To be honest, most services that people should depend upon should be state and local.
The federal government has a national wildlife refuge a few miles from where I site (Union Slough) - it is a 3000 acre (not terribly big) swampy grassland. It takes 6 people to administer and costs the feds more than $600K/year. 15 years ago, it was run with a staff of 2. Is there room to cut there?
The federal government is so big, that I think that there is plenty of things that can get cut and very few would notice.
I believe that we're probably better off with less government and that if 10% (not including the military) were suddenly unable to perform their jobs, no one would notice.
What happens when 90% of U.S. business dries up? Shouldn't RIM just shutdown it's U.S. services and focus on foreign and domestic markets that are not closed off to it?
Dude - you don't know how to work with the government on service contracts. They'd have to just support 10% of their current users, and would sign a sweet federal contract for twice their current revenue.
I think the legal term for that is "laughing all the way to the bank"
Gas and oil are scarce commodities - interruptions in the supply can have grave consequences at the pump.
Software, however, is not scarce (in can be written once and distributed indefinitely). Like you said, your running Office 2003. I'm running Office 2000 at home. If the supply of Microsoft Office is interrupted - will it really matter to you and me? No - we're good to go, and have alternatives if we need them.
If the employer tax laws didn't change, you wouldn't need to update the tax tables. This is legal extortion - but it is enabled by the state and federal governments.
Currently, assuming consumers look at their statements, the only losers will be banks. Reg E gives consumers a great number of rights for their money back if an unauthorized transaction is reported within 60 days of it showing up on a statement. But it is up to the consumer to look at their statements and to report bad transactions.
Online services are not banks (unless they are banks, but that's different). If I'm at some website and want to pay via "e-check", the company doesn't have incentive to validate the account before initiating the transaction. Validating accounts require at least 1 business day to complete and require the consumer to come back before finishing the e-check transaction.
I agree that something should be done - but I think that law enforcement should take small frauds seriously and that the punishment should be harsh. Large frauds are made up of a great number of small frauds.
My mom got her credit card number nicked a few years ago. The card is from the (small) bank I work at. We reported this to law enforcement. Their answer is "that the credit card companies are the ones who are hurt, so it's no big deal." Total fraud was small, but when law enforcement has that attitude there is no chance that anyone would get caught and ultimately punished.
One time, just to see if I could, I typed my friends routing number and checking account number into my online credit card website. She had given me a check, and so I wasn't stealing from her.
Yes, you were. At the very least, that was an unauthorized electronic funds transfer - a wire fraud. Just because she had given you a check, doesn't mean that you can convert it to an ACH item (which is what you did in this case) without her explicit authorization.
1 - If something undermines trust in the banking system (in any country), the economy can quickly go to hell in a handbasket.
2 - The UK didn't have something similar to Reg E in the United States regulating "electronic" banking (in the US, that would include ACH items, wire transfers, and ATM/debit card transactions). And apparently, the UK doesn't have the banking regulatory structure to add such regulations as necessary without passing new laws.
I'm neck deep in the regulations right now preparing for an exam. As you know, it doesn't actually matter what the guidance says, it just matters what the particular examiner thinks.
I've got no issues running open source software, and it has certainly helped in some of the things that we do. The big thing is that you can answer the examiner that you know the risks and that you've got plans in place to handle things if something should happen.
That timing has more to do with the fact that they need to get the paper (checks) down to the "local" fed office yet that day. 3PM cutoff implies that the courier is there by 4PM. Cutoffs are earlier the farther away from the fed office you are.
The good news is that with Check21, banks can now transport images instead of paper - in theory, you should start to see later cutoffs.
Nice that they include words like "should" and "may" - but how the guidance is interpreted is up to examiners - who have no clue what the guidance is talking about.
How many holding/clipping penalties do referees miss?
At least one on every play:)
If you ever have a chance to watch an american football game and consider the close calls that are shown on TV (where they are right most of the time on the field) are done in real time by a small team of people - it's amazing how many of them they get right.
It's the ones that they get wrong (and badly, game-changingly wrong) that suck.
For the employer, non-union labor is almost always more attractive, but they can't use them. Check out construction workers and Taxi drivers in New York. Or perhaps you should take a look at Bell South.
That's the difference between right to work states and non-right to work states. Places like New York and Illinois can force you to join a union if you want to work in a union shop.
Hooked up to a ship that has been out of port for 8 months, corrosion barnacles etc
Do the speakers need to be outside the hull? Doesn't the metal hull conduct sound well enough that the speakers can be inside the hull of the vessel - and wouldn't keeping them in a protected environment mitigate some of the worries about corrosion and barnacles?
Slashdot Mirror
The federal government has a national wildlife refuge a few miles from where I site (Union Slough) - it is a 3000 acre (not terribly big) swampy grassland. It takes 6 people to administer and costs the feds more than $600K/year. 15 years ago, it was run with a staff of 2. Is there room to cut there?
The federal government is so big, that I think that there is plenty of things that can get cut and very few would notice.
I believe that we're probably better off with less government and that if 10% (not including the military) were suddenly unable to perform their jobs, no one would notice.
And the downside to that is what, exactly?
1) ????
2) Get the government to rely on your service
3) Profit!
Dude - you don't know how to work with the government on service contracts. They'd have to just support 10% of their current users, and would sign a sweet federal contract for twice their current revenue.
I think the legal term for that is "laughing all the way to the bank"
That depends upon which 10% depends upon the blackberry - if the right 10% loses their e-mail, no one may notice.
That's how they got Al Capone!
It does. I'm not sure how happy it is, but it does.
Software, however, is not scarce (in can be written once and distributed indefinitely). Like you said, your running Office 2003. I'm running Office 2000 at home. If the supply of Microsoft Office is interrupted - will it really matter to you and me? No - we're good to go, and have alternatives if we need them.
If the employer tax laws didn't change, you wouldn't need to update the tax tables. This is legal extortion - but it is enabled by the state and federal governments.
"anchor" is an interesting word to use for a feedback loop.
Online services are not banks (unless they are banks, but that's different). If I'm at some website and want to pay via "e-check", the company doesn't have incentive to validate the account before initiating the transaction. Validating accounts require at least 1 business day to complete and require the consumer to come back before finishing the e-check transaction.
I agree that something should be done - but I think that law enforcement should take small frauds seriously and that the punishment should be harsh. Large frauds are made up of a great number of small frauds.
My mom got her credit card number nicked a few years ago. The card is from the (small) bank I work at. We reported this to law enforcement. Their answer is "that the credit card companies are the ones who are hurt, so it's no big deal." Total fraud was small, but when law enforcement has that attitude there is no chance that anyone would get caught and ultimately punished.
Yes, you were. At the very least, that was an unauthorized electronic funds transfer - a wire fraud. Just because she had given you a check, doesn't mean that you can convert it to an ACH item (which is what you did in this case) without her explicit authorization.
2 - The UK didn't have something similar to Reg E in the United States regulating "electronic" banking (in the US, that would include ACH items, wire transfers, and ATM/debit card transactions). And apparently, the UK doesn't have the banking regulatory structure to add such regulations as necessary without passing new laws.
If anyone is interested, here is Reg E in all of its glory.
I've got no issues running open source software, and it has certainly helped in some of the things that we do. The big thing is that you can answer the examiner that you know the risks and that you've got plans in place to handle things if something should happen.
The good news is that with Check21, banks can now transport images instead of paper - in theory, you should start to see later cutoffs.
Weekend processing, however, is still unlikely.
Nice that they include words like "should" and "may" - but how the guidance is interpreted is up to examiners - who have no clue what the guidance is talking about.
No problem - the FFIEC isn't so sure about open source software either FFIEC Guidance on open source software
Straight from the FFIEC's mouth.
For banking regulators, the FFIEC is the word of God. When they issue a "Thou shalt..." commandment, it must be followed.
At least one on every play :)
If you ever have a chance to watch an american football game and consider the close calls that are shown on TV (where they are right most of the time on the field) are done in real time by a small team of people - it's amazing how many of them they get right.
It's the ones that they get wrong (and badly, game-changingly wrong) that suck.
That's the difference between right to work states and non-right to work states. Places like New York and Illinois can force you to join a union if you want to work in a union shop.
Or they each feel that it's too much work to go out and start over in a relationship.
Do the speakers need to be outside the hull? Doesn't the metal hull conduct sound well enough that the speakers can be inside the hull of the vessel - and wouldn't keeping them in a protected environment mitigate some of the worries about corrosion and barnacles?
Let he who is without sin...