You know, ironically this happened to me too, though I walked away from my Rogers contract 2 days early, after I had called to make sure I was free and clear (they assured me I was). They sent me a bill for $150 on my way out the door, for early contract termination and for failure to give notice before porting. Of course, if you give notice that you're cancelling, you can't port your number.
I got them to refund the $100 after an extremely heated and profanity laced phone call. The extra month of service I took them to the CCTS over. It took a month, but we settled, and they reversed that fee as well.
I went to Wind. It'll be a cold day in hell before I go back to Rogers.
I am not the original poster, but I believe that I can point out a place where a true curve is used. I am a Biological Sciences major, and the majority of my undergrad classes used a "true" curve. Classes regularly had well over a 100 students and official department policy is to grade using a normal curve. The average is set to be a C+/B- for first years, about a B for second and third year courses, and a B for fourth year. And yes, many profs will actually show the normal curve, and where they set the letter grades around the distribution.
This is at a major Canadian public university (over 30,000 students).
Marijuana is a weird drug that for the purposes of this dicussion has been set up as a strawman. Interestingly enough, marijuana may not be along the lines of cocaine or heroin, but bringing it up needlessly frustrates the issue. Most junkies are interested in harder drugs. Legalizing harder drugs would make them easier to access and with less of a stigma, so yes, I am sure more people would try them. With drugs like heroin or cocaine, they are so dangerous to use than in rare cases, they result in death the first time around. And some of our society wants to legalize these?
I realize that some have a longstanding belief that the war on drugs has been a bad thing. I grew up in a home where one of parents used, in this case prescription drugs. Drugs misused are dangerous for all around.
It is interesting to say that laws are there to protect us from those around us, and they are. Illicit drug use is a problem that affects everybody. Users cannot take care of themselves nor any dependents they may have. I am somewhat sick of the misnomer "would someone thing of the children", but sometimes its valid. Here is one place.
MySpace may very well aggravate you, but it does not result in physiological changes to your brain chemistry, nor does it result in physical dependence. It's a ridiculous argument.
As for seatbelt requirements and helmets on bike? You may have a point there, I have never decided how I felt about that one, but even there, you don't just affect yourself. Anything that happens to you the public is ultimately responsible for. fThe kinds of injuries they are seeking to prevent are ones that put you in public hospitals for a long time, learning how to talk again. Private insurance? Great, maybe the people that wear seatbelts don't want to subsidize in the form of premiums those that don't?
"When we made it legal again, the Mafia had less power." But the one thing I am absolutely certain about? Giving into violent pressure takes us right down a slippery slope we don't need to be on. Chamberlain discovered to his dismay that appeasement never works with madmen.
Ok, hold on a second. Saying we legalize all of these drugs, how exactly is that going to solve any of our problems? The junkies will still be out in the streets, doing what they do, and dying. You may or may not get less violence, but a traditional junkie really has no way to earn enough money to support for himself a shelter, food, clothing, and all of life's necessities. So where do they get those things? Either theft or leeching off of society, neither of which fixes the long term structural problems we have. And they're still hanging out impoverished in the ghetto.
Legalizing drugs hurts the people that use them and everyone around them. That's why they were made illegal in the first place. At least by keeping them illegal, we have some way to discourage new users.
Actually, I live out in Alberta where Pincher Creek has a very large wind farm (IIRC, 25 MW). And more seem to be on the way to take advantage of the strong winds coming off of the Rocky Mountains. While fossil fuels are important out here, green alternatives are starting to play a bigger role in generating energy.
I'd be happy to: Drugs, Society and Human Behaviour, Oakley Ray and Charles Ksir, Mosby. And I believe I used the 8th edition, it was published in 1997.
Re:What I'm waiting for is...
on
Safe Cigarettes?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
You can't be serious. Of the 4 drugs you listed there, MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine are proven to possess a dose and tolerance independent mortality. In fact, you could snort one line of coke and die, or do it for a year at the same dose and then die. There's no way to know.
As far as ecstasy is concerned, it's pretty much the same story, and they believe that use results in serious long time repercussions, not to mention the same problem as cocaine. You never know when the same dose will kill you.
I am going to take a stab at this and suggest that he most likely lives in the US, based on his report of ordering a CD off of half.com. I can order something from there in Canada, but that's a stretch, and a hassle because of the border. Here's a link...
I agree that he shoudl seek damages, however. That software is crap.
Oh be real. I like to play games too, but you can't put Doom III on the same level as Tom and Jerry. I would not want to see anyone not an adult playing Doom III.
The last recourse? What on earth are you talking about? I agree that civil disobedience can be an interesting way of introducing reform, but that is not achieved through quietly downloading in silence. In this case, you have to be public about what you are doing and allow the industry to take legal action against you, and then you may fight in in the courts.
Downloading "free" content in your parent's basement and then calling it "civil disobedience" is bullshit.
I thought about modding you down as being incorrect, but then thought better and decided to reply where I can note the problem with your statement.
"fundamentalist Christians" - As far as I understand it, they do not claim God is unknowable. In fact, they do not believe anything close to that. The belief is that God revealed his Will in the Bible. Unknowable, perhaps in a sense, but your statement as it stands is a misrepresentation. Look at it as if you had kids. They cannot claim to understand why you set things up the way you did, but they do know what your wishes are in terms of their behavior, etc.
As for the first point, God requires nobody's assistance in this world. That part of your statement is not debatable as it stands. However, again, you has misrepresented their beliefs. I can respect that you are an atheist, but please be honest with the other side before setting up a straw man you know you can knock down. Christians, all of them, do what God wishes out of love, the same way that you would do the laundry for your wife (this is Slashdot, so that's far from a foregone conclusion). Sure, she is most likely capable of handling it herself, and every other task. You do it because you love her, and desire to continue in a relationship with her.
The bottom line is that God is both the things you claim, but not in the way that you did it. Be realistic. The other side is far from unintelligent.
I would like to point out what you noticeably left out of your post. Alcohol (and guns) are controlled items and limited to those that are no longer children. I thought about modding you down, but realized I would rather post to clarify. As far as Anheuser-Busch is concerned, there is constant movement to prevent alcohol from coming into contact with minors, and to prevent them from advertising to minors. Once people are adults, they should have the ability to choose, but I don't see that right being essential to kids.
Just like alcohol, it seems right to me that certain things which I wouldn't my kid to have access to be limited by proof of age. If you want your kids to be able to play stuff like that, or drink, I suppose that is your perogative and you may buy it for them, but I see no reason why the State cannot provide parents another tool to help them guide their children on a path that seems morally right to them. This does not remove parents from their responsibility either, but it does help them out.
Double standards are a fact of life due to different ways peopel have of viewing things, and in some ways there is a double standard here, but in this case you left out an important detail.
Mod this up, Insightful. If I had any modpoints, I would do the task. This seems to be a true undertaking by the Chinese gov't to create a brainwashed populace...
As the parent says, this game is just a small part of that.
I don't know what music store you are using, but if I recall correctly, the number one music store in the world sells their tracks at 79p per track. That's no 25p, but it is certainly better than your FUD.
If you honestly feel this way, there are powerful things you can do as an inidividual to contribute to the "public good". There are thousands of organizations across the US starving for funds to make a *real* difference in people's lives. I do not hear about any of the porkbarrel spending that the Salvation Army is doing. Nor do I hear about the United Way taking on a foreign country in a war. I know the University of Michigan needs a lot more money if they are to stop raising tuition for all of their students.
Don't wait for the government to do it for you. Time and again, they have showed they will screw it up. If you were actually honest and serious about contributing to the common good, do it. Don't blow your bonus on "another new Bentley."
Canada has its own problems with democracy. The large population centers out East have effectively disenfranchised the West. Alberta is frequently ignored by the Federal Gov't in preference to those living in Ontario and Quebec. The sad fact is, just like the South before the US had its civil war, the West has no voice in national politics. This has led many people out here to become cynical.
The Electoral College isn't perfect by any means, but it helps rural areas keep a little bit of voting power. The States (or Provinces) simply all have seperate needs, and rural areas would likely (and right now in Canada) get ignored by population centers that have totally different needs and goals.
3,000,000 megabytes would easily be a deal that I could go for. Or pehaps you meant 3,000. I suspect that if the FTC heard about Toshiba's extremely generous offer, they might have looked into that advertising claim.
My Grandparents were once in Florida, and my grandfather needed $200 out of the ATM. The ATM screwed up and he received none of the money. He called the bank back in Michigan, and they said that he had to take it up with the bank down there. They swore that he received all the money. After fighting with the bank he was forced to give up after a day or so because he had no recourse.
Needless to say, I don't believe that he has used an ATM since...
There remains once crucial distinction between evolution, and the more established laws of thermodynamics and gravity. Those theories are fully testable, evolution is not. In the end, the current evidence may suggest it, but we have to rely on people's assumptions and prepositions about those ideas. In chemistry? I can verify the lays of thermodynamics with a few simple labs.
There are two large problems with this type of thinking. For one, "tyranny of the minority" in this case happens to benefit all people, inluding those with broadband, which ceases to function when power lines go down. During hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, I think most people will be relieved at the emergency services offered by HAMs. FEMA and other organizations rely on them.
Changing radio frequencies is not all that easy. These are internationally chosen frequencies, because the HF spectrum works worldwide. I doubt the ITU will be willing to change the entire spectrum for a few cities to get broadband. Those are major infrastructure changes, and those frequencies are valuable. Who else is going to give up theirs for HAM's who will not pay (because it is amateur radio for hobbyists)? In this sense, "we were here first" is an excellent argument.
Perhaps the author is right about certain things. He certainly makes a good point about the anti-Microsoft zealotry. Most end-users really are turned off by all of the anti Windows speak, and I have never really gotten any results without explaining why Linux is more useful in easy and simple language. If I start mentioning why Microsoft is bad, anti-competitive and so on, that is fine and most people think so too, but nobody wants to learn a new operating system.
I disagree with the assertion that there are too many distributions however. Many of them fill niche roles and expand the usefulness of the operating system in unique ways. I would never give up my Knoppix distro for use on the road etc. Two or three distributions would deprive the commununity of one of its greatest strengths: flexibility.
That's incorrect. Actually Canadians do have the benefit of an online music store, similar to buymusic.com called PureTracks.
I live in Alberta and was able to find it with a bit of googling. The prices appear to be a little cheaper as well, when they are converted back into USD.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, ironically this happened to me too, though I walked away from my Rogers contract 2 days early, after I had called to make sure I was free and clear (they assured me I was). They sent me a bill for $150 on my way out the door, for early contract termination and for failure to give notice before porting. Of course, if you give notice that you're cancelling, you can't port your number.
I got them to refund the $100 after an extremely heated and profanity laced phone call. The extra month of service I took them to the CCTS over. It took a month, but we settled, and they reversed that fee as well.
I went to Wind. It'll be a cold day in hell before I go back to Rogers.
I am not the original poster, but I believe that I can point out a place where a true curve is used. I am a Biological Sciences major, and the majority of my undergrad classes used a "true" curve. Classes regularly had well over a 100 students and official department policy is to grade using a normal curve. The average is set to be a C+/B- for first years, about a B for second and third year courses, and a B for fourth year. And yes, many profs will actually show the normal curve, and where they set the letter grades around the distribution. This is at a major Canadian public university (over 30,000 students).
Marijuana is a weird drug that for the purposes of this dicussion has been set up as a strawman. Interestingly enough, marijuana may not be along the lines of cocaine or heroin, but bringing it up needlessly frustrates the issue. Most junkies are interested in harder drugs. Legalizing harder drugs would make them easier to access and with less of a stigma, so yes, I am sure more people would try them. With drugs like heroin or cocaine, they are so dangerous to use than in rare cases, they result in death the first time around. And some of our society wants to legalize these?
I realize that some have a longstanding belief that the war on drugs has been a bad thing. I grew up in a home where one of parents used, in this case prescription drugs. Drugs misused are dangerous for all around.
It is interesting to say that laws are there to protect us from those around us, and they are. Illicit drug use is a problem that affects everybody. Users cannot take care of themselves nor any dependents they may have. I am somewhat sick of the misnomer "would someone thing of the children", but sometimes its valid. Here is one place.
MySpace may very well aggravate you, but it does not result in physiological changes to your brain chemistry, nor does it result in physical dependence. It's a ridiculous argument.
As for seatbelt requirements and helmets on bike? You may have a point there, I have never decided how I felt about that one, but even there, you don't just affect yourself. Anything that happens to you the public is ultimately responsible for. fThe kinds of injuries they are seeking to prevent are ones that put you in public hospitals for a long time, learning how to talk again. Private insurance? Great, maybe the people that wear seatbelts don't want to subsidize in the form of premiums those that don't?
"When we made it legal again, the Mafia had less power." But the one thing I am absolutely certain about? Giving into violent pressure takes us right down a slippery slope we don't need to be on. Chamberlain discovered to his dismay that appeasement never works with madmen.
Ok, hold on a second. Saying we legalize all of these drugs, how exactly is that going to solve any of our problems? The junkies will still be out in the streets, doing what they do, and dying. You may or may not get less violence, but a traditional junkie really has no way to earn enough money to support for himself a shelter, food, clothing, and all of life's necessities. So where do they get those things? Either theft or leeching off of society, neither of which fixes the long term structural problems we have. And they're still hanging out impoverished in the ghetto.
Legalizing drugs hurts the people that use them and everyone around them. That's why they were made illegal in the first place. At least by keeping them illegal, we have some way to discourage new users.
Actually, I live out in Alberta where Pincher Creek has a very large wind farm (IIRC, 25 MW). And more seem to be on the way to take advantage of the strong winds coming off of the Rocky Mountains. While fossil fuels are important out here, green alternatives are starting to play a bigger role in generating energy.
I'd be happy to: Drugs, Society and Human Behaviour, Oakley Ray and Charles Ksir, Mosby. And I believe I used the 8th edition, it was published in 1997.
You can't be serious. Of the 4 drugs you listed there, MDMA (ecstasy) and cocaine are proven to possess a dose and tolerance independent mortality. In fact, you could snort one line of coke and die, or do it for a year at the same dose and then die. There's no way to know.
As far as ecstasy is concerned, it's pretty much the same story, and they believe that use results in serious long time repercussions, not to mention the same problem as cocaine. You never know when the same dose will kill you.
I am going to take a stab at this and suggest that he most likely lives in the US, based on his report of ordering a CD off of half.com. I can order something from there in Canada, but that's a stretch, and a hassle because of the border. Here's a link...
I agree that he shoudl seek damages, however. That software is crap.
Oh be real. I like to play games too, but you can't put Doom III on the same level as Tom and Jerry. I would not want to see anyone not an adult playing Doom III.
The last recourse? What on earth are you talking about? I agree that civil disobedience can be an interesting way of introducing reform, but that is not achieved through quietly downloading in silence. In this case, you have to be public about what you are doing and allow the industry to take legal action against you, and then you may fight in in the courts.
Downloading "free" content in your parent's basement and then calling it "civil disobedience" is bullshit.
I thought about modding you down as being incorrect, but then thought better and decided to reply where I can note the problem with your statement.
"fundamentalist Christians" - As far as I understand it, they do not claim God is unknowable. In fact, they do not believe anything close to that. The belief is that God revealed his Will in the Bible. Unknowable, perhaps in a sense, but your statement as it stands is a misrepresentation. Look at it as if you had kids. They cannot claim to understand why you set things up the way you did, but they do know what your wishes are in terms of their behavior, etc.
As for the first point, God requires nobody's assistance in this world. That part of your statement is not debatable as it stands. However, again, you has misrepresented their beliefs. I can respect that you are an atheist, but please be honest with the other side before setting up a straw man you know you can knock down. Christians, all of them, do what God wishes out of love, the same way that you would do the laundry for your wife (this is Slashdot, so that's far from a foregone conclusion). Sure, she is most likely capable of handling it herself, and every other task. You do it because you love her, and desire to continue in a relationship with her.
The bottom line is that God is both the things you claim, but not in the way that you did it. Be realistic. The other side is far from unintelligent.
I would like to point out what you noticeably left out of your post. Alcohol (and guns) are controlled items and limited to those that are no longer children. I thought about modding you down, but realized I would rather post to clarify. As far as Anheuser-Busch is concerned, there is constant movement to prevent alcohol from coming into contact with minors, and to prevent them from advertising to minors. Once people are adults, they should have the ability to choose, but I don't see that right being essential to kids.
Just like alcohol, it seems right to me that certain things which I wouldn't my kid to have access to be limited by proof of age. If you want your kids to be able to play stuff like that, or drink, I suppose that is your perogative and you may buy it for them, but I see no reason why the State cannot provide parents another tool to help them guide their children on a path that seems morally right to them. This does not remove parents from their responsibility either, but it does help them out.
Double standards are a fact of life due to different ways peopel have of viewing things, and in some ways there is a double standard here, but in this case you left out an important detail.
Mod this up, Insightful. If I had any modpoints, I would do the task. This seems to be a true undertaking by the Chinese gov't to create a brainwashed populace...
As the parent says, this game is just a small part of that.
I don't know what music store you are using, but if I recall correctly, the number one music store in the world sells their tracks at 79p per track. That's no 25p, but it is certainly better than your FUD.
If you honestly feel this way, there are powerful things you can do as an inidividual to contribute to the "public good". There are thousands of organizations across the US starving for funds to make a *real* difference in people's lives. I do not hear about any of the porkbarrel spending that the Salvation Army is doing. Nor do I hear about the United Way taking on a foreign country in a war. I know the University of Michigan needs a lot more money if they are to stop raising tuition for all of their students.
Don't wait for the government to do it for you. Time and again, they have showed they will screw it up. If you were actually honest and serious about contributing to the common good, do it. Don't blow your bonus on "another new Bentley."
Canada has its own problems with democracy. The large population centers out East have effectively disenfranchised the West. Alberta is frequently ignored by the Federal Gov't in preference to those living in Ontario and Quebec. The sad fact is, just like the South before the US had its civil war, the West has no voice in national politics. This has led many people out here to become cynical.
The Electoral College isn't perfect by any means, but it helps rural areas keep a little bit of voting power. The States (or Provinces) simply all have seperate needs, and rural areas would likely (and right now in Canada) get ignored by population centers that have totally different needs and goals.
3,000,000 megabytes would easily be a deal that I could go for. Or pehaps you meant 3,000. I suspect that if the FTC heard about Toshiba's extremely generous offer, they might have looked into that advertising claim.
My Grandparents were once in Florida, and my grandfather needed $200 out of the ATM. The ATM screwed up and he received none of the money. He called the bank back in Michigan, and they said that he had to take it up with the bank down there. They swore that he received all the money. After fighting with the bank he was forced to give up after a day or so because he had no recourse.
Needless to say, I don't believe that he has used an ATM since...
There remains once crucial distinction between evolution, and the more established laws of thermodynamics and gravity. Those theories are fully testable, evolution is not. In the end, the current evidence may suggest it, but we have to rely on people's assumptions and prepositions about those ideas. In chemistry? I can verify the lays of thermodynamics with a few simple labs.
There are two large problems with this type of thinking. For one, "tyranny of the minority" in this case happens to benefit all people, inluding those with broadband, which ceases to function when power lines go down. During hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, I think most people will be relieved at the emergency services offered by HAMs. FEMA and other organizations rely on them.
Changing radio frequencies is not all that easy. These are internationally chosen frequencies, because the HF spectrum works worldwide. I doubt the ITU will be willing to change the entire spectrum for a few cities to get broadband. Those are major infrastructure changes, and those frequencies are valuable. Who else is going to give up theirs for HAM's who will not pay (because it is amateur radio for hobbyists)? In this sense, "we were here first" is an excellent argument.
Perhaps the author is right about certain things. He certainly makes a good point about the anti-Microsoft zealotry. Most end-users really are turned off by all of the anti Windows speak, and I have never really gotten any results without explaining why Linux is more useful in easy and simple language. If I start mentioning why Microsoft is bad, anti-competitive and so on, that is fine and most people think so too, but nobody wants to learn a new operating system. I disagree with the assertion that there are too many distributions however. Many of them fill niche roles and expand the usefulness of the operating system in unique ways. I would never give up my Knoppix distro for use on the road etc. Two or three distributions would deprive the commununity of one of its greatest strengths: flexibility.
That's incorrect. Actually Canadians do have the benefit of an online music store, similar to buymusic.com called PureTracks. I live in Alberta and was able to find it with a bit of googling. The prices appear to be a little cheaper as well, when they are converted back into USD.