I'm not comfortable entrusting my body to someone with two years of schooling and no experience. I don't have a problem seeing the nurse practitioner but I won't see a PA. That's where I draw the line.
Of course I did one better and found an actual doctor in private practice who doesn't staff PAs at all. I always know I'm going to see an MD when I go to visit him.
The business support people are very good in my experience. I've had issues with Windows Server that Microsoft couldn't figure out but there was always some Dell guy at Level 3 that could come up with a solution. Figure that one out.
The consumer support group sucks donkey balls. It absolutely amazes me that I can buy a Lenovo (Chinese company) off the shelf and get an American on the phone but if I buy a Dell (American company) off the shelf I wind up talking to New Delhi. WTF is wrong with that picture?
Maybe we should all welcome our Chinese overlords, because apparently they can afford to pay us to work for them.....
not every prescription drug is a controlled substance. in fact, most are not.
My favorite "prescription drug" has to be the 800mg ibuprofen and 800mg aetaminophen tablets. You could get the exact same effect by buying Advil or Tylenol and taking four of them, but we are going to make it a prescription drug anyway.......
Actually I have a funny story about that. I called Dell once upon a time to get a warranty replacement for a power supply that had gone up in smoke. My company has a support agreement with them and is supposed to receive priority support from Americans. Somehow I wound up in the queue talking to the morons from New Delhi. That went something like this:
Heavy Indian Accent: Thank you so much for calling Dell, my name is "Bob" (yeah, I bet it is buddy....), how many I assist you?
Me: *sigh* (well, might as well give it a shot) "Yeah, I have a bad power supply here and I need to get a replacement for it."
Tech Guy: Yes, yes, I am understanding that you have a bad power supply. Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: I can't do that. When I plug the system in sparks come out of the back.
Tech Guy: Yes, yes, I am understanding your problem, please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: No, you don't understand, I can't plug the system in, the power supply failed.
Tech Guy: Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: (trying different tack) I can't get the CD-ROM drive to open.
Tech Guy: Yes, I understand, is the computer plugged into the wall outlet?
Me: (back to square one) No, sparks will come out of it.
Tech Guy: Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: *click*
So I call them back and go through the same exact menu system. Somehow I wind up with an American this time. He had the thickest Texan drawl that I've ever heard in my life.
Tech Guy: Thanks for calling Dell, my name is John, how may I help you?
Me: John, are you in the United States?
John: No sir! I'm in Texas.
Needless to say I knew I had somebody on the phone that I could do business with;)
Amazingly enough he didn't ask me to use the system diagnostics CD either. I don't know how he was able to troubleshoot my "sparks are coming out of the back of it" problem without the assistance of the system diagnostics CD, but somehow he managed.....
By extending Copyright, they effectively robbed all of us of our rightful property. What hypocrisy for them to crack down on "piracy".
Then why don't you vote "them" out of office?
Oh yeah, copyrights don't win elections. Neither do civil liberties. Seems the only thing that wins elections are vague promises of "change" that manage to penetrate into the minds of the electorate in between viewings of American Idol......
Said customer, having been assured by the friendly sales rep, "It just says [insert standard salesman bullshit rap here]", signs anyway, in the mistaken belief that he's dealing with a fair and honorable business.
If you believe what the salesman tells you then you are already a lost cause. His job isn't to look out for your best interest. His job is to sell.
Hiding your draconian terms in an indecipherable "agreement" is anything but fair and honest. It should be illegal.
The reason that businesses in the United States have such agreements is because of the ease with which you can sue people in this country. Because of this lawyers have an outsized amount of influence and insist on covering every possible base in any account agreement. It has less to do with "Let's screw our customers!" and more to do with "Let's try not to get sued".
All you can do is run your costings on what they're offering at any given moment, in the hope that there isn't some buried clause in your contract that allows them to multiply the costs by x^n under whatever circumstances they hadn't seen fit to mention before. Or in the hope that the clause that says they can "vary the terms of your contract without bothering to tell you" won't come back to bite you on the bum.
Why would you have to "hope" that there isn't a buried clause in the contract? You did read it before signing it, right?
I'm not aware of any agreement in the wireless industry that can be changed without notifying the consumer. Typically if they change your contract in their favor you can cancel and avoid paying the ETF.
The atmosphere in DC was poisoned long before health care became an issue. Whatever good will Obama may have had with the Republicans in Congress was pissed away when the Democrats rammed a $787,000,000,000 "stimulus" bill that wasn't through the Congress. They neither sought or desired input from the minority party.
Clearly, the American voters have spoken. We went so far to the right in the last administration that leaning to the left IS leaning to the middle.
The American electorate rejected Bush'ism. That's not the same thing as the American electorate giving Pelosi'ism a mandate. Don't believe me? Take a look at the current public opinion polls. Independents are fleeing the Democratic Party like rats from a sinking sink. Why do you suppose that is?
Aren't we constantly told that the EU is so much better in regards to patents and copyrights and it's only the big bad US that is constantly trying to push all this stuff on people?
I would argue that big Government is the problem here. If you take an individual country the size of Sweden or Canada it's more probable that it will be responsive to the concerns and needs of it's citizens. Take a large bloated government like the US Federal Government or EU and it seems to be more probable that it gets bought off by a combination of machine politics and special interests.
I honestly don't know how I feel about the re-importation issue. It just pisses me off to no end that Obama is getting a free pass from the same crowd that would have liked to lynch Bush for his behind-the-scenes deals with industry. The fact that Candidate Obama was for it and President Obama is against it is just icing on the cake.
As far as I'm concerned Obama is just another lying scumbag politician willing to say anything to get elected when he actually knew what he was going to do all along.
As you correctly deduced I was being a wiseass, but there is some truth to what I said. The thought of Palin as President turned a lot of people off. I think it's legitimate to worry about the VP nominee even if the guy at the top of the ticket is as healthy as an ox. POTUS is the most stressful job on the planet (is it just me or does Obama already have some gray that wasn't there before?) and will take a toll even on healthy and fit individuals.
Plus there's always the danger of some nutjob seeking a lead based solution to his political discontent....
No, they just don't have any interest in "fixing" it by turning the entire system over to Uncle Sam. Bit of a difference there. If the Democrats want to allow a vote on tort reform (just to pick one issue) I suspect you'd see some Republicans come to the table. No less a right-wing neo-con than Howard Dean has suggested that this is a necessary reform -- funny how we can't get an up or down vote on it, isn't it?
Then there's the cute little stunt the Dems have pulled with drug re-importation. Tell me, where did candidate Obama stand on that issue? Where's the outrage when President Obama cuts agreements behind the scenes with industry groups? If Bush had done that we'd see progressives foaming at the mouth. Why is Obama getting a pass?
Why shouldn't they oppose it? The Democrats aren't interested in meeting in the middle. They are interested in pushing their own agenda. The fact that they can't even convince the moderates in their own party to go along with some of the stuff they've tried to pass ought to tell you something. Mind you, this is exactly how the GOP operated when they had control, but the silence coming from the man who promised us a new kind of politics is deafening, isn't it?
I had a phone call from a Democratic fundraiser a few days ago asking me if I would contribute money to help them fight the "Republican obstruction". I asked him why they are blaming the Republicans for their difficulties when they have 60 votes in the Senate and a large majority in the House. He didn't have an answer. Then I told him I would be voting GOP in 2010 just to put a check on Obama's power at which point he proceeded to lecture me on how evil the GOP is until I hung up. Wonder if they'll be calling me again anytime soon?
No, he asked 60% of Congress to fix it. The other 40% doesn't get any input. That must be the "new kind" of politics he talked about. Partisanship in the opposition direction. Hooray for change!
More to the point, what data does Netflix have on you that reveals you to be a closed lesbian? I don't recall seeing a "Are you a closet homosexual?" button when I signed up for my account.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not comfortable entrusting my body to someone with two years of schooling and no experience. I don't have a problem seeing the nurse practitioner but I won't see a PA. That's where I draw the line.
Of course I did one better and found an actual doctor in private practice who doesn't staff PAs at all. I always know I'm going to see an MD when I go to visit him.
The business support people are very good in my experience. I've had issues with Windows Server that Microsoft couldn't figure out but there was always some Dell guy at Level 3 that could come up with a solution. Figure that one out.
The consumer support group sucks donkey balls. It absolutely amazes me that I can buy a Lenovo (Chinese company) off the shelf and get an American on the phone but if I buy a Dell (American company) off the shelf I wind up talking to New Delhi. WTF is wrong with that picture?
Maybe we should all welcome our Chinese overlords, because apparently they can afford to pay us to work for them.....
not every prescription drug is a controlled substance. in fact, most are not.
My favorite "prescription drug" has to be the 800mg ibuprofen and 800mg aetaminophen tablets. You could get the exact same effect by buying Advil or Tylenol and taking four of them, but we are going to make it a prescription drug anyway.......
A scheduled office visit with a Physician's Assistant at my local clinic costs $125 cash. And he's not even a doctor!
At my old clinic is cost the same to see a PA, a nurse practitioner or an actual MD. Figure that one out.
It's like a whole 'nother country.
Actually I have a funny story about that. I called Dell once upon a time to get a warranty replacement for a power supply that had gone up in smoke. My company has a support agreement with them and is supposed to receive priority support from Americans. Somehow I wound up in the queue talking to the morons from New Delhi. That went something like this:
Heavy Indian Accent: Thank you so much for calling Dell, my name is "Bob" (yeah, I bet it is buddy....), how many I assist you?
Me: *sigh* (well, might as well give it a shot) "Yeah, I have a bad power supply here and I need to get a replacement for it."
Tech Guy: Yes, yes, I am understanding that you have a bad power supply. Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: I can't do that. When I plug the system in sparks come out of the back.
Tech Guy: Yes, yes, I am understanding your problem, please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: No, you don't understand, I can't plug the system in, the power supply failed.
Tech Guy: Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: (trying different tack) I can't get the CD-ROM drive to open.
Tech Guy: Yes, I understand, is the computer plugged into the wall outlet?
Me: (back to square one) No, sparks will come out of it.
Tech Guy: Please insert the system diagnostics CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Me: *click*
So I call them back and go through the same exact menu system. Somehow I wind up with an American this time. He had the thickest Texan drawl that I've ever heard in my life.
Tech Guy: Thanks for calling Dell, my name is John, how may I help you?
Me: John, are you in the United States?
John: No sir! I'm in Texas.
Needless to say I knew I had somebody on the phone that I could do business with ;)
Amazingly enough he didn't ask me to use the system diagnostics CD either. I don't know how he was able to troubleshoot my "sparks are coming out of the back of it" problem without the assistance of the system diagnostics CD, but somehow he managed.....
By extending Copyright, they effectively robbed all of us of our rightful property. What hypocrisy for them to crack down on "piracy".
Then why don't you vote "them" out of office?
Oh yeah, copyrights don't win elections. Neither do civil liberties. Seems the only thing that wins elections are vague promises of "change" that manage to penetrate into the minds of the electorate in between viewings of American Idol......
Said customer, having been assured by the friendly sales rep, "It just says [insert standard salesman bullshit rap here]", signs anyway, in the mistaken belief that he's dealing with a fair and honorable business.
If you believe what the salesman tells you then you are already a lost cause. His job isn't to look out for your best interest. His job is to sell.
Hiding your draconian terms in an indecipherable "agreement" is anything but fair and honest. It should be illegal.
The reason that businesses in the United States have such agreements is because of the ease with which you can sue people in this country. Because of this lawyers have an outsized amount of influence and insist on covering every possible base in any account agreement. It has less to do with "Let's screw our customers!" and more to do with "Let's try not to get sued".
All you can do is run your costings on what they're offering at any given moment, in the hope that there isn't some buried clause in your contract that allows them to multiply the costs by x^n under whatever circumstances they hadn't seen fit to mention before. Or in the hope that the clause that says they can "vary the terms of your contract without bothering to tell you" won't come back to bite you on the bum.
Why would you have to "hope" that there isn't a buried clause in the contract? You did read it before signing it, right?
I'm not aware of any agreement in the wireless industry that can be changed without notifying the consumer. Typically if they change your contract in their favor you can cancel and avoid paying the ETF.
The atmosphere in DC was poisoned long before health care became an issue. Whatever good will Obama may have had with the Republicans in Congress was pissed away when the Democrats rammed a $787,000,000,000 "stimulus" bill that wasn't through the Congress. They neither sought or desired input from the minority party.
I don't want protection from anything other than invasion and crime, thank you very much.
Microsoft should also file for a patent on a method to lose money.
Windows Vista hasn't been patented yet?
Ah, the NES zapper. That thing was awesome. Is it sad that I can still burn an entire afternoon playing duck hunt when the mood strikes?
Clearly, the American voters have spoken. We went so far to the right in the last administration that leaning to the left IS leaning to the middle.
The American electorate rejected Bush'ism. That's not the same thing as the American electorate giving Pelosi'ism a mandate. Don't believe me? Take a look at the current public opinion polls. Independents are fleeing the Democratic Party like rats from a sinking sink. Why do you suppose that is?
Aren't we constantly told that the EU is so much better in regards to patents and copyrights and it's only the big bad US that is constantly trying to push all this stuff on people?
I would argue that big Government is the problem here. If you take an individual country the size of Sweden or Canada it's more probable that it will be responsive to the concerns and needs of it's citizens. Take a large bloated government like the US Federal Government or EU and it seems to be more probable that it gets bought off by a combination of machine politics and special interests.
I honestly don't know how I feel about the re-importation issue. It just pisses me off to no end that Obama is getting a free pass from the same crowd that would have liked to lynch Bush for his behind-the-scenes deals with industry. The fact that Candidate Obama was for it and President Obama is against it is just icing on the cake.
As far as I'm concerned Obama is just another lying scumbag politician willing to say anything to get elected when he actually knew what he was going to do all along.
As you correctly deduced I was being a wiseass, but there is some truth to what I said. The thought of Palin as President turned a lot of people off. I think it's legitimate to worry about the VP nominee even if the guy at the top of the ticket is as healthy as an ox. POTUS is the most stressful job on the planet (is it just me or does Obama already have some gray that wasn't there before?) and will take a toll even on healthy and fit individuals.
Plus there's always the danger of some nutjob seeking a lead based solution to his political discontent....
I'm not a Republican, but since you are trolling allow me to respond in kind:
Good luck with that, you guys don't believe in gun ownership ;)
'course when they do meet up in the middle good things don't happen there, either...
Yeah, those balanced budgets and surpluses in the 90s really sucked......
Of course they are. But the Republicans didn't run on a centrist bipartisan platform, did they?
And the Dems wonder why Independents are abandoning them in droves.
No, they just don't have any interest in "fixing" it by turning the entire system over to Uncle Sam. Bit of a difference there. If the Democrats want to allow a vote on tort reform (just to pick one issue) I suspect you'd see some Republicans come to the table. No less a right-wing neo-con than Howard Dean has suggested that this is a necessary reform -- funny how we can't get an up or down vote on it, isn't it?
Then there's the cute little stunt the Dems have pulled with drug re-importation. Tell me, where did candidate Obama stand on that issue? Where's the outrage when President Obama cuts agreements behind the scenes with industry groups? If Bush had done that we'd see progressives foaming at the mouth. Why is Obama getting a pass?
Why shouldn't they oppose it? The Democrats aren't interested in meeting in the middle. They are interested in pushing their own agenda. The fact that they can't even convince the moderates in their own party to go along with some of the stuff they've tried to pass ought to tell you something. Mind you, this is exactly how the GOP operated when they had control, but the silence coming from the man who promised us a new kind of politics is deafening, isn't it?
I had a phone call from a Democratic fundraiser a few days ago asking me if I would contribute money to help them fight the "Republican obstruction". I asked him why they are blaming the Republicans for their difficulties when they have 60 votes in the Senate and a large majority in the House. He didn't have an answer. Then I told him I would be voting GOP in 2010 just to put a check on Obama's power at which point he proceeded to lecture me on how evil the GOP is until I hung up. Wonder if they'll be calling me again anytime soon?
No, he asked 60% of Congress to fix it. The other 40% doesn't get any input. That must be the "new kind" of politics he talked about. Partisanship in the opposition direction. Hooray for change!
McCain may have not been my ideal choice, but at least I knew exactly what he was going to do before he got into office.
Yeah, a heart attack and President Palin ;)
Netflix has adult material on it? Why wasn't I aware of this awesome featur^W^Wmoral outrage? ;)
More to the point, what data does Netflix have on you that reveals you to be a closed lesbian? I don't recall seeing a "Are you a closet homosexual?" button when I signed up for my account.