They stay in business because they advertise cheap prices for the cheapass American consumer. That's what people's priorities are. Never mind quality and service, they just want a lot of flash for little money. To top it off, Best Buy prices are usually not even that great, but many people don't even do enough research to know it.
I suppose the cops should have just backed down and left the library, when confronted with the force of spoiled adolescent anger. Boo hoo, the cops won't let the college kids riot. Here's a really scary thought: some day this group of "oppressed" kids are going to be applying for jobs at major corporations.
Next time try reading the ENTIRE story. You'll find out why he was shocked repeatedly. If he hadn't been such a jackass in the first place the cops would have never even been involved. You idiots seem to think that cops go around randomly tazoring foreign-looking people.
The kid got what he wanted - attention. Now he's complaining? What exactly did he expect would happen for being such an ass? Now that he's had his 15 minutes of fame, I think we can move on to other more newsworthy things. And I hope this idiot loses his inevitable lawsuit. What does it say about our country when any moron can become rich just by being a jackass?
I knew the American public would be too stupid for the "no late fees" policy. As if you could rent movies and keep them for 3 years at no extra charge. Not like they made it any big secret that it converts to a purchase after a certain amount of time. Nothing new here; some lawyers saw an opportunity to shake Blockbuster down for some money on behalf of some trailer park retards. I hope their happy with their coupons for $1 off next rental and the discontinuation of a great program.
If certain states feel entitled to collect sales tax on out of state purchases, then it is not farfetched at all for them to want to collect mileage taxes for out of state driving. Never underestimate a bureaucrat's thirst for your tax money, and the means they are willing to go to in order to get it.
You obviously have no idea how things work in Chicago. The artist must have connections to the mayor's administration. No further explaination is necessary.
Keep in mind, this is the city of Chicago you're talking about. They'll do anything to make a buck, and I do mean anything. If you get your car towed for parking illegally (sometimes due to a missing sign), it will cost a minimum of $200 to get it back. Guess where most of that money goes. And guess where money collected for photographs of this sculpture will go. This was not designed to survive a court challenge; it was designed to see who they can shake down for money. For another shakedown example, currently the city is suing some kid who supposedly caused a porch to collapse and kill people. There was only a rumor that the kid was jumping on the illegally built porch, but that's enough for the city to try to wrangle some money out of him. The purpose of this rant is just to let people know how money hungry the city is and how low they will stoop to collect. Taxes are already sky-high and people are finally fed up, so the only source for continual lining of the pockets of the mayors' friends is now extra fees like this.
Even the non-lazy wouldn't be happy about long passphrases. At work, I lock my screen whenever I leave the desk, and the password protected screen saver timeout is 5 minutes in case I forget. Would I be willing to do this if I had to type out 40 characters to get back into my machine? Hell no, I'd get a Homer-Simpson-like pecking bird to keep the keyboard active while I'm gone, resulting in less security. Although I understand what this guy is saying, the idea of super long pass phrases is a non-starter in any real world environment.
Not to mention, AOL will no doubt use these new "features" as an excuse for yet another price increase. They'll sit in board meetings wondering why they keep losing subscribers and why people aren't willing to pay more for AOL dialup than DSL would cost. Seriously, does anyone still believe that they can do things on AOL that they can't do on the real internet?
Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks big companies will only use patents "defensively". I guess defending the company from competition is part of defensive patent strategy.
Here is what you will NOT find. You will NOT find an example of a place where gun crime was out of control, people were getting killed left and right (like in south Chicago) and then guns were banned and the crime rate went down. Most of Europe, Japan, and other countries have lower murder rates than the US and stricter gun laws. However, correlation does not equal causality. The crime rates were lower even before the tough gun laws due to a more homogenous population and other factors. There are numerous US cities that have tough gun laws that are useless. No Chicago murders are prevented by the outlawing of guns within the city. Even if they were banned throughout the entire country, it's not as if guns can't be made in a metals workshop. Guns aren't the problem, it's the culture. Until American society become more polite somehow, murders will remain common no matter what people like Sarah Brady are able to accomplish.
Is the fee charged upfront or when a machine is disposed of? I can see problems either way. If it is charged upfront on new purchases, people will buy over the internet or anywhere else to avoid the fee. If it is charged at the time of disposal, it would be hard to convince many people to pay $30 to drop off something they want to get rid of and see as having no value. I've heard of some cities having free drop off for old computer equipment, which seems to me like the only realistic way to keep it from being dumped in landfills, ditches along highways, etc.
Never let your first and/or only customer know just how important they are to you. If they find this out, you are their bitch. They will own you, and your "working relationship" will be just like W2 employment, only less stable and with fewer benefits.
I don't think this will make any difference to the end user. It's not like AT&T ever presented a low cost alternative to anything. With VOIP and cell phones, SBC can never have the type of monopoly that AT&T once had.
Ideas for advertisers: make your content relevant to the material on the page and in a format people will actually want to see instead of block. The internet is not cable TV; get over it. You will not succeed in forcing 30 second full motion video/audio ads on people; they will always be able to block this. People will block ads that have some obnoxious flashing background with awful colors. Nobody seems to have a problem with the very successful Google text ads. Especially since they seem to relate to the material being viewed on the site. Nobody really wants to see a credit card ad when they come online to check sports scores. When the advertising creative types actually start being creative, they'll be able to solve this problem. If they simply cling to the old and familiar ways, they'll die.
The problem is, with an insurance plan nobody who doesn't pay in can collect. But with SS, they can. So you have some people who pay essentially nothing and end up collecting a lot, and then you have some people who pay in a lot but will be left with nothing at the end, like all young people in the work force right now. That's not insurance, that's socialism. And America will soon be getting a painful first hand lesson on the failures of socialism.
Slashdot Mirror
They stay in business because they advertise cheap prices for the cheapass American consumer. That's what people's priorities are. Never mind quality and service, they just want a lot of flash for little money. To top it off, Best Buy prices are usually not even that great, but many people don't even do enough research to know it.
You left out that part about the bricks being thrown through the McDonalds window.
I suppose the cops should have just backed down and left the library, when confronted with the force of spoiled adolescent anger. Boo hoo, the cops won't let the college kids riot. Here's a really scary thought: some day this group of "oppressed" kids are going to be applying for jobs at major corporations.
Next time try reading the ENTIRE story. You'll find out why he was shocked repeatedly. If he hadn't been such a jackass in the first place the cops would have never even been involved. You idiots seem to think that cops go around randomly tazoring foreign-looking people.
Oh yes, because anyone who criticizes Bush on a blog is arrested. Hey, have they come for you yet?
The kid got what he wanted - attention. Now he's complaining? What exactly did he expect would happen for being such an ass? Now that he's had his 15 minutes of fame, I think we can move on to other more newsworthy things. And I hope this idiot loses his inevitable lawsuit. What does it say about our country when any moron can become rich just by being a jackass?
So, "Doctor" Ferrone, why do you post at -1 by default and why exactly should anyone care what you have to say?
If they aren't careful, the Russian Mafia will set their sights on the RIAA. Their extortion tactics won't fly over there.
I knew the American public would be too stupid for the "no late fees" policy. As if you could rent movies and keep them for 3 years at no extra charge. Not like they made it any big secret that it converts to a purchase after a certain amount of time. Nothing new here; some lawyers saw an opportunity to shake Blockbuster down for some money on behalf of some trailer park retards. I hope their happy with their coupons for $1 off next rental and the discontinuation of a great program.
There will be a special corner of hell reserved for the person who thought this was a good idea. Do these systems EVER work correctly?
The real question is, who has a patent on this service? If it isn't Google, they're fucked, because someone else has one for sure.
I suppose it also helps you leverage synergy to facilitate best-of-breed 21st century paradigm-shift enterprise solutions.
If certain states feel entitled to collect sales tax on out of state purchases, then it is not farfetched at all for them to want to collect mileage taxes for out of state driving. Never underestimate a bureaucrat's thirst for your tax money, and the means they are willing to go to in order to get it.
You obviously have no idea how things work in Chicago. The artist must have connections to the mayor's administration. No further explaination is necessary.
Keep in mind, this is the city of Chicago you're talking about. They'll do anything to make a buck, and I do mean anything. If you get your car towed for parking illegally (sometimes due to a missing sign), it will cost a minimum of $200 to get it back. Guess where most of that money goes. And guess where money collected for photographs of this sculpture will go. This was not designed to survive a court challenge; it was designed to see who they can shake down for money. For another shakedown example, currently the city is suing some kid who supposedly caused a porch to collapse and kill people. There was only a rumor that the kid was jumping on the illegally built porch, but that's enough for the city to try to wrangle some money out of him. The purpose of this rant is just to let people know how money hungry the city is and how low they will stoop to collect. Taxes are already sky-high and people are finally fed up, so the only source for continual lining of the pockets of the mayors' friends is now extra fees like this.
Even the non-lazy wouldn't be happy about long passphrases. At work, I lock my screen whenever I leave the desk, and the password protected screen saver timeout is 5 minutes in case I forget. Would I be willing to do this if I had to type out 40 characters to get back into my machine? Hell no, I'd get a Homer-Simpson-like pecking bird to keep the keyboard active while I'm gone, resulting in less security. Although I understand what this guy is saying, the idea of super long pass phrases is a non-starter in any real world environment.
Not to mention, AOL will no doubt use these new "features" as an excuse for yet another price increase. They'll sit in board meetings wondering why they keep losing subscribers and why people aren't willing to pay more for AOL dialup than DSL would cost. Seriously, does anyone still believe that they can do things on AOL that they can't do on the real internet?
Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks big companies will only use patents "defensively". I guess defending the company from competition is part of defensive patent strategy.
Here is what you will NOT find. You will NOT find an example of a place where gun crime was out of control, people were getting killed left and right (like in south Chicago) and then guns were banned and the crime rate went down. Most of Europe, Japan, and other countries have lower murder rates than the US and stricter gun laws. However, correlation does not equal causality. The crime rates were lower even before the tough gun laws due to a more homogenous population and other factors. There are numerous US cities that have tough gun laws that are useless. No Chicago murders are prevented by the outlawing of guns within the city. Even if they were banned throughout the entire country, it's not as if guns can't be made in a metals workshop. Guns aren't the problem, it's the culture. Until American society become more polite somehow, murders will remain common no matter what people like Sarah Brady are able to accomplish.
Is the fee charged upfront or when a machine is disposed of? I can see problems either way. If it is charged upfront on new purchases, people will buy over the internet or anywhere else to avoid the fee. If it is charged at the time of disposal, it would be hard to convince many people to pay $30 to drop off something they want to get rid of and see as having no value. I've heard of some cities having free drop off for old computer equipment, which seems to me like the only realistic way to keep it from being dumped in landfills, ditches along highways, etc.
Never let your first and/or only customer know just how important they are to you. If they find this out, you are their bitch. They will own you, and your "working relationship" will be just like W2 employment, only less stable and with fewer benefits.
I don't think this will make any difference to the end user. It's not like AT&T ever presented a low cost alternative to anything. With VOIP and cell phones, SBC can never have the type of monopoly that AT&T once had.
fuck you.
Ideas for advertisers: make your content relevant to the material on the page and in a format people will actually want to see instead of block. The internet is not cable TV; get over it. You will not succeed in forcing 30 second full motion video/audio ads on people; they will always be able to block this. People will block ads that have some obnoxious flashing background with awful colors. Nobody seems to have a problem with the very successful Google text ads. Especially since they seem to relate to the material being viewed on the site. Nobody really wants to see a credit card ad when they come online to check sports scores. When the advertising creative types actually start being creative, they'll be able to solve this problem. If they simply cling to the old and familiar ways, they'll die.
The problem is, with an insurance plan nobody who doesn't pay in can collect. But with SS, they can. So you have some people who pay essentially nothing and end up collecting a lot, and then you have some people who pay in a lot but will be left with nothing at the end, like all young people in the work force right now. That's not insurance, that's socialism. And America will soon be getting a painful first hand lesson on the failures of socialism.