kinda the point, and you can probably increase the storage.
does killer nic have a 2gb flash card?
"Apparently Timothy doesn't understand how to use Google [google.com], "
/.'s
If you're going to tell someone they don't know how to use google and then you link it, at least have the link go to the finished search, because with just the link going to google.com it looks like you don't know how to google either.
same goes for any search engine, including
"Penny Arcade covered this. PlayOn will give you Hulu and Netflix access on your PS3."
This is what I use my PS3 for primarily, watching Hulu through PlayOn. It works incredibly well but you do need to have a fairly decent PC to stream from. PlayOn wants a 3ghz or dual core processor to stream real-time. I have a 2.6ghz Celeron Dell just for Playon and I have to let it stream a few seconds before playing. I was a bit worried about wifi not being fast enough but it's been streaming fine. I've found tons of shows I didn't even know existed, I even "cut the cord", haven't had cable TV in over a year.
"PS3 really isn't "standard def. TV friendly".... My experience with using a PS3 in standard def resolution was eye-strain inducing, trying to read many of the text fonts the games would display."
I use a ps3 on a 5 yr old reasonably-sized SDTV and you couldn't be more correct. It is a HUGE pain to try to play any games with small print. PixelJunk Monsters is almost not playable because your character is too small to see, and you can forget trying to read any subtitles or instructions. I keep looking for a way to increase text size or change the screen size but it seems everything is set-up properly to display in SD, it's just the way the games display.
I'll probably get a HDTV within the next year so it's not a huge deal, I really bought the ps3 to play one particular game and that works well, and lately I've been using it for Hulu and the seemingly endless supply of free game demos so I'm satisfied.
"If Sony restored backward compatibility with PS2 games. "
I thought the same thing when I got my PS3 but realized that the PS2 is selling so cheaply used that there's really no reason I should sell it. Besides, we all know there's no such thing as "100% compatible".
The only people that 100% compatible should matter to are those that don't own a PS2 already (are there any?) or if you're trying to install the PS3 in your vehicle or other area with very limited space.
"Rather than a good deal, I'd say it's finally priced the way it should be. I will also be getting one at this price."
Agreed. I finally broke down and bought a PS3 earlier this year when the price dropped to $200 on ebay. Ended up with the 40gb basic model with one controller but it works fine, does a great job streaming Hulu through PlayOn.
"WHo is in the picture? The tech or the allegdely attacked customer?"
That's what I was wondering. I'm looking at that photo thinking "why is that photo there? He can't be the tech, he looks mean as hell, like he just got out on parole, is that the customer?" Then I click to read the article and sure enough, that photo is the technician. If he showed up and said "I'm a Verizon Technician" I think I would have asked for ID too.
"Benjamin was arrested and charged with assault"
That's good. But FTFA....
"But prosecutors offered to dismiss the case if Benjamin agreed to stay out of trouble for six months -- despite assuring Isakson there would be no deal, Isakson alleged. "According to what I was told, there was an error by the DA's staff," Isakson said. "They're giving this guy carte blanche to do this every six months."'
Employee snaps and starts beating customers and gets a free pass? Wow, that's just wrong. And this is worse:
"Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the company has "zero tolerance for any sort of unethical or illegal behavior" and noted Benjamin was not convicted of any crime. "In the months since this incident, his conduct has been blameless. As a result, we will not take further action," Young said."
W....T....F....? "Well he hasn't beat any other customers so we're not going to do anything" Verizon said. Are you frickin' kidding me? Not only did this guy get no jail or even a fine, but he kept his job?
Hey Verizon, are you hiring? Cuz apparently I have to kill at least 2 or more customers before I'd be fired.
"Sorry, but that is definitely not what "Hoe Squad" sounds like at all."
Score:5, Insightful
"Sir, you make a compelling case. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter."
ROFLMAO!!! where's my mod points when i really need them??
"believes in making prison as demeaning and painful affair as possible no matter what the offense."
Wait... you mean he took away their salt and nudy magazines?! Oh the horror!!
For all the great descriptive words being thrown about, I see no links with any evidence of anything wrong with this guy.
"Fuck you Joe. I hope you burn in hell you d-bag. (*waves bye to his karma*)"
I know nothing about Joe, but after reading this article I wished I lived in Arizona:
"In 1993, vowing that no troublemakers would be released on his watch because of overcrowding, he created the Tent City jail. His popularity grew. He banned cigarettes from his jails. Skin magazines. Movies. Coffee. Salt and pepper. He put inmates in black-and-white striped uniforms and created chain gangs. Later, he decreed that all his inmates must wear pink underwear, socks, and flip-flops. Tells about the thousands of lawsuits and legal claims of abuse filed against Arpaioâ(TM)s department."
and he's wrong. The MacBook is over 3 yrs old now and it's still $650+ on ebay.
He's dreaming if he thinks he can get a $1100 Mac for $200 after 3 years.
"I'm looking forward to getting something like the Gecko Edubook [laptopshop.co.uk] which can run on cheap AA batteries instead of an expensive custom Li-Ion battery."
that is amazing, but it looks like their wonderful intro video was filmed in a hotel room which doesn't exactly give me much faith in the company or the product. Looks like a cheap chinese laptop, wonder if they're just a reseller because I don't think they're developing laptops in hotel rooms.
Regardless I really like the AA battery idea. I can always have a fresh set charging and replacing all 8 NiMH batteries is less than $20 vs $100+ for a regular laptop with the same battery life, and I'm sure in a pinch it'll run on regular AA batteries. Would be great for students, law enforcement, the military... practically anyone on the go.
Wonder if it reads the battery life properly? AA's don't have all the sophisticated battery monitoring hardware that is built into laptop batteries.
"And Apple is getting 7 hour run times out of their normal laptops."
Great, let me know when I can buy a Apple laptop with a 7 hr battery for $200.
"I can say this with experience that most of the grunts I have worked with have a reading / writing level of less an 8th grade student. "
I served, and I think you're full of it. "Most" is a rather definite word, that's a majority, more than half, and from my experience I would strongly disagree with that assessment. They weren't all wonderful writers like your average programmer (lol) but they could write up a patrol report that made sense.
And what was the point of your little soldier bashing post? That they shouldn't have a wiki because they suck at writing? That those that want to write shouldn't be allowed, that only the technical writers should have the ability and the grunts should just shut up and get shot at? I'm even more pissed mods marked it Score:5, Insightful. Shame I used all my mod points up yesterday, I had mod points good until tomorrow.
I think a wiki is a fantastic idea and I'm shocked the Army would even consider it, very un-Army like, to give the grunts a voice. This is not the Army I remember, only good can come of this, and developing the wiki and similar programs should be encouraged.
Sure, but RTFA:
"Most of the $500 million the Social Security Administration has agreed to pay in back benefits will go to 80,000 recipients whose payments have been suspended or denied since Jan. 1, 2007."
=$6250 per person. For 32 months of unpaid benefits? ~$195 a month.
I've had a Core 2 Duo E4300 running at 3.0 ghz for almost three years now and I haven't found a reason to upgrade. Friends with quad core report no increase in speed or performance, and the only thing that would encourage me to upgrade is a more smp friendly OS but the offerings from Microsoft (Vista and Windows 7) have been pretty poor lately.
So are we done with the mhz battle? Is ~3ghz the breaking point? We've had Xeon 3.0GHz cpus for over 5 years now. That's a long time to not see a jump in speed, what happened to "doubling every 18 months"? We should be around 24ghz by now.
"If you RTFA instead of the summary you'd see it was a very poor and biased summary. The actual article did not advocate any such position."
Exactly. While the article is correct that the University of Pittsburgh pdf does say:
"In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements."
Which sounds awful, it goes on to say:
"How long can international students work in the United States with their student visa?
F-1 students are eligible for curricular practical training before completing their studies, as well as an additional 12 months of optional practical training, either before or following graduation, or a combination of the two. However, if they work full-time for one year or more of curricular practical training, they are not eligible for Optional Practical Training. Students with a J-1 visa are usually eligible to work up to 18 months following graduation. They may also be eligible to work part-time during their program of study. The Responsible Officer (RO) or Alternate Responsible Officer (ARO) will evaluate each studentâ(TM)s situation to determine the length of time for which they are eligible to work."
Unless they're hiring McD's employees, no one wants to hire someone that is guaranteed to leave in 18 months. If you hire someone and trained them two weeks you have thousands of dollars wrapped up in them already, with the cost of their salary and the salary of their trainer, plus any additional training expenses, even after that it'll take many weeks before they catch up with the rest of the team and they'll take co-workers away from their work to answer questions, which is more money lost.
That is why it has always shocked me at how easily a single manager can decide to fire someone because they got a hair up their ass because it's equivalent to stealing many thousands of dollars from the company. If you're going to fire them do it in the first month, don't do it 6 months after they're hired, when all that time and money has been invested in them. Every job should be a 1 to 3 month "contract to hire" position with weekly evaluations, so you can sit down with the employee every week and say "Gee, I have seen you do that lately. At XYZ, we do not do that, we do this" and have them sign it and keep it so they understand they need to improve and if they don't shape up, fire them next week. Oh, and have a open door policy that employees know exist (hang it in the bathroom or something), so if an employee feels a manager is targeting them unfairly there's someone to talk to because I think we've all seen managers going after people for the wrong reasons.